[Rhodes22-list] MRI Interview Trip

[Lloyd Crowther]

Roger,

Security Clearance is experiencing big backlog problems these days as you 
note, not just in airports either.  I submitted my security clearance papers 
to the Coast Guard (at their request) in mid-March, 2004 and am still 
awaiting some decision.  Maybe MRI will try to pull some strings but it will 
be a hard pull so you may lose out to someone who already has the clearance, 
not on qualifications but on expediency.  Good luck but don't get your hopes 
too high.  Every thing happens for the best my grandmother used to say.  (I 
asume you meant you will be back on 12/30/2004.)

Lloyd
s/v Uhuru II

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402 at centurytel.net>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 5:09 PM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] MRI Interview Trip


Hi Everyone,

The Midwest Research Institute (MRI) is a class act.  They sent a limo to 
pick me up at the Kansas City International Airport.  They put me up at the 
Kansas City Marriott Hotel, which is right downtown in the "Plaza Area". 
The holiday decorations in the Plaza were amazing and the view from my 12th 
floor hotel window was pretty impressive!

The interview day itself was nonstop, back-to-back interviews from 8:00 AM 
until the limo picked me up to take me back to the airport at 1:45 PM. 
Lunch was catered in and the interviews continued thru lunch.  On the tour 
of the MRI facility, I never saw so many Biological Safety Level 2 (BSL-2) 
and BSL-3 labs in one place in my life.  These folks are having way too much 
fun!

The position I was interviewing for was called Aerosol Engineering Section 
Manager.  I was interviewed by the person that would be my boss, his boss, 
and several of the people that would be on my staff.  It's a high security 
environment.  As a visitor, one does not go wandering off by themself.  I 
even had to be escorted to and from the restroom!  The fact that I don't 
currently hold a security clearance may be an issue.  Apparently, it 
requires up to a year to process a security clearance application these days 
and the fact that I held a DoD security clearance level at the level of 
SECRET from 1987-1990 does not speed up the process.

Other than that, I thought the interviews went well.  It is my understanding 
that MRI still has a few other candidates to interview and these interviews 
will take place early in January, 2005.  Hopefully, by mid to late January, 
2005, I will know whether I have a job offer or not.

Also on a bright note, I have another job interview lined up on 01/04/2005. 
This one is with Broin & Associates, Inc.  Broin makes turn key package 
corn-to-ethanol plants.  I've been marketing my process waste energy 
recycling concept from the entrepreneurship class at SVSU to companies like 
Broin.  It took a while to get thru to the right person; but, apparently my 
proposal finally crossed the appropriate desk!

I haven't felt this hopeful in quite a while!  We're going to be traveling 
for the holidays from Christmas Day thru to the evening of 11/30/2004 .  I 
hope you all have a very merry Christmas and happy New Year!  I'll talk to 
you when we get back.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
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