Interview and Meetup

Last Friday I attended my very first "meetup".  The group was put together for people that were new in town and the activity was a bonfire on the beach.  A recipe for success, right?  Well, maybe not in Seattle in March.  Almost 70 people had responded that they were going, but since it was a cold, rainy night only about 12 people actually showed up, but it still wasn't a bad way to spend an evening.  There was sort of a random assortment in the people who came; a few Microsoft and Boeing employees that had moved here for work, a mohawked, black trench coat wearing guy who only wanted to discuss theoretical physics but worked at Greyhound as a baggage handler, and then there was the "new in town" guy who'd been in Seattle for 10 years and wants to become a hypnotherapist.  The last guy was asking me a lot of strange questions and my aunt was worried he was trying to pull some mind control tricks on me. 

Although it's fun to chit-chat with random people sometimes, I obviously would like to meet actual friends that I can really hang out with so I was happy to find one super cool chick in the group that I got along well with.  Apparently the other people in the meetup thought that me and her already new each other and had come to the event together because we were just talking like old friends.  The trouble came at the end of the evening when I was cold and tired and ready to go home.  Sometimes it seems like making girlfriends is just as hard as meeting a boyfriend.  I felt silly going up to the girl and saying, "hey baby, can I get your number?"  Hahaha... I know, I'm a dork :)  Luckily I was able to get in touch with her through the meetup site and hopefully we'll be able to hang out again later.

This past weekend I pretty much spent working on my interview presentation (with a nice little break on Saturday night to check out the supermoon from the rooftop).  When you've got something that's an hour long it is difficult to practice over and over because it just takes up so much time.  By the time I did a final practice run for my aunt on Monday I was feeling good.

The interview was Tuesday morning and only a 0.3 mile walk from the house.  Unfortunately the company plans on relocating soon, so if I end up getting the job it will actually be a 2 mile commute.  Boooo!  The interview was about 7 hours long, which may seem shocking to some people, but I think that is pretty typical for the positions I would be looking at. 

One hour was filled up with my presentation which, aside from me getting a little choked up and dry-mouthed, I think went well.  It was in a roughly 60-seat auditorium space but I was relived that only about 15 people showed up.  There were only a few questions at the end, so it's possible they didn't find it very interesting, but afterwards one of the company big-wigs did come up to me and personally introduce himself and talked to me for awhile since he wasn't some one I would be meeting during my interviews.

Then I proceeded to jump from person to person answering a lot of the same questions over again.  My favorite person that I met with actually offered to help me find some other job if this one didn't work out for some reason.  I thought that was totally hilarious and great!  She used to work as a consultant for biotech/pharma companies in Seattle so apparently she knows a lot of people that she could put me in touch with.  Then as we were finishing up she got a nosebleed and tried to keep talking to me for a while with a face full of kleenex, but eventually had to run off.  You know that I love funny, random things so obviously I thought that whole interview was awesome.

I got some delicious free lunch at a nearby cafe which was fun since now I know another great restaurant in the neighborhood.  Then later in the afternoon they had me scheduled for a bizarre hour long break.  I told them I could just walk home and come back, but instead they stuck me in a conference room by myself.  Luckily they had some back-issues of Nature to read while I was waiting.  I couldn't tell if their HR staff just did a bad job at scheduling or if it was some sort weird psychological test and they were monitoring me through hidden cameras ;)

Overall, I'm excited about the position, but they specifically told me that they are interviewing other candidates.  In a follow-up email with the recruiter yesterday, she told me I could expect to hear back about the "next steps" some time mid next week, whatever that means... Wish me luck until then!