in which we return to square one

After nearly a month of living hopefully with the possibility of a real job -- three seemed to be in the offing at one point , not to mention my Plan B, which has not yet worked out -- I have returned to barking up every tree in the vicinity.

That means phoning anyone I hadn't heard back from, just to make sure they're sure they don't want me. Like the company so close to home, where I thought I was so incredibly hot at the interview and then never got called again (though I called them and was told they were still interviewing)? Turns out now, they're not so sure they have enough work to hire another employee, so they're making do with a temporary solution. This not hiring anyone after yanking a lot of people's chains with a series of interviews happens fairly regularly, unfortunately. I told them I wouldn't mind if they'd use me as their temporary solution while they're deciding what to do permanently.

Scanning the job postings in various Israeli listings, it appears to me that things are slow again. Maybe it's the season, an end-of-year wait-and-see atmosphere. Who knows. It's a numbers game, as they say. I've had interviews at 5 big-to-medium companies. How many interviews do you have to get, statistically, before you score? Maybe the odds are 10:1; maybe 20:1; I dunno. Does anybody know this? I could talk to a friendly HR person ... if I could find one. Might make a good article.

Meanwhile, I wrote an article on my job-hunting experience, from a personal, sort of wise-ass point of view -- comparing job-hunting to dating (though my memories of that are mostly dim and repressed) -- and I'm trying to flog it now. I'll let you know if I have any luck. I'm afraid it's either not funny enough or not serious enough. Maybe that in-between tone of lazy-smartass-who-isn't-as-witty-as-she-thinks doesn't go over too well. If I can't sell it, I suppose I'll have to rewrite it after digging up some serious stats and quotes from heavy-hitters.

I can't complain I'm too busy.