I guess I should probably catch up on everything else that has been going on and more fully fill in some of the holes in the details that I've written.
Pre-Jan
Graduation didn't happen, didn't pass my Theory of Computation class. Micron is already in a phase of laying off full-time engineers, and hence can't offer me a full time job. Also, I don't qualify to be an intern anymore since I'm taking only one class... thus starts a second period of my life where I feel lost with out purpose and definitely without a job and source of income..
Jan 6thish - HP job fair
This was an interesting experience. Show up on site with about 30 other candidates, about 5 or 6 of which were actually other BSU students. In fact, I guess really it was a job fair for BSU students, but all the same. There were some very interesting people there, from a guy in his 30's who was a freshman and working in a carpenter shop (nothing wrong with that) and had just came from work, dusty boots, jeans and all to myself and a few other who were dressed in business formal(is that a term?). We all got a long tour, lunch, and then those of us dressed up got interviews and those who didn't left. It wasn't quite like that, I think those who got interviews dressed knowing they were and the rest were just there to check it out. At any rate, I didn't get a job offer out of that, I think a lot of it was because they had me down as a possible intern and really I'm not anymore.
Jan 10thish - Fitness 19
Currently my job, though I've put in my two-weeks officially now. Get up at 4am MWF and sleep in until 7 or so on TuTh... but at least I've been done at 1 everyday. And all I have to do is stand at the front and look pretty. (which of course I do very well) Really if it paid a bit more, and or I could get more hours in, it wouldn't be bad to do until I finished with my class this semester. They even tried tempting me to stay with a manager position (or pushed me away with it?), but opportunities have been presenting themselves and turning them down/away wouldn't be smart.
Feb 15thish - Cognizo Interview
During my digging around online for jobs, I came across a listing in Boise for a job down in Las Vegas for doing PHP work that mentioned a code challenge. So I contacted them mostly wanting just to see what the code challenge would be like. Well, of course they decided to approach it like I was really applying (at the time I wasn't) and so I did the challenge in the allotted time and sent it back to them. Wasn't too hard, just a problem to calculate a person's next payment based on some criteria (those who are interested in the technical details let me know). But as we all know the world is full of stupid people and not many who responded did it correctly and then it turned into a full blown interview process. The end of the whole thing was when I wouldn't lie to them and claim that I was the best PHP programmer I've ever known. Confidence is one thing, but to say something like that when I really have no one else to compare to (I haven't been around many other PHP developers) would just be foolish.
A long silence between my email inbox and the corporate world
Apparently Jan/Feb/Mar isn't the best time to be job hunting. There was a long time of nothing coming back to me for all the dozens of emails I sent out. But now...
More than I know how to respond to and what/how do I decide?
So the first positive response after all of this was MIM about March 1st, which I think I've written about. I have a standing job offer from them, albeit it a confusing one in terms of deciding how good the offer really is. HP is now in a hiring freeze, but might be able to push a few people through for critical needs. I think I wrote about that too. And this week there is a job fair at BSU and I might have another job interview with HP coming up soon too from my adviser at BSU. How quickly it all changes..
And that in a nutshell, is the last 3 months..