The One About Being Down

Today was a 'down day.' The morning started out fine, but around lunch time I just seemed to spiral into a fairly long funk.

I got the news the other day I've been shortlisted for a very good job and received lots of encouragement from various people, including the "high-fivin' super-special career advisors" who had informed me of the job in the first place. So, as I'm sure you could imagine, I was pretty hyped about the whole thing.

Now, two things happened today... well one happened and the other one is just me in my funk and with lowered expectations. First off, the career advisor calls to say that they'd gotten more information for this job I'm interviewing for on Thursday. Apparently, I don't have the background they're looking for (although that doesn't mean the interview isn't happening on Thursday), but basically the career advisor was "advising" me not to get my hopes up.

I blew up.

See, when I'm looking into any potential job I do some research. I find information on the position (like duties and responsibilities), what the company is like, and maybe even which projects they're currently working on. So, you can imagine my surprise when the advisor comes back and lets me know they've just figured out something about the job. And then on top of that, to tell me not to be confident. Thanks, that's what I need just before an interview.

The second thing that may --or most likely won't-- happen is a reference from my favorite boss at my old office. In 7+ years at that office, I had 5 different bosses. The final one, the one From Hell, who was a major 'star' of this blog for 'My Year,' was obviously the worst. But the boss I had in the middle was great. We got along really well, he could communicate with me on issues that were coming up and he could relay problems I was having in such a way that I could correct them in a timely fashion. Like I said: he was a good boss.

But I haven't spoken to him in years and I need him as a reference. I'm not sure if he'll do it and I wanted to give him a heads-up that I'd like to put his name on my reference list.

I sent him an email, but I got into my funk pretty soon afterward. If I can't secure a reference for 7 years of my professional life (not that I can secure one for the 4 years prior to that either --one died and the other was deported), then I'm screwed many times over when it coems to landing work.

So, the funk stays for now.