Cold Calling for Study Recruitment

02/03/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

I’ve moved around too many times, and as a result of that, I’ve worked for many temporary employment agencies. Some of the jobs are fun, some of the jobs are boring, and some of them just downright sucked. Cold calling is something that is just no fun to do. People on the other end of the phone don’t like it, employees aren’t very eager to do it, and it rarely yields any results.

I was working for a cosmetics company that were in the process of recruiting individuals to come for a clinical study for hair, skin, or other cosmetic products. If we didn’t fill our recruitment allotment, we had to start making cold calls. There was a database of people they recruited from, but we always inevitably ended up cold calling random people. I also got to ask survey questions to people in person to make sure they were eligible for the case study. This was a lot more fun than cold calling, but still asked some very personal questions to people that made them uncomfortable.

Some of the other temporary jobs I did were: washing walls in a glass factory, building cabinetry, setting up chairs, managing department of economic security office organization, small engine repair, document scanning, and food delivery.

Skills

Carpentry and Construction Work

02/03/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

I’ve been doing carpentry projects since I was a kid. I’ve put together countless balsa wood model airplanes, built birdhouses, cabinets, tables, chairs, construction framing, sheathing, and flooring.

Most recently I started a business with my friend, Sunstate Specialties in Phoenix, AZ. We did some sub contracting for United Renovations, and also spent time doing private Ikea cabinet installs. It’s hard to compete in that business in Arizona due to incredibly cheap labor costs, but we made a good run at it. We built and installed lots of kitchen overhead cabinets, vanities, and base cabinets.

After I completed a summer job working in Zzyzx, CA studying the Mohave Tui Chub, I moved in with a friend of mine in Pahrump, NV. During that time, we started construction on an 80×100′ steel building. It took 6 months to get that erected from the ground up, but afterwards we started building a two story lumber framed house inside of it. All construction was done by my friend and myself with some interspersed additional help from people. Very rewarding experience and I learned a lot about construction doing this job.

Building steel frame for Snowflake project

I also built higher end cabinets while I was attending college as a summer job. I was in charge of doing all of the initial cutting on a table saw. I also built drawers, shelves, mailboxes, etc.

A recent personal project, was hand designing and building a stand that could hold my racing wheel setup. It went from a blank piece of paper to a completed project in one day. It’s fully adjustable to fit any type of chair. It’s a prototype that I plan on refining in the future.

All in all, I’m quite a capable carpenter and enjoy working with wood.

Skills

All Terrain Vehicle Operation

02/03/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

I have spent countless jarring hours riding on top of an all terrain vehicle (ATV) while doing survey work for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). I’ve taken all of the safety courses offered during my employment there and have never had any safety issue while using ATVs in the field. I’ve gotten them stuck a few times, but with the larger style Ranger ATVs, they get stuck in mud quite easily due to their weight.

ATV use with my camera in the orange pelican case and a tape ran along native prairie to conduct a belt transect survey

To get the ATV into the field, I’ve used trailers that can hold up to 4 ATVs. I’m familiar with all tie down procedures and safe trailering operations. For the times when I was doing survey work alone, I used ramps to park the ATV in the back of the truck bed. I’ve taken ATVs into very remote areas on the back of a pickup truck and am quite experienced in off highway vehicle travel (OHV) and 4-wheeling.

I have experience operating manual clutch ATVs, automatic ATVs, 6-wheeled ATVs, and multi-passenger ATVs. I’ve ridden in all environmental conditions and over a vast array of land types.

Skills

Troubleshooting Hardware and Software Issues

02/02/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

Troubleshooting computer systems can be frustrating and challenging at the same time. Usually to fix something it’s just a setting hidden deeply within menus. Trial and error is commonly employed. It’s usually pretty hard to mess something up beyond fixing.

I started building computers when I was in junior high school. I helped many people build computers throughout my life, and continue to do so. I’ve built for companies, family, and friends.

