How Did I Get Here?

Quote of the Day: “What’s the point of havin’ a rapier wit if I can’t use it to stab people?”

When you are looking for a job, this is the way things go. (I outline it here not to complain, just to explain the ups and downs that many of you might even know already.)

I get a lead.

OK, great, this is good. When I first started, this was an exciting time full of hope and opportunity. So I follow up on it, redo my resume, make phone calls, send emails. I research the company and bone up on “standard questions” asked on interviews.

I tell everyone I have a job lead.

When it was one of the big ones (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc.), it was even more exciting. All horizons looked bright and my optimism of finding a high-flying job after I leave the military looks like it is about to be justified.

Then, reality sets in.

One or more of the following inevitably happens:

1. I don’t hear anything back
2. I find out that they went with someone more qualified
3. I find out that it was never really a “lead” but a buddy of a buddy who is willing to give me yet more advice about resumes but no actual leg up into a job at his or her company

OK, well, on to the next one.

Daily, I wade through the dozen or so emails I get from job boards. What it has really devolved into is bulk mail with links to endless articles on how to nail the perfect interview. Some emails have the exact links that others have.

I have stopped reading those and now consider them spam because they have about as much value and are not tailored to me at all. They are shotgun mailing list fodder.

I get another lead and I cannot afford not to follow up on it but my excitement dims a little bit. I follow through the procedure and come to the same conclusion.

Repeat this process for, oh, I don’t know, 9 months.

I look on job boards. I look on Craig’s List. I look between the cushions of the couch.

Recently, I got what could be considered a solid lead. Carrie, my wife, was more excited about it than I was and I realized why. I was actually pessimistic about it! When I sat down and thought about it, I realized that I was telling myself that I couldn’t AFFORD to get excited because odds were, it was going to dissipate like the hundreds of other “opportunities” in the last 9 months.

I also realized this: you have to be a tough son-of-a-bitch to make it in this game. You have to take hit after hit after hit after hit after hit and still stay in the game.

Can I say I was all that successful all the time? Of course not. I don’t know anyone who could keep 100% optimism 100% of the time (without illicit drugs) but I do manage to follow up on the leads I find and I can say my sometimes-jaded attitude about the whole thing has never actually cost me an opportunity.

How can I be sure of this?

I have not even got far enough in the hiring process to actually talk to a human being face-to-face so the opportunity to blow it has not even arisen.

I just have to remember and stay true to my belief I spouted from the time I decided to retire … and I quote…

The civilian world doesn’t owe me anything. Yeah I put in 22 years of service but now I’m getting out and there will be no one standing on the other side ready to hand me a 6-figure job. I’m going have to to go out there and find one like every other schmuck.

At the time I didn’t figure in the worst job market in history but the facts still remain, the quote holds true.

Free Advice for Today: “Avoid automated teller machines at night.”