I've been suffering from a ridiculously harsh schedule the last couple of weeks, which hasn't given me a chance to do much lobbying for a job at Badger, nor to prepare for the job interview I really thought I had a good chance of getting. Today I found out that someone I know has an interview with Badger scheduled already this month. It hit me in the gut. Here I had been worrying about getting an interview and not being as prepared as I wanted to be. I will be very disappointed if I don't get an interview at all.
I'm not a very good nagger. When you invite people to a party, want someone to change a routine, or expect someong to hire you, you have to keep reminding them. You keep checking in on them to make sure they don't forget. I tend to assume people got it the first time, and that they will call me when they want me. I'd make a lousy politician. Which reminds me:
"To fly a plane with even two passengers a man must pass a test to prove himself intelligent, sane and well balanced. But there are no such tests for politicians, although an unbalanced politician can be much more dangerous than any pilot."
---Dr. Brock Chisholm
2 comments:
Too right. My bosses are like that. They say they'll do something for you, and then nothing happens, until you nag them, and write it for them, etc.
I remember going through the same kind of thing at the end of grad school, when I was looking for my first job as an assistant professor (before I left for high tech and better working conditions). University teaching jobs are a lot like flying jobs: there are a lot of people chasing very few jobs, you have to be willing to move just about anywhere to take one, and the pay typically sucks (especially considering your level of training).
Here are a few tips from academia that probably apply to your situation as well:
1. Only one interview has to work out, so don't worry if other people are interviewing more than you.
2. Make sure that the people hiring know who you are. Without being a pain, check in once in a while to find out how the process is going.
3. Get senior people to call on your behalf rather than just write letters. If you really want a job, formulaic reference letters alone won't cut it: you need the chief pilot at Big Moose airlines to actually call the chief pilot and Little Fox airlines and tell them why they should hire you. Then you need the person to check in later to see how things are coming along. Get your referees working on the phone lines.
Best of luck, and don't be discouraged -- I'll look forward to reading a blog entry about your new job.
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