Damn, I didn’t get the job. Wait, what job?

The following turned up in my mailbox a few days ago:
(The original email had large blank areas, which wordpress was kind to remove. I reckon it wass supposed to look like a formal letter, but come on. Get with the times. It’s an email)

11.06.2008

Dear Mace,

After completing our review of the applications we have received for the position of Sr. Research
Associate, we are sorry to say that you are not among the candidates to be considered for the position.

We appreciate your interest in Genencor. We encourage you to stay up to date on other job
opportunities in our company as they arise.

We wish you the best of luck in your employment search.

Best regards,

The Genencor Recruiting Team

___________________________________________________________________________

For more information about Jobs & Careers at Genencor please go to:
http://www.genencor.com/cms/connect/genencor/jobs_and_careers/

What’s confusing is this: I’ve been at my new job for four months now. I don’t even know WHAT I applied for at Genencor anymore. And why on EARTH does it take them more than six months, just to tell me I’m not good enough? Strange business, my friends.

I am officially an employee here

My garbage and recycling cans arrived yesterday. Huzzah.

Where everyone knows your name

I’m going to say something I didn’t dream I would say: I am enjoying my job.

It’s a slow, on-going process, but I’m learning. This week I actually got to formulate product! Sure, it was one of the easiest products they make, and sure, I have little pink spots all over my hands (it’s a pretty potent dye, that’s all I can say), but I feel entirely accomplished. I’m also currently running my HPLC all by my lonesome for the first time RIGHT NOW!

I’m adjusting to the new location. The people here are very nice, though they mostly keep to themselves. I’m so used to my old job, where everyone was in your face all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the camaraderie at TF, but it’s also nice to just have some quiet time alone, especially when you need to read a billion documents to learn how to do your job. I’ve met about three dozen people so far, and I can remember about half their names. The other employees are good about introducing themselves and seem interested in me. Everyone seems to remember my name.

This has been an ongoing problem through-out my life. When you have an interesting, unusual name (and Mace definitely falls into that category), people remember it. (It also helps that I’m totally hot. Ha.) I definitely remember the names of the people in my group, but it’s attempting to branch out that’s getting me stuck. Everyone around here wears a badge, but it seems a little rude to stare at someone’s crotch in an attempt to catch a glimpse. I’ve taken to occasionally wandering around the cube area and peeking at people while they’re sitting at their desks, since it’s WAY easier to read the tag on the wall.

Again, like everything at this job, I just need to take a deep breath and be patient. It’ll come to me. Heck, I knew about 200 people’s names at my old job. It is, evidently, possible. In the mean time, people around here will here a lot of “Hello” (period).

On Day 3

Day 2 was mostly spent reading documents until my eyes wanted to pop out of my head. Fas-cin-a-ting!

Day 3, and I finally get to see science in motion. I’m still very new, so I don’t get to touch anything, but seeing something live instead of just reading about it is important. I folllowed around my trainer, watched him aid another chemist with a set up, and talked a lot about the reaction we were to do the next day. I also got to see my bench, and help remove the traces of its former owner (who, by the way, still works here, just in support, so he doesn’t need a bench 24/7).

I drove straight home for the first time, and arrived in under an hour. It would have been even sooner, but I mistakenly took Market home, and anyone who’s been in my neighborhood around commute time knows better. It was still amazing, though. To be home while the sun was still shining. Unfortunately, though, the cold that I had been completely ignoring this week hit full force. I had a whole evening to myself, and I spent most of it on the couch, watching Six Feet Under on DVD. In the larger sense, though, I’m struck by how much more time I’ll have in the evenings.

Things I miss:

1. Kelly, Maria, Melissa, Jeremy, Chris, and so many others
   (I keep thinking I recognize people’s voices)
2. The constant chatter of the cube area
3. Going out to lunch with other people
4. The antacids in the 1st Aid Box
   (Seriously, there are the lamest 1st Aid boxes here ever)
5. Knowing what the hell I’m doing

On Day 1

1. My drive is so much shorter, I almost miss the exit because I expect to keep driving.
2. My new cube is about 30% bigger than my last one. It’s much nicer in design and has a brand new computer in it, which includes a flat screen monitor on an arm. It is completely devoid of character as of yet.
3. I have my own lab bench, but is unclear when I will actually use it, as I will be following around a coworker for the rest of the week. I am completely okay with this.
4. I am enthusiastic and eager to start getting my hands dirty, but am also kind of scared shitless to do something completely new. Everyone here seems extremely knowledgeable about Organic Chemistry. I’m sure I’ll seem the same way soon enough. Patience is a virtue.
5. There is a cafeteria on campus, but I have no cash and need some air, so I drive around Foster City, looking to break my own rules and have some fast food, but am unable to find any food. The Taco Bell I go to has a malfunctioning card reader, so I am saved. I manage to find a Subway before chewing off my own arm, and then complete my circle of the city, realizing that I had driven the wrong way and that EVERYTHING was right across the highway from where I started.
6. I spend a lot of time reading. I now understand how obnoxious that was for all the people I trained before.
7. It takes me 10 minutes to get to my mother’s house for dinner.

I’m sorry it wasn’t more exciting. It went well. I met a lot of people. I’m still excited about working here.

On unneccesary nerves

So it’s 12:45 am, and I really should be asleep, as I have to be at my new hire orientation in eight hours. But instead I’m on the computer, trying to find the best way to get there, and approximating how long it will take me to get there, and and trying to figure out what to wear. Aggravating! What’s not helping is that three different sites are giving me three different routes to go. So what do I choose? Definitely not worth loosing sleep over, and yet…

I should just go lie down. That will help. I hope everyone that reads this sends me happy thoughts, and I’ll be sure to get back and describe what exactly my new job is, since I’m doing a poor job of explaining it to people now.

It was, indeed, a Super Tuesday

I had a lot to say. About politics and voting and how much I enjoy the process, about how fantastic the Foo Fighters show was, but it all got pushed aside yesterday.

I got a job offer. An offer which I am going to accept.

I will get back to writing about concerts and politics and my house and my boyfriend later after I finish doing the happy dance. HAPPY DANCE WITH ME!!!