This is an archived version of this page. The current blog is here
I reached the second stage of selection with Trayport, so I went down to London on Friday for an interview. They were polite, but I don't think they'll hire me -- I don't think I would have hired me on the performance I gave in the interview.
I reached the second stage of selection with Trayport, so I went down to London on Friday for an interview. They were polite, but I don't think they'll hire me -- I don't think I would have hired me on the performance I gave in the interview.
I definitely screwed up some technical questions and I think that alone would sink me, but I also found myself saying the wrong things to the more HR related questions. It's hard to put my finger on it exactly, but I talked too much about negative things that had happened. I also found that they probed to a deeper level than I normally get in interviews -- I'd give an answer and they'd want to go down to a level below that. I'm not sure if that was a deliberate technique to unsettle the candidate, or whether it was just that we got off on the wrong foot.
I came home in a bit of a bad mood, and then I got a call from ECM saying that EDS weren't hiring me either. So not a good day. EDS at least seem interested in talking to me again if a more senior position comes up, and there may be something soon, but I certainly can't afford to wait to see if that happens.
Objectively, this isn't really a huge setback -- I've really only been unemployed for 2 weeks so far, and I have enough redundancy money to last for quite a while yet (months rather than weeks). Psychologically though, it is a bit of a blow. I guess I partly had this hope of going straight into another job (ideally locally) and having the luxury of having some money in the bank. Realistically it's going to be at least a month of unemployment now, and quite possibly I won't be back at work till after Christmas.
Also, when you are at work, if you go to an interview and get knocked back, you can always say to yourself that it wasn't the right job, or that you at least still have your current job to fall back on. When you are unemployed, rejections sap your confidence that you are fit to do any job, and even rejection from something that's clearly unsuitable is likely to bring on a bit of panic about how you aren't doing enough to get something -- anything -- before the money runs out.
Oh well. Back to the fray on Monday. I think I need to broaden the search a bit -- maybe go back to the job boards and see what other agencies have got.
Posted by MFreestone at November 2, 2003 12:04 PM