Welcome to Ohio: My Interview with HONDA

So I somehow scored myself an interview with Honda of America Manufacturing last week - and I'm back in town now to talk about it. I'm lettin' the cat out of the bag. Sorry, Nissan. Don't read any further if you're from Volkswagen, either!! I feel like a traitor, but Honda is the best in the business right now, rocky as it is. So when they come knocking, you don't exactly turn them down. :)

I initially had a phone interview with Honda towards the end of October. Just your typical phone screening. After the 45-minute conversation, I was told I'd be called within 2 weeks to be stated whether I'd make it to the next round of interviewing or not.

It only took 2 days for them to figure out they wanted to call me and move me to the final round of interviewing: flying me to East Liberty, Ohio, to do an on-site interview. I interviewed for the prestigious Engineering Development Program at Honda. It's so tight, and the stakes are advertised as high; every year Honda chooses to hire only 5 people worldwide to get these positions, even though they're budgeted out to hire 10 people. Thus far, I was humbled to be considered worthy of 1 of those 5 slots.

Alas, that's how I spent my election day: interviewing with Honda and walking the plant facility. To be honest, I haven't been that nervous in the longest time; I arrived in Ohio the night before, and just plunked down in my hotel room to get a grip on what I was getting myself into. It was rough, I was a wreck. I would not relive that night even if you paid me to, nor would I hand over the transcripts to the phone calls I had with Mom and Dad that night, in my seeking some consolation. :)

Although I will interject probably the cutest thing Dad has confessed to me in a long time. (Gotta embarrass you on here a little bit, right Bud?) I was on the phone with him and he said, "You know, I gotta say I had my share of Daddy nerves today, wondering about you single-handedly figuring out all of these cities, airports, bus schedules, rental cars, and navigating yourself. But ya did it all on your own, I'm impressed. So now...........just deadbolt your hotel room door, throw the lock three times and put a chair up against it so I know you'll be okay when you go to bed at night, alright?" Aww, hee hee. :)

The day of the interview though, I clicked into soldier mode as I always mysteriously do, and it all went well. Ahem, better than well.

I totally rocked it, just being myself and explaining my work experience. I honestly felt like I had an entirely compelling answer to every question they asked me. Heck there was even a moment where I was explaining one of the projects I worked on at Nissan about fixing a leaking sunroof on a minivan, and one of the Honda associates smiled and said, "I actually just solved that same problem here this past week!!" Match for match, it was pretty unreal how seamless it all was. What to make of it, though??

After the interview, I triumphantly wheeled out of the parking lot in my rental Ford Focus. (Ha ha, I know, ridiculous.) With that, I drove around and went apartment hunting for the hell of it. The rest of the trip went fast....I found the other Honda plant here just 2 miles away from the one I interviewed at, sweet-talked the security guard into letting me in to drive past it and poke around, found the Honda motorcycle plant for Dad, drove around the countryside aimlessly for an hour or so to try to find my way around, and then headed into Columbus to the airport to fly back to WI.

Whew! Of course, that was only just the beginning of my week of traveling and living in an airport..........

Anyway, it's picture time now. :) I wanted to show you all some of the stuff I captured.

About as badass as a wind-up Ford Focus can get: my rental car at night, sporting some fog lights. My weakness. :)


Interior of the rental Focus. The only point of this picture is to point out the blue-light cupholders. What the heck?? Kinda cool. It's an optional feature Ford has to have lit cupholders as well as matching spotlights down by your feet. I only figured it out as I was turning in the rental car that there's a button you can press to CHANGE the color - red, yellow, white, green, purple. I wish I had figured that out earlier - RED all the way! Garh.

Picture for Dad: this what I was telling you about, the first thing you see in the Columbus airport as you come up from the ground level on the escalators. Two Honda motorcycles on a platform waiting for you at the top of the escalators with plaques describing each motorcycle and all that Honda contributes to the Ohio economy. Wow.


Close-up of plaque #1 of 3....I wanted it so you could read it yourself. :)


The plaque for the Honda Goldwing.


The plaque for the Honda Rune - my apologies for the blurriness, I didn't discover it until after I had left.


Where I interviewed: Honda at East Liberty, OH, where they make the Element, Civic, and CR-V.


The big sister plant in Marysville, OH, where the Acura RDX, Accord sedan & coupe, and Acura TL are made. The Honda motorcycle plant is right next door in a little wooded area.

Main Street Marysville: nothing too intimidating, but is it as good as Wisconsin??


Benny's Pizza - apparently the best pizza around, by and far. It was all the locals could talk about. I'll save my taste-test for another trip though.


The next-door neighbor to the apartment complex I stopped in and looked at - NO JOKE! It was crazy, but awesome.


I learned that Marysville is a manufacturing hub - Honda, Honda, Honda, Nestle chocolates, and pictured here, the Scotts fertilizer company I found. (Yes Dad, their grass even beat out Perfect Grass Man's house!)


For Scott: the Verizon Wireless corporate offices I drove past on my way eastbound on hwy. 270 into Columbus.


Probably THE best bus stop EVER. My bus that picked me up here in Chicago O'Hare to take me back to Milwaukee had me waiting right next to valet parking. It was raining that night, so the wet pavement helped disguise my drool. :)

Crazy, crazy, crazy. Pinch me if this is all real! I could have it all. The dream job, the nice living, the employee-discount brand-new Acura MDX. An excellent, excellent education in a master's degree from "The" Ohio State University, something I never even saw coming. Again I repeat, I could have it all.

But it still isn't you!

:)