Update

Cursèd stupidity (or is it clumsy fingers) for accidentally clicking the Q key instead of the W key, thus quitting the browser (and losing the extremely lengthy blog entry I was finishing) instead of closing another tab.

Anyway, I don't much feel like recreating all that I've left behind. In part, I don't want to drudge up the feelings of animosity and spite toward my most recent employer that formed much of the post. And, mainly, I just don't feel like writing that much. At least, not that much that I've already written.

I should, however, give an update on my station, since there (still) hasn't been any report on that in a month.

Last Wednesday, I had an informational interview with Conifer Research, a startup market research firm in Evanston. No, market research isn't quite my cup of tea. I don't really want to help corporations peddle their wares. But, the job itself would be interesting and potentially useful to me. It's market research, but done as ethnography, easily the most interesting facet of anthropology for me. I've always sort of wanted to do ethnography, not necessarily as an anthropologist, but in the form of oral history or long-form journalism (a much, much, much earlier time, I admit). So this would be a chance to really learn the nuts and bolts of it. I wouldn't be doing the interviewing myself, at least not initially, but my job would be in large measure to look over tapes of the interviews and analyze them, coding the content and also drawing my own conclusions as to why people behave the way they do. (I wonder how often I'll be tempted to say "Because people are stupid.")

My interview there, which was pretty informal, went extremely well. I think I did great, and I seemed to keep mentioning interests and experiences and skills that meshed well with what the firm does, so I feel pretty confident. Though I wasn't interviewing for a specific position, they did sort of have me in mind as a candidate to work on a project coming up soon. I'm not sure the company or organization commissioning it, but I know it has something to do with video games and big video game events. So, it could be interesting. And, perhaps best of all, it looks like the project start date will be sometime after the holidays, which means I could easily go home for a few weeks for the holidays. Additionally, I should potentially find out soon if they're going to offer me the position. Basically, very soon they should get a definitive start date, at which point they'll make calls to the people they want to staff the project, which hopefully means I'll be hearing from them next week.

The main drawback of this job is that it's more contract work. It's undoubtedly going to be better than the last one I had in that the contract will be several months and there's also a good chance I'd be retained for subsequent projects. But, being on contract means having nothing in the way of benefits. So, even though I should be making rather good money, I won't have healthcare, vacation time or any legal rights. But, even though they said occasionally the require long hours around deadlines, they do try to compensate for that, which is better than what I've had previously. And I might be able to afford a really cheap HMO or some form of healthcare that will cover me in the event of an emergency and maybe allow me to see a doctor on occasion without footing the whole bill. Plus, it's not a permanent situation. And it might even work out really well for me if I get in to grad school (more on that later) and end up leaving Chicago in the summer.

Yesterday I had another interview, this one formal, at Mercy Home, an orphanage in the West Loop. The position is for a staff writer in their development department, which means writing letters thanking donors or soliciting contributions. Not the most interesting job, save for a certain wrinkle. Since the letters go out over the signature of the organization's president, I'd be writing in the voice of a folksy Irish priest. Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny, too.

That interview also went really well. Both of the people who interviewed me remarked at the beginning that I had a very impressive resume (thank you very much), and our conversations went quite well. I think I'm eminently qualified for the position, and I think they probably feel more or less the same way. Plus, the guy who interviewed me second, I discovered, is an original PARCer! Small world, eh? So that gave us a certain rapport.

I feel pretty good about how I did, but I can't really estimate my chances at the position very well since they're interviewing other people this week and next and I don't know how many people they're considering or what qualifications the other applicants might have. But I certainly didn't hurt my chances yesterday. The only thing that could potentially weigh against me, but I don't think it'd come into play till the very end, and possibly not even then, is that they're looking for someone to stay for at least a year and I told them that I'm applying to grad school and thus I couldn't make any promises that I'd be around beyond the summer. Of course, as I explained, in an ideal scenario I'd get accepted to grad school (with funding) and find a job I like pretty well in the meantime, and could defer my admission (and funding) for a year to work, save money and be around everyone here. Plus, there are just to many variables and unknowns to know whether I'd be leaving in the summer.

But, though this job probably wouldn't pay quite so well, it's full time with excellent benefits. So that's a definite plus.

The other major news, which I've hinted at above, is that I'm applying to graduate school this year. As in now. As in, I need to have two applications done and mailed in by the end of this month. My experience in the working world has persuaded me to embark on the road to academia, and to start my journey ASAP. So, Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia, Michigan, Indiana and Washington, look out! And please, for the love of a folksy Irish priest, fund me.

Yup. So I should really get on that. Realistically, I need to have the applications all completed and in the mail before I leave for Thanksgiving, which is just less than two weeks away. And I also need to solicit some recommendations and get feedback on my statement of purpose well before then, which means getting a good draft of that hammered out in the next day or two. So, yeah, I should try to be productive this weekend. Which means more writing of a non-blog variety. But I thought these pages deserved a little attention.