It has been a week! Sorry if this gets lengthy - this is a stream of consciousness, as I recap what's top of mind. Skip, if not of interest!
Job stuff:
Most of my time has been spent on the job front. As I mentioned in another post, I had 8 interviews this week, four each for two jobs. I feel really good about one of the jobs after the interviews, and kind of "meh" after the second round. I've done at least 200+ interviews in my time as a people manager, and I think people really underestimate what an impact they can have on a candidate, both in a negative & a positive way.
I had one interview that was probably my most enjoyable interview I've ever done. Part of it was the natural rapport that the interviewer built, the conversational style, but also the feedback she gave along the way. It felt like a really great discussion, where both of us had the opportunity to assess mutual fit, and get a clearer background on the job & the company. Perfect! That aside, this role has been available & then unavailable due to financial constraints, so I won't get excited about anything unless I get a formal offer. I've been in discussion for this role for four months.
On the flip side, I had a couple interviews for the second job that were... not great. (As background, I worked for the company that the second job is at for 15 years, so I'm very familiar with the interview process.) The first interviewer was so unprepared. It was a 45 minute interview block, and he had 10 minutes of questions. He was then visibly nervous & just handed the time over to me to ask questions. The second interviewer asked me 25 questions in 45 minutes, which is also... non-ideal. There was no discussion or follow up or dialogue. She had a list of pre-canned questions, and just ran through them, rapid fire, one by one. She also began the interview without introducing herself, what she does, or asking for an intro from me. It was... really an experience! ;-)
I also heard back from another job that I'd interviewed for, and they went with an internal candidate. Another friend is in the organization, and provided the background that they are trimming back a lot of headcount, so going with an internal candidate means they won't backfill the person who is moving and therefore won't need to use a net new headcount for this role. I completely understand, and in the current job market, it's a decision I would absolutely make as well. But, can I just say that I did 9 interviews/meetings for this job? I prepped for 30+ hours? Totally relatable why they went that direction, but it was pretty crushing after the time investment. I also really liked the team and the role. I'll also add that the recruiter I worked with on this job was the best recruiter I've ever interacted with me in my 20+ years of hiring people. I sent a nice note back that she could forward to everyone I spoke to, and then sent her a separate email, letting her know how incredible she was, what specifically she did to make the experience great, and thanking her. She replied back immediately, and said it made her day & made her tear up. I'm so glad I took the time to do that.
Class:
The class I'm teaching has been such an experience. Both in a positive & a less positive way. My goals in teaching the class: 1) determine if teaching is something I'd want to do part-time, after I'm done with career work. 2) try something new. 3) round out my resume, as teaching this particular class is great for my own skills. Well, I've definitely accomplished all three.
The timing of teaching this class & prepping all of the content, has just come at a difficult time, given how much work the job prep is right now.
I've also learned that I really, really don't enjoy teaching a class from 6-8 pm. The class is a combination of adult learners looking for additional job related certifications/skills, and college students that are offered this class as part of a university degree (with a deeper dive on a specialty their university doesn't provide in house.) It's unfortunate, because parts of teaching are really enjoyable, but the evening is not great. With lupus, my energy level drops as the day goes on, & I'm usually reallllllly tired by the end of the day.
Observations so far:
- I do think I would like teaching in the future
- I'd much prefer in person vs online
- I'd only do it if were doing the day, vs evening
- I'd prefer content in a different area of my expertise (more general - some of these topics are very niche, and require a lot of prep)
- The time spent on the first round of classes you teach is eye watering. I can imagine this scaling very well if I taught this class 2, 3, 5, 10+ times, as you are paid a fixed fee for the full set of classes.
Family:
- Nick is so deep into senior year, and things are winding down. I have a bunch of stuff to prep for graduation (cleaning our house, working with my mom on his party, getting a clear understanding of his two trips - one specifically because he's staying with family & then need to know the plan, making a huge photo poster for graduation, filling out a ton of forms, etc). He took 2 AP exams this week (government & stats). Fingers crossed those went well.
- Nick is also working a lot, particularly this weekend, as he works as a host at a fancy-ish restaurant, and it's Mother's Day tomorrow.
- Sam has a summer job (full time, at that), full of manual labor, which I think is excellent for him. It helps him understand how hard a job like that is. He's also getting a fabulous refresher on his Spanish language skills as part of that. He is planning to take a class at the community college over the summer, so he can get a feel for if he'd like it and prefer to transfer for the fall.
- M is also job searching. He's just getting his job search going really, as he spent quite a bit of time doing some upskilling on the tech side, as the company we worked for had a lot of internal tools that aren't transferrable.
On to Saturday! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, and all of the mothers are spoiled by their family!
