I might be getting busy again.
For a while, I had been taking some time to reset and assumed I had plenty of time. I was still looking for work, but I was not applying with much energy.
Applying through LinkedIn had become frustrating. Too many applications seemed to disappear into a dumb ATS filter before a person ever looked at them. If the right words were not in the right place, the application was probably out. On top of that, plenty of job postings seemed to be ghost jobs. They stayed online even though there did not seem to be any real hiring happening behind them. I would spend time reading a posting, tweaking my resume, and filling out the form, then hear nothing back. By the middle of July, I had basically stopped sending applications.
Then companies started reaching out directly.
Over the next few weeks, I kept getting messages inviting me to apply. These were not roles I had found after hours of scrolling through LinkedIn. The companies had found me first, explained the role, and asked whether I would be interested.
The speed was the other surprise. One of the companies was a Fortune 10 company, so I expected the process to be fairly structured and formal. It was also somewhere I actually wanted to work. From the first message to the end of the process, it took one week.
A week before that, I was planning around having lots of free time. It is funny to think that just a couple of days earlier, I had been planning to take on another consulting contract. At the time, that felt like the likely next step. Then my calendar filled up with interviews, conversations, and preparation. It happened quickly enough that I barely had time to adjust.
I do not think there is a big lesson here. Maybe the timing just worked. Maybe the earlier applications and conversations eventually caught up with me. Either way, stopping one approach is not the same as giving up.
I do not know what happens next yet, so I will write about that when it is official.
For now, it looks like things are about to get busy again. Honestly, I am okay with that.