interview results / sarnia
My results for interviews are in. Let me give a quick rundown about the ranking system first..
After interviewing students, employers rank them. a 1 means very highly favourable, and it's down from there, all the way down to X which means they dont want to hire you. As of noon today until noon tomorrow, i can rank the jobs i had interviews for. This is where co-op is stupid: I can only rank one job as #1 (whereas employers can pick several #1s), and if i got ranked anything other than #1 it shows up as "Ranked" rather than, say, 2 or 3. There's also, of course, the X. I can mark one job as X, meaning there's one job i can eliminate from the bunch. If an employer picks more than one #1 student, it shows up as 1* on my end. That means that even if i pick them as #1 i'm not garunteed the job. As you can see, there's a fair amount of risk involved in ranking jobs, because if you pick the wrong number for the wrong job you might end up either 1) in the wrong place or 2) jobless. why they can't just show us what the godamned rank numbers are, i dont know. it's retarded. sigh.
anyway, i got my rankings back today. i had two 1's (with no stars), a bunch of Ranked's, and a couple of X's: one from Natural Resources, since i had to cancel that interview, and one from Shell because, as i said, that interview did not go well. The two number 1's were from the Canada Border Services Agency, which has a really cool job description although the interview kinda turned me off from the job, and .......... drumroll please........ IMPERIAL OIL!!! w00t!
I got the PMX Migration Project job, which is the one i wanted. the way the guy described it to me, it involves software interface design and installation of shit. so, like, a mixture of computers, chemical engineering, it's in the oil industry and it *should* pay almost twice as much as my last job. Basically, I would be retarded not to take this job. the only issue is that the job is in Sarnia, which is 9~10 hours from ottawa and about 5.5 from home. it's in the middle of buttfuck nowhere and has the same population as Peterborough, which is where i grew up. this tells me two things: 1) bring the PS2 and 2) get an internet connection ASAP.
I still havn't entirely decided if i'm going to take the job. the way my mom put it is that i'm still young and uncommitted to being in any one place. I'm not married, I don't have a career to worry about and I havn't got kids to take care of so moving around should be no issue for me. I guess I'm just worried about moving to a place i've never been to before and trying to find a good place to live within a week (since that's how long the company will put me up at a hotel for).
[15 minutes later]
I just spent a little while looking at the City of Sarnia's website to see what the bus system is like. It turns out there's a bus route that goes right to the Imperial Oil "campus". I managed to find it on google maps and relate that to the transit map -- it took me a while to realize that the transit map had North pointing left.. doh.
I guess i'll take the job. hmm. And I guess i can afford a laptop now... Maybe i should buy one.. and maybe i should get my headphones repaired (broken plastic. good sound, cheapass build). Or maybe i'll just move my rig down there and get it over with.. sigh. I wonder if Rogers will let me move down there gracefully... on that note, i wonder what the ISPs are like down there? I mean, i've got my VOIP router that i can just plug in anywhere and magically have my telephone up (@ the same number), but it's useless without a net connection.. eep. and what do i do with my other box? the one i use for downloading stuff and hosting servers and stuff? gahhhhhh. this is going to be complicated and annoying :( i should see if i can get both of my computers down there. and the big tv. and my ps2. that's all i really want need...
anyhow, i've got until tomorrow to decide if i want a crappy experience at canada border services agency working in a chemlab doing boring shit i've mostly already done, or if i want a job with the company that i wouldn't mind working for for many years to come that will pay a lot more and provide a better overall experience.
we all know what i'm going to pick. the question is, am i making the right choice?... sigh
After interviewing students, employers rank them. a 1 means very highly favourable, and it's down from there, all the way down to X which means they dont want to hire you. As of noon today until noon tomorrow, i can rank the jobs i had interviews for. This is where co-op is stupid: I can only rank one job as #1 (whereas employers can pick several #1s), and if i got ranked anything other than #1 it shows up as "Ranked" rather than, say, 2 or 3. There's also, of course, the X. I can mark one job as X, meaning there's one job i can eliminate from the bunch. If an employer picks more than one #1 student, it shows up as 1* on my end. That means that even if i pick them as #1 i'm not garunteed the job. As you can see, there's a fair amount of risk involved in ranking jobs, because if you pick the wrong number for the wrong job you might end up either 1) in the wrong place or 2) jobless. why they can't just show us what the godamned rank numbers are, i dont know. it's retarded. sigh.
anyway, i got my rankings back today. i had two 1's (with no stars), a bunch of Ranked's, and a couple of X's: one from Natural Resources, since i had to cancel that interview, and one from Shell because, as i said, that interview did not go well. The two number 1's were from the Canada Border Services Agency, which has a really cool job description although the interview kinda turned me off from the job, and .......... drumroll please........ IMPERIAL OIL!!! w00t!
I got the PMX Migration Project job, which is the one i wanted. the way the guy described it to me, it involves software interface design and installation of shit. so, like, a mixture of computers, chemical engineering, it's in the oil industry and it *should* pay almost twice as much as my last job. Basically, I would be retarded not to take this job. the only issue is that the job is in Sarnia, which is 9~10 hours from ottawa and about 5.5 from home. it's in the middle of buttfuck nowhere and has the same population as Peterborough, which is where i grew up. this tells me two things: 1) bring the PS2 and 2) get an internet connection ASAP.
I still havn't entirely decided if i'm going to take the job. the way my mom put it is that i'm still young and uncommitted to being in any one place. I'm not married, I don't have a career to worry about and I havn't got kids to take care of so moving around should be no issue for me. I guess I'm just worried about moving to a place i've never been to before and trying to find a good place to live within a week (since that's how long the company will put me up at a hotel for).
[15 minutes later]
I just spent a little while looking at the City of Sarnia's website to see what the bus system is like. It turns out there's a bus route that goes right to the Imperial Oil "campus". I managed to find it on google maps and relate that to the transit map -- it took me a while to realize that the transit map had North pointing left.. doh.
I guess i'll take the job. hmm. And I guess i can afford a laptop now... Maybe i should buy one.. and maybe i should get my headphones repaired (broken plastic. good sound, cheapass build). Or maybe i'll just move my rig down there and get it over with.. sigh. I wonder if Rogers will let me move down there gracefully... on that note, i wonder what the ISPs are like down there? I mean, i've got my VOIP router that i can just plug in anywhere and magically have my telephone up (@ the same number), but it's useless without a net connection.. eep. and what do i do with my other box? the one i use for downloading stuff and hosting servers and stuff? gahhhhhh. this is going to be complicated and annoying :( i should see if i can get both of my computers down there. and the big tv. and my ps2. that's all i really want need...
anyhow, i've got until tomorrow to decide if i want a crappy experience at canada border services agency working in a chemlab doing boring shit i've mostly already done, or if i want a job with the company that i wouldn't mind working for for many years to come that will pay a lot more and provide a better overall experience.
we all know what i'm going to pick. the question is, am i making the right choice?... sigh