Fate??

Yesterday, I saw the Dean who didn't hire me the other week. Thankfully, I knew in advance that he was going to be at the lunch I was organizing. I ended up running into him in the back hall and we were able to chat.

I said hello and asked how he was settling in (he's a new arrival at the University). He indicated he recognized me but wasn't sure why. I told him that I'd interviewed with him and I was the unsuccessful candidate.

I was impressed when he told me that someone from the committee should chat with me. We decided to just chat then rather than later.

Turns out that there were lots of applicants (about 18), and only two people interviewed. It basically boiled down to I had lots of things R didn't have (but he wouldn't elaborate in fairness to R.(?)), she had experience in the one skill I had knowledge of and her undergrad degree was engineering, I'd only worked with them for 15 years.

They spent almost a week debating the direction I could take them vs. R and finally decided on her.

We've left the door open for future employment.

I'm glad I didn't have to face this last week, I wasn't ready. But, this week I could be perfectly upbeat about not getting the job because I am. When it's time for me to work full time, it will show up. In the meantime, I'll just keep plugging along!

I do feel better knowing that it was only two of us seriously considered and took almost a week to decide. At 2nd choice I can feel better. And I've been in the situation of trying to decided between two people we'd hirer in a heartbeat and discussing the this direction vs. that direction. We solved that one by a coin toss. Sometimes it's just that close.

AND, I never would have called the Dean to ask about the results so running into him to tell me was even better because now he holds a positive impression of me and I got to hear 'his version' rather than the faculty member who was on the committee. And, he wants to think about applying for a grant like the one we've held and wants to chat about it.