Kaonashi Ga Suki

So I’ve spent the last several weeks looking for a job.

Every morning I’d get up early, fire up the computer, and search in several different websites, mainly Monster, HotJobs, Career Builder, and yes, even Craigslist.

During the first couple of weeks I was able to find a whole bunch of leads. I applied to small and large companies. I applied to positions I knew I was perfect for, and to positions where I didn’t quite meet the requirements (you never know). I was sending an average of 4 a day. At one point, I sent 8! Whew! I was on fire.

It’s paid off so far. I had a phone interview on Monday, which I’m hoping will lead to a face-to-face interview in two weeks. I also had an interview on Wednesday, which was a trip. Let me tell you the story.

I applied for a manager of research analysis position for a marketing firm that deals with the entertainment industry. The office is really close to Beverly Hills. So I’m waiting at the lobby, and I’m nervous as hell of course. I’m all decked out in my fancy suit and my interview finally arrives. He’s wearing jeans and a sweatshirt with the emblem of my current grad school on it. His name is “Gabe” (not his real name). Naturally I commented that he’s an alumni of my school.

It turned out that we actually came in the same year together and had most of the same classes together! When he saw my resume, he recognized my name!

Holy. Shit.

Gabe graduated a year before me because he was in a co-concentration of the Master’s Program and didn’t require a thesis, whereas I was officially in the Doctoral Program and need to write a thesis. Still working on that.

It turned out that there are 3 other people from my school working at this office! And one of them is an old stats TA (teaching asssistant) of mine!

I started wondering if this was a blessing or curse in disguise. On the one hand, Gabe knows me from our classes. Therefore, he knows what I know. Also, the simple fact that we’re from the same school doesn’t hurt. We weren’t buddies or anything, but everyone knows that people tend to be friendlier towards someone in their ingroup.

Then again, I don’t know how much these guys remember about me, because I wasn’t that great in stats class. Like I said, one of the guys is an old TA, and Gabe himself became the stats TA a year later. Me? I was just happy to escape from that class alive. So now I’m worrying that my old TA will say, “No man, don’t hire her. She sucks at stats.”

Of course, I’ve improved a lot since my first year at grad school, but I’m still intimidated that I may be working with these stats geniuses.

An stranger thing that occured was that when I sent in my resume, it was forwarded to a different department. There are actually two related departments in the office. Gabe’s is the hardcore stats department, where they take the data and analyze the hell out of it. The one I officially applied for is more of the writing department, where they take that analyzed data and write the results for it. When I read the job description on the website, it gave the impression that the deparment I applied for did both data analysis and results writing. Moreover, the department I applied for had changed its name, making things more confusing.

I suppose the reason my resume was forwarded to the stats department was because they noted a lot of stats-related words on it, but the truth is that I’m qualified for both positions. I can number crunch with no problems and also write up on it. After meeting with Gabe, I spoke with the head stats guy and he noted that I was right for the stats. Now I need to return next week to interview with someone from the writing department and see if I’m more suited for that job.

I know it’s too early to worry about this, but what if they ask me to choose which position I want? Naturally I’d want to go with the position that pays more and has more room for growth and promotions, but how would I ask such delicate questions?

And how about you guys? Has something out of the ordinary occurred to you during your job interviews?

monster.com, career builder, Yahoo HotJobs, resume, entertainment industry, statistics, interview