the job search continues

[rone]

-> *dem* corporate politics scare the crap out of me, because the only response i have to them is violence. and i'm too pretty to go to jail.

Two months since i lost my job, and all i have to show for it are a few headhunters who aren't calling me back anymore, stalled interviews at LinkedIn, a hiring freeze at Yahoo!, and a passel of companies who've just started the getting-to-know-me dance (plus an inquiry from Adobe that had me laughing my ass off and sending a sneering reply to the poor recruiter, and then feeling guilty about it later, and for the love of god, why can't i just get over it, it's been two fucking years, i need some fucking closure).  The real problem here is that i scan craigslist and Simply Hired and there are no jobs that make me say, "Wow, i'd like to work there," or even, "Huh, that sounds kinda cool."  "Meh" is about as good as it gets, and i'm not even talking about all the goddamn Bubble 2.0 companies.  I've been contacted by not just one, but two companies whose product currently consists of a Facebook application.  No, i am not kidding.  And speaking of Facebook, yeah, they're hiring, but as a user, i can tell that being hired as a sysadmin there is a quick way to going all-out shit-flinging crazy; that place has serious technical issues, and i'm sure it all trickles down from that young nitwit at its top, and anyway, they'll become irrelevant in two years, much like Orkut and Friendster.  The point is that i want to avoid another company that'll have the rug pulled out from it by the VC.

I'm not sure if it's that i have to love my job to do it.  But it is crucial that i respect it.  And i can't respect it if i can't relate to it.  Every job i've had since i came to California came through someone i knew, with the exception of my three-week stint at Wired (that came through a contracting firm that was recommended by arian1, not that i'm blaming him).  This time around, my network has not worked, and that's disconcerting.  Yes, i realize it's the holiday season now (like i need another reason to hate it), but i contacted LinkedIn the day i was laid off from Visible Path, and it simply should not take this long for any company of less than 500 people to hire someone (or, failing that, to tell him that they won't hire him).

Comments

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it looks kind of high-contact, but my god, I haven't talked to anyone here at all for, like, EIGHT HOURS. I'd LOVE to have a luser come in and say something ridiculous, just so I could have a damn conversation.

And I like netapps and perl and batch systems, and dealing with users with bizarre problems. It sounds like of like the old WPI job, really, except someplace cooler.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Heh, i wouldn't mind the high-contact job, but i have no batch systems or NetApp experience, and my perl sucks.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Yay! I mean, generally. There's another job there that I'm less qualified for, but it might be your kind of thing. We could totally be co-workers and do co-worker things.

Also Verisign is hiring a graveyard shift guy, so if you were totally sad and desperate you could join me in the IT Gulag.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

We could be emo twins, rattling our tin cups against the walls of our cubicles.

Anyway, no, not yet.

emo enough for you?

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Oh ho ho ho ho ho. If ONLY there was a cubicle. I DREAM of cubicles. Every day I wake up and think "Maybe today there will be walls," but no, no, I enter the "bullpen" area and sit, my ass pancaking out against the ancient and terrifying torture chair allocated for my sitting pleasure, and gaze blearily at the nagios monitors on the wall... When my buttocks finally go numb, it is blessed release, at least until I need to visit the facilities, when the return of circulation brings to light every ache they have accumulated silently over the terrible empty hours...

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I wonder if Verisign monitors keypresses or logs web access beyond simply the URLs accessed. If they do, a big hello to the verisign dudes! Hope you're having a cheery night and that this series of postings totally makes your day! Yeah! Review time is coming up, and it could be even more exciting!