The color of infinity inside an empty glass

So I LITERALLY just backposted an entry from a couple days ago about, among other things, a job interview with a company in NC. Since I think/hope this is important enough.

Just responding with more here...

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Well, I got a call back on the NC job. They want me for a second interview with even more higher-ups in RALEIGH. The interview is scheduled for Thursday at 2:00 PM. Which, yes, means Robert will be up again.

I think I'm half-expecting I'll be called to North Carolina for a REAL interview soon.

It's gratifying to be a serious candidate. It gives me hope. And while I have decidedly mixed feelings about leaving DC, I am absolutely bouncing in my seat at the prospect of no longer being unemployed.

I hopehopehope this pans out.

... if only I knew anyone in the Charlotte, NC area.

Holy Crap Holy Crap Holy Crap and did I say Holy Crap?

So... what I THOUGHT was going to happen was that I was going to have a phone SCREENING at 9:30. That they'd go over the job, go over my resume, etc. Relatively low pressure. I reviewed the specific responsibilities of the job I applied for, looked at my resume and was as ready as I was going to be.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the interviewers told me that the job was NOT what I thought it was, but was a Wastewater Treatment job at a paper mill (I did my review and knew that the company was a paper mill in a paper mill town.)

The rest of the interview just went at warp speed from there, and it WAS an interview, a tough one.

We went over my education, we went over my experience. I told them about the classes I tool in college and my stint as a research assistant helping a fellow student testing out using tires as a filtration medium. We talked about my experience working the FEMA job and my experience as a team lead.

Then we got into the technical questions and I was quizzed. The manager even said.. well, we're a paper mill, what sorts of materials do you think we check the effluent for?

Um.. excuse me as a cheat, I say, as I rush to pull out my Civil PE Review book and look, naming.. oxygen, nitrates and heavy metals, maybe? And apparently that isn't cheating, apparently that's knowing where to get the information you need and I think I scored points with that.

And he goes again.. well, we watch out solids and air. What do you think we watch for? Well.. what do you DO with your solids and air.. do you burn your solids, do you landfill them? Oh, we dry them and reburn them to fuel our plant. Well, says I, I think that's OK.. oh! That's why you have to watch your air, you need to make sure that you filter out anything nasty before it escapes.

I still wish I'd know what I was being interviewed for, though. I'd have reviewed those chapters this weekend and been more prepared, but I think I was able to at least sound like I DO know what I'm talking about.

CIVIL REVIEW BOOK POWERS ACTIVATE!

All in all, I think I did well. I think I'd be surprised and disappointed if they don't call me in for an interview.

It's been.. over 5 years since I developed a resume and I just reworked mine to try to reflect my six years of experience working in the FEMA MT-2 field and the useful experiences I've garnered from them that could help me get another job doing hydraulic or environmental engineering.

I've screened comments. If anyone would like to look at it, comment with an appropriate email address and I'll pass it along.

Thanks!

It's been a pretty good couple days. Not as good as Tuesday, but pretty good.
Yesterday I wore my contacts. First time in a while. I need to get used to them again. Unfortunately, I forgot that they make me tired. But I survived. I'm okee. I would have put them on again today, but I didn't sleep well, so I didn't want to make myself any more tired than I already was.
Actually, yesterday was a busy day.
The story (I know you want to know!) started Tuesday. I got an email saying that commencement was May 11 at 1:00 PM (y'all are cordially invited to UB to see me get commenced , if any of you can and care to make it) and that all people who were to be commenced were on a certain web page. Go to the web page and make certain your name is spelled properly.
So I go to the web page and look for my name.. not there. Look more.. not there... use the netscape "find in page" feature.. it is, in fact, not on the page. Looking, though, I noticed that none of the Environmental Engineers were on the list. So I email Peggy Lane (Engineering secretary) and ask what's going on. She emails me to say she hasn't put Environmental Engineering students on yet... but wait, I hadn't filled my paper work on time, so i wasn't eligible to get my diploma in June.
So after a bit of running around by myself and the environmetnal engineering advisor, Dr. Rabideau, we realzie I won't get my diploma in June, period. But they can "sneak" me and Samuela (who also forgot/didn't know to fill out her paperwork too) into commencement and we'll shake hands and etc. but we'll get our diplomas in September.
That's fine with me, I'll be in grad school still anyways, so it's cool with me if the diploma comes in September. As long as I can go to commencement and shake hands and my family can gush proudly and stuff, it's all good.
I also got my new printer yesterday. It's an Epson Stylus C60. Quality of printout is good and it's MUCH faster than my 8 year old canon. So I'm very happy with the printer :D
Today, like I said, I didn't sleep well.. Made it through groundwater. Barely. Luckily there's a test tuesday, so I don't have to go to class. Yay sleeping late :)
Decided that I NEED to take a nap.. so eat my lunch and sneak out of the trailer and off to home to sleep for two hours. Get up, get dressed up, go off to the design class to discuss stuff.
The plan is to go to Letchworth State Park Tuesday afternoon at noon and come home... whenever. Not sure when we'd be home.
So, off to the Meet and Greet (hosted by R&D and GRA Engineering). Basically, like 8 people from the 2 companies arrived, met those of us environmental engineers (and some chemical and civil engineers) who showed up. They chatted with us, offered food, and took resumes. I handed a resume to the project manager from GRA (R&D is mostly process work... pumps, water and wastewater treatment.. not what I wanna do for the rest of my life. GRA is bigger.. they do remediation and stuff, too.. so I handed them a resume and told them I wasn't graduating for another year and a half.
I feel cool.. I had my resume on fancy paper and in an envelope. Most of the other resumes I saw were on plain white paper. I think it looks more professional to have yer resume on the fancy stuff, personally...
Other than that, got home, played with the kitty, wrote up some homework and the other LJ post and here I am!
Talk to ya dorks later!