Position (job) update

Triathlon Forum
1

as promised, with respect to my longish query of a couple weeks ago (http://tinyurl.com/795ad), here’s the latest - in the form of my announcement to some of the local peeps:

driving towards the plant at 0645 for my 0730
interview start time, I was greeted by the orange sun
rising over the hills, a light ground fog burning off,
and nobody else on the road except me and a solo rider
about a half mile ahead biking into work. cue:
perma-grin.

the tour of the manufacturing area where I would work
and all the up- and down-stream areas attached to it
came in fits and starts as each interviewer took me
out to show me something, to illustrate a point, to
see how I might react and what questions I might ask.

in each office space after - and sometimes before -
the walkabouts, I got a few of the usual interviewish
questions and I answered them in the usual
interviewish ways. there was always one question,
though, that I got:

“So, what do you think so far?”

and I always answered it the same way. I said there
was a professional answer and a personal answer.

professionally, they weren’t kidding when they
described their issues during the phone interviews, if
anything it was going to be even more of a challenge
than I (and perhaps they) realized. but after laying
eyeballs on the shop I felt I could bring something to
the dance and make a difference.

personally? some variation on this theme:

“Guys, I’m a cyclist…this is TREK…how F’ing cool
is THAT?!”

and as of sometime between 18JUL-01AUG I’m gonna be a
a manufacturing engineer in their OCLV value stream.

[chills…goosebumps…butterflies with 20ft
wingspans…]

Carl

2

Sounds like a cool job.

3

I hope I get this lucky on my search. Btw mind if I borrow the “professional answer, personal answer” language. Would work well for a couple of my prospects such as REI.

4

If you ever need design advice…look me up, I’m a self-proclaimed genious.

5

i see…so Ze Gopha is in fact a nom de plume for Mr Wile E, eh?

6

absotively! whatever it takes, do it.

7

Wow that is awesome. Not only do you get to work with bikes but given how the industry is abuzz with carbonitis, you may get an opportunity to be involved in significant advances in design and mnfg processes. You are a lucky man to mix your career with your sport/hobby.

Good Luck!!

8

I prefer to think of myself as more of a Pepe le Peu, but hey, whatever.

9

All the best. Perhaps now we will get a proper tri geometry made in OCLV. I prefer the OCLV over the unknown Taiwan stuff that has been produced in the same factory and sold in the form of various brands (stickers).

10

So spill the beans! What kinda discounts do you get?

11

If you get paid a decent wage who cares about discounts. The guys in the local LBS get discounts, they all have nice bikes and make less than 10$ per hour.

More intresting, how much will they pay you? What is the package?

12

the carbonitis factor was, in fact, one of my primary reasons for saying (until now) that I most emphatically did NOT want to get into the bike biz. too many applications coming out just because the marketers say it’s necessary to sell bikes…not because it makes any sort of engineering sense.

it still concerns me. I make to you this vow: so long as it doesn’t get me fired, I shall endeavor to ensure that only the superficial strain of this disease (e.g. white carbon, et. al) is allowed to infect those products which pass before me. mind you, It’ll be years before I inhabit the design shop anyway (if ever), so don’t get too excited just yet…

13

don’t know, so can’t say…but I do know there are other trigeeks in the house…a couple of them were chatting it up in the lobby as I awaited my soon-to-be-boss, discussing the weekend’s trials and tribulations and recent race performances and goals as trigeeks are wont to do.

bottom line: I sense the beginnings of an insurgency…

14

don’t know all the details yet on employee discounts, other than to say it extends beyond bikes and isn’t necessarily limited to the name on the building…having a few boutique-ish brands under the corporate umbrella is a nice thing. immediate family only…peaceful tribe associations don’t quite make the grade.

15

they’re hiring labor on all three shifts and start at $10/hr with no training or experience. get the discount that way, I say.

as for my compensation package, I’ll just say it is an appropriate package for the job. what is new to me, though, is how significant a factor bonuses are out in the real world. in the fed gov’t, you gotta get into the SES realm (3-5 levels above what I’m leaving) before they amount to anything meaningful.

16

Asking the guy how much money he makes is very personal. Asking how much discounts he gets, not too personal.