Hey, friends! I got a job!
Funny story, getting a job these days is. Except, instead of being funny, it's a monotonous and mentally-draining task that seems to take up more and more of our lives. I doubt applying for a job has ever been easy, but websites like LinkedIn have made applying so easy that it's rewarded a volume over-quality culture that has completely taken over the job hunting process. In securing this job, I was unemployed for ~4.5 months, applied to over 500 positions, went through over 50 phone, video, or chat interviews, and made it to the 2nd or 3rd round of many. Still, by the time I accepted this job, it was the only offer I had received from anyone.
What I'm getting at is that even though the internet has made getting a job easier, it's made the process much worse. How do we fix it? Who knows. There are people out there who are smarter and more involved in the hiring process than I am, who have much better ideas.
Anyways, funny story about getting this job. If you may recall, I wrote a long blog post about my bike-packing trip across the country. The trip was fantastic, but just two weeks before leaving, I got the initial email from a prospective company. I had already paused applying, knowing the trip was coming up, and I didn't have time to check my emails or schedule interviews while on the road. With this company, however, one interview turned into two, and by the time I scheduled the 3rd interview, I was already well into my trip. I gave the recruiter a tight timeline of multiple 2hr windows that I could make myself available each day. Even though I was very sunburnt and red, that 3rd interview went well despite some technical challenges, and I was on my way to the 4th in due time. The 4th interview happened at my parent's house, and the only reason I can believe I made it through that round is that the birds in the background were drowning out my obvious lack of experience.
I still find myself in a position where I don't quite know what I'm doing, but I'm trying to learn new things every day. I haven't completely dedicated my life to eCommerce and content creation much like a handful of individuals on YouTube have, but fat wads of cash have never been my priority, and I find showing the brand that I do care about the content and their image tends to make up for some lack of experience. However, I will fully admit that if you Google 'SEO Best Practice', I am nowhere near the top of that page.
Anyways, here's to a new job. It's fully remote. The team is extremely supportive. The expectations are low, currently, and I feel a lot of love from my coworkers. Hopefully, the next blog post isn't something refuting those claims.
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