Anybody I used to know still post around here??????
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Thursday, May 23, 2024 14:59
VIEWED: 53454
PAGE 29 of 32
It's finally here. The moment of truth....
For over 6 1/2 months in this house (and a year before that), tomorrow is the day that had always just seemed to be a theoretical date in the future that would "make or break" the rest of my life.
The HV/AC union interview.
The funny thing is, I'm not the ball of nerves that I thought I would be.
Me... the guy who had nightmares the day before a speech in high school. The guy who, 10 years ago, was so uptight at an iron workers apprenticeship interview that even the interviewer laughed and told me to relax.
I'm doing things differently now. I'm also, I suspect, doing things differently than most interviewees would do.
I will go into the interview with nothing in hand. No notepad. No pen. I know most of the questions they're likely to ask me, but I'm not obsessing over them because I know enough about myself now, and about my strengths (and my weaknesses), my desires for my personal future, and my own potential contributions to my employer. I will just let the interview flow as a conversation and the responses that flow out of me will feel natural, rather than drilling myself tonight on how I feel they would want me to answer each of these questions and giving them robotic replies and seeming "aloof" because I'm too deep in my own head trying to get every question perfect.
To say that I will not be nervous at all going into this thing tomorrow would be a lie, but I'm sure I'll be the least nervous guy walking in there that doesn't currently have a job, by far.
I'm still living very comfortably now, even though I've been hemorrhaging money through these home improvements. But all that considered, it's not as if this interview is the do-or-die situation I imagined it would be today. If it works out, I'm all but set for life. If it doesn't, I'm sure other suitable, if less desirable, opportunities will arise in the near future.
Wish me luck!
Quote:
Originally posted by JO753:
Sanding floorz! More work than I ever want to do!
I like wall to wall carpet anyway.
To each his own man. Personally, I'm so glad to be rid of the old carpet in here.
Carpet ages over time. If you spill on carpet, there's a good chance that you'll never be able to get rid of the mark completely. If you have pets that are more unruly, you have to always be on the lookout for fluid marks or even torn up carpet. Hardwood floors that are done correctly, on the other hand, are very easy cleanup as long as you don't leave spill or pee marks sitting for a day at a time.
I've always loved the natural beauty of a refinished hardwood floor anyway ever since my step-dad refinished the living room floor in the house I spent my teenage years in and at my Mom's parents 1st floor.
As great as he is at what he does, he was able to get the job done much quicker than I ever could, and much of that is because even after he stained and polyed the floors there are minor visible defects that most people wouldn't even ever notice. One reason for how slow I am is because I'm a novice, and the other is because I'm a perfectionist to a fault. Most of his living room is covered in a decorative rug so you wouldn't notice any scratches under there, and mine will be as well, but if I'm going to do something (especially on my own house) it's going to be PERFECT!
I don't blame you for not wanting to sand floors though, especially after having gone through it. I've done nearly nothing for two days to recharge. If it were a job I could do at my leisure, it wouldn't have been so bad, but when every day was costing me 100 bucks more I just had to man-up and get it all done in two days.
It's a painful, miserable process.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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LOL....
Seriously?????
The top 50 posts on CareerBuilder.com about what to do and what not to do in a job interview come off to me as SERIOUSLY insulting overall.
I won't get into details, but, really..........?
Don't dress in pajamas, don't bring a cockatoo on your shoulder, don't ask about benefits 2 minutes into the conversation?
Don't get me wrong, there is some very good information on that site if you dig, but with all the "featured" articles out there along the lines I've spoken of, either CB is speaking to the absolute lowest common denominator, or I don't have a chance in hell of NOT scoring this job.
The moral of the story is, if you're a young white male with little college education but an ass-load of natural talent and street smarts just be yourself at the interview.
Sure, there's quotas to fill legally and this and that in the EOE environment today, but really.... It seems the bar is set very (VERY) low.
I'm sure a vast majority of the minorities and women actually hired in the end because of EOE laws today are extremely talented and much more equipped to handle the responsibilities than the average non-thinking-and-non-adaptable-white male is today.
I dunno.... Maybe this "cheat-sheet" from CareerBuilder.com is 10 years out of date from back in the good ol' days when anyone could get a job, but it just seems to easy to me.
