Greetings to you, my old friend…
It seems it was just yesterday that you unceremoniously appeared in my life. Your arrival was not entirely unexpected given the unique circumstances from which you arose from the ash heap of history. However your atrophied essence managed to ingress my universe was irrelevant as the obliteration you caused was done.
Perhaps you thought me crushed as well. Perhaps you thought me no more of an annoyance than the merest of insects flitting about your personage during the cooling hours of a warm summer evening. Perhaps you gave me no second thought as you rumbled away from me, confident in your delusion that you had erased me from existence.
My first letter to you proved how wrong you were.
A few months after I had joined my fellow adventurers in the Land of the Unemployed, you came back toward me with renewed vigor as though you were personally incensed that I had not been atomized the first time around. In addition to your laughable attempts to diminish me, you moved to overwhelm family and friends with your smothering, relentless hatred of all who are optimistic, brave, and unblinking as they stared you down. While you may have inflicted some temporary pain in their lives, these good souls stood their ground. As you piled your rocks of sorrow, despair, and darkness upon them they smiled widely and said ”MORE WEIGHT!” You failed to defeat them. You failed to defeat me. And you left again, convinced that this time you had put down the rebellion once and for all.
I wrote a second letter to you, again proving how wrong you were.
Do you still believe that you can prevail against me?
Please allow me, my old friend, to move from the realm of words to the realm of numbers for just a moment. I am certain that you will find it most exhilarating…
156
This is the number of calendar days (counting today) since you unwelcome intrusion into my life.
91
This is the number of unique positions I have applied for in the last 156 days.
22
This is the number of replies I received back from companies stating that they had some initial interest in me and wanted to talk further.
12
This is the number of interviews I have gone through.
20
This is the combined number of “rejection letter” e-mails (9), companies I have never heard back from (7), and “we gave the offer to the other candidate” e-mails (4).
1
This is the number of companies that have presented me with an offer letter. Two companies have told me that I was their number one candidate; only one has put their intentions into a letter saying, “Yep, you’re the person we want!”
I am happy to report that I have accepted the letter and will begin my next adventure at the beginning of July. I am not yet at liberty to say the name of the company I am joining. Doesn’t that just make you livid, o friend recession?
You had 156 days to grind my soul into powder.
You had 156 unique moments to smash my hopes and dreams and guffaw whilst you did it.
You had 156 opportunities to elucidate why I should become your foremost champion.
You had 156 chances to bet against me.
I had 156 days to give it everything I had in finding a new adventure to join.
I had 156 unique moments to say “Damn you, Recession! Try and defeat me, if you can!”
I had 156 opportunities to re-engineer my approach every time I hit a roadblock.
I had 156 chances to engage a new company and determine if there was mutual grounds for they and I to work together.
You lost. I won.
You tried. I tried harder.
You attacked without mercy. I used your own mindless aggression against you.
You laughed when my frustrations temporarily overwhelmed me. I quietly smiled when my persistence overwhelmed your cunning.
You thought you had the iron to stand against me. I proved that you have no iron whatsoever.
Go. Trouble me no more, o abominable friend.
Should you one day decide to come back, I remain eager to test you.
And I will win. Again.
BT
