Dreaded fear has arrived...talking to head hunter tomorrow

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So, during all this bit of getting evaluated so that I can chart a course of action, I have been dreading getting a call back on the myriad job applications I have been filling out.

I interview horribly. I tend to have this built in radar that instructs me to say the worst things, or get stuck, or worse, misinterpret things and really sound like an idiot. I can do the work. It's just so much.

Well, I did not get contacted by anybody from my application pool. But a head hunter.

Kinda really stressed about this. I had hoped that I would get some sort of training for these type of situations. And, to top it off, if it leads to work, what type of environment? Most of them I have encountered are very, very chaotic and stressed beyond belief with bad planning and worse schedules.

I'm not going to turn anything down. But, I am worried. I've burned so many bridges, made bad mistakes.

Best of all worlds, good pay and a job in the catacombs to never interact with more than one or two people.

You aren't required to take any job that you can't deal with right now. Don't force yourself to take something if you think it might be bad for you at the moment.

I always sound like an idiot at interviews. That's why I try to have answers prepared for everything. And not keep talking and talking. The less I say, the better.

Oh, I'm in full looping mode. Already practicing conversation. Trying to figure my questions out. Trying to review any successful initial contact I ever had.

And, they seem in a hurry.

I checked my email before class tonight, 5:40PM. Initial contact. Sent a reply that I would send proper email Later since I was about to start class. Came home at 9:40, had reply requesting phone contact the next morning. I sent my phone number about 10PM. Got a reply back. I really don't know what to make of that.

And, if I do turn down work, it would affect my unemployment negatively.

I'm just so worried and keyed up...stressed. I don't even know why they contacted me. My art? My programming? Did they stumble on my games?

I'm a fledgling programmer trying to beef up the math skills.

Do they want 3D? 2.5 D? 2D? Concept art? Finished art?

Contract work? Temp Work? Taxes taken out? Part time, full time? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme?

So many questions. How did they find me?

Does anybody have a .45 handy? <-------Hyperbole...nothing more......But am stimming like a mother now.....pacing, rocking (that only happens when I'm really stressed. Kinda hard to type when doing that.

But it really is a bit overwhelming. But, not in that sensory overwhelming way.....make sense? Just so fast and out of the blue.

Just couldn't wait until April 14, when I have my final eval meeting for my diagnosis.

The department I was in once hired someone who said in the actual job interview (summarized),

"I'm nervous, because I am not good at interviews. If I was, I would be applying for a sales position or another highly social, people-skill heavy position. But that's not what I'm good at. What I am good at is..."

...and then that was enough for them to be able to segue them into being able to tell us about what it was they loved to do, and how good they were at doing it right, and how they worked with their supervisors, which was exactly what we needed. Several years later when I left that person was known as the best programmer we had. Their manager could see the advantage of having such a worker and was willing to accommodate the person's quirks and communication needs.

One thing to note: headhunters are fairly social. And they do get back to you right away because that pretty much *is* their entire job. Finding people and connecting them with a company's HR dept. If the person gets hired, the headhunter gets a finders fee (or percent). So it behooves them to push through as many qualified people as possible in as short a time as possible because so many don't pan out for all sorts of reasons.

Here's what's interesting:

I'm a fledgling programmer (mentioned before) and have only programmed in the GameMaker language. Self taught with all the attendant bad habits in tow. But, I went from nothing to three games released in ten months...soooo who knows? I can program, but not right away in C, C# or any of those languages.

I can make the transfer because it's very similar. Just gotta learn syntax and built in functions. And, how much of that work may involve programming directly for mobile devices or does their programming have built in 'hooks' that you can plug in to solve much of that for you.

My math skills are rusty, but could write my own algorithms that worked quite well.

But, your suggestion is very good. It's a good way of saying 'I'm a doof' without having to say 'I'm a doof and here's why."

And, your point about them being a headhunter and not HR is good too. It seems that finding a good fit would be very important for them. That way everybody is a winner, yes? no? At any rate, it may be easier to talk to this person.

I do find the whole situation ironic. Two years with virtually no extra work. Now, just as things are coming together, hopefully finding answers, filling out applications left and right, and someone out of nowhere contacts me; and it just couldn't wait a bit longer.

Lifelexia at its best, eh?

Ok...the phone call came and went.

Edenthiel's posting helped a lot. It allowed me to frame things in a way, as suggested, to open doors. It was the opening line that did it for me. It also helped that the person was asking good questions that didn't put me on the spot and seemed to be aware of how people are like me. She specifically mentioned having worked with people that are absolutely brilliant, but can't pass a test to save their life.

One company she was looking for help on needed a much higher level of programmer than I am capable of at this time. But she was informed about how my other skills plus programming knowledge could be useful.

And, of course, she could have just been being polite. I don't know.

But thank you Edenthiel. That one line did the trick. The rest of the story was a good boost too.

Yay! It sounds like the call went good. The nice thing about that call going okay with headhunters is that now she knows who you are, and will keep your name handy for any position that opens up at any of her clients where she thinks you could be a good fit.

Here is the thing I have trouble balancing. How much to follow up without becoming a nuisance?

But, thank you again. I just wonder if I babbled too much......

With the headhunter? I'd check in after a week, and then again a week later. But at that point (after the first follow up call) it would just be a friendly, brief message of "if that company doesn't come through, please remember me for other openings". Really, if the company's HR gets back to the headhunter, you will know; they want their commission. And if they don't, or if it takes a month (it happens) then it'll either be a pleasant surprise a month from now or you'll already have moved on and applied your focus and efforts elsewhere.

When I'm job hunting, I remind myself that every company I've worked for has had a completely dysfunctional hiring process, in one way or another. But I only knew it after I'd been part of it from the other side at each one. So if a company doesn't call back, don't fall into despair. There are so many possible reasons...just keep at it and know that at some point one of them will be a good match in every way and it will happen.

Sorry to interrupt: but do they have headhunters for clerical-type jobs these days?

I think I might lose my second job in maybe a few months because of "no work."

I want to work in a more central location, so I can save on gas.

Thanks.

You know Kraftie, I really don't. I have done work through agencies like Kelly temps, bu I don't even know if those places exist anymore. I know I searched a while back. But, like most things, if you don't put in the correct term, it don't come up.

I just googled,

headhunter specializing in clerical

and it looks pretty good...might want to add your geographic location/city, though.

Thanks to both you folks for responding.

I also love Edenthiel's example answer.

zkydz- Just look up some sites on C# and do some free tutorials. Believe it or not, I have had a course in C#, and another in Basic, and one in .NET. I never programmed, but I didn't feel like I could manage others if I didn't know what they were doing. It's not that hard. You can do it with a book. When I was a kid my older brother got this thing called a Tandy Color Computer. It came with a book that gave you programs that you could painstakingly type in to make a little house appear on the monitor (the TV) and then smoke would appear out of the chimney. It would take over an hour to type all that in and you couldn't save it unless you had a save cartridge or something, which we didn't. All other programming languages that I have seen have been variations on the programs from the Tandy.

It's like that anywhere. If you've taught yourself one language, you can learn the others just as fast.

Kraftie- good luck on getting a new second job!