No Knowledge is Ever Wasted

   The past few weeks I have been looking over what I did this summer. I was hoping that I would be able to find something good out of the experience of working at the ENT clinic. I didn't want to think that I had squandered three months of my life trying to build a novel pharmacy practice for someone who didn't want it and didn't bother to tell me this fact. I felt like I could and should have spent that time looking for a job with a company that wouldn't get sold to a big chain within months of my hire date. I dislike waste, especially wasted time. There might have been opportunities that I missed and better things I could have done.
  I went over and over my time at the clinic. I did learn a few new skills. I met a couple of nice people. I helped a few people. I learned a little bit about essential oils. That's about it. Three months spent for nothing that was going to help me in the future. Three months completely and totally wasted. I probably deserved to miss the opportunities I missed as a consequence of making such a poor choice. I spent that time there for nothing.
  Or did I.......
  A few weeks ago I saw a job in the postings I was looking at. It was a clinic looking for a pharmacist to start a pharmacy in their facility. This looked interesting. I did some homework. It was close by. It looked to be in a safe area. I applied online. After I finished the application, I wanted to do more. My resume doesn't really tell the whole story as far as my experience is concerned. I wanted to send them a letter and looked for an email to use. I only found a general one. That's OK, I would write one and mail it. I typed it up and printed it on some nice paper. I wrote about my experience working at a small independent pharmacy and that I'd spent my summer working on licensing another pharmacy. I planned to drop it in the mail when C had suggested that I drop it off at the clinic. It was close and we had errands to run in the area. I got dressed up and dropped it off.
  A few days later my phone rang. It was the clinic manager. He got my letter and wanted me to come in for an interview. We talked a bit and then set up a date. I was excited. Maybe this was my chance. This could be the reason why I spent all those months at the ENT clinic. I wrote a brief note to the clinic manager thanking him for the call and confirming our interview. Then I did research. I looked for everything I could on the clinic. I looked for information on the clinic manager. I hoped this would work out.
  The day of the interview I dressed up. I wore a red sweater and blue corduroy pants. I was not about to wear a dress or skirt. I put my hair up for a no nonsense look. I walked into the clinic, told the person at the counter who I was and who I was seeing. Then I sat down to wait. It wasn't a long wait. The manager came out and introduced himself. He took me on a quick tour of the pharmacy space and then we sat down in a conference room to talk. 
  I had been told that this would take an hour, but the manager mentioned that he had an important meeting so 30 minutes was all he had. He told me how impressed he was with my letter and the fact that I sent a thank you note. He talked a bit about the pharmacy and I listened. He gave me a quick tour of part of the facility, but then ran out of time and had to leave. He wanted to know what I thought. I told him I would call him the following week for an second interview.
   During that interview I was led to believe that they wanted me to take the job. So far it looked good, but I would need more information before I made my decision. In the days after the interview I wrote four pages of questions and things that I wanted to know.
  Early the next week I called again. I left a message. The manager called me right back. We set up a time for the following day. I spent the morning reviewing my notes. The manager called and asked if we could push our meeting back a half hour. He had something come up that he needed to take care of. No problem, these things happen.
  I came to the clinic at the appointed time. They were busy so I was unable to let the lady at the desk know I had an appointment to see the manager until five minutes past out appointment time. It turned out to be all right, The manger had not returned and had not told anyone I was meeting with him. I sat down to wait. Fifteen minutes later he came in. We went back to the conference room to talk. I pulled out my notes prepared to ask my questions when the manager started talking. He kept talking and talking. I manged to get a few words in edgewise to ask my questions. He took me on another tour, this time of the whole complex.
  It looked good. What they are doing is impressive work. The more he talked the more I got uneasy. It was clear they knew nothing about pharmacy. Some of the projections he gave me seemed a bit unrealistic. There was a lot of stuff that needed to be done. I got the impression that they wanted this up and running by the beginning of the year and wanted it to be self sufficient right away.
  I know from experience that this was not going to happen.
  We walked back to the clinic and he kept talking. I told him what I had planned to do. I wanted to talk with someone who knew business and get back to them. That was when he told me that there were two other candidates and they would decide next week who would get the job.
  Wait a minute. Last week I was being told I had first crack at this. Now I was competing with two other people? What the manager said next made me realize I wasn't competing. He shook my hand and wished me well in my future and said it was nice getting to know me.
  Clearly I was out of the running.
   I should have been fuming, but I was actually relieved. There were so many red flags that I didn't want the job anyway. I had planned to consult with someone else to make sure the red flags were what I thought they were. Now, I didn't need to. I was going to go home, send another thank you note and withdraw my application.
  Last summer wasn't a waste. If it hadn't been for that experience, I would have been crushed at not getting the job. Instead I was able to see that it wasn't a good fit. It also allowed me to pursue another potential job that had cropped up that week.
  No knowledge is ever wasted.