This is not me, this is my husband. I have lost count of the number of interviews he has had in the last six or seven years but he has not converted any into a permanent job offer. I have never shown it to him, but I am so tired of it. He does work, he has been employed the whole time, but on a series of FT contracts and as he approaches 50, he (and I) would really prefer that he secured a permanent position (obv we are aware that nothing is really permanent).
I am quite good at interviewing, for my last three jobs I had one interview and was offered the job the next day. For my current job, they told me they would be recruiting temp to permanent but they decided they didn’t need to do that and went straight for temp. I just do not know what it is that I do that he is not doing as obviously I am not observing his interviews.
My husband is not looking for something senior in terms of team management, but he is in a technical role and the jobs he applies for pay around £100-120k which is what he has been earning for the last six years. At one point I thought maybe he was being too technical in the interviews and was maybe not showing enough business knowledge that might be expected of somebody at this earning level. So I researched the companies for him and really tried to prep that side of things for him (I worked for a long time in the same industry in a more business orientated type of role so am well equipped to do this). It didn’t work.
He has always been very well regarded at work, this is clear, he has been on his current contract for about two years now it just gets extended and extended but it will come to an end eventually. He also gets interviews very easily and he normally sails through the first interview. But in the second interview, they always go with “the other candidate”. If I make a conservative estimate of how many times this has happened, I would say 30 times. About five times a year for the last six years, say.
I have generally never said anything other than something like “never mind there will be something better around the corner”, when he has failed to secure the role, because I am sure he is disappointed enough without me adding to it. But I have started to say to him that he needs to consider some kind of coaching or something, to try to really understand what he is not getting right and fixing it.
So, to get to my question, does anybody have any practical suggestions as to what he could do to change the current situation with the goal of securing the permanent job.