The NCPPS report interruption continues. I had my interview on Friday with Aerotek Scientific.
I made it there thirty minutes early, and wasn't too nervous. Made sure I had my documents and just be calm. I went into the building 15 minutes before the interview, went into the office, and was told my interviewer would be maybe 5 minutes late. No big deal. More time for me to just relax and made sure I was completely stress free. I was even offered a glass of water which I gladly took. I hadn't had many fluids that morning, and I didn't want my mouth drying out.
The first part of the interview was conducted by the same person that interviewed me over the phone. This was the part where she wanted to get a good handle on me, what kind of person I was, and wanted me to elaborate on my resume.
The very first question she asked, was asking if I knew much about Aerotek Scientific. I immediately cursed myself for not researching the company more before going in. I, at the very least, was able to tell her that my cousin actually got his first temp job through them. (Which is true. I talked to him on Wednesday, and he mentioned it, and that's exactly why I didn't research more. He vouched for them and that was good enough for me.)
She explained that do the hiring for a lot of science related fields, and while it isn't always the case, when it comes to the UCSF Pharmacy, they're the ones that do all the interviews and hiring decision, and the checks will come from them. But I can still put down on resumes they I worked for the UCSF Pharmacy.
With that introduction we went onto learning about me.
As a quick reminder, the thing about my resume is that I have almost no work experience. Pretty much the only real work I've had is working on a contract by contract basis for fashion shows conducted by Macy's. She wanted me to describe work, and I told her about the very efficient and structured nature of how it is behind the scenes of a fashion show, when you're part of the team that cues the models to walk the runway. The main directors watch from above, they call over headset to the door handlers when the cue the models, then the models walk out. But also at the same time, the runners at each entrance have to make sure each model checks in two segments (song/clothing style/theme) in advance, and door managers report back to the head director. Models are given numbers for each communication back and forth. I dont' know if I explained that well... but I also don't know how many people really want to know these inner workings, so I'm trying to be brief.
In summary, I wanted to describe is a team based, multi-tasking role that I had, as one of those runners.
She asked about what kind of stressful situations I've had to work in. That was when I described my role in the 42nd Annual International Children's games. How I was part of a team that had to organize and coordinate all the translators for the 60+ (80+?) teams of pre-teens/teens from all around the world. We had to set up and be there to make sure each team was properly greeted as all those teams arrived nearly 24/7 in the span of three days. Highly stressful. She asked how I handled that stress, and I simply told her during the downtimes we made sure to support each other and make sure everyone was getting at least some breaks and proper rest. Was that a good response? I don't know, but it was the one that I had.
Shen then asked me to describe a situation where I had more of a leadership role. That's when I described to her that I have also been a part of a community service organization that holds an annual Multi-Cultural AIDS Awareness Day even on the campus of SFSU that I coordinated for three years. It's a role that takes months of planning, and delegation of 30-60 individuals on the day of. And of course it's for a good cause. I could have sworn that I talked about this before, but I can't seem to find a post about it. In short we organize organizations from both on and off the campus to come educate about HIV/AIDS in various facets (prevention, counseling, etc), have people offer up free testing, have speakers come and talk about current issues, and have multi-cultural entertainment as a symbol of the indiscriminant nature of the disease.
From there she asked me that it seems like I've been involved with a lot of groups, and she wanted me to describe a situation where I had to deal with... I forget exactly how it was worded. I want to say motivation problems, but I don't think that was it. That was more how I answered the question. Talking about I have been president of that same community service organization, and certainly it was at a time that we weren't at our peak.
She also asked me how I keep myself motivated. And I think this was probably my most unique response of all. I let her know that I have a pharmacy blog that I update, both as a way to keep my thoughts organized for when it comes time to filling out applications, and as way to immediately help others who have the same interest as me. I'm sure most people have vaguer and less tangible responses when it comes to that question.
I can't remember the placement of these next questions, but they were all asked at some point. She wanted to ask again what kind of shifts I was interested, what it was like commuting to school, if I was open to full-time or part-time or contract work, etc. I may not have given the best response when I said I didn't much like taking public transportation because of how long it took. She then mentioned that parking is difficult around UCSF.
I will say that I have done my research (SPOILER! I called back for the final follow up interview scheduled for Monday), and saw that taking BART (a subway/train system in the Bay Area) and bus actually isn't that bad. UCSF is located much closer to me than San Francisco State is. The travel time is essentially cut in half. And all day parking at UCSF is $22, plus $5 for toll, $8 of gas... while taking public transportation will be around $10. Not driving is probably the way to go. And now that with this information, I'm prepared to give them a knowledgeable response.
And with that, this post is getting long... since the interview was in two parts, I think I'll turn this into two-part post. This first part of the interview, in fact, went on for maybe 30 to 40 minutes and was one on one. The second part of the interview included a new person telling me more specifics about the job. That will come up next.
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