Second Stab? Take Initiative & Be Prepared!

Having had my contacts ask me whether I got the Creative Kid job, I decided to finally give the ladyboss a call after waiting for 3 weeks. She said some NUS graduates applied for the post recently and she was still sifting through candidates for the job. She told me that she will email me the schedule of future trips on the evening that I called, so that I can join in and have a feel of what the job will be like, but 4 days on, still no email from her. I tried reaching her again yesterday but no respond. Hmmm what lukewarm follow-up after such an excitin potential of employment...I was really hopeful but...

In a twist of fate though, I had another interview tis week! Initially I was not very keen abt applying for the job because I was highly anticipating for Creative Kid to call and it involves tissue culture but Liza (formerly peanutgal) talked me into it, that I decided to just give it a go. So my CV landed into her Prof's hand and an interview session was set up. Gulp! My first 3-man panel interview, 1 Professor and 2 Doctors..oh God! My CV was scrutinised and read out by the Prof. and every now and then he shoots me questions of what I have studied and done in the past. I didn't really try to recall the technicalities that I have done in the previous research lab before I went for the interview but somehow, i cruised thru! Phew~

Surprisingly, as nervous as I was, I was rather collected and felt comfortable being in the same room as these 3 "big shots". One of the most memorable question, which stunned me for awhile was tis, by the Prof: "Do u noe the word INITIATIVE? Has the lab people in ur current job or previous used tis word? Tell me what is ur perception of tis word?" I almost laughed out loud upon hearing tis question...EHH?? Testing my English or what?? But I replied  and he was rather happy with it. And then he started advising me saying that in research work we need a lot of initiative and people in my position must help to drive and wind up the PostDocs to move the research works forward. Wahhh not the easiest thing to do but Inspiring! And before the interview was over, one of the Doctors asked, "So u were a Girl Guide? What post did u hold? And what company did u belong to?" Another stunner..what has Guiding gotta do with tis post??? took a couple of seconds to get over it and in one breathe "I was the Commander and I belonged to 3rd COY SOUTH!" and out came my silly proud smile. Hah! To think i was really sheepish when the Prof read out my ECA in the earlier part of the interview. The Doctor gave that approving "ok-u-noe-ur-stuff" smirk and started to tell me abt the Guides motto and that she believe I would apply the values I learnt during my Guiding days in my work. Hah! The Doctor was previously a Guide too as I gingerly asked if she was. So..brownie points? hehehe

And the next day, the other Doctor called and congratulated me cos I was picked to be the best candidate around! SERIOUSLY?? He said I did really well and was impressed by the way I presented myself during the interview and they want my service ASAP. Wahhh! Now I'm in ONE BIG DILEMMA, i told myself after puttin down the phone!

These past couple of days, kept questioning myself which job do I really want and I had to weigh out the pros n cons of them both. While Creative Kid would be so ideal for my personality, travel desires and money growth, I realise that there's still a part of me that wanna take on the research challenge, improve myself on where I left off when life was not too smooth few months back and see myself excel or live through my adolescence dream ambition. To be honest, I am still kinda traumatised with my past experience but I wanna face it all again and hopefully drive myself to be better and replace those demoralisin memories with positive ones! And gettin a Rose after the interview (given out by some NUS students who were organisers of V-Bash -whatever that might be!?-), sure seems like a good sign...make me feel like one..waiting to BLOOM!

So yes, Lab Rat i shall remain and a Creative one i'll strive to be!