No-Name Software Company Adjacent

  I'm writing these entries as they happen and as I have time to jot things down but I may not publish until months from now (or ever). Note: This post was written when the events were still fresh.  I waited for a while to post this because I didn’t want to risk my job-hunting efforts. 

Near the end of last year, I interviewed for a job that I really wanted.  It was No-Name Software Company Adjacent, meaning my experience with that software platform would have been advantageous.  I had three rounds of interviews only to return from the holidays to a "We've made the decision to continue the process with another candidate"  only to see the job reposted on LinkedIn less than a month later.

This year has been even stranger in the job hunt because I had a few recruiters reach out about positions that weren't actually available yet, or the movement stalled or the Job Hunting Gods just want to fuck with me.

'bout to drop a sic album

My options are in-house at a law firm (or if I'm lucky, an in-house at a non-law firm), working for a consulting company, or one of the rare No-Name Software adjacent opportunities.

Even during the Remote Heyday, most law firms require you to live in a state where they have an office for tax compliance reasons.  And now they are pushing back to the office at least in Hybrid Mode.  

The consulting companies want someone with my No-Name Software Company experience, but not my Corporate America experience, because they want to take advantage of less seasoned employees.  And if we are being honest, a lot of people I've worked with over the years work at these places and they simply do not like me.

Finally, there are the No-Name Software Company Adjacent roles which are harder to find and I've already been passed up on 2-3.

I'm interviewing for one of those tomorrow but I have so little hope that I haven't even mentioned it to Nightingale.  Besides the usual lethargic haze, the cadence on this one has been abysmal.  It's a little fuzzy when I actually applied but I recall when I got a call (Sept 7th) from the in-house recruiter, my thought was "Wow I applied 2 weeks and I'm hearing from you now".

We had a call but ran out of time.  He did say he would present me and hope I moved forward.  When I didn't hear from him on Monday as he suggested, I reached out Tuesday via email.  He didn't respond until Thursday saying that he hadn't heard anything but would ping the person.

I waited until the middle of this week to send a "Hey what's going on" in the cacophony of Corporate America speak.  He responded EOD and said the directory wanted to interview me and set it up for tomorrow.

A couple of things.  The pace he responds to emails is ridiculous.  That tells me that he is inefficient, his company can't get things done in a timely fashion, or both.  

He declined my request for some pre-interview coaching so I don't really think I'm gonna ace this interview.