[Rhodes22-list] Interesting Week

[Wally Buck]

I hope it works out for you. Being prepared for an interview usually apys 
off.

Wally

>From: "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402 at centurytel.net>
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Interesting Week
>Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:09:53 -0500
>
>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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