NP: Soundgarden, Superunknown (CD)

The weird thing is, I tend to come out of job interviews feeling like I've done a good job representing what it is that I can do, what it is I can bring to the table. So it comes as a bit of a shock when I get passed over with the feedback that they didn't feel I was capable of something that, not only am I eminently capable of, but I've actually done. A lot. Last time it was client contact. This time, even more inexplicably, start-to-finish project management.

At any rate, I'm learning the value of recruiters in this process, and it's the availability of that feedback. My last explicit rejection forced a much-needed revamp of the résumé, so maybe this one will help me hone the interviewing skills. As I've said earlier in an entry that has, for all intents and purposes, cost me a second date and all points thereafter for making what seemed like an interesting comparison, I can't just go in and try to be me. Or, rather, I can, but I have to have catalogued and inventoried what "being me" is, and make sure I hit upon as much of it as possible.

Which is different than trying to "pitch" the audience on my merits, I think, and so the earlier dating analogy doesn't hold up in this regard. If I tick off every seemingly important skill and attribute in a date, I'll probably tick off the date as well. This lives only in the employment-seeking space. The open question is whether or not it'll work, and how many chances I'll get to put the notion into use before somebody actually does something crazy and hires me.

Still, opportunities seem to be popping up more regularly, and the fact that quite a few are coming at me right now, right in the heart of the holidays, makes me think that maybe, just maybe, the job market really is recovering.

The cold also seems mostly at bay, and the core family part of the Christmas shopping has finally been addressed. Now I need to get prepared for the "extended" version of "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch" that I'll be hitting open mike with a little later, after the latest hour of 24, which has just gotten scream-at-your-TV interesting.