Not to be too optimistic about all this, but there seem to be lots of places hiring. The problem is that all jobs suck. Seriously, if this was all fun, why would I be making (what seemed when I was a kid like) a delirious amount of money at it?
I'm also less cynical on the randomness of hiring practices, both at the aforementioned mega-corp and elsewhere. I think of our friend Dent, who interviewed while training for a marathon and puked his guts out. Even if you take a whole day to interview someone, there are all sorts of issues with the types of questions you ask, the person's biorhythms, the air pressure, their train/car/plane ride over....it's always a crap shoot, you just try to even the odds as much as possible. Also, megasearchcorp seems to be developing very group-specific hiring practices (or else the company is changing practices at random, short intervals). So, the Cat's rejection has even less to do with your performance (or mine) than it might already have seemed.
Everyone is hiring, but they all suck
I'm also less cynical on the randomness of hiring practices, both at the aforementioned mega-corp and elsewhere. I think of our friend Dent, who interviewed while training for a marathon and puked his guts out. Even if you take a whole day to interview someone, there are all sorts of issues with the types of questions you ask, the person's biorhythms, the air pressure, their train/car/plane ride over....it's always a crap shoot, you just try to even the odds as much as possible. Also, megasearchcorp seems to be developing very group-specific hiring practices (or else the company is changing practices at random, short intervals). So, the Cat's rejection has even less to do with your performance (or mine) than it might already have seemed.
TBC