Unwanted

On one of my recent 100+ minute "recovery" runs I was thinking about my life and how strange it can be. In 2010, I applied for over 400 jobs, I had seven in person interviews, and out of that netted only two job offers. No company wanted to touch me.

The thought that sparked this post was thinking about my encore Everest presentation at work. The first one I gave a few weeks ago was attended by probably 100 people including people online. The second one was another maybe 40-50 people including the online attendees. As far as I know, no other presentation, except for company business, has had two showings. I presented to my supervisor, her manager, and his director. In short, my boss, boss's boss, and boss's boss's boss. I have had quite a few compliments about how well the presentations went. In addition to the recent presentations, I have had two raises in the last nine months and I have all sorts of design authority. Sometimes I think my work should be better checked.

I feel that I am very wanted. When I walk down the hall, someone stops me to talk or someone I don't know says, "hi Isaiah". It's very strange to me. I still have a chip on my shoulder because of how difficult I found it to break into industry. Yes, I know it was the Great Recession or recovery from the Great Recession. Yet the contrast between giving an encore presentation or getting a raise and being turned down again for even a phone call interview is bewildering to me. I don't have any great lesson from this dichotomoy. I'm the same person that gets complimented and rejected, even for the same thing! Life is strange.