Same as The Phone

On April 6 I wrote that I had an interview with a transportation data company. It was around nine when I got coffee at Starbucks and then went down to Bart with my bike. I went to MacArthur BART and rode San Pablo 45th before writing up Hollis to 59th.

I went through the lobby and parked. The manager met me at the door and we sat down in a conference room. Some of the early stuff we talked about was the same as the phone call a few days before.

He presented an open quality. Open to the idea of using exchanges. He took too long and I was perturbed but didn't show it. Eventually he introduced to the five people I would need and went and rounded them up.

The first two were the analysts. Their jobs were to manually go through all of the incoming data and fix it. They mentioned the database programmer's job and how they ran scripts to fix jobs. The senior analyst was really obviously complacent and Matt didn't say much.

The database programmer and the engineering intern came in and the former was like a robot. I couldn't believe anyone was capable of that type of demeanor. They asked questions and the intern tried to make up for the other’s attitude by asking super hard questions with a smile. I did a terrible job.

When they were gone the director came in and admitted knowing nothing at all about me and my background. After a short while I decided I would have a hard time interacting with him. He asked manager types of questions. I wasn't pleased at all with them.

When the interview was nearly over the manager came in and I started being concerned about my other commitments but I let him make his comments.

Much later in the day I sat down with my friend for a beer with some people that knew a lot about the data firm I had interviewed at.  The five of us had good conversation. I told them about my interview and also let the founder - who had gone on to start a competitor - know about it and asked him some questions.

This series of experiences are conversations that I have had with knowledgeable people about my career or job interests. This Interview Series is meant to describe the basic elements of an interview and how I have gone about participating in one.

Well on My Interviews

On 3 March I wrote that my friend told me that she wanted me to do well on my interviews.

I got to my interviewee’s job site.  He was an acquaintance that had given me his phone number.  He answered my phone call and came down to meet me.  It occurred to me that he had forgotten our meeting but was open to the discussion.  When we got to the coffee shop I ordered and then we sat down and talked about my skills. I had mentioned that I was interviewing with his colleagues in an hour.

While waiting I had looked through the interviews I had had with people I knew and made a list of things to talk about. One of them was does anyone have a job? There was also does my contact know anyone? I noted that I might talk about my own ideas. They were also locations, company types and skills.

We began discussing my skills and he told me about a new software that was interesting.Then he started a pitch for his agency. He said he was a techie – an outlier – and most of his colleagues were a all a little bit of everything.

I noted that I was a generalist. He told me that that was good. He said analysts needed to have legal, corporate and other types of experience. He also said that they needed to examine complex issues.

I tried to get in some interview ideas. He said that I should expect them to go by the book when they interviewed me. They always have specifically three or four questions. He said to answer quickly and to the point with my experiences, to always answer the whole question and stick to my skills. He also told me that this questions will organize my thoughts and provide simple perspective.

I tried to ask about things my acquaintance had brought up and mentioned interviews. He misunderstood and thought this meant I haven't taken the exam yet. However, I said no. I pointed to his personal connections.  He said he didn't know a lot of people for me to pursue. I asked about some contracting agencies and he told me the one he worked with was a very hard company to get a job at.

He went on to say that I should be really interested in his agency and to be patient.  He said the application took a long time. He had been interviewed three times and it took him a year.  However, he had mentioned that there were going to be a lot of empty spots coming up soon. I asked about more things and he told me that he had skipped several jobs and mentioned it was special provision in the office.

After he went back to his office I waited until I knew he had been gone long enough and then I also went over to the office. I took some notes and eventually the supervisor that had offered me the interview came down to get me. He brought brought me up to a conference room and gave me the prompts. I spent 15 minutes looking at them.   When the group came in it was the initial supervisor a second supervisor and their boss. They told me her name but I didn’t really catch it.   

I noted that the first question had three bullets: role, job requirements, outcome. I was a little concerned that I would have a problem because as I reread the prompt and began explaining my conceptualization she immediately said that some stuff had already been decided so start from there.

I told him my job was feature manipulation. I explained I was blackbox testing and as an analyst I had to provide quality assurance. I received tables identified errors and used the code. I explained hoop stress – the supervisor wanted to know what that was.  I explained that I had to calculate my own results.

At this point the boss reiterated the questions and I had to start over. Eventually, I got to where I was able to explain my presentations to leadership. I noted that I was certain the boss asked more about this stuff but I don't know where.

From here we went to the next question about writing reports. I told them that I had thought a lot about this and selected a job. However I noted that I had been trained in how to write reports. I noted that there had to be graphs and believable references.

I explained the process of comparing personal systems. I told him that a graphic comparison of a small area it was easy but massive group so it was difficult. The supervisor, here, asked what was being compared and I reiterated parcel maps.

My notes had a list of things that I would compare and I ended up with a distribution and curves. I reiterated believable grass and images with references. Here are the boss piped in about how I presented data and analysis and I had to give a more thorough job of it. I brought my previous job into the discussion and mentioned leadership. I also differentiated between tech companies. The supervisor asked questions.

