That Time of the Month

Hahahaha.  The title of this entry cracks me up.  No it has nothing to do with the female species or my wife.  It just happens to refer to a pattern of activity I have noticed during my job search being let go last October.  It seems, very much so, that this job search thing is cyclical.  There will be times of dealing with multiple potential employers, and then there will be times without any contacts.  It seems as though the entire cycle (busy to slow and back again) will last about a month to a month and a half.  Right now is one of those busy times, and it happens to be the most exciting activity I have had yet.  That is because I will be setting up an interview with my dream company: Disney!

I worked for Disney as a Ride Operator in Disneyland from 1995-1999 and only left when I became a teacher.  They offered me a promotion to stay at Disney, which in hindsight I should have taken, but I elected to pursue my desire which was teaching.  Ever since I left teaching (2001), I have sent in multiple resumes for a number of positions at Disney.  I have never been contacted by them other than the generic "Thank you, but no thank you" e-mails.  When they initially contacted me via e-mail last week, I couldn't believe it.  After speaking with the Disney HR recruiter last week, she let me know that she would pass my information on to the hiring manager and will let me know if they decide I should move forward with the interview process.

Yesterday (and today) I received an e-mail stating the hiring manager/team would like to meet with me, as well as a call making sure I received the e-mail.  She said that one of her recruiters would be contacting me to look at my schedule and setup an interview for the week of August 1st.  Needless to say, I am very excited to have gotten this far.  I feel like this is my one opportunity to get back in at Disney.  I will feel horrible if it doesn't work out, but I will feel a little better knowing that at least I was given a chance.  Hopefully at this time next month, I'll be making the long drive to Burbank on a daily basis, but only God knows if that will be the case.

So while Disney is easily my main focus right now, they are not the only potential employer that I have had communication with.  I also had a screening call with Accenture (based out of Mountain View/San Jose) and am awaiting a notification (tomorrow probably based on what the recruiter told me) as to whether or not they want me to move forward in the interview process with them.  I also received a confirmation from the federal government (yes, in Washington, DC) that I had been certified to have my information forwarded to the hiring manager.   I haven't spoken with anybody yet, but I made it past the first small step apparently, which is a step in the right direction.  I also expect to hear from Chevron next month since I put in for a position at the Salt Lake City Refinery for the same position I was doing at the El Segundo Refinery.  If I don't at least get considered for that position (assuming I don't already have a new job), that will tell me that there may be more problems with Chevron than it already seems there are.

One of the nice things that makes more confident about wanting to pursue the three opportunities (not Chevron  yet) above is that I know salary will be not be an issue with any of them.  Disney's target/goal for salary is slightly above what I was making at Chevron, Accenture didn't have a problem with my minimum requirement, and the DC position starts at about 10% above what I was making at Chevron.

So it is that time of the month where I enjoy the job search activity and get very hopeful.  However, the stakes feel a bit higher since Disney is in the picture.  Oh, and for what it's worth, I applied for this Disney position back in April.  Here's to hoping the end of unemployment is near!