How TO Hire Someone

Well, it's been a year since I was laid off by Dot HELL and the first few months were really enjoyable. The last few months... not so much, very stressful. I've found it really difficult to find the right opportunity here in San Diego. I've interviewed with just about everyone, Sony, PetCo, Intuit, Iomega and many others. Finding the right level of challenge, growth opportunity and salary has proven to be extremely difficult. For some reason, companies here in San Diego don't want to pay for the marketing expertise that I have developed over the years. I've worked for some really big companies, Sprint, CompUSA and Gateway and have managed some really remarkable marketing programs.

Anyway, after one year of searching San Diego, I've come up empty handed. But after a week and a half of opening up my search to outside of San Diego, San Francisco and Chicago to be exact, I have a job offer! How amazing is that!

I've not accepted yet, some details to work out... but looks like I'm leaving San Diego... for the time being at least. I find it amazing that there are companies out there that are willing to pay for my relocation across the country and pay me exceptionally well, yet companies in San Diego are not.

So, this is news to many of my friends out there... I'll send out an email announcement once it's finalized and I wrap up some details personally and with some of my clients. It'll be a couple of weeks so I'll be able to see everyone before I go. Oh, and the opportunity is outstanding. I'll provide more details on that as well.

Thanks to everyone for your support over the last year. When I make the move I'll continue to post to this blog, so you can continue to follow hopefully mostly UPs from here on out!

XOXO
SBG

Boredom...

Sorry I've not posted in awhile. The whole process of being told I had a job offer and then it disappearing really got me down. There were some other factors as well, but I was really in the dumps. I can't say I'm totally better now, but I'm working on it. The fact that I'm alone all day long doesn't help. My mind starts a going and sometimes just doesn't stop.

So, my freelance business is not going as gangbusters as I had hoped and I've not done a thing about my other business idea. I've been experiencing alot of doubt about my abilities over the last few months. I'm also sick with worry about money. So I've opened up my job search to outside of San Diego. Chicago and San Francisco to be specific. And I have been interviewing for a position in one of those cities. The hiring manager today said he wants me to come out for a face-to-face. I'm not over joyed by the idea of moving. Starting over, building new friendships. It takes a while to build strong friendships.

So we'll see... stay tuned.

How NOT to Hire Someone - Part II

So, in part I of this saga, you learned how I'd been back burnered by a company that I had been interviewing with. When I made this post, following my second interview with the CEO, I wasn't sure what to do. My good friend Eydie called and offered me the advice of contacting the VP of Marketing, the hiring manager, to address any concerns that he had and the CEO had again to be sure that he had the ammunition to fight for me. Which I did. I left three voice mails for the VP and sent one follow up email. But I didn't hear from him until two days later when he sent this email:

Got your messages. Sorry about the delay. I spoke with the CEO and let me give you an update.

1) CEO has been asking me about marketing and our long term plan. he wants to invest a lot more money in marketing for a number of reasons in 2H’07.

2) As such, he wants to make sure whomever we bring in for Marketing is a real pro.

3) I represented that I believe you are very good, and your references where solid.

4) The CEO wants me to investigate one other candidate that he has forwarded. We are interviewing them on Friday.

I apologize for the process. This is not how I like to work. However, he’s the boss. I will let you know where we stand on Monday.

So, Monday came and went... didn't hear anything. So Tuesday at the end of the day, I sent a follow up note, just asking if he had made a decision. I've not heard a thing from him. I can not believe that now, after he said there was an offer for me, that he won't even call to let me know that they are going with some one else. No apology or anything. Really can't believe that! A new low for the job search process.

How NOT to Hire Someone

As you know I was laid off last May from my job with Dot Hell. I interviewed actively from June to December, early January, when I decided to really focus on building a freelancing business and work on my other business idea. But back on Friday, March 9th I interviewed with a software company here in San Diego. The opportunity came about through networking which proves that networking does work... however, I'm so disenchanted with the hiring process I want to cry.

I interview with SIX people in a four hour time frame March 9th, including the CEO. I did my due diligence following up once a week with the hiring manager. On March 27th, I get this email:

thanks Sarah. I made a recommendation to the CEO to bring you on board. He is in NY today and I should hear from him later. Let me talk to him and I will give you a call later today or tomorrow.

Will need references – I assume you have them. Just 2 please.

Then don't hear from him, even though he said he would call. So I follow up a week later and receive an email from him to call him. So I do, thinking this sucks that I have to call this guy to hear that they are going with someone else. But when I do call I hear from him that he wanted to talk salary and would craft an offer letter. I get this email Monday of this week:

We are close. I setup the offer letter. Our CEO has to review and when he gets it back to me, I can send over.

