I periodically go through my blog list and look to see where I "last left off" for several of them. I typically think about blog posts that I might do for a few days leading up to when I actually write them. But tonight, as I was going through my list, and looking at my most recent posts for this blog in particular, I noticed that a few had gotten lost in draft-land. I started them, but never finished them.
The most recent post that remained unfinished was regarding my job search. In hindsight, I wish I had documented the process a little better...just so I could keep track of things and maybe look back at things.
With that in mind, I thought that I'd take a trip down memory lane, giving a little background into my job history. We'll see how this goes (translation: how motivated I am tonight), which will dictate how far back I'll go tonight. I'll start with my current job and work backwards.
I haven't really mentioned to a lot of people where I am working right now. It isn't like I'm keeping it a secret or anything, but rather that I'm in a bit of a transition period. I started my newest job in an evidence based medicine group. What that means is that we provide evidence to support the use of certain biomarkers for diagnostic purposes, and provide evidence to clinicians regarding what treatment options have been shown to be most effective for people who test positive or negative for certain biomarkers. Wow...that was a mouthful.
I started this job back in November, officially. Unofficially, I was offered the job as a contractor (hourly, working from home) back before I went "back" to work to finish out my time at my previous place of employment (which was September). I completed the hiring paperwork at the beginning of October, but it took quite a while for the hiring company to get their act together.
How did I get this job? Word of mouth. Insane amounts of fortunate timing. Anything that was panning out in my job search was due to the recommendations of my former boss (to whom I am eternally grateful!). People who had formerly worked at TGen, or knew people from TGen were involved. The place I am working is in the SAME BUILDING as I was before (just two floors down!). I see one of my former lab-mates nearly every day (she works in the lab there, so we aren't working "together" anymore). I see other people who worked at TGen in the past as well. It's quite homey.
In any case, my former boss got in contact with the HR person, my labmate knew the head science guy, and both of them put in a good word to get me hired as a contractor. When a position came open, I slid right in.
Now, before all of this happened, I had ONE inquiry about yours truly for a potential job. I couldn't make it to an interview (seeing as how I was on bedrest for pre-term labor), and they needed someone pretty quickly anyway. I basically got shut down just for that (being a pregnant post-doc sucks, sometimes). But, in all honesty, that's OK. It was a greater driving distance, and I think I like where I'm at now...it's a good fit.
Well...I might cut this off right here and continue with previous jobs at a later time. My transition to my new job seems to have gone rather easily (which is great in the end!), but I did put forth quite a bit of effort getting my resume/CV out there while I was pregnant and in the early weeks post-partum. It's hard getting in the door and getting noticed. But the take home message is...word of mouth...it's who you know!
