Reality check
Well. After a moderately tormented weekend pondering work and life, and bringing Saucy home to Portland for a long weekend of food, family, lounging and sightseeing, I finally called Bill on Monday night.
We talked for probably 45 minutes, which is to say, I talked for about 3 minutes cumulative, mostly affirmative grunts, and he talked the rest of the time. Very typical interaction. (He likes me because I grunt in the affirmative at the right places; most folks can't track him from topic to topic.)
The long and short of it is that the new major (Bio-Medical Engineering) is still loose and somewhat undefined, which means it would be possible to do a lot of defining of the course of study for myself. This is a good thing. Even so, I dunno if OGI is the right place for me for grad school. They're very heavy on the EE, comp eng, comp sci. I'd rather do a good mix of human factors, mech eng, cognitive psych, industrial design, business, and anatomy.
In any case, the opportunity is pretty literally what he'd commented to my aunt: this would be a good time to go to grad school. He figures I can apply to OGI and go visit the profs, and that it's a small enough school that they just pick who they like. Fair enough. He also responded favorably when I mentioned that I'd been thinking about applying to UW.
There's no immediate job in Portland with him right now. He's in the process of moving some of his staff up to Portland, but nothing is going on yet. I'll keep in touch with him and try to stay abreast of the developments. I'd certainly love to work for him.
So the plan hasn't changed all that much. Apply to grad school (here and there), keep looking for work, keep in touch. Much ado about something, but not quite as much thing as I'd thought.
Further Bill trivia and subsequent thoughts: he was talking about all of his plans and ideas for the school with the president of OHSU, who happens to be a classmate of his from Duke med school, and also to Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel, who was his roommate at Stanford. Jeez. I was thinking this morning I can't wait until my classmates are successful enough to refer to them like that. Then I thought Screw that. I can't wait until I'm successful enough for my classmates to refer me like that.
That's the plan.
We talked for probably 45 minutes, which is to say, I talked for about 3 minutes cumulative, mostly affirmative grunts, and he talked the rest of the time. Very typical interaction. (He likes me because I grunt in the affirmative at the right places; most folks can't track him from topic to topic.)
The long and short of it is that the new major (Bio-Medical Engineering) is still loose and somewhat undefined, which means it would be possible to do a lot of defining of the course of study for myself. This is a good thing. Even so, I dunno if OGI is the right place for me for grad school. They're very heavy on the EE, comp eng, comp sci. I'd rather do a good mix of human factors, mech eng, cognitive psych, industrial design, business, and anatomy.
In any case, the opportunity is pretty literally what he'd commented to my aunt: this would be a good time to go to grad school. He figures I can apply to OGI and go visit the profs, and that it's a small enough school that they just pick who they like. Fair enough. He also responded favorably when I mentioned that I'd been thinking about applying to UW.
There's no immediate job in Portland with him right now. He's in the process of moving some of his staff up to Portland, but nothing is going on yet. I'll keep in touch with him and try to stay abreast of the developments. I'd certainly love to work for him.
So the plan hasn't changed all that much. Apply to grad school (here and there), keep looking for work, keep in touch. Much ado about something, but not quite as much thing as I'd thought.
Further Bill trivia and subsequent thoughts: he was talking about all of his plans and ideas for the school with the president of OHSU, who happens to be a classmate of his from Duke med school, and also to Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel, who was his roommate at Stanford. Jeez. I was thinking this morning I can't wait until my classmates are successful enough to refer to them like that. Then I thought Screw that. I can't wait until I'm successful enough for my classmates to refer me like that.
That's the plan.