I think I’ve seriously overdrawn my luck account now. After a random conversation on the train home one night, I thought, well, maybe I should flip through IAESTE’s job catalogue anyway. So the next day I did, and it turned out that this year there were actually some interesting jobs that I was in fact qualified for. One minor snag was that the deadline for applying was in two hours, so there was nothing for it but to set to work. So I jotted down a quick application form, a list of the subjects I’d taken, and a condensed CV. Luckily, I remembered in the very last second to add programming languages to it, which was very good, but forgot operating systems, word processing systems etc, which would also have been good. But, for some reason, I’ve now been told that I’ll most likely be offered a job at a university in Houston, Texas. The job description involves handling of cryogenic liquids, fiddling with gamma-ray detectors, and, and this is the point, data analysis in IDL or Matlab. IDL is the magic word which I remembered to add at the very last second. Since the job announcement also listed that knowledge of GNU/Linux was an advantage, and I forgot operating systems, my luck account is now quite overdrawn. But at least IAESTE has managed to deport me for the summer. Won’t make me rich, but hopefully won’t bankrupt me either.
Well, of course, it’s not settled yet, I just got the first offer. Now I just have to try to be accepted, and write the second application. See you when my luck bounces. I’m going to Houston this summer.
