Losing Momentum
Things were looking really good at the start of the day. It's definitely the busy time of the season again. People are hiring. I was on my way to my second interview in two days, and that morning I had scheduled another interview for next week and talked with a recruiter about another opportunity. Well, like my preferred presidential candidate, I was about to get some momentum knocked out of me.
I have had many interviews since I started this interminable job hunt. Only two of them had been bad. One was completely my fault. I was unprepared. The other... It just didn't seem like a good place to work.
I got the same vibe here.
I went into the lab (I'll withhold names, but it was a very prestigious institution that shares faculty with an even more prestigious institution) and found the post doc that would be hiring me. He talked to me for about five minutes, and then went to get one of his colleagues. He talked to me longer. He said the pay would suck (didn't say a number, just apologized for how low the pay would be) and said I'd have to work there for two, maybe three years before I could get a good reference from them. Apparently, that's the only reason anyone works there. For the reference. Fuck that, I want a job I want to stay in. Perhaps indefinately. To outright say that I'll be wanting to leave in the near future, and warning me that I can't make too quick an exit, to say that the only reason to work there is to get my next job... It just doesn't cut it. I don't think I impressed them and they certainly didn't impress me.
Most potential employers have the decnecy to act as if I have a choice of jobs. To pretend to sell the work to me, that the employees like their jobs and are enthusiastic about their research, and make me want to get it. The lab at Children's Hospital did that. So did ALSTDI. This place... Did not.
I have had many interviews since I started this interminable job hunt. Only two of them had been bad. One was completely my fault. I was unprepared. The other... It just didn't seem like a good place to work.
I got the same vibe here.
I went into the lab (I'll withhold names, but it was a very prestigious institution that shares faculty with an even more prestigious institution) and found the post doc that would be hiring me. He talked to me for about five minutes, and then went to get one of his colleagues. He talked to me longer. He said the pay would suck (didn't say a number, just apologized for how low the pay would be) and said I'd have to work there for two, maybe three years before I could get a good reference from them. Apparently, that's the only reason anyone works there. For the reference. Fuck that, I want a job I want to stay in. Perhaps indefinately. To outright say that I'll be wanting to leave in the near future, and warning me that I can't make too quick an exit, to say that the only reason to work there is to get my next job... It just doesn't cut it. I don't think I impressed them and they certainly didn't impress me.
Most potential employers have the decnecy to act as if I have a choice of jobs. To pretend to sell the work to me, that the employees like their jobs and are enthusiastic about their research, and make me want to get it. The lab at Children's Hospital did that. So did ALSTDI. This place... Did not.