Random Ramblings about stuff I see going on in biotech, internet and the stuff I read.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

the glamourous side of travel....

A couple of random notes:

  • I am doing a top secret thing, so am stuck somewhere in a hotel room banging away on things. This means I am anti-social and just looked around at what I have been eating. There are 4 empty bags of beef jerky and 10+ empty Gatorade things. This came to my attention because I was hunting for more beef jerky and there wasn't any. I don't think I ate breakfast today. I also thought I should have grown out of this behavior in grad school. The fact that I *can* order room service means nothing. I still eat like crap
  • I finally rewarded myself with a car. I turned in the Saturn SL1 that my wife and I bought when I was a 3rd year grad student for $6000 and bought a used BMW540. I can heavily recommend this as a life step. However, whereas I used to look at rental cars as a big step up vs. what I was driving, I now miss my car. This is massively materialistic and I love it.
  • I am good at big company politics....so far.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

dr. yes--

you've detailed your post-phd job search in some detail, and it's definitely helped me through this extremely difficult period (i've posted a few times about interviews i've had...so far, nothing has gone through). I'm pretty frustrated, because i've had face-to-face interviews (with flights to locations) with 5 different companies (sometimes with more than 1 visit per company) and phone interviews with two more. I've been looking since midsummer, and getting pretty frustrated all around.

How many interviews did you have before things clicked? You've said the field application scientist position found you, which must have felt great...but did you have repeated starts and stops?

what i think is most frustrating is that i get pretty far along the process, and everyone always tells me "You've done a lot of really great stuff...you're a great candidate...you'll definitely get a job...blah...blah...blah" then why no offer?

i never thought this would be so difficult! i also never thought i'd be posting my experiences on a blog asking a stranger for advice!!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

I've had very similar experiences. Its very frustrating. Probably a supply/demand thing (lots of candidates, few positions). You just have to keep on plugging. Hopefully you're in a position where you aren't unemployed, otherwise a temporary position at Starbucks may be in order to keep food on the table.

yes said...

I interviewed at 8 places before I got the offer.

It sucks.

No other way to put it. There was a lot of time there when I really doubted that I was going to work. My wife was huge during this period.

Not much more to say here.

Hang in there!

Anonymous said...

thanks guys...it really helps knowing that this is not unique to me...have more interviews coming up this week and next week...persistance!

Anonymous said...

My stats:

Been looking: About 1 year.

4 face to face interviews

countless emails/calls from recruiters that never turned into anything

about 4-5 phone interviews (in addition to the ones that led to face to face interviews)

2 emails from Ukrainian phishers who got my contact info from Monster.com (uh, yeah, any email that says you "need your own bank account to process payments" is probably not legit).

1 of the 4 interviews might have turned into an offer, but I told them no thanks before going to a second interview as they were fairly unimpressive. So, at this point I'm 0-for-4, however I'm currently employed (academic postdoc) and thus not desperate. I probably could be a bit more proactive about applying to jobs, I'll probably get better as the fellowship comes to a close and I get more desperate.