You will never get the answer just right

One of the best pieces of advice about job hunting I got was from one of my lab rat friends, Mike.  He said, "You need to have a story to explain why you left."

That is the only question I've found for which everyone, and I mean everyone asks.  After that - all bets are off.  Still, you need to have a few basic scripts.  These are the questions I've come to expect.

That will segue into "What are you looking for?" which is closely related to, "Why did you apply for this job?"  Which brings back my memories of my favorite question to ask people during an interview, "Why the fuck would you want to work here, are you nuts?!"  (I can't remember if I consistently used the f-bomb or not).  And considering I was always the "ringer" thrown into the interview process, I know no one could adequately prepare for me.  Anyways, I was always looking for the aggressive, mean types and everyone is always on their best behavior.

Then there's the salary question.  You will never get the salary question correct, so just plan on having a script and knowing that you will be weeded out at times because you don't fill in the blanks properly.  However, I consistently find that both my own career counselor plus others who help people find work advise against making it easy to give a firm number.  Here is my script - a patchwork cobble from a variety of sources.  I paste this stock answer into fields on forms, use it in the phone screen.

I'd be glad to share not only my current earnings, but my whole salary history. But I think it's a bit too early to get into salary discussions.  I don't believe the immediate salary will be an issue if the fit is right. There are several factors I consider when evaluating the "fit" of a position: the company, challenge, the culture, location & commute impacts, the amount of travel required, the career path, long-term compensation possibilities, vacation and bonuses. So, if the fit is right, I'm confident salary won't be a problem.  However, if you let me know what your range is, I can usually give a nod or no.

You will get pushed, so only when push comes to shove (and there are actually people who have lots of really good articles about how to avoid that shove through negotiating skills, I just am not the best example, so I collapse) use your current salary minus 4 or 5K and then add 10.  Make sure you know your bonus structure too, as well as the historic aspect of your bonus structure.  But that range will place you in the overall hierarchy.  Of course, with the recent changes in the bonus structure, that will look like, well, I dunno.  You're going to have to work out your own "story."

One of my biggest problems is that I've been applying to jobs for which I am too senior, both in experience and in salary.  After talking to Marianne about how I was recently "shoved" into giving a lowball number for a position I was interested & applying for because I was interested - but didn't have all the requisite skills - it was apparent that not only would I not get the job, but I was continuing to shoot myself in the foot by apply for such a position.

After the "never get it right" salary question, are the "never get it right" technical questions.  Yes, I'm continuing to run through the technical interviews, but now I am letting people know they will be disappointed if they want me to take a "40 question multiple choice."  (I've been out of college quite some time, it sounds like 'you' are looking for a recent college graduate.  I don't believe we would be a good fit.") or try to whiteboard syntax perfect code (I'm not a CSE, neither am I a statistician.  I am an engineer who has primarily worked in query language and done statistical analysis as part of the job.").  One of the most recent technical questions I was asked to describe the fields in a PowerPivot.  I've worked with two, three times.  I told 'im I'd only been 'exposed.'  Whatevahh... you give it the Good 'Ole College Try.  Besides, I'm me.  I'm used to humiliating myself.


Anyways, off to read some more job openings.  I only have one phone technical interview this week so far.  Oh, and a call back to another recruiter.

Random readings from the wilderness

Some very interesting comments about resume file names and searchability, plus other ATs / LinkedIn info.  Very much worth a read.  This is item #4.  It also makes the point that - yes - companies are tracking how many times you've applied for jobs with them.  The reading I've been doing says three rejections in phone screens or interviews and you might as well not go back.

In the interest of clarifying which job titles might be "shaking out" for a standard of "data scientist", this blog entry has some great definitions.  Data Science Central is also a good blog to be registered with if you do the kind of work I used to do.  Believe me, you will be asked on occasion who you are reading.

One of the interesting side lines I've been pursuing is performance measurements out here in the wild.  The general IT / web programming has led to the development of performance measurements & testing results

Load Impact
API metrics
VoIP call quality issues
Dynatrace
Continuous Performance in Continuous Integration
Web application performance testing
Soasta white papers on performance engineering

Five hours of interviews

It was down from seven hours.  The CTO didn't segue to the software designers then the VP.  This is never a good sign.  But I'd had five - count 'em -- F-I-V-E b2b interviews.

Everyone asks why I left telecom.

Why I left the perfect job.

The perfect job title.
the big company.

Why am I looking to work at such a small company.

What people don't seem to get is that ennui - that existential boredom - comes from lack of challenge.

I've been there.

I've seen it.

I've eaten it.

I've smelled it.

I've felt that touch before.

I have to move foreward or I'm buried while still alive.

******

The interviews are stacking up.  NEVER do more than one a day.

Send the "regret to inform you, but I'm not pursuing next steps with you" emails early

ALWAYS be the first in an interview to mention it's not a "fit."

***** Friday morning ***

new "NEVER" do again:

Never schedule face to face (f2f) interviews one day after the next.
No more than three f2f interviews a week, and only then if they're separated by a day.
Don't even bother trying to manage a phone screen, tech interview, with a f2f in one day - switching gears between companies & job descriptions really isn't that easy.

