All good stories and life have a few main components. Primarily, they have a beginning, middle, and an end. This next rambling is the tale of my entrance to the Seattle scene. This post will be atypical from my other posts, which will be very picture oriented and geared towards visual stimulation rather text heavy.
I promise that I will have a little text throughout this website as possible (sans the early posts). If a picture really is worth a thousand words, then I am gonna rely on them to share my experiences. They are a lot easier to upload than typing out a few pages. Plus they look better. And, it just so happens that I have a few thousand pictures to share. Okay, here we go...
THE BEGINNING
The story of my initial venture to Seattle begins back in wonderful upstate New York. It was the fall of 2005. I had recently suffered a series of setbacks in the summer of 2005. One of the more significant setbacks was the loss of an internship with a very reputable aerospace company (I was hired and fired before I had even arrived for employment, really messed up). This event and its repercussions propelled me into my an interesting arrangement in which I ended up living with the mother of my college roommate (that in itself is an awesome story, but is beyond this posting). The outcome of my aerospace internship debacle led me to Syracuse, New York. I was to start my first internship with a very well known air conditioning company. After working in the corporate environment for a few weeks, I was not entirely excited and/or happy with my situation and the path in which I was traveling. It wasn't all that bad, but I knew it could be better. I was going on 21 and not completely enthralled with what my foreseeable future had in store. Something needed to change.
While living in Syracuse, I quickly determined that upstate New York was not for me. Thus my search for a bigger and better future was born. I ditched a day of work to go back to school for a career fair. I spoke with numerous companies, both big and small. I was even called back for interviews at a few. One of these happened to be a Seattle based aerospace company. I went to my interview ready to talk about an aerospace future... fresh for the opportunity to show them my worth after being shunned by their competitor. I was too fresh. I researched the complete wrong job opening that my interviewer had intended to discuss. Bye bye any potential career in aerospace, I had just screwed the pooch. Royally. I left the interview discouraged and disheveled.
Luckily, that changed quickly. My return to Syracuse, and the realization that I did not want a career with air conditioners, gave me a new vengeance at improving my situation. For a two-three week period, I applied for every aerospace job that I could find. Nothing. Months went by. Still nothing. 2005 transitioned into 2006. Nothing. Then, all of a sudden I got a phone call (in the middle of a physics mid-term, with the volume turned up to the hard-of-hearing loudness setting... only slightly embarrassing). I finished up the mid-term, checked the voice mail and was surprised to hear that it was a hiring representative from the Seattle based aerospace company. She was looking to see if I was available the upcoming Saturday morning for an interview.
Shit. As of that exact moment, I wasn't available.
Saturday happened to be my 21st birthday party. I was anticipating being either really really hungover, still drunk, or passed out on Saturday Morning. Maybe even all three. But maturity prevailed, I quickly re-arranged my weekend plans to accommodate my interview. I presumed that karma was in my favor, after all, Saturday was still my 21st birthday. I was right, karma was on my side. I nailed the interview. I was completely prepared for every question, got along capitally with the interviewers, and had some follow up questions that actually stumped the interrogation panel (a first for all of them). The conversation that was scheduled for 20-30 minutes lasted over an hour. I ended up interviewing them about their individual positions, career decisions and personal job preferences for a much longer time than they had interviewed me about my engineering 'skills'.
AWESOME!
Then nothing. A few weeks pass without any communication. The academic quarter moved on and finals week kicks into in high gear. Then something. AGAIN, I get a phone call in a physics test. AGAIN, its an HR person calling about my availability for a conversation. However, the situation with this message is a bit different. This gal needs to speak with my about my start date availability, benefits package, and relocation details. I am on cloud nine.
Nate's now west bound for the Puget Sound!
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