Showing posts with label job hunt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job hunt. Show all posts
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Employment part deux
Sabrina and I felt obligated to wait until we had shared our news with our family to announce that we've decided to accept the position with Raytheon and move to Tuscon (or Tucson, or however I want to spell it). We'll be moving whenever I finish my thesis (sometime between August and December, probably October).
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Employment
I know that many of you who frequent our blog would actually be interested in the latest update from the Millar household. NAVAIR called me yesterday with the "formal" job offer. Today was the deadline for Raytheon for the signing bonus. Tonight, one of them will be eliminated from contention. Which will it be? Tune in next time to find out...
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tucson
Wednesday was a hectic day for me. I made it to campus around 8, and studied straight through till two for my nonlinear control systems class. (Yes, that class is as hard as it sounds, it's EE 774, the second highest number offered by the electrical engineering department) I then took my nonlinear control systems final for 3 hours. With 10 minutes left, I had it mostly finished with only half of one question left. I almost called it quits, because I didn't think I could figure it out (I had already spent 30 minutes or so on it). But, inspiration struck at the last moment, I finished the problem off and then sped home to pack up and leave for the airport.
I didn't have a seat assignment, so I got to the airport early. I walked up the lady printed me off a seat, so I ended up having a lot of time on my hands. I wandered the airport for a while, then decided to get some dinner. I got in line at Dick Clark's Grill, after a few minute wait I was seated, though it was in the lounge area. I ordered a chicken finger dinner and a large milk. The lady seemed slightly miffed, but still seemed to be ok with it. Anyway, 5 minutes a lady comes and sits at the table next to me, orders nearly the exact same thing as me. 10 minutes after that, a guy comes in and sits down behind me, orders something. The food of lady next to me came out quickly. She started enjoying her meal. The food of the guy behind me came out. At this point (30 minutes after I ordered my food) I asked what was up. They were like, "uhh... let me check." They assured me my food would be out shortly. 15 minutes after that, my food finally came out. (It's a dang good thing that I was at the airport so early, because I was supposed to start boarding about 5 minutes after I finally got my food.) They definitely knew I was upset. If I had more time, I would have probably asked for a free desert or something. An old couple next to me, who were also having problems with their meal, commented to me "I bet those are free range chickens, and it took them so long because they had to go capture them before they cooked them."
My flight was uneventful (aside from the fact that they had over booked the flight and so didn't give out seat assignments to all those who had seats, again get to the airport early if you don't have an assigned seat.)
Upon arrival, I picked up my rental car. Turns out they were all out of mid-sized cars, so I got a Ford Mustang convertible. It was a fun car to drive. After driving my little Chevy Prizm, I forget what driving a car with some muscle is like.
The hotel resort they put us up at was pretty swank. My room was about 3/4ths the size of my apartment. The bed was actually nice. The bathroom had a separate shower and bathtub. They also had a sweet pool, too bad I never had time to really take advantage. A funny thing I've noticed about hotels, the nicer the place is, the less likely it is to offer things like free internet.
Anyway, they showed us around, wined and dined us, and then interviewed us the last day. I only interviewed with one group, albeit it was a group I was actually interested in. We had to be checked out of the hotel by noon, and my flight didn't leave till 5. So, after lunch ended (around 1), I just drove around Tucson for a couple hours.
The flights home were uneventful, but I did get exit row seating on both (yea, that is actually something I get really excited about).
So, now comes the time to decide on what we'll actually do. I have an offer in hand from Raytheon. NAVAIR is sending me one (good old government bureaucracy, takes them 3-5 weeks). SSCI is being a bit of a pain, but continue to reassure me that as soon as I can prove to them when I'll be done, they'll send me an offer. Raytheon has a bonus system to encourage you to accept the offer quickly, so we'll probably either accept an offer from them, or eliminate them off the list in the next couple weeks. For as clear cut as I thought our path was going to be a couple months ago, it's not so much now. One offers good benefits, and probably the highest salary to cost of living ratio. The work would probably be less of what I really would enjoy. One would have a great work opportunities, giving me the opportunity to explore different areas of engineering and choose a path that I like. However, the money, at least initially, is considerably less than the others though. It has the prospect of moving of up to at least the same level as the others, and possibly more. The last offers the most money initially, the prospect of working on new, and possibly radically different, projects every 6-12 months. However, it's the furthest from family, and the highest cost of living.
