The Real Word?

Well this is my last official week working for UCCS. Friday it going to be my last day because my student status goes away when the next semester starts. It is really strange though because right now nothing has changed and I am still sitting here in the FSRC. I guess it will really sink in next Monday when I won't have work to go to.

Along the same note of work I just completed an interview for a web programmer job here in Sacramento. It was quite interesting because I was contacted by them in December. They actually saw my resume posted on the ECS career website and contacted my by email. When they told me it involved PHP and MySQL it interested me because that is essentially what my senior project group delt with. I also was interested because much of the web type of things I have done I have liked. I could picture myself a web programmer. I need experience in the field and this seems like a great way to do it.

Well on to the interview. Last Thursday was my scheduled interview. Because no one was around my dad left me the car so I could drive myself to the interview (off of Bradshaw Rd.). I figure if I do get the job (or another job) one of the first things I will do is get myself a car. I got there quite early, about 25-30 min, and waited in the car for about 10 min or so, then I made my way in. I was greeted by the President/CEO, Brett Maresca. He had me sit by his desk while he finished up a few things. While sitting there I looked around. There appeared to be 4 rooms (all pretty small), the room I was in with two desks (one with Brett's name on it, the other with no name), a back room with another desk and conference table, a room that was locked, and another room which appears to be where all the programmer's desks are (though I never got to go in and check it out). I think just looking around and seeing the in's and out's of the office actually calmed me down. While waiting a group of programmers (all which appeared to be around my age) came back from lunch. They all said hi to me and that was about it. Then Brett was finally ready for me. He and Dustin Diaz (the lead programmer) where the people who interviewed me. The funny thing there is a few days before the interview when searching for info about the company (AWS-Athlete Web Services) I ran across Dustin's old website and emailed him. He seemed more than willing to answer some of my questions and was very nice. I corresponded a few time with him before the interview. I was sure to let Dustin know who I was before the interview stated and he did remember me (hopefully that acknoledgement helps me at least a little). They were both really nice during the interview and for some reason I really wasn't that nervous. It really reminded me of the interviews that they do for UCCS Lab Assistants, in fact I sat at a table opposite A.J. and Brandon earlier that day (both hire for UCCS) and it was almost a dejavu feeling. The questions were pretty basic, most of which I used my senior project experience as my example. I answered everything the best I could and they seemed interested (though you never know). They thanked me and after almost an hour I was back on the road home. That evening I put together a thank you note and mailed it on Friday (after the 3-day weekend hopefully they received it today sometime). I am very hopefull but at the same time you can never know. Maybe there were many other candidates that interviewed better than myself, maybe they had better qualifications....only time will tell. They said they would be finishing up interviews over the next couple of weeks and that they would make their decision by then. Here's keeping my fingers crossed.