RE: who is Lily--Yes. I am Lily and got a new job!

I was extremely busy last week so I was not able to write this article in time. Finally I got some time today that I could write something to share my interview-experience with you. This forum is my favorite place which I visit everyday during these couple of years and I have learned a lot from XDJM.

Yes, I made it. I jut got a new offer with an Analyst position.

I graduated from school with MIS degree; I was not able to get an IT job because IT job market was very poor couple years ago. So I started a non-IT job right off school, and changed to a new job pretty similar to my previous job after we moved to DC area two years ago. I always hoped that I could find an IT-related job while doing this better-than-nothing job.

No give-up

I have a degree, but I do not have skills, I forgot all the stuff I learned from school, so my degree does not help me skill-wise. I do not have IT related experiences; I did not know what kind of job I could do, so I had no confidence to dive into IT area. The good thing is I don’t give it up.  

Acquiring skills

My next step was to acquire skills. Should I get an IT certificate? Or should I take some classes in school? Be realistic as a working full time new mom I did not think I was able to do that. In addition, it was not necessary for me to do that either. Then I found Laotu’s classes in WXC so I wanted to make a shot.      

I need to appreciate – Laotu. I attended SQL 101 class from him. This class helped me setting up the goal: Data analyst is the ideal job for me; I learned very useful database skills from this class as well as interviewing technique. Laotu is very nice person, he even fixed resume for me. I felt very confident to get an IT job after finishing his class. I posted my resume right after I finished his class.   

Interview

After couple of weeks I got a phone call from a company’s hiring manage. He asked me some Oracle questions stating this job required at least 3 years direct database working experience. For this obvious reason, I did not convince him that I was qualified. I was discouraged again. My interview skills needed to improve definitely.

Over the last couple years, I have had almost 8 to 10 interviews with our internal positions including the interviews I had while I was pregnant. After those interviews I realized they tried to ask all kind of questions to identify you weakness, so do not give them a chance. Be confident, prove them you are the best candidate for this position Overall, I found out I was not very confident with the interviews I had before. They usually have a question list; I just answer whatever they ask. I was very reactive. It occurred to me that something needed to change.

The opportunity finally was here. Three weeks later, I got an internal interview with a VP. With this interview, I decided to make this long-waiting change. I decided to be different. I became very proactive showing them that I was the best candidate for this position, I was the expert of the area, and I had lots of experience. After this interview, I followed up with a Thank you letter immediately. After two weeks, I received an email from this VP. He informed me he did not hire me for that position; however, there was another position in which I might be interested. He even arranged for the hiring manager to give me an interview after I expressed my interest. The hiring manger appeared to be very proactive, emailed me in no time discussing for interview details such as when & where. The interview was quickly set up in the afternoon of same day. Based on his feedback later on, I could tell I did a good job in the interview. I then followed up with a long sincere Thank you letter right after interview stating I was the best person for this interview. I was very proactive. As a result, the hiring manager gave me an offer after two days. He said he was very impressed about me.

Now I will start a decent job.  The key is to change, if you want something different, you got to try something different. That’s the experience I would like to share with XDJM.