Interview in an hour and a half!

I had to share, as I am fairly nervous! I'll be fine once I get there (as I always am), and I know the interview will go well (I've never gone to an interview and not gotten a job offer, well, I guess there was that one time when I was 16 and the grocery store never called me back...).

DCS Automation Lifecycle Specialist is the role, with one of the best known Automation/Process Control/Measurement companies in Western Canada. The nice thing about this company is they actually train their staff (here is your mentor, work with him) supplemented by lots of in-class learning. A true dream job? We'll see.

I just need to make sure I can finagle the racing schedule into the job offer. So far, I've never had a company tell me "no" about the race schedule, but it takes up less than 3 weeks of vacation, is planned a year in advance, and I'm the kind of guy who will work everyday as long as I get to race.

I actually did some training with them recently for the company I currently work at, and I wonder if that triggered my name in a database somewhere as I typically apply for jobs there every 6 months. Programming/building/installing DCS systems is a lot of fun, my favourite parts of my education involved this. HMI design is probably the best, making easy to use graphic interfaces is always difficult when it comes to running plants

Good luck, you'll do fine.

Good luck Adam!

Good luck man, even if you have to loose a year of racing to gain vacation time, sounds like it may be well worth it. Most employers here in the States require a year of work before your vacation and stuff kick in. Well, at least all the ones I have ever worked at.

You got it man, just be yourself and sell yourself.

no sweat, you got this!

Good luck!

Conquest351 wrote: Good luck man, even if you have to loose a year of racing to gain vacation time, sounds like it may be well worth it. Most employers here in the States require a year of work before your vacation and stuff kick in. Well, at least all the ones I have ever worked at. You got it man, just be yourself and sell yourself.

He's in Alberta. Most Canadian companies have the same requirement - but it can be negotiated.

You can do it!

Good luck!

NGTD wrote:

Conquest351 wrote: Good luck man, even if you have to loose a year of racing to gain vacation time, sounds like it may be well worth it. Most employers here in the States require a year of work before your vacation and stuff kick in. Well, at least all the ones I have ever worked at. You got it man, just be yourself and sell yourself.

He's in Alberta. Most Canadian companies have the same requirement - but it can be negotiated.

From my experience here in Edmonton, most of the companies I have worked for will pro-rate the vacation based on your starting date, but unless you have a lot of industry experience already, they will usually give you one less week than normal (before pro-rate) for the first year. So in year two, you get the full amount, plus that extra week to bring you up to the industry "normal".

Being upfront in the interview process is always the best answer though. Nobody likes surprises when you are new.

I hope it went well! Best of luck!

Best of luck!

Let me know if you need me to write a letter of recommendation.

Enggboy wrote: From my experience here in Edmonton

If I didn't know any better, I'd wonder if this was Nolan.

Woody wrote: Let me know if you need me to write a letter of recommendation.

Thanks, but I have a whole stack of them! Only company that couldn't care less if I left was Canadian Tire (again) back when I was 16.

As for the vacation thing, well, look at it from my point of view. I've been out of school for 2 years. I have "some" experience. I currently get 5 weeks of paid vacation a year. I work to live, not live to work. If I can't race, then what's the point?! I'd rather be "relatively" poor (oh no, I don't have a brand new duramax in the driveway and a $60k race car!) but be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want.

The interview went well (as expected). Was about what I thought, besides for one issue (that creates a whole bunch of other issues); it's a camp job. Which in and of itself isn't a bad thing. The way the process would go would be like this:

• 3 to 6 months doing training/shop work in Edmonton
• after that, either 8 on 6 off daytime shifts, or 10 on 10 off daytime shifts, flights provided

Salary wasn't discussed until an offer is made (obviously) but they use a slightly different system where each 1/4 you get paid a profit sharing cheque. I'll wait to see what the actual salary is like. I was asked what I was looking at, which is $55k (that's non-negotiable, but I didn't mention that ) as I can't go somewhere and take LESS money than I currently earn, especially with more hours involved.

The big issue is that if I am working IN Fort McMurray, I should be getting paid Fort McMurray wages (pretty simple concept, of course, once I am trained). That would be $40/h.

I could go to Fort Mac right now, walk in Syncrude's door, and have a $40/h job that was monday through thursday 10 hour days, vacation time to start, and virtually unlimited OT. And I'd never miss a race. If this company wants to put me in camp for 8 or 10 days at a time, and not pay me appropriately for it, well, while I would love the experience, in the end, all jobs are a means to an end!

Great attitude man. In the interview, you're not only having them interview you to see if you're a fit, but you interview the company to see if they're a fit as well. Let us know how it all turns out!

Hope it turns out how you want.

you get 5 weeks vacation, I am very jealous of that