Amusing Story

Quick shout out before I get started - Thanks to Paulyterp for the shirt I am currently wearing. Yes son, I am Huge in Japan.

Ok, so today I went in for an interview with a software company.

I go in and meet a few people, do the normal chit chat and bs routine where you make them feel like you're really excited and then they get excited and all that. Then they spring this surprise skills challenge on me. Now, I'm smart and I have a CS degree but I also haven't programmed in about a year (thanks a lot Raytheon Solipsys) so I'm a little taken aback. I start working through it, trying to remember syntax, looking some stuff up online when I run into a total memory block and proceeding ok. I'm not tearing this thing up, but I'm managing ok.

This is a small company of about 15 people, so in comes the two co-presidents of the company to give me a little talk in a conference room they have across the hall. I walk over with them and I look at my watch. I came in for this interview at 10 and I thought it would be real quick so I had a phone interview setup for 11. It's now 10:52. So I tell them, at 11 I have a call that I have to take and couldn't reschedule but I'll pick up and tell them I'm in the middle of something and have them call at another time. They are ok with it and they begin asking me a few questions. I give the casual responses and things are going pretty well. Then 11 o'clock comes and my phone rings. I tell them I'll be right back, leave the room and answer the phone.

"Hi, is this John? This is Ron and I've got Ryan and Chirag here with me, you're on speaker phone."

At this point I realize that I'm going to have to do this interview. So I proceed to have a 15 minute interview in the room across the hall while the co-presidents of the company I am applying for sit and wait for me.

Wow right? Yeah.

So everything goes well with the phone interview and it sounds really exciting. So I'm pumped about that job. (Yes, I know you think I'm a dick)

Once I wrap that up I go back across the hall and they are gone. At that point I'm thinking, "Crap, maybe I should just bail, I'm not doing very good anyway." I decide to hold on see if someone comes back. No one comes back for a couple of minutes. So I looked around the shelves and they have Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the E-Myth and some other interesting looking books. I grabbed one and started reading it. More time passes.

Finally after about 15 minutes (I guess it's only fair) a person stumbles back over and realizes that I'm just sitting in there waiting for them. So they come back over and apparently they had a lunch thing to go to so they are going to head out. At this point I figure it's time to cut and run. I chat a little bit about the books they have with them and then they head out but they say to talk to the lady I talked to when I arrived.

So she comes back and we talk some and I tell her I have to leave and can't finish the program. She's like, are you sure? So I say, "Yes, yes I am". Then I leveled with her and said that she's probably looking for someone who they can hire and can hit the ground running and I'm just not in a position to do that (thanks again Raytheon Solipsys - woohoo!). She wishes me luck and I head out.

At least one interview went well.