ase

Me: ...and analytical chem can DIE IN A FIRE. An uncalibrated fire!
Roommate Number Three: Why do you always study at the dining room table?
Me: You've seen my tiny computer desk. With that in mind, would you say I'm taking up 60% of this generous table, or 80%?
- Socratic dialogues of 2011


Study table. Please note this picture was taken before I added my analytical chem materials (and dread old McMurray, to clarify one point) to the stacks.

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Is anyone reading this planning to go to FOGcon in SF? It's an easy day trip for me, so I'm probably going to attend and renew my fannish roots.

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Unflamey excitement this weekend has been shopping for business camouflage casual. Goodwill came through on button-downs, sweaters, and practical black pants. DSW furnished aggressively sensible office shoes and slightly less dowdy loafers which might go back; my big toe wants to poke through the leather, and I'm not sure that bright stitching will clean up nicely. Shoes with no laces and leather are a wardrobe novelty: left to my own devices, I trend toward running shoes, jeans and t-shirts, occasionally upgrading to Mary Janes with a fancier top. I'm still not sure if December's attack of Girl was a healthy indicator of personal growth, or a psychological fungus brought on by excessive winter rains. Either way, 2011 may the the year my professional wardrobe finally levels up.

A rough guide to the interview process for a step-from-entry-level opening in biotechnology in the greater Bay area, my experience so far:

1.) Phone screening, 5 - 20 minutes. Followup with promising candidates a week later.
2.) First interview, 30 minutes - 3 hours. Followup with promising candidates a week later. Followup with blatantly unsuited candidates sooner, or when they email HR.
3.) (Optional) Second interview, 1 hour. Followup with "thanks but no" letters about a week later, after a candidate has accepted an offer, or when the "thanks but no" people email you.

Total time from initial application: two weeks to a month.

I've been trying to get a sense of scale for the job market in the Bay area. The recruiter I talked to last week said his office had sent something like 60 - 70 resumes for one position, which sounds ridiculous, but then one considers the field of applicants. Like college, you only need to get accepted once, but like college, as you get less confident in your top choices (or more desperate for anything), you expand your application horizons. Since California has a 12% unemployment rate, both the quantity of job applicants and the high quality of candidates may merit snowing HR with electronic noise, but if I'm trying to see the bright side in just getting the callbacks, I'm sure there's lab managers tearing their hair out at the number of great people they just don't have the budget to hire.

Okay, this is awesome. Taunting people through negative reinforcement is wrong, yes, but how often do you see "cleavage for science!" blog posts? Outside of geology blogs, that is.

I'm waiting to hear back about an interview, and in the meantime page through job listings. I'm jonesing for a CLS license as I look at the ads, but realistically, it's a training track that would mean four courses of prerequisites, an intensive 13 month academic and internship program if I'm accepted, and after all that: is the career path really what I want? Where do you go from CLS entry level? What would I do with it? (Other than, wait, more student loans!) Pick up a clinical license (with associated student loans) and maybe some progress management certifications or an operations M.B.A. (more loans!), and spend my 30s fixing biotech workflows? I feel like the clinical license and the operations stuff are two ideas that may pull in different tactical directions. And neither of them is getting me a job right now. I may block the internet tomorrow morning and make myself run around Golden Gate Park and the beach until I'm feeling a bit less like I'm spinning my wheels.

Last night I searched craiglist, clicked on the third ad from the top, and two hours later had a small dresser and modest bookcase. The bookcase was promptly pushed into place and had library books added to the top - and after momentary consideration, bottom - shelves.

Now San Francisco feels like home.

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I'm spending some time perusing interview questions this morning, in that way you do when you're a gentle(wo)man of leisure and would like to alter that status as soon as possible, and asked my roommate, "what one question would you ask in an interview?" (R. has significant life experience on me.) After some thought, R. said, "what part of this job would you find most fun?"

I think this is an awesome interview question and hope to adopt it in future.

This week has seen: unresolved laptop issues, the email about my cousin's little girl's brain surgery on Monday (she's fine - okay, as fine as post-op gets), the latest cultural appropriation round (what's the escalation from trainwreck?), snow, Wednesday's icepocalypse, cancelled evening class, and continued laptop troubleshooting, and Thursday's impromptu 1.5 hour work meeting on What's Changed Since Our Last Meeting (Lots). Also, I left my mp3 player at home. It was sorely missed.

Tomorrow is payday, with 2008 bonus money, and it's also the WSFA Fifth Friday party, which I volunteered to host. By taking the low road (bedroom as storage room), most of the house is mostly presentable, which leaves only food prep and nervous collapse from pre-entertainment nerves. Next time I do something like this, I'm exploring the merits of semi-potluck.

Fortunately, tomorrow is payday, and I get to see people I like, and in a stroke of genius, I foresaw the brewing Steelers Fans Versus Everyone Else conflict and took Superbowl Monday off. I'm debating the value of 1.) going to the free afternoon at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2.) finding someone with TiVo to watch the ads with, 3.) investing some metro time and seeing college people on Sunday. Or combining all of the above, whatever. The point is, it will be a restful three day weekend, except for that part where I have to start studying for class.

If anyone needs directions to Fifth Friday and doesn't have them, comment or email. The ase at livejournal address is broken: use the yahoo address.