Monday, June 11, 2012

It's Business Time

OK, that might be a misleading title. If that made you think of anything in particular, put that aside. Certainly don't think about business socks.
But you know what's cool? My husband is starting a business. I don't know what I can or should say here on the wide-open internet, so I'll just say it's micropaleontology-related, and that should be sufficiently confusing or  boring enough for most people to just nod and go "Oh, good for him," and change the subject.  Ever since he and his labmates decided to make this tool, it's been gathering speed and making progress. They've hired an employee and are going to Texas this summer to pitch their idea to oil companies. (That's where the money is in micropaleontology.)
So, that's what is happening for him. As for me, my nannying job is coming to an end at the end of the month, as we all knew it would. Since February, I'd been sending out my resume and applying for jobs, with varying degrees of self-confidence. The job world at large is terrible at responding to applicants, so nearly everything I sent out was put on a mental shelf where I could neither completely assume I hadn't gotten it, but as time passed, it looked less likely. (Maybe I should make that a note for Andy, once his company is huge and awesome, he should still make it a point to respond to applications saying no thanks.)
Anyway, I saw a posting for an administrative assistant at an engineering firm. I don't know anything about engineering. I dated an engineer once. That's about it. But the job description sounded typical for an office, so I applied. I also threw in a story from my college physics class:
I had been called on to walk the class through how I had solved a problem, so I began describing what I had done. In one step, I mistakenly used a conversion saying that 1 meter = 3 feet. My professor corrected me (only after finishing the whole problem) and said that my fast-and-loose conversion gave him hope for me as an engineer.
So, basically, in my cover letter, I put in a story about how engineers aren't very good at what they do. Or at best, aren't very precise. And guess what?

I got the job.

I start in mid-July, but I'll be taking the first two weeks of July to go back to Ann Arbor to go through some old stuff of mine. And hopefully not bring too much of it back. We've got limited space here as it is.

Andy said we would go out for ice cream tonight. And then he changed his mind. Isn't life rough?

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