Spent the most of the morning trying to connect to the Boeing network—due to a failed software upgrade connecting in from the outside is not going so well right now. Had to drive in and get my email from inside. This turned out for the best. I heard one of the jobs I applied for wants to interview me. This is the job I feel is of most interest, I am most qualified for, and which will stretch me the most (can you tell I would be pretty happy with this job.)
This has caused a gear change. Before it felt like I was chugging comfortable up a fairly regular incline; I was getting my resume finalized and checking job statuses, and applying, basically following a plan that I conceived mostly on the way home from my warn notice meeting.
Now there is a fly in the ointment. The terrain has turned quickly steep and I have two days to prepare myself for an interview. There several things that I need to get done. First, I need to learn as much as a can about the organization that I will be interviewing with. Fortunately, I have friends in the organization and have been in touch with them over the last several months, so I have some idea of what they are up to. Secondly, I need to dissect the job req and try to understand what they will possibly looking for in the interview. Third, For each thing I think they might be looking for I need to think of an answer, creating a table of sorts using the SARs method (Situation, Action, Result). Those actions are mostly mechanical, time consuming but mechanical.
The final item is a bit harder. I have had two interviews in the last 22 years at Boeing. The first one I really blew. The second one I was so scare I would blow it that I probably affected my results, though I did ok. This final item is how do I work through the emotional stress of interviewing before Thursday? Maybe it won’t be bad, because of the preparation that I am planning on doing.
Even if I don’t get the job, I’m seeing this as excellent way to start my search. The two biggest items of the search are to get the resume in shape in order to get the interview and then to ace the interview. If you do well in the interview and don’t get the job, then it wasn’t meant to be. This will allow me to learn the interviewing process, baptism by fire of sorts. I’m excited about this.
Saturday, I sent a note to my contacts on LinkedIn asking for recommendations if I have left a positive impression in our interactions together. I have spent another good portion of today trying to answer all of the replies. It has been fantastic. Many people have stepped up to sending something in. Some that I really haven’t worked with too much answered with encouragement, which was just as important to me. It has been tremendous. And the exercise of thanking everyone, in a heartfelt way just amplified the feeling.
In the afternoon, I attended a TAA briefing put on by worksource (Washington unemployment guess this is not PC anymore.) This took about 1 ½ hours. It was just two other Boeing people attending besides myself. The presentation didn’t provide much more information than the slides we got at the layoff briefing, but a little. The two most important things I learned was: first, that the education benefit is a lifetime benefit. Meaning that if I get laid off and elect to just look for a job, I should still sign up for the training benefit. This has to take place in the first 90 days of a claim. If I decide after the 90 days that I want to use the training benefit then it will be available. If I didn’t sign up for it, it will not be available. Also, if I signed up, again without using it and successfully find a job, if I ever get laid off again, the training benefit will be available. This is amazes me. I think everyone from Boeing needs to seriously consider getting signed up for this. The cobra payment is enough to make it worth it. The second thing I learned is that they will pay for a coaching certificate, if you can make the case for it. I have coached for a long time in Boeing, but I don’t have a certificate and would like to get one.
Too Old… At the end of the TAA briefing, we all started talking. One gentleman expressed that he was worried that he was too old. This is a feeling that strikes home in myself and in many of the people I have talked to. And then he said I’m 43. “Forty-three what are you worried about”, I thought. This started me thinking about how this age thing is all about our own mental models. We create this model that we are old and then find tons of the supporting evidence to support it. I have been doing since I turn thirty. Now at fifty I have this nearly perfected—I can prove to myself old in a matter of nanoseconds.
Then I thought about a friend that went through the masters program with me. She was 72 when we started the program. This year I think she turns 81. And she just got a Woman of the Year award. She would just laugh at me if I tried to tell her I was feeling old.
I’m too old…to get stuck in that trap. I have never felt more intellectually capable to effect real positive change in people’s lives. And now I don’t make the mistakes that I did when I didn’t know any better. And even better, my ego doesn’t come in and blind side when I’m not paying attention (well at least not as much and without as severe of consequences.) I am much better at knowing what is important and needs to be focused on and what is immaterial and should be let go.
I think this is also the case for most of the people that are in this predicament. It is just so hard when your confidence has been shaken deeply and you are faced with a dark unknown.
Tomorrow: Interview preparation
inSite Group: 46 members
Jobs applied for: 17
Rejections: 3
Job Posting withdrawn: 1
Interviews: 1
I might have one more rejection, when I looked I didn’t focus on it too much.
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