Interview with UC Berkeley - Haas

After a 45 minute train (BART) ride, I reached the Berkeley campus on a bright sunny day. Before getting on the train to Berkeley, I drove to the train station and was desperately looking for a parking space. With no luck inside the train station, I decided to try my luck in a shopping center parking lot across the street. The pesky security guard caught my attempt and told me he would have my car towed if I parked there. Oh man, I glanced at my watch and realized I didn't have the time to be f***ing around and needed to get to Berkeley on the very next train. Luckily, I found a quiet office parking nearby, parked my car there, and ran to the train station. Got in the train as it was just about to leave. Felt good that I was going to reach the campus on time.

Once I reached the campus, I realized I still had about 15 minutes left for the interview. I sat in the waiting area while enjoying a Business Week magazine. Finally, my interviewer appeared right on time and we introduced each other. The interview started with a 'walk me through your resume' question. The discussions then turned to, 'how would your supervisor describe you', 'how would your co-workers describe you' etc etc. I felt that I did do a good job for the most part. One keen observation I made though was that I didn't think she fully grasped the exact nature of my day to day work responsibilities. So, I am a little worried on that front. I am not sure if it is because I was deficient in my explanations or if it is because she didn't grasp them well.

One thing that I think did help was that I had visited the campus before for a class visit, and managed to sit with the professor during the dinner break and talk about success stories of patents. The first thing my interviewer asked me (as we were walking together to the interview room) was if I had previously seen the campus. When I responded 'yes' and added a tidbit that I had sat with the class professor for dinner, I think my portfolio was strengthened a bit in her eyes.

Towards the end of the interview, I posed a couple of questions of my own. Although, on second thought, some of my questions were rather dubious. Once the interview finished, she shook my hand and thanked me for coming. She walked me upstairs towards the main entrance to the building, and as I was about to leave, shook my hand again and wished me a good day (hopefully a sign of interest from her).

Now, the tedious waiting game begins.