The Interview with Invensys
This was the longest day I’ve had in a long time.
I was up at 5 in the AM, because I had to shave and shower, eat breakfast, and get all good looking in my suit and out the door by 6. One other chem eng from WPI, Paula, got the same callback as well, so even though I was originally planning on telling her I couldn’t give her a ride just because it would narrow down my competition, I picked her up at her place. It was raining and we fought traffic getting to the pike, but once we got past the pike it all opened up, and we made good time.
Once we found the room, we went over the protocol for the day. There were 6 of us there, and 4 pairs of people ready to interview us. It was setup so you had 4 - 45 minute interviews, and 2 - 45 minute breaks. So it was nice, everything was broken up, and you had time get a drink and rest your mind and your voice. After the introductions the president of the company actually took the time to give us a half hour presentation on the company, I thought that was pretty wild.
My first interview started off great. They guys were really excited, and wanted to know how I go to do so many cool things that are on my resume. The Higgin’s Armory Project, Kilroy, Gallo Wine, all the stuff. I was only 10 minutes into this interview when one of the guys interrupts me and says, “Did you ever take ‘toastmaster’?”. I don’t even know what toastmaster is, but I haven’t, so I told him no. He said, “Well, you speak incredibly well and I’m very impressed”. Only 10 minutes and this guy’s all over it. The only hard question he asked was what I thought about the future of the American economy and job market, that caught me off guard, but I’ve had a few economics courses along the way, and I took care of it.
The other interviews went well. I thought I answered all the questions well, I made people laugh at times, I spoke intelligently, I sat up straight, I looked people in the eye, and basically did anything else I thought would be helpful. The only other great thing during the interviews was at one point an engineer leaned over and told me that “40% of the engineers in his division are WPI graduates”. That was nice, pretty reassuring too.
My favorite moment however happened in between interviews. A computer engineer from Tufts and I had the same 45 minute break. Paula finished one of her interviews with time to spare, as one set of people were very fast and did their best to stay on time. Now, in between every interview all of the candidates came back to the central room, and we were polite and asked each other how we did, but no one wanted to give anything away, so people’s responses ranged from “pretty good” all the way to “good”. But this time, Paula said it was hard and they asked some tough questions. The Tufts kid jumps all over this, “What kind of questions?”. Paula replies that they were specific, and they were all based off of how you answered the first question, so it was hard to explain. He said okay, and then was escorted to his next interview. No sooner than when he leaves the room and Paula and I are alone she starts to explain how they really worked, and she told me what they were going to do. Way to stick together WPI. It was so good, and I was so grateful, but I couldn’t help but laugh through the whole thing.
One of the kids from Northeastern was from Blackstone, and not only did he go to Uxbridge Basketball Camp, which I was able to recognize him from, but he’s done some hooliganizing of the Polish Hall, including stealing their “Meat Raffle” sign after being kicked out of one years earlier. We had the same 45 minute break as well, so I had some good laughs with that kid. Topics ranged from sports, to the way people from out of state think the Wrentham Outlets is the best place ever. It turns out that Northeastern offers shuttles there, it was even included in parent’s weekend.
Lunch was provided, I’d hope so with an 8 hour interview, but they had sandwiches and salad and a nice dessert tray. We got the chance to speak to people who were hired last year, both as direct hires and their rotational hires. Everyone seemed really nice.
The only downside is they can only hire 4 of the 13 candidates into the rotational program, and after that they don’t know how many direct hires will be available. This stinks because last year they hired 10, and they said our field of candidates was way stronger.
Oh well, a good day and a good interview, anyone not surprised that I’ll be waiting to hear from them?
I was up at 5 in the AM, because I had to shave and shower, eat breakfast, and get all good looking in my suit and out the door by 6. One other chem eng from WPI, Paula, got the same callback as well, so even though I was originally planning on telling her I couldn’t give her a ride just because it would narrow down my competition, I picked her up at her place. It was raining and we fought traffic getting to the pike, but once we got past the pike it all opened up, and we made good time.
Once we found the room, we went over the protocol for the day. There were 6 of us there, and 4 pairs of people ready to interview us. It was setup so you had 4 - 45 minute interviews, and 2 - 45 minute breaks. So it was nice, everything was broken up, and you had time get a drink and rest your mind and your voice. After the introductions the president of the company actually took the time to give us a half hour presentation on the company, I thought that was pretty wild.
My first interview started off great. They guys were really excited, and wanted to know how I go to do so many cool things that are on my resume. The Higgin’s Armory Project, Kilroy, Gallo Wine, all the stuff. I was only 10 minutes into this interview when one of the guys interrupts me and says, “Did you ever take ‘toastmaster’?”. I don’t even know what toastmaster is, but I haven’t, so I told him no. He said, “Well, you speak incredibly well and I’m very impressed”. Only 10 minutes and this guy’s all over it. The only hard question he asked was what I thought about the future of the American economy and job market, that caught me off guard, but I’ve had a few economics courses along the way, and I took care of it.
The other interviews went well. I thought I answered all the questions well, I made people laugh at times, I spoke intelligently, I sat up straight, I looked people in the eye, and basically did anything else I thought would be helpful. The only other great thing during the interviews was at one point an engineer leaned over and told me that “40% of the engineers in his division are WPI graduates”. That was nice, pretty reassuring too.
My favorite moment however happened in between interviews. A computer engineer from Tufts and I had the same 45 minute break. Paula finished one of her interviews with time to spare, as one set of people were very fast and did their best to stay on time. Now, in between every interview all of the candidates came back to the central room, and we were polite and asked each other how we did, but no one wanted to give anything away, so people’s responses ranged from “pretty good” all the way to “good”. But this time, Paula said it was hard and they asked some tough questions. The Tufts kid jumps all over this, “What kind of questions?”. Paula replies that they were specific, and they were all based off of how you answered the first question, so it was hard to explain. He said okay, and then was escorted to his next interview. No sooner than when he leaves the room and Paula and I are alone she starts to explain how they really worked, and she told me what they were going to do. Way to stick together WPI. It was so good, and I was so grateful, but I couldn’t help but laugh through the whole thing.
One of the kids from Northeastern was from Blackstone, and not only did he go to Uxbridge Basketball Camp, which I was able to recognize him from, but he’s done some hooliganizing of the Polish Hall, including stealing their “Meat Raffle” sign after being kicked out of one years earlier. We had the same 45 minute break as well, so I had some good laughs with that kid. Topics ranged from sports, to the way people from out of state think the Wrentham Outlets is the best place ever. It turns out that Northeastern offers shuttles there, it was even included in parent’s weekend.
Lunch was provided, I’d hope so with an 8 hour interview, but they had sandwiches and salad and a nice dessert tray. We got the chance to speak to people who were hired last year, both as direct hires and their rotational hires. Everyone seemed really nice.
The only downside is they can only hire 4 of the 13 candidates into the rotational program, and after that they don’t know how many direct hires will be available. This stinks because last year they hired 10, and they said our field of candidates was way stronger.
Oh well, a good day and a good interview, anyone not surprised that I’ll be waiting to hear from them?