Day 23 Log

Happy New Year Eve! I spent this morning looking at a ton of new jobs, it looks like what I was told was correct, people have been waiting until January to hire people. Submitted a few resumes, and got one call back so far.
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Spoke with a recruiter for a position in the NW Metro area. She wasn't technical, so the conversation didn't get too in depth, but it sounds like I may fit what the company is looking for, it depends on how much SSIS experience they are looking for. I made an appointment to meet with her and the technical person on Friday, but she called back and changed it to Monday. She said they were just recently bombarded with a bunch of new positions so if this one doesn't work out, they have several others that may.
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Got an email from the company I am meeting with on Monday, they want me to complete an online profile with all the same info from my resume...yeah...some of it was imported from my resume, but not well, so I've been spending lots of time fixing it and adding to it.

Day 22 Log

Long day today, I had to spend more time than I expected filling out an application for a consulting company that I'm trying to work with. I hate these types of applications, they really are insane...everything they asked for was on my resume (which they had) with the exception of references...why make me print out and manually write in the answers to questions that you could see by looking at my resume.
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Went to a meeting in Bloomington today, it went a bit worse than I had hoped for, but I was able to take away some useful stuff from it, so I'm happy I braved the snow to attend.
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Looked into some professional groups to join, I think that will be a good way to network and meet other people in the industry.

Day 21 Log

Had my morning interview, this went well, it was with a consulting company, for a regular position at a company on my side of the cities, so that was nice. They thought I'd be a good fit, and are scheduling me to meet with the hiring manager.
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I'm getting ready for my second interview with the company I met with two weeks ago in Minneapolis. I'm interested in what they have to say at this meeting...should be good.
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Had a great meeting in Minneapolis, got to meet the CEO of the company and discuss some of their corporate culture and get a better feel for the company. They are still vetting candidates, but I'm on the short list!

Day 18 Log

As expected the day before and after Christmas has had almost no new posting for positions, and the ones I did see were for SAP systems, so I'm not qualified for those.

I did spend some time looking up information on a job related issue I'm experiencing, nothing I can get into on the blog..at least not at this time.

On a side note, I don't understand why the MN unemployment system is only available from 6am to 6pm Central Time, Monday through Friday. This doesn't make any sense...why would you restrict access to a web based system like this? It shows that the people who make the decisions don't understand technology. There should be no restrictions on when you view your profile, or apply for benefits.

I have two meetings next Monday, I am looking forward to them...should have a bunch more to report then.

Merry Christmas

Best wishes to everyone.

Day 15 Update

I had a conversation with my former boss, it was a good conversation, one thing he brought up was that some of my former co-workers are reading my blog. This isn't surprising to me, I thought that this might be the case, however my blog entry from yesterday came to his attention. I have tried hard in my posts to not bad mouth my former company and I want to continue this, because I truly hold no grudges against my former company. True I may have some frustrations but no real grudges.

So in the interest of being fair, I'm going to post a response to yesterdays post...well a pseudo response, they didn't write this, this is coming from what I discussed with my former boss. I'm told that what the State employee who I spoke with yesterday on the phone told me may not be entirely true. I was lead to believe that my former company was required or obligated to return the questionnaire that they were sent; but the company is saying that they are not, it is completely optional, and that they really only should fill it out if they disagree with my answers. They say that if they fill out the form and return it, often it can further delay my getting my UI benefits, so because of that, they (as a policy) don't complete the form unless they disagree with the information provided.

I don't know who is right, or if there are shades of truth in both statements. The information I am receiving appears to be at odds.

I am going to give my former employers the benefit of the doubt and assume that no malice was intended, and that in fact they were trying to make my getting UI benefits as simple and quick as possible.

If the former co-worker who brought the post up to my former co-workers would be so kind as to let them know about this update, I'd appreciate it.

Day 15 Log

When you file for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, you are asked a series of questions, several about why you are unemployed and how long you are being paid until. They send a questionnaire to your former employer asking them the same questions. Your employer is given two weeks to fill out and return this. Until that happens, your requests to be paid will be set to pending. My previous employer has failed to return the questionnaire within the required time period, so that will delay my being paid my UI benefits for at more three more weeks..that means that I may be unemployed for over a month before I receive the money I need to buy food with, pay bills with, buy gas to drive to interviews with...all because my former company didn't take the three minutes to check a few boxes and return the required information to the state.

I have been trying to keep a positive attitude and not bad mouth my previous company, but when crap like this happens, it's hard not to.
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I have received a request for a second interview with the company I met with on last Friday; this is both good and bad, for reasons I don't want to go into on the blog, I now need to contact my former company and discuss some things with them...and given the above rant, this is not something I'm looking forward to. But I'm excited to be asked back in for a second interview, this means that my suggested salary range was probably within reason or at least they feel close enough to negotiate and they are most likely going to offer me a position; which is absolutely great.
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Nothing new on the job front, spent some more time looking at sites, and even spent a while looking deeper into the Chamber of Commerce website for a city near by that I'd like to work in. With Christmas Eve tomorrow, and Christmas only two days away, I think the rest of the week will be slow...which is ok, I'm really enjoying spending time with my wife and kids.