My job search

本文转载：http://spaces.msn.com/yanfzhang/

Interviews --- My on-site interview experience (1)
 
I went to five on-site interviews related with my own major (Chemical and Materials Engineering) and got an offer from the 5th company, which I will join for my first job in my career. The general procedure for these interviews is to give a one-hour presentation and talk with about eight different persons during the whole day event. Among these persons, one will from the human resource department (HR) who will explain the benefits of the company to you. Sometimes he/she would ask some behavior questions too. All my five interviews are with local companies. However, I stayed at hotel for two interviews. Of course the company will pay for all your expense.   

 

The first interview was with a research lab at a Company called 'Ha', which is a global company in the area of food, home and personal care products. The director was a student of our collaborator and they have a very good connection. My friend and I were referred to the director and given on-site interview on the same day. The position was in the area of skin care product, which is not very related with what I have done. I feel that they are not very interested in my presentation, maybe too far away from whey they are doing. Most conversations with the interviewers went smoothly with some tough questions, which I was uncomfortable to answer. One such question was: which area do you believe you are the number one in the world, i.e., no one else can do better than you in that. We heard nothing from Company 'Ha' until many months later our collaborator told us that they are not now hiring anymore.

 

The second company interviewed was a pharmaceutical company called 'Haha'. This on-site interview came several months after my on campus interview with them. One friend just joined this company and told me many positive things. Thus I had good impression of it. The schedule was delayed again and again, which made me realize how difficult it is to set up an on-site interview with a big company! The position might be a strategic one though I know it is within a crystallization group. I talked with an HR person first, who told me about the people I would be seeing and the hierarchy of the interviewers. I then talked with the hiring manager, who tested my knowledge in reaction kinetics, process scale up, and so on. Others things we talked about are quite general in interviews: his group, the position, my past experience, behavior questions, etc. I then gave my presentation and talked with several different people after. I can’t remember all the details now, but I am sure these questions are typical. Two persons were missing, the person scheduled to have lunch with me and one director who is the hiring manager’s boss. This made me feel bad about it. Fortunately I found out one student from my department just joined that group a couple of months ago, whom I know at school. So she took me out for lunch with a few new hires in that department. It was just chatting, chatting and chatting. The most FT thing is that I got a rejection letter from them next week, dated the next day after my visit. Well, it’s life. I have to move on.

 

To be continued
 
Interviews --- My on-site interview experience (2)
 
The next interview was with a company called 'Hahaha' for a post-doc position. This project is about hydrocarbons, which is kind of related with my research. I saw the advertisement at C&EN news and sent my resume to the scientist in charge. n months later, he called me asking if I was still interested in the position and requested reference letters from my advisors. After another m months, the on-site interview schedule was finalized. The HR people talked to me first, very similar to that in my previous interviews. After my presentation I talked with various scientists, most of whom have PhD degrees. Most questions are scientific questions, about my research, their research and things in general. It was a very good position in my mind coz I thought it has two options after one finishes the post-doc there: either get an industry job (mostly at Hahaha) or go to academia. It is a very nice site too. I stayed one night there and ate out at the same Italian steakhouse twice. Hahaha is generous, humn. After about a month, I got a declination letter from it. I was very disappointed and my confidence was kind of shocked. Oh well, if that’s the life, so be it.

 

Company 'Hahahaha' has a site which is not far away from where I live. I saw its advertisement at monster.com seeking a scientist in its corporate research division. I have a very good friend and SHIJIE working there who has always been nice and helpful to me. I contacted her and she happily submitted my resume to the hiring manager, who turned out to be another alumnus of my undergraduate school. Later I found out I actually met the hiring manger once during one of the alumni reunions at her house. After HR people called to check my availability, I got an onsite interview. I drove to the company to have my breakfast with the hiring manager. The presentation went pretty well, and I got a lot of interactions with the audience. My SHIJIE told me the director was the crucial person in making the hiring decision according to her experience. Interview questions from the director are mostly behavior questions. Maybe I did not perform very well in the interview with him. I talked to several other scientists, the majority of whom are from China. I even met a LAOXIANG during my interview. What a small world! Hehe. The feedback I got back from my SHIJIE (she knows several of the interviewers) after my interview is that my presentation was far away from what they are doing. She especially told me that I did not mention ‘polymer’, the most important keyword for them. Oh well, it was too late to know about that. I never heard anything official from the company though I contacted them a couple of times. This means, by default, I am out of their game.
 
Interviews --- My on-site interview experience (3)
 
The last company I went for on-site interview is the one I will be a part of in the future, and the one that I have been looking forward to start my career for a long time. Life is so random. Had any of the previous four companies offered me the position I interviewed with them, I might have accepted its offer and stop the painful job search process. I can’t help of recalling the ‘wheat picking’ theory. Hehe.

 

I got an email notification about the job posting from the job agent I set up with this company and applied for it on the second day. It so happened that my friend working in the company emailed me about this position too at this time asking if I was still in the market. After talking with me, he happily forwarded my resume to the hiring manager who was his former boss. The hiring manager called me on the second day while I was in a meeting at New Orleans. I called back in the afternoon and we talked about my background and the position a little bit. I was asked to send three reference letters and copies of my transcripts. We set up the onsite interview in two weeks.

 

My friend helped me to prepare for the interview in the meantime. He gave me a lot of background information about the position, the group and the company. He also listened to my presentation and offered me helpful suggestions. Though it’s a local company, they invited me to stay overnight in a hotel nearby. I had dinner with the hiring manager and a senior group member, in which we talked about a lot of different things. It was quite a pleasant time.

