The Honeywell Saga

Against my better judgement, I’m going to post the Honeywell story here. As it goes, during the summer, mother had been pestering me to find myself a co-op. With the sole purpose of trying to get some room to breath, I called my school’s co-op program, which helps students find co-ops with various companies. I explained that I am a student studying Computer Science, and that I was interested in finding a co-op. The lady immediately said that there was an opening with Honeywell (a company I hadn’t heard of at the time), and asked for my email. I kinda expected a little introduction of their program, or at least the name of the person I was speaking with. But, to my surprise, it was all business. I gave her my email, and she immediately sent me the information I needed. She then wished me luck, and hung up. Don’t get me wrong, none of it was in a let’s-get-this-over-with tone, she just did her job without any fluff. So, I got the information, and got in contact with a representative from Honeywell, whose name was Shane. And thus began my weird adventure with a company I had never heard of. It almost felt like getting into a car with a complete stranger. Click more to read on… It’s a bit long, though.

My attitude thourghout this whole thing is “OK Mom, I did what you asked, can I go outside and play now?”

July 18:

Hi Andrew,

Can you send me a copy of your resume? When are you available for a CO-OP role? Are you only available during the Spring semester, or are you available this Fall as well?

Best Regards,

Shane

I answer his questions and send him my resume.

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July 31:

Hi Andrew,

I would like to set a few interviews for you. There are 3 mangers who are interested in interviewing you. Can you tell me which days of the week and times of the day are okay for you (for interviews)?

Thanks,
Shane

Whoa, 3? I’m a bit intimidated, but I can handle it. I reply a day later. 2 back to back phone interviews are set for the day classes start, and 1 is set for the day after that. I am told that I will be sent job descriptions prior to the interviews, but I never receive any. seeing it now, I should have taken that as a foreshadow… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

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August 9: Day of First Interviews

From the get go, it’s a day full of excitement; new classes, new professors, friends I didn’t see over the summer, and two interviews all crowd my head and create mixed feelings. Filled with thoughts of all the work that is to come, plans are made with Apox to beat the back-to-school funk with hours of solid gaming. Before that, though, a stop to Kmart is necessary. On the way there, I suddenly realize that the time for the first interview was fast approaching. After we parked the car, I whipped out my cell phone, ready to make the call… but as quickly as I took out the phone, my heart sank deep, deep into my stomach; all the information I needed to make the call was not on hand, but in my email, and there wasn’t a single hotspot nearby.

The gears in my brain began cranking at dangerous speeds as they tried to work up a solution. What was produced was the idea to call a friend and have her log into my email and give me the information, which I did, resulting in having her and the two people in the car hear my password. I was much too worried about making the call to be thinking about my password being made public, especially since I was already close to 10 minutes late. she gave me the information, and just as I was about to hang up on her, I received an incoming call from a long distance number. With my heart having made its way down into my crotch, I answer the call. It’s Shane. He tells me that everyone is ready to start the interview, and wonders if I’m ready. I tell him yes, and that I was just about to call. He tells me to call back, and we hang up. I dialed in the number my friend gave me and am connected to an AT&T phone conference service. A few formalities, and I’m connected to my interviewers. As this is going on, Apox and the other person in the car begin a game of New Super Mario Bros. as they wait for me to finish my interview. I’d have gone outside of the parked car, but it was an incredibly windy day, and the parking lot itself was rather noisy. Anyhow, three people introduce themselves, which surprised me since I was only expecting two. But no matter. I introduce myself a bit clumsily, presenting information in an unstructured manner. After that, Shane says “Ok, we’ve all got copies of your resume, why don’t you walk us through it?” I’d have prefered having several of limbs be passed through a meat grinder than what I felt after hearing those words. The ground split in two, and out came countless demons and the eeriest of shrieks from the darkest depths of Hell. They blanketed the sky and blocked out the Sun, chanting in foreign tongues that would make even the bravest of men cower in utter terror. Simply put, I did not have my resume on hand.

