The past month has been extremely active for me on the job hunting front.  In October a large national financial institution flew me to St. Louis to interview for a project/program management leadership position (put me up at the Four Seasons, no less).  They said I was in the top two of only 4 candidates nationally they identified as potential fits.

Then I interviewed with a top medical technology/pharmaceutical company in southern California.  They had trouble finding good candidates, so they approved funding for the position at $85/hr.  After looking at my would-be expenses, I countered with $95/hr.  They tried for a couple of weeks to get approval, then the recruiter told me no-go.  Two weeks later he called to see if I was still available.  Too late.

In the midst of all that, I was contacted by a major university on the west coast.  In my attempt to scare them away (because I really did not want to move/travel for a 5 or 6 month gig), I quoted $90/hr.  The next day I had my phone interview at noon, and they extended an offer by the end of the day on Friday.  The specific need was a unique opportunity for any BA, and it would have been an excellent chance to exercise my entrepreneurial skills and make another awesome entry into my resume.  Like I had been told before, they were having a very difficult time finding qualified or well-fitting candidates.

I turned down the offer for a work-from-home opportunity with a national mortgage company that paid a lot less but was perm.  The next week they called me back to see if I could refer anyone to them.

Interestingly, between receiving the offer from the mortgage company and rejecting the one from the prestigious university, I was scheduled to have a face-to-face interview with a different mortgage company.  But having planned to accept the offer from the first one, I called the recruiter at Apex IT Solutions to decline and cancel the interview.  But there was a mix up in the communications, and his colleague called me to confirm the interview.  When I told her I was getting ready to accept the offer from mortgage co 1, she somehow persuaded me into at least talking to the hiring manager at mortgage co 2.

Surprisingly to me, after talking for only 5 minutes I became very interested in the position because it appealed as a challenge which would use my process engineering skills, and it was a leadership opportunity.  The hiring manager said she was having trouble finding a candidate who was a good fit (she had actually had to release someone hired previously who did not work out).  By the end of the call, she basically said she wanted me and was willing to pay more for me.  And I told her she better hurry with her formal offer since I needed to responded to mortgage co 1 the next day.  In short, after a brief interview with a couple of her team members, the deal was sealed.

There you have it.  In addition to the afore-mentioned instances, I am receiving about 2 or 3 or 4 recruiter inquiries a day looking for a good BA.  Many of them are interested in process definition skills.  This indicates to me that Corporate America is ready to look at innovation again and willing to hire good business analysts to do it.  Companies are recognizing that you shouldn’t send a Systems Analyst to do a Business Analyst’s job.