The Back Story

Hello and welcome to my summer in India. Before I start writing about the summer, let’s go into a little back story.  I received an email on February 28th from the internship coordinator at Penn State; it was addressed to all Juniors and Seniors looking for an international internship.  The email read …

ATTENTION ALL JUNIORS AND SENIORS GRADUATING DEC. 2008!!!!!

If you are interested in an international internship opportunity, here’s your chance:

Honeywell is looking for 3-5 interns to spend 10 weeks in Bangalore, India working at Honeywell! 

Airfare and housing is included.  There will also be a salary! 

I like the sounds of that.  Sign me up! Wait, where do I sign up? The first step was a resume drop on ISTechTRAK. [ISTechTRAK is a program offered by the college of IST at Penn State where you can find a job/internship.] Ok, let’s do it. Wait, I wasn’t even registered on ISTechTRAK.  I had a class in a few minutes, so I couldn’t register right then. A day or so later when I saw the email in my inbox again, I registered.  Step one, done.  After looking around tech trak and familiarizing myself with it, I finally find the Honeywell position.  No, wait, I found three.  Huh? I thought we would all be working on the same project; no it was three different assignments. Ok ok, let’s read over the descriptions.  They all sounded the same from what I remembered.  I put my resume in for the first position.  Then, I read the three over again and I liked how the second one sounded.  I put my resume into the second drop box. Then tech trak says you can only put one in for the three positions.  Ok, nothing wrong with that, until I re-read the third position.  This time something catches my eye and I put my resume into the third drop box.   Two weeks later, the Thursday before I am supposed to come home for spring break, I get another email. 

Dear IST Student,

Thank you for your interest in the Honeywell International Internship positions in Bangalore, India.  This is a pilot program that Honeywell is launching for the summer 2008.  We are very excited about this opportunity.

We have reviewed your resume and think you may be a fit for this program. We invite you to come and learn more about HON and the internship opportunity.  We will be hosting a campus presentation on March 18, 6 PM in 205 IST Building.   After the presentation we will sign up students for interviews on March 19 (on campus at the IST Building).    Please make it a point to attend this presentation so that you can be considered for this interview.

Prior to the presentation please visit www.honeywell.com/careers to create a candidate profile and post a resume. 

If you have any questions please contact Lori DelGiudice.  We look forward to seeing you on campus.

Thank you,

Honeywell University Relations

 I was very happy to receive the email, but when I read it through the second time; I thought to myself, wow, this is a generic message.  They just called me “IST Student”.   I was wondering if everyone who applied got invited to the info session.  Then when I realized where the room was, I knew there could only be a maximum of 40 people invited for everyone to have a seat.  I was happy about that; I had a 2.5% chance of getting it.

But first, spring break.   *takes the week off* I come back to school from spring break Sunday night, and the info session is scheduled for  Tuesday night, March 18th.

After the info session, some food they provided, and an informal question-and-answer, they offer interviews starting the next morning.  Sounds good, right? Yes, unless you get the one at 8am.  I heard that someone went at 7, so I was happy I wasn’t the first.  But I was still early to leave a good impression.  I get up Wednesday morning – the 19th, and look out the window and it was a little dark out yet, I thought it because it was still early.  I go take a shower, get all cleaned and dressed up and walk out the door. It’s raining! I hate rain! Now I know why it was still dark.  Back inside I go, I grab a coat and my umbrella, now it’s time to go to the interview.  I get to the IST building and wait a few minutes when Lori comes out and welcomes me into the interview.  *45 minutes later* I left the room feeling ecstatic, the interview went great.  I felt good, and my interviewer seemed to like me. 

A few days later, I got an email that said I made it through to the next round – phone interviews with the team in India.  Woohoo! Or so I thought.   I had my phone interview scheduled for Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 8:00AM-9:00AM.  Eww, I thought.  That’s too early.  Well, ok.  I’ll deal with it.  It’s only once that I have to get up this early.

