February 2004

Tonight while I was walking through the Troy Wal-Mart I had an inspiration:

Someone should make a reality TV show about the employees and drama of Wal-Mart (something along the lines of Airline which features Southwest Airlines). The producers should feature the Troy Wal-Mart first, and visit here often throughout the series. There is much drama to be captured!

How did this inspiration come about? While I was there tonight, a fight broke out between these two groups of adults, and after about 10 employees and the manager came around, the kids with these adults helped to move the fight outside. Wal-Mart would be the perfect setting for a cultural commentary, and it would be great advertising for them. It really makes too much sense in a way, doesn’t it?

Holy crap, I interviewed with FactSet yesterday, and now they want a phone interview?

>>

Dear Lee:

Thank you for submitting your resume to FactSet for our review. We would
like to schedule a time to have you speak with one of our software
engineers over the phone so that we can discuss in detail the opportunities
available to you here at FactSet. Please email a few dates and times
when you would be available to speak with us.

I look forward to your reply.

Regards,
Margaret Pratt

I had my interview with FactSet this morning. My friend John interviewed with them back in November and was called back for a second interview in December. I remember talking with him about the company, it seems like an exciting place to work! The interviewer confirmed that they have a very communal corporate culture (there is very little definition of management structure, everyone is friends with everyone else, and after work teams go out for drinks/dinner). The interview went very well, the technical questions he asked were all closely related to the work I’m doing now, so they all seemed pretty easy.

We also spent some time shooting the breeze about various topics. He told me all about his job at the company, stating that I would essentially be working on his team if hired. He discussed Greenwich, CT which sounds like a great place to live with lots of cafes, shops, cultural events, and is only 30 mins from NYC by train. We also chatted about RPI for a bit as he was a grad of the class of 2001. My interview was supposed to run from 10:45-11:15, and at around 11:15 he looked down at his cell phone, which was sitting on the table, to check the time. I asked if he had another interview that he needed to get to, and he said “yeah, but we can chat for a few more minutes”. We ran about 10 minutes over, which is can’t be a bad sign! He ended by talking about benefits (stock options, free health/life insurance, etc), and mentioned that their going starting salary for my position is about $65,000/yr.

There are a few problems, and he was upfront about them. He said that right now they are approved to hire people that will start with the company in Jan, 2005 which isn’t so good for me. I’m graduating in May of 2004 and really could use a job right away! Anyway, he continued to say that if they found someone they were really interested in, they could petition the president of the company to allocate funds to hire them in May instead of next January. So hopefully that means there would be a chance at a job there.

I’m also trying not to get any hopes up, because FactSet brought John in for a second interview in CT, and even though everything seemed smooth and a done deal for him, about two months later he got a rejection letter from them. He was applying for a different job that I interviewed for, but still it seemed like they led him on a bit too much.

So that’s the interview story. I’ll post any job-related updates here as they come in!

Phew… I accidentally let my LiveJournal Paid account expire for a few hours. But it’s back up and completely paid for now

You should check out this French commercial (it’s quite convincing, as if you ever needed more convincing):

http://www.dr-joe.net/flash/no_candy.htm

A commercial like this would never fly here in the US… we haven’t paid our UN dues in several years because our platform opposes promoting birth control in developing nations. As a side note, Carrefour stores are pretty cool!

Today was definitely a strange day. This morning I awoke to e-mails forwarded from Egypt that a friend, teacher, and mentor of mine from my last few years of high school, Dan Andrews, had been killed on a school trip to the Red Sea. I posted the Embassy’s statement earlier when I got it, but since then I have learned that there was a cooking fire on the boat, and apparently the heat set off a few high concentration O₂ SCUBA diving tanks. I think to all of the people who knew Mr. Andrews and studied under him he was a great person. I had the opportunity to work with him for a year on Model United Nations-related business, both at CAC and in The Hague. He also introduced me to the world of photography (the more professional, artsy kind) and helped both Josh Sims and I to develop our skill. He will definitely be missed, but always remembered everytime I expose a frame of film or think about the United Nations.

On an entirely more positive note, I was selected for an interview with Factset which I immediately scheduled for next Wednesday (2/18/04) morning. I’m definitely excited, it would be a great job with a great company. Any more on this subject will likely be friends-only, so stay tuned!

Tonight I’m pretty much taking it easy, watching some ER (a show I used to watch all the time but haven’t seen in a few months) and perhaps catching up with STS later.

I just received this announcement, and am working to find more info…

The U.S. Embassy wishes to advise the American community of Egypt that an accident occurred near Sharm El Sheikh during the night of February 11. A fire on a dive boat carrying students from Cairo American College and two teacher-chaperons participating in a CAC school trip has resulted in the deaths of two students and one teacher. The rest of the group is safe and accounted for.

Investigation of the accident is underway, though the accident does not appear to be security-related. Additional updates will be posted on the CAC website at: www.cacegypt.org.

Several weeks ago I filled out the little form on the David Letterman website to request tickets to a taping of his show in New York City. I had to provide some good dates that I would be available, and I gave some weekdays in February.

This morning I got a phone call from Mitch who is on the production staff for Letterman. He gave me the details, and after a quick trivia question I got the tickets! Ooh, for reference, the trivia question went something like this: “For the last 10 years, Dave has had a special guest appearing on his show named Rupert. Can you tell me why Rupert is special?” I couldn’t have asked for an easier question, because I love the skits with Rupert and his famous “Hello Deli”.

So John and I are headed to NYC on Wednesday morning for the taping. It should be a blast, and will mark my first official trip to NYC (other than flying through). Look for more info and possibly pictures from this mini-road trip coming your way soon!

This weekend was completely crazy! I was at happy hour at the Pub on Friday when the decision was made between a couple of friends and me to make a quick trip to Montreal. We came up with that at 6 PM, and then were on the road at around 8 PM. Everyone knows that I like to have a plan, so that left me two hours to make a hotel reservation and figure out the details of our trip. I got a good deal on a room at the Hyatt which turned out to be well located downtown.

We walked around a bit looking for excitement, perhaps initially in the wrong places (but a couple of nice prostitutes pointed out that we were headed into the gay district, but quickly added “…that’s ok too”). We found some good live entertainment at a local bar, and grabbed some food on the way back (pizza for Josh, Laura and I, and some Burger King for John, Evette, and Diane). The next morning after coffee with Laura (my first real coffee beverage ever!) we spent some time wandering the mall attached to the hotel with the best food court I’ve ever seen (what kind of food court offers shwermas and pumpkin pie in the same area???).

I have to say that I really loved Montreal, even though I was there for less than a day. It was just like being in a European city, but a city where just about everyone we encountered spoke English. The only thing that bothered me a bit was driving, but that was mostly because everything was in French and I wasn’t really familiar with the local laws. For example, the little red sign on the back of city buses that says “priorite” and has a picture of them changing lanes to the left really means that when the bus wants to get over, he turns on the turn signal and starts moving left despite the fact there may be cars in that lane!

I really wish I had more of an opportunity to tour around the city, and a chance to read through a travel book or have a really good guide. If it were warmer, I’d definitely consider living there just because it’s so much like Europe! The temperatures were about the same as they are here in Albany, but I can imagine that during warmer weather the city is beautiful. I definitely want to go back when the weather improves.

Once again, the nasty weather (snow, freezing rain) has brought every single school and many workplaces to a standstill today…. EXCEPT… of course… RPI.

I suppose I could’ve predicted that!

On another note, I believe this is Troy CSD’s 10th snow day this school year… does that sound about right? How many has RPI had? Zero… well, we were delayed two hours once, but that doesn’t count because it was on an exam day and I didn’t have anything anyway.