The DC interview adventure
For the last week or two, I’ve been sort of courted by this recruiter from the DC metro area, who’s recruiting for this very large government contractor in the same area. I’ve had other recruiters and other jobs nibbling, but this one sort of largemouth-bass’ed the hook and charged off with it.
By which I mean, I’ve been entertaining two or three other possible jobs at a time for the last month and a half, with some dying out at the first phone call, some dying out at the phone interview, and some just still pending. But this group, I’ve been pretty impressed with… I got the first call like 10 days ago, the phone interview monday of last week, and the flight out scheduled by Wednesday for a Friday interview. I like that sort of pacing …
Anyway, so Friday I had a lot of new experiences, and it was cool. Rather than engaging in a tedious narrative of it all, I’ll just give you a list of valuable life lessons.
- The DC metro area is insane, mainly because it seems to be almost completely unplanned. There’s seriously like … no logic to the place. The beltway — THE major highway around the area, is basically a 2-lane ribbon of bad drivers.
- Oh, did I mention there’s a lot of bad drivers? From the limited interaction I saw (with maybe 40 cars total), good DC drivers make bad Chicago drivers look downright decent. But maybe that’s because the worst Chicago drivers end up ejected from their cars and smeared across the interstate…
- If you search for “O’Hare Airport” on google maps, you’ll get taken to a building right next door to Gino’s East in Rosemont. That is NOT O’Hare Airport. However, you can probably make it to O’Hare if you just stay on the highway and follow the signs, instead of … well … not. I made the mistake of not, and missed my flight.
- Flying an hour later on a standby flight is a bit nervewracking when the trip’s actually important to you. But I made it on, and they “upgraded” me from being crammed into an aisle seat next to someone to being given an entire row to myself, which was nice for the trip out.
- Widebody jets are interesting. 737’s are tiny. When you’re 6′8 and boarding any given airplane, you should make it a point to duck lower than you think you need to and stay ducking longer than you think you need to, because even big widebody jets like the one I flew back on have tiny, tiny entryways meant for people who are like 5′4.
- If you’re going to be wearing a non-absorbant long-sleeved shirt, a tie and a sportcoat most of the day, make sure you remember to start the day off with a healthy shot of deodorant, or by the time you get on the flight back you’ll notice …
- Apparently I come off as both sincere and technically competent. Which is good, ’cause I am :).
- Apparently, the company I was interviewing with wanted someone who was both sincere and technically competent. ’cause they’re “submitting” me (meaning submitting my information to someone who has the last word on whether they can hire me or not). But assuming that’s ok, and it probably is, I probably have an offer. Which is awesome.
- Parking in the garage at O’Hare from 8:00 AM to about 7:00 PM costs $24.
- I fit fairly comfortably in the driver’s seat of a Corolla. But I’d have liked the odometer a bit higher and the wheel a bit less tilted. And definitely nobody could sit behind me … with me in the driver’s seat, it was a 3-seater.
- Gas in West Lafayette is $0.50/gallon cheaper than gas at the Hinsdale oasis.
- Spending 10 hours total in transit is damned exhausting. Leaving the apartment before 6 am and not getting back until after 10:30 PM with 10+ hours of transit time in there is even more exhausting.
- A half-windsor knot isn’t particularly hard to tie. A full windsor seems to be quite a bit trickier, and both look pretty much exactly the same when they’re done. This will be useful knowledge down the road, I think.
- Terry Pratchett’s “Mort” is pretty good. At least, the first 80 pages of it.
- I am simply too big for united economy class flying. I can’t sit up straight, I can’t sit back, I just really don’t really fit at all.
These and many other things that I learned on Friday. It was a good day. I feel good about it. Even if it weren’t a likely job offer, I’d still feel pretty positive about the experience as a whole.
My lease ends like … Thursday. If Simulex were to offer me a job before the place I interviewed with in DC, I’d totally take it. But if the DC place offers me a job before then, I’m totally going to be Manick and Gabba’s new roommate for a while :p.