Caltech

Hawaii Day 4

Today was a big day. We decided we would go surfing! Timi had done it once before, but I was definitely new. So we rented two surfboards for an hour and a half and hit the waves! It was pretty wave-y out there. And the tide was out, so we were close to half a mile out from the shore, and it was still only about waist deep. We both caught waves, and we both managed to get up on the board, no lessons necessary. We hung out there until we were exhausted, then finally paddled back in. By the time we got back, we had kept the boards for two hours. But the guys running the shop were so laid back that they didn't even care. One of the nicest things on the whole trip.

We were starving, so we stopped at a restaraunt we had seen called Giovanni Pastrami. I had some sausage breakfast sliders that were delicious! We grabbed Coldstone again as desert, and then hit up the International Market. It's basically a bunch of stands and shops with tons of touristy trinkets to buy.

I bought a strange toy called an X-Zylo, and OMG it's awesome!!! I apologize for the immaturity, but it is seriously the coolest thing. Google it. Watch a video. It's amazing. We played with it for about an hour in the park by the beach and had at least 5 or 6 people talk to us about it. 

We took some silly pictures at the park. As we finished, we heard familiar voices. We found Flems! There were a group of people from Fleming House who also went to Waikiki, and we somehow managed to run into them on the beach.

Afterwards we grabbed smoothies and walked through the shopping area again. We walked all the way to the end and found an adorable pier, so we took pictures.

On our way back we found a place called the Crepe House and had fantastic crepes for dinner. Yum!

Hawaii Day 3

This morning we decided to try snorkeling a little bit. It was easy, and there were tons of things to look at without even going that far out. The biggest problem was that we were in a high traffic tourist area, so not much of the coral in our area was alive. But being in water so clear was a first for me, and it was amazing.

We had some sandwiches from the farmer's market left over, and we brought them for a picnic on the beach. It was lovely. On our way back from the beach I had a sweet tooth attack, and we stopped at Coldstone. There was one right by our hotel. We stopped by there a little too often...

In the afternoon we walked in the opposite direction down the beach and found that the Hilton (or maybe some other hotel) had built their own lagoon! It was increidbly cool. They had also built a rock jetty type thing, so we wandered out to the end of it for some pictures. 

We finally went to the shopping strip that was near our hotel. It was outrageous. Every expensive label store was there. There were literally 3 Coach stores on the street, all less than a mile apart. Crazy.

That night we ate dinner and watched Avatar, because I had never seen it.

 

Hawaii Day 2

This was our first full day in paradise. We woke up incredibly early (7 AM) because of the time zone difference. That didn't stop us from getting vacation started.

We were at the beach by 8 AM. The water was incredibly clear, far more clear than the previous afternoon. We learned that later in the day as the tide came in and more people were around, the water got less clear. So it really looked incredible in the mornings. You could see the bottom even when you were almost shoulder deep.

After a couple hours, we decided we were hungry. And you don't want to stay out in the sun too long. A sun burn on the first day ruins your whole trip! I had seen an ad for a restaurant called Eggs 'n Things. We wanted to find it. Lucky us, as we tried to find out way back to the hotel, we ran right into it! It was delicious too.

We ate plenty, so we were desperate to get back to the hotel for a nap. We had finally given up on trying to find it, so I whipped out my phone and started up the GPS and google maps. I searched for the hotel. It showed us the location. Right across the street from us! We felt really silly at this point. So we went and napped for a couple hours.

We went back to the beach at 2 PM for some more fun in the sun. It was a lot busier now. We wandered down the beach a long ways and found a resort area that was beautiful. We decided we would have to go there in the morning some time.

We played in the ocean for a few hours. At one point, while we were barely shoulder deep, a sea turtle surface about 15 feet from us! It was so cool!

We decided to go back later that afternoon. Walking along the beach on the way back, we saw another sea turtle out in the water. Two sea turles in one day! Jackpot!

As we got back towards the hotel we stumbled across a farmer's market. There were all kinds of food. We finally made a decision and bought some food. It was delicious! We ate it and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, an appropriate Hawaii movie. 

