Most of you know my job woes and how I'm tired of being an engineer and thinking about going back to vet school at 40-something. Anyway... I've been having on and off conversations with my boss about 'what's next' for me at my current company. I've been here three years and I think it's time for a change. Hell, I was ready to move out of this position BEFORE I came here (I did the same job at my last company) but decided to stick it out for a bit in order to relocate and change companies. It was a very smart move and I'm glad I made that decision, but now it's time to do something different.

My boss has been helping me scope out opportunities within our company but he's like most of the engineers I know in that they cannot imagine NOT being an engineer so he's coming up with lots of technical type positions. That's great and all, but it's not really what I want to do anymore. I can't really come right out and say this as I don't want to burn any bridges, but that's my feeling. He made the suggestion last week that I should check out our job posting site to not necessarily find a new position, but to at least see what else is out there and see if it triggers any ideas for me. So I did...and I found a recently posted position that really excites me!

It's a dual position that is being created...so no one holds it right now. They want someone with both technical skills and business experience (bingo!). The position is the College Program Manager and a Technical Recruiter. My company is hiring like crazy and as long as all you people keep buying smart phones, tablets and e-readers, this trend will continue for us. We need someone to build and run our college relations program as we build technical staff. Anyway, I did my prescreen interview with an HR person yesterday. It highlighted for me that in the past 8 years of engineering work, I've totally lost my interviewing touch. I really stumbled and the questions were so basic!

I don't think it'll matter as I've already impressed the hiring manager, thank goodness. But the hiring manager will still want to do a formal interview and then, assuming it goes well, I'll have a full day of interviews including a presentation for a bunch of different people (some of which I'm sure I know already).

I really want to nail the interview with the hiring manager AND (perhaps more importantly) nail the full day interviews. There are at least a couple of external candidates already lined up, so there is competition. While I do have a leg up as an internal candidate, I still want to wow the hell out of them. I know I am capable of doing so as I've done it before...I'm just REALLY out of practice. My interpersonal skills have waned!

So - how do I get them back? Any recommendations for good books or websites to improve my interviewing/communication skills? Hints? Suggestions?