Thursday, April 27, 2006

First impressions

A while ago I advertised for a student research assistant to work in the lab. I had one application that impressed me, but the guy's hours were not suitable so I had to put him aside. Well I got some funding, and he emailed me the same day I found out that I had the money available, so he got a job for the summer. Well he said he was a first year, with loads of volunteer experience, and an interest in neuroscience because of his dad, etc. and a few other geeky things. I assumed therefore that he was a young, geeky, skinny blonde kid with zits and glasses, who would be keen and enthusiastic. He just showed up in my office to talk about the summer. He is about 6'2, 250 lbs, long hair in a pony tail, raggy old sweatshirt and long shorts, with leather (worn out) flip flops, further to that he is probably in his mid-thirties! LOL I nearly laughed when I saw him because he was so totally not what I was expecting. I am sure he will be great though, he asked the right questions, made the right comments, and obviously has a sense of humor too which is essential in my lab. But the one thing I liked about him most is that he is confident and has a strong sense of work ethic. I hope he works out, I would like to have been able to offer him more, and perhaps at a later date will be able to, but we will see. He obviously wants to succeed too, which is a great thing. Looks like I will have a great productive summer with some excellent students. Meanwhile, the potential grad student is still lurking on the sidelines, might be best to sub him off before the game starts.