 

Hawaii Day 1

Back in December I made a big purchase with Timi: a trip to Hawaii for Spring Break. It was a fantastic gift to ourselves. We spent most of a week in paradise relaxing. Especially with my job, this was my last chance to have a good break.

We left early on Friday morning, and landed at the ariport in Honolulu around noon. We had trouble figuring out where we should catch our shuttle, but finally got taken to our hotel. Check-in wasn't until 3, so we decided to wander around for the couple hours we had to waste. We were both starving, so we stumbled around, looking for food. We eventually found Cheeseburger Waikiki, one of a chain of burger joints on the island. We got a late lunch, and it was delicious. It might have actually been mediocre, but we were starving. So I'm going with delicious!

By the time we got back it was 2:30 and they said we could check-in now. Our room was number 808. For the Kanye West fans, that made me laugh (he had an album called 808s and Heartbreak). 

After we dropped off our stuff, we changed into bathing suits, and decided we were going to find the beach! We had to wander south through Waikiki through a park, but we found it.

Job Hunt - Phone Call

I was interviewed on a Thursday. They were interviewing the other guy on Friday. And they would let me know by Monday or Tuesday. 

I spend every hour stressing about it. I want this job so badly. It sounds fantastic. Like a perfect match for me. Like it will challenge me and be rewarding. I'm basically tortured. And it's finals week.

Tuesday night. In the middle of finals week. At midnight. I get an email. They need more time. I'll know by Thursday at the latest. I'm beyond stressed at this point. Finals are stressful enough. Now this? I'm constantly worrying. I haven't slept well the last few nights. 

No word on Wednesday. 

Thursday comes. I've run through a billion scenarios in my head. I'm done with finals at least. But I'm still just sitting around waiting. 

Every notification and call on my phone has made my heart skip a beat. I was actually afraid of my phone.

 

 

And it rings. I see the number is local. Now was the moment where I would find out my fate.

I answered. I'm greeted by the man I've been talking to throughout the entire process. I run out of my room to the courtyard. As I do this, he tells me that this phone call comes with good news.

 

I'm ecstatic. That was about the nicest thing he could have done, telling me there was good news instead of letting me freak out more.

 

They liked me, they liked my work, and they were happy to offer me the job. 

 

SUCCESS!!! The next few minutes of talking are all a blur to me now. He described the offer to me, offered to send it to me, and asked me if it sounded good. It did. It was fantastic actually. 

 

As soon as I was off the phone, I let out a yell, screaming "yes!" at the top of my lungs. All the stress had melted away. I was in heaven at that moment. I was emotional. I was happy. I shared my news with all the people that are important to me. It was a triumphant moment.

OPI

Ruddock's interhouse party is called OPI. The theme was Jurassic Park. I didn't really have a hand in building it. Check out Giordon's blog called "A Rudd's Life" if you want a more in-depth look at the party. I just wanted to post some pictures!

Job Hunt - Final Round Interview

I didn't have to wait long at all. I had a response the next day. They were impressed I was done so early and they liked my work. They invited me back for a final round interview. On top of that, they had apparently looked me up on Twitter, where I post quite freely and often about what I'm doing and thinking (twitter.com/kverdone). They found my freaking out posts quite funny.

So I was coming back for a two hour final interview. Can you say nervous? 

I showed up again, still over-dressed. That was fine with me. I like dressing nicely. I talked with them about my estimate. They wanted to hear my thought process from me directly. They asked questions about it. They told me about where I went wrong in my assumptions. I made mistakes. That was expected with my limited data. But they were still very impressed. Then I was given a list of items that were considered part of my new position and told to rank them in the order in which I would enjoy them. I was forced to distribute them equally between three ratings. The thing was, almost all of them sound interesting or fun to me. Only one or two didn't sound so great to me. I made sure to share that as I was ranking. It was basically a pick my top favorites, second favorites, and what was left I had to rank as the ones I "wouldn't enjoy." I really made it clear that this was how I felt about it to them.

