I first heard of this job this past June when visiting the career fair at the Reciprocal Meat Conference in Iowa. That’s where I met Brandon Goehring (VT Technical Representative) and Billy Ertl (VT Kenosha’s Human Resources Generalist), and later that day, unbeknownst to me, Brandon went to speak to different professors asking if they knew anyone that would be a good fit for this job opportunity. And luckily for me, two of those professors were Dr. Davey Griffin and Dr. Kerri Gehring, who are two individuals that are close mentors of mine from Texas A&M University. And when asked who they felt could best fill this role, both graciously said my name. Flash forward to the next day, Brandon came to find me and asked if we could have a quick informal interview to further discuss the role. After asking what I wanted to do for a living and which six celebrities I wished to have dinner with, the interview was over. I knew at that moment, I was going to do all that it took to get this sales/ tech role because it perfectly encompassed everything I wanted in a future career, as it allowed me to talk to a wide range of individuals daily while giving me the opportunity to problem-solve in different situations.
However, to my surprise, after my meeting with Brandon, it felt like radio silence from the other side. I did not pay too much attention to it as I was gearing up to defend my master’s thesis and finalize everything for my graduation in August. After a few weeks, when the buzz from my defense finally died down, I got a call from the HR department in Kenosha, Wisconsin asking if I was available to have a quick phone interview. Unannounced to them, I was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on a family vacation, but I was not going to miss this opportunity. So, through crashing waves, poor cell signals, and one dropped call, I was able to make it through probably one of the most stressful HR phone interviews in my life.
However, after getting that call, once again, it was radio silent for weeks, but this time, I was only a month out from graduation, and I needed to buckle down my plans for life after grad school. Thus, I started applying for other jobs, and with that came job offers with deadlines from these companies. At this moment, I am beyond stressed because in the back of my mind that I am still thinking about this opportunity with ViskoTeepak, but I have no clue where I stand against the other applications or if I am even still in the running and the last thing, I want to do is turn down these other offers for a job I don’t even have a potential of getting. At the moment, I did the only thing I could do and sent an email to Brandon asking if he could give me any insight into where I stood. To my surprise, I get a call from Brandon in the next twenty minutes where he explains that he can’t tell me anything for certain, but if he was in my position, he would wait it out. After an hour-long freak out I finally decided I was going to take the risk and reject the job offers I currently had and continue to pursue this potential opportunity.
