Failure #2

Last Monday I interviewed for the Construction Engineer (EAIII) position in the north office. The interview started 10 minutes, because they were interviewing someone else and it ran long. My interview was only 20 minutes. I blanked on one technical question about asphalt, but I think I question all the management question fine. All my answers were short and precise. At the end of the interview they asked if I'd like to add anything, which I didn't feel the need to sell myself. I've been working there for 3.5 years and I've showed them what I can do. I prefer to show than tell, plus I felt I was a shoe-in for the position. I have more experience than most Construction Engineer did when they started and I had the home-court advantage.

Annoyingly I didn't get the job. I lost to another Construction Engineer out of the Emporia office, which I was told was a bigger factor on why she got the job. But from I know, she's a chemical engineer and has only been working in construction for 6 months. It was actually surprising because she started off as a EAIII, which we don't do in Wichita. My boss was brought in to become our new EAIII, but she had to work 1 year as an EAII in the field to get a better understanding of what we do. So my 3.5 years of field work doesn't compare to her 6 months of office work. Though she probably interviewed really well, and being a chemical engineer is quite impressive, since that's one of the hardest engineering majors. It also made some sense hiring her, because Wichita would gain an engineer, instead of my office losing me.

I was fairly disappointed with not getting the job, since it's the 2nd time I've interviewed for it. Originally I didn't want the job, because it'd be more responsibility, a longer commute, and it'd mess up my work out schedule. But after a month of thinking about how the promotion would have changed my life, I got used to the idea and I actually wanted the job. I felt I was ready to be the boss. Now I will just continue to be the overpaid tech. I thinking had I gotten the job I'd be starting in my new position as the boss today, but instead I went out to the concrete plant to write tickets, which is considered to be the least desirable tech job. The metro engineer actually came by on Friday afternoon to talk to me, told me not to be discouraged that I didn't get the job. The talk really didn't help or hurt. I guess I got some face time with the big boss, but that doesn't really matter much when there's little chance for advancement here in Wichita.

Today, the new construction engineer stared work at the north office along with two new techs, one for each office. The new tech for the north office is actually one of my good friends. Apparently he dropped my name quite a few times during the interview. I figured him having a degree in Computer Science would make him more capable than the other 8 applicants. The metro engineer told me that he came off a little cocky, because he that he could pass the FE without a problem, and I believe that he could too. But Metro Engineer said it was a good kind of cocky so it worked out for him.