Then I got to talk to the Caltech alum again. We chatted more and he asked me if I had any questions or concerns. I was honest with him: I was really nervous. He told it to me straight. I shouldn't be. They had started interviewing around 15 people. I was the one of the last two standing. I felt proud of that. The other guy had experience, but he liked me more and thought I had potential.  

So I knew this was the final step. The next time I heard from them, I would know what my fate was.

Job Hunt - Homework? Really?

Four days later, I had a response. They had liked me. A lot apparently. They had a challenge for me. I had 4 days to come up with an estimate for their sales in the year 2010. This doesn't sound so bad. But they aren't a huge company. They aren't public. There is basically NO information out there. So I had to use my reasoning skills to try and make a legitimate prediction. 

I realize the title of the post makes me sound annoyed. The funniest part is that I wasn't. I was excited. Strangely excited.

I was so happy to have the opportunity to show what I could do. I threw myself into the project head first. I scavenged the web for articles about the company. I dissected their website and their press releases. Using what I found, I was able to come up with an estimate. This wasn't enough for me though. This was serious to me, so I decided I should go the extra mile. And I was enjoying it too much to stop now. I made a full presentation for my estimate: explanations of my thought process, the math, my sources, charts, a full set of spreadsheets. It turned out looking rather professional to me. I answered their questions, and even did some "bonus" work. To top it all off, I was done more than 36 hours early. I finally sent it in 24 hours early with my fingers crossed. Pressing the send button was really stressful. I had a lot riding on this now, and I was actually getting hopeful about the whole thing. It's dangerous to get your hopes up. Now I had to wait.

Job Hunt - A Real Interview

The email came in the next week. They had liked me! I was invited to the offices for a second round interview that would last between 90 and 120 minutes. He said I could come dressed casually. That's not how I work. So I still showed up in dress pants, a button down shirt, and a tie. 

The interview ran long again. Nearly 3 hours. Again, I took this as a good sign. First I talked with the man I had been emailing. He gave me a brief introduction. Then he gave me a brain teaser to solve. No, I won't be sharing it here. I took a little time to work through it. It felt like it took forever, with all the pressure I felt. I'm sure it took less than 5 minutes though. He said I solved it pretty fast. That helped my confidence a bit. Then he asked me a few questions related to business analysis. How would I determine this and that, basically trying to look into my thought process. There were three questions. When I was done, he said he really liked my answers, and that I had even hit on some points most people don't think of. Big confidence boost! Then he told me the quizzing part was over, so I could relax. Afterwards he gave me sort of a general description of the company and the position.

Next came in another person, this time to talk to me more about the technical side of what the position would entail. This was a really interesting and it got me more excited about the possibilities of working at Cramster.

Last they brought in a Caltech alum who worked there. He graduated in the 90's, and had worked at several startups. He basically just wanted to chat. He told me about what he had done and how he thought I could do the same. He was really entertaining and laid back. Not formal at all, which was nice.

After 3 hours, the interview ended. It all seemed to go well. They said they'd let me know soon what they thought. 

 

Job Hunt - The Search and the Phone Interview

As a senior, I've been worrying about the whole job situation all year. As more of my friends were getting jobs, I worried more and more. Despite a lot of work at the career fair, not much had turned up for me.

Timi had worked for a company called Cramster. They provide homework help for students. She was being paid to write solutions for a linear algebra textbook. So I looked around their website. I emailed her contact to find out they were looking for people to write solutions for business and economics textbooks. My specialty! So I applied to write solutions. While I poked around their site, I found a jobs section. They were looking for a Business Analyst! So I sent in my resume as well as a cover letter for the position.

I received a reply the next day saying that they were interested in talking to me. We set up a half hour phone interview for later in the week.

I was nervous already. When it came time for the interview though, it went pretty smoothly. We chatted for over 45 minutes, which seemed like a pretty good sign to me. He asked plenty of questions. For the most part, the entire thing seemed to go really well. The biggest strikes against me seemed to be that I didn't know SQL and that I wouldn't be able to work full-time until after I graduated. But all in all, that doesn't seem like too much of a problem considering how much everything else pleased them. He told me he would let me know how it went the next week.