I'm going to rock this MF tomorrow!
When I leave, the only question they'll be asking each other is why WOULDN'T they hire me?
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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Funny you mention that about carpet today.
Wun uv our regular vizitorz iz confined to the house on account uv nearly dying last week from (maybe) my mom letting him gobble Activia and he'z possibly 20 yirz old. Then she let him get out so I blew about 10 owrz over 3 dayz looking for him so he woudnt die out in the snow and he finally just showed up on the back porch Friday nite.
Anyway, he took a dump on the carpet wich wuznt too bad since it wuz mostly solid, but then I noticed he'd taken a leak next to the wall also, wich required me to drag the shopvak upstairz to clean it up. It wuz krazy since I'd taken him downstairz to the cat potty only an owr earlier and he must hav a bladder that a champion beer drinker woud be proud uv.
Good luck with your interview. Dont be too confident with the job for life idea. Did you see I, Robot? Not very far off, dude!
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DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.nooalf.com
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Quote:
Originally posted by JO753:
Good luck with your interview. Dont be too confident with the job for life idea. Did you see I, Robot? Not very far off, dude!
So... I'm Will Smith in this equation, right?
So I should wear Converse shoes to my interview then?
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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So, how'd it go?? Rollicking good time?
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Hey Wish,
It's a coin toss. I'd give it 50/50 that I get it.
The interview went well, but was it top-ten-percent well is the question.
Going into this, I heard that there would probably be around 75 guys for the HVAC. Turns out there is only 35 guys this year for it. 150 guys interviewed today, plus the existing 200 (100 a year) from the last two years and we're all inserted together based off of our scores.
Scores are 100+100/2. Possible 100 on test, possible 100 on interview.
At least I was in and out of there quick. They took 10 guys at a time out of 150, and it was non-alphabetical. If it was random, I just got lucky... I it was based off of test scores, I was the first called in the 2nd group, so I scored the 11th top score of the 150 interviewed, which would give me a little wiggle room on the interview since i would have tested in the top 7.5%.
I assume the best here regarding the test, since if I were in charge of the interviews I'd want to talk to the guys most likely to get the job first, since even if you didn't consider the other 200 still on the waiting lists from 2 years ago the last 115 guys in the group today had no chance of getting in and it was all just a formality of going through the motions.
Of course, as long as their sons or nephews tested well, the interview scores of relatives of respected workers will be high enough to make it in even if they drooled through the interview.
I feel well about how it went though. After hearing about what I've been doing on the house and how I fixed my own furnace 3 days after not even knowing how to light a pilot and it still works now that winter is almost over, when they came to the question about "do you have experience with using tools/machines?", one of the two suits just kind of laughed and said they didn't need to ask me that question.
I'm not going to get my hopes up only to be let down though. 50/50 is what I'm giving it right now. If they were taking 75 guys this year like they have in the past, I'd be drinking Heineken in celebration right now. Knowing that I had to score at least in the top 10% in the interviews of 350 guys from the last three years, well... tonight I'm just drinking enough Icehouse to put it out of my mind for a few hours + sleep.
On the bright side, I'll know if I got in the school this weekend, and if I didn't I'll know my rank out of the remaining 215 guys.
If I find out I was accepted on the 10th, class starts on the 14th, so this will all happen VERY quick. I view this as a good sign even if I don't get in this class, since I'm positive I'm in the top 50 of the 350. The class was supposed to start a month later, but for unspoken reasons they pushed it forward a month. (I'd hate to be a working guy who had to bail on a job with 4 days notice). I'm just wishfully thinking here, but to move the class up 1 month in my mind can only mean 2 of 2 things.
One, they need fresh meat NOW. And two, they might have a second class available by summertime that I'd be sure to get in if I didn't score well enough for this one.
After this post, I won't think about it now until Saturday. I refuse to dwell on it and I have so much personal work to do in a short timespan so that should be easy.
The focus the next 9 days is refinishing that floor early enough to have my furniture moved back upstairs by the 13th now based on the iffy assumption that the spot is mine.
I don't want to be sleeping on 30 year old foam mattresses in my cold attic the night before my first class.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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Uggggh.... the floors.....
