Hi friends,

Interesting things happening in my job search. It's all been a little flaky actually.

The guy that set me up for the 4-week gig as a Crystal Reports developer didn't really qualify me very well for the position and, since I haven't heard from him in a couple of days, I think the contract has gone down in flames.

Here's the whole story...

I was out cycling on the Fox River Trail one day about a month ago when this recruiter from Systems Research Inc. calls me on the cell phone (Yes, I actually took my phone with me on a 25-mile bike ride). He had this opportunity for me that he said was "a great opportunity for me with some real long-term potential". He told me it was as a Crystal Reports Developer and was a 4-week contract initially. Even though I have this skill, I told him that I haven't touched Crystal reports in 6-7 years. He said that it was okay and that he'd still talk to the client about me. He told me I'd probably have to have a phone interview and a face-to-face before we could close the deal. I was fine with all of that.

After I got off the phone with the guy, I thought to myself..."why would this guy think that doing Crystal Reports for the first time in 7 years would be a great opportunity for me?" I'm thinking this because I was last a National Marketing Manager for divine and prior to that did a lot of Project Management and Analyst work. Development is the lowest rung of what I'd like to be doing for a living right now.

So, about 30-45 minutes later, he calls me back and tells me I'm starting work on Monday at Dealer Technologies, Inc.. Now, this sounded really fishy and threw me for a loop... "What happened to the phone and face-to-face interviews?"... "What did they say about the fact that I haven't done Crystal development in 7 years?" ... "Why do they want to hire me sight unseen?" All of those thoughts are running through my head along with the one that said "Yeah, I can finally get back and do some meaty work!!!"

Anyway, he asks me what rate I'd want for this work. HELL!!! What do I know? I haven't done Crystal Reports development in 7 years. Since the market is so bad and since I haven't done Crystal in 7 years, I gave him a pretty low rate and he took it. I was just happy to be working again.

After that call, he said he'd get my actual start time and more details. He told me a website to visit for more info about the company.

I went home, got online, and went to check out the Website. It wasn't there. I couldn't find it. Oy!!! To this date, I still can't get that web address to work.

I played phone tag with my recruiter a little and by Friday, he told me my start date would be delayed by a week and a half because the principal players in this small company were set to be out of town. In the meantime, I had already reduced my part-time work hours at Starbucks and wasn't scheduled much in the coming weeks.

We plodded on like this for the week and a half and then a further week's delay before they gave me a definite start date. I purchased a book on the latest version of Crystal Reports and was prepping for the work.

Anyway, I went to work for this company on Monday, May 3 at 9 a.m. I was met by a dark office. After about 10 minutes, a guy showed up and introduced himself as one of the business partners but NOT the guy I was supposed to meet. That guy was in downstate Illinois at one of their clients. He had forgotten I was coming in. :(

I was all ready to get to work but the guy that met me sat me down and interviewed me. After talking a little, we realized we were both on different wavelengths. He thought I was there for an interview and I thought I was there to start work. Apparently, the guy in downstate Illinois had my resume with him and knew more of what was going on than the guy meeting with me at that moment. So, he sent me home after 30 mins.

I called the recruiter and he was puzzled about the turn of events. (My personal opinion is that the recruiter was pushing to get me placed and didn't really know what was going on. I don't think he qualified me very well for the assignment and was just trying to get this placement to make some money.)

Here I am a week later sitting at my computer, still not working, and writing about this cluster f**ked consulting assignment that hasn't started yet. I took the Crystal Reports book back to the store to save myself the $50 it cost and have a strong feeling this project is just NOT going to happen.

I'm still looking for other work in the meantime. I can't think too much about this mess except to complain that it has caused my Starbucks hours to drop from 20+ hours per week down to 7 or so. I'm not a happy camper.