Job Hunting — The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently found myself hunting for a new job unexpectedly. Throughout the process, I found myself dealing with recruiters, HR managers, and everyone in between. There was some good, there was some bad, and there was some ugly … so what better way to document it all than with a blog post?

The Good

• A simple “wow, I’m really impressed by your career” goes a long way. When you’ve been applying for 100s of jobs (I’m not kidding), you can find yourself really disheartened. Interviewing with a recruiter or manager who genuinely compliments you on your career is a really lovely feeling and can make you feel instantly better about your career and your prospects.
• There are some really fantastic companies with really fantastic hiring teams. I met some brilliant companies, and spoke with some really lovely hiring managers, and two companies in particular deserve a shout out — Versent and MYOB.
• Finding a great recruiter is critical — particularly one who understand how badly you need a job, but still want you to find the right one, even if it’s not necessarily their one. Shoutout to Alex at Halcyon Knights and Michael at Greythorn who were brilliant the whole way through.

The Bad

• Applying for jobs on mobile is hard. I had to send back my work laptop when the role finished up, so was restricted to applying for jobs on my phone. It basically limited me to companies who had simple platforms for applying, or roles that could be applied for directly via Seek or LinkedIn.
• Salaries not appearing in the ad is a waste of time for both job seeker and employer. I can’t tell you how many phone screens I did where, at the end of the 30–45 minute call, they asked my expectations and told me the role was paying significantly lower than I was looking for. Even providing a ballpark figure in the job ad will help to save time for everyone.
• Interviewers who act human get more out of a candidate than interviewers who ask a standard list of questions and don’t veer from that. We’re not robots, we’re humans. Please don’t repeat the same questions over and over with the same inflection as though you are just going through the motions. We all have stories, please take the time to listen to them!
• There’s nothing like someone not having read your resume to make you feel disheartened. I had a couple of interviews where they were reading my resume for the first time as I sat in front of them. Delightful.

The Ugly

• Recruiters that meet with you in person, submit your resume to their client with promises of a response within a few days, and then … nothing. Absolutely nothing. In one case, it’s been 3 weeks and despite following up with an email and phone call several times, I’ve not heard back.
• Employers that call you, gush over your resume, invite you in for an interview, and then cancel at the last minute … but forget to tell you until you arrive in their office. Yup, it happened. No, it wasn’t an emergency — they just changed their mind about whether I was suitable … and forgot to tell me that.

Thankfully I’ve found myself in a fantastic role with VentraIP and four days in, I am loving it. Let’s hope I don’t have to hunt for another job any time soon! (I might just cry …)