Waiting

I know in my last post, I talked about the two interviews I was having last week. As it turned out, I had one and one half interviews last week and finished the half interview yesterday. Here's the story.

The long distance drive interview happened last Tuesday, a day where snow was predicted. I drove the 75 miles in about an hour and 1/4, arriving about two hours early. It's always good to be early because you never know what can happen. There was some snow on the way down, but since it was mid-afternoon, the traffic moved along and the drive was not bad. Little did I know....

After locating the office, I waited in a nearby coffee shop, reviewing notes on the company and trying to prepare. About 15 minutes before the appointed time, I went into the office. By now, the snow was coming down pretty good. The interview was a panel interview with 4 people barraging me with questions (their word, not mine). I'm not sure how well I did on this one. While I leave most of the interviews feeling good about how I did, that wasn't so true with this one. I felt like I handled their questions o.k., but it's hard to make eye contact with four people at once and at one point, I know I heard a yawn. Perhaps the extra doses of coffee caused me to talk too much. They said they would probably be making their decision within two weeks - it's been one and still no word.

The drive home was horrendous. As I left the interview at 5 p.m., the snow was falling fast and furious. It took at least 20 minutes just to get out of their office park (less than one mile). The first part of the drive was o.k., albeit at reduced speeds. And then I hit about 10 miles of stop and go traffic, mostly stop. By the time I got home, I had spent about 2 and 1/2 hours in the car. I guess that's probably the worst commute I could expect short of a truck crashing across the highway. I've had that long a commute to drive 45 miles about 5 times in the 7 years I worked at my last job.

The second interview last week was supposed to be a one hour phone interview. It got cancelled on Monday, rescheduled for Tuesday, cancelled for Tuesday and then happened for about 20 minutes on Wednesday without scheduling. The interviewer said she would call me back later Wednesday to finish, but no call came in. The recruiting firm through which I am working this opportunity eventually set me up with an on-site interview in Woburn, MA, which I had yesterday.

This interview seemed to go well. I felt like I did a pretty good job connecting with the interviewer and explaining how I can help her with her needs. But I've learned that a good interview experience is never an indicator of the ultimate decision, so I can't get too excited about this job either. Her boss who I briefly met said they would be trying to make a decision by the end of the week, so I now have two possibilities that I might hear about within a week. I'm hoping that one or the other turns into something because, let's face it, it's ugly out there.

And now, I have to go reload my pipeline because after these two, I have no opportunities that I'm working....