The factors we're seriously considering:
I didn't have a seat assignment, so I got to the airport early. I walked up the lady printed me off a seat, so I ended up having a lot of time on my hands. I wandered the airport for a while, then decided to get some dinner. I got in line at Dick Clark's Grill, after a few minute wait I was seated, though it was in the lounge area. I ordered a chicken finger dinner and a large milk. The lady seemed slightly miffed, but still seemed to be ok with it. Anyway, 5 minutes a lady comes and sits at the table next to me, orders nearly the exact same thing as me. 10 minutes after that, a guy comes in and sits down behind me, orders something. The food of lady next to me came out quickly. She started enjoying her meal. The food of the guy behind me came out. At this point (30 minutes after I ordered my food) I asked what was up. They were like, "uhh... let me check." They assured me my food would be out shortly. 15 minutes after that, my food finally came out. (It's a dang good thing that I was at the airport so early, because I was supposed to start boarding about 5 minutes after I finally got my food.) They definitely knew I was upset. If I had more time, I would have probably asked for a free desert or something. An old couple next to me, who were also having problems with their meal, commented to me "I bet those are free range chickens, and it took them so long because they had to go capture them before they cooked them."
My flight was uneventful (aside from the fact that they had over booked the flight and so didn't give out seat assignments to all those who had seats, again get to the airport early if you don't have an assigned seat.)
Upon arrival, I picked up my rental car. Turns out they were all out of mid-sized cars, so I got a Ford Mustang convertible. It was a fun car to drive. After driving my little Chevy Prizm, I forget what driving a car with some muscle is like.
The hotel resort they put us up at was pretty swank. My room was about 3/4ths the size of my apartment. The bed was actually nice. The bathroom had a separate shower and bathtub. They also had a sweet pool, too bad I never had time to really take advantage. A funny thing I've noticed about hotels, the nicer the place is, the less likely it is to offer things like free internet.
Anyway, they showed us around, wined and dined us, and then interviewed us the last day. I only interviewed with one group, albeit it was a group I was actually interested in. We had to be checked out of the hotel by noon, and my flight didn't leave till 5. So, after lunch ended (around 1), I just drove around Tucson for a couple hours.
The flights home were uneventful, but I did get exit row seating on both (yea, that is actually something I get really excited about).
So, now comes the time to decide on what we'll actually do. I have an offer in hand from Raytheon. NAVAIR is sending me one (good old government bureaucracy, takes them 3-5 weeks). SSCI is being a bit of a pain, but continue to reassure me that as soon as I can prove to them when I'll be done, they'll send me an offer. Raytheon has a bonus system to encourage you to accept the offer quickly, so we'll probably either accept an offer from them, or eliminate them off the list in the next couple weeks. For as clear cut as I thought our path was going to be a couple months ago, it's not so much now. One offers good benefits, and probably the highest salary to cost of living ratio. The work would probably be less of what I really would enjoy. One would have a great work opportunities, giving me the opportunity to explore different areas of engineering and choose a path that I like. However, the money, at least initially, is considerably less than the others though. It has the prospect of moving of up to at least the same level as the others, and possibly more. The last offers the most money initially, the prospect of working on new, and possibly radically different, projects every 6-12 months. However, it's the furthest from family, and the highest cost of living.
The factors we're seriously considering:
- Initial Salary
- Job Satisfaction
- Salary increases over time
- Cost of living (day to day expenses)
- Housing costs (both rental and mortgage)
- Education (both for our children, and possible future education for ourselves)
- How long we might actually stay with the company
- Commute time
- Nearby infrastructure (stores, etc...)
- Distance from family
- Weather
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Boston
For any of you who didn't know, I was in Boston for the last 3 days interviewing for a job. And when I say was there for 3 days, I mean my plane landed on the evening of day 1, I interviewed day 2, and left early afternoon on day 3. The trip was quite enjoyable.
One thing I've never ceased to be amazed at is how lucky I am when I fly on airplanes. This trip, I was 4 for 4 for having the people in front of me lean their seats back. Those are pretty good numbers. What's even better, is that on 3 of the 4 flights, the people sitting in front of me were the only ones on that row to lean their seats back. Meaning that none of the people sitting next to me on the flights were obliged to deal with leg room, just me. How lucky. Oh, and on two of the flights, the people didn't even move the seat backs to the upright position when asked to by the stewardesses. Anyway, enough of my plane rant.