Note to Self: A pole sander by hand with 80grit paper doesn't put a dent in Oak flooring. Neither does a random orbital sander with 60 grit paper do anything to blend in the differences between a powerful edger and a drum sander.
All in all, I got virtually nothing done today.
I discovered a REALLY cool sanding machine I wasn't even aware existed today, and it's available for rental from Home Depot for 50 bucks a day plus paper.
The "Floor Sander", also known as the square bulk sander. According to the guy at Home Depot, it's a "glorified" pole sander. It's a heavier machine with a 14"x18" sand pad that vibrates in a forward/back motion that will go with the grain. It's designed to do final touch up work after using a drum sander, and to remove any swirl marks from the edger.
I'm so happy I found out about this today. I was going to use a buffer to do the final touches, but I was worried that it would leave tons of nearly microscopic swirl marks that would show up in the final product. I was also afraid that I'd have to go all the way up to 150 grit on the buffer to minimize the swirl marks, but then the stain wouldn't be nearly as deep a color as I wanted. With the Floor Sander, I'll be able to remove all these last imperfections that the ghetto drum/edge sanders I rented left and finish with a 100 grit paper that will leave the floor ready to take on a lot more color than a 150 grit would allow.
So... staining will be pushed back a day, but hopefully with the few days wiggle room I have I'll still be able to sleep in my bed the night before my first day on the job if I get it.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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I wish I could tell what a floor was by looking at it!!!!!!!
There is NO WAY these floors are Red Oak!
I picked up the square buff sander at Home Depot and the guys there told me not to go under 80 grit (we were all assuming I had Red Oak). A half hour later on a 4x4 spot of floor with the 80 grit and I barely had any dust in the bag. I practically had to beg for two sheets of 24 grit paper since they were telling me I'd gouge the hell out of my floor with it. After 3 hours of sanding with 24 grit paper, I've just barely got 3/4 of the Master Bedroom buffed out, and it is practically polishing the wood. I'm afraid to go with much lighter coarseness on future sands because I don't want to polish the floor and close all the pores. I want a VERY dark color and I'm afraid that if I sand it too much the wood won't take the stain.
http://tinytimbers.com/janka.htm
According to the Jenka Hardness scale, Red Oak scores a 1,290 in toughness.
I do believe I have Hickory hardwood floors, which have a toughness of 1820 (nearly 1.5 that of Northern Red Oak.
Working Properties
The heaviest of American hardwoods, the hickories can be difficult to machine and glue, and are very hard to work with hand tools, so care is needed. They hold nails and screws well, but there is a tendency to split so pre-boring is advised. The wood can be sanded to a good finish. The grain pattern welcomes a full range of medium-to-dark finishes and bleaching treatments. It can be difficult to dry and has high shrinkage.
General Description
The hickories are an important group within the Eastern hardwood forests. Botanically they are split into two groups; the true hickories, and the pecan hickories (fruit bearing). The wood is virtually the same for both and is usually sold together. Hickory is the hardest, heaviest and strongest American wood. The sapwood of hickory is white, tinged with inconspicuous fine brown lines while the heartwood is pale to reddish brown. Both are coarse-textured and the grain is fine, usually straight but can be wavy or irregular.
Strong and hard to sand, especially with hand tools.... check.
High Shrinkage... check. (This would explain why there were so many pits around the corners that needed to be sanded a billion times with the drum sander)
White with inconspicuous fine brown lines... check. (This would make it "sapwood", and also explain why to the naked eye it resembles bare Northern Red Oak, which is also nearly white when bare.)
Tendancy to split if you don't pre-bore holes.... check. (There is a hole in the floor of the second bedroom closet that was made after the hardwood was put down. I don't know what was hidden there at one point, but it's empty now. The nails that were affixed to stud cut-outs were just hammered straight in and wouldn't go under the surface with a punch tool. I had to remove all of that and drill some countersunk holes so I could screw 2 1/2" drywall screws into the supports. The wood definitely was split around there, but with a little Titebond everything is good now. I think I'm going to install a safe in the floor and put a hardwood trapdoor over it, and then fit nice carpet in that closet when it's all done).
