Not quite over...
Well, due to one official comment and some unofficial comments, I decided to leave this journal open for now.
Recent history has seen some interesting developments. Now as most people know, my chosen field of work and study is information sciences - also known as computer geekology. About 3 weeks ago, my latest foray into this career completed with my offical contract as Webmaster for www.egypthasitall.com expiring at the beginning of June. It was an interesting job as it let me set my own hours and had a broad spectrum of freedom in helping to develop and maintain the website. Right now, I may do more work for them, but that would be on a seriously part time basis. This has left me once again in search for a lucrative opportunity.
This leads into something of mild interest to some and possibly extreme horror for others. About a month before my Webmaster contract was to end, I happened upon an interesting job advertisement. Nuclear Operator for Ontario Power Generation. Just for idle amusement, I applied to the posting. Lo and behold, I received an email to come in for testing on May 30th. This was quite the surprise as obviously my field of preference and experience upon my resume was definitely not in the realm of power generation.
Of course, not one to turn down a test (yes, I'm a freak - I like taking tests), I arrived at the testing centre upon the appointed day. There was about 2 groups of us being tested, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Within those two groups, about 60% were internals (non-operators that were trying to get the job or trying to transfer from another station) and 40% were externals (people like me). The testing took about 3 hours and involved various types of logic and mechanical skills that were timed. The first test involved reading various passages then answering true, false, or not enough information to certain phrases about the passages. The second test involved reading a set of instructions and being able to follow those instructions properly. The third test was fun because it was more logical - there are a set of 4 lights either on or off (example: 1 and 2 are on, 3 and 4 are off) and then it shows the set of 4 lights after a series of procedures were applied to them (example: now 1 and 3 are on and 2 and 4 are off). Given the list of procedures (like procedure A turns on light 1, procedure F turns off 2 and 4, etc) and what procedures were actually applied between the starting and ending condition, we had to figure out which procedure was acting faulty. That one had quite a few people scratching their heads. The final real test was a mechanical test like: if you push Block A through the angled hole in Block B, in which direction is Slider C pushed. That was the only test I didn't complete fully. The final part was a psychological/personality assessment which was timed. Overall I felt I did well on the testing as I seemed to be the first one complete on most of the tests (except that mechanical one).
The next couple weeks after the testing, I really didn't think much about it. I had guests just arrived from New Zealand who are spending the summer here (my best friend from there and his girlfriend) and I was rather busy organizing the last batch of invoices and such for my completed contract job. So I was definitely not expecting the email I received to come for an interview to be a Nuclear Operator for June 22nd! That required alot of preparation and study as I knew the interview was highly technical and very comprehensive on many aspects. The interview took about 2 hours and obviously I was slightly nervous, so really, I'm not quite sure how I answered everything.
Here's a list of the questions I was asked: Interview Questions
I also found out that I was only 1 of 2 external job applicants from testing that day that actually passed the testing and had gotten an interview. That was an interesting tidbit to learn. The only downside is that I won't find out if I got the job or not until September. With this type of job, it's not unheard of for long application periods - this is a career for life!
Anyways, putting aside the work related side of my life, I've been overall "ok". Not depressed, but not overly exuberant. I'm slowly getting back into sketching and should have some offerings in the near future. Also, as I mentioned above, I have a couple friends from New Zealand staying over for the summer here in Toronto. They were in Vancouver for a few months, working and checking out things, and now they're here, doing about the same thing. Their names are Alex and Bex and they obviously have the accent which everyone finds cool. Finally, Bex got a job last week so they seem to be doing alright. Just a couple days ago I had a BBQ pool party to welcome them and have a few friends over that I hadn't seen in a while. The weather was highly co-operative and the pool was great. The food was awesome too thanks to yours truly at the grill. However, half the people who said they were definitely coming cancelled last minute (that morning/afternoon). I wasn't too impressed by the lack of common courtesy as the excuses had a definite tinge of bullshittery. But in any case, the group that had come had a good time and we were up until 4am playing cards and video games on the Xbox someone brought over.
