Aaron Update (aka our future)

I've been putting off writing this post for awhile, and the longer I put it off, the more there is that needs to be included in it. At one point, I fantasized that Aaron would do it, but he's too busy as it is, so I think writing a blog post just isn't going to make it on his top-ten-things-to-do-with-his-free-time list.

As many of you know, at one point we thought Aaron might be able to graduate in December. Then Adelia came and all the challenges and time constraints that go along with having a new baby, and well, it's not going to happen. However, Aaron will be done with all of his course work in December. So this upcoming January-April semester he will finish his thesis and then graduate in April with his Masters degree.

At the beginning of October Aaron attended several career fairs put on by BYU. At these career fairs he met potential employers and started handing out his resume. Several recruiters invited Aaron to come and do behavioral interviews with them on campus.

Lockheed Martin- in California
Lincoln Laboratories- in Boston
Raytheon- in Tuscon, Indiana, and Texas

All three of those interviews went well, and the companies all said they'd pass on his resume. Cool. Of the three, Aaron liked the Raytheon job the best. He said it was a little bit of research and new stuff, but not an overwhelming amount. He liked Lincoln Labs second best, but was a little intimidated by the job because he wasn't sure if he was qualified or not. And the Lockheed Martin job he wasn't super interested in, because they were going to have him doing testing, which would be ok, but not exactly what he wants. So, then we just play the waiting game to see if anyone wants him to do a follow up interview.

During all this, Aaron had started talking to a guy in his office named Britton, who was back at BYU getting his doctorate degree and working for a company in Spanish Fork called imSAR. SAR stands for synthetic aperture radar. A synthetic aperture is a small antenna that uses radar to take lots of pictures and put them together to create an image that's just as good or better than if you'd used a large antenna. imSAR invented a SAR that is 10 times smaller and cheaper to make than the next smallest/cheapest SAR. An example of something you can do with a SAR... you could take a picture of New York at night in the middle of a snow storm.  imSAR does a lot of contracting with the government. Anyways, the conversation resulted in Britton telling Aaron that he should send in a resume to imSAR. So Aaron did.

A day or so later, someone from imSAR got in touch with Aaron and said they'd like to interview him for an internship position. He could do the internship this coming semester while he finished up his thesis. The internship would be an opportunity for the company and Aaron to try each other out and see if they mesh well together, and if so, there would be the possibility of an offer of a full time position once Aaron graduates.

Aaron went down to Spanish Fork and interviewed with the owner of the company and the vice president of the company. Aaron said he really liked what he saw, and said it seemed like a place he would really enjoy working. A few days after the interview, they offered him an internship position which Aaron accepted. He will be interning about 15-20 hours a week during this next semester and working on his thesis 35-40 hours a week. That means Aaron is going to be super busy. It also means that we will no longer be doing the apartment manager job.

A week or so ago, someone from Raytheon in Tuscon called Aaron and asked him to please go online and put in for a specific job, and then she would do her best to get him out for an on-site interview with them. Aaron did that, but we haven't heard anything from them so far.

A little after that, Lockheed Martin got in touch with Aaron to ask if they could do a phone interview with him. Aaron said sure, and found out during the phone interview that they were interviewing him for a different position than he thought, this one located in Phoenix. The position would be working with a group of people with masters and doctorate degrees, working on proof of concepts, which means a customer would come up with an idea and wonder if it was possible. Aaron's team would then take the idea, and do the research to decide if it was possible or not. Aaron liked that idea because he would be working with a lot of new ideas.

They liked Aaron on the phone interview enough to fly him out to Phoenix for an on-site interview. He flew out Monday night and interviewed Tuesday and then flew home Tuesday night. Aaron said he felt like they would offer him the full time job. At this point we have no idea if we will take the job if they offer it.

As things stand right now, the only for sure things we know are that Aaron will do an internship with imSAR while he finishes his thesis. We will not be moving anywhere until April. Other than that, our future is WIDE open. I really don't like the idea of moving to Arizona. It was not my most favorite place that we've ever lived (understatement of the century). But we would be close to Aaron's sister Stacey which would be fun. And while Spanish Fork doesn't sound exciting or exotic in any way, shape, or form, it's a small town (and I am a small town girl over a big city ANY day of the week), and it's close to family, and housing is way cheaper there, than say, Boston. We'd also still be close enough to BYU that I could attend night classes and maybe even finish my degree, without having to transfer any credits anywhere.

But we'll see what happens. April is a long way off, and at this point, pretty much anything is possible.