TGIFF

TGIFF! Another week has flown by - I can't believe it's March already! Soon it'll be two months until graduation! The weeks go by soooo quickly, but the days are long.

Monday - Mondays are usually the worst, this one no better than any others. After getting no sleep due to a certain roommate deciding it would be a beautiful thing to cook with pots and pans and the microwave at 2:30 AM, it became a day of straight class, work, more class, senior design, straight to bed. Really wearing me down, all of these days where I wake up, go to class/work without breaks from breakfast-dinner time, then work on senior design from dinner-bedtime. Making strides in senior design now, so I expect the same schedule to continue for a bit longer, but see it improve over the next month or so.

Tuesday - Interview #1: Diebold in North Canton. Started day actually making awesome progress on senior design work. We are no longer stuck on problems, but now just behind. Can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! After that it was a quick lunch and off to Canton (2 1/2 hours from here in Ada) for an interview.

I'll start off by saying I felt pretty good after this interview. Will have to wait for a few weeks to see what happens next with Diebold. Went through a slew of interviewers for a few hours. First guy was standard HR guy with no engineering background; standard questions pertaining to character, work ethic, etc. Really nice guy. Second was a EE project manager (~20 years experience) in their electronics division. Talked a lot about what Diebold does (they make ATMs. There's just a huge amount of different stuff that goes into these machines!) and what I could expect working there. He works on the product development side, as opposed to the product testing side. I think he liked me a fair amount, which was confidence-building. Not having the first real interviewer be all hard was a good thing. The second interviewer was a mid-level designer, with about 10 years experience. We talked a lot about school, what subjects I liked/hated, what I do for work (he was just FASCINATED with my job in IT here at ONU for some reason), hobbies, etc. Really nice guy, seemed like someone they would pair me with to shadow / be a mentor while I figure out what I will be doing. These first two (engineer) interviewers seemed to like me a lot and thought I'd fit in well. The last interviewers, though, were tough to crack. As a way to hide being nervous, I like to get personable and tell jokes and stuff. Helps me feel really confident in interviews.

The last two interviewers, however, were really high-up people (I'm talking like 30 years of experience each, minimum), who were very terse and down-to-business. That kinda stopped the whole flow I had going. They had me get up and draw diagrams of projects I had done for different courses, chided me on not bringing a portfolio with writeups of projects I've done, and gave me a test (luckily it was on a part of a circuit that I did earlier that morning for senior design, haha!). Things relaxed a tiny bit after they were done testing me, but they still weren't very personable and probably frustrated that they didn't get to leave work early (since it's a 2 1/2 hour trip for me, my interview was an evening one). Overall, I felt I hit it off really well with the first two engineers, which I think will carry me through to the next level. The last portion didn't go poorly, but it just didn't go silky smooth like the first half.

Five hours (round trip) of driving, plus sitting through hours of interviews, and sitting in a lab all morning, really screwed up my back again. Still lingering pain today from Tuesday. Actually had to stop and get out of the car on the way back. If I experience numbness in my legs, I'm supposed to freak out. Started to get some numbness and tingling, so had to stretch out for a bit. I'm actually supposed to go straight to the hospital if I experience numbness for more than a few minutes. Herniated disk - not bad enough to require surgery, just have to tolerate the pain.

Wednesday - Looong day, beautiful weather! Hit 70-ish, got to break out the rollerblades. Extremely sore and painful, but got a good workout. Actually got to hang out and chill for a bit while helping friends not kill their microcontroller board or themselves. :P

Thursday - Communication Systems test Friday. Two labs. Study, study, study. Procrastinate studying. Helping with friend's senior design project to distract me from studying boredom. Laser cats. More studying. Sleep (more like a short nap....)

Friday - Another 6 AM start. Study study study class study study test (3 problems, test worth 30% of final grade, you do the math...) SPRING BREAK! Off to Canada for the weekend with friends, then chilling at home in Columbus with the family for some much needed rest.

Oh hai I wrote another book.

TGIFF