I am quite pleased to announce that I am going to submit my PhD thesis for external examination very soon. How soon? I don't know because it (the thesis) is currently with my supervisor now and he is having a final look at it. But I believe soon. Definitely within the month or next. I have done my completion seminar and that went well; all that's left to do is to submit the thesis (and maybe write a couple more papers or journal articles).
So with all that (submission) happening (soon), I am planning on what to do next. In fact late last year I went for a couple of job interviews. I got offered a project engineer position early this year (as opposed to a mechanical design position) and they wanted me to start almost immediately (which I did not mind that much), but what they were offering me was a rather junior role. I wasn't too happy with it. They were basically discounting a lot of my previous experience working as a mechanical engineer and as I looked at the roles and responsibilities carefully, the job itself wasn't too exciting as well. There was another product development company that I interviewed for that seemed to be keen in offering me a position but due to some hiccups - a project put on hold and another project not coming through, that offer was put on hold.
Anyway, last month I applied for a very interesting job. Interesting because it involves sports engineering and there's product development and project management all thrown into it. To me, it was the best thing to do. I thought I had a chance and I was optimistic that I would get a meeting and I did. I was very excited about it. I spent at least 2 days preparing for the interview, thinking about what they might ask me and what are the things I should say etc. But at the actual meeting, I choked. I had moments when my mind froze and I did not give them a satisfying response, at least not my best answer to their questions. After I left that meeting and when I was on my way home, I realised there were so many things that I didn't say - things that I usually knew, things that I would do and could do. Sigh. But I choked. Very frustrating. Frankly I wouldn't mind if I went for an interview and gave it my best shot and didn't get offered the position because they interviewed someone better. But I didn't even gave it my best shot.
Oh well. It's over. Mabel was kind. She told me that's how interviews are, it's a stressful situation and people do choke. Maybe I got too excited over it, over the sports related part of things that I forgot to bring out the engineering and project management side of me. On a positive note, I did meet some nice people in my overall "interview experience". At least I got to know a few more people in the sports industry and even if I don't get this job, they could still be contacts for possible collaborations in the future. God willing. You never know. Time to apply for more jobs.
So with all that (submission) happening (soon), I am planning on what to do next. In fact late last year I went for a couple of job interviews. I got offered a project engineer position early this year (as opposed to a mechanical design position) and they wanted me to start almost immediately (which I did not mind that much), but what they were offering me was a rather junior role. I wasn't too happy with it. They were basically discounting a lot of my previous experience working as a mechanical engineer and as I looked at the roles and responsibilities carefully, the job itself wasn't too exciting as well. There was another product development company that I interviewed for that seemed to be keen in offering me a position but due to some hiccups - a project put on hold and another project not coming through, that offer was put on hold.
Anyway, last month I applied for a very interesting job. Interesting because it involves sports engineering and there's product development and project management all thrown into it. To me, it was the best thing to do. I thought I had a chance and I was optimistic that I would get a meeting and I did. I was very excited about it. I spent at least 2 days preparing for the interview, thinking about what they might ask me and what are the things I should say etc. But at the actual meeting, I choked. I had moments when my mind froze and I did not give them a satisfying response, at least not my best answer to their questions. After I left that meeting and when I was on my way home, I realised there were so many things that I didn't say - things that I usually knew, things that I would do and could do. Sigh. But I choked. Very frustrating. Frankly I wouldn't mind if I went for an interview and gave it my best shot and didn't get offered the position because they interviewed someone better. But I didn't even gave it my best shot.
Oh well. It's over. Mabel was kind. She told me that's how interviews are, it's a stressful situation and people do choke. Maybe I got too excited over it, over the sports related part of things that I forgot to bring out the engineering and project management side of me. On a positive note, I did meet some nice people in my overall "interview experience". At least I got to know a few more people in the sports industry and even if I don't get this job, they could still be contacts for possible collaborations in the future. God willing. You never know. Time to apply for more jobs.
