Is Volvo in my future?

So I applied for Volvo's Graduate Programme (note British spelling) back in December. The website I link to here doesn't tell too much, but it gives you the basic idea. I applied within the area of Human Resources, as my background lends me to that field the most within Volvo.

I had an interview this past Thursday, and I think it went really well. I walked out with a great feeling, and mainly due to the interviewer! I can only take that as a good sign. This first round of interviews was carried out by a staffing agency, probably because Volvo is far too busy to interview 400 people all at once. The interviewer, a woman named Susanne, told me that I should be quite happy to even be sitting in that seat because out of the probably thousands who applied, they pick 400 for the first round of interviewers. Yippee for me! The next round will be 200 interviewed at Volvo, and then the final cut is just 54 who get to participate in the program. Within that 54 there are only 3 positions available for Human Resources. I am not going to hold any hopes up and be super disappointed if I don't get in, but I'll try my best!

For those of you who don't know me so well, I majored in Philosophy in college, and minored in English and Sociology. I have a background, however, that I think lends greatly to being able to work within HR. Besides, this whole program is so that Volvo can train its "Graduates" about the company and rotate within different areas/jobs, so I think I have a fair shot. Susanne told me that I was there because they think I have such an interesting background (keeping fingers crossed).

What's also great about this program? Volvo's official company language is English, so I think I'd fit right in ;-) However, my Swedish is just fine to be able to interact with Swedes on their own basis if needed.

On a side note, and possibly one sounding silly to many, it was somewhat fun to travel by train all by myself on Thursday! The interview was in Gothenburg, actually the company was inside the train station so that wasn't too tricky. It was just kind of fun to be out and about alone on the trains (no poking fun, people! This was my third time ever riding trains in Sweden, for those of you who take public transport all the time). Also as an American from the Midwest, we're not too big on public transport anyway, so even though I've lived in Sweden for well over a year now, I still get a kick out of the awesome (to me) public transport. I think most of all I enjoyed the different scenery.

In other news, J and I have one month under our belts to start wrapping this apartment up. We begin our move to Gothenburg in just a month's time! I can feel the winds of change. So not only will I be hoping for Volvo, but I'll be applying to other jobs as well, any that I feel capable of.

Last but not least, I made my debut appearance in a Swedish newspaper last week! An SLA (Skaraborgs Allehanda) news guy managed to corner me in the city library this past Monday and asked me in rapid Swedish if I would answer a survey question, and so I obliged. They even posted a terrible picture of me they snapped after I answered their question. I'd appeared several times in my in Ohio newspapers over the years, but now I've had my first appearance in a Swedish one as well! I didn't know if they actually WOULD put in the paper, but sure enough the next day I received several texts/SMSes from friends and people in school saying "I saw you in the paper!" Naturally, I went out and bought a copy for myself to see the damage. Not a great picture at all, but what can you do.