The plan was to write a pair of two sibling blog posts. First, What I Love About (Working in) QA and then, only later, What I Hate About (Working in) QA.
But that plan, however, got sidetracked. You see …
I got a job!
Well, I got a job offer, and I signed.
I have to pass through a background check and the final stages of onboarding. And if that all goes well, I’ll start this month.
Because it’s only an offer, I won’t disclose with whom just yet. I’ve heard the stories, as you probably have, of job offers disappearing. It happens. But fingers crossed.
I mean – I am super stoked. (And I am clearly now confident enough to publish this post.)
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Read on for more details about my current state, my journey along the way, and about three key Job Hunting Takeaways for 2024.
Create a Budget and Invest in Your Job Search
Slightly better pay, way better benefits, and 3-in at an office only 15 minutes from my house.
It started with a simple cold contact – an application in April to an Indeed job alert.
All the money I spent over the 6+ months of unemployment – job scanning tools, application tools, remote job services, premium networking services, and so on – some $800, and none of it actually resulted in securing a job offer. (More on this soon.)
The heart of this story, instead:
I popped onto the second of three total interviews. And while I didn’t know the hiring manager at the time, it turns out – we have multiple, mutual, personal (as opposed to professional) friends. He was the first to put that together; he had done his reconnaissance beforehand; and that’s exactly where my interview with him started. Me = pretty at ease.
Why Did It Take You So Long to Get a Job Offer?
That question seemed to nag me wherever I went. Even when walking into the kitchen of my very own home, say, every other morning – I’d hear it. My wife would say – “Why haven’t you gotten a job yet?”
Over the months, I offered a few short-handed answers to that question. First – in a guest post @ QAJobs.co –> Why Does Job Hunting in QA Feel So Difficult Right Now? and then – in the blog post that immediately precedes the one you are reading right now –> Six Months of Single Socks.
In those posts, I suggest that in this job market, and maybe more than ever, you have to be, well, a GMC Truck – THE, PERFECT FIT.
I hope you hear Will Arnett‘s voice just as I did when I typed that out. Emphasis on the “The”.
As I put it in my last post, “You need to have honest (read: expert-level) experience with all of the specific tools, and only the specific tools, that are posted in the job description.”
Funny. The story, instead:
I didn’t have substantial experience using the very first tool listed in the very first bullet point under the Required section of this job posting. I told them so in the interviews, and, surprisingly – they seemed very cool with that. They seemed willing to, well, train me on it, or at least afford me the time I needed to get up to speed. I mean – go figure. The willingness of any company to train, anyone, I thought was starting to blink out of existence in today’s job market.
If anything, here we have a testament to this specific organization and to these specific persons hiring me. Unicorns!
The Number of People Making Money Off the Number of People Out of Work Is, at Times, Sickening
I don’t want to digress, but there seems to be an awful lot of people trying to make money off of the many who have unfortunately found themselves out of work in recent years.
From AI-backed Job Search/Resume tools to Career Coaches & Resume Writers, from 3rd & 4th party Talent people to all the organizations out there peddling this or that special Program, Course, Certification you just can’t do without.
Despite my tone here, I personally did decide early on in my job hunt to set aside money to power my job search. I funded it with a personal stock sale equaling about $1500.
As mentioned above, it’s debatable whether any of the tools I invested in had any direct impact on being offered this job.
Would I still advise others to make similar investments? Yes – Invest (wisely) in your job search. Now is the time to Invest in Yourself. There are many many great job hunting resources out there – despite, I’m sorry – all the turbulence.
My True Authentic Self
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion has taken a pretty prominent spotlight for organizations in recent years. I have to admit, though, when I’ve seen or heard discussions about the movement, I’ve thought to myself – “Well, that doesn’t apply to me.”
After all – I am a US-borne, white, heterosexual male, married with two-college age daughters. I think it is probably fair to say that I haven’t battled many the same biases that others historically have.
Still, I do need to work.
