The waiting game

The “waiting game” is something that happens to everyone.  It could also be called “Hurry up and wait”.  Basically, it’s that time where something is going to happen, and no one knows when it’s going to happen.  That’s where I am right now, or at least I hope to be there right now.  I had my phone interview earlier this week, and the end of the week is nearing, and the first job is potentially going to be filled by the end of the week.  Well, the person in charge of making the decision will have made a decision by then, but then HR takes over.  Since this is a government position, HR probably moves at the speed of snail.  So how long do you wait?  How long should a person wait to hear back on a job, before contacting someone to ask what’s going on?  I know that 1 of the 2 positions is hoped to be filled by the end of this week, and the second probably by the end of next week, but will HR contact the person immediately, or will they have to do some reference checking?  All I know is that the phone interview was it, that there is not another opportunity to impress them, so if chosen, that’s it.  So how long do you wait?

My gut says that I wait until a week or two after the point when I know all interviews are over, and the choices should have been made.  I’d prefer not to have to contact anyone, but at some point, I’ll have to suck it up and send an e-mail.  It’s really hard not to get into the mindset of “I’ve got this in the bag”.  I have a lot of positive qualities, and a lot of experience and background that would make me a great fit.  However, there are 12 candidates, so there could be other people with the same level of qualifications, or better, or gave a better phone interview.  So in the end, I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but I’m also trying not to squash my hopes as well.  It’s a hard thing to balance?  Have you ever been waiting to hear back on a job, and you felt confident, but you just weren’t sure?  How did you pass the time during “The waiting game”?

Adulthood does not equal boring

I know this is a subject that has been talked about a lot, but I thought I’d put my own thoughts and feelings out, on this topic.  It seems to be, that at some point people stop having fun.  There’s this feeling that adults must act like adults, and if they want to make something and creative and fun, that is slightly childish, then there’s something wrong with them.  It is frowned upon to play video games, as an adult, or make paper airplanes, unless doing so with children.  Why?  Why have we as a society stifled that which makes us happy?  There’s something to be said for the soothing powers of coloring books, but if an adult spent their day coloring in a coloring book, there would be talk of that being wrong.  Why?

When I volunteered for the GESTEMevent last week, I was treated to some adults, having fun, and being like kids, and it was an awesome experience, for the kids, and for the other adults in the room.  This specific session was sponsored by Lockheed Martin, and involved the kids getting to build foam rockets, and then launch them.  The team from Lockheed Martin had such energy and excitement about things, that all the kids felt the buzz of energy.  Not only did the kids get to build rockets and shoot them off inside, but they had a purpose, it was more than just shooting rockets, it was accomplishing a goal.  What was the goal? Intercepting the bad rockets to prevent disaster.  The kids were paired off, and one girl was a missile, and the other girl was the interceptor.  It was the interceptor’s job to try and hit the missile.  It would seem that the girls would just have fun launching their rockets, but they actually tried to, and many succeeded, in hitting the rockets.

I think more companies, and more adults should do like this group of people from Lockheed Martin.  Being an adult does not mean that you can’t have fun and play with things deemed “childish”.  Sometimes, it takes making things really simple, to find the answer.  So let’s stop being boring adults and have some fun in the name of learning and growing!

Shout out to Fibonacci

Music isn’t known for being very math intensive, or math heavy, but it was in one of my music theory classes that I had the neatest math experience.  It was in my music theory class that we learned about the Fibonacci numbers.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a brief quote from wikipedia: “In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers or Fibonacci series or Fibonacci sequence are the numbers in the following integer sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144…”

One of the easiest things to see Fibonacci in is plants.  If you count the number of leaves, it’s almost always a Fibonacci number.  The petals of a flower are also Fibonacci numbers.  Some things in nature, like pinecones, and pineapples, exhibit the Fibonacci spiral.  I love creating the Fibonacci spiral on graph paper, or in a CAD program.

The Fibonacci numbers can also be used in music, in composing, and other things.  There’s a bunch out there about Fibonacci and I think it is just the bee’s knees, but I wanted to give a short little shout out to Fibonacci.  Where have you observed Fibonacci Numbers?