Then on Tuesday, I get a call from the CEO's assistant requesting a follow-up phone interview for Thursday. She calls on Wednesday, asking to re-schedule for a face-to-face interview on Friday. So, went on the interview today and now I hear that there are a couple of additional candidates they want to meet with before making a decision. That I'm the only one they've brought in for a second round, everyone likes me... and they'll get back to me.

I'm so F'ing sick of being on the back burner. At this point I want to tell them step off. This is crap! I am so over the job interview process. It's clear to me that my future manager can't get decisions approved by the CEO.

This is my life too. This is a horrible experience from my perspective and really gives me doubt about working for this company. I really want to opt-out. I'm going to give the weekend to think about it and if I feel the same way on Monday, I probably will.

Chocolate Frosting

I'm totally jonesing for some chocolate tonight. Ate all of the Peanut Butter & Chocolate Ice Cream that LB had "hidden" in my freezer earlier this week. Last night went with KZ for a drink to Extraordinary Desserts and after enjoying a delightful cheese plate, split a chocolate croissant bread pudding with her and her late arriving husband. So I'm now on a kick. Found some Sara Lee frosting at the back of the refrig and enjoyed a spoonful. With all the chocolate and carb-loading I've been doing lately and lack of fitness I've been practicing I'm growing into a very health girl! I'm going to resolve that tomorrow!

Anyway, trying to figure out what to write about?? And then found this site tonight: Ririan Project. I really enjoyed reading his post on Ten Commandments for Living a Bold Life. Number 5 really struck a cord with me. I was wallowing in the self-pity pool pretty much all late last year and through January. "It's not fair. Life's not fair." Buggh. Really disgust myself sometimes. But I like his take on it. Of course life's not fair. Everyone would have the same things. I can turn this around at any time.

In the process of reading The Secret. A book promoted on Oprah. It talks about the Law of Attraction and how what you put out there you get back. It's a bit new agey for me. Some of it I agree with. I do believe (and have not been practicing very well) that everything you put out there comes back to you multiple times. When you're a bitch to someone it comes back to you with two or three people being bitchy to you. One thing I've gotten out of it is some visualization exercises. So, I've taken one of the business cards that I acquired last week during an interview with a company I'd like to work for and I've crossed out his name and wrote in my name. I've got it right here. Looking at it right now. It's hard, in my mind, I keep going "I hope I get it." When according to the book I need to be "of course I'm going to get it." I found out on Friday that I didn't get one of the other jobs that I had interviewed for and when I got off the phone that's what I thought. "Of course I didn't get that job with XYZ internet security company, because I'm going to get the job with XYZ software company."

Well Grammys are about to start and I really want to watch. So that's all folks. Enjoy. Have a great week.

Not much to say...

I don't have much to say right now. Just keeping my head down. Working on my freelance assignments (two more just popped up thanks to some old work connections), building out my business plan, and job searching.

So far this week, one phone interview and one face-to-face interview down, with an additional face-to-face interview this week. All with different companies. I'm remaining optimistic, but guarded.

I've also been taking a Property Management class to fulfill my real estate license requirements. I'm just going to get my license and keep it in my back pocket. Like a possible escape plan or retirement work plan.

This weekend was busy, as my PM class is Friday nights and Saturday mornings. Then Saturday afternoon a baby shower. I think I'm done with the baby shower scene for a while, unless Larissa, Kristin or Cathy decide to defect to the dark side as well. I hope not, as I enjoy their company on fun outings so much and I know motherhood puts a damper on some of that.

Saturday night was to be LB's birthday celebration, but due to the Navy helicopter crash on Friday night, that was put on hold. The helicopter came from her husband's squadron. Thankfully it wasn't Chris, but sadly four sailors did loose the lives. It's a very sad story. I spent the weekend with her, as Chris flew to the ship they flew from to investigate and I did my best tap dance to keep her busy.

Sunday, Kristin and I went to check out the new Museum of Contemporary Art buildings downtown. It's a very cool building. There is this one exhibition that features spices. You walk into the building and it smells like Chai Tea. I just wrote a review for Associated Content. I'm basically, reviewing everywhere I go to make some $$. After that LB and I went hiking out at Cowles Mountain. Wow was a long hike.

