Goin' on an interview ...

I wasn't going to post about this - yet, at least - for fear of jinxing myself. I'm not a superstitious person by any means, but I've felt so depressed and humbled lately that I don't want to take any chances.

I thought I'd be able to find a job fairly quickly, but that hasn't been the case. I've been working with four different recruiting firms, applying for jobs on my own, and nothing seems to be a good fit. Mostly, a lot of companies are looking for someone with an accounting degree and a CPA (or CPA in progress), of which I have neither. Fortunately, many firms are willing to look past that when they see my resume, due both to my experience and the fact that they can't afford to be so picky these days - accounting and finance is a huge field, and there are more jobs than candidates. That's a bit depressing, then, that no one has snatched me up.

But a lot of firms have very firm and narrow ideas of who they want to hire. I did get as far as a phone interview for a huge Seattle-based company (you may have heard of their caffeinated beverages), but that was a week and a half ago and I haven't heard back from them. I don't have enough international finance experience. I don't have enough retail accounting experience. I don't have enough management experience. I don't have enough experience preparing corporate financial statements. My last long-term job included management that so micro-managed, they were hesitant (to say the least) to let go of any responsibilities and trust the next-highest level (me) to take on those kind of duties. So, I've interviewed with all of these recruiters who have high hopes after talking to me, but I haven't heard a whole lot from the firms that are hiring.

One firm contacted me personally after viewing my resume online and asked me to get in touch with them. I had a phone interview with their staff recruiter, then one with their senior recruiter, and I've moved on to having a huge in-person interview first thing tomorrow morning. It will be about two hours - one meeting with their account manager, and two with their GL (General Ledger) accountants. There are a lot of things about this company I'm excited about - incredible fit with the experience I have, growth potential, benefits, expanding and well-respected technology firm, fantastic waterfront location that's not a long commute, wonderful perks, wonderful reputation for diversity and employee culture, good salary. So, I'm trying to prepare as best I can while knowing that there's not much more that I can do than just go and be myself. I wish Scott had today off so I didn't have the house to myself to sit and worry about it. I'm afraid of psyching myself out instead of bringing my confidence level up to where it needs to be by 9 a.m. tomorrow.

This will be nine positions that I'm potentially in the running for. I'm going to try to just relax and boost myself up the rest of today, read up some more on the company I'm interviewing with tomorrow, and tell myself that I'm the person that they're looking for.

Wish me luck, kids.