This is a partial list of my job search activities. Things of note it doesn’t include:
- Conversations with recruiters or companies to set up interviews.
- Networking with friends and former co-workers about opportunities that they might know about, either at their own company, or otherwise.
- E-mail conversations with companies that never got to the phone-screen stage.
- Some notable names that didn’t go anywhere: Thompson, Wellington, Charles River Development, Microsoft, Google.
| When ? | What ? | Who ? |
|---|---|---|
| 2007-02-16 12:00 | Interview w. Alex | Lynx / Sophia Navickas (Recruiter) |
| 2007-02-19 19:30 | Interview | iCache |
| 2007-02-21 13:00 | Interview | Adesso |
| 2007-02-22 10:30 | Phone Screen | GL Group |
| 2007-02-24 13:30 | Interview | SoftArtisans |
| 2007-02-27 14:00 | Interview | GL Group |
| 2007-02-28 15:30 | 2nd Interview | Adesso |
| 2007-03-05 10:00 | Phone Screen | Avid |
| 2007-03-06 16:30 | Phone Screen | IntrinsiQ |
| 2007-03-07 10:00 | Phone Screen | MGH |
| 2007-03-08 10:30 | Phone Screen | Senior Systems |
| 2007-03-08 16:00 | Informal w. Alex | VistaPrint |
| 2007-03-20 13:30 | Interview | IntrinsiQ |
| 2007-03-23 11:00 | Phone Screen | Bivium (Recruiter) |
| 2007-03-27 13:00 | Phone Screen | GotVMail |
| 2007-03-27 14:00 | Phone Screen | NeoSaej |
| 2007-03-27 15:00 | Phone Screen | BurntSand |
| 2007-03-28 14:00 | Interview | NeoSaej |
| 2007-03-27 19:30 | Dinner Interview | Hubspot |
| 2007-03-29 15:00 | Phone Scree | GetVMail |
| 2007-03-30 10:00 | Interview | Ab Initio |
| 2007-04-04 17:00 | Interview | Hubspot |
| 2007-04-06 14:00 | Phone Screen | PTC |
| 2007-04-10 11:00 | Phone Conversation | JVT Advisors (Recruiter) |
| 2007-04-10 16:30 | Phone Screen | Tamale |
| 2007-04-17 09:40 | Interview | PTC |
| 2007-04-18 10:00 | Interview | Tamale |
| 2007-04-25 12:45 | Interview | VistaPrint |
| 2007-05-09 13:00 | Recruiter Phone Screen | Acadian Asset Management (Grossly underqualified, but recruiters were insistent). |
- In the end, there were only 4 opportunities that I seriously considered / was excited about. Got offers from two of them, could’ve worked something out with one, and got dinged by the last one.
- I got dinged a lot for being rusty. I console myself that I wasn’t excited by any of the places that dinged me.
- I found myself giving up on interviews when I answered a question the interviewer posed me and really didn’t get my answer because it didn’t fit the narrow range of answers they were expecting. When I was younger I might have tried to ‘show them the way’ / engage them in debate. I guess I’m at the point in my life (where there are a lot of opportunities out there, and interviewing costs me time away from Alex and money for babysitting) where I can’t be bothered to school people just for schooling’s sake.
- People looking for a job should ask me about any of the companies I have listed here. I don’t think I’m willing to be fully forthright with my opinions in a public way that will follow me around for years.
- As unprofessional as I feel at times (Dammit Jim, I’m a person, not a professional), I feel that there are a decent number of companies out there that are much worse. On the other hand, there are some great companies, and people staffing those companies who went through great lengths to make the process pretty painless.
- The recruiters I worked with this time around were great. If you’re a techie looking for a job, I have a number of them I could refer you to. Ask and ye shall receive.
- While I can’t / won’t point out companies that I was unhappy with, I can note that I got great impressions from Adesso, HubSpot, Tamale, and VistaPrint.
- In the end, I’m going back to work for VistaPrint. They simply made me the best offer.
Sophia has been around for along time! I got a job through her in 1988. Does she still use a pseudonym, because everyone knows “Sophia” is a recruiter, so that messages that she called aren’t incriminating? Maybe the prevalence of voicemail and cell phones means this is no longer necessary.
Andy: No pseudonyms. Besides, I was off work throughout the whole job search, so she never had to call me anywhere sensitive.
Hi Nick,
Congratulations on your offer from VistaPrint! You must be excited about working with some of your old cronies.
Hopefully I am one of those “great recruiters” that you worked with this time around. ;-)
Take care, and congrats once again.
- Jamie
[http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamieleblanc]
For those still reading, Jamie was very helpful in my search. I definitely recommend that you talk to him if you’re looking for a tech job.
Just received an email asking me about one of the companies I interviewed at. Cool.
Nick,
Can you email me your impressions about NeoSaej. I am entertaining the idea of interviewing there, but find their ‘stealth/secrecy’ to be odd at best.
-rkd
Hi Nick,
I was just wondering how everything is going and I hope all is well at VistaPrint. The job market continues to be aggressive and we are seeing many new companies open up each day.
Take care,
Sophia