Well, it’s been almost five months since my last update. The Atlanta opportunity came and went. It was frustrating (and a major red flag) to hear the recruiter say, “we pay for relocation, but some people go ahead and spend the money on a flat screen.” Coming from a person in a company who makes its money by helping its clients quantify value, these words really set my teeth on edge. With perhaps one or two exceptions, it is going to cost a small dump truck of money more to pick up the family and re-settle in a new town than it would cost to get a flat screen TV. Of course, at approximately $900,000, this television would easily cover the cost of the move, plus the cost of its 103″ sibling:
http://www.panasonic.com/business/Plasma/3D/3D-Plasma-TH-152UX1.asp
That being said, I did visit the company’s office for a full day of interviews. Nice people, but they were more focused on pricing optimization for travel and hospitality, where my experience lies more in business-to-business pricing and market strategy.We just didn’t align. I could have helped them expand, but at my career level and in the current economy, most companies are looking for someone who will be “plug and play” into the existing model. So, Atlanta came and went.
A few more opportunities have flared up and died off in the interim. The most serious of which being a product management position at a pricing software company in Austin, and a general market strategy job for a large e-commerce company in Seattle. Ultimately, I did not get the job at the company in Austin because they, too, wanted someone with more operational experience in product management than I possess. This was a telling experience since product management has been one of my core positions for which I’ve been looking, but have had almost no traction in getting interviews. If a company who does pricing software won’t hire me for a product management job, then I am unlikely to get hired by other companies outside of the pricing universe for a similar role.
The Seattle job, on the other hand, is in its own form of stasis, perhaps even outright limbo. I’ve been through several rounds of interviews, all virtual, including meeting with the Senior Vice President who is the boss of the hiring manager. They’ve owed me an invitation to Seattle to come visit the office, and/or some form of outright rejection, but that just hasn’t come. Four weeks ago, the recruiter told me that I was going to be contacted by the hiring manager to schedule an office visit as the last step in the process. Then the recruiter went off on vacation for eight days.
When he got back, a second person had jumped into the interviewing queue, but at the next career level up from what I had interviewed at (Senior Director vs. Director). They indicated that they would know by the end of the week whether they were going to move forward with the other candidate at the higher level. That was supposed to be July 27th, and I haven’t heard anything much more substantive since then. The hiring manager has gone ‘radio silent’ after being fairly chatty over e-mail, which is never a good sign. The recruiter has been fantastic, keeping me up-to-date on some of the internal issues, even if the net effect of those conversations has been, “no news”. From what I can gather, it does not sound like the other candidate knocked their socks off, but they also seem to be going through some form of internal debate about the Director vs. Senior Director issue. I’d be happier with the latter title (bottom of the executive ranks vs. top of the managerial ranks), but getting across that divide also has significant organizational implications, as well.
A third option is local to Houston. A large, established manufacturing conglomerate has poured a few billion dollars into acquisitions into the Oil & Gas industry locally, and it is working on integrating the acquisitions and improving the acquired companies’ performance. Through my network, I found out about a role at one of the divisions that is right up my alley, so I have had several preliminary discussions with the person who was going to be the hiring manager — all prior to the role being formally approved and actually posted. Well, a couple of weeks ago, the role did finally get approved and posted, so my resume has been handed over to the new hiring manager (it got shifted up and over a level), and the person to whom I’d been talking assured me that I’d be getting contacted soon. However, until I start interviewing for real, it’s hard to even count eggs, let alone chickens…
Other opportunities? I went through a preliminary round with a telecom company in Denver (no news for several weeks, so it’s likely dead or passed me by). I found a company in Manchester, UK, that was looking for a pricing leader. It’s doubtful that they can a) afford me, or b) get me a visa, but it’s fun to dream. That company also has a headquarters in Seattle, and the UK-based hiring manager was going to recommend me to the US-based VP who owns pricing. And, oh, yeah, I have a possible opportunity at a large electronics retailer that has popped up, but may or may not amount to anything. There are a few more out there, but not anything worth mentioning at this point. I continue sending out somewhere between 10 – 20 resumes a week (I sent out 16 resumes in one day after I got turned down by the Austin company!). My time in Raleigh is drawing to a rapid, but still uncertain, close, so it would be nice to have the financial security of knowing what’s going on next. Oh, yeah, just for my own sanity, it would also be good to know what’s happening next!
subway station. I hadn’t been to the Exchange since Bill and I went that fall (another of our pre-couple protodates), and I was curious to see how the area had changed in the decade since. The first thing I noticed are huge new hydraulic barricades that limit auto traffic on all the streets around the stock exchange to authorized vehicles only. The second change is there are a LOT more people in the streets. That’s partly a direct result of reduced auto traffic, and partly the result of increased residential development nearby. 
