Ed Melcarek
From a “Jack to a King”, a True Story. After years of being a company man and team player, I found myself trying to rescue my floundering career after being given my walking papers. My resume didn’t open the doors it used to, and nobody wanted my skills as a design engineer in the local marketplace. The usual reason given by prospective employers for not hiring me was ” too diverse a set of skills and experience” or, “not a good fit” for our needs. If I was to hire someone to be a design engineer, I would regard any extra pertinent knowledge the applicant has, a positive attribute. After many years, I found that there aren’t many people like me doing the hiring out there in the real world. Apparently, I found that during the course of an interview, a trivial matter such as the color of one’s shirt or tie can influence whether or not you get the job. An interviewer always had a hidden agenda and criteria by which the final decision was made. My qualifications, most often, had little to do with that decision. After giving up jumping through many inteviewers’ hoops, I decided to strike out on my own to survive in the jungle.