Most places I’ve worked have a very swamped information technology (IT) staff, and I’m usually called upon first to see if I can solve problems. I’ve dealt a lot with printer issues, network issues, software issues, you name it.

I’m quite technically savvy when it comes to learning complex machines and systems and the hardware that runs it. I haven’t spent a lot of time doing anything at the electrical component level though. It’s a area that is continuing to peek my interest. I’m currently working on HAM radio stuff, and plan on taking the license test here soon. This project is allowing me to learn a little more electrical theory.

Skills

Microsoft Access Excel Powerpoint and Word

02/02/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

By now, if people do not know how to operate these Microsoft products, they are probably not being employed. I learned how to use these throughout my entire career as a student. Even if using the free-source software, they all operate the same way. It’s even silly to have to mention that I’m proficient in these tools, as most of the younger workforce should be.

Skills

Document Scanning for Xerox at BIA Bismarck ND

02/02/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

One of the previous jobs I had was scanning documents for the Bureau of Indian Affairs contracted through Xerox and Spherion Temporary Staffing. This took place at a field office in Bismarck, ND to prepare the office to close permanently. They wanted all the records recorded so in case the documents were destroyed, old probate cases and land deeds and things were saved.

I only mention this job because I was in charge of pretty much everything. The other staff employed there were not technically savvy so I setup a lot of user guides and computer systems to make sure everything ran smoothly.

We were falling behind schedule because we couldn’t get skilled labor to run the computers and do data entry, so they sent in another computer system and scanner that I setup by myself.

In the end we got all the documents scanned and burned onto CD and also uploaded to remote hard drives. It was a short job, but demonstrated my ability to work on a deadline, setup complex IT systems, and manage people.

Skills

Standard Operating Procedures SOP

02/02/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

While employed with Caris Lifesciences I rewrote many standard operating procedures (SOP). For many of them I had to start from scratch so that they were legible. A lot of the time text was just copied from the instructional manual that came with instruments. I changed a lot of that and wish I could share them with you.

We were lacking many SOPs for processes, and I created many to fill that void. All of them went through a review process, and all the ones I wrote were widely accepted. Also, I implemented photos into the SOPs so they were much easier to read. The images really help break up the text, and as everyone knows, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Skills

Poster Presentations

02/02/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

I’ve done many poster presentations as part of student academic conferences and to display research that I’ve done. I really enjoy going to conferences, but being outside any research, it’s difficult to afford them these days.

Many of the presentations below were for the student academic conference which occurs at the end of a semester for students to show off the research work they participated in during the year. These were great places to talk about under-explored areas of sciences. Some were dead ends, while others were quite fascinating.

Please check out some of the posters I’ve made below. Some are in power point format, but the slides from the power point presentation were printed on a poster as talking points.

Plant Physiology Poster Presentation SAC

Capstone Project PPT to Poster Presentation

DNA Light Spectophotometry SAC

Integrated Energy Production PPT to Poster Presentation

Skills

Photographic Guide to Fishes of the Red River Basin

02/02/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

While I was attending Minnesota State University: Moorhead (MSUM), one of my summer projects was seining fish with Linda Fuselier. We spent many hours in the field gathering specimens and identifying them. It was a great experience and the guide may still be available for sale at the Buffalo River Science Center just east of Moorhead, MN.

Here is the culmination of that work: Fish Field Guide

Skills

Ventana Symphony Hematoxylin and Eosin Automated Stainer

02/01/2016 Eric Hanson Leave a comment

When this instrument came into the lab, I was sent to the Tucson location of Ventana Medical Systems for training on this instrument. It’s a completely modular system that is easy to fix by simply replacing the system that is broken. Just like the Benchmark XT, these machines pretty much ran non-stop during the operating hours in the lab. Many people fault this machine because it does break down because of the complicated transportation system it employs, but it’s easily fixed by a Ventana representative by simply replacing modules.

Learning Through Life