Many know, it has been a year since hp walked me out the door after 25 years, and I have been competiting with all the other dead.com walk-outs out there. Besides knocking on doors and beating the bushes, I have spent my off time toward a goal. After this quarter, I will obtain my degree making it easier for me to compete.
One of my resume submissions had a response (its like fishing and some times you get a bite. But it means nothing until the fish is in the boat). I passed the first step by having an appointed phone interview. The job opening is out of SF for a UPS / power conditioning company. I had submitted my resume for a 'UPS Battery Specialist' position (a glorified title for a technician job). The interviewer is based in OH, so we juggled our time zones to match his work hours. He had sent me a pdf that had the diagrams, symbols, and multiple choice questions we were to talk about (it was a test for him to know if I knew my stuff). These were items that I had not touched since my high school Electronic class (a very long time ago). So, being resourceful, I quickly 'boned up' on Ohm's law formula, resistance in parallel, oscilloscope readings, color codes, schematic symbols, etc., using web searches. As it turns out, I did well (its like riding a bicycle), but it was smart to bone up first. The OH interviewer was not technical, but I knew better than to mention the errors with the questions he used. Now that I had shown him I know which end of a D cell is positive, he was more interested in me. When you interview, one has to use care with their words and approach. You don't give too much information as they could make some wrong assumptions, and then you are out of the running. :: bummer :: But, I could hear in his voice that I had gone beyond the beginning barrier, and he was interested in me. He told me that with all my qualifications I could easily jump beyond the battery specialist to a CE (Customer Engineer). This is what I did before, but on million dollar computer systems, not the power conditioning units that supply power to the computer room. I told him I was still interested in the Battery Specialist position (even though it paid less), as I was interested in learning that job. He was a little set back by my statement, as if the Battery Specialist position was beneath my abilities (and wouldn't I want the extra: duty, overtime, stress, lack of sleep, for a little more $). And he asked why (?). I told him I am interested in the power Electronics of their units (we are talking 150 kw units here) and the batteries that supply them. I then told him that I have some experience with high currents and voltages as I drive an Electric car ... That didn't register much with him, and he proceeded to give me the rest of the position details. He emailed me a pdf application form, which I was to fill out and fax a to him (signing my life away). He felt he had a match as he said I should expect a call from the local SF manager (sorry, he did not call). Today, I had to pay a store clerk to screw up my fax (they put some pages in backwards and upside down, even though I gave them the stack in order). I will postal mail the missing pages. When I returned, I had an email from the local manager to call him at 3 pm (as one gets closer to a job, your hopes rise). I talked to the local manager, and he in a smiling voice said the OH man said I 'want' to be a Battery Specialist (?). I said Yes. He said, " ... but you have so much experience ... " I said, "Did he tell you that I am interested in learning your high power units and that I drive an Electric Car?" His voice was still smiling he said, "yea ... but do you know what the job is ... ?" (talking about the EV did not mean a thing to him, and it would not help me to mention it again. I am sure he would not be interested at this time in a conversation about the thousands of amps used by NEDRA dragsters. It would likely hurt my chances, as he might think I am some 'Wacko'). I repeated back to him what I had been told the position was, but we had to end our conversation short as he got another call (he had two phones to his head). We did establish I am going to meet his 'Battery Specialist' (who was sick this week) at one of his jobs on my side of the SF bay. He is probably thinking I would get an idea of what the 'Battery Specialist' job is about (and I might change my mind to be a repair CE instead), and his man could report back to him what he thought of me. Sounds fine to me. Their set-up, office locations, tools, support, etc., sound very similar to what I had before, so the job would be a shoe-in. They do have regular company courses that his team has to take (three times a year they fly to OH). So, that might be a stumbling point of them asking me to drop my degree efforts to satisfy their business needs (that is the same problem I had before, I could not finish a class as I was always paged out to do a job). In all me previous interviews, I never mentioned my EV. I hope my EVangel zeal did not hurt my chances to land the job (it is real hard for a hp-way worker, to not be working). I'll just have to wait and see. ===== ' ____ ~/__|o\__ '@----- @'---(= . http://geocities.com/brucedp . EV List Editor & RE newswires . (originator of the above EV ascci art) ===== __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More http://faith.yahoo.com