So, I guess I can't bitch too much about the time/money I'm spending on sanding this to an acceptable finish. It's much higher quality wood than your standard Oak flooring. I'm just hoping that it stains dark after 3 coats. It seems to score pretty low on the stainablity scales.
All I know is that when I decide to finally get the first floor hardwood taken care of, I'm going to leave that to a pro. This is not fun at all.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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Bummer....
Out of the previous two years of applicants and the 150 that were interview the other day, I settle in at 54 on a cropped list of 245 people. They were only currently accepting the first 35 people. :(
54 isn't bad when you consider nearly 1,000 people applied for this position in the last 3 years, but.... in this economy.....
SHIT! If this were late 1900's or early 2,000's they'd have been hiring 75 guys! My timing sucks on everything.
I tested in the low 90%'s. But I interviewed in the low 70%'s. Damn my novice interview skills!
So close, yet, so far away.....
F-It. Whatever... I'm over it.
I could have just called it a day at 10:30AM and started drinking. The thought crossed my mind more than once, but thankfully, "keep on truckin'" prevailed.
Got my floor stained today. It looks AMAZING!
4 days of sanding really paid off. The floors are PERFECT! I can't wait to see what it looks like with 3 coats of poly and a buff job. I bet I'll be able to see what my face would look like with a woodgrain pattern.
The Hickory has SOOOOOO much more character than standard Red Oak. It was a bitch to prepare, but now that the heavy lifting and costs are done, I'm 1000% pleased with the results.
Looking forward to showing you the finished floor pics.
:)
EDITED TO ADD:
Oh yeah, I've read from more than one professional hardwood installer/re-finisher online that staining more than one coat is a no-no, even though Minwax tells you it's possible.
As scared as I was about blotchyness and the prospect of the finish poly coat not adhering correctly if I stained more than one coat, I was still on the fence after reading these testimonials against it from pros.
After one coat, I'm perfectly pleased with how the floor looks, so it doesn't matter.
As a side note, it's also funny that (like every other project I've done so far) the stain process took about 6 times longer than I expected going into it. For a one man OCD crew, a stain job for 2 bedrooms and a hallway is a full day's work, drying time not even considered.
I'm so glad that I love this finish and that I have no intention stain anymore coats before putting the poly down.
F-It....
I'll say one last thing about the union that interviewed me so low.......
It's their mistake for taking 20 or so guys above me just because they were less nervous than I was at the interview. When I need to get a job done, I learn what I need to learn to get it done. Maybe I shouldn't have told them I was working on my paid house. They might have just screwed me over because even with their mighty Union salaries they're underwater like everybody else because they have no "off button" on their spending habits.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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The floors are completely stained now. I'm going to wait 2 days before putting the first coat of poly. However long it takes me to do 3 coats, I'll wait another week before buffing it to a mirror finish, because trying to buff it before it's completely cured could chip it.
I want to post pics how it looks right now so bad, but I'm going to wait until it's complete.
While I was sanding the floors, my step-dad couldn't figure out what was taking me so long or making the job so hard. He was sure it was oak flooring with the previous job done to it. The guys at the rental places couldn't figure out why it was so hard to sand either (Likely because 99% of people restoring hardwood floors with rental equipment have Northern Red Oak flooring). I was SURE that I was doing it right, but something was wrong. It just had to be a different wood.
My step-dad is a furniture restorer by trade.
The second he came by today and saw the floor stained and the patterns of the grain he said "this isn't Oak".
"No Shit", I said....
He believes it's either Hickory or Ash, or a mixture of both. (He can't believe that somebody would make the effort of mixing both together, but he says he sees planks that make him think one way, only to see planks that make him think the other way).
The good news is, it's hardwood floor that almost nobody these days has in their house, and it's quite a bit more costly to install new than the traditional oak flooring. It's also much stronger.
The even better news is that even though poly won't be going down for another 2 days, this is the most beautiful hardwood floor I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. AND IT'S MINE!!!!!!
It has so much character. Every plank is entirely different than it's neighbor. When you've got Oak floors, you have the natural difference that comes from every living organism being slightly different from the next, but the grain patterns on these floors are so strikingly different that the finished product is a piece of art. I can't even do it justice by trying to explain it with words.
Can't wait to post pics!
~6
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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