Even more job hunting

It is hard to keep hopes up when one company after another turns you down. One company doesn’t want me because I have done too much software to be a hardware guy, the next doesn’t want me because I have done too much hardware to be a software guy. Or they don’t want me because I don’t have enough experience with just that one software package that they are using. Or even though I do have experience exactly with what they want, for example being an IT help desk employee serving 20 people, I don’t have the experience doing the same thing for 100 people (which happens to be the size of their user base). In the unlikely case that I even have passed all technical tests they want, I fail to answer a trick question about my character. And even when I pass that test too, and they really seem to want me, the branch in question suddenly is not allowed to hire new staff anymore for 6 months. Aaaargh!!! The job of looking for a job is not an easy one, as many fellow job hunters probably will confirm :-)

But oh well, in spite of all rejections I have kept on applying for jobs. By applying for jobs you learn a lot about the local companies here, and every job interview is a good learning experience by itself. Apart from that I have started doing some courses, I have time enough on my hands for now :-) Well, that is, the lime left after doing the laundry, the groceries, cooking, filling and emptying the dishwasher, putting the garbage out, in short, playing the h(o)us(e)band. No time to be bored, yet :-)

One of the many job interviews I had was on December 5 for the position of Technical Writer. As a Technical Writer I would be writing installation manuals (you know, those things that are binned as soon as they come in sight). The job description contained talking to software and hardware engineers, translating their technical mumbo jumbo into something that the masses would be able to understand. Since I have been a hardware and software engineer myself I would be able to have a conversation with these guys, a conversation that would even remotely make sense. Having been a helpdesk employee I have learnt to bring complex material in an easy way, and while doing that I found out that I really like that challenge. So the job was something I thought would suit me very well.

The job interview was a lot of fun. I had to comment on an existing manual of theirs, what I would do differently. Well, when it comes to giving comments I am as opinionated as Simon Cow (the head judge of American Idol) himself, so their manual had to endure some comment from me too ;-) All in all they were impressed enough to invite me for a second interview, on Tuesday December 19.

At the second interview I had to take a kind of IQ-test, they presented me with a few cases I would encounter in the real job, they gave me a tour of the factory, and I have met the person I would work close together with. All of that went fine.

It went so fine, that they have offered me a job! December 21 I received the contract in the mail and December 22 – the very last day before the start of summer vacation – I signed it and brought it back. I can start at January 8!! Talking about a nice Christmas present!

The company is called Dynamic Controls. They produce these joystick-thingies used on electric wheelchairs. If before long you see a wheelchair overtaking you on the motorway, it just might have something to do with me working there now ;-)

All joking aside though, I really like it to work for a company that tries to make the life of disabled people a bit easier. It will probably give me more satisfaction than designing the next electronic gizmo. All in all I am a happy camper (and Emma is a happy campess too), so at the last moment we can celebrate a nice and relaxed Christmas!