 

The senior group member gave me a short lab tour before my presentation. After I set up my presentation, I went over to say hello to every one in the meeting room while waiting for the rest people to arrive. The presentation went very smoothly, finished just in time including questions from the audience during the presentation. I spent some time researching about the company and other related information with the job before I went to the interview. It paid off during the interviews. On my side, the interviews went smoothly and I had a very pleasant time with the persons I talked with. I quite enjoyed my visit there, impressed with the people and the working environment. The night before I did not have a good sleep because the heater in the hotel was kind of noisy which made me wake up several times. After I finished the interview and went back to the hotel, I was so tired that I almost fell asleep on the way home from the hotel.

 

A few days later, my friend told me that the feedbacks I got from my interviewers are all positive, which is a good sign. However, they would like to interview another one or two candidates before making the hiring decision since it’s a PhD position. I had to wait, anxiously. This is the position and the company I would like to work with. I will wait, though painfully

 

They interviewed another candidate. At this time, three weeks had passed after my interview. The hiring manager wrote to inform me that I am still their top candidate but the process will take longer than expected since it is a big investment for them to hire a new person. I showed my deep interest again and let them know I will wait for their decision. I waited, painful and anxious. It feels like cotton floating in the air, without knowing when it will reach somewhere.

 

On the fifth week, they interviewed the 3rd candidate. In the next few days, I was checking email every 5 seconds and having my cell phone with me all the time. One week passed and I could not help waiting anymore. I thus summoned all my courage to send an email to ask the hiring manager on the Thursday morning. In the next few hours, time feels like frozen. I would do nothing except sitting in from of my computer staring at the computer screen and my cell phone. Sometime in the afternoon, my cell phone suddenly rang. My body shocked from the chair and my heart almost jumped out of chest. I looked at the caller ID. Yeah!!! It is the phone call I have been waiting for 6 weeks!!! The hiring manager told me that they had finished the interview process and I am the top candidate; after they receive my official transcripts they would offer me the position officially. I thanked the hiring manager and showed my deep interest again. I also express my oral acceptance of the offer. I arranged the official transcripts and a letter from one of my advisors to be sent. In several days, I got a phone call from the HR person, giving me details about the offer. I received the official offer letter on the second day, signed the employment contract, and sent it back.

 

The best comes at the last. That was the end of my first job search.

I called my friend to inform him of this excellent news on the night. My most sincere thanks to my dear friend!!!

 

In the following few days, I got a cold. Maybe I was too stressed like a bow in the past several weeks and when it was suddenly released my immune system was attacked...
 
My job search --- conclusion
 
I am so released that my painful job search for my first real job is finally finished. I am quite pleased with the final outcome though the process was an ordeal for me, for my wife and others who cared about me. There is a Chinese saying: beautiful rainbow only comes after rains. I do believe this after my n-month job hunting.

 

My life was quite smooth previously except not economically rich. This job research process is the first time that I was stressed out, sometimes feeling hopeless and helpless, that sometimes I began to doubt my own motivation and capability; that I was floating in the air like a dust not knowing where the destination is. This process at the same time is a valued asset for me. It makes me realize many things. Life is beautiful, but you need to work hard to earn it.

 

I thank the company that gives me the excellent opportunity to apply my skills and abilities. I owe my special thanks to my dear wife, who has been with me sustaining the pains and sharing the happiness; I owe my deep appreciation to my advisors who were there when I requested support from them in my job search; I especially value my true friends who cared about me and helped me during the process. My family is always there backing up me and caring me
 
My job search --- lessons
 
There are quite a few lessons I learned from my job search.

1. Be prepared and motivated. From elementary school to graduate school, I was motivated though I only need to follow others’ steps: taking exams to go to top middle school accessible to me; taking exams to go to top college in China; taking TOEFL & GRE and come to pursue my PhD in a top university in the United States. As a result things came out smoothly just as designed. After I came to the States, I was kind of lost without objective or a big picture in mind. I wasted too much time without thinking of preparing for the next big career step. For an academic career, I could have spent more time in and focused on research so that I could have more publications and have developed keen research interest therein; for a career on the streets, I could have taken more finance modeling courses and started job search earlier; I could have started the preparation earlier by spending time in research more information about job search and taken the lead in the process; …, …, …, …The most important for these is to be motivated. With motivation, I would have devoted my time to the above things and I am sure the process would be very different.

 

2. Build your networking. For fresh PhDs, the majority may land his/her first job through networking, through friends, through advisors, through alumni, through someone you know in a conference or even over the internet. I was social but not very talkative in reality. Though I often hang out with my classmates, I did not make much efforts to reach out to students in others years. …, …. For my onsite interviews, one is through my collaborator’s connection; two are from my friends’ internal referral. My classmates’ cases are similar too.

 

3. Intern and experience. Many companies have interns, in this case an intern is very likely to be hired as a permanent employee should a position opens up. A friend went to Wyeth after she did a summer intern there. I did not think about intern at all since most students in my department do not do intern in the summer, which I regretted later.

 

4. Skills and courses. Try to be exposed to as many skills as possible through various ways: courses, research, self-recharging, etc. In my research, about 1/3 of the project is experimental, but I do not use many instruments. The many courses I took in undergraduate and graduate school helped me a lot during my interview. The variety of my research (experimental, modeling, theory) also helped me get my job offer according to insider information