Space Issues

Last week, I was at 301 College Ave, the Info Sci Building, and was amazed at the conference rooms and the kitchen (free coffee!). So it's natural that I think my major needs a shameless plug for office space. After all, the Bio & Society people share office with Science & Technology Studies, which itself shares the floor with Asian Studies. So we only take up a quarter of the floor. But aside from that, my trip to 301 College got me thinking about interviews (mainly because there was a teleconference setup in the room that I was in) and the lack of space that Cornell has for phone interviews. I mean, have you ever had a phone interview? It's pretty awkward, or at least it they are in my opinion. I've never had one on campus but I've definitely had a few at home where I'm hunched over my resume in a corner of my room, trying to sound smart and professional and hoping that my sibglings won't come bursting in. And even though I tell everyone that I have a phone interview so they know not to come in, they're still stomping up and down the stairs. In fact, I'm pretty sure the interviewers can hear me wincing in pain when that happens.

When you're at Cornell though, you get the luxury of not having ten people yelling things to each other because they're too lazy to go up and down the stairs. One thing you could do to get some quiet space is to kick your roommate out of the room. Which, hopefully, your roommate will understand. Barnes Hall also offers interview spaces for phone interviews - as long as you bring your own phone. So if you have a phone interview coming up, you might want to give Barnes a call (607 - 255 - 5296) to see if you can reserve a space. Barnes, however, doesn't have any landlines so if you need a landline, you might need to see if your on-campus friends are willing to lend you their room for an hour or so. Other than that, maybe a bright neon sign would help in letting others know to be quiet when you're doing a phone interview. (It's convenient, too: Mann has plotters for printing posters...)

(Also, check out the Cornell Career Guide for phone interview tips!)