Quite a few things in today's entry.
First off, Schools Day.
The talk given was fairly simple enough, only about ten minutes long or so, but it's really amazing what you can talk about non-stop in ten minutes LOL. For most part, the kids that came were interested in listening and looking, with exception of one group of boys from St Augustines College, out at Blacktown way. They were fairly bored and uninterested except for one kid who seemed more up to par. The groups that I looked after briefly were from Strathfield Girls, St Augustines, Sydney Boys High and Sefton High. Just a quick spiel about fixation in gluteraldehyde, secondary fixation in osmium tetroxide, then resin impregnation and cure, a talk about the microtome and glass knives/diamond knives, then showing a quick exerpt from a Leica DVD on microtoming, then talking about picking up the specimens and dropping them onto the grids and post-grid staining with uranyl acetate and lead citrate before imaging. Then the talk is over and they get to look at some more images and compare them with SEM and LM pictures. It is fairly easy work I guess if you can handle talking to kids in a large group, and know your material.
I also did the last two schedules for the clay samples into their resin and put them into the oven for curing. The ones that went in on Monday were popped out of the containers but some of it was still soft/sticky, possibly due to poor infiltration of the resin or not sufficient curing time, so I stuck them back into the oven for some more time. I also helped clear out a corrosives cabinet in the 'new' lab area LG82. There was some pretty nasty stuff, like 15M NaOH..... and lots of HNO3, and also HN4+H2O too... so on went the tap at full bore, and slowly down the drain went some of it. The 15M NaOH and some pellets of the stuff that had liquefied will be taken away by the universities waste management team because it's too strong to be flushing down the sink as it would just eat the piping. There was also some titanium power residues that also need to be disposed of too.
Back over to Chem Eng, I had a brief chat with the Foundation Exec about salaries, then a chat with my associate supervisor about work, and then a chat with my supervisor about work opportunities and casual stuff to do around the place. Lang Technologies is still interested in hiring me, and I gave their CEO a call and he said that if I could hang on for about a fortnight, they might be in a position to come up with something. I will be having a meeting with him next Tuesday for one of the PhD students projects. I asked about opportunities overseas if I was to work with Lang Technologies, and I was told that most of their employees end up hating it because they have to travel overseas so much..... so... yay! Hahaha.
I got home and checked my email because I hadn't all day, and looks interesting on the Japan job hunting front. I sent my resume to a company in Yokohama that does spray drying the other day. It was cold calling email really, but I thought I'd give it a shot. They replied! Like, WOW. Anyway, the email was a three line email, along the lines of Dear Mr Chiou, Thank you for your resume and email, it has been forwarded to our executives. Could you please provide us with your nationality, age additionally? Regards. Well, on your resume, at least here in Australia, you generally don't put that kind of information due to anti-discrimination issues. I don't know what it is like in Japan, but I was told by a friend today that Japan generally pays according to age experience, not qualifications.... so that might be one reason. As for the nationality, well, I responded by saying I was an Australian citizen, having lived here since 1986, but was of Taiwanese birth. I don't know how that will impact on things..... oh, and I did tell them my age and birthday, just to indicate that I was a wee tot of five when I came to Australia, so my English abilities is well and truly 'native' level LOL. But yeah, that was pleasantly surprising to receive.
Though, if they come through and make an offer, and Lang Technologies crack an offer..... Decisions will have to be made.... Things to consider would be obviously Salary, living conditions based from that are important if I am in Japan (with cost of living), as well as job description and other benefits...... Hmmm, there are I think advantages and disadvantages on both sides.... But I guess that is an issue if and only if both sides make an offer haha.
So that was my day so far.
Oh, I also had a coffee catch-up with a friend today, and just chatted about work prospects because they are at that stage of their uni degree when they have to start considering that too. They want to go overseas and teach English with a TESOL qualification, but I personally think that is not the best idea as their abilities in my humble opinion are far greater than being a English teaching pleb that you see so many Arts students taking on...... Oh well.
First off, Schools Day.
