Interview Day

Today was the day of my interview and I know some, maybe all, of you are wondering how things went.  So without further ado….

I left the house at about 10:00, picked up the bus, and arrived in Hillsboro around 11:00.  Had Thai food for lunch, then went to a couple of used bookstores.  I had asked for my pants to be ready by 1:00 but I showed up 30 minutes early just in case there were any problems.  The pants were done, I tried them on, and they now fit fine.  I then went to the Hillsboro Max station (Max is the name of the Portland light rail) and boarded the train.  The ride to the interview place took about an hour.  Since I had about 2 hours to kill before the interview, I went to Starbucks and got some hot chocolate.

The interview time eventually drew near so I decided to go to the bathroom before I left.  Which I did (yeah, I know you wanted to know that!).  I took one last look at myself in the mirror and decided to adjust my tie.  I’ve never been particularly adept at tying ties so after about 7 times of taking it off and putting it back on without any noticeable improvement, I decided I just needed to accept it the way it was.  Then it was time to go to the bathroom again.  In case you didn’t know, I’m famous for going to the bathroom a lot.  Good thing cause it turns out I hadn’t pull up my zipper from the previous time.  

So I leave Starbucks and walk the 4-5 blocks to the State office building (which is quite beautiful, by the way).  I still have a few minutes to kill so I wonder around the lobby for a bit.  And guess what I discover?  A bathroom!  Have I mentioned that I go to the bathroom a lot.  Yeah.  So I go inside and….you’re not going to believe this….good thing I did cause my zipper is still down!!!  So I go to the bathroom while mentally chanting “pull up your zipper, pull up your zipper, pull up your zipper”.  Which I did.

I then headed up to the 8th floor.  I’m going to fast forward now and come back to the interview in a bit.  The interview itself finished around 5:00.  So I called my friend Dani and told her I didn’t need her help after all since I had plenty of time to catch the light rail to the bus.  I then walked the couple of blocks to the Max and saw a train approaching.  I frantically tried to buy a ticket.  (the fine is $110 if you’re caught without a ticket)  Unfortunately, I was having problems with the ticket machine and the train left before I could get a ticket.  I ended up trying 3 or 4 machines and couldn’t get any of them to take my cash.  I’ve read that there’s an ongoing problem with broken ticket machines….but you still get fined even if it’s not your fault.  I finally walked up to the next station and found one that took charge cards.  My ticket bought, I boarded the next train, and arrived in Hillsboro about 5 minutes before the last bus left for Carlton.

Now, back to the interview.  I showed up about 10 minutes early which turned out to be a very good decision.  I introduced myself to the secretary and she handed me a piece of paper with the interview questions.  I quick jotted down some notes on how I might answer the questions.  Two of the ten questions though, were going to be tough.  One of them, though, turned out to be a really poorly written question.  So once I understood it better I did fine.  The other problematic question asked about very specific experience that I didn’t have.  So I was prepared to essentially pass on the question.  But when they asked it, it was asked in a slightly different way and I could have stumbled my way through part of it.  I was so prepared to pass though that I gave a much weaker response than I could have.

Overall I have no idea how I did.  Maybe a B.  I’m not a good judge of how I do at interviews.  I can remember a few times in the past where I thought I bombed an interview yet I was offered the job.  So time will tell.  They’re going to have a 2nd round of interviews so I’ll know in a week or so if I’ve made the cut.

Murphy’s Law…prevailing again….

So I have  a job interview on Friday, right?  My first and only one so far.  I was hoping that things would go smoothly but so far no go.  The interview is scheduled at 4pm.  I asked if there were any other time slots available and was told no.  My problem is that I’m relying on public transportation to get around.  The last bus back to Carlton is at 6:30 pm.  But I also have to spend about an hour on the Portland light rail to get from the interview place to the bus station.  If the interview is over by about 5:15, I’m fine.  If it goes much longer than that, then I’m going to be stuck in Portland.  I don’t really mind if that happens but I’m also dog-sitting for my cousin right now.  And if I get stuck in Portland, the dog won’t get fed till I get back.  Oh, did I mention that there are no buses to Carlton on Saturday or Sunday?  Yeah, I really need to get back on Friday night.

