Another interesting day in my job search

This morning I was applying for a job with a local company that is looking for a facilities manager. The job looked interesting enough: large facility, lots of people, multi-million dollar plant replacement value. It seemed to be right up my alley. Well, while I was applying for the job on line, my cell phone rang and I did not recognize the number. I answered the phone and the conversation went like this:

Me: "Hello."
Caller: "Hello. My name is Amy and I work for the 61st District Court. Can I speak to Paul, please?"
Me: Huh... are there any outstanding warrants for my arrest?!?
Me: "This is Paul, can I help you?"
Caller: "Yes. Recently, you applied for the position of Court Administrator. The Court would like you to come in for an interview. Are you available next week?"
Me: "I would be happy to come in for an interview..."

I spent the next few minutes with Amy arranging the specifics of my interview. I have an interview next Thursday (20 March). To say that I am surprised is an understatement. I had applied for this position in early January and I never heard a peep back from anyone. I figured that the Court had thrown my resume and application into the circular file a long time ago. I had completely forgotten that I had even applied for the job.

I looked back at documents I had sent the Court and one of the things I had to send was a list of references. One of my references is a circuit court judge (Jim) who is a good friend of mine. As soon as I got the call from Amy, I called Jim and left him a message, telling him that I had an interview. Jim called me later in the day and said, "Paul, I should have called you last week. I met with Judge B. and he asked me about you and I told him all about you." Jim told me that he highlighted my organizational and leadership skills, that I would be a perfect fit for this job, that I have all the skills and abilities that is needed to excel in the position of Court Administrator.

To make things even more interesting for me, I received a call from one of the people who interviewed me at General Electric. Stan told me that GE is still quite interested in me, but that "Corporate GE is directing a reorganization of GE Aviation in Grand Rapids. Until the regional vice presidents know what the structure is to be, they will not be able to pair a job requisition with a particular person." What my friend Stan was telling me was to be patient and that as soon as the organizational structure for whatever GE Aviation in Grand Rapids will be, that he will be able to speak with more clarity about my prospects for employment. I told Stan that there were two other engineering manager positions that were recently posted on the GE careers website, and he encouraged me to apply. I think that if Stan had the authority to hire me (clearly it is his boss who has the hiring authority) I would have a job offer already. In the meantime, I applied for the other two positions and I will see where this leads me.

It was a pretty interesting day for me. I had no idea that I would hear from the 61st District Court and GE. I also had no idea that my friend Jim the district court judge would basically tell the chief judge of the 61st District that he would be a fool not to hire me. It just goes to show you that it pays to have low friends in high places!