Extreme Enthusiasm

I am an acoustics enthusiast.  I walk into a room, and immediately analyze what the acoustics might be.  But not only that, if I think they could be improved, I think about how they might be improved.  This is a part of me that I cannot shut down.   Sometimes I try to make it less obvious, and keep my thoughts to myself, but when I’m in a new location, and nervous, my eyes and mind go to acoustics.  What I’d like to figure out is why.  Why do I resort to acoustics when nervous or unsure what to say in a new setting?  Is it something I use to create conversation?  Am I trying to appear smarter than the other person?  Or is acoustics something I feel safe in, and so I turn to that like a safety blanket?  To quote the Tootsie Roll commercial, “The world may never know!”

Acoustics isn’t the only thing I get extremely enthused over.  ((I’m trying to avoid using the word ‘nerd’ since apparently it has negative connotations for a lot of people)) I also get enthused over instrumental music.  Specifically when it’s a piece of music that I’ve heard before, or played, or just really enjoy.  In high school I used to show that enthusiasm by shaking excitedly and wiggling my fingers at the screen, or waving my fingers about as I conducted to the music.  That scenario didn’t really occur when I was in new situations or with strangers.  I really only allowed that enthusiasm out when I knew the people I was with and knew they had some level of appreciation for the same things.

When I see other people, who are clearly passionate about the topic they are discussing, I take a moment and wonder if my passion comes through as clearly as theirs.  I’m sure it does, but having never seen myself when I’m talking about something I’m excited over, I’m not entirely sure.  What kinds of things are you extremely enthusiastic over?

 

Go Back to the Beginning

When I started seriously wanting to write this blog, I said that I wanted to make sure I did my research and had facts and backed up the things I was saying.  As I think back to the arguments I’ve made, I have simply made a disclaimer that I could be wrong and haven’t done my research.  That doesn’t really help me make my case.  It’s more of a cop-out to say “Oh I haven’t taken the time to really research this topic I claim to feel strongly about”.  Part of the reason that I don’t do the research is that I’m fighting and fighting with myself to find a topic that I want to discuss, and by the time I really sit down to start writing, it’s so late already that I don’t want to take more time away from writing the entry, to do research.  I’m also trying to keep these to smaller bits, so that readers aren’t reading until all their hair turns gray.  And then sometimes I completely forget to write a post.

Now that I see two big areas that need improvement, how do I move forward?  What do I need to do to ensure that I will take the time out to research the topic?  Part of me says that I shouldn’t have to, if I want the blog to just be my opinion, and allow for anyone and everyone to dispute me, and to say “Where’s your proof?”.  But that idea doesn’t sit well with my original intent, so do I change my intent, or do I try to go back to what I had originally planned?

I think I’m going to try to get a better handle on what I want to discuss.  Perhaps take the weekend to come up with some topics that I want to discuss during the week, and maybe try to brainstorm where to look for some information to include that would back up my thoughts and opinions.  Of course, this could be just a pipe dream, and maybe I just am not good at having facts back up my opinions.  The only way to know is to find out.  Shall we take a journey together?

Musings on my ‘Lunch Hour’

During my 1 hour lunch break, I allow myself to turn the TV back on, and I happened across an episode of the show The Doctors.  I only watched a few minutes of it, but they were discussing the argument about whether men are becoming less manly.  And, since one of the things I’m interested in writing about, is related to gender, I thought I’d weigh in on my initial reaction to what was being said.  The issue was discussed from multiple views, including physiology.  Since I am not a doctor, nor do I really keep up on medical news, I can’t refute anything they said.  The issue there is that men are reporting a lower level of testosterone, and the sperm count is falling.  From that standpoint, I can see the argument that men are become less masculine, less manly.

However, I am frustrated by this need to define men and women by masculine and feminine, in the sense that, if you aren’t fixing things, you aren’t manly.  I understand that for many years, men did the heavy lifting, they fixed the cars, and they fixed whatever needed fixing.  However, I don’t think it’s fair to call that manly, because there are plenty of women that are into fixing things, and cars.  As a female engineer, I find myself interested in, and excited over things that many people consider masculine items.  I am not a man, and I am not masculine, but I like explosions, and action movies, and geeky and nerdy items.  My belief is that we should stop calling men manly, and women feminine.  Our society isn’t that black and white anymore, and the labels are not helping society unite.

