Fingers crossed

Well, I had a bit of success today in my quest to not still be in LA (and the job search process) in July... I had an interview! On Monday I found a listing for the perfect job for me at American Express--yes, I'm still hung up on working for that company--and submitted my resume. And, miracle of miracles, I got a call about it this morning! At 9:30 a.m. Needless to say, I was still in bed, and didn't get the message until 11:30, and then spent the next 2 hours stressing out on how to prepare to talk about whatever it is I was supposed to learn to earn my master's degree. My chief strategy revolved around calling my best friend from the program and asking her to ignore her job and walk me through what it was we did with respect to data analysis on a couple of the projects we worked on. This included asking her what modeling is, and questioning the statistical methods we'd used in a somewhat accusatory tone. She pointed out that I'd been in charge of the data analysis. Shit. A little after 1:30 p.m. (4:30 NY time) I called the recruiter back, feeling completely prepared, and... got her voicemail. I'd moved from Starbucks to my car in order to make this call, and got some funny looks from the other customers when I came back with everything 30 seconds later.

It seems they're used to working later over there, though, because I got a call back a little after 3. My concentration had moved from statistical analysis and the credit card industry to wondering who was hotter, Captain Jack Sparrow or Danny Ocean... there's just something about the guy who seems to have everything figured out, and while Danny Ocean looks very cool in sunglasses, Jack Sparrow just seems more like a party kind of guy, more fun, but then again he has those dreads, and... well, anyway. The questioning began with, "If the Empire State Building were covered in shaving cream, how would you figure out how many cans were needed to cover it?"

This was actually the easiest question out of the entire interview. I remember my geometry pretty well, and was able to give a reasonably intelligent-sounding answer. Unfortunately, later case questions were grounded in reality, and I had to actually demonstrate the statistical knowledge that I've been trying to ignore for the past 3 months, leaving me with an even smaller supply than I had back when I had to sound intelligent about it, like, several days a week.

I'm not really sure how the interview went. I'm hoping ok, but it's hard to assess the reaction of your interviewer when all you have to go on is a voice. Cross your fingers for me.