So I asked a friend if she was available to drive me back to Carlton after my interview.  She said sure.  But then she found out that she has a going away party for a co-worker on Friday night.  She can still do it but I’d have to wait around.  I told her I’d check with another friend.  Friend #2 said she could do it.  But I don’t think she quite realized what she was agreeing to.  She just emailed me and said she has a friend in town so she’s not sure she can drive me all the way down to Carlton.  Which is kind of the point of the whole exercise.  So if back to asking friend #1 if she’s still available.

If that wasn’t enough, this morning I decided to try on my job interview outfit, just to make sure everything looks good.  And I soon discovered I had a problem.  I have no idea when I gained weight, but the pants to my suit no longer fit me.  Not even close.  So I started calling dry cleaners in the closest town to see how quickly they could do an alteration.  Dry cleaner #1 currently has a 3 week wait.  Dry cleaner #2 said it will take 2-3 days and there’s no way they can have it done by Friday.  Dry cleaner #3 doesn’t do alterations.  My next option was to call dry cleaners in Hillsboro.  Hillsboro is about a 45 minute bus ride away but that’s where I’ll be coming on Friday to pick up the light rail to get to my job interview.  Fortunately, the first place I called said they could have it done by Friday at 1:00.  So I grabbed the next bus to Hillsboro and dropped the pants off about 30 minutes ago.  When I tried the pants on at the dry cleaners, the woman took a look and said “looks like about 2 inches”.  Wow!  Time to start exercising!

Anyway, right now, Friday can’t come soon enough!!!

An interview….

I’m happy to report that I have my first interview this coming Friday.  The time isn’t the best though (4 pm).  I wonder how much attention I’ll get at 4pm on a Friday.  But it was the only slot they had available.  The job is with the State of Oregon as a Maternal and Child Health Analyst.  Out of all the jobs I’ve applied for, this is the one that I felt I was best qualified for.  I am surprised that the State is hiring, given that so many states are having budget difficulties right now.

On an unrelated note, I took the bus into town yesterday and went to my favorite coffee shop.  The woman at the counter looked at me and said “mexican hot chocolate, right?”.  So I guess I’ve been going there a bit too often.  I’ve now become a regular.

happy, happy day….

I’d like to say that the tile of this post means that I got a job interview.  Sadly, the waiting game continues.  But I have another reason to be happy today!  Some of you may remember, that when I was in Queretaro, Mexico I had problems with my camera card and lost access to all of my photos up to that point.  I tried to solve the problem, but to no avail. All I was able to do was find the reason for the problem…with Sony cameras, taking photos when the battey is low can damage the camera card.  Meanwhile, I realized that my camera has an internal memory which is how I was able to continue taking pictures during my travels.  

A few weeks ago, I decided to once again see if I could find a solution to the camera card problem.  Lo and behold, Sony has released a program that allows you to recover photos from a damaged camera card.  Cool!  But when I tried to use it, I ran into a problem.  My camera card is too small to insert into my computer.  So I went onto ebay and found an adapter for $1.  That includes shipping.  From Hong Kong.  I have no idea how you can make a profit on something like that but I’m not complaining.  So I went ahead and ordered the adapter and it arrived today.  I stuck the adapter into the computer, run the Sony program…and there they were….my pictures from Queretaro!  There were also some photos from Mexico City.  And some of you might remember that I started my trip in Asheville, NC.  So I have those photoes now too.  The only downsides is that there were about 5 photos that weren’t recovered and the order of the photos was all messed up.  I didn’t try to but them back in any sort of order but I did arrange them by the 3 cities.  So without further ado….

Queretaro:

http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/530298.6e3e197b666/editor

Mexico City:

http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/530299.2dbe28590cc/editor

Asheville:

http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/530303.93d5270e32a/editor

the waiting game….

So far I’ve applied for about 10 jobs in the Portland area.   With the holidays, I assumed that I would have to be patient and wait for after the New Year before getting any interviews.  We’re now getting near the end of the first full week in Janaury and I still haven’t heard anything.  I’m trying not to be discouraged.  Really, I’m trying.  Which is hard when I don’t have much to keep me busy except to wait for the phone to ring.  I’m sure we’ve all been through that, right?  Staring at the phone, willing it to ring.  And yet it refuses to ring.   Honestly, I’d prefer rejection at this point.  The “not knowing” is what’s hardest.  If I have no shot at any of the jobs I’ve applied for, I’d rather know that so I can figure out another strategy.  Instead, I wait and wait and wait….