Last year at this time I was still in school. I was studying furiously for finals and working on my senior design project for my degree. I didn't have a job yet, either. It is so hard to think that all of that was only a year ago.
I was not doing well in one of my classes, to the point that I could have failed. But my God's grace, I was disciplined enough to study well for it and passed the class. I also had a super difficult project for my senior design class. This thing was relentless. It took at least thirty hours a week to work on. And that was in addition to everything else I had to do.
Still so weird to think back and say that was simply last year. I was so stressed about not having a job, yet. Most of my classmates who were graduating with me were getting job offers left and right. And I had gone on several interviews and only gotten "no". This was so discouraging. Especially since I had just recently felt that God actually wanted me pursue a full time career in chemical engineering. And then there was nothing that confirmed that. Such a strange time in my life.
Little did I know, although I had thoughts, that God was working something great. While I was working to secure a job, a job was being secured for me. I was having lunch with a friend in Fazoli's (if you live in college station and have never had their Tuesday/Thursday special, you need to...it just might be an open door to a job) and I got a phone call from the company that I would soon call home. They wanted to give me a phone interview after looking at my resume. I gave them an interview and even a desired salary, which I later found out I probably shouldn't have done, although God didn't hold that against me. The strange thing is that I never gave this company my resume. I know this because I was pretty meticulous about keeping records of who I gave my info to, and they were no where. But this wasn't about to stop me from trying them out.
The next week I called them back and asked if there was any news, there wasn't. It was Thanksgiving week and they wouldn't get back to me until after that week. So I waited, and prayed. Oh, did I pray. The following week I received a phone call from the HR in Houston asking me to come in for a face to face interview. After working I details, we scheduled an interview for the following after, after I finished all my finals.
The Wednesday before graduation I went in to interview and it went well! Int was an amazing interview and so smooth. I had never felt this good after an interview before. (as a side note, I personalized every resume that I handed out, and I took a peek at the resume that they had, and it was personalized for the company. There was no obvious way that they could have gotten it). After that interview, I went. Home and sent out thank you emails to every one, and then I headed back to college station for a night of parties. I was meeting with my senior design team for dinner, my small group for a Christmas party and some friends to hang out. After all that fun, I got back to my apartment around midnight and decided to check my email before I went to bed.
The email read " Serge, thank you for your time this morning. I want to be honest with you and tell you that you impressed everyone that you met with today. We would like to move forward with extending you an offer." My heart dropped to the ground. I was speechless. What could I say. For a whole semester I ran around trying to get interviews and failing so badly, then this opportunity drops into my lap. It had to be God. Thank you, Father.
I accepted the official offer which was made on the morning of my graduation. So in one day I finished 16 years of one occupation and started 40 years of another. And it has almost been a year since that time. Wow.
To tie off a loose end, I went recruiting with my company this year and was talking with the HR lady in charge of college recruiting about how I never really submitted a resume. I found out that at the same time that I was trying to find a job, my company was hurting for new hires. So they actually went online and searched for resumes from chemical engineers at A&M and they found me. God works in the most wondrous ways. His grace is enough
