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Yesterday was my last day at my job of 20+ years and on Monday I start an exciting new job. I bought the interview series early in the interview process and found it very helpful in preparing and practicing my answers and in not saying the wrong thing. Although there were a large number of interviews (13 and an hour-long presentation for the position I accepted), most of them were fairly easy and I felt over-prepared, which was great. It helped me grow my confidence as I moved through the process.

The dangle cast turned out to be key. I got a second offer, other than the one that I chose to accept. In trying to get me to accept that offer, they pushed quite hard on how excited the hiring manager was about my qualifications and that he had big plans for me “in the future”. As it became clear that I was going to decline, the future role that I was expected to qualify for got bigger and bigger. I appreciate having heard the dangle cast and being reminded to focus on comparing my current offers, as is.

Here’s my summary of interview results. I was interviewing for a senior technical or manager role in a niche area, so there were a limited number of relevant job listings. Although I did some interviewing earlier, the process from the beginning of my intense search to my job transition was a little under 3 months.

I applied to 15 companies. The outcomes were:

·      accepted the position – 1

·      declined an offer – 1

·      position closed (without being filled) – 2

·      withdrew my application (decided the position was too junior) – 1

·      interviewed and then rejected – 1

·      interviewed and never heard back – 2

·      didn’t get an interview – 7