Oh, and I also went to Anime North this year (held in Toronto - no hotel costs for me!) and here are the pictures of some of the cosplayers: Anime North 2006
Recent history has seen some interesting developments. Now as most people know, my chosen field of work and study is information sciences - also known as computer geekology. About 3 weeks ago, my latest foray into this career completed with my offical contract as Webmaster for www.egypthasitall.com expiring at the beginning of June. It was an interesting job as it let me set my own hours and had a broad spectrum of freedom in helping to develop and maintain the website. Right now, I may do more work for them, but that would be on a seriously part time basis. This has left me once again in search for a lucrative opportunity.
This leads into something of mild interest to some and possibly extreme horror for others. About a month before my Webmaster contract was to end, I happened upon an interesting job advertisement. Nuclear Operator for Ontario Power Generation. Just for idle amusement, I applied to the posting. Lo and behold, I received an email to come in for testing on May 30th. This was quite the surprise as obviously my field of preference and experience upon my resume was definitely not in the realm of power generation.
Of course, not one to turn down a test (yes, I'm a freak - I like taking tests), I arrived at the testing centre upon the appointed day. There was about 2 groups of us being tested, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Within those two groups, about 60% were internals (non-operators that were trying to get the job or trying to transfer from another station) and 40% were externals (people like me). The testing took about 3 hours and involved various types of logic and mechanical skills that were timed. The first test involved reading various passages then answering true, false, or not enough information to certain phrases about the passages. The second test involved reading a set of instructions and being able to follow those instructions properly. The third test was fun because it was more logical - there are a set of 4 lights either on or off (example: 1 and 2 are on, 3 and 4 are off) and then it shows the set of 4 lights after a series of procedures were applied to them (example: now 1 and 3 are on and 2 and 4 are off). Given the list of procedures (like procedure A turns on light 1, procedure F turns off 2 and 4, etc) and what procedures were actually applied between the starting and ending condition, we had to figure out which procedure was acting faulty. That one had quite a few people scratching their heads. The final real test was a mechanical test like: if you push Block A through the angled hole in Block B, in which direction is Slider C pushed. That was the only test I didn't complete fully. The final part was a psychological/personality assessment which was timed. Overall I felt I did well on the testing as I seemed to be the first one complete on most of the tests (except that mechanical one).
The next couple weeks after the testing, I really didn't think much about it. I had guests just arrived from New Zealand who are spending the summer here (my best friend from there and his girlfriend) and I was rather busy organizing the last batch of invoices and such for my completed contract job. So I was definitely not expecting the email I received to come for an interview to be a Nuclear Operator for June 22nd! That required alot of preparation and study as I knew the interview was highly technical and very comprehensive on many aspects. The interview took about 2 hours and obviously I was slightly nervous, so really, I'm not quite sure how I answered everything.
Here's a list of the questions I was asked: Interview Questions
I also found out that I was only 1 of 2 external job applicants from testing that day that actually passed the testing and had gotten an interview. That was an interesting tidbit to learn. The only downside is that I won't find out if I got the job or not until September. With this type of job, it's not unheard of for long application periods - this is a career for life!
Anyways, putting aside the work related side of my life, I've been overall "ok". Not depressed, but not overly exuberant. I'm slowly getting back into sketching and should have some offerings in the near future. Also, as I mentioned above, I have a couple friends from New Zealand staying over for the summer here in Toronto. They were in Vancouver for a few months, working and checking out things, and now they're here, doing about the same thing. Their names are Alex and Bex and they obviously have the accent which everyone finds cool. Finally, Bex got a job last week so they seem to be doing alright. Just a couple days ago I had a BBQ pool party to welcome them and have a few friends over that I hadn't seen in a while. The weather was highly co-operative and the pool was great. The food was awesome too thanks to yours truly at the grill. However, half the people who said they were definitely coming cancelled last minute (that morning/afternoon). I wasn't too impressed by the lack of common courtesy as the excuses had a definite tinge of bullshittery. But in any case, the group that had come had a good time and we were up until 4am playing cards and video games on the Xbox someone brought over.
Oh, and I also went to Anime North this year (held in Toronto - no hotel costs for me!) and here are the pictures of some of the cosplayers: Anime North 2006