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.

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.

Complained to a Fellow

On January 25 I wrote that I left the house by 830 and caught a Mission street bus and headed south to have coffee with an acquaintance a café. I told her about her supervising board representative’s email and how she had rejected my discussion.

We discussed our her live’s.  She told me about her connections to a planning agency and a tech outreach organization and mentioned a good person to talk to. SHe told me about her previous jobs and I mentioned a mutual friend. She told me that she considered herself to be a program manager but like me wanted to stop using fossil fuel - her reason for her most recent position. She had gone on bike tours had had an injury and only recently had fixed her bike to get back onto the riding.

I got some more coffee and we discussed the email I had sent to the board person. My acquaintance said that they had planks. One of them was an audit - her associate was administering to that. They gave people sheets and then they go out on rides and fill out the sheets.

I told her about my ideas. I told her that you can use data to identify different groups of people. Then you can go and find individuals who might want to help the group. An example was that one might have a corridor where people live. Census data or commerce date describes who lives there and it is possible to find one representative opinion leader and would represent those people.

We talked about 24th street and also her wonky board members. She said that her perspective as a small business person was that things like the central subway we're only going to make things worse for business people. At her old job she had utility trucks going through and cement cutter is in the way. Eventually she said that she went and offered them menus.

I assessed that we agreed the MTA had a tin ear. She noted that if Twitter can take payroll taxes off of their bill then why can't other small businesses? Here she told me that her husband sometimes has a hard time finding parking in the mission and it's possibly because the MTA didn't take the time to show him.

We discussed useful information for grant writing. She told me that her board was learning how to write. She told me that the transit center was also kind of new. I listed off the top two granting organizations. She told me one foundation was actually the focus of a current grant writing push .

She told me that every grant that you write needs to have some sort of equity and or environmental element to it. A vision her board member had written provided both an environmental and an equity element. She wasn’t certain that equity was the best term. I told her about my experience with an equity person in DC that I had known.

This is where we started to wind things down. I told her about the a survey group. I described my Career. She mentioned the utilities commissions.  I told her I needed a project management job.  After this I told her that the next thing that needed to happen was some sort of connection between the context on the ground in the state of research. I told her that a bibliography would be the best way to go. I said that an academic research would probably do best to have some sort of community relationship.

We had talked for about an hour at that point. I had kept notes throughout. While getting coffee I had complained to a fellow customer about the parking lots in the area. My acquaintance and I caught the bus to 16th and I said bye to her.

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.

Got Off at Gough

At six it was difficult to get up. I noted that it was easy to catch the express but I did have to run. I got off at Gough and I went to the apartment before I took BART Oakland.  I walked to a well known East Bay agency and sat writing in my notebook for a while. My acquaintance came in a bit early. He told me we would go straight to Peet's.

On the way I described my interaction with my last informant. She had suggested I ask people to talk. He mentioned informational interviews. I thought it sounded strange because that's what I thought we were doing.

We got in line and we put our jackets at the table. We ordered – he needed food. I didn't offered to pay. I mentioned the president of our mutual association. Moments later I sat waiting and when he sat down I made small talk about traveling. I told him about my domestic situation.

He returned to the informational interview idea and I explained more about my last informant. Also I asked about his user group and the association president. He addressed my questions and I also asked about listservs especially with the association and mentioned.

He didn't mention this but I noticed I didn't actually say what I do – my skills -- while I was talking.  However, I did mention the two sectors I had interest in. I talked about the a bay area wide agency. He explained a lot about his experience. He had had a job at an agency in his community and mentioned a bit about his ex-wife helping him with interview questions. He also had a friend that did that.

I brought up the job I had applied to at his agency and explained my experience with the job posting. He said they have the prompts so that you can give them a really good answer. I explained that I didn't really know what to write because I knew I could do the work but wasn't able to speak to the specifics. He said I need to focus on myself and not dwell on the specifics.

I explained that I knew that interviews are complicated for a supervisor. He then explained that the position I had applied for was actually three jobs. He said someone had quit. They had two mid-level jobs and a high-level job. They couldn't fill it so they reposted it. He said they use HR filters, then he selects, then they forward the selection to an outside consultant and finally he tries to interview about five people.

