Job Hunting Safari

I had my first interview yesterday!!!

Job hunting seems to be one of those 'love it or hate it' kind of activities and for some reason, I love it. Whenever I revamp my resume, I feel like I'm moving on to a new chapter, and it's a good opportunity to reflect on what I enjoyed and despised about past jobs. It also seems to be the time that I get the biggest raises... why is that? The largest raise I've ever had from a current employer was $4k/year but whenever I change jobs I seem to be able to negotiate a higher rate of return. My last salary increase between companies was $7k.

In my last position I was making $50k and in my new one, I'm aiming for the $65k range. Even though 30% may seem like a big jump, I felt pretty underpaid in my last position given the amount of work and the fact that it had a certain level of prestige. I'm hoping to leverage that prestige into a more appropriate salary range. Besides, if I don't try, it's definitely not going to happen so I might as well give it a shot!

The interview yesterday went well and I am beyond excited about the prospective position!! (well, trying not to get too excited but can't help it) My correspondence with this company actually started when I was back in Toronto. S & I had decided that we were definitely moving to Edmonton so I started to scan the job sites for something interesting here. I found a position I thought would be great and submitted my application. After a few days I hadn't heard anything and never received one of those "yes, we got your resume" emails so I called. I was transferred to the Director of Operations and we corresponded briefly which included me sending him my resume direct. Unfortunately, at that time they were already quite deep in the process (already going into third round interviews) and I never heard back.

So, when I got settled in Edmonton, I sent the Director a quick note and asked if we could keep in touch via LinkedIn. He agreed and said that he still had my resume and if anything came up that he thought might be a fit, he'd 'ping' me. Low and behold, one week later I had an e-intro from him to the Director of Development and she asked me to meet for coffee.

The coffee date was yesterday and I think things went really well. She took the copy of the CV I brought with me and said that she'd like to show it to a few people who's opinions she respects. At the end of the meeting, she said that she would be in touch early next week (probably Wed because of the long weekend) with some next steps.

From the sounds of it, the position would be more or less a dream job and would definitely be a step forward career-wise. The best part is she said that rather than having to write an official job description, post a posting, review resumes and go through interviews, it would be so great if this worked out and we could develop the position organically. Happy Days!!! Arms, fingers, legs, toes, tongues (jk!) crossed.

We didn't speak about salary expectations yet but I'm really hoping it's in the range I'm looking for.