They didn’t keep me waiting. The recruiter who arranged yesterday’s interview called today and said, “Would you like a job?” Apparently the folks I met with at IBM yesterday really are eager to bring in a new technical writer. In fact, they want me to start on the 28th — that’s a week from Monday. I accepted, of course.
The recruiter relayed something the IBM folks told him. They said that I was “far and away the best candidate” they had interviewed for the job, not just in terms of experience and skills, but also in terms of personality fit. They think I’m highly compatible with their team and their style of doing things. As it happens, that’s exactly the way I see it. IBM is my favorite place to work. I’ve known since the first time I set foot on an IBM campus, fifteen years ago, that the company and I were made for each other. And while it’s hard to judge on the basis of half an hour of conversation, I liked the people I met yesterday and felt that I would enjoy working with them. Evidently it was mutual.
It may seem that I’m boasting here, but consider the context. Being told that I’m the best candidate comes at the end of ten months of the opposite: having prospective employers tell me that I’m not the best candidate, or (in most cases) that I’m not a candidate worth interviewing at all. After that experience, I think I’m entitled to savor my victory.
(Of course, while you’re considering the context, it may occur to you that if these IBMers are in such a hurry, they can’t have interviewed all that many candidates. Being “far and away the best” is not as big a deal if they only talked to a total of, say, three people. But if that’s what you’re thinking, I don’t want to hear it!)