He told me that my resume was too sterile. I understood. I also said it works on websites. He said I needed to use first person. He was surprised but also recognized that as a contractor this would be my perspective.

He said that contracting was often fine. He had worked with a private business that had been purchased but was not fully integrated for spinning off and ultimately failed. His old coworker was a shoo-in at his agency but quit for a private job. However, the public agency job was better in the long run and he returned.

I noted that this was one of the times when I needed to interrupt but I didn't because he was describing useful information. However he never told me the specifics about the people involved. He returned to interviews because that's what we were doing. He had a lot of enthusiasm.

He told me informational interviews should be planned and that I was interviewing them. I noted that they might not want to hire me but that's not why we sit down with them. My last informant had said the same. He described questions and said these things several times.

I discovered that he had brought my resume. He also brought several examples of what he thought were important. He thought it needed a summary and skills.  He also said that writing in first person was also very important. He also said that my resume was a good length.

I noted that at some point I asked about jobs he had heard about. He said that I hadn't really taken the time to describe myself. That was when he asked me about my favorite job. I told him about my favorite boss but he told me that I needed to talk about myself. I took the time to describe the job at this point and then he told me that I was being too broad. That was when he said that I should just say A, B and C and be done.

I described a job I had recently interviewed for and how they thought I had been too talkative. He told me that he had a friend that had worked for that company. I noted that I should probably ask him about that.

He explained two things. First they have specific needs/wants -I should speak to those in the informational interviews. Second, I should write everything brand-new.

At this point he made apologies for being critical but I tried to say criticism was welcome. He said that I should offer to buy coffee, make my resume first person and to Google informational interviews as well as cover letters to get the kind of sample questions I needed.

I told him I always want to cut and paste because I'm afraid to do the thinking. He asked for more information. I said that and analyst the boss always wants information quick with no frills. I told him I felt like I should stick to what works. He told me that he understood but also indicated I needed to insert things everywhere.  By this point we were way over time so I started hurrying up. Dennis was still putting a fine point on several things when we walked to the BART entrance. I said bye then.

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.

Repose Was Too Small

On January 11 I wrote that I walked to Haight Street and caught a six to Divisadero. The coffee shop Repose was too small so I checked with my acquaintance and we agreed to got to to Vinyl.  We sat talking about a local politician we knew and the conversation I had had with another acquaintance the day before. I segued to what I wanted and who I wanted to emulate.

I noted I wanted to be a senior or supervising analyst and I noted that the local politician we knew was a good model. We started writing things down at this point.

I took pictures of the notes she wrote and she gave me some other stuff. She asked what I wanted to do it as a job because I explained my role as an analyst and described my commute. She asked about my resume statement. I said I wanted to be in San Francisco. She wrote down that I wanted to have more responsibility because that contributed to my long-term prospects. She noted that I didn't want to be a contractor.

I wrote these things down to but I noted her contention that I while it was clear that I wanted to be in San Francisco as an FTE, I still needed to further unpack that.

For instance she said I was a teacher, guide, trainer, advisor and liked to do research. I noted that she seemed to be segueing into a new topic. This is when she said yes and asked why I wanted a city job. Then she listed out ways that I person would work for the city. She listed out staffing agencies and suggested that there were many other avenues.

Before she started writing in her notebook – sort of to summarize – she said that yes the list of reasons/ways is long but I would also want to pay attention to benefits and opportunities. She said it was important to have many irons in the fire.

I noted yes I wanted benefits and the chance of promotion. However, benefits included remuneration and severance is well.

Here she suggested her planner friend because she was similar to our politician friend but was also more like me. She had hired a career coach that help her negotiate salary. She used to work at a city agency.

She went on to say that an informational interview was like a job interview except the questions aren't about what jobs the interviewee has but what jobs anyone has.

As a recap she confirmed from her discussion a different avenues to a city job by writing out the question, "who knows someone?” I listed out a few places and noted that her friend did 10 years at a biotech firm as a purchasing person after my acquaintance had landed her a job.

This is when we discussed the book What Color Is My Parachute which she had read. She wrote out some bullets: location, company type, the kind of people, skills and subject area.  I had noted already that I wanted to work in San Francisco and bike to work. I noted that I wanted to be at a firm that treated people well and had good benefits. My acquaintance added things like “not a start up” and said I wanted to be with people that were like the ones at the happy hour we regularly attended.

