Posted by shar on January 7, 2004, at 18:55:53
In reply to how did it go shar? (nm), posted by judy1 on January 7, 2004, at 11:16:46
Allison and Judy,
Thanks for your interest. How did it go?Well, let's see (this job is for a part time research/evaluation analyst)...I was about 30 years older than most of the panel (5 people), I probably should not have mentioned Jurassic Park as an example of validating data, they looked bored, they looked tired.
I was able to answer all their questions, but being out of the workforce for 3 years was not lost on most of them--who have probably been IN the work force for 3 years.
I really can never tell how I do. I'm always amazed when I get a job offer, I'm assuming they want someone younger, closer to their age, but who knows.
I didn't belch, spill my water on me or anyone else, make other obvious faux pas's that I know of. I tried to be animated, but I probably talked too much.
OK--I know you're dying to hear about the Jurassic Park thing. In JP the computer was programmed to count the animals to ensure none had escaped. The question it answered was "are there 231 animals in the park?" (made up number). The computer had always said 'yes' to the question. Nobody asked the computer How Many animals are in the park? Finally, one of the visiting scientists asked that question, and the number was 285 (made up number); this shocked the in-house scientists because the animals had a built in safety net to control their numbers: they couldn't reproduce. However, the actual count showed they WERE reproducing. So, you have to watch out, in research, and ask the right question.
Now, you are probably wondering--how on earth could they reproduce??? Well, when they were working on cloning the dinosaurs, they didn't have complete DNA strands, so they used (supposedly innocuous) frog DNA to fill in some of the gaps. What nobody thought about was the fact that the DNA they got was from frogs who could reproduce all by themselves!!! (I forget what that's called). So, the dinosaurs could reproduce all by themselves also!!
Oh well. I'm supposed to hear next Friday about the job.
Shar
poster:shar
thread:297070
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/2000/20031122/msgs/297805.html