Where do you see yourself in [number] years?

I recently had a job interview with a company that I applied to. The position was as the R&D Manager for their Materials Science/Chemistry portfolio. Well, to be honest, that's what the advert said but in reality, even they weren't entirely sure of the role, but I guess they were just using that as a base title to flush out applicants.

During the process, things seemed to go well enough, but then, as I expected, they asked the question I hate the most.

"Where do you see yourself in [number, this time 5] years time?"

Really? I think it is one of those age-old questions that interviews feel like they really have to use, since to me, its pretty cliché. Realistically, the only purpose that I feel this question has, is to determine the ambition/motivation levels, but at the same time, I think there are better questions to ask that determine this.

Why do I say this? Almost all interviewees know that this is a question likely to come up, so of course they'll have some gun-ho answer prepared to impress the interviewer of their desired answer, giving them a better chance at the job.

How do I approach this? I answer honestly of course.

5 years ago, I had no idea I would be where I am now. 5 years before that, oh boy, I definitely had no idea how I'd end up where I did. Ask me now, in 5 years where am I going to be, I honestly couldn't tell you. 10 years ago, I was 20, and was in a nice long term stable relationship, finishing my studies. I thought perhaps in 5 years, I could have been married and working. Nope. Bam, relationship changed, now doing a Ph.D. in a totally unrelated field. Nifty. 25, ask me 5 years, well, I really have no idea, and a lot has happened in 5 years since, interstate work, overseas trips, disintegration of old friends. Life is really like that.

I don't know where I'm going to be in 5 years. I have hopes and aspirations, but they certainly aren't career driven. So I told them that. Family matters to me, so, I would rather work a job I enjoyed, that provided for me, and my hopeful future family, but gave me time to be with my family. There is no point in being so high up the ladder that I earn so much money but I can't have the time to either spend it at all, or spend time with my family. No sir, not me.

So, for those out there who chase a high end high powered work career. Bravo, hats off to you, I hope you get the most from your dreams. I'm happy to move along at my pace, living my life the way I would like to. Each to their own. I'd definitely prefer to not have a broken home thanks to long work hours, and the job being more important than my family, so long as we're not bankrupt.

So, the next time another interviewer asks me that question, they'll get that honest answer.

What will they get from you? Will you be honest? Will you land the job, with a false impression that they are after?

Thoughts for Valentines

The other night, I was involved in a discussion in regards to 'what to get for Valentines' with a group of friends. It was brought up by someone asking about what to get for their boyfriend since the actual date of Valentines is just around the corner, a few weeks from now.

I always find it kind of weird when people ask about what to get for their partner since, as their partner, surely it would be more appropriate that you'd know enough about them yourself without resorting to asking for other peoples' help? It would make sense only if you had started to date them, but even then, it would be part of your own task to find out more about them so that you could find something appropriate to give them, lest of course you fall back to traditional things.

What it boils down to for me, being a bit of a romantic as some would say, is that it should come from you, with the emotions you carry and feel for that particular person. The commercialisation of many celebrated events can often ruin their true and original purposes, and so, for something that is meant to be a celebration of love or affection, togetherness with someone, it should not necessarily be something about purchase, or utility (even though I am a person of utility, I do appreciate things with thought behind them), but has a greater impact if you make it much more personal and/or even hand made.

If you have been with someone a while, then it might get challenging as you go along, but, it should be also important to consider that it's okay to not have to produce something different or new each year, but rather to show that you still love, appreciate, and care about them in a way that only you know how. It is also an opportunity to just remind yourself and them of the little things that bind the two of you together, if you have any.

If it's someone new, then, good luck LOL. But, in all honesty, something from the heart, heartfelt with sincerity, should be suffice. Unless of course your partner is very materialistic, then that will depend on you if you wish to follow their desires or not, and should they get upset about you expressing your deeper emotions, then perhaps you may want to reconsider the connectivity you hold between the two of you.

Of course, there are classic fall-backs of flowers, chocolates and so forth. I actually have no idea what you would get a guy since I've never had to give something to a guy, so best of luck to you out there if you do need to :)

Life Unexpected

People be surprising. While it isn't really anything new, and it has been know for a long time by many, it's always interesting to get a reminder now and then, here and there, that people really can be surprising.

I guess it comes down to the idea that if you know someone well to an extent, you like to believe you think you can predict to a certain degree (of course dependant upon how well you know the person) their potential behaviour and so forth. Some people spend a great deal of time and effort to make such analysis part of their routine (I don't) so they can be more comfortable around people in knowing what is likely to be the behaviour of people.

For me, I think due to my slightly selective and at times faulty fuzzy memory, it makes it harder to remember exactly certain nuances of people, and thus I can be quite easily surprised at times when actions occur of people.

This of course encompasses both positive and negative surprises, in the sense that you get the feeling of 'I didn't think they'd do/be that' or 'I can't believe that they would' etc. That said, it is a bit arrogant to think that you could know someone so so well that you will forever be able to determine their every move (I certainly don't), though I'd rather not be left speechless or incoherent from such events.

So, perhaps be a little more flexible in mind and thought, and allow yourself the room to move when people do behave contrastedly differently to what you expect, and you may find yourself handling negative situations better, and enjoying positive situations more.

Fate, Destiny, Free Will, Choices

It's getting late on a Friday night, and I've been up since 5am without much sleep, but yet, in my semi-awake state, I figured I could ramble here since there is such a small audience that it doesn't really matter.

