Dear Jennifer:
Congratulations! You have been selected to take our tour of Silicon Valley, January 9-13. Please acknowledge this message. If, for any reason, you cannot participate, please let me know asap as there are many students on the waiting list. In any case, please confirm by Friday, 12/16, that you are coming. We will send your resume to the host companies then. Intel, Google, Juniper, Broadcom, Vmware, and Salesforce.com have signed up so far. It will be a full, exciting week!
blah blah blah blah…
Sadly, I applied before I knew that I would be coming back to Pittsburgh early. But here are my rationalizations: these companies typically send out people who don\’t know anything about human computer interaction. Like I was telling my friend if I had gone, I would have to face a conversation such as the following since the tour seems to be very cs-oriented:
Ms. HR: DO YOU PROGRAM?
me: no, i do not. but i–
Ms. HR [interrupting]: WAIT, WHY ARE YOU HERE? AREN\’T YOU FROM CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY? AREN\’T YOU FROM THE SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE!??!?!?!?
me: yes, my background is in human computer interaction, enabling me…
Ms. HR: OH, SO YOU DO ROBOTICS. WE HAVE A PERFECT POSITION FOR YOU.
me: oh, actually I am not in robotics. i am interested in user-centered design–
Ms. HR: WHAT IS A USER?!?!?!
me: …