Letter Never Sent

I had the follow-up interview for the UT job yesterday. I’m not sure how it went. It was all a blur. I feel pretty good, but when I feel pretty good I start to wonder if I’m being overconfident and that makes me start thinking about things I might have done wrong or just not good enough. I suppose I shouldn’t worry about it. The good thing is, I don’t think I betray this type of neurotic thinking during interviews, only after. I’m the sort of person where I need a shove out into the stream and then I’ll start to swim on my own.

I was actually running a little late to get there which is never a good thing, being late to an interview I mean. Then on the way past Zilker Park while I was speeding (55 in a 35) I got pulled over by a traffic police officer on a motorcycle. As soon as I topped the hill and saw him I knew he had me dead to rights. When he approached my car I turned off the radio and rolled down the window and said something like, “I’m very sorry, sir. I was totally speeding. I’m running late for a job interview and I apologize. I was going about 55 when I saw you.” To this he replied, “I had you going about 51. When is your interview?” Then he looked at his watch and at my license and proof of insurance. “Where are you interviewing?” he asked. I told him where and the address and then he looked at my papers again. After a moment, he handed them back to me and said “Slow it down.” I read somewhere that there are a few things that can help you get along well when pulled over by a police officer:

1. Tell them if you have any warrants right away. If they pull you up on the computer and you have a warrant, they HAVE to take you in.
2. Always address them as sir, maam, officer, or sergeant if they’re a sergeant. Respect goes a long way here.
3. Don’t lie or get defensive. Generally speaking, I don’t think the police will pull you over without good reason. In my case, I was speeding and I knew it. Furthermore, traffic police are there for one reason, to give tickets. I’m sure they’ve heard all the angles.
4. Keep your car clean. Turn music off. I’ve also stopped putting bumper stickers on my car since I’ve discovered that you’ll be treated differently if you can be lumped under some sort of cliche. Bumper stickers are good ways for other people to make assumptions about you. If you have green party stickers or NORML you’re a hippie who probably smokes pot. I don’t really have anything that would give someone a certain, particular impression about me. It reminds of that admonition that if you want people to think well of you then keep your mouth shut.
5. Keep your hands in plain view and don’t make any sudden moves. This one is rather obvious.

Anyway, thanks to officer whatever-your-name-was I don’t have to pay a 150 dollar ticket.

Back to the interview, when I got there I met with two people I had interviewed with previously and they told me there were nine final candidates for five positions then proceeded to ask me the sort of questions you would ask a prospective employee: “what would your coworkers say about you”, “what are some of your biggest accomplishments”, “describe a difficult situation with a coworker and how you handled it”, etc. They were obviously trying to get a handle on