Yes, it is important to understand why testosterone levels are dropping, or why the sperm count is going down, but that should be the only concern.  Going back to the tv show I was watching, they had a short clip of people being asked if men were less manly now compared to twenty years ago.  Everyone said yes, but I don’t think it’s a valid question.  Society now, is completely different from society then.  Society back in the Renaissance is different from society in the present time.  At each point in time, there is a specific purpose, or goal, or unifying driving factor, that influences the roles of society.  I don’t think it’s fair to challenge the validity of one society over another.  Nothing in life is certain, nothing in life is static, and it is always changing.  Why do we, as a society insist on making everything static?

Ride the wave of change, don’t fight it

While I was on vacation, I saw a lot of movies.  One of the movies was Act of Valor.  I don’t want to spoil any plot points or anything, but I will say that the ending made me tear up.  ((That used to be a far more difficult thing to do.))  As I talk to people about having seen the movie, especially women, I make sure to add that the end is emotional, so the girlfriends and wives have a reason to sit through the movie.  And usually the other person laughs and nods, or whatnot.  Today, when I was telling a friend this same story, I then added that I of course loved the movie because it had explosions and action.  Why is it strange for a woman to like explosions?  Why should I feel that I need to clarify that I was watching a movie for the emotional content to some people, and to others, I feel a need to separate that I’m not like normal women and enjoyed the “guy” parts of the movie?

We are such a gender-paranoid country.  Girls must be soft and pretty and pink, and boys must be manly and hard and blue.  That concept is a little cloudier now, than it was when I was growing up, but it’s still pretty prevalent that there are certain things that women and girls should like, and other things that they should stay away from.  We see that in advertising.  Dr. Pepper 10, did a great job of pointing out that there’s a “guy movie” and that women don’t want to see that, just like women don’t want the “manly” Dr. Pepper 10.  There was a lot of conversation on both sides.  There were women who found it sexist, and others that agreed.  There were people who weren’t bothered at all, and others who were so offended that they just had to run off to the message boards and tell the internet how unhappy they were.  Where I stood isn’t important in this post, just that there is this distinction that everyone seems to grasp and cling to.

Another stereotype is gamers and to some extent geeks.  My friend Robin over at FanGirlConfessions, (http://www.fangirlconfessions.com/ ) does a fantastic job of covering some pretty awesome nerdy things, that are typically considered to be guy things.  And I think that we should stop assigning a gender to everything in the world.  The world is, has, and always will be changing.  Society is, has, and always will be changing, and instead of fighting to keep to the ideas we once had, I think we should grow and embrace the changes.  After all, sound, space, and explosions isn’t just for guys anymore!

Creativity Shines Through

Engineering isn’t without creativity.  Designing things can be extremely creative.  One of my side hobbies is to quilt.  I like cutting straight lines and trying to sew everything together in a straight line.  I’m drawn to patterns that have a geometric difficult to them.  I’ve bought patterns for quilts that are not easy for beginning sewers, because I thought they would look neat.  Some have turned out well, and others, never got finished, or never got started.  Whether I’ve finished everything or not, hasn’t changed my enjoyment of quilting, and when I finish something I have pride, but sometimes it’s just about the creativity.

Along those lines, I’m getting ready to delve into another side of quilting, art quilts.  I have this idea in my head, of a picture that I love, of the space shuttle launching, and I want to see if I can replicate that in fabric.  Not exact, but I want to try and see what I can make, see if I can put into fabric how awesome I think that is.  If I can get that, I think my next idea, might be to try and make a quilt that represents an anechoic chamber, and how I think the wedges are just neat.  If the first art quilt goes well, I may try to make more.  I still like traditional quilting, but I want to experiment and see what else I can create, how I can make it my own.

Where do you output your creativity?

Everyone Needs to Recharge

I just came back from a mini-vacation.  I had planned to write up a blog post for each day I would be gone, and have it post automatically, but I got lazy and didn’t, so I missed about 3 days of blogs because I wasn’t on top of things.  Oops.  Anyway, I hope to get back on the blog post wagon.  I had a very relaxing vacation, and I learned a few things about myself.

When I originally booked the trip, it was going to be a vacation from my job.  I’m very glad that I decided on the trip, before I got fired, because if I had, I probably wouldn’t have gone on the trip, and I needed it.  It’s hard, to sit every day and just look for jobs, and apply, and try to change my spending habits to save money, and keep busy so that I’m not wasting my day.  Being unemployed and searching for employment is a full time job.  I want desperately to get out of this position, and so I’ve been working myself hard to try and get resumes out there, and make connections, and sometimes it’s important to just sit back, and relax.

