the eternal student

One job interview down

I interviewed with GE Global Research Labs in Niskayuna, NY on Monday. The site is where Thomas Edison discovered the light bulb and started GE. GE Global Research labs is one of the few multi-disciplinary labs like AT&T and Bell Labs were back in 70s-80s. They had asked me to come interview for an electronic packaging position in device integration so I thought it wouldn't be that bad of an interview. Man, was I wrong.

First off, I missed a connecting flight in Washington-Reagan. This was partly my fault because our flight out of Atlanta ran behind we had to run in order to connect to our next flight. Halfway to the next terminal I realized I left my suit back on the previous plane in the haste to get to the next one. I debated going without my suit and tie, but figured that would not look good. I had to back through security and by the time I reached the gate the plane was already boarding its new passengers. The ticket agent was busy boarding people and I didn't see my suit anywhere near the ticket counter. Now, this is where I lost rational thought and did something REALLY STUPID. I saw the ticket agent was busy and I wasn't able to get his attention. I figured he wouldn't mind if I just walked past him and boarded the plane to check for my suit. DUMB. I am like the idiot who decides to rush past security because he might miss his flight. The hostess on the plane said she had already brought the suit to the ticket counter. On my way back up the ramp the ticket agent came storming down and in a polite, but upset manner said I had broken protocal and should be kicked out of the airport. Man, I felt dumb dumb dumb. Fortunately he didn't call security and led me to my suit. I grabbed it and hurried to the my next flight. But alas, it already taken off and now I was stuck for the night in Washington-Reagan.

Now, at this time I didn't realize Washington had two airports: Reagan and Dulles. I had been in Washington-Dulles before so I figured that's where I was when I rebooked my original hotel in Albany NY to one near Washington-Dulles. Yeah, it wasn't until after I tried to get a shuttle to the hotel that I realized there may be TWO washington airports. Sure enough, I was at Washington-Reagan, about 30 minutes from Washington-Dulles. So, I rebooked the hotel again. I made a couple calls to GE to let them know I would arrive 2 hours behind the original schedule. I felt horrible because I had thrown the Interview Agenda for the day off. Not a good way to start. My mixing travel plans up so bad probably doesn't surprise many of you who have traveled with me, but it surprises me everytime.

After about 3 hours of sleep I caught a 6am to Philly and then went from Philly to Albany. I arrived at GE at 9:30 am only about an hour and half behind schedule. They were gracious and reworked the schedule so that most everything stayed the same. I first gave a 50 minute seminar on my work, and then was interviewd by a couple managers. That all went fine. Lunch went fine. Next I had an hour long non-technical interview which went okay as well. I hate ansereing questions like: What was your biggest failure? What's the biggest risk you've ever taken? What would you do with a $500k budget for research? How would manage a project. Ughhh.

Next came the hour long technical interview. This is where I felt I did bad. I did fine until two open ended questions outside of my expertise came up. Which is exactly what they wanted. They wanted to see how I would approach a problem outside of my expertise. I fumbled through it, but frankly was too tired to think 'out of the box' or very creatively. I thought alot on the plane ride back and emailed them some a more appropriate response. We'll see.

My overall impressions of GE Global Research Labs are great. I could really really thrive there. In fact, I feel really inadequate for the job because it involves so many things like MEMs, Optoelectronics, and novel problems that I'm unfamiliar with. The nature of the projects are such that you have no idea of what you'll be doing in 3 or 4 years. GE makes everything from aircraft engines, solar cells, medical imaging equipment, to washer and dryers. The challenge of the job is partly what pulls me to it so much. Unlike at IBM where I feel fully capable that I would be able to do the job; the challenge and chance to experience new things are not as great at IBM where I would strictly be doing packaging of silicon chips.

We'll see if they make an offer. I'm not very confident about getting an offer because I feel like there are much better qualified people. Lynn says it's good for me too have gotten roughed up and have to struggle for the position. I agree, but I don't like the feeling.