Thursday, December 22, 2005

good news for people who love bad news

"However, because of the focus on criminal justice and public safety, we have chosen to call back candidates with more experience in these areas."

This from the Senator's chief of staff this morning. After the initial inevitable period of disappointment/lying on the floor staring at the ceiling, it really had me wondering: who IS going to have enough experience to merit a callback? Since the job wasn't publicly advertised, I gathered that their potential interview pool consisted mostly of current Beacon Hill staffers and their friends. Given what the job was going to pay, I can't see that someone with the perfect kind of experience here would be interested. C. says it was probably an internal hire, that they probably already knew who they were after. I know that I already promised not to whine too much, but this really is disappointing. This would be a good place to stop.

I'm going to go clean for awhile... that always makes me feel better. This afternoon will be dedicated to the stack of other opportunities I've been meaning to follow up on.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

The House of Broken Toys

This, according to Bob Woodward (I am obligated to add here that you must read "Plan of Attack" if you have any lingering doubts about the insanity of the Iraq war "planning," as well as the Bushies' unmitigated Iraq mania far before 9/11) was the unofficial CIA nickname for the Iraqi Operations Group. But it also works pretty well for any kind of sprawling, disorganized office full of newbies, like today's interview.

I should have known what I was getting into. The coordinator actually admitted after I called that she had invited more people to interview than they had time slots to interview them. After many repeated followups (the last one being the actual day of the interview), she was able to reschedule me. I arrived to find that there were actually two parallel interview lists that had been made by different people, so they had to squeeze me in after some waiting.

In the meantime, I learned that the person currently holding the job I was after (the same person responsible for the scheduling, but I can't hold that against her now) had accepted an offer from a firm two days after starting as the program director, and that the board was now completely set against hiring any more lawyers for the position since the turnover has been so high.

"Good to know," I said.

She also informed me that the position was entirely administrative (I had gathered this from the description, but it still had "Director" in the job title, so that didn't bother me), that it was highly ambiguous, that she had never really received any training or guidance, that they needed a much larger staff (or at least a much smaller set of responsibilities), and that the assistant director pretty much ran the place.

"Good to know," I said.

Having been talked out of the job, I was finally called in for the formal interview... where a couple of very friendly board members did their best to talk me out of the job. They told me that I was far overqualified, that it was basically a dead-end administrative position with no potential for legal work, that I wouldn't meet anyone who could help me get a better job, that my resume qualified me for jobs paying twice as much, that I'd be better off being a mid-level administrator at Ropes & Gray, and that had they actually read my resume beforehand they never would have wasted my time.

"Well, thank you for your candor," I said.

Better to leave feeling overqualified than the other thing, I guess. Still something a little off about the whole experience, though.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Ceteris paribus...

Interviewing at the State House is a good way to artificially make yourself feel important for an hour or so. The whole building has that effect.

Had a screening interview today with a couple of guys who couldn't be much older than me, including the one who currently holds the job I'm after. I thought it went unusually well: no awkwardness, nervousness, or trouble keeping eye contact. The position is really too much to ask for, an opportunity beyond anything I'd expected. They said I should expect to come in for a followup with the Senator in a couple of days, and I left happy.

Friday, December 16, 2005

M.'s Law

Leave the area you're looking for work in, and you're bound to get interviews. Consecutive interviews, even.

Flew down to Newark last weekend to meet up with my mother and itinerant brother, and then drove down to the homestead in Maryland, where two interview opportunities were waiting in my inbox today.

Without getting too specific, I can say that one is for the directorship of one of the local CPCS organization of private defense attorneys in the area, while the other is as a public safety policy advisor on Beacon Hill with a very impressive young Senator. Due to these and other exigent circumstances, I'll be flying back to Boston next week, and then turning around to get home again for Christmas.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Hostile, CA

So I now know of at least two classmates who did not pass the California bar. But they're in good company: Kathleen Sullivan, dean of Stanford Law and con-law rock star, also bit it on the ugliest bar exam known to man. Just another reason to stay out of California. Like I needed more.