I turned to Apox (who was hearing in on my interview since my phone is pretty loud. You’d swear I was using a speaker phone), hoping to find a telepathic hug, an “everything is going to be all right” look that only a good friend could provide. Instead, I got a jaw lowered to his knees. Thanks, Apox. I calmed down, and thought a bit. Having read my resume over and over for the Microsoft interviews, I went through it by memory with at least 90% accuracy, pretending to have it on hand by skipping over parts that I felt weren’t necessary. Having gotten through that, I let out a giant mental sigh (I hope it was mental…). After that, Shane asked the interviewers to tell me a little more about them and what they do. One guy presented himself as someone who mainly deals with hardware, and the other with software. They asked what my experience was, and I reluctantly said “well… I haven’t really done anything with hardware…” You have to understand that, at this point, my thoughts have gone way beyond “this is hopeless.” The software guy began asking me a string of questions about my experience with programming mostly web apps. A lot of my answers were “Well, I haven’t really used much of that… no, I don’t have any experience with that… you know, why don’t we just end my misery and hang up?” Every so often he’d ask the hardware guy if he had a question for me, and he always responded “um, no, not really.” And then, somewhere along the way, my friends start giggling like little girls because of their one on one match. I am sure the interviewers heard it, but, really, did it really matter now? The nightmare lasted for several more minutes, and when it was finally over, Shane said “All right, I’ll see you in a few minutes.” Great. Apox gave me kind, reassuring words, shaking his head and saying “wow, that was terrible.”

At least I had some time to get my toiletries before the next interview. We went into Kmart and shopped for our respective items. As we were getting in line to pay, I decided to to call a bit early. I snuck to the unoccupied cafeteria where it was somewhat quieter, and called… too early, the room wasn’t even open. Waited a few more minutes, called again. This time, Shane was there, but not the other guy. Several minutes of awkward silence ensued. Guy connects, interview begins. This interview went much smoother in that all the questions I was asked pertained to what I did during my Microsoft internship focusing on the teamwork aspect. For the most part, it felt like a normal conversation, but I’d stutter here and there. I finished my interviews, relieved that I was done for the day, and rejoined my friends (who ended up having to pay for my stuff. Oops). But it wasn’t over yet. Oh no, I still had to go through one more interview.

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August 10

Skipping ahead to the time of the interview, I find an isolated place on campus and make the call. This time, I’m greeted by Shane and two female employees of Honeywell. They tell me that they work directly with customers, something that has always interested me. For the most part, they just talked about the work they do, which made my job easier. I don’t even remember what they asked me, but I do know that that also went pretty smoothly. Interview ends, and Shane says I’ll hear from him in a week. And this, lovely readers, is where the real fun begins…

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August 17 (a week later):

No reply. I decide to give him a few more days.

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August 20:

Still no reply. I send an email to see what was up.

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August 23 (almost 2 weeks later):

After days of being convinced that I had been forgotten, I get a reply:

Hi Andrew,

Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you. I will give you a call tomorrow.

Best Regards,

Shane

That sounds promising!
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August 24:

So much for promising. “Tomorrow” comes and goes, and I get no call. And once again, I feel defeated.

Oh, before I continue, you must understand that last semester, Microsoft had left me with almost a month of high hopes before tossing me aside in a rather unprofessional manner. But, that’s a story for another day.

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September 1 (3 weeks later):

In the morning, I see that Shane has left me a voice mail telling me to call back. I can’t do it from my cell (or at least I’m not supposed to), so I’ve no choice but to wait until I get to my parents’ house. I get to the latter at around 9pm-ish, and, having my priorities set straight, I check my email.

Andrew,

Give me a call at ***-***-****. The feedback from your interviews was positive. We think you’d be a good fit for our CO-OP program. I would like to discuss this with you. Honeywell will be coming to Puerto Rico again in October. This would be a good chance for you to meet with me and with some of our executive leaders who will be on the trip.

Best Regards,

Shane

To make “How Ipsum felt at the time”, you’ll need:

3/4 cup of Shock

2 heaping tablespoons of Joy

a stick of Worry

Place ingredients in a blender and mix at highest setting. Pour into container of your choice and place in microwave for 24 hours or until on fire. Serve boiling hot. Being the skeptic that I am, I read it again, and interpret it as “you seem to be a good candidate, but we want to make sure”. OK, so I’ll probably have more interviews in October, I can deal with that.

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September 8:

Andrew.

We are planning to send you a formal offer next week for a CO-OP position.

Best Regards,

Shane

And before I have time to recover:

Hi Andrew!

I am the HR Manager that supports IT. I work with Shane Barnhill. We are very excited about the opportunity to have you on-board as a co-op. In order to move forward in the process, I will need you to please create a profile on-line through our staffing system.

This can be done at:

Please let Shane or I know once that’s complete so I can finalize the offer. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you!

Wha-wha-what? I’m in!?

I was a little bit nervous about the idea of missing a semester of class, but I’ve gotten several reality checks, and I realize that this is an opportunity that doesn’t present itself everyday. More updates as developments occur.
Yeah, I believe in miracles.