Poor Neglected Blog

And just like that, 2 weeks have blown by since my last post. Wow, I'm not sure there's any way to try to play catch up with everything happening these days. Which of course explains why my blog has been so neglected lately.

Spring soccer season has hit us in full swing, with practices and games filling up portions of our time 6 days per week,...and that's with only 2 of my 4 children involved!

I have numerous picture updates too, of our spring break weekend getaway to CA (just us, without any kids), of Easter morning, so much fun crafty news to report, and of course more job hunting news.

Again I've thought about posting updates, with each new or interesting development in my life, but that crazy busy life has been doing so much to prevent me from having any time to blog lately,...or any energy to blog when I do find a little bit of free time.

I can't promise I'll be able to post as frequently right now, at least until soccer season is over. In the meantime though, since it's becoming a constant thought in the back of my mind despite my best efforts not to think too much about it lately, I'll use today to provide an update on the job situation and some exciting new developments there.

First, I had to go back and refresh myself on my last job hunt update on my blog to figure out where I left off, which was back on March 14th. Since then I've received several more rejection letters on various jobs as usual, and have heard that for some of the Idaho state jobs I've been applying for that they're also receiving applications from as far away as Seattle and CA from even more qualified applicants...fantastic.

The furthest I've managed to get has been a couple of prelim phone interviews for business analysts positions with my former employer, but nothing very hopeful. Especially because I was told upfront by the recruiter giving me the phone interview that just on paper when comparing resumes that I'm not nearly as good of a fit as many of their other applicants with much more technical IT backgrounds, and that the only reason I'm even being given a prelim phone interview is because I am a former employee and I've had so many personal recommendations.

It's been 2 weeks since my last correspondence with my old company and I haven't heard anything more on those jobs. But I did find out that it was announced to employees that 2 of the major accounting departments will soon be completely laid off and outsourced,...which means I will then be up against ALL of those laid off applicants also trying to land the jobs I'm looking for...fantastic.

So some pretty discouraging news there, but through it all I've been doing my best to continue to remain optimistic, praying that God would help me not to stress about it, trusting that He has a perfect plan for me.

And then last week something totally out of the blue happened: I received a call from a recruiter at another major corporation regarding one of the numerous positions I had applied for there last month, and she told me the hiring manager was interested in bringing me in for an interview!

I've applied for so many positions, that when she told me the name of the job I honestly had NO idea what in the world she was talking about! So as soon as I got off the phone, I immediately pulled up the company's web site to see if I could re-read through the job posting,...only it had been taken down. Aack!

Then I tried checking in my e-mail for the automatic notice companies usually send out after you complete an application for more details, but it only gave me the job title and no details about what in the world it was. Aack again!

Next I tried to do a random Internet search and luckily found it still posted on another job board and was able to copy down the details to help prepare for my interview. Whew!

Now for the exciting part. First, my interview took place here:

Immediately I became excited when I learned where this section of their corporate office was located (they have about 5 different corporate offices) because I've always wanted to work in downtown Boise, among the biggest city-like section of where we live. 

Here's another shot of the area at night. Their building is the tallest one shown below on the left. And interestingly enough, the giant building in the center/left foreground of this photo is where SD and my graduation ceremony will take place next month.

After some careful interview planning and preparation, I arrived for my interview here yesterday morning, in the tall white building on the left, all the way up on the 10th floor!

I met with an interview panel consisting of the hiring manager, a Director overseeing many accounting departments, a financial analyst, and an HR representative. 

They began by providing a very short description of the position, and then asked me to start talking and explain what types of education and work experience I have that would qualify me for this job.

Then they immediately opened it up for me to ask any questions first, which in most of my interviews is typically done at the end of the interview after they've asked me all of their questions. Being fully prepared with notes, a page full of questions, etc. I fired away.

And then we proceeded with a long section of the interview where they had these big packets of questions to ask me on a variety of topics and issues where they were looking for specific examples of prior experiences I've had in each of those areas.

They did not want to know what I would do in those circumstances, but instead they were looking for a very specific example of a previous situation I had already been in, and for each question I had to provide what the situation was, how I responded, and what the results were.

Fortunately, I had some excellent answers for every question they threw at me, there wasn't anything I could not find a specific answer to. They seemed incredibly impressed with my responses, and after an hour long process, I thanked them for their time. 

As soon as I left the conference room with the HR rep who escorted me out to the lobby, she immediately told me I did an excellent job. I don't mean this to at all come across sounding cocky, but I came out of there feeling as if I had really nailed that interview!

It felt awesome, I felt very comfortable with all of the people I met, the work atmosphere seemed so warm and welcoming, and that's the moment when I became really excited about this potential opportunity!

So, now what? Well, I was told they're done accepting applications, and that they are in the process of interviewing all day yesterday and some more today. After the interviews are complete they like to give the interview panel about a week or week and a half to make a decision on their next step,...which could be some requests for follow up interviews, or it could be a hiring decision and offer.

Which means now I'm back to the not so awesome position of just waiting,...and waiting...and waiting some more.

I left, sent the customary follow up thank you e-mails for the chance to be considered for the position to the HR rep and hiring manager. I had also left them with some additional information on myself, including a personal strengths assessment I've taken which helps explain many of the areas in business where I naturally excel, and also a copy of my very impressive list of references of all the big wigs at my former company.

Again, they seemed incredibly impressed.

I have a friend who works in IT in this company who has done nothing but praise the quality of the company, the work atmosphere, and behaviors of management. All of which just makes me want to work there even more!

So now I'm secretly really, REALLY wanting to find out more and hoping big time that I just might actually be offered this job soon!!!! I'm trying not to get my hopes up once again, but that's so hard to avoid when you're presented with an opportunity that could be such a HUGE answer to prayer.

Right now, I've done all I can do, the interview is over, and there's nothing else I can do but wait. Hopefully they'll put me out of my misery soon and I'll hear something more by the end of next week?

In the meantime, that mountain of laundry isn't going to wash, dry, and fold itself. At least I have a nonstop list of things to do to keep me busy, right?