March 14, 2005

Job Hunt Update

I don't think I ever mentioned that I never got the Albertson's gig. It ended up that the 7 positions they were trying to fill got whittled down to 3. I know that there was some preferential hiring for spouses of employees relocating from a worksite in Arizona they closed down. Oh well, that's life.

Good news is that I interviewed last week for a job that I am really excited about. The state's Real Estate Commission is looking for a Education Director Program Specialist. For the most part the position seems to be very similiar to my last Air Force "job". During my last year, year and a half, at Ft. Hood my additional duty was as the Unit Training Manager (UTM). It was a little more hands-on with actual training than what most UTMs do, but I really enjoyed it. I took the initial exam during the application process, which turned out to pretty much be some essays of my experience and a resume submission, and ended up getting a 99 out of 100. Throw in my 5 Veteran Preference Points and I should be looking good for the position.

Normally it takes a while to find out how well you did on the "test" and get set up for an interview, especially with a state job. The folks at the Real Estate Commission didn't waste ant time and I had an interview last week. That was a pleasant experience and although I was excited about the job going in to the interview, I'm even more excited about it coming out. Good, or bad, I've gone to several interviews now and I keep seeing a recurring theme: The position posted isn't the same (sometimes not even close) to what the employer wants, the pay isn't relative to the desired work, and they expect way too much education/experience for what they are willing to pay. Several times I've seen pay ranges in the upper 20's, lower 30's where the employer is wanting an MBA or other graduate degree, or the job is totally differrent than what they posted. One position,applied for some time ago, that was basically a liason between programmers and the end user/operational folks, the IT Director started asking me if I could program in ...no kidding....5 different languages. Knowing that i wasn't going to get this job, and quite frankly offended that they were wasting my time, I asked if a) they had read the job posting (3 or 4 times now the interviewer hadn't) and b) they were capable of doing all that programming. The answers were "no" on both accounts.

Anyway, as I digress as I often do while typing, the Real Estate Commission people were very nice & friendly, but more importantly had a clue. They were very professional and knew what they wanted and were very up-front about it. They handed me a "revised" job description which mirrored the intial posting, and informed me about a few realities of working for the state (as in you pretty much don't get paid for the 1st month) and exactly how the interview process was going to be played out. They promised thay would be contacting my references (which hasn't been done yet) and getting in touch with me by this next Friday. Once they whittle down the applicants to a short list, there will be a final interview with the director on the next Friday.

I really hope that I get this job. On paper it pays more than what Fred Meyer did, but in reality it'll be a bit less because of the OT I had there. I'll get to do work I enjoy, and that is very important to me. If it wasn't I'd have stayed with Fred Meyer and be trudging along there.....

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