Of late, there has been some discussions between myself and some people, and also internally in regards to life being a mixture of possibilties, with fate, destiny and free-will.

Really at the end of the day, it all still boils down to making a choice.

Fate and destiny are very similar, in that if you believe in this school of thought and philosophy, you prescribe to that your life and everyone elses has a pre-determined outcome and with different variants of the school, either it is planned out every period of time, or with significant events in between.

If you prescribe to free-will, then you tend to fall more into that, you are ultimately in control of your life and the future is unknown since the path has not yet been walked.

But, if you back up on both of them to a certain point, you still always have a choice. Everything we do on a daily basis, is always about choice. Choice to stay in bed and sleep in, to get out of bed, breakfast or no breakfast? So forth and so on. But whatever you like to do in terms of taking comfort when things go unexpectedly (good or bad, doesn't really matter) is what makes the difference.

So as a mechanism, if you are a fatalist, then an event can be viewed of the opinion that "it was meant to be", while a determinist would say "it was because of my choices". But, of course getting philosophical here, "it was meant to be" still comes from you making choices to that event, of course your choices may have been pre-determined for you, but you still made those *choices*.

On the flip side of course is that being a consequence of your choices, it is hard to debate that they were really *your* choices, and not choices made already for you, that you decided upon.

So, really at the end of the day, it comes to attitude differences. Will you take responsibility for your actions? Or rather, place focus upon forces beyond your control?

For me, I have a mix of both. There may be some grand plan, but I still make my choices as I see fit, since I try to not live with regret. So, take those leaps and risks at times, and flourish in those choices made. The outcomes good or bad are part of life experiences, and in the future when faced with similar choices, at least either you've learnt the consequences because you caused them, or you don't get a choice about the choices you made so you should just face them head on and take them strongly as they come.

Living is a risk. Life can lead to more life or death, and in many cases, both. Burn bright with what you can do, live to the full as best you can without burning others too badly perhaps, and don't worry about if it's meant to be or not, just do as you see fit being who you are, after all, no-one else can really be you, except you.

/ramble.

Uncertainty

Recently, I was having some discussion in regards to uncertainty in life. This is what I think and have to say about it.

There is no need to be uncertain about life. The universe is in a state of entropy, a chaos, but at the same time, within chaos, there is ordered chaos. If chaos has order, then uncertainty is never truly uncertain.

Uncertainty is typically founded in the problem of lack of confidence and decisiveness, and they are the points to address.

But, if you look at what we do in this world, everything is working towards finding the absolute truth and leaving uncertainty behind. Science, engineering, medicine, all work to understand the world, to model and explain, th provide answers and knowledge. On the personal level however, the only uncertainty to have is if you regret what you may do. Then regret becomes what needs to be addressed.

So, live your life without regret, and there shall be no uncertainty to be had.

I try to live my life without regret. It isn't that hard to be honest. Decide, stick to the decision, act upon the decision, and see where and what it may take you to. Enjoy what comes, learn from what fails, embrace the moments of colour in your life, be they happy or sad. This is character building.

Be certain to not be uncertain.

Juice and Juicing

I have been working of late, and learning much about the juice and juicing industry.

It is quite staggering to know exactly what goes into making the drinking product from fruit, and I think if we could somehow cut the juice industry's production methods down a notch (part of my job), we would provide some excellent benefits in both cost, and environmental impact.

Further more, I think I'm learning more about juices than I ever wanted to know LOL...
Like, how it takes 4hrs to press 4 tons of apples in a Bucher press with an efficiency of 75% yield w/w... ie, they only recover 3 tons of juice product from the press... but when you consider that an apple has actually ~90%+ liquids.... it's about 15%+ liquids/juice in the apple press cake going to waste..... unless they use a LOT of water to rinse it and re-press the press cake (which some companies do, some don't)..... It all adds up to figures quoted that each litre of juice takes anywhere from 10-1000L of water to produce (inclusive of machinery washdown/cleaning also). Staggering figures to think about.

A widespread issue amongst the populace

Of late, I have been talking to different people about a certain issue that is prevalent in society today. I don't really know how it must have all started, but, where it has gone now is to generate entire generations of people afflicted by it.

What am I talking about? The issue of self-esteem and confidence.

These days, a lot of people lack it greatly, and it makes it difficult in life and in society for both the people who have this terrible condition, and those that have to interact with them. Why?

Those who have it feel powerless and helpless, unable to achieve their goals and dreams, tasks ahead of them and so forth, while those who interact with them at different levels are often being influenced by the negative atmosphere or "aura" that they may carry with them, and it may affect their different relationships, be it work where a boss can not motivate their worker to successfully complete a task at hand, a friend who is in need of help or a partner that needs some support from them.

It is also a highly studied area.
In Science Direct (a database of published articles from various publications/books), if one does a search for "self esteem" you get 40 907 articles appearing. Using "confidence" gets 553 151 articles but this is misleading since confidence is also a statistical term. "Confidence self esteem" together however still gets 12 437 articles. "confidence personality" brings up 37 668 articles.

What does this actually mean? It means that it is a very big problem. Putting this into perspective, a similar search with "spray drying", my particular field of research lately, only brings up 23 000 odd results, i.e. nearly half the number of articles compared with the number published on self esteem.

Why is this so? How has society turned this way? Why do people fall down the slippery slope, and what can be done to help them back out of the holes of life that take them down those dark places?

Something to think about.