(no subject)
I didn't post yesterday after my interview, so I'm sure you're all waiting with bated breath to hear how it went. :)
It went reasonably well - most of the questions were the usual type. The HR manager asked me to go through my resume and talk about my career, so I highlighted some of my successes. When asked about why I left Manulife, I tried to put the best possible light on the circumstances, which is all anyone can do. They said that they had a couple more candidates to interview, and that they'd have me in to meet with the IT director within the next two weeks. Hopefully that actually happens, and she wasn't just being polite at the end of the interview. I talked to the recruiter after the interview, and he sounded optimistic.
During the interview, the HR manager had asked about my relationships with past managers, and I gave her their names, while pointing out that my Manulife manager was no longer with the company, so I gave her the names of two other managers I'd been loaned to while I was there. I realized after I'd left that I'd neglected to give them the copies of my letter of reference from my CDS managers, so I went back and left two copies with the receptionist; she said she'd make sure that they got them.
I then mailed off a couple of thank you notes today. I hadn't mailed one to the IT manager after the first interview as the second interview was set up almost immediately, and I thought that it might seem a little odd, since I'd be sending one after the second interview as well (he was present again yesterday and had a few more questions for me).
In other news, I see from various people on my friendslist that 2003 UB313, aka "Xena," got a real name yesterday - Eris, after the goddess of discord, and its moon, "Gabrielle," has been dubbed Dysnomia, which sounds like it's Greek for "bad name." As it happens, though, Dysnomia was the daughter of Eris and the goddess of lawlessness. I found that amusingly fitting, since they've replaced the name of the character played by Lucy Lawless. It's equally fitting that they should have chosen the goddess of discord, given the ongoing disagreement over the new definition of what constitutes a planet.
Seems like the byelection in Parkdale-High Park is getting a bit nasty. Yesterday's Globe and Mail had an article in which the NDP candidate, Reverend Cheri DiNovo, is being accused by the Liberals of having compared infamous murderer Karla Homolka to Jesus Christ (details at the link). As it happens, Rev. DiNovo is the minister who performed the wedding ceremony at Torcon 3 (during which drewan and rvrjoe775 were married) - I'd been put in touch with her by my ex-bf Scott, who was working for the United Church at the time.
Regarding yesterday's shooting in Montreal, I'm glad to hear that everyone connected to gurudata, iangurudata and troystar is safe. I was a little miffed to read that the incident is being blamed on the shooter's interest in goth culture and violent video games. The Toronto Sun's headline (no, I didn't buy it, but it was quite visible through the window on the box up the street) went so far as to blame a game based on the Columbia High School shootings of a few years ago. (I didn't even know there was such a game; that sounds a trifle morbid to me.) Thanks to a link at cristalia's LJ, I read the Canadian Press article, and it seems to me that there were plenty of warning signs that something was wrong with the guy, but nobody appears to have bothered to investigate. Photos of himself wielding a semi-automatic rifle on his blog is more than just "emo." I've known a few emo kids, and they don't go around shooting people. This kid was seriously disturbed.
This seems a little tacky when I've just posted about my reaction to the Dawson College shootings, but here it is anyway, gakked from lizblackdog and others:
Boywhocantsayno
Passable
Passable
Passable
Passable
Click Here to Find Out YOUR Psychiatric Evaluation
at
QuizGalaxy.com
Uh-huh. The problem is that the quiz asked me what I would do, not what I wanted to do. I can't count the number of times I've wanted to grab someone's cell phone out of their hand and throw it into traffic, but I've been socialized too well to do something like that. :) That might have affected the results. Mind you, having only owned a cell phone for a few months, I myself am finding myself having to learn to keep my voice down. I've found that the temptation to speak loudly to be heard over traffic is a strong one - not to mention subconscious.
It went reasonably well - most of the questions were the usual type. The HR manager asked me to go through my resume and talk about my career, so I highlighted some of my successes. When asked about why I left Manulife, I tried to put the best possible light on the circumstances, which is all anyone can do. They said that they had a couple more candidates to interview, and that they'd have me in to meet with the IT director within the next two weeks. Hopefully that actually happens, and she wasn't just being polite at the end of the interview. I talked to the recruiter after the interview, and he sounded optimistic.
During the interview, the HR manager had asked about my relationships with past managers, and I gave her their names, while pointing out that my Manulife manager was no longer with the company, so I gave her the names of two other managers I'd been loaned to while I was there. I realized after I'd left that I'd neglected to give them the copies of my letter of reference from my CDS managers, so I went back and left two copies with the receptionist; she said she'd make sure that they got them.
I then mailed off a couple of thank you notes today. I hadn't mailed one to the IT manager after the first interview as the second interview was set up almost immediately, and I thought that it might seem a little odd, since I'd be sending one after the second interview as well (he was present again yesterday and had a few more questions for me).
In other news, I see from various people on my friendslist that 2003 UB313, aka "Xena," got a real name yesterday - Eris, after the goddess of discord, and its moon, "Gabrielle," has been dubbed Dysnomia, which sounds like it's Greek for "bad name." As it happens, though, Dysnomia was the daughter of Eris and the goddess of lawlessness. I found that amusingly fitting, since they've replaced the name of the character played by Lucy Lawless. It's equally fitting that they should have chosen the goddess of discord, given the ongoing disagreement over the new definition of what constitutes a planet.
Seems like the byelection in Parkdale-High Park is getting a bit nasty. Yesterday's Globe and Mail had an article in which the NDP candidate, Reverend Cheri DiNovo, is being accused by the Liberals of having compared infamous murderer Karla Homolka to Jesus Christ (details at the link). As it happens, Rev. DiNovo is the minister who performed the wedding ceremony at Torcon 3 (during which drewan and rvrjoe775 were married) - I'd been put in touch with her by my ex-bf Scott, who was working for the United Church at the time.
Regarding yesterday's shooting in Montreal, I'm glad to hear that everyone connected to gurudata, iangurudata and troystar is safe. I was a little miffed to read that the incident is being blamed on the shooter's interest in goth culture and violent video games. The Toronto Sun's headline (no, I didn't buy it, but it was quite visible through the window on the box up the street) went so far as to blame a game based on the Columbia High School shootings of a few years ago. (I didn't even know there was such a game; that sounds a trifle morbid to me.) Thanks to a link at cristalia's LJ, I read the Canadian Press article, and it seems to me that there were plenty of warning signs that something was wrong with the guy, but nobody appears to have bothered to investigate. Photos of himself wielding a semi-automatic rifle on his blog is more than just "emo." I've known a few emo kids, and they don't go around shooting people. This kid was seriously disturbed.
This seems a little tacky when I've just posted about my reaction to the Dawson College shootings, but here it is anyway, gakked from lizblackdog and others:
Boywhocantsayno
Passable
Passable
Passable
Passable
Click Here to Find Out YOUR Psychiatric Evaluation
at
QuizGalaxy.com
Uh-huh. The problem is that the quiz asked me what I would do, not what I wanted to do. I can't count the number of times I've wanted to grab someone's cell phone out of their hand and throw it into traffic, but I've been socialized too well to do something like that. :) That might have affected the results. Mind you, having only owned a cell phone for a few months, I myself am finding myself having to learn to keep my voice down. I've found that the temptation to speak loudly to be heard over traffic is a strong one - not to mention subconscious.