11 months

I left my job in LA on 24 May, and will start my new job on 28 April. In 11 months I could have written a book, travelled the world, lost 30 pounds, learned to play the guitar, gotten a teaching certification, learned Italian, taken an art class, given 4 pints of blood, started my own business, or taken a minimum wage job and earned £10,000. Instead, I spent at least 1,000 hours looking for a job.

When I first arrived in London, I was confident I'd find a job quickly, so I posted my CV on the job boards and waited for recruiters to call. And call they did--I have seven interviews in the first two months, but I was so cocky that I was being very selective, and they could tell. (Feedback from one of my interviews was that I did not seem to be the type of person who would "pitch in and contribute as needed.") Then in August the credit crunch hit and I didn't get a single phone call the entire month. I re-evaluated my options, and considered taking a minimum wage job, but decided I would be better off working full-time finding a programming position. Thus began the process that, five months later, would result in severe depression and a near breakdown.

Of course, at the time, I thought the credit crunch was a blip on the financial radar, not the start of a global depression. So each morning would begin with perusing the job boards -- of which there are many -- and applying to various openings. (In the beginning, I was quite selective, but near the end I was applying to just about everything, with equal results.) In six hours I could go through a hundred listings, of which five might be appropriate, and I was lucky if one person called me back. Usually I never heard back from anyone. I had only six interviews over the next seven months, and most of those were not a result of my applying to positions, but of recruiters finding my CV online. Occasionally, friends would give me contacts in London, only to find their company was in the process of layoffs, or they had just been laid off themselves. (This actually happened five times, and I was afraid to call anyone else.)

It was frustrating, depressing, degrading, and although I kept telling myself it wasn't my fault, the constant clutch of failure was oppressive and inescapable. If I took any time off to do something fun, I criticized myself for not working harder on finding a job. Much of the frustration, of course, was the amorphous nature of the task: Although the goal was clear enough, I had no idea what steps, or timing, or circumstances were necessary. As I result, I probably worked harder finding a job than I've ever worked at a job. (And it was unpaid.)

In February, I got a call from the most annoying recruiter I've ever met. While I appreciated his diligence -- which was in marked contrast to most of the recuiters I'd dealt with -- he would call me two or three times a day just to let me know he had no updates. That first call, however, while on a tube to Ruislip to check out a flat, he told me about a small consulting firm building database systems for utility companies (which weren't affected by the depression). He set up a two-hour phone interview with the company just before I left for Israel.

Of course, in Israel I had my little melt-down, and upon returning to the UK I recognized I could not continue as I had been. I stopped looking for a programming job and first focused on finding a place to live, then started looking for a retail job. Of course, if I thought being rejected from a highly-paid, highly-skilled position was bad, you can imagine my horror to find I wasn't even qualified for unskilled labor! I shouldn't have been surprised -- unemployment was at a 20-year high, and in some areas there were 30 people for every open position -- but it was still rough. It was an employers market and they were being very picky, looking for people with previous retail experience, or their own car, or a full driver's license (I still only have my learner's permit). I couldn't be a cashier, a waiter, a mini-cab driver, a cook, a security guard, a meter maid, or a pizza delivery driver!

Then, in an unrelated (and unexpected) turn of events, the owner of the B&B I had stayed at fired the front office clerk and offered me his job! I eagerly accepted the offer -- after all, I had no prospects other than this one company I talked to six weeks ago, and even though I got daily calls from this annoying recruiter, he didn't have any updates. I was scheduled to start 7 May.

The consulting company finally called me in for a face-to-face interview with the three directors who started the company. It turned out the company was only 8 people, and they were scattered across the UK and did most of their work from home, which was why it took them so long to schedule the interview. I was expecting a decision after the interview, but instead they asked me back for a third interview, which they couldn't schedule for another week.

By now I'd spent six hours interviewing with them, and about 22 hours talking to the recruiter, who was driving me insane. (I tried not taking his calls -- sending them straight to voicemail -- but then I just got 10 voicemails, plus a couple of texts, asking me to call him back.) When they finally offered me the position, I took it with no negotiation whatsoever. The salary is fine, and I certainly can't complain about the commute since I'll be working from home 3-4 days per week. I don't know about the other benefits, but I get 20 vacation days per year plus 10 bank holidays.

Oh, and the company name is "datb," which actually stands for "Day At The Beach." You can check out their website at datb.com, although if you can understand it then you're probably qualified to work there. (It begins with, "datb offers a real alternative to the business constraints imposed by off-the-shelf packages and lengthy, expensive and risk-laden bespoke development.")

And as for the B&B, the owner wasn't surprised -- she said six months ago that as soon as she offered me a job, that's when I'd find work. It turns out she was right.

P.S. Thanks again for everyone's support and encouragement through this ordeal, especially to my similarly-situated friends who commiserated with me. (See? There is hope!) Many thanks to Luci at the Merlyn Court B&B, who always looked out for me, and of course my eternal gratitude to Jessica, who has dealt with so much in such a short period, and believed in me the entire time. It is with no small amount of irony that I got the job on her birthday!