argus @ acmeme

Jobly Change

Lots of us working at the Business Center were laid off, last day today. I've been searching for a place to go within my company and have found another position at the State Department, most likely. I interviewed yesterday, and had my usual highly-successful-yet-oddly-amusing interview experience.

To review: I have never not gotten a job I interviewed for. Yet I manage to have interviews that defy one's ability to retain proper poise.

My interview for my Oracle developer's job at TRW took place as a different TRW project was finishing. I sat down with the manager of the project, and he asked me SQL questions to see if I would be able to handle the Vingette work. At a very preliminary point in the questioning, I reached the end of my knowledge of SQL. I think it was something about counting, something really basic that anyone who knew SQL should know. So I looked at him and said "I don't know. May I get my book and try to work it out?" He said yes, so I scrambled out of the interview room, returned with the big book, scribbled for ten minutes and presented my guess to him. Since it turned out to be exactly right, he hired me.

The weekend before my interview at Orkand (long may it suffer) and in some high winds, I managed to bang my head on my car door and get a most glorious shiner of a black eye. I bought wraparound shiny sunglasses to cover the bloody, black-and-blue eye so small children would cry to their mothers in horror on the street "Momma, why is she like that?!" I wrote the interviewer email to say that I needed to interview wearing sunglasses, if that was OK, and recieved no reply, so I showed up in sunglasses assuming it was fine. I interviewed the entire hour plus time with mirrorshades on, not even able to meet the eyes of the interviewer and got the job to rave reviews about my potential.

When interviewing with AlphaInsight, I checked out their website ahead of the interview, learning about the company. The name change from AlphaTech revealed its prudence then, when I had apparently checked out the details of the wrong AlphaTech! I chatted up the president with fascinated details about how their company was founded by a group of Ph.D.'s, and their Boston office, not realizing that all those details were related to a different Alphatech. I now understand the tense smiles I received at the time. :)

Yesterday was quite cold, well below freezing. Not wanting to have wet hair, I didn't wash it, but wore half my hair in a ponytail, a tidy look that pulls my hair off my face. Deep into the interview, I felt the strangest popping sensation as if a praying mantis had dropped onto my head. Reaching up casually I realized my hair elastic had snapped.

It was still holding my hair up, and I lost a couple of paragraphs of my new boss' talking while I pondered how to deal with the collapse. I began holding my head extremely still while continuing to look interested and animated. Another snapping feeling as it released again a bit. It seemed to be holding. Another. Finally I felt it competely release, at which point I grabbed at my hair and said, "Excuse me, but I think my hair ribbon is coming undone." The interviewer chuckled with what seemed like relief, and said "We thought you were falling apart at the seams!" Apparently they were watching the stealthy unraveling of my hairstyle and everyone was trying not to mention it. They offered me the position while still sitting in the room.

These are really not the greatest anecdotes, but heck, I got the jobs. I'm employed. If these kinds of shennanigans don't prepare future employers for having me work for them, I don't think I want to go any further.

Posted by argus at January 9, 2004 05:18 PM