: A New York pace :
It was a pretty grueling trip to New York, much more so than I'd originally planned. Tuesday morning I got up and worked emails, scheduling three interviews mere hours before leaving for the airport. Altogether, I planned to have five meetings on Wednesday and five more on Thursday. My last trip in January, I had three on the first day and two on the second.
I also had numerous problems with my problematic "dual identity," starting at the Houston airport security check. The woman looked at my driver's license and refused to believe it was my picture (that picture is about four or five years old - I took a new one recently, but it hasn't been mailed to me). We had to go to a supervisor, who asked to see other forms of ID and a credit card, which I produced. She was satisfied, wished me a nice trip, and that was the end of it. However, I ran into similar problems at several buildings in New York, which have tightened security after 9/11.
Altogether, I had 14 meetings with 10 companies, seven PR firms, a law firm, a non-profit organization and a recruiter. On Wednesday, I had five interviews - one of them wanted me to come back to take a writing test, and I wound up missing another interview and having to reschedule it for Friday. On Thursday, I met with four PR agencies and a recruiter, and two of the agencies wanted to do follow-up interviews with senior executives on Friday. It's a good thing that I left Friday completely open, intending to enjoy some down time, but duty called.
One of the interviews was a second-round meeting with a firm that I'd met back in January, and I think this is probably my best shot to get an offer quickly, since I've talked to four of the key decision-makers now. As I was leaving, the lady said I would be hearing from them very soon. I also made such a good impression on one of my interviewers that he walked my resume over to a colleague who owns a small firm that specializes in wine and spirits, luxury liqueur brands and such, and I was able to squeeze her in on Friday as well.
So that's it - 14 meetings in three days, and I was wiped after each day. It was also an incredibly bumpy plane ride back to Houston today, so I think I'm going to bed soon and leave the unpacking for tomorrow. Hopefully, something good will come of all this effort, because I don't know how many scouting trips like this I can possibly take. At least I'm finally starting to appreciate the benefit of being unemployed - staying up late, getting up late, and a lot less running around.
I also had numerous problems with my problematic "dual identity," starting at the Houston airport security check. The woman looked at my driver's license and refused to believe it was my picture (that picture is about four or five years old - I took a new one recently, but it hasn't been mailed to me). We had to go to a supervisor, who asked to see other forms of ID and a credit card, which I produced. She was satisfied, wished me a nice trip, and that was the end of it. However, I ran into similar problems at several buildings in New York, which have tightened security after 9/11.
Altogether, I had 14 meetings with 10 companies, seven PR firms, a law firm, a non-profit organization and a recruiter. On Wednesday, I had five interviews - one of them wanted me to come back to take a writing test, and I wound up missing another interview and having to reschedule it for Friday. On Thursday, I met with four PR agencies and a recruiter, and two of the agencies wanted to do follow-up interviews with senior executives on Friday. It's a good thing that I left Friday completely open, intending to enjoy some down time, but duty called.
One of the interviews was a second-round meeting with a firm that I'd met back in January, and I think this is probably my best shot to get an offer quickly, since I've talked to four of the key decision-makers now. As I was leaving, the lady said I would be hearing from them very soon. I also made such a good impression on one of my interviewers that he walked my resume over to a colleague who owns a small firm that specializes in wine and spirits, luxury liqueur brands and such, and I was able to squeeze her in on Friday as well.
So that's it - 14 meetings in three days, and I was wiped after each day. It was also an incredibly bumpy plane ride back to Houston today, so I think I'm going to bed soon and leave the unpacking for tomorrow. Hopefully, something good will come of all this effort, because I don't know how many scouting trips like this I can possibly take. At least I'm finally starting to appreciate the benefit of being unemployed - staying up late, getting up late, and a lot less running around.
