100 Job Applications And Counting
100 Job Applications And Counting

100 Job Applications And Counting

Well it was 100 when I wrote the title to this blog post. Now my job applications spreadsheet is up to 127 rows (I do love a spreadsheet – one of the things that annoyed me about my last job was Excel wouldn’t work as Windows wasn’t registered…I organise my whole life in Excel…and my coding plans at home).

Not all of them are actual applications – I write an entry for every conversation with a recruiter, every phone interview, every real interview.

OK I’ve just counted, actual applications from myself directly, as opposed to recruiters/employers that have found me, is 99.

Sometimes I apply for jobs that I’m not qualified for. If they ask for 1-2 years experience then I’ll often send an application across, on the off-chance. I have even applied for jobs using two different e-mail addresses two weeks apart a couple of times, when it has been a job I have really wanted. I do tend to take the technology stack required with a pinch of salt too – in my view I can learn whatever extra technology is required, and if a company doesn’t want to train and mould me, then it probably isn’t a company I want to work for.

I was having a few doubts last week once I reached that not-so-magic 100. Would I actually achieve my dream? What if I’m always going to be up against greater competition? Maybe the technology stack requirements are outpacing me? It was a good 3 or so weeks without even any possibility of an interview.

I also have my suspicions that some of the jobs are fake jobs – maybe the Kremlin is creating fake jobs to increase disillusionment for the young (and reluctantly middle-aged) people of this country. Being serious, I do suspect that some of the jobs are created by recruiters just to retrieve candidate information to meet targets. And the amount of times I have hopeful-sounding calls with recruiters who then ignore my follow-up calls/e-mails – do those jobs actually exist?

But things have changed this week.

Firstly I had a phone interview on Monday. But I mumbled and rushed through the first question, “what projects have you worked on recently”, like an Olympic diver forgetting his moves on his first dive. Thankfully, I rescued it, brought my personality and passion across, and have scored enough points with the Olympic judging panel to gain an entry through to the final round, a face-to-face interview and apparently a meet-the-team (pub?) moment too. It seems an exciting company, they have a good ethos and apparently a table football table – I hope they like losing if I do get the job. Plus they want to train whoever they employ on .NET and C# – two technologies that I know nothing about, and I do love adding to my skill set.

I gather that I am the underdog, certainly in terms of experience compared to other candidates, so I’m going to have to impress on personality and passion to stand a fair chance. Needless to say, Sunday will be spent looking into .NET and C#.

Then I have a coding challenge to do for a role in a really quite prestigious company. Though I’ve been sent a file I cannot open without Photoshop – I don’t have Photoshop and am loathe to spend money I don’t have on a month’s Adobe subscription. It also involves making a banner – never made a banner before! And use 3 JavaScript libraries that I have never used previously. So a lot to learn before I even attempt the challenge. Yikes.

There are two other roles that I might hear back from in terms of potential interviews, one from a company directly, another from an agency.

Plenty going on. My expectations are low, so that I do not get disappointed like last time, but you never know.  As long as I do my best, and learn from any mistakes I do make.

And as soon as I do get a job, I am going to buy the fattest rib-eye steak Morrison’s will sell me.

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