We discussed University work and our professor friend came up. I said however that the application process for those jobs (or any for that matter) were onerous. After this she suggested I change the job description in my resume to first person. I told her how it was optimized for CareerBuilder.

She started to say I wanted to second resume that had a stated objective. She said that it should be the kind of resume that describes job type, skills, etc. She said that I would want to summarize my skills – GIS, dB and research,

I noted that I would list expertise and accomplishments. From here I noted that I would list employment history but instead of what I had I would write first person. "I mapped… I research… I built utilities QA QC etc.…”

Here I shared my lifestyle ideas and said that I was kind of living it already. I also described the advocacy stuff but I had told her about this already. I also mentioned things about research ideas. I noted that I would go see a local transit advocate.

When I knew it was time to go so we said bye and she said she would email introduce her friend to me.

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.

Only about Bike Politics

On 10 January I wrote that I heading out to meet my acquaintance who worked as a programmer downtown. I passed up a stop and thought about going to FedEx to print a resume but opted purely for conversation.

We were meeting at a cafe and I found a nice spot. We ordered and I spoke only about bike politics. That was around when he explained the four different things that his data operations team had. One was a QA QC product using JSON editor, another was a comparison tool.

After he explained that I would likely be a good fit for the job if it opened he started to get text from his coworkers and had to go.

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.

Phone call with Marcus

I spoke to Ravi at Collabera and we confirmed my phone call with Marcus at 930.  When called the number I ended up on a conference call with Marcus, Steve, Gordon and Vikram.  Steve apparently was an associate that I remember speaking with before.

I wrote that the team I had applied for a job with did support for the development of GIS software.  Marcus asked some questions for the team saying that the project I was applying for was phase two of the project and that they had a query tool that created tables, used GRASS and identified buffered areas.  He called it an ETl tool that does data visualization, where if the data doesn’t pass inspection it may not be used.

I described some of my previous experience and then Steve explained that Phase Two would be provide further integration with existing software.  He called it regression testing to see if data was displayed correctly and then described how the day to day activity was meant to query the db and verify that it make the correct outputs and if not then we would have to make the new data.  The team then explained that they were looking at what changes affect the front end tool correctly, saying that Gordon defines the requirements in liaison with the group and that everyone has to meet with him occasionally.  They said there were also general requests from other teams as well.

I told Marcus I wasn’t certain what a Feature Manipulation Engine (FME) was.  However, once they explained that it was a buffer tool which turned routes into events I told them that I had experience with tools like this.  They said it was an ETL tool and that was crucial to interface with the FME developer to understand what manual changes were necessary.

Marcus indicated that I needed to know about shp and geodatabase exports but Steven explained that a lot of that was peripheral.  Marcus also asked me what I had done in the GIS area.  Here I explained that my GIS background covered many years and that I was quite capable with the environment that they had described.  I also indicated that the specific types of buffering and manipulation were like second nature to me especially when it comes to tracking changes and testing.

I’m competent at data export/import and that once the tool is made then a lot of the work was already done.  I also noted that scripts need to be watched every time the process changes—especially if you make a new data source.  Steve then said we wouldn’t be building anything but that interfacing with the team was important.  He also said that I would be checking the source of the data and making certain that the front end tool was correct.

Vikram then went on to say that the process was just as complicated as my last position with the company.  He then asked me to explain how my previous experience coincided with what they explained.  I explained the process of moving data from sharepoint to access to the engineers and finally to the uploaders group.  I made certain to name all the principle actors as a reference as well.

I told them that the data Ihad been using didn’t use shapefiles and explained the lag between each teams procedures.  I said that we used Access to query and then send data to the engineers and that I also knew how to upload data.  I described the process of loading and then sending the data to the testers and went on to explain our “Linear Match” tool for addressing buffering issues.

Steve went on to say that they use Model Builder and I said that I had experience with it.  He then said that they used a testing model for testing which only needed my feedback.  I explained that a model is easy to understand if you have access to the source data to see what is going on with it.

I said that from the description I understood the job well.  I then confirmed the location and asked how many people were on the team and sounded like there were around 10 with 4 developers and a couple of testers.