The talk given was fairly simple enough, only about ten minutes long or so, but it's really amazing what you can talk about non-stop in ten minutes LOL. For most part, the kids that came were interested in listening and looking, with exception of one group of boys from St Augustines College, out at Blacktown way. They were fairly bored and uninterested except for one kid who seemed more up to par. The groups that I looked after briefly were from Strathfield Girls, St Augustines, Sydney Boys High and Sefton High. Just a quick spiel about fixation in gluteraldehyde, secondary fixation in osmium tetroxide, then resin impregnation and cure, a talk about the microtome and glass knives/diamond knives, then showing a quick exerpt from a Leica DVD on microtoming, then talking about picking up the specimens and dropping them onto the grids and post-grid staining with uranyl acetate and lead citrate before imaging. Then the talk is over and they get to look at some more images and compare them with SEM and LM pictures. It is fairly easy work I guess if you can handle talking to kids in a large group, and know your material.
I also did the last two schedules for the clay samples into their resin and put them into the oven for curing. The ones that went in on Monday were popped out of the containers but some of it was still soft/sticky, possibly due to poor infiltration of the resin or not sufficient curing time, so I stuck them back into the oven for some more time. I also helped clear out a corrosives cabinet in the 'new' lab area LG82. There was some pretty nasty stuff, like 15M NaOH..... and lots of HNO3, and also HN4+H2O too... so on went the tap at full bore, and slowly down the drain went some of it. The 15M NaOH and some pellets of the stuff that had liquefied will be taken away by the universities waste management team because it's too strong to be flushing down the sink as it would just eat the piping. There was also some titanium power residues that also need to be disposed of too.
Back over to Chem Eng, I had a brief chat with the Foundation Exec about salaries, then a chat with my associate supervisor about work, and then a chat with my supervisor about work opportunities and casual stuff to do around the place. Lang Technologies is still interested in hiring me, and I gave their CEO a call and he said that if I could hang on for about a fortnight, they might be in a position to come up with something. I will be having a meeting with him next Tuesday for one of the PhD students projects. I asked about opportunities overseas if I was to work with Lang Technologies, and I was told that most of their employees end up hating it because they have to travel overseas so much..... so... yay! Hahaha.
I got home and checked my email because I hadn't all day, and looks interesting on the Japan job hunting front. I sent my resume to a company in Yokohama that does spray drying the other day. It was cold calling email really, but I thought I'd give it a shot. They replied! Like, WOW. Anyway, the email was a three line email, along the lines of Dear Mr Chiou, Thank you for your resume and email, it has been forwarded to our executives. Could you please provide us with your nationality, age additionally? Regards. Well, on your resume, at least here in Australia, you generally don't put that kind of information due to anti-discrimination issues. I don't know what it is like in Japan, but I was told by a friend today that Japan generally pays according to age experience, not qualifications.... so that might be one reason. As for the nationality, well, I responded by saying I was an Australian citizen, having lived here since 1986, but was of Taiwanese birth. I don't know how that will impact on things..... oh, and I did tell them my age and birthday, just to indicate that I was a wee tot of five when I came to Australia, so my English abilities is well and truly 'native' level LOL. But yeah, that was pleasantly surprising to receive.
Though, if they come through and make an offer, and Lang Technologies crack an offer..... Decisions will have to be made.... Things to consider would be obviously Salary, living conditions based from that are important if I am in Japan (with cost of living), as well as job description and other benefits...... Hmmm, there are I think advantages and disadvantages on both sides.... But I guess that is an issue if and only if both sides make an offer haha.
So that was my day so far.
Oh, I also had a coffee catch-up with a friend today, and just chatted about work prospects because they are at that stage of their uni degree when they have to start considering that too. They want to go overseas and teach English with a TESOL qualification, but I personally think that is not the best idea as their abilities in my humble opinion are far greater than being a English teaching pleb that you see so many Arts students taking on...... Oh well.
2 comments:
So does "travel overseas" mean to Europe, too? :)
Well, I'm not entirely sure, but there is always open possibilities =)
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