Today was the day I had my interview with Lenel Systems International. I rushed to get there on time as I was leaving a bit later than I would have liked to and didn't know what to expect with the Route 252 traffic (it was pretty bad last time). I managed to get there with 7 minutes to spare

I checked in with the receptionist and waited in the big lobby, staring patiently at the plasma screen that just sat there with a static image on it the whole time. I scribbled a few questions to ask them that I thought up into my folio. A man came out and said "Are you the 2 o'clock interview?" I got up, shook hands with him, and he asked me if I was Mike. I said no, I was Chris, and he said something about one of his co-workers must have already started interviewing this "Mike" character. He took me into a room for the interview and I greeted the head of QA; she seemed very nice. I gave him a copy of my resume as he couldn't find his copy, and then he started in on the typical questions. After 5 – 10 minutes of that another employee came in the room and said "Who are you interviewing? I think we might have the wrong people". Yeah as it turns out there were a few 2 o'clock interviews, one in the IT department, one in the QA department.. and I don't remember what the third was for.

I got a quick tour of their IT staff room and their server farm (mmmmmm) and then we found an empty conference room for the interview. Of course as I was sitting down another person came in to interview me also. Always with the double teaming, sheesh. They talked about their network setup, asked me some questions, I asked them some questions, they talked about what the job responsibilities would be, what the chain of command is like, etc.

The interview went quickly (I don't think they really felt like talking much either haha gotta love IT people), and he told me he would give me a call either today or tomorrow letting me know what their decision was. He mentioned that they had already interviewed seven people for the position and had one more today, for a total of of course 9 including myself. I thanked them and was on my way. They had to let me out of the building, because the doors are locked on the inside and out and they use an RFID RSA crypto keyfob (totally sweet) for entry/exit.

So yeah. That was it. Oh yeah, in case anyone read my previous post about this and said "hmm Lenel sounds sorta familiar", take a look at any of the card swipe or card/keypad access panels on RITs campus. All the ones that I have seen are Lenel ones. They make that sort of thing, so of course they have the crazy model at their headquarters.

Thoroughly impressed but feeling as though I didn't wow anyone during the interview, I made my way back to the apartment with just enough time to get changed before going back to campus for Discrete Math II.

In what I believe was a first out of the three classes I have taken with Dr. Shahmohamad, we got out early.. an hour early, because we were at the end of a chapter and the first section of the next chapter was much to long to try and start in the remaining hour of class.

Back at the apartment, I noticed that I had voicemail. Sure enough, it was my interviewing asking me to give him a call back when I got the message and giving me his cell phone number. I paced around the apartment for a bit, checked my e-mail, washed my face, and basically did anything else that I could think of.

After a few minutes of that, I made the phone call. He answered, we exchanged greetings, and then he got right on with it. He extended an offer for a summer/fall co-op working at their U.S. office doing end-user support (200+ employees), installation/imaging/repair of new computers, and assisting with the planning and deployment of a new IP phone system for the entire building. He asked me if I was interested and I just blurted out "Of course I am, I'm very excited about this".

He said that they would like me to start as soon as possible, and definitely by the week of June 1st. I told him that I might need a week off right after finals to go home and see my family and take care of some things (like possibly moving into a new apartment), and he said that was ok. The week of June 1st is the week right after finals week. He said that he would have one of the PR people send off the formal offer to me in the mail, and that they would like it sent back before the end of the week if possible. sweet

And then it hit me that I probably won't be able to go to NH at all this year. That makes me really sad, especially since my mom will probably be miserable if she has to deal with my father by herself for weeks and weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to get a long weekend so that I can at least have a few days of relaxation on the beach this summer.

Also I won't be able to hang out with my friends from back home of course. No big deal, right? It's just a summer, right? Well sorta. I haven't really gotten to spend time with my friends back home since last summer. After I'm done with the co-op of course I'll be plopped right into the winter semester at RIT, and then the Spring semester and then oh look.. it's been two years since I have spent any appreciable amount of time at home. ha

Oh well though, I knew about the whole co-op thing before I even applied to RIT so if it wasn't something I wanted to do, I wouldn't have applied or come here. I am very excited about this co-op and hope that I'll do very well and gain a lot of experience in the field, which will nicely re-affirm that I made the right choice in changing majors again. It isn't that I don't care about my friends back home (quite the contrary) but that this is something I need to do and I can't possibly pass up an opportunity like this. More than that, I need to co-op to graduate so I would need to do it sooner or later, and I'm chosing the former.

Sorry if this post came off as bragging or gloating, but for once something really went my way so I thought it was time to celebrate.

woohoo spending money before I even have it here I come!