Last night I outlined some side income goals for the year. They are pretty aggressive, but if I'm going to dig my way out of the debt hole I'm in in less than 25 years I'm going to have to have additional streams of income. The biggest stream will be freelance consulting with almost half of my goal attributed to that and the rest split between my online efforts (Associated Content, Deal Barbie Pays, Blogging) and my business idea. I am really working out the details on my PatioScaping idea and plan on formally launching March 1. So now that I've put it out there, I'm going to have to stick to it! I'm going to spend Friday afternoon meeting with various SMEs to gather information and then this weekend (when not preparing for next weeks interview) finish the business plan.

So, Thursday night should be interesting. Kristin and I heading out to TNT at the museum. We may run into The Sculptor...

Interview Update

So, I had an interview today. And I'm puzzled by the experience. I met with the hiring manager and two of my peers. She had mentioned that they would be joining us for the interview. She gave a 30 second overview of the position and then let the two women who would be my peers start asking questions. Their questions were good. More about how I would handle challenges, but not really about my work history or specific experiences with online media, which is what the job was primarily about. The hiring manager gave me good facial and verbal feedback to my answers. However, after 30 minutes, one of the peers asked me if I had any questions and of course I did. So I started asking and I noticed one of the women looking kind of bored or I don't know like I had overstayed my welcome. I had assumed it would be an hour long interview. So only after 40 minutes they concluded the interview. The hiring manager would be going on vacation for a week and then the following week the team would be traveling. I don't know. Maybe they only give all the initial candidates 30 minutes. It felt like they were doing the interviewing and she was just there for support and to evaluate their performance. Which is fine. But you would think that with three people an interview would last longer than 40 minutes. I interviewed earlier this week with one woman and that went 75 minutes. It's almost like, I was a test interview for all the real interviews they would be doing later. Who knows... but regardless I won't hear from them for almost two weeks.

Job Update & One Important Question

So, tomorrow I have an interview. It will be my third interview of the week. Each interview has been with a different company. So that's good...

In case you are wondering what I've been doing, here is a summary to date:

• Networking events attended: 30
• Networking meetings with associates: 7
• Phone Interviews: 8 (this is what I wrote down in my calendar, many times people would call and screen me if they reached me and I didn't write those down in my calendar)
• Recruiter Interviews: 3 face-to-face interviews with 6 people
• Face-to-Face Interviews: 16 with 31 people (I counted that second round with B&B as one interview, but with 7 people, even though it was two at a time for 30 minutes each. )

They say that the average person speaks to 8 hiring managers before they get an offer. I don't get it. I hate, HATE being below average. UGGG!

I've been contemplating a question. I recently breezed through "Who Moved My Cheese" and I've been pondering some of the thoughts/concepts from that book.

1) Basically if someone moves your cheese you shouldn't sit around and bemoan the loss of the cheese, but go and find new cheese. Now, should I think that since I've not found a job in my desired field that I should go and find a new field? I'm getting all these interviews. It seems like there is plenty of cheese. But, no one has presented me with the right cheese.

2) What would you do if you weren't afraid? I definitely am full of fear nowadays. I'm afraid of loosing my home; of never finding a job; of never getting out of debt; of having to file bankruptcy; of putting myself out there with a guy; of failing in love and it not working out, again; of not achieving my dreams. I know many of these are completely irrational. But, what would I do if I wasn't afraid?

I think.. I'd stick to my plan and keep looking for the right job. I don't think it's chuck it all for real estate. My fear there is more money out the door; not failing at it. But I feel like I have to give myself some sort of deadline. How much longer do I keep burning through money?

Job Search Update

So, I made some calls today and heard from two companies that either the position had been filled or would not be filled for three months or so.

Checked Monster and there were very little in the way of new opportunities. Called all the other outstanding opportunities as well. Hopefully more will pop up this week.

Planning on attending a job fair on Wednesday, I think a number of pharmaceutical companies will be at this one, so I will go to see about that.

Did some research on making money on the internet. I found a great blog called 2 Nickels Making a Dollar, written by a woman, who has a full-time job, is a mom and a wife, runs a business, blogs and is doing some other stuff on the internet to make money. Will probably give that a try.

Got to her site through today's Carnival of Personal Finance. Check it out. There is a personal finance story for everyone.

As far as my list of 43 Things, don't feel like I've made a ton of progress on anything during the first 8 days of the year. I'm a bit stressed to tell you the truth. Money is increasingly tighter and I'm sleeping less and feeling anxious more.

Well, hopefully something exciting will happen tomorrow. I have lunch with a friend, so that will get me out of the house for a bit.