Great opportunities in your life come when you're not expecting them.

                It was in the middle of 2019. I was about to finish my master’s degree and had an opportunity to continue in my current project, but with a not-so-good salary. I was walking throw my college walker and suddenly my phone calls. I tried to answer the phone, but the call ends before I could say hello. Minutes later, the same number calls me again and, at that time, I answered immediately. On the other side was talking a recruiter of one of the biggest consulting companies in the world. He wants to know if I were available for an interview in two days for a vacant position in that company. I’ve participated in a lot of job processes, doing many interviews, but it was the first time that a company calls to me to participate of their job process without I candidate myself. I feel that my CV is finally been recognized by the companies as a great candidate and it make me feel better about my career.

                The interview was scheduled for Thursday afternoon, and I arrived at the building 10 minutes before the scheduled time. I was just a little nervous because I had the expertise of how to do a great job interview. After some minutes, I was called to a meeting room and the interview was started. In the room were three persons, plus one remotely. The breaking-the-ice questions had begun and we start our talking. After two or three questions, the HR man starts to detail some roles of my future work and check if I was able to do these responsibilities. After I answered these questions with examples and everyone feels comfortable about my competencies, the project business manager made a questions about children, marital status, and how I feel working overtime. Wow! It’s some hard questions to be made in the first contact, but I answered without problems, but expecting what will come next.

                After some other questions, the HR man starts to detail some benefits, including profit sharing; insurance plan for my parents, future wife, my future kids, and me; training programs, and accelerated career progress; etc. The benefits were awesome, but what he said after these were worrisome: HR has hour management to don’t allow the employee to accumulate more than two months in working overtime hours. He continues explaining to me that the projects are always hard because they are a big company, and is normal to work overtime every day. If the employee is close to over that limit, they give them a remunerated license to rest and, if you have vacations days, you could join their license with your vacations. Now the BM questions made sense for me: this company uses the employee at their limit and the wife often complains about it. I’d also complain about it with my wife! It’s normal to be angry if your job explores your partner, but without a partner, there are few complaints and is easier to explore you. The interview ended very well and I received homework: create a small project in five days. After these days, I come back to explain my project to the technical leader.

                The project wasn’t so big, but I had the dissertation and my normal work to do. Besides that, the language used in this demo project was almost new for me, so I’d need to study it. I studied a lot and build the project as better as I could do and prepared myself for the next interview.

                Next Monday morning, I left my house early to avoid the traffic. I decided to went to this interview in my car and paid for expensive parking because it, but I arrived at the time and was ready to present my running project and all my capacity to develop systems. I had started the project and suddenly appears an error to me. The project didn’t start and I didn’t know why! The time was passing and the system didn’t work. After 30 minutes I gave up and end we continue our interview without the project running. Ten minutes after, my interview had ended. Was clear to me my fail and I feel really bad because of it. I went back to my car and thought that was a big opportunity lost. I also thought that my CV wasn’t so good and started to think about my future career. Was a really bad time and the way between the parking lot and my house was extremely big.

                Hours later, still feeling bad, I looked at my WhatsApp and saw a message about an opportunity to be an adjunct professor at my university. My university is one of the best Brazilian universities, so be a professor, at least for a short time, is a great opportunity for anyone. I’d unsuccessful participated in a preview recruitment process for the same position, but I don’t know why I felt more ready for this recruitment process and started to study, trying to remember my mistakes in the first participation.

                Only one week after the failure at the consulting company, I was doing a test to be as adjunct professor and teach ones of the best students in my country. The test was difficult, but I studied very well and knew almost all the answers. I finished the test and waited for the result, which will be published at the end of the day.

                At the begging of the night, I received an e-mail saying that I was one of the approved candidates. It was available only two positions for 20 candidates, so was a great result for me! Two weeks later, I started my work as a professor and it was one of the important experiences in my life.

                Few weeks after I started my professor position, I receive a call from the HR man from the consulting company inviting me to an interview for another job position. They never gave me feedback, not even a decline letter saying that I wasn’t what they needed for this position, so I noticed that they or don’t care about the candidates, or they are so busy that they can’t reply to the candidates. These two options are a terrible feeling about any company, so I thanked him for the opportunity and declined the invite. A few months later, talk with a friend about this situation, he said that these company employees work more than others, sometimes from 8 AM to 3 AM, Monday to Saturday, to finish a project. At that moment, I noticed that I did the right choice and had a little bit lucky to be ready for a better opportunity.