And if I could put my finger on one reason why I got this specific job offer. From the earliest discussions with this team, as noted above, I think I can say it all happened because – I was bringing my true authentic self.
For a Long Time I Hid Many of the Things about Myself that Actually Make Me Quite Great at my Job as a QA Tester
Maybe as an act of desperation, after many many failed interviews, and shortly before meeting with the team that gave me this job offer – I broke down and added my LLC to my LinkedIn profile. In the 18 years since formally creating that “business”, I have almost never discussed it.
Built on Ideas OmniCorp, LLC (BOI). Okay “OmniCorp” is not actually part of name. But you get it, I have done a variety of business, always filing appropriate paperwork, under its umbrella. I almost never bring it up publicly, not even with my most closest friends.
And definitely, not on a resume.
In fact, I’ve even had recruiters tell me to leave my work at BuildingMoxie.com (itself technically part of BOI) off of my resume. “You don’t want potential employers to question whether you might have outside distractions.”
Truth is – I put it up at this exact time simply because I was applying for, well, a job (a different job – that I didn’t ultimately get). Those experiences would have come to bear on that other job.
The hiring company called it out, though, during my interviews, and we even discussed it. Unicorns! Realists!
Yes, of course, I am interviewing with other companies. Yes, of course, I have outside interests.
In fact, it’s these experiences that make me a fully formed human being, and by extension – a kick ass QA Tester.
I’ve decided to leave Built On Ideas on my profile for good. It is part of who I am; it is part of my professional experience. (And I welcome you, while you happen to be here, to check out the Building Moxie Archive on this site. Thanks!)
Three Job Hunting Takeaways
One of the things that makes Job Hunting so difficult is the shear number of wide and differing … opinions you will hear from others. And that’s exactly what they are Opinions! Even when you hear things from long established recruiters and career people. Advice! You have to pick and choose, and decide on your own course.
“Network, Network, Network” – you’ll surely hear. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Networking has great value, even when not job hunting, and maybe there is something to this “know someone” bit (tongue in cheek). But I will say not a single opportunity I was referred to/for (maybe about 5) resulted in a job offer. Which I think – surprised everyone around me. Today = Different Times.
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Take these for what they’re worth. They are only opinions formed out of my own unique experience. But here are three things I “noticed” while job hunting in 2024.
JB’s Job Hunting Tips
- Out of all the things I spent money on – the most valuable was probably the Application Tools (for me – Simplify Jobs). This is not to say you mustn’t still customize your resume and cover letter for each job you apply to, but having the form filling part automated did do wonders for my state of mind.
- While I had worked remotely for the four years prior, I simply went further in interview processes / with companies when there was a local component. “Can you be in the office in an hour?” (And you know what – after doing the remote thing – this is something that I am 100% totally okay with.)
- Lastly, I’m not really sure how you answer Common Interview Questions has anything to do with getting a job offer (especially after you pass a certain phase in an interview cycle). Some of the best advice I heard came from, well – Career Coach Stan Miller. Along with his take on Career Storytelling, Stan says approach each interview knowing that the company already believes you are qualified for the job. (This is something throughout my career, unfortunately, I have always missed.)
- Less like my daughter who would have me believe that it has something to do with manifestation, Stan says the interview is all about proving the company, well, right. To put it simply – I had come to believe that this translates into “running the interview”. You have to take the interview where you want it to go. By doing this, you A. Learn what you need to learn about the opportunity & B. You steer the interviewers right to your strengths. I do believe this was a big part in finally getting that job offer.
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That’s it. Thank you for checking in on my blog, as I navigated this round of unemployment. I really hope to post something at minimum the final week of every month. My timing however a little off this month.
I mean – I had this post written at the end of June. But decided to wait to move through the screening process a bit with the above company. Wish me continued luck and hopefully the next time you hear from – I’ll have a job!
In the meantime, please see my resume and/or my portfolio, where I recently highlighted writing samples, on this site. I’m here taking this time before I start to finally catch up on all the things that I put off, in my life, while I was job searching. ;~) ~jb