Does this story seem odd in terms of looking for a ID job or do some of you have similar stories?
I’ve been on 4 interviews where ID firms said they are not hiring at the moment but would like to have an interview. I guess my portfolio held enough interest to get that. So I traveled 3+ hours for one(6 hours total), 2 hours for the second/& third (8 hours total)and the last was in my state. All 4 interviews went very well but all I got from 3 of the 4 was a verbal freelance possibility should an opportunity come up. Im still waiting for the 4th in which I gave a thank you email afterwards and didn’t get a response. They did say in the interview that they would contact me about a decision this week.
I went on 2 other interviews where the ID firms were looking for people. One in which I did a 2 day quick freelance project and haven’t heard from them in a week or the recruiting agency that was evolved. The other seems like they are not serious about the work they spoke about and I haven’t heard from them after I gave a very reasonable quote for a job last week.
So here is the thing. If my work is good enough to get their attention and get good feedback from a number of employers, then why am I waiting so long? I’ve been looking since July but I’ve also been evolved in 4 small freelance projects; only 1 in which didn’t seem to go well.
It just comes with the territory. To make you feel a little better, when I was first freelancing, I met with one place and they liked my stuff and said they’d get me to work on a project they had. Weeks came, no contact, then was told it was temporarily on hold but should only be another few weeks. I heard from them about a year later, for the same backburner project, they brought me in, it was put on hold again, so they put me on some other projects they had.
Sometimes budgets come and go, some projects have priorities over others, etc… not to mention all of the other freelancers and business development they’re doing. It’s just a day in the life of a freelancer. Long call backs can be for a variety of reasons that may not have anything to do with you (but a firm trying to get a big client and bring in extra income will take priority over giving a new untested guy work). And when there are deadline crunches, lots of times people will just go with who they know at the time, it’s a little risky bringing in a new head during the heat of battle.
That’s just the way it goes, don’t get frustrated. Just stay polite and professional, and try to keep updating with them to check on the status of things (without being too pesky)