[Rhodes22-list] Interesting Week

[Steve Alm]

Best of Luck, Roger.  You mention that MRI also operates the Natl. Renewable
Energy Lab, and I was thinking that's right down your alley.  Are they aware
that you're also qualified in that field as well?
Slim

On 12/21/04 10:09 PM, "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402 at centurytel.net> wrote:

> Hi Everybody,
> 
> Well, I've had an interesting week.  I've been interviewing via the telephone
> & a-mail for a Group Leader position at Midwest Research Institute (MRI) in
> Kansas City, MO.  MRI is an independent, not-for-profit organization that
> performs contract research for business, industry, and government.  MRI was
> founded in 1944 and had facilities in Kansas City, MO; Cary, NC; Palm Bay, FL,
> and Washington D.C.  MRI also operates the National Renewable Energy
> Laboratory in Golden, CO under contract for the United States Dept. of Energy.
> The MRI facility in Kansas City, MO employs about 350 people.
> 
> The position I'm interviewing for would be a Group Leader of a small
> multi-disciplinary group of about 10 scientists and engineers doing research
> into sampling and measurement of aerosols; in the environment, on the
> battlefield, and in industrial settings.  I will need to get my security
> classification reinstated for this position.  This research is mostly
> concentrating on the development of small, fast, reliable means to sample,
> detect, and measure for the presence of toxic biological and chemical agents.
> The US Postal Service and US Army are major clients of this group.
> 
> I'm flying out to Kansas City, MO on Wednesday evening, interviewing during
> the day on Thursday, and flying home Thursday night.  Right now, it's not
> clear whether they would offer the position as a 6 month renewable contract or
> as a permanent hire.
> 
> The way I got this interview trip is kind of interesting.  Last week Friday, I
> learned thru a headhunter that his client was MRI & they were interested in
> interviewing me on Monday via the telephone.  He e-mailed me a job description
> of the position.  Over the weekend, I researched MRI and specifically what
> they might be doing in the area of aerosol research.  I was able to figure out
> that MRI had recently spun off up a small entrepreneurial start-up company
> called Sceptor Industries, Inc. (Also headquartered in Kansas City, MO)
> Sceptor Industries markets a concentrating air sampler under the tradename of
> SpinCon.  SpinCon air samplers are being installed on every mail sorting
> machine in the US Postal Service to sample and detect pathogens, like anthrax,
> being sent thru the mail.  The US Army uses SpinCon air samplers on the
> battlefield to detect chemical and biological threats.  Naturally, the
> publicly available information on the SpinCon air sampler doesn't reveal very
> much about how it works.  But, I took the marketing claims and reverse
> engineered my own design for an air sampler that could do the same job.
> During my telephone interview on Monday, when asked about my expertise in air
> sampling, I first inquired about whether the group I would be heading up had
> anything to do with SpinCon and Sceptor Industries.  At first, there were
> several seconds of stunned silence on the other end of the line & then the
> interviewer said, "Yes, this group had done the proof-of-concept, scale-up,
> and manufacturing engineering to set Sceptor Industries up to produce SpinCon
> air samplers."  I told them that all I knew about the SpinCon air sampler was
> what I'd read on the web site.  I then described how I would go about
> developing an air sampler to do the same job.  I went on for about 10 minutes
> & when I finished I asked, "Well how close was that to the real device?"
> Again there was stunned silence for several seconds.  Finally, they told me
> that not only had I described the basic working principles of the present
> device, detailed several of the major problems they'd encountered during
> development & suggested reasonable solutions.  I had also touched on a couple
> of areas for improvement that the group was working on right now!  I just
> shrugged and said, "Well, sometimes you get lucky."  I thought the interview
> went pretty well.  This morning, I talked to the headhunter & he told me I'd
> made deep impression on the folks interviewing me.  Actually, the way he
> phrased it was, "You knew so much about a classified system that the guy was
> freaked out & they are going to be taking a much closer look at how the system
> is marketed in the future!"  Anyway, the next thing I knew, I was booked on a
> plane for Kansas City, MO!
> 
> Hey, I don't know if I'll actually get a job out of this &/or whether it'll be
> a 6 month contract or a permanent hire.  At the very least, it's encouraging
> to have someone interested in me.
> 
> Wish me luck!
> 
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
> 
>      
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