Good News, Everyone!
May. 26th, 2011 07:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanarillBut first, the Omer. Today is the thirty-sixth day of the Omer, which is five weeks and one day into the Omer.
The good news is that I have been interviews for a potential summer internship type job. The interviewing party, called by people 'Canadian Dave,' had not even seen the resume I sent them, although he was very interested in my GM experience. Apparently all he'd known was I have a biochemistry degree, which is nice but not really applicable to what they do. (What they do involves catalysts, tube reactors, GC, mass spec, and supercritical fluids.) So he was quite surprised to learn that I did my undergrad thesis on catalysts, and already know how to make them and test them. Plus I am willing to get my hands dirty. As I told him, there is no physically possible way it can be dirtier than when I worked in the corrosion lab.
I, for my part, was able to tell them that my goal was to get more experience on GC and mass spec. I also told him I had lots of oil and IR and BET experience (which I do) and he said he's campaigning for an IR machine. (An IR takes an infrared spectrum of the sample. It cannot tell you what the sample is, but it can tell you what chemical bonds are present. Things like benzene rings and acid groups and alcohols are staggeringly obvious in IR. If you already know what the sample is, you can use it to find the proportions. Useful things, but expensive beyond belief.) So I had unexpected firsthand experience with exactly what they'd want me to do, which is good. And they play with supercritical fluids! Sounds like fun :D
So, we shall see. [crosses fingers]
The good news is that I have been interviews for a potential summer internship type job. The interviewing party, called by people 'Canadian Dave,' had not even seen the resume I sent them, although he was very interested in my GM experience. Apparently all he'd known was I have a biochemistry degree, which is nice but not really applicable to what they do. (What they do involves catalysts, tube reactors, GC, mass spec, and supercritical fluids.) So he was quite surprised to learn that I did my undergrad thesis on catalysts, and already know how to make them and test them. Plus I am willing to get my hands dirty. As I told him, there is no physically possible way it can be dirtier than when I worked in the corrosion lab.
I, for my part, was able to tell them that my goal was to get more experience on GC and mass spec. I also told him I had lots of oil and IR and BET experience (which I do) and he said he's campaigning for an IR machine. (An IR takes an infrared spectrum of the sample. It cannot tell you what the sample is, but it can tell you what chemical bonds are present. Things like benzene rings and acid groups and alcohols are staggeringly obvious in IR. If you already know what the sample is, you can use it to find the proportions. Useful things, but expensive beyond belief.) So I had unexpected firsthand experience with exactly what they'd want me to do, which is good. And they play with supercritical fluids! Sounds like fun :D
So, we shall see. [crosses fingers]
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-27 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-27 09:02 pm (UTC)I've always put geography on the harder side of science. I mean, it doesn't deal with silly things like "what do you mean when you say 'fantastic'?" There's land, and you make maps of it. Simple.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-27 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-27 09:03 pm (UTC)