I found a Cornellian!

I interviewed a graduate student today. Very nice. Won an NSF fellowship worth $30,000 a year towards his continuing education.

Yeah. I know. Took a while for my mouth to close.

Anyway, he went to Cornell! So I of course had to mention that I was going there (have I mentioned I’m going there? Have I mentioned how excited I am?), and he perked up quite a bit and talked to me about it for a little while. After that he was much more conversational (he had been a little bit shy before). I’m wondering if that’s a good interview technique or if that works with only a few people: sharing a little bit about yourself. It makes you seem more like a person and less like an online form (“Where did you get your undergraduate degree? _____ What field do you work in? _____ Do you plan on getting a PhD? Yes/No”).

AND Bill complimented me on the photos I took! I took kind of a funny angle pointing upward at the “MECHANICAL ENGINEERING BUILDING” title above the front door of the building, and it turned out really well. He wasn’t much of a smiler. I counted down and everything, but he kept the deadpan look. I guess that’s some people’s thing. He had a nice smile though! Why would people not smile in pictures? Seems silly to me.

I have to interview three more people—one of whom has not gotten back to me. Grr. Their blurb will have to be something short and stupid that I invent from the information on their LinkedIn page. Not my problem!

In all honesty, I’ll give them another email next week to make sure they’re not going to respond. After that, I’ll just post the article. Good to give second chances though. Especially since things can get lost in email so easily.

For example: one of the graduate students I have to interview emailed me back after I said I wanted to arrange a meeting, and added to the end: “By the way, your email notified me that I had won. The official email got labeled as spam. I'm glad you emailed or I may have not seen it for awhile.”

Ha! $30,000 a year, and he might not have seen it for a while! Ha!