My weird shit factor strikes again

[unixronin]

...and this is a first even for my m4|)  b4|)-j0b-lu[|<  5|<1llz0rz.  I just heard back from my recruiter at Vado about the Cadence position.  Seems the picture is, Cadence had a bunch of long-term contractors, and wanted to hire people full-time because they were tired of paying the cost of contractors, and that's what the open senior-Linux-sysadmin positions were.  But the contractors liked the money they were making contracting, and didn't want to give it up, so Cadence advertised the positions externally.

Well, seems they'd filled two of the three positions, and were about to make me an offer for the third one last night, when the last contractor -- who actually took part in two of my three interviews -- decided he'd rather stay at Cadence than keep making consulting money.  (And I don't blame him -- from what I know about the job and the company, this would have been about as close to my dream job as is ever likely to become available short of the human race suddenly acquiring starships or me suddenly magically becoming young enough and fit enough again to go for a slot as a fighter jock.)

I've had plenty of weird shit happen before during the last three years on jobs that were Almost There.  Every time I've gotten close to getting hired for a job, Something Has Happened.  AOL redefined the position.  ITA Software apparently decided I was tainted goods when the engineering VP who'd recommended me left the company suddenly.  Amazon threw me the Hostile Attack Interviewers From Hell.  One of the other job prospects decided to fill the position internally.  And so on, and so forth, und so weiter.

But this is the first time I've lost a job opportunity to one of the people who interviewed me for it.  That is a record even with my history of running foul of Murphy's Law.

I'm well qualified, I have a very wide base of knowledge, numerous areas of expertise, I graduated magna cum laude from my CS program, and I have somewhere between ten and fifteen years' industry experience .... but until and unless I can break this pattern of being monkeywrenched one way or another at the eleventh hour, all that counts for slightly less than a small bucket of warm spit.  Sometimes it really makes me wonder why I keep trying.

Comments

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Because giving up isn't in your makeup.

but I've got a job for the next year. There is way less pressure on you now. You aren't totally responsible for us for the next year.

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

I admit that I haven't had the bad luck you've had but perhaps there's a reason for this. Let me tell you a story....

Once upon a time a young lad was making his way through college. His major was Math/Computer Science and it was his intention to make his career in the computer field in some capacity. He had been made aware of an opportunity to do an internship in the IT department at Weyerhauser and, along with a classmate and friend, applied for the position. They drove down to Weyerhauser headquarters and were interviewed for the position. The young lad was turned down but his friend was accepted. The lad was disappointed but continued with his studies.

Not long after, Microsoft came to the college and asked for applications for their cooperative education program, which was basically the same as an intership except that some colleges would grant credit to a student who had participated. The young lad applied for that position and was hired. He worked for a year in the Microsoft technical support department and learned so much about computer hardware and software that it was probably worth two years of college.

Some time later, the lad was talking with his friend who had been hired at Weyerhauser. The friend told the lad that he wished he had not applied for that position but had waited and applied at Microsoft instead.

And I'm still grateful to this day that Weyerhauser didn't hire me. I can't imagine where I'd be now if they had but I'd likely not be doing as well. I don't know where this path you are on will lead, but keep on travelling and hopefully the destination will be more magnificent than you thought it could be.

[jmkelly.livejournal.com]

Getting a job is one of those things where everything has to break right, and if you remember your probability and statistics, a series of events with 90% probability works out to pretty bad odds if they're contingent on each other.

Losing out to one of your interviewees is unusual, but doesn't sound so outlandish to me. Of course, I used to work at UC Berkeley.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, it sure had me wondering "What next?"

It was so close, and it would have been so good.... but it seems no matter how close I get to landing a fulltime job since 2001, there's always something at the last minute that monkeywrenches it.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Agh. Arghlefuck.

Idiots.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can see that it made perfect sense for Cadence. There's no idiocy involved on their part.

But right up to the 59th minute of the 11th hour, I had that job, and then at the last minute ... poof. This is effectively twice in just the four months I've been back in CA that I've lost a job due to my el-weirdo-shitto Murphy's-Law monkeywrench factor.