Thursday evening I met up with an old coworker of mine. He was gracious enough to pick me up from the bus station and have me over for dinner. After having Burger King for lunch (I tried to get something a little "healthier", a chicken sandwich) I was definitely in the mood for something fresh. We then talked about Boston all evening as they tried to give me the sell.
The next day another old coworker picked me up and we headed into the office. My day was filled with exciting rounds of interviews. Though in the end, I felt like most of them were telling me why I'd want to work for their particular group. I suppose I should explain who I interviewed with. Scientific Systems Company Inc. (SSCI) is a research and development company focused on SBIRs, which are short term contracts to do research for the government. SSCI works a lot with NASA and DARPA. I'd be doing research in controls/unmanned systems/autonomy. I think it would be quite fun. Anyway, throughout the day I talked to managers over different areas. Each of which proceeded to explain what project within their area I would be great at. The last interviewer was the CEO. He grilled me, but indicated they he felt I would be a good fit, and as soon as they contacted my references, they'd get back to me and let me know their decision. I think I have a good chance of getting an offer, but we'll see.
After the interviews, I traveled into Boston to meet my cousin Peter. He went to Harvard and knows the area quite well, so we had dinner around their. We went to a place called "Fire and Ice". It was a Mongolian grill styled restaurant. After a full day of interviews and grueling questioning, it was sooo good to have all I could eat. I would rank it as one of the better all-you-can-eat style restaurants I've been to. Afterwards we took a tour around the Harvard campus, down to the river, and took in the general Harvard area (which is quite large). We took the T back downtown and then walked through Boston Commons (somewhat like NYC central park) and to his apartment. We stayed up half the night talking about pretty much everything, which was quite enjoyable.
Since we stayed up so late, we slept in till 11:30 or so. We hurried out and caught lunch, and then I headed to the airport. I don't have any other interviews scheduled, but have a couple of companies I need to return phone calls to. I'll keep you posted as the job hunt continues.
One thing I've never ceased to be amazed at is how lucky I am when I fly on airplanes. This trip, I was 4 for 4 for having the people in front of me lean their seats back. Those are pretty good numbers. What's even better, is that on 3 of the 4 flights, the people sitting in front of me were the only ones on that row to lean their seats back. Meaning that none of the people sitting next to me on the flights were obliged to deal with leg room, just me. How lucky. Oh, and on two of the flights, the people didn't even move the seat backs to the upright position when asked to by the stewardesses. Anyway, enough of my plane rant.
Thursday evening I met up with an old coworker of mine. He was gracious enough to pick me up from the bus station and have me over for dinner. After having Burger King for lunch (I tried to get something a little "healthier", a chicken sandwich) I was definitely in the mood for something fresh. We then talked about Boston all evening as they tried to give me the sell.
The next day another old coworker picked me up and we headed into the office. My day was filled with exciting rounds of interviews. Though in the end, I felt like most of them were telling me why I'd want to work for their particular group. I suppose I should explain who I interviewed with. Scientific Systems Company Inc. (SSCI) is a research and development company focused on SBIRs, which are short term contracts to do research for the government. SSCI works a lot with NASA and DARPA. I'd be doing research in controls/unmanned systems/autonomy. I think it would be quite fun. Anyway, throughout the day I talked to managers over different areas. Each of which proceeded to explain what project within their area I would be great at. The last interviewer was the CEO. He grilled me, but indicated they he felt I would be a good fit, and as soon as they contacted my references, they'd get back to me and let me know their decision. I think I have a good chance of getting an offer, but we'll see.
After the interviews, I traveled into Boston to meet my cousin Peter. He went to Harvard and knows the area quite well, so we had dinner around their. We went to a place called "Fire and Ice". It was a Mongolian grill styled restaurant. After a full day of interviews and grueling questioning, it was sooo good to have all I could eat. I would rank it as one of the better all-you-can-eat style restaurants I've been to. Afterwards we took a tour around the Harvard campus, down to the river, and took in the general Harvard area (which is quite large). We took the T back downtown and then walked through Boston Commons (somewhat like NYC central park) and to his apartment. We stayed up half the night talking about pretty much everything, which was quite enjoyable.
Since we stayed up so late, we slept in till 11:30 or so. We hurried out and caught lunch, and then I headed to the airport. I don't have any other interviews scheduled, but have a couple of companies I need to return phone calls to. I'll keep you posted as the job hunt continues.
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