Within an hour Ravi called to tell me I had landed the job and that the HR guy would call me.  He called a half hour later to confirm that I had received the job.  He then asked if I would accept it.  He said that the contract was 6 months with the possibility of more.  He then confirmed my compensation and said he would send me the details.

GIS at Stanford

I had an interview for a transportation planning position with technical expertise in GIS at Stanford.  I opened up Google Hangouts and received a call from a guy there named Ramses.  We talked about the Hangouts a bit and then he told me that this was the first of several interview rounds and I was one of ten being interviewed.  He said that he had a bunch of questions that he would go through that that this would provide a guide for his evaluation.  I asked about the job and we talked about the UCLA Professor Don Shoup a bit with whom Ramses said that he had consulted.

He said that the job is a data focused job and wanted to evaluate my skills.  The first questions were about Data Management, table production and visualization.  I went over my experience with SQL here.  I recounted my experience with Cartography and ESRI’s GIS and then my experience with MS Access.  I discussed how easy it is to learn the tools if you understand these things.  Ramses described the products his office uses: “R” plug-ins and data mining tools.

He asked about my experience with Java and Python—scripting, programming and command line.  I explained that I had taken classes and built things on my own webpage.  He then asked if I would be able to edit xml or if I had had experience with a debugger or a command line.  To this I explained that I was competent.  I gave him some examples of my modeling experience and I indicated that solving some of his problems might involve several iterations of scripting and a lot of time for the processing and development.  I made it clear that I was a capable GIS analyst with cartographic and network analysis skills pertaining to route optimization, scripting and online tools.

He then asked about my survey experiences.  Here I went into depth with examples I knew: my thesis and helping with the parking office at my university.  He explained that every year his office collects a representative survey from a population of 60000 campus users.  He said the successful candidate would be instrumental in the process of moving data from the survey to analysis.  I explained that my project management experience began with my experiences at Grad School and continued through to the last two jobs I had had.  He then asked me to explain to him why I should get the job and I said that this is the position that I wanted (my “dream job”) and that he had essentially gone over a long list of things that I was well qualified to do.

I asked about the environment in the office and turnover.  He indicated that there wasn’t a huge emphasis on punctuality and that working from home was occasionally possible.  He also said that there wasn’t a lot of turnover in the job and that a lot of people are around for years before they even consider moving on to something better.  He was taking over from his boss who was moving to the Airport.  When we wrapped things up Ramses mentioned that the next round of interviews would be in Stanford proper.

One Avenue

I had just come home from a great weekend camping trip to Marin when I sat down with my father to talk about my career search.  My dad believes that I need to go down to the employers and present myself.  Meanwhile, I kept trying to explain that I need a reason—specifically a relationship—upon which to base this kind of visit.  He said that he would let me know when next he spoke to his friends or associates.

The next day I found myself on the phone with a man who works as a consultant to the company from which he had retired.  I told him that I had previously worked as a consultant at the same company and that I wanted to talk to him about my attempts to get hired there.  He said he had worked for many years as a union employee and that one avenue might be to speak with the unions.  I explained to him that this was an avenue that many had suggested to me.

I then went on to explain that I had been using the company’s web-based job application system.  I noted that while they had actually responded to me I have always been rejected for positions for which I am fully qualified.  I then described some of my experiences as a consultant with the company and asked about the work environment.  He then described what the company’s consultants do in his office.

I told him that I wanted to get on the radar of someone at that office.  I then told him that so many potential employers don’t see that my most recent employer’s background made him a good connection.  He explained that the company keeps on reorganizing its services but that he it could use a little investigation.  This call has made me reconsider my concept of this type of job.  Up to now I had always been under the impression that I would land a job and then join the union.

She knew nothing about GIS

I wrote that after I gave up on the Tumblr account I watched Baltimore win against Detroit and watched Family Guy.  The next day I got up at 645 and left an hour later to catch the 16x.  I read the paper and walked to Peet’s on California and Market.  I then went to New Montgomery for my interview with Insight Global.

Some young gangly man guided me to the conference room and that was where Ana Cyr interviewed me.  She asked me all of the same questions about my work experience that she had over the phone.  She didn’t have my resume.  All she had was a notebook and her card.  It felt like this was just consulting and that I should have been paid for what we discussed.  She knew nothing about GIS and asked me what ArcFM was.  It was clear that she needed that bit of information and that no one was providing it.  I think that while they may have used Career Builder or Monster to find me initially, the fact that they had an old resume means that they hadn’t used it recently.

