survived the interview, barely

[jaeclectic]

I remain cautiously pessimistic. I am trying very hard not to be recklessly pessimistic, since negativity can so easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But I wouldn't wager a large sum of money, either.

Interestingly, it appears that the specific position that I interviewed for is new and/or they don't have many people doing it (maybe only one). One result is that I didn't get to talk to anyone who actually does this job -- everyone I spoke to was a Java developer instead. So even though the job description doesn't say Java on it anywhere, I got lots of Java questions. Cause the job title has "developer" in it, I guess. And even though the job description requires "expert" HTML, I got not a single HTML or CSS question. So much for trying to prepare. I mean, I did review some Java code, but only in between a lot of other stuff...

The first couple of people, I felt like I kind of limped through, but not so badly as to be embarrassing. I mean, considering I wasn't expecting to have to talk about how to implement a queue given a stack API, and the efficiency of the algorithm... at least I didn't freeze, or burst into tears. (And BTW, thank goodness I audited Marti's concepts of ubergeekdom class, otherwise the algorithm efficiency stuff really would have panicked me.)

The third person I felt like I kind of clicked with, I wish I could have stopped there. He seemed to actually have read the job description and have the idea (gasp!) that someone with such skills would be useful in the projects he's interested in. So that was actually fun at moments.

The last person started off great, because he had actually looked at BreakingStory and liked it. But then he asked me a series of technical questions, some Java, some SQL, and I just flubbed the lot. All stuff I can do, but not a closed book test, sorry.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, the person who had done the phone screen took me to lunch, so at least I can confirm that the free lunch rocks.

Well, so. Watch for an update later in the week, probably not before Friday.