I got a job!
Thursday 16th December 2010
In mid-October back in Thailand I started searching online for jobs in Sydney as a statistician. I found about a couple a week that I was really interested in and applied for. So far I've applied for twelve jobs and had ten rejections without even an interview. Of the two outstanding opportunities, one wouldn't be interviewing till January and the other wanted someone with social sciences experience, so I didn't have high expectations for the rest of this month. In Hoi An, Vietnam we didn't have wifi in our hotel so I went for four days without checking my email.
Tuesday
11:15 local time, just before catching our overnight train to Hanoi I went to the internet cafe and read an email inviting me to an interview with the University of Sydney at 16:00 Australian Eastern time (i.e. 12:00 in Vietnam)! Thoughts raced through my mind - What do I do?!? Of course I want to take the interview, but we had already booked and paid for our train. We'd checked out of the hotel and I don't have a phone. I'm sat in an internet cafe surrounded by boys playing computer games and smoking. I look at my watch and calculate what time we need to get our taxi to Danang (the next town north) where we'll be catching the train.... it's just not going to work.
Quickly, I email and explain that I won't be able to do the interview at that time, but I am still very interested in the position. I ask if they can possibly reschedule. I get a fast reply expressing the university's urgency to interview me now, since it's about to close down for Christmas. The selection committee probably wouldn't be able to reschedule. My stomach feels twisted and full of butterflies. How frustrating to be so close. I log off the computer, wondering if I made the right decision or if we should have missed our train and got another one the next day. However I was convinced that with no preparation I wouldn't have passed the interview anyway.
I returned to a cafe opposite our hotel where I was meeting Aaron and told him the exciting news! We got our train from Danang as planned. On the train I reviewed my application, just in case they were able to reschedule the interview. The position was for a Senior Research Analyst at the Workplace Research Centre, University of Sydney, for one year, covering someone's maternity leave. I had applied for the job nearly seven weeks ago when Aaron and I were in Paske, Laos. I'd spent a long time filling out the detailed application form, but then I got stumped at the question that asked for my content knowledge on employment matters. I nearly didn't complete the application, but Aaron told me to go for it since I'd got this far. So I wrote something lame about how I had experience of being employed in both the UK and US and submitted it.
Since then the position had been withdrawn, then re-advertised and changed from full-time to four days a week. Fine with me – more time for tourism in Sydney! Without an internet connection there was little more I could do to prepare or read about the department. Thinking that they couldn't reschedule anyway, I calmly drifted off to sleep.
Wednesday
Our train arrives in Hanoi about 5:30 am. It's pitch dark and occasionally drizzling with rain. We spend about an hour wandering the deserted streets before places begin to open and we find a hotel. Whilst they are preparing our room I check my email on the computer in the lobby. The university rescheduled my interview for 8am (Vietnam time) today. I check my watch, it's now 7am! I try desperately not to panic! The hotel give us breakfast and we get into our room about half an hour before the interview.
My heart is pounding when the phone rings. I pick up the receiver and the collied cord knocks the phone on the floor. The line buzzes loudly, since the cord is loosely connected to the phone. They call me back and I sit on the floor to make sure the receiver is close to the phone and the cord is not stretched. First they explain that they understand I don't know anything about employment matters – phew! Of course though they do expect me to know about quantitative analysis and when they ask me about longitudinal analysis and non-parametric statistics, let's just say I didn't do my best! It was a short interview only lasting about half an hour. Afterwards I said to Aaron that it didn't go very well and I didn't think I'd got the job. However they had said I had a very strong reference and at the end of the interview they still wanted to get a second reference for me. Aaron bet me $5 I would get it.
Thursday
After a couple of attempts to obtain Chinese visas, we are sitting in the hotel at lunch time, when I get a call from the university. They told me that the selection committee was going to recommend me to the Dean and if approved I would have the job! I was elated! My strong written application and references had pulled me through! They took into account that I had been on an overnight train for any 'poor answers' I provided during the interview. Once the official paperwork is completed in January they want me to start as soon as possible! I cheered and danced around the room!
