Uncertainty Principle

So, interview this morning. Frankly I have very little idea how I did, probably because I'm not at all clear on what they're looking for; at least, not from someone like me.

Certainly, there was no avoiding my being an oddball candidate with glaring gaps in academic background compared to what they'd normally require. Nevertheless, I think I managed to muddle through most of it okay, apart from two awkard stumbles: an episode of rather pathetic handwaving about factorization and a profoundly wrong attempt to explain a result from difference equation models of disease prevalence. Although the latter passed without comment at the time, working back through it mentally on the walk home I was mortified at how thoroughly I'd managed to misrepresent the whole thing. Both of these fuckups were prompted by the mathematician on the panel, who obviously saw right through me. If I don't get in, that will be why; perhaps rightly so.

Anyway, I should find out next week. I'll try not to spend the whole weekend thinking about Plan B.
Posted by matt at June 23, 2006 01:18 PM