I've been out of "real" work for over a year now. Side jobs, unemployment and raiding my 401k have kept me afloat so far. In this time I have seen a total of 7 jobs listed in my local paper that were remotely in my field of expertise. Two of those were a relatively close match. I've had four interviews in this time. A friend who was laid off from the same job at the same company has only had one interview.

Now for the good news. In the past 10 days I've seen two listings that almost seem to have been written with me in mind. Two extremely close matches after a year with slim pickings in the "almost" and "sort-of" range.

One is with a local company I've been wanting to work for since I first heard of them 6 years ago. They seem interested. Applied online Sunday, got contacted Monday by the search firm rep about whether to proceed, contacted today to set up phone interview with the principals. That's for tomorrow. The search firm rep told me they want to fill this spot before the end of next week.

Haven't been this excited since I was 7 and found out you could get a Mounds bar with almonds in it.