Next Stop - City Hall ?

September 20, 2005 - It looks like my days as an "Intern" are officially over.

A couple of weeks ago, I applied for a Policy Advisor position with the Urban Affairs and Stakeholders Branch at our Ministry. I had a feeling that my cover letter and resume were pretty good so when I got a call for an interview, I was not completely surprised. After getting some tips from my friend Kanchan at work, I started preparing for the interview and was all ready to land that Econ 3 job.

The interview went fairly well I guess. I was nervous naturally but I think I did a good job in telling them that I have the skills to do the job. However though, I felt I didn't do a good enough job in selling my interpersonal skills, which I thought hurt me. The interview was just with the manager and a HR person, which was surprising given that I was expecting a bigger panel.

The written exercise was fun - it was on preparing an issues note for the ADM on Toronto issues. The same question was asked during the Q&A and I was happy to learn that I've covered most if not all the TO urban issues in my answer. So overall, I would grade myself a B. Not perfect but not bad either.

A few days afterwards, I learned that the manager called Kanchan for a reference. Shortly after that, the manager called me and ask for a reference from my manager. I was hesitant at first (since I didn't want anyone to know I'm planning to quit), but after talking to my mentor/teamlead, who offered to give me a good reference, I went ahead and called the manager back.

The next day, I found out I got the job ! I took some time to think about it and figured it's probably the best move. The position sounds interesting - I'll be working on mainly Toronto and Ottawa related issues, including going to Council meetings and informing the ADMO on recent TO/OTT events. It definitely beats sitting around being bored at where I am...

So it looks like I'll be leaving Housing and heading over to City Hall !!