So once again I am going to an Apple computer "study session" today. In fact I'm planning on leaving in about 15 minutes. But as is becoming customary I am writing out any and all anxieties I may be feeling in the hopes of venting some of said anxieties and nervous energies. Of course, this is the less important study session I've already been through twice, the second time getting to the "panel interview". Based on this I have little reason to think I won't make it to said panel interview this time also.
But a few things have changed since the last time which will come into play if I do again make it to the panel interview: for one thing I am now employed and for another, as mentioned in a prior entry, I now have my A+ certification from CompTia. So based on this I will (presumably) be asked why I want to leave my current position and perhaps the official certification won't hurt either, possible knowledge-wise.
Other than this I still have to dance around the experience of what I call the company that I left under less than friendly conditions. The only reason to really mention it would be the phone experience and how I was learning to imagine the user's screen and then imagine how and why the user was seeing and interpreting the screen the way they were. How else can I convey such a necessary and important skill that I will be required to have and maintain at the Apple position I am now applying for? I certainly can't put it on the resume, that would risk someone at the company Apple hired or an Apple employee directly calling up the company to ask about me which would result in who knows what. Therefore the course of action would be to follow what I did at the last panel interview which is mention in it in broad terms in addition to the resume I bring for them.
Of course I did learn a lot about how I probably want to answer some of the more less-than-specific questions they come up with such as "how can you fit in to the culture here at Apple?" and "what sorts of people do you think buy apple computers?".
First of all I haven't the slightest idea of the culture at Apple computer. I have only gone there for the stupid "study sessions" and a panel interview. So how do I answer that exactly? I do have some what of an idea how I want to answer the bit about the type of people who buy Apples however: I could go one or both of two ways. Either those who likely don't want to mess with stuff for hours on end to get it to work and just want stuff to "just work" and work correctly the first time would (and should) buy Apples. Secondly I would say those who want to be ahead of the curve technologically-wise would want to buy an Apple because Apple is so often much further ahead of the curve in so many cases. For instance -
OS GUI ideas often imitated
first to implement USB
First to implement FireWire
First come up with a more "popularized" form of WiFi for the consumer market
First with the colored computer cases
Popularized HDD-based MP3 players with the iPod
In essence if you want to be ahead of the curve in technology likely it will be on a Mac before anything else. I could also cash in on what I can only assume are misinformed stereo types about PCs that are long since out date I know Mac users still seem to have. Macs can handle graphics and video editing a lot better for instance. Which, so far as I know, simply isn't true.
--- Left for study session
:back from study session --
It is now about 8:30pm on the same day as above. The study session was more or less identical to the prior study sessions. I was never told how I did on the all-important open note/open-Internet questionnaire I took at the end but I would assume I did quite well (I was the first one to be finished).
Slightly different from the last time each person at the study session was pulled aside separately and there were a few short questions on experience and background. The guy from the last couple times I did this said my name was familiar and that my face was even more so. So I informed him this was in fact my third time at a study session. He then asked about the feedback I had received when I went for the panel interview the last time. I told him I had received none, even after I had called the office asking for it. He more or less said he was sorry for the no feedback and wrote down his email address and name and told me to send him my resume and implied I would receive feedback this time if at all possible. At least that was the impression I got from him.
So as it stands in all likelihood I will receive a call tomorrow morning sometime asking me to come in for an interview sometime in the afternoon, which I will of course attend. As outlined above I have my answers to questions down a little better this time around. Hopefully this will help. Of course I would be happy to continue along with my temp job, however short and intermittent it may provide an actual pay check. But other forces in my immediate life require I look for more regular work with the eventual goal of moving out of my parent's house. I don't even like admitting that really, but that's what it is. Where will I do my horid disfiguring of old VCRs with a dremel if I have no garage? I'll figure that out later.
I should really work on that project some more, although with my Dad's new giant van that's not going to be easy. Oh yes, the van. My dad's step dad recently passed away, so my dad's mom sold him the giant behemoth of a van for some-what cheap. It now sits in the garage, where my dad's car would be moved out to normally, when I work on the VCR. This minor detail makes it a little tough to do any work on the VCR.
I have nothing else to opine about. Sunday I didn't really do anything besides play some multi-player Call of Duty. I don't remember if I mentioned that game. I bought it about a week ago on special for $30. Took me approximately 20 to 30 hours to complete the single-player campaign, which I figured would be the time since it was supposed to be so short. I played on the second-easiest difficulty level. After finishing it I started trying the multiplayer portion. Seemed more or less the same as all those other World War II shooters. Except on this one server that had friendly fire turned off. On that one it was just wild because there were at least 10 people to a team and everybody was killing everyone over and over again. That was actually a lot of fun and one of the better times I have had in a multiplayer game in a long time.
I'm not going to talk politics again for a while however I will again say something I have said before: if you're going to make fun of some else's command of the English language you better damn-well make sure you have total and complete command of it yourself. Tonight, the first night of the DNC convention, I watched an extremely short clip of Hillary making a speech. In particular she mentioned something about John Edwards being a good person and "full of apathy" or "an apathetic man", something to that effect. In all likelihood she meant empathy or empathetic, not apathy So there's your super/ultra-smart Hillary for ya. Doesn't know the difference between apathy and empathy. Pfff. Whatever. Or I misunderstood her. Either way.
