After almost 2 years of looking...
Although I had a wonderful birthday weekend (post to follow), one of the best presents I got was... A NEW JOB!
A good friend of mine has also been looking for a job, and he asked me how I found out about it, and what I did to get it. I felt a bit guilty, because I didn't do anything to find out about the job; it found me.
Back up to a couple months ago. A recruiter from Jobspring called Mike (goodolmike ) and said "we have somebody who would be perfect for a job with you".
Mike said that they didn't really have any positions available right then. He was about to hang up, when the recruiter said "oh, well do you know anybody who is looking for a job?"
Mike said "why yes, I do!" and gave them my number. They called me, we talked a bit, and they decided to set up an interview with me.
Since Jobspring is located in Orange County, we did an interview over Skype so I didn't have to drive up there. I talked to 4 different people there during the interview.
They called me back a week or so later and said they had a job as a back-end web programmer that I might be good for. We set up a phone interview with the CTO at the company.
I talked to the guy for about 30 minutes. I thought the interview didn't go that well (I was really nervous), but the recruiter said I did great, and that the compnay wanted me to do a programming test. The test was hard, and took me about 5 hours to complete. I sent it in, but didn't hear anything back for another week or so.
The recruiter called me again, and said that they were thinking I might be better for a front-end developer position at the same company, if I was interested (which of course I was. That's more along the lines of what I wanted, anyway!).
They had me do another test, this time I was to take a phoshop file and turn it into a functioning, static HTML page using a CSS framework as well as my own CSS, and then answer a bunch of questions about CSS and jQuery.
I aced it, of course. :-)
They called back a couple days later, and asked me in to interview at the offices.
When I got there, I interviewed with the CTO for half an hour, and then he brought in 3 programmers, and they asked me a slew of questions- some theoretical, and some about specific technologies.
An hour and a half later, I felt like I should have panini char marks on my chest, they grilled me that much.
The next day, the recruiter said that they were getting ready to make me an offer. The CTO had to clear it through the CEO first.
That was on a Tuesday. I didn't hear back from the recruiter until Friday.
Not only did I get the job, I got stock options, a signing bonus, a brand new computer (they asked me if I wanted a PC or a Mac. I told 'em "Mac, of course!") and actually MORE salary than what I was expecting!
I spent the rest of Friday (and much of the weekend) bouncing around, grinning, and totally on cloud 9. I may have actually giggled a few times.
So if it hadn't been for a recruiter cold-calling Mike, and then him giving them my number, I wouldn't have this job. Thank you very much to my sweet, sexy, handsome, and kinda awesome boyfriend. :-)
I start on Monday the 14th.
A good friend of mine has also been looking for a job, and he asked me how I found out about it, and what I did to get it. I felt a bit guilty, because I didn't do anything to find out about the job; it found me.
Back up to a couple months ago. A recruiter from Jobspring called Mike (goodolmike ) and said "we have somebody who would be perfect for a job with you".
Mike said that they didn't really have any positions available right then. He was about to hang up, when the recruiter said "oh, well do you know anybody who is looking for a job?"
Mike said "why yes, I do!" and gave them my number. They called me, we talked a bit, and they decided to set up an interview with me.
Since Jobspring is located in Orange County, we did an interview over Skype so I didn't have to drive up there. I talked to 4 different people there during the interview.
They called me back a week or so later and said they had a job as a back-end web programmer that I might be good for. We set up a phone interview with the CTO at the company.
I talked to the guy for about 30 minutes. I thought the interview didn't go that well (I was really nervous), but the recruiter said I did great, and that the compnay wanted me to do a programming test. The test was hard, and took me about 5 hours to complete. I sent it in, but didn't hear anything back for another week or so.
The recruiter called me again, and said that they were thinking I might be better for a front-end developer position at the same company, if I was interested (which of course I was. That's more along the lines of what I wanted, anyway!).
They had me do another test, this time I was to take a phoshop file and turn it into a functioning, static HTML page using a CSS framework as well as my own CSS, and then answer a bunch of questions about CSS and jQuery.
I aced it, of course. :-)
They called back a couple days later, and asked me in to interview at the offices.
When I got there, I interviewed with the CTO for half an hour, and then he brought in 3 programmers, and they asked me a slew of questions- some theoretical, and some about specific technologies.
An hour and a half later, I felt like I should have panini char marks on my chest, they grilled me that much.
The next day, the recruiter said that they were getting ready to make me an offer. The CTO had to clear it through the CEO first.
That was on a Tuesday. I didn't hear back from the recruiter until Friday.
Not only did I get the job, I got stock options, a signing bonus, a brand new computer (they asked me if I wanted a PC or a Mac. I told 'em "Mac, of course!") and actually MORE salary than what I was expecting!
I spent the rest of Friday (and much of the weekend) bouncing around, grinning, and totally on cloud 9. I may have actually giggled a few times.
So if it hadn't been for a recruiter cold-calling Mike, and then him giving them my number, I wouldn't have this job. Thank you very much to my sweet, sexy, handsome, and kinda awesome boyfriend. :-)
I start on Monday the 14th.