Non-Traditional Candidate

Needless to say, for many reasons this past weekend has been a long one. 

If you happened to read my post from yesterday, I ended by saying that on this Tuesday (today) both Barack Obama and I were hoping to receive the good news that we both have new jobs. I have mine – and now I hope we hear about his later tonight. 

My job search began back in the middle of May. One day after speaking with some friends back in Arizona I decided that I would aim for a move into the tech sector – and out of the mortgage/real estate/finance industry that I’ve worked in for the last half decade. Since then I’ve been on… roughly 14 interviews and that’s not counting the 4 or 6 round interviews more than once – but obviously making a career/industry switch isn’t always as smooth as you would like it to be. You’re a ‘non-traditional’ candidate and while your skills can hopefully ‘relate’ to the jobs you are applying for, there is always someone else who is applying for the same position – and who has been doing that exact job for who knows how long. 

Couple this reality with the current state of things and not only are you trying to overcome the difficulties of changing industries, but the flood of over-experienced/qualified candidates competing for the same job. 

This is the uphill battle. 

It has been a long last few months and an equally long past weekend. I start my new job with a tech firm on Monday. I cannot express enough how this changes things, and I cannot tell you how appreciative I am of everyone that has been supportive this whole time – both our real life friends, Twelpers, and just people who know us through our blog here at LeahAndMark.com – but the lines blur and often, there is no difference.