It’s like spending my birthday, not worrying about anything but taking it easy.  Sometimes it’s necessary to unplug and get away from things for awhile, so that when you come back to it, you can be refreshed.  I still have no idea where I want to go, what I want to do, but I’ve decided that I’m just going to keep pushing forward.  The more resumes I have out there, the greater the chance that someone will bite, that someone will take a chance an interview me.  So I’m renewing my searching so that I can hopefully, through law of averages, just get someone to take notice of my skills.  I’m also going to try to get back into my engineering and math review.  I let myself get despondent about how the studying was going, and walked away from it, thinking that it just wasn’t going to get better, but like everything, practice makes perfect.  So I’m going to approach things from a different angle, and see if I can get a better result.

I also have the project my dad and I are working on.  I can spend some time working in that, and learning ProEngineer and learning how to do engineering drawings, and.  Now that I have something tangible to reach, I see my learning as being important.

I’m so glad that I took the vacation, that I’ve had time to recharge, and that I’m certain I will pick up where I left off, and hopefully find myself more successful, because I have a different view of things now.  Here’s hoping for some positive results.

A Long Hallway With Many Doors

I missed my post yesterday.  Oops.  I had another networking lunch yesterday.  A friend of someone who has been very supportive and helpful, agreed to have lunch with me and so we had lunch and talked.  He had worked a bit in acoustic testing and was going to share a little bit about what that was like, and also answer any questions that I might have.  I had a good time, and feel like I learned a lot.  I got a better understanding of what an analysis job would entail.  It would be a lot of building models and then using simulation software to predict how certain things would happen, and then there would be verification of the predicted results through testing.  While the idea of analysis sounds like something I could get behind, I feel that it may be too isolated for me.  Having spent a lot of the last two years of my undergrad learning about team building, and taking part in team activities, I find that I want to work in a collaborative environment.  We were told that engineering was getting to be more and more about collaboration and that we needed to work across the disciplines.  I’m not sure if that’s really how the world is working, or if that’s an idealized situation geared at getting undergrads to behave.  Either way, I want to work in more collaborative environments.

I’m not saying that I want to have team meetings every day and never work alone, but I want to have time where I can bounce my ideas off of someone else, or we can work together to solve an issue.  Having never worked in an engineering office except as an intern, I’m not really sure how it works, so I may be spouting about stuff that already happens everywhere.

Let me get back to the main thing that I got out of my lunch yesterday.  We talked a lot about what my next steps should be. (Like talking to an engineer OUTSIDEof aerospace, to find out what that’s like) We talked about the different applications of acoustics, and how getting a masters degree in Heat Transfer/Thermal might not help me if I want to go into acoustic testing.  But through all of this, the underlying message, that I got, was that I have a bunch of options.  The road before me branches in a million (or so) different paths, and I just have to pick one.  It would be best if I pick one that I like, but also something that I could build upon.  The question wasn’t “Where you see yourself for the rest of your life?” but “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”  Passions change, people change, and the working world has changed.  Many people find a career and spend their lives in that company, doing that discipline, but even more people will change careers and direction multiple times.  The danger with staying in one job for too long is that you become pigeon-holed to be in one specific area, but if that’s what you want, then that’s the perfect fit for you.  The trick is to be honest with yourself.

So now that I’ve had yet another person help show me that getting a career isn’t about the money, it isn’t about the fame (unless that’s what you want) but about doing something you’re passionate about, I feel like I’m back at square one.  I thought I had my goals all figured out, where I wanted to go.  “I want to work in manned aerospace, preferably with NASA” or “I want to become an expert on a technical subject and then explain it to people without that expertise”, but could I be just as happy working on new roller coaster designs?  Or improving the acoustical transparency of subs?  Sure!  So how do you narrow it down?

When it seems like every door is open to you, how do you figure out which one is the right one to go down?  Do you make a list and systematically cross off things that you don’t mark above a certain interest level?  Do you just take a shot in the dark and hope that you hit something you’ll enjoy?  Or perhaps you go through one door, but put a stopper in the way so that it’ll never close on you and you can go back out to your options?  Is there a right way to do it?  What do you think?