Seven Hours Of Hell

I went through, hands-down, the most intense interview of my life just earlier this week. Little background: I was recruited through a headhunter. I’ve been working with the headhunter for a month and a half now. Which means the company tried to fill the position before that, and was forced to hire somebody.

So obviously, they’re desperate.

Turns out – really desperate, considering the position has been open for over six months. On top of that, it’s a senior-level title basically requiring 7-10 years of experience.

I have a year and a half.

So, again – DESPERATE.

They pulled out all the stops for me. It was about a three hour drive away, in Los Angeles. They put me up in the Hilton, and when I got to the hotel I was greeted by a free drink card because the company I interviewed for was the “company of the month”.

Get up to the room – wow. Full suite, fridge, microwave, small sink – way overkill for one person. Needless to say I was flattered. Flattery gets you everywhere with me.

I had to wake up at about 4:00am to call in sick to my REAL job, and had trouble sleeping after. But I rolled up to the interview at 9:00 and was immediately escorted to a small room that I found out would be my prison chamber for the remainder of the day. Then the fun began.

Ten interviews across nine different people. The worst one, by far, was the first one – and that was with the guy who will be my boss if this all works out. I found out later from the recruiter, though – he asked every question he knew I wouldn’t know, in the hopes that I knew more than I thought and would be able to alleviate some of the burden off of him.

Everybody else was overwhelmingly positive. Even the director (my would be boss’ boss) loved me, and she was supposed to be the tough one. Former military director, very straightforward, and we got along great. I have a no nonsense approach to everything and she appreciated that. She said she could tell I had a lot of drive and passion.

She was the best interview.

I heard back from the recruiter on the long drive from Los Angeles back to San Diego (fuck the traffic of that place). She said that my would-be-boss said all the panelists were very positive and happy with me. There is just one snag.

They have a project that needs immediate attention that I’m really not capable of doing. They will need to hire somebody else to do that. If they can find someone at the right price, the intention is to hire me.

The good news – the recruiter who headhunted me said she has contractors that can do the work at a good price. So she’s seeing a double payday (putting me in the permanent position as well as finding the contractor) – and she’s ruthless. I highly doubt she’ll let that fall through the cracks.

In any case, I should hear by end of business today what the decision is. A hell of a lot better than how my current company has treated me.