Disclaimer: This is a personal post, so feel free to skip it if you don’t want something non-tech related. Thanks.
I recently applied for a promotion at work. I was(n’t) completely qualified, but I held out hope that I’d make it at least to the interview stage considering my long history with the school, my reputation, and really, because I was an internal candidate (who the hell throws out an internal candidate from a job?). I figured that if I could make it past the first hurdle, I’d have a decent shot, and hell, at least I’d get something out of the experience. But, as you’ve probably guessed, I didn’t make it. In fact, I was pre-screened out as not meeting one of the the minimum requirements — 2 years IT Supervision ((Supervision is a specific term in HR, meaning Hiring/Firing/Reviews. It is different than “lead”)). Now, I only gave myself a 30% chance or so of making it past this hurdle, as I had to angle the experience I did have toward making it seem like I had what was needed. And at the time I turned in my application, I didn’t really expect anything.
But, once I heard I’d been pre-screened, I realized I was pretty pissed off about it. Mainly because, as I said, I had really nothing to show for it. No notes on my application, no feedback from an interview, nothing. And all the while, I thought “shit, how do you get into Management if no one ever gives you the chance to manage?” Also that a single word change that happened sometime between the draft the IT group approved, and the one that was posted, went from me being qualified, to me being unqualified.