Getting a Job

My summer plans were hijacked when my contract of 12 months lasted for only two months.  I wasn't expecting this (nor were the 25 co-workers that were let go at the same time).  My last date on site was June 22.

I updated Linked In, asked for recommendations, contacted former employers and began my search for a new job. I signed up for seminars at Minnesota Workforce.  Although I signed up for several but I thought I wouldn't be able to attend all of them because I would be working real soon.

One of my friends presented my resume to 'First Tuesday Club' in June.  I started getting calls right away from many recruiters.  I got organized with a notebook to keep up with all the people, companies, and positions coming in.  I met with recruiters and learned about their companies.  We discovered together what I was qualfied for and what I was not.  As a manual testers for 10 years I had lots of experience but automated testing and agile testing were not among them.  Early in the year there were lots of job requests for manual testers, but lately the trend was for other tester types and skills.  It was very frustrating.  But I did stay very busy.

Even when I was able to find manual testing jobs, I was unable to convince employers that I was technical enough for their team.  My summer was wasting away.  Money for bills and rent were piling up and still there was no job offer in sight.  I was offered a job but with the contract terms in hand, I went to turn in the paperwork and the job was pulled back. (Can they do that?)  Obviously they can.

So I started over. I emailed my favorite recruiters and friends for updates.  They were great and several even had new job requests to share with me.  Several interviews followed.

On Monday, August 13  I received two offers on the same day.  Both were good money, contracts to year end, and farther driving distance than those in the past.  I pursued both opportunities and made a decision on Tuesday.  I also signed papers and completed all of the position information for a start date of August 20th.

The next day my daughters and I left for a long weekend trip to Little Rock, Arkansas.  The timing was great and I was able to take my mini-vacation with a job ready when I returned.

A special thanks to many of my recruiter friends and contacts:

• Kerry Sieling at Modis
• Sara Link and Mary Cosgrove at TEKsystems
• Christian Pederson at The Bulldog Companies, L.L.C.
• Kirk Walton at tapQA
• Tiffany Flesness at Latitude

Please check with any of these wonderful people for support or job opportunities at any time.  They are available on Linked In and I highly recommend all of them.