The final question was one of the hardest because I had prepared so little. I immediately went to the image I had drawn for myself and explained that the pressure project was the result of San Bruno and that I had to coordinate package people with engineers and also attend to unforseen issues as well as my old boss' pet projects.

They asked if I knew about special softwares and the second supervisor asked about well known softwares. I asked about my skill set and a couple of other things.

This series of experiences are conversations that I have had with knowledgeable people about my career or job interests. This Interview Series is meant to describe the basic elements of an interview and how I have gone about participating in one.

Time in The City

On 16 November I wrote that I went to a city office and my acquaintance introduced me to the systems manager. The conversation went all right. I thought that the manager's response to my email was positive and I thought it was a good tactic.

We started off by discussing commission jobs. I noted my progress and mention how it was a bit of a monoculture in that respect. I went on to explain the path through which data traveled through the procedures I had managed.

A list that I created was: drafting, data collection, district based data dictionaries, digitization and attribution, cartographic development, operations support, route handling, quality assurance and research, document review, SQL queries, policy analysis, documentation review, user guides, scripting, recommendations, QA QC, ETL, user acceptance testing, requirement review, licensing, data acquisition, data analysis, data preparation, ETL/FME, data delivery and consulting.

The manager told me that I needed to meet people and make friends. He suggested I talk to his associate one office over. I did some review of the name he had given me and I found that while a few of my friend’s knew him he wasn’t connected to the one’s that I was most certain he should be..

My acquaintance and this manager were the only people at that office that did any of the stuff I was good at and several departments relied upon them. I told them my father used to be at one of them and that my cousin worked at another.  However, they didn't seem to care and I wasn't certain why I brought it up.

The manager asked me about my dream job and I went back to the pressure project as I always do. However, where a previous interviewee critiqued my mention of my boss, this manager suggested I find people doing just that project and get involved. I did mention my boss again too.

I asked about ‘as-builts’ and he told me that they have a lot of documents. I described the documents at the pressure project and he seemed to think that this was my thing. I told him that it was the process I liked.

This is where he asked if I liked data stuff. I said ‘sorta’ because it can be great if control worked correctly. I noted that at the big tech firm I had worked for I had a lot of say but at the next job I didn't. I noted that the job after the pressure project allowed me to make samples.  At the pressure project I noted I had access to my colleague's data and it was great as long as he was around.  I told him that I didn't like the size of that company’s design and but liked the tech firm’s instead.

The manager thought my reaction to his question was strange because I sounded noncommittal. However, I went on to say that I liked working with data as long as I had some control or say over it. I also mentioned that being a DBA would be great but expensive.  I explained the accuracy problems at the pressure project. I told them that the principle had had to scrap the project.

The conversation was winding down and they suggested I simply pass jobs to them.  They said they would relay any pertinent info. They then invited me over to the pub then.   That was nice because we all saw someone we knew.  The manager ordered us popcorn and became very animated. He essentially told me that if I like a company I should find out exactly what they do and need and really push for them.

The manager took off then and my acquaintance and I discussed his time in the city from being a bike messenger to working at the city office.

This series of experiences are conversations that I have had with knowledgeable people about my career or job interests. This Interview Series is meant to describe the basic elements of an interview and how I have gone about participating in one.

About Biking and Running

On February 14 I wrote that a manager from a large tech firm called and asked me about my experience. Then she asked me about my python experience.  I felt like I had made a mistake by being honest with her. I told her that I was a five of 10. I might've considered giving her a six or a seven. However, I found that neither of those numbers fit my description. She then asked me about map lab. I told her I had never heard about it.  She asked me about my fitness experience and I told her about my experience beta testing a colleague's application. I also told her about biking and running and how I had done things like that in the past two years regularly.

When she got off the phone I decided that she had actually been really short with me. She hadn't told me very much information about next steps and had insisted that all the interviews she was doing during the day were only 10 minutes long.  I wrote that I wasn't impressed with the interview and believes that the programming element in my discussion was the job killer. However, it makes more sense to be honest. The manager said that this was a preliminary interview but I thought it was the end.

After the interview ended, I waited for the recruiter that had put me in touch with the manager to call me back. However, nothing happened so I started doing other things.  It was much later that I wrote I had a call with her but she had very Little to say.

This series of experiences are conversations that I have had with knowledgeable people about my career or job interests. This Interview Series is meant to describe the basic elements of an interview and how I have gone about participating in one.

First Friday Forum

It was great to get the opportunity to attend the forum last week.  There was much to digest afterward and I appreciated the opportunity for follow up later that evening.  As we discussed with your boss afterwards I'd like to come by sometime and sit down with either you or one of your team members.

As she mentioned, I am on the list and am keenly interested in working at the agency. I was particularly struck with how your colleague’s work in planning database development so closely matched my experience in graduate school.  It has always struck me how important qualitative methods are to the final product when doing quantitative research.

The programmer that presented specifically indicated that he would be happy to sit down with me in the coming weeks so I am sending this email to see how we should go about doing that.

