{"id":546,"date":"2008-06-06T09:46:16","date_gmt":"2008-06-05T23:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/?p=546"},"modified":"2011-03-28T21:49:57","modified_gmt":"2011-03-28T11:49:57","slug":"the-coward-gets-interviewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/2008\/06\/06\/the-coward-gets-interviewed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coward Gets Interviewed…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not Tales From The Interview<\/a> quality, but here is one of my job interview stories…<\/p>\n

\n

I had just finished my post-grad studies in Queensland, was looking for a job and an old colleague had got me an interview where he now worked.<\/p>\n

First, there was a technical interview. The Tech Lead explained that he had just been asked to talk to me, but didn’t have any particular questions planned. Uh oh. <\/p>\n

So, he decided to chat about what he knew best – the architecture for the system they were building. Ugh, how can I demonstrate my skills when he is doing most of the talking?<\/p>\n

He explained that they had a working first version, and now they “just needed to add security”. Ugh; introducing security functionality to an existing system isn’t exactly a fun exercise.<\/p>\n

He went ahead and described a text-book architecture for distributed access to a common database. I knew it was a text-book example, because I had studied it in class just a few months earlier at university.<\/p>\n

“Oh,” I asked, “How are you addressing the issue of long-term transactions having out-of-date data when they acquire their write-lock?”<\/p>\n

“I’m sorry?” he asked.<\/p>\n

So, I explained one of the weaknesses of that architecture. He became goggle-eyed, suddenly understanding the implications of some updates being lost. I detailed a couple of the possible solutions, and their weaknesses in turn, simply reciting what I had learned in class. He scribbled down notes furiously, while I mentally pumped my fist – I had aced this technical non-interview.<\/p>\n

\n

I obviously was given the thumbs-up technically, because I got to the next stage: a lunch interview with the company director, and his right-hand man, both of them Swedish.<\/p>\n

The director was pleasant and was keeping the conversation fairly light as I pored over the menu – what would a senior software developer eat, that won’t get stuck in his teeth, and won’t spill on his unaccustomed tie?<\/p>\n

I don’t know about his partner, though. Was it a Swedish-Australian culture gap? A deliberate good-cop, bad-cop interview technique? Or was he just a plain arsehole? Either way, he just came across as quite brusque and rude. I tried to handle it with aplomb.<\/p>\n

We were discussing my extra-curricular activities. Quick! Quick! What did I ever do that could be given a positive spin? Ah, yes. I mentioned that I was a St John First Aid volunteer. They asked me more about that, and I explained most of my gigs were attending Junior Rugby League games.<\/p>\n

That piqued their interest, because as recent arrivals to Australia, they hadn’t got their head around the game of rugby yet. I was unable to help much, because I grew up in a state where rugby wasn’t played, so it hadn’t sunk in with me yet either. <\/p>\n

“As far as I can make out, someone throws you the ball, and then the entire opposition team run straight towards you and jump on you!” I laughed, “If I was playing, and looked up to see a bunch of thugs running at me, I would throw the ball to them, yelling ‘You have it! It’s all yours!'” I smiled.<\/p>\n

“Oh,” said the right hand man, “so you are a bit of a coward, then?”<\/p>\n

A slow second ticked past as I sat stunned. Did this guy really just challenge my manhood in a job interview<\/em>? Could he really have been that rude? Was it a deliberate test? How the hell do I handle this one?<\/p>\n

“Oh, no.” I spluttered, “I just like my risk-taking in a different form. I ride a unicycle, and have been recently learning to ride a seven-foot tall one.”<\/p>\n

That sounds so lame to me now. It sounded so lame to me then, too. I’m not a coward because I ride a unicycle? WTF? But what was I supposed to say?<\/p>\n

The director smiled with joy, “Oh, I used to ride a unicycle when I was younger!”<\/p>\n

I found out that day that I am dexterous enough to mentally flip-the-bird at the rude guy and mentally fist-pump at the same time! I aced that interview, too.<\/p>\n

\n

It was a relief to receive a job offer from them shortly afterwards, and an even greater relief to turn it down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… A slow second ticked past as I sat stunned. Did this guy really just challenge my manhood in a job interview<\/em>? …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,41],"tags":[280,246,129],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-based-on-a-true-story","category-story-telling","tag-interview","tag-sweden","tag-unicycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1506,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions\/1506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}