A midterm, an interview with Microsoft, picking courses for the next semester, and a troublesome lab. Those are a few of the things that I’ve been indulging myself in. Now, I’m packing on the verge of reading week, when, for once, I’ll actually be ‘reading‘ for upcoming midterms instead of catching up on classes after midterms.
My biggest event of recent memory was the Microsoft interview for a Program Management position. I was initially contacted for an interview for the upcoming semester (they had my resume on file from my product planner attempt), but they didn’t have any issue with interviewing for the fall semester, when I’m actually available for my last co-op term. Although not one to subscribe to the multitude of superstitious beliefs, I’m going to refrain from writing any details about the interview questions, which was held yesterday. That said, overall, I am hopeful.
I prepared hellishly hard for the interview and I’m glad I did. A couple of the questions (in particular during the behavioral portion of the interview) were ones I’d predicted. I made sure to employ some key skills during the design problems, such as focusing on user experience and tying every feature back to driving value for the customer. With every extra minute of preparation, I wanted the job more and more, but at the same time, I think I need to be realistic and not become too emotionally attached. Easier said than done, to be certain.
Now that it’s over, I’m trying not to dwell on things that are no longer under my control. I’m shifting focus over to the 4 midterms I have after reading week. Genuine interest is being formed for many of the topics being covered in class now, so studying’s not much of a chore. I hope that feeling will continue next semester; I’ve picked ECE 411 (Digital Communications), ECE 418 (Communications Networks), and ECE 438 (Digital Integrated Circuits) as my core technical courses.
I also hope to get out and do some photography next week. The weather looks nice for this weekend and early into reading week. My involvment with the University of Waterloo Photo Club has pushed me to buy a Nikon SB-600 flash. There were some very cool lessons on flash photography last week which I’m interested in diving into.
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