Tucson, AZ

Do you remember as a kid wondering where they got the logo for Taco Time? That big cactus with arms? I couldn't figure out if cactus like that even existed, since the only cactus I really was familiar with were prickly pear, which looked nothing like that. Well, Tucson is full of them and they are quite large. The Saguaro cactus dot the landscape (zeroscape), interspersed with desert trees, smaller cactus, hearty bushes, and lot of quail.

The Westin La Paloma hotel where I stayed. They do have mountains in Arizona!

I spent two and a half days in Tucson interviewing with the Raytheon Missile Systems group. They are the division of Raytheon that makes all types of missiles from hand-launched rockets to large missiles launched from ship decks into space. For instance, one of their SM-3 missiles impacted the falling US spy satellite this past February and successfully destroyed it before it re-entered earth's atmosphere.
The visit was very enjoyable and we were given a plant tour. After the tour we had an evening social, where we had the chance to meet and talk with some of the people we'd be interviewing with the next morning. They also fed us a nice dinner and had a speaker who hyped up Raytheon's mission and how it was their goal to bring home our troops safely and quickly, which was really cool considering some of them use Raytheon's products on a daily basis.
Friday morning we interviewed. They had group panel interviews, but the interviews were surprisingly casual and informative. They obviously wanted us to have the chance to ask as many questions of them as they did of us. I had two separate interviews, one to be a member of the Quality Engineering organization, the other to be more involved in the Manufacturing Engineering side of things. Every employee we talked to was very happy about Raytheon as an employer and were mostly positive about Tucson too. I suppose the biggest negative about Tucson is the weather in June and July, though many people really enjoy the monsoon season that comes in August.
I hope to hear back from Raytheon sometime this week. They implied they were going to let us all know if we were going to get an offer by Monday, but that has come and gone, so I hope something will be coming soon. I felt good about the interviews and was complimented more than once on how well my qualifications lined up with what they were looking for. Now, I just hope that aligns with their job expectations and is something they want to pursue!