Pat #9: It's who you know.

Let me preface this by apologizing for being so behind in my blogging! The next couple of posts will be a recap of the past couple of weeks. Here goes.


I know you've heard it before. But honestly, people... networking is key. Though I did not interview at ACPA, I spent my time strategically networking and introducing me to people who work in my functional area. I met some people who work in offices where I applied for jobs in. After following up with my new contacts, my inbox has been flooded with "underground" job opportunities. So take advantage of every chance meeting-- it will definitely pay off.

Before I left for ACPA, I was offered a campus visit at SRC. Honestly, I wasn't really expecting to enjoy the visit, but was anxious to get out of town. The most stressful part of the situation, was that I had to prepare a short workshop presentation for the search committee--something I failed to work on during ACPA.

First of all, how do you really present a workshop in a little over 10 minutes? Second of all, I thought I was done with presentations for a while! My classmates teased me about having to prepare another presentation (I would later find out that many of them had to prepare something, too). After struggling for a day or two, I put up my white flag and asked The Boss Man for help. He had some great advice for me and my presentation just fell into place; I even dug up some of SRC's graduate survey data and popped it into the powerpoint.

I was scheduled to fly to SRC mid-week and would have to miss a class and some work hours. I did not have the chance to catch up after ACPA and would now be falling even further behind. I arrived at the airport in suit #1 and felt like some business-ey person who hops on and off planes like it's the subway. Truth is, I've never flown by myself-- seriously, let's add s'more anxiety to this trip!

It turned out to be the trip from hell. My flight was delayed and I spent a total of 12 hours in an airport. (Just in case you were wondering, my time on the actual plane was about 3 hours.) Of course I missed my connecting flight and had to be moved to a later one. I made what seems like a bajillion phone calls to SRC telling them I may not arrive in time to have dinner with the Director. Not a great way to start off an interview process... but hey, it was out of my control.

After an extremely long day of waiting to travel, I got off the plane. I freshened up and walked toward the airport exit, not quite sure what to expect...

Stay tuned.