The doors of opportunity continue to slam shut

Looks like that's it as far as The Federal Agency Everyone Hates. Contacted the HR person today and was told that offers had been made last week. She didn't know if they were done yet, but given that there were probably maybe 4-5 openings at most, it's likely that they are finished. So that's it till next year. The next hiring will be announced this fall, interviews will take place probably late December into January, and offers will be made in February. Have to sit tight until then.

This was my third try at this, and I really thought I might have finally broken through, but guess not. Now I guess I have to hope that I end up working at that tiny CPA firm.

May end up doing H&R Block type stuff, I don't know. I don't know what the future holds. Whatever it is, I probably won't like it.

The sticking points.

So the job yesterday sounds like an okay opportunity. It would be a good way to get some much-needed diverse experience. It sounds like although it's a small firm, he has things laid out really well as far as giving instructions on how to do everything, and making himself available for questions.

Two major cons: It's public accounting. I'm willing to give this a chance, but ultimately this is not what I see myself doing. Too much of the work in public accounting is about selling and networking.

That brings me to the second con. I am going to be expected to join things and network in an attempt to bring in business. That's new to me, a place where they expect a new hire to "make rain." I think it's something that would be a gradual transition, but over time that might be a real problem. I don't want to join things or "network."

It is funny, I don't care one way or the other if I get this, if I do I will take it if I have nothing else going on [don't really know what's going to happen with the Federal Agency Everybody Hates--some people have been hired but I don't know if they are finished in my area or not, some places are very far behind and haven't called anyone yet.] I will take the job under that circumstance, but will probably do it with an assumption that it's not going to be more than 1-2 years, and I will probably continue to try to get hired by the feds. Pay and benefits are much more, and long term there's just more opportunity.

Of course, the odds are good that I could end up not getting any offer at all, in which case it's back to the drawing board.

Quote from the Job Interview of the Year.

"We got rid of some clients because they were assholes. And life's too short to deal with assholes."

Got a call at 9 this morning for an interview at a CPA firm I'd applied to a couple of weeks ago. Talked with the guy this afternoon for about an hour and a half. Much better than the previous interviews. I think after the misery of the governmental job interrogation...er, interview process this seemed much easier. It's easier to just talk with someone, ask and answer questions, etc., instead of an oral examination.

As usual, we shall see. Lots of competition, but sounds like having my license is a definite plus. It's a tiny firm, but they've been around a while. Pretty much seems to be the polar opposite of the Big Firm. Who knows...some things I can tell may end up being sticking points, but I can probably manage to hang on a couple of years if I can do good work.

The Power of Literature.

...I recently finished AFFLICTION by Russell Banks and it made me irrationally angry at my father-in-law to the point where I was tempted to hit him over the head with a board. Well, not really, but I did feel more negative than usual toward him for a couple of days, which is really saying something.

Closing the Passage

Surprisingly, this isn't another post about my employment woes.

I have a massive backlog of books to be read. I overdo it at the thrift store and the library book sale. I have no real place to put a lot of my books. I'm similar to those compulsive hoarders, except I actually do read the books and the ones I have bought I often do pass on once I've finished them or given up on them. Anyway, it is an ongoing battle which I am losing.

One of the books that I'd waited on for some time is THE PASSAGE, by Justin Cronin. It is an end-of-the-world type novel, epic length. Similar to Stephen King's THE STAND [which is the yardstick by which all apocalyptic novels/stories/films are measured.]
I am around 500 pages into it, and figure I will be coming into the novel's endgame soon.

...assuming I don't give up on it. THE PASSAGE seems to be doing something that a lot of newer books do, basically the events of the first few hundred pages seem to have become background, and now it seems like the book is mired in the less-than-interesting personal issues of a colony of survivors. Although the thing that caused the apocalyptic event is still very much at large, it seems to be mostly backstage.
There's an impending crisis for the colony, and that too seems to have been placed on the back burner. Instead we have a lot of political and personal conflict. I'm hoping it picks up, it's due later this week and I have a lot of other stuff I'd rather read at this point. Usually when I get this far in a book, I am determined to finish it, but there is always a first time, I guess. And lord knows, I failed the various character lessons of childhood and am more or less a quitter by nature.

Amusing.

I thought I would mess around with Google to see how easy it is to find this blog, and of course learned it is pretty difficult. You basically have to already know this blog well and put in exact phrases that I've used. There are a ton of other blogs and other things called De Minimis, since it's a common term.

Anonymous in a crowd, I like that.

Went to a friend's son's birthday party today, that was fun to see him all excited about everything. I can't help it, I still get excited by my own birthday. I've had a few of them that I spent alone in recent years, but even then I would try to do something special or fun for myself. Still, it's fun to see a kid's enthusiasm and excitement.

Finished another David Lodge book. I find myself getting into "middle-aged men in crisis" novels these days. DEAF SENTENCE was one [although the protagonist was more senior citizen than middle aged]; I've read another called NICE WORK, and today I finished THERAPY. All three are about successful professional men whose worlds are turned upside down, and how they deal with it. Many times, the characters are hung up on the past, which is something I can relate to.

Also reading LONDON FIELDS by Martin Amis, an author that I've always tried to get into but couldn't, but I guess now I'm either old enough or patient enough to get into it.

A surprise to no one....

...I got the "We wish you success in your professional career" letter again from last week's interview. Knew it was coming. I peeled the address label off so I could recycle the envelope and found someone else's address underneath. Apparently they are re-using envelopes at the county. If they can't afford basic office supplies, they probably would have laid me off sooner or later I guess.

Incidentally, I never got the rejection letter from the other interview I had with them a month ago. Maybe this letter was used for both interviews, another way to cut costs.

I'm hoping the people there quit calling me for interviews, it is obvious I don't have the type of background and experience they are looking for, and it is no fun to go through their awful style of interviewing over and over again for no reason. It's too bad because I think I probably have a lot of the qualities they are looking for, but I guess experience is more important.