I caught the L home and walked.  At home I ate a sandwich and started editing my bibliographic notes.  I wrote that I had been reviewing the aggregators.  I wrote that I did a little bit of the acknowledgments page and loaded all of my photos to Tumblr.  I also noted that mom and dad were nearly done with the tree.  I helped dad carry the tree upstairs and then helped mom put the lights on.  I wrote that I would leave for the cleaners to get my pants and then meet Kathryn.

Google Interview

I got up at 730 and was on my bike by 930.  I rode up Pacheco and then climbed to 22^nd and took a short stop in Stern Grove.  I walked across 19^th and rode Junipero Serra to BART, where I caught the Milbrea train.  There I discovered that I had missed the last train and would have to wait an hour.  I was really angry but realized that I had no choice.  I could only afford one hic-up before I didn’t make it on time.  The train came a few tweets later and secured my bike for the trip to CA Avenue.

Once there I rode CA, Cowper and Loma Verde to the slough and then there is a freeway underpass that connects to the Intuit campus.  I thought I was lost but it was easy to find the Google Campus.  There I asked for the main building and then found the bike stands.  Throughout there were affluent young professionals everywhere—a world cast—variously Asian and Caucasian and there were certainly a lot of H1B Visas.

I found the main building and checked in with Dominique at the front desk.  I sat in the lobby and got on the wifi.  I turned off my devices as Alejandro entered the room.  He was dressed in a down jacket vest and had plugs in his ears.  He was wearing glasses, a beard and had an easy but business like demeanor.  He wasn’t a typical businessman—a hipster rather than a big blue type.

I got some water from the kitchen with him and we went into a conference room.  He basically asked about my job experience.  I started with the San Bruno incident and stopped at my experience with Recology.  He seemed keen on my experiences up to then.  I told him why I loved Geography.  I told him the story about the AAA maps that pops brought me as a kid and how that taught me what scale meant.  I talked about going to the high mountains as a kid with my uncle.

I went over MAOP and we got into my experiences as a coordinator and essentially said a GIS analyst is a coordinator and an administrative assistant.  I sort of was just glossing over a lot of stuff and until I sat down to write up these notes I hadn’t really thought about whether the interview had gone very well.  For the last 20 minutes I think we just did a rehash of the conversation.  When I wrote this I felt like there was a lot of stuff conveyed but didn’t really remember.  I also wrote that I talk too much and that there were a lot about academics that I could have done without.

Alejandro said that at one time geography was unrepresented in the area that google was involved but not anymore.  He also said the job was going to be really rote.  We ran out of time and finished the interview in the hallway.  I wanted to get to know him but never cared to try.  I returned to the bike and rode back through Intuit.

I saw a Google bike there and left mine to ride it.  I had some contractor on his own Google bike photo me.  Then I called G Security to have the bikes picked up.  I went to the bay marsh.  There I discovered I still had wifi so I looked at the front entrance to the building I was near and discovered it was a Google-like daycare or residence.  The building was fully a mile from the campus.

Interview at FES

I went to an interview with a company I used to work for FES.  I had been concerned about the BART strike so I got up at 4 and left a little later to sleep in the parking lot at Peet’s Walnut Creek.  I got there at eight.  I met Brian House in the conference room.  He introduced himself and we talked about my MAOP experience.  He said that my SQL experience was strong and wanted to know about my cartographic experience.  He was also interested in my communication skills.

Nearly twenty minutes into the interview I realized that I was being interviewed for a that had a position in San Ramon and not the Mission District of SF—the one for which I had applied.  I thought that it was sad that they didn’t even consider interviewing me for that position.  Midway through the interview Dave came in.  We talked for a bit but Brian had all of the questions.  When he was finished he gave the action over to Dave, who declined to ask any questions.

After that Dave walked me around the facility and eventually I saw all the old faces.  I said bye after confirming with Dave that they had made no decision.  Justin, Bihn and Brian House are the unit for which they had considered me for in San Ramon.  I left at 930 and immediately Kathryn wanted to know how it had gone.  I told her I didn't know yet but that I wasn't broken hearted.