Yes, one of the horrible things yesterday is that I forgot I'd spoken to someone on a phone screen - my hiring manager, the one I met yesterday in meat space.  (*i SUCK*)

Interviewing is like a dance performance.  You're all jazzed before hand, but then afterwards..

Prepping for a seven hour interview

Yes.  

Seven

Count them.  S-E-V-E-N  hour interview.  In one day.  One company.  One office.  It's coming up this week.

I have two other phone interviews this week.  Last week I had three, four, including two face to face.  NEVER schedule yourself for two face to face (f2f) in one day.  

Only book one interview, be it phone or in person, per day.  You just can't shift the focus that fast.  You're not in any familiar territory.

Right now, I've got one hiring manager trying to put together a req for a job for me based upon my skills.  Another hiring manager who said I was overqualified for his position has shopped my resume around to THREE other managers in the company.  I've loved everyone I've met there so far.

I continue to get my best call backs from recruiters who've found me via key words on either dice or cybercoders.

I'm excited about the all day interview.  The lineup is seriously intimidating - from a V.P., to "chief data scientist", to CTO... It kind of reminds me of the McCaw days.  I've gone back to look at those old McCaw values.  There was never any touting of hiring "only the best," but "hire and develop great people."  We're all great, in our special ways.  

I wrote in my four page essay that got me this seven hour interview, "I'm not the best.  I'm only damned good."  And really, I am.  I've worked with people so much smarter than I am, those who are so very talented.  I've enjoyed learning from them.  

We took a roadtrip, me 'n Dave 'n our dog named Blue - drove across the mountains to Montana and visited family.  Drove north to Sandpoint, Idaho on roads we've never travelled before.  We're traveling roads we've never gone down before right now.

Done

But there are only 28 out of 70 prints which are "perfect."  This has been a fascinating process, from hand laying the type, learning to cut the block prints and then the printing process itself.  The platen letter press I worked with is one shown in the picture below.  It could easily have taken an 8x11 sheet of paper, much less the 4x6.

I went with the slightly embossed texture, not the perfect "kissed the paper" because, well, this is my very first project and there are so many problems with many of the prints, but I love this texture.  I wanted it in at least one of my prints, in one of my editions.  I wanted the texture, the feel.

Letterpress project for Nettlesting Press

Of course, me being me, I've started a project which is Over The Top.  I've hand set my piece, "As I Lie Here" for a first edition of hand-crafted cards from Nettlesting Press.  There is, of course, finished back to the card and you see the block I'm cutting out for that below.  The upper right is the printed front page layout including the hand-pressed proof of the poem.  

8 point type... I've gotten good setting type, moving type.  Sheesh...  There's only going to be 50 cards.  The poem is below.

As I Lie Here With You

(inspired by the photograph “As I Lie Here With You” by Elise Koncsek)

As I lie here with you

                                       stretched out against

the length of your warm back, it is the bow

of your ear that I love most in this moment.

Its pink shell illumined by first light guarantees

your heart's beat, but is it more graceful

than the climb of the curve from the back

of your neck to the arc of your shoulder?

Could it be more closely remembered

than the texture of your morning scruff

as it rises stiff and rough on the slope

of your jaw  - a promised scrape which

redden my cheeks for hours after the first

of your kisses?

          Morning awaits - a grey,

indistinct door before us.  You will wake,

stand, walk toward the light, away

from me buried in my mourning.

je ne regrette rien

The cycle is swooping back up again and today I feel like I've made another "break-through" in this transition process.  I don't know why I didn't notice this before, maybe I thought it was too far beyond me, but there's this whole industry building up around performance engineering for software development in mainstream IT.  I've got an interview - not because they picked my resume out of the slush pile, but because a friend forwarded my resume to a recruiter, who forwarded me to the hiring manager.  The hiring manager asked to speak to me, so he's read my resume.  I meet with him in the next few days, so I am brushing up on what I don't know based upon the job description.

I sorted the job description into what I knew (and why I applied) and pulled out what I didn't know.  This time though, instead of ignoring the software I didn't know, I went to their websites and viola.  There was some fan-fuckin'-tastic technical documentation about IQA  (Integrated software quality assurance) tools and what that is.  I feel like I hit paydirt.

The best, however, by far is the Dynatrace site.  Not only do they describe what application performance is and how it hits bare metal, but there's an extensive section on cloud KPIs worth reading for those who still aren't impacted by having to get down to the application layer.  That said, I think application performance management and performance testing is going to be part of "everyone's" future.  This site, and others have a lot of very interesting information.

Keyword search guys is "Application Performance" - there's testing and best practices, you want to pay attention to.  Also, you want to watch for "Continuous Integration" these days, folks.

Here's the Microsoft link to their document.

*****************************************************

My favorite pickle guy asked me how the job search was going yesterday.  I sighed, "Have you done much dating before?"

He nodded.  Of course he has, he's a cutie and smart and funny.

"I've had a lot of first  dates.  You know what that's like, right?  How easy those are?"

<insert nod, but confused look here>

"Now, how many second dates come from the first?  Fewer, right?  And then how many third dates come from the second."

<smiles>

"I haven't made it to the one night stand yet."

He got it.