Back to WPI already?

I feel like each term I always look forward to the break as this long, relaxing time to recoup from the stresses of WPI, but when break actually arrives I end up being fairly busy. I spent time with my family, went to NH to see my grandparents, visited my high school and old job, ran errands, tried to figure out what I wanted to be for Halloween, stayed overnight with a friend at another college, called high school friends to catch up, re-organized my room (and found my ipod that had been missing for a few weeks!!), cleaned my apartment, and had my first job interview. I can't tell if I'm actually that busy, or, after two years of involvement at WPI, I don't know how to have down time anymore. Both are definite possibilities.



So about this interview...it was actually my first real job interview. I mean, I've had interviews for things in the past, but this was the fist time I was interviewing for an engineering internship. (About time, right?). The cool part was that I didn't even apply to this company. It was a company that I talked to at the WPI Fall Career Fair. I wasn't super interested in what the did, but they were sort of related to the field I want to work in so I talked to them and gave them my resume. A few weeks later I got an email from someone in Human Resources asking me if I was interested in having an interview with them for an internship position and getting a tour of their facility.



Truthfully, at first I was a little skeptical. The job description they gave me was very vague and I couldn't find much information about their company online. And, any information I could find didn't really seem to match up with what I wanted to do. But, I accepted anyway. I figured that the worst possible outcome was that it could be a good experience for later interviews.

I am so glad that I accepted the interview. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the part of the company that I was interviewing with (that does stuff that I'm interested in) was actually a new branch of the larger company (the one that I found online that does more general manufacturing that I'm not so interested in). I got a tour of their facility and then met with a team of four engineers. It was nice because I think all four were WPI graduates a few years ago (maybe 05 or 07?), so they knew all about WPI's classes and projects and were easy to relate to. After I actually also interviewed with the president of the company. He was easy to talk to and had a lot of cool ideas of what he wanted to do with the company and his plans for the next 5-10 years. I feel like it was a successful interview, and at the end he even told me "I just wanted to let you know that you interview very well". (It looks like doing that Mock Interview already paid off!).

So I wrote a handwritten thank you note to the people I interviewed with and a thank you email to the lady in HR. I guess now I'm just going to wait for a little to see if they respond, and if I don't hear from them in the somewhat near future, I'll follow up. In the meantime I think I'll get started looking for other internships. You don't want to put all of your eggs in one basket, right?

Other than my job search, I'm working on getting settled into my new B term schedule. So far my classes seem to be a lot less stressful than A term's, and I'm optimistic that it's going to stay that way. :) I've also been able to go down the hill at a reasonable time and actually spend time with my roommates in my apartment. (Well except for last night when we were forced to go back up the hill if we wanted to be at all productive because we lost power for 13 hours!!)

Hope you're all also having a good start to B term, and enjoy Homecoming this weekend. :) And Happy Halloween!!

A Term is Almost Over?! When Did THAT happen?

We only have 4 full days of classes left!! What?!

I mean, I guess we could see this coming, but I always feel like the end of the term comes far too quickly. I still have so much to do in terms of group projects, homework, and studying for finals. I can't believe I have to get it all done in less than a week! It's slightly overwhelming (slightly being an understatement of course).

And, to top that off, because I'm a junior, a number of my friends are going away B term. It's so strange to think that in a week or two they're all going to be either in another city, or more likely, in another country. It's hard because I really want to spend time with them (even if it's only for a little while) before they leave, but, as I mentioned before, I have so much work to do....

....And so continues my everlasting struggle to find a happy balance between school/work and friends/family. No, seriously, this is something that I think about a lot. Both are important parts of your life, but too much of one makes you neglect the other part. So where's the happy medium?

And where does applying for jobs fit into all of this? Unfortunately, at the moment, it doesn't (not for me at least). I figure with Finals coming up so soon that that is going to be my main focus for the next few days. Yes, job searching is important, but no one is going to want to hire you if you don't pass your classes.

But even though I'm taking a short hiatus from applications, I'm looking forward to being able to spend time job searching over October Break. I figure I'll have a break from all of the schoolwork, and I'll finally have a chance to get organized and get back on top of my life again. I'll be able to apply for jobs already posted, go on a few interviews that I scheduled earlier, and look for companies that I'm interested in (check out the Career Search section of your Job Finder Account. It's the last link under shortcuts if you don't know where to look. It's amazing!). I'm also finally going to be able to catch up with all of the things that I've been putting off for the last week or two - like laundry, grocery shopping, errands, getting in touch with my friends from high school, etc. Is it weird that I'm this happy about getting organized again?

So good luck on your job search/applications (if you're working on that). And good luck studying!!