Thursday, June 01, 2006

None of the above

It's often the answer, but it's not the answer you want in a job search. Yesterday I had a difficult conversation with the president of a small financial concern that had interviewed me for an open position. I learned from this conversation that I was the number one candidate, that my interview was great and that I had everything they were looking for, but that the current employees had convinced the bosses that the job I had coveted should be outsourced to 3rd parties and otherwise split among them. The manager suggested that he knew this would be a disastrous course and that he hoped I would be willing to take his call in six months once the disaster became evident to everyone else.

Of course, I cannot wait six months and if his call arrives, I will almost certainly have accepted a job elsewhere. So what do we make of this? I think that while the economy is strong, many employers continue to be wary of adding headcount, even for existing positions. The imperative to save money and keep things lean is still quite strong. And for those of us still on the outside looking in, the challenge continues.

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