Strange Experiences in the Job market.

As I have said I am looking for a new job and have put in a few applications.

Both yesterday and today I have had strange job hunting experiences.

First up I had an interview back on the 1st.

I thought it went really well, but I hadn’t heard anything. So I kind of assumed it wasn’t as good as I thought.

I had decided I would phone next week to ask for feedback on how I’d interviewed. I’d leave it till then because I knew I had another interview coming up today.

But yesterday they phoned me up and said:

1. They were really sorry they had taken so long to get back to me.
2. They weren’t going to give me the job but they had really been impressed and it had been between myself and one other candidate.

I’ll look at the positive and say I didn’t misread the situation in the interview. I interviewed well and came close.

Today I had another interview, this was for the Victorian public service job I put in for.

I was asked to arrive at least half an hour before the interview.
When I got there I had to read through a number of scenarios and take notes because part of the interview would be based on my responses to their scenarios.

The interview panel was made up of three senior public service officials. To be honest I had decided that although they are interviewing me I didn’t have much chance. It is quite a senior position and I have ZERO public service experience.

Perhaps because of this I went in feeling really relaxed. It seemed to go really well.
I felt I really hit it off with the panel, they seemed to be very impressed with my answers to their scenarios and I didn’t struggle with any of the other questions they asked.

At the end the most senior manager elected to walk me out of the building. She will be my immediate superior if I get the job. It seemed relaxed and chatty still.

As she left me at the lift (that would be an elevator) she warned me that while they will probably make a decision quite quickly I will probably hear nothing for several weeks. This is because any internal applicants get to hear first and run through grievance processes if they don’t get the job before they can appoint someone external.

So I came away thinking I have a real chance at this.

Then on the way home I get a phone call. It is one of the interview panel.
He says don’t get too excited because they haven’t made a decision yet.
But, he is happy to tell me they are all really impressed.
Then he says he will probably get in trouble for trying to poach me off his senior but there is another job at an equivalent level that he really wants me to submit an application.

I’ve never experienced anything quite like this before. I guess it is likely that they have someone else in mind for the job I went for today, but here is one of the panel asking me to apply for another job they have.

Seems very positive however I look at it.