Some years ago I sought a job which seemed to have been perfect for me (and I for it); a situation which went on a very similar trajectory as your last opportunity.
I'm a patternmaker and worked in the garment industry for about 15 years in NYC. It was really a niche trade with a shockingly small stable of capable patternmakers doing all the patterns for almost all the garments produced by American clothing labels. In the early 90s the American garment manufacturers had a very bad business climate and about 1/3 of the industry went out of business. At the time I was working at a well known company which was in pre-bankrupsy status. The corporate climate there was in the toilet and my particular supervisor was a beast. For the 1st time in my career, it was impossible to get a position elsewhere, but I had an oppotunity to go on my own and started my own business.
I did OK (made a living) but after a decade I was very tired of living AND working alone, but the thought of going back to work in NYC (5 hrs commute a day) after doing my own thing was daunting, not to mention that the trade had changed completely in my absense. Few patterns are being made in NYC. It's being done in the orient and elsewhere, as is the production.
About 10 years ago a company here in CT needed someone in-house who knows everything I know in order to supervise the fit and quality of their line. I had the exact same experience you did. I was perfect for the position and it's not as if there are dozens of patternmakers hanging around in CT. They told me I was shoe-in for the job and that thay'd be making a final offer within the week...
I never knew what happened with that job; I contacted them from time to time; they told me the position was put on hold temporarily. (The woman I interviewed with said they desperately needed someone to fulfill that particular role.)
It's impossible to know what's going on in companies. Sometimes a department head or project manager knows exactly what's needed in order for their part of the company to function but the upper management won't agree causing perpetual disfunction in areas of the company.
It occurred to me that it's quite possible that at your last interview, the reason you didn't get the job may have nothing to do with your personal presentation. You really feel you put your best foot forward. (Did you interview with both the department head and HR?) It's not unusual in business for say, a project manager to voice a need, such as; I'm gunna need a bonifide AI guy for this. Upper management replies; Sure, do some interviewing & get us a cost. The dept head interviews one stellar candidate and gets back to his bosses; I found the guy with the chops and the cost is X. They reply; You interviewed ONE guy? Find more candidates. All the while upper management isn't even sure they're ever going to hire an AI guy, they're hoping to fulfill the role with a lesser skilled individual or even no one at all.
There's that thing about tech workers; go along for a couple of years without sending any disasters into production and the bosses start wondering why they're paying the big bucks to the tech. (She's not some glamour star, why the high salary?) I always worked with at least one other patternmaker in the company. Once in while when another patternmaker would leave, they'd hire someone who's not really a patternmaker. Within 6 months there would be some production mess costing 100s of tousands of dollars and they'd remember why my salary isn't such a bad deal. When the technical areas of a company go smoothly for a protracted period of time, the need for the good techs sometimes becomes invisible to upper management. Could this dynamic have played a part in losing your last job?
Hang in there, Cornelius. I know you have had many more than one disappointment, but sometimes the reason something doesn't go your way has nothing to do with you. You're working on your deficits and may be more improved than the current evidence shows. Could it be you're a member of both an invisible minority and an invisible profession?
03 Aug 2011, 8:02 pm
