
Picked up the new bumper from a UPS semi in a vacant parking lot in Manchester since he couldn't get the truck to my apartment. Got a flat tire in the process by running over a piece of flashing and a screw. Live and learn I suppose.
I had an interview with an automotive company in South Carolina a little over a year ago. It was the worst interview of my life (it was six hours long and done in stages with horrible unsolvable interpersonal challenges, unless you are reading this and you are from said car company and you remember me from before, and you would like to hire me now, in which case the interview(s) was/were actually FANTASTIC, and I am just trying to illustrate a point now, in my blog). Despite my generally poor experience, they did ask me a very interesting question during the "standard" part of the interview that I have thought about extensively since then.

The usual interview question would have gone something like, "What are some of your weaknesses?" which is my least favorite question to answer in an interview but one that I am prepared to (hopefully) schmooze my way out of. It's an open-ended, fairly useless HR question and requires an answer that is just as meaningful as the question. Any way, the interviewers had a different take on the standard question, which was "What was your biggest failure?" I gave an answer so bad that I could easily answer it now with "The last time someone asked me that question."

In retrospect I have determined the correct answer to this question, which is that there ARE NO FAILURES. As long as I learn from my mistakes, which, if this blog is any evidence, I do all the time. Recent failures I've learned from (I am not making any of these up) include using a propane torch on a wooden deck to solder an antenna together, making sure to unplug the dryer before fiddling with its wiring (yes, I am an electrical engineer, but I don't remember them teaching us any common sense), using the mast from my windsurfer to take a satellite dish off the roof of a house, and getting stuck on the New Jersey turnpike while being a Southerner who isn't used to having to pay tolls or the smell of Newark.

Even normal, run-of-the-mill failures are easy to learn from. I failed three exams (out of five) (in a row) in a class called ECE 427: Communications Systems, one of the hardest classes on the face of the planet and ALSO in a particular area of electrical engineering which I am neither A) good at or B) interested in even a little bit. I still made a C (almost a B actually) in the class because I learned how to... not fail the exams.
I think if this question is asked in the future I could always start off with a half-true joke: "Oh, you mean besides with women?" [Cue awkward laughter in interview room from people who are pretty much strangers...] Perhaps, maybe, that's not the right way to approach the question.

Long story short: Even though I seem to have come to very cheesy conclusion about life, it is still a good lesson to learn. There are no failures! Maybe a famous person said something more quaint about it. And now, as a bonus, my truck is more manly, awesome, and less prone to failure while on the trail. Maybe I'll even get to use the winch to help people get out of snow drifts this winter!
Also here is a CAKE song as a reward for reading this whole thing. It's one of my favorite songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nm67zBHoqk
word bryan! This is a very nice beginning to end, result blog that you have, here. It was fun helping out with the project, even when I didn't even know what (and probably still do not completely recall) all the truck parts are called.
ReplyDeleteAnyways,
It'd be legit to go out on some trails with your truck...as long as we don't have to entertain a whole apartment complex of kiddos at the same time lol...
also--it'd be worth makin' a trip to see about my ole four-wheeler's state, imo.
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