Please feel free to contact me via email or phone,

Thanks again,

This series of experiences are emails I have sent or received regarding my career or job interests. This Correspondence Series is meant to provide examples of my interactions with industry actors for future reference.

The Q and A

On 4 February I wrote that the day before I had walked to Hayes Valley. I thought I had left early but by the time I got to the cafe I realized I had not.  Many people were converging on the courtyard room when I arrived and I noted that by the time The project manager had returned from his desk with the meeting code the seats beside me had been filled.

The manager did a quick intro for the modeling group and noted there was as of yet three jobs to fill. After this the data manager spoke. I noted that her presentation with significant of a more qualitative discourse. I noted that it was similar to my research in fact. She began to describe the structure of the databases she needed to build and it became clear that my skills would be useful to her.

When the Q and A started there were a lot of questions. Notably a man wanted to know if his existing data bases would be affected.  The data manager said that they wouldn't be.  Another person asked if they had started with the questions. The data manager was very apologetic at this point because her sample had not taken in everyone and the project manager cut in to make that clear.

After this the modeling manager started describing his relationship with a contracting agency. He described modeling processes. I had received an email at this point about a job so I composed an email back using an old resume. I wasn't certain how useful that would be but she didn't reply.

The administrator had come in by this point and I noted that she had seen me. I tried to follow the modeling manager but the thread was lost. There were a lot of people asking pertinent questions about the programs. I wasn't certain who they were and what they did.

There was a break and I spoke to the lady beside me. She wanted to know how I had ended up at the discussion. I described my skill set and explained how I had met one of the analysts at the agency.

When the discussion began again the lead developer was talking. He explained what python was and how it differed from a spreadsheet solution. Then he explained what it was capable of doing using an example project.

He described 35 years worth of data and processes and then explained how he made a script to do the process and presented the results.  When he finished it was clear that the people who benefited from that process liked it very much. However everyone else thought that it needed to change. I thought this was ironic because it was clearly a proof.

The questions went on and on but the administrator cut it short. I then tried to talk to the project manager but ended up with the modeling manager. He was very open but acted like my interaction was unusual. I also tried to engage the data manager then. She was with the administrator who introduced me to the project manager and everyone else.

The consensus was that I should spend some time interacting with all four people in the group over the next week or two. I noted that I was very appreciate of of this. The developer said I should email him and the project manager said he remembered me.  The administrator said it was likely going to be a few months before anything was decided regarding jobs. However, it felt like my rating was going to make me good fit for any opening.

Later I went to the bar for their happy hour. Once I was there the project manager waved at me. I sat initially with the modeling manager but ended up talking with the data manager. Her team had only existed for a short time. She had spent 20 years working in industry. We discussed methodology and general ideas before I decided I was dragging.

I spoke to the lead developer when I went for another beer. At the bar I just accepted that this was just my lot so returned and sat across from the modeling manager and his coworker. It was awkward then but things were winding down. I made ready to go and said bye to everyone.

This series of experiences are ideas and memos I have written down about my career or job interests. This Notes Series is meant to describe in brief my epiphanies, discoveries or simply encounters for future reference.

Collect My Thoughts

On 2 January I wrote that I walked down to the Van Ness bus and then went to Peet's around 815. I had coffee and then I walk to the state office building. There are the clerk took my name and called upstairs. I want to the cafeteria and I ended up interacting with a guy from the department. He said he worked with my interviewers.

The assistant that had emailed me about the job took me  upstairs a little bit later. First we sat in a room and then the principal came in. Her associate from an adjacent department came in a bit later. They gave me questions written on a piece of paper. They also gave me a paper to write notes on. Then I had a few minutes to collect my thoughts.

The first question was about gathering, analyzing and presenting my quantitative research. This is where I reviewed the process of data acquisition. I started with things like licensing and proceeded to things like loading data.

I discussed sampling and then described my normal presentation of tables and queries. However, I made it clear that I use graphics and also rode up opinions.

My assessment of this part is that I did a fair job describing my work. However, I did tell him that I was not in administrator. I have been under the impression that my lack of administrative background was a drawback.

The next question was about my attitude and behavior when talking on the phone.  Here I looked at three examples. One was about the triage that my hotel manager would go through. The next was how I dealt with a state agency when I worked at the tech company. Finally I noted that I am also interacted with co-workers at the utility. One thing I pointed out that project can be done in many different manners.

My initial assessment was that going through these examples was warranted.  However, afterwards I thought that showcasing Intergroup conflict presented the wrong take on my concept to stay interactions.  After both of my answers there were no follow up questions.

After everything was done I ask a general question about systems. The secondary principal said that there's a possibility of our putting license state at two spreadsheets. Their responses indicated that quite a bit of work was done using less sophisticated materials. I told them that the interface on a personal level is all that mattered.

Before I left I made it clear that I really wanted the job. I said similar things to the assistant on the way down to the lobby.

This series of experiences are conversations that I have had with knowledgeable people about my career or job interests. This Interview Series is meant to describe the basic elements of an interview and how I have gone about participating in one.