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11/23/2006
Job Search: Don't bother making sense of it
Sometimes, in the job hunting process, I just have to shake my head at the irony of it all. You'd think that the closer your resume matches the job description and requirements, the more likely you are to get an interview.
Apparently not.
Recently I applied for a job that was so closely matched to my qualifications, skills, and experience, it almost looked like the job description text was plagiarized from my cover letter. It really was that close.
Then there was a completely different job, and all I seemed to have in common with the sort of person they were ideally looking for is that we were both engineers. Not even the same field of engineering! This particular job opening was for someone on the chemical/mechanical/manufacturing side. I'm electrical/software.
So which one did I get an interview for? Right, you guessed it. The chemical/mechanical/manufacturing one that's almost wholly unrelated to my previous work and academic experience. Go figure! The place with the opening that was basically a carbon copy of my talents turned me down without even an interview.
This is not to say I'm not happy about the interview I did do for that other position. I love learning new things and this should definitely be an eye-opening departure from the status quo, even if I do need to sip gently from the fire hose at the beginning. (Question at the interview: "What do you know about injection molding?" Ummm.... I've heard of it - that's about it!) It would be great if I got the job, though the commute would be a killer. I live in the extreme east end of Ottawa, and this place is in the extreme west end of Ottawa, and in between is about an hour and a half bus ride in each direction. Yikes! That's three hours a day just sitting on the bus. Anyway, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Step one: get job!
13:10 Posted in Job Hunting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this