In mid-October back in Thailand I started searching online for jobs in Sydney as a statistician. I found about a couple a week that I was really interested in and applied for. So far I've applied for twelve jobs and had ten rejections without even an interview. Of the two outstanding opportunities, one wouldn't be interviewing till January and the other wanted someone with social sciences experience, so I didn't have high expectations for the rest of this month. In Hoi An, Vietnam we didn't have wifi in our hotel so I went for four days without checking my email.
Tuesday
11:15 local time, just before catching our overnight train to Hanoi I went to the internet cafe and read an email inviting me to an interview with the University of Sydney at 16:00 Australian Eastern time (i.e. 12:00 in Vietnam)! Thoughts raced through my mind - What do I do?!? Of course I want to take the interview, but we had already booked and paid for our train. We'd checked out of the hotel and I don't have a phone. I'm sat in an internet cafe surrounded by boys playing computer games and smoking. I look at my watch and calculate what time we need to get our taxi to Danang (the next town north) where we'll be catching the train.... it's just not going to work.
Quickly, I email and explain that I won't be able to do the interview at that time, but I am still very interested in the position. I ask if they can possibly reschedule. I get a fast reply expressing the university's urgency to interview me now, since it's about to close down for Christmas. The selection committee probably wouldn't be able to reschedule. My stomach feels twisted and full of butterflies. How frustrating to be so close. I log off the computer, wondering if I made the right decision or if we should have missed our train and got another one the next day. However I was convinced that with no preparation I wouldn't have passed the interview anyway.
I returned to a cafe opposite our hotel where I was meeting Aaron and told him the exciting news! We got our train from Danang as planned. On the train I reviewed my application, just in case they were able to reschedule the interview. The position was for a Senior Research Analyst at the Workplace Research Centre, University of Sydney, for one year, covering someone's maternity leave. I had applied for the job nearly seven weeks ago when Aaron and I were in Paske, Laos. I'd spent a long time filling out the detailed application form, but then I got stumped at the question that asked for my content knowledge on employment matters. I nearly didn't complete the application, but Aaron told me to go for it since I'd got this far. So I wrote something lame about how I had experience of being employed in both the UK and US and submitted it.
Since then the position had been withdrawn, then re-advertised and changed from full-time to four days a week. Fine with me – more time for tourism in Sydney! Without an internet connection there was little more I could do to prepare or read about the department. Thinking that they couldn't reschedule anyway, I calmly drifted off to sleep.
Wednesday
Our train arrives in Hanoi about 5:30 am. It's pitch dark and occasionally drizzling with rain. We spend about an hour wandering the deserted streets before places begin to open and we find a hotel. Whilst they are preparing our room I check my email on the computer in the lobby. The university rescheduled my interview for 8am (Vietnam time) today. I check my watch, it's now 7am! I try desperately not to panic! The hotel give us breakfast and we get into our room about half an hour before the interview.
My heart is pounding when the phone rings. I pick up the receiver and the collied cord knocks the phone on the floor. The line buzzes loudly, since the cord is loosely connected to the phone. They call me back and I sit on the floor to make sure the receiver is close to the phone and the cord is not stretched. First they explain that they understand I don't know anything about employment matters – phew! Of course though they do expect me to know about quantitative analysis and when they ask me about longitudinal analysis and non-parametric statistics, let's just say I didn't do my best! It was a short interview only lasting about half an hour. Afterwards I said to Aaron that it didn't go very well and I didn't think I'd got the job. However they had said I had a very strong reference and at the end of the interview they still wanted to get a second reference for me. Aaron bet me $5 I would get it.
Thursday
After a couple of attempts to obtain Chinese visas, we are sitting in the hotel at lunch time, when I get a call from the university. They told me that the selection committee was going to recommend me to the Dean and if approved I would have the job! I was elated! My strong written application and references had pulled me through! They took into account that I had been on an overnight train for any 'poor answers' I provided during the interview. Once the official paperwork is completed in January they want me to start as soon as possible! I cheered and danced around the room!
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