And herein lies the problem.
I’m pretty sure I’m living a modern day story of Jonah, you know that bible study where the guy disobeys God and gets stuck in a whale’s mouth. Yeah, that poor sap.
I’m absolutely hating the MBA program, quite possibly the biggest mistake in my life. However I really believe I’m supposed to be here for one reason or another. That reason, for as far as I can see, is to lead a formula-hybrid team to this year’s competition. Herein lies the Jonah part; I don’t want to do it. I think hybrids are stupid, I don’t want to work that hard (essentially building a hybrid car in four months), the competition doesn’t have the high profile as others currently do, and it doesn’t require working in the small margins I want to work in.
So in my defiance I’ve sent a resume to Millenworks through a friend. I’m pretty sure that if they offered me a position I’d take it and finish my MBA somewhere else. I’ve also been toying with the idea of sending a resume to Walker Racing/Team Australia. I interviewed with them last year and was turned down. With a bit more “experience”now, I’m pretty sure I could get a job with them.
The job with Walker Racing is the “Data acquisition engineer” for the formula atlantic team. The job would entail a lot of “don’t screw things up”, I don’t think I would learn a whole lot, however I would be gaining valuable “experience”. Also on the plus side, the drivers this year are Nigel Mansell’s sons (Mansell being a former Formula 1 champion). On yeah, the pay would be around $35K… I’ll put that under the negative column, but keep in mind I’d be living in Indiana (so the cost of living is cheaper… but I’d be living in Indiana). I believe the team takes care of food during all the races and tests, and then I’d get a bunch of free clothes… so I guess you could add another $3K to the salary. I would like to have an MBA to differentiate myself from other “race car engineers” and I guess I could get one up in Indiana, or online. Oh, one last thing, I’d probably have to pay my way for an interview (again).
Staying on at Cal Poly would mean doing the formula-hybrid project, possibly doing some stuff with the regular formula team and also possibly leading a larger “eco-car challenge”. This last competition is more “real world” as we’d be working with a production car and trying to make it more environmentally friendly. Also, I would be getting paid to get a master’s in mechanical engineering.
Why do I think I’m Jonah? There were way too many things that lined up way too easily to bring this formula-hybrid thing to fruition. We got $12,500 to start up a team (without even really trying), and (here’s the kicker) due to some problems with registering my classes were dropped and when I tried to re-register two of my classes were full. That leaves me with two classes and a “shit load” of free time that I could spend on this project. Coincidence? I don’t really think so.
Today (I think it was today) I realized that I have faith that God will put me where He wants me to be. Because I have that faith I’m going to send a resume to Walker Racing… even though I’m pretty sure that I’m supposed to be here and lead the formula-hybrid team. Why? Because I know that God knows me well enough to do what it takes to put me in the right places… and that He’s totally in control, no matter how much I try to screw things up and be disobedient. I think He actually enjoys watching me struggle with this; I’m pretty sure He and I share the same strange sense of humor. I mean, I’d love to watch myself wrestle with this. So anyhow, bring on the whale.
I’m absolutely hating the MBA program, quite possibly the biggest mistake in my life. However I really believe I’m supposed to be here for one reason or another. That reason, for as far as I can see, is to lead a formula-hybrid team to this year’s competition. Herein lies the Jonah part; I don’t want to do it. I think hybrids are stupid, I don’t want to work that hard (essentially building a hybrid car in four months), the competition doesn’t have the high profile as others currently do, and it doesn’t require working in the small margins I want to work in.
So in my defiance I’ve sent a resume to Millenworks through a friend. I’m pretty sure that if they offered me a position I’d take it and finish my MBA somewhere else. I’ve also been toying with the idea of sending a resume to Walker Racing/Team Australia. I interviewed with them last year and was turned down. With a bit more “experience”now, I’m pretty sure I could get a job with them.
The job with Walker Racing is the “Data acquisition engineer” for the formula atlantic team. The job would entail a lot of “don’t screw things up”, I don’t think I would learn a whole lot, however I would be gaining valuable “experience”. Also on the plus side, the drivers this year are Nigel Mansell’s sons (Mansell being a former Formula 1 champion). On yeah, the pay would be around $35K… I’ll put that under the negative column, but keep in mind I’d be living in Indiana (so the cost of living is cheaper… but I’d be living in Indiana). I believe the team takes care of food during all the races and tests, and then I’d get a bunch of free clothes… so I guess you could add another $3K to the salary. I would like to have an MBA to differentiate myself from other “race car engineers” and I guess I could get one up in Indiana, or online. Oh, one last thing, I’d probably have to pay my way for an interview (again).
Staying on at Cal Poly would mean doing the formula-hybrid project, possibly doing some stuff with the regular formula team and also possibly leading a larger “eco-car challenge”. This last competition is more “real world” as we’d be working with a production car and trying to make it more environmentally friendly. Also, I would be getting paid to get a master’s in mechanical engineering.
Why do I think I’m Jonah? There were way too many things that lined up way too easily to bring this formula-hybrid thing to fruition. We got $12,500 to start up a team (without even really trying), and (here’s the kicker) due to some problems with registering my classes were dropped and when I tried to re-register two of my classes were full. That leaves me with two classes and a “shit load” of free time that I could spend on this project. Coincidence? I don’t really think so.
Today (I think it was today) I realized that I have faith that God will put me where He wants me to be. Because I have that faith I’m going to send a resume to Walker Racing… even though I’m pretty sure that I’m supposed to be here and lead the formula-hybrid team. Why? Because I know that God knows me well enough to do what it takes to put me in the right places… and that He’s totally in control, no matter how much I try to screw things up and be disobedient. I think He actually enjoys watching me struggle with this; I’m pretty sure He and I share the same strange sense of humor. I mean, I’d love to watch myself wrestle with this. So anyhow, bring on the whale.