So, after all those phonecalls to employers and head-hunters, the phone starts to ring. Two head-hunters, and three employers want interviews.
Today, an interview with a head-hunter informs me that I would be looking at an entry level position of $30-35,000. I had no idea if that's any good.
Sunday 25th June 2000
A triple birthday party in Carstais for Kori, Asheley and Mikaelyn. I drove Granny gish (my great grandmother), Grams and Doug to Carstairs through some amazing rain.
Moday 26th June 2000
An interview with another head-hunter. She asked me "How many years commercial experience do you have in these areas?". Well, first of all I thought she just meant how much experience I had, but she was only interested in stuff I had done whilst employed - which kind of ticked me off.
Anyway, when she asked me if I had talked to any other head-hunters, and I said yes, she asked me what salary they had suggested. When I said $30-35,000 she said fair enough, and went a got a collegue for her opinion. Her collegue looked at the resume and the interview report, and suggested $50,000. So like bloody hell, what was I supposed to think now? I still had no idea what I should be aiming for.
I started to think that $30k was too low, and $50k was too high. I decided that I wouldn't venture an opinion to any future employers untill they suggested one first.
Tuesday 27th June 2000
The big moment had arrived, my interview with Neles Automation.
To finished my Engineering degree, I had to complete a 3 month Industrial Placement. Some (Canadian) people would call this a Co-op, and Aussies would know it as Paid Work Experience. Anyway, I did mine with Epic Enegy, who operate the natural gass and liquids pipslines from Moomba to Adelaide, and other pipelines.
My jobs there included programming C code as part of the SCADA |?| system. I upgraded protocols|?| and actually created new ones too. Anyway, when my boss Graham Broadbent went to Calgary to integrate my changes into the new system, and perform Acceptance Testing, he came back with the new code, and a recommendation that I should look into getting a job there. The code he brought back was code that I had written, and had been cleaned out of my comments and name :(
Anyway, here in Calgary, Bruce Wright (a distant cousin of some sort)
put me onto this guy, who said that he new of a guy in Neles who knew that
they were looking for people. So I sent in my resume, and it landed on
the desk of John Yanulta, manager of the Customer Service Division of Neles.
I related my times at Bakas where I would be fixing some sort of problem
at a customer's site, and while I was there, I would notice that they weere
doing something stoopid and time wastefull, and so would suggest something
that could improve their office computer experience.
The thing with those kind of questions, is that the person asking you
these questions will never give you any feedback. So like:
Interviewer: "What would you do if the customer said that you
have to fix this before you go, but they dont have a service agreement?"
So then, John takes me to Renee's office. Renne is group manager for
a service group. Renee asks questions relating to what coding I had done,
and what I knew about their systems. I tell him.
Then John comes into Renee's office with a job offer. They officially
offer me a job, and I try to look very calm and professional about it.
I ask when they might want an answer, and they "Now", but will give me
untill Thursday, and "here's my cell-phone number, call me anytime."
So I go home, and cant get the grin off my face.
The benefits package is equivalent to an Australian private health insurance
policy. Instead of superannuation, they have a Registered Savings Plan,
which they will match up to 4¼% of my salary.
The salary itself is at the higher end of the range discussed above,
and that is pretty unreal I reckon.
Wednesday 28th June 2000
So I contact the other head-hunters and empoyers and say "Thanks but
no thanks".
Thursday 29th June 2000
Jake: "Will be in today?, I'd like to drop off the contract papers".
So I drop them off, he welcomes me on board, and tells me to be there
Tuesday at 8am for training.
And thats that. I am now an employee of Neles Automation. Me email address
is
Jacob.Hawkes@sage.nelesautomation.com, and my phone number is +1-403-212-2193.
Back to the cabin!. This time, with cousin Rueben and
his girlfriend Anne-Renne, Rueben's parents John and Vonnie, and Vonnie's
long term friend Annie. We had a great time.
John and I worked on "Outback Trail 2000". I trail that was pushed through
the forest up the back of the cabin.
We also went on a day hike to the waterfalls, and I took too many pictures.
You'd think I'd never seen water before :)
We were there Friday night, Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning.
John introduced me to swimming on the lake after saunas. Oh my, is that
cold.
Pictures soon......
So, I rock up at 8am, and I met at the reception. Well, I was supposed
to met at reception. She's not here yet, so up I go, and meet the office
manager. She shows me to my office (!) and gives me a sheet of passwords
to my computer (already setup with email addresses and stuff)(!),
and asks if they have spelt my name correctly on the door (!).
And off I go for training.
Friday 7th July 2000
Have finished training, and by the end, the trainer ws asking me questions
(!). Better start to be carefull, or they'll expect me to actually
know stuff, not just have a big mouth :)
Firday night drinks and pool, and an invition to a house party this
Saturday night, a Calgary Stampede breakfast Tuesday morning, a company
paid for golf afternoon this Thursday and a team builing camp next weekend.
Working here is going ot be tough. I'm in the best department really,
Cutomer Service. I'm not surrounding by peer nerds in Engineering, and
not surrounded my flowery marketroids in Sales, but have a good mix of
guys. They collect MP3s, and play Starcraft and Unreal Tornament and Halflife.
There's a machine on the network somewhere that someone maintains that
is just a dumpi9ng ground for stuff no-one wants to keep on their own PC.
The machine has survived 2 building moves and a company restructuring,
I laugh when I look at some of the stuff on it! :)
And I got my first pay from them. Its an advance since I came to work
in the middle of their pay period. Trouble is, its a cheque, and I dont
have a bank account yet :)
Jake: "Well, .....................<answer>"
Interviewer: "Hmmm. Ok."
Jake: thinks: Did I say they right thing? Boy, I really need
to pee.....
Renee: "Yeah, I'll be in. You're gonna drop the papers off? Ok.
Um. <pause> What's your answer?"
Jake: "Yes, of course."
Renne: "Great! see you there!"