I wake Thursday morning at 7:30 so that I don’t sound like I just got out of bed.  I even call a few minutes early just to give a good impression.  I was put on hold by the computer.  Nothing wrong with that, I am a bit early. … The system had an automated computer that directed the phone conferences.  And, after 15 minutes of being on hold, it would tell you to try again later. Ok, let’s call back. I don’t want to miss the conference call.  I didn’t think anything of this first time because I called in more than 5 minutes early, and I it said that they might be 5-10 minutes late.  Let’s give them the benefit and say they were 10 minutes late… that adds up to 15 minutes. *Calls again* after waiting another 15 minutes on hold and being kicked off again, I was worried that something wasn’t right.  I called again and listened to the music.  But by this time I had also started to send out emails to Lori and the third party company that was arranging the conference call.  I got each of them to respond within minutes.  The third party company said they didn’t know what was going on. But Lori said that something came up in India, and the conference would need to be pushed back one day, same time.  Here I go again, getting up at 7:30am.  This time, I called in and was greeted by the interviewer within a few minutes.  That’s the first hurdle down.  Now after exchanging pleasantries, we get to the questions.  Already, there were some problems.  The phone call was very muffled, at least on my end.  I had a hard time understanding him and there was a delay in the communications too.  It was hard to talk and understand each other. My interviewer asked four questions and said “go”. I was not ready to answer four in a row. I asked if he could repeat them individually when the question came up. He said all four again in a row. I managed to write down some notes this time about half of the questions.  I struggled to answer the remaining questions, and with little interaction, I had a hard time judging his reaction.  The interview was a total flop I felt.  They sent an email to the applicant pool and said final decisions would be made on Monday or Tuesday (April 7th or 8th)

Time to move on. I went on with my life again, looking for a new summer job/internship.  I had put my resume in a few other places, so I started following up with them.  A week later, while I was in class, I got a voicemail that said I was not needed for the India Internship.  I was dismayed, but after my poor phone interview, I was not surprised. 

Two and a half weeks pass, and I had forgotten about India.  That was until Thursday afternoon, April 24th, about 2:30. I got a call from Lori, she told me that they were re-considering to hire me and take me to India. What?!? Really?  I got very excited again.  She told me that I was going to be interviewed again via phone. Oh no, I thought to myself, not this again. She said that someone on the same team would call me today or tomorrow.  I told her that sounded good, but I had a test at 4pm, so I asked that no one call me at least during the hours of 4 to 5:30 - I would be busy with my test.  I went back to studying and then my phone rings again.  I reached over and picked it up, “hello?” I said. “Hi” the man said, “I wanted to ask you a few questions about the possible position in India.”  I asked not to be called later, but oh well, I’ll do this quickly.  I started out saying that I had a test and I had to go in less than a half an hour, he said that was ok. This time, there was no problem with the phone and the guy was interactive in the conversation and very attentive.  Wow, what a good impromptu interview.  But, the time came that I had to go take a test.

I leave to go take the test, and in the middle of it, my phone rings again! No, I told them not I would be unavailable, but Lori called and left a voice mail anyway.  She prefaced the message by saying sorry to call during your test, but the phone interview was great and she wanted to let me know that she would be calling tomorrow morning with an offer for the position in India.   What a chain of events.  I go almost three weeks of not having it, to getting a promise of a job offer in less than 2 hours. 

Friday morning comes, and Lori calls me and asks if I am still interested in the position, I enthusiastically said yes and accept the position.  The paperwork started immediately, and lots of it too!  The next week (the end of April and the first few days of May) was my last week of classes, and then I had finals during the first full week of May.  I finished my finals, and packed up my apartment and moved home, for less than a month.  There was not much time to get all the logistics of the trip and job down.   Not much time to plan a trip, and it left absolutely no time for anything to go wrong.   The paperwork still hasn’t stopped.  I got all my doctor’s appointments done with and came up-to-date on my inoculations and shots.  I was still doing some paperwork, in contact with a lawyer team in New York dealing with the Indian consulate to get my VISA through, and getting my tax information to Honeywell’s accounting department.

Fast-forward to the last week of May, I have a whole series of conference calls to attend. They range from global security team to people who have lived in India and shared their personal experiences with us to the team that we will be working with. At this time, I still haven’t fully realized that I am going to India for the summer.  

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