WWYD - related to my interview

[Deleted]

The VP emailed me last night to tell me I was a finalist and I have 2 projects to do before September 21st.
I am going on a vacation on Thursday. This is my 1st vacation in 3 years and I haven't seen my family in 3 years also so this is bad timing.

It is extremely stressful because I have to figure out the logistics since I will be away from home. 1st project is to turn a huge technical document into a small PPT presentation. I don't have PowerPoint on my laptop. I would need to buy the extension for Office 2010 and it's $110. If I ever need PPT for this job, I'll make them buy Office 2010 for my home computer. I am not spending $110 for Powerpoint right now.
I have Office pro 2003 with Powerpoint in storage but I don't know if it will work smoothly on a laptop running on Windows 7. Any idea where I can get a free Powerpoint software??

Also, next Monday throught Saturday 22nd I am spending 5 days with my grandma. She is 83 years old and has no internet. She lives in a town of 3,000 so I don't know if there is a free Wi-Fi spot somewhere. My grandma doesn't even know what Wi-Fi is lol! My 89 years old great aunt has a friend (90 years old) who has internet so that might be a solution. In any case, to be safe and enjoy my vacation, I need to do the 2 projects before Monday at my dad's place where there is internet.

To sum it up, I land on Friday + jet lag (7 hours) + family and friends visiting + me trying to finish those 2 projects before Monday = major anxiety for me right now +o( I could only sleep for 1 hour last night.

I feel like I have to suck it up since it is part of the hiring process, right? Should I say something to the VP?

[Deleted]

Sept 11, 2012 10:47:26 GMT -5 mintchocochip said:

Is there any way you can work on it these two days on a friend's or a library computer and just turn it in before you go? Or a friend might have an extra license for PPT for you to install?

One of my friend says she has PPT. I want to make sure it's the full PPT and not just the viewer. I will also start working on those projects on the plane. I have 7 hours so it might help. No internet though to help me do some research.

[jade28]

I would definitely complete the projects before you leave for vacation. They can't honestly expect you to spend that much time and energy on it so don't stress yourself out.

Borrow a friend's laptop who has PPT or go to a local library/college campus/etc and use the computers there. I would not try and do this though while you are on vacay.

[naeljun]

Do you think you can get them done in 2 days?

[bullygirl979]

Get done what you can before you go and then finish it up regardless.

I would NOT say anything to the VP.

Sorry but it sounds like you got to suck it up and do what you need to do!

[Deleted]

There is no way I can get them done before Thursday. Too much to do at work and at home.

MCC, it is in the Ag field! And it is IT and software heavy (core of their business). I'll ask my friend though because his job is to work on those softwares.

[stephbfan]

I dont think you will have any problems working with a 2003 Office running a laptop with Windows 7. I would say that you might have a problem if you had a newer version of Office and an old Windows one.

If you already know that is something that will take a while to complete and you wont be able to finish it before you leave, then do as much research as you can here. Gather as much information as you can and then try to do the slides during your trip.

[udscoobychick]

You'll probably be ok with Office 2003 so long as you don't have a newer version of Office installed on your computer. Another alternative is OpenOffice--it's a free suite of programs that mimics Microsoft Office and plays nicely with Office. I've never used it, but I've heard good things about it.

[Deleted]

Sept 11, 2012 11:28:49 GMT -5 udscoobychick said:

You'll probably be ok with Office 2003 so long as you don't have a newer version of Office installed on your computer. Another alternative is OpenOffice--it's a free suite of programs that mimics Microsoft Office and plays nicely with Office. I've never used it, but I've heard good things about it.

That's my issue, I have the limited version of Office 2010 on my laptop but I have Office 2003 pro on a CD-rom and on a desktop PC but both are in storage. I found a free trial version of PPT and I might just install that.

[Muddled]

Try the free version to start or an open version and then go to Kinko's to make sure everything looks kosher before turning it in.