Job Search Depression

It's been a month since I've given an update on the job search.  I kept waiting thinking there would be some happy news to share or maybe the next phone interview would pan out, so I kept waiting.  The sad reality is we've had almost all bad news over and over for the last couple of weeks.

San Antonio needed someone right away, and couldn't wait until Joel finished in June, so they were already in the hiring process and are not a job possibility anymore.

Columbus has pretty much said there's no option of staying.

Vanderbilt ended up being a bad option.  Joel heard from 2 separate sources that the working environment is caustic and the reason there are job openings is because people are fleeing the program.  They also haven't got back to him, and Joel felt it was better that way.

Albany is pretty much not an option anymore either.  The job is brutal in terms of hours and work load, so it would have been an absolute last option, but I think the director also realizes that Joel's not all that interested, because he never followed up to schedule an interview.  

Joel also found out 2 programs that never responded back to him at all are interviewing another Fellow he works with, and the guy also has an interview scheduled at Dallas where Joel wanted an interview.  Ouch.

Joel had been praying that Heavenly Father would shut doors, so he wouldn't be tempted to take a job where we weren't supposed to go, but I don't think he was prepared for his prayers to be answered so dramatically.  Within the last 24 hours we've had two huge "no's."  He had a phone interview with Dallas last week, and to be completely honest, it was his ultimate dream job.  It was exactly what he wanted to do at a top Children's Hospital in the country.  As much as he tried not to, he had his heart set on it.  Unfortunately, he didn't feel all that great about the phone interview and it turns out his intuition was correct, because he found out last night they've decided not to extend him an interview.

The bad news kept rolling in.  This morning he had a phone interview with Richmond (also a location he was extremely interested in), and the phone interview turned into more of a questioning about Joel's fellowship at Columbus.  He suggested that Joel should consider staying at Columbus to do an additional year of BMT fellowship and then they'd be interested in him.  It was odd, because the division chief flat out told him they were only looking to hire someone who had at least a year of experience, so Joel's not really sure why he extended a phone interview to him in the first place unless he just wanted information about Nationwide's fellowship program.

Where does this leave things?

Joel has an interview with Penn State Hershey this week.  So far it's his only scheduled 1st interview, so that adds a bit of pressure for this one to go well.

He has also applied to a job opening in Atlanta, Georgia, but doesn't expect to hear back from them until mid-November.

One other possibility is Wake Forest (Winston-Salem, North Carolina).  He met with their lead COG guy at a conference in Dallas 2 weeks ago, and it looks like they are in the process of getting a position approved by the board.  He told Joel that would take about 3 weeks, and then they would most likely extend an invitation for a 1st interview to him.  Fingers crossed that this actually pans out!

Other possibilities that are longer shots:
-UNC told him to check back in November to see if they end up having a job opening.
-Pittsburgh thought it might be hiring starting in January
-Fresno also thought it might be hiring later and to check back in December.

The moral of the story is be careful what you pray for.  :)
We're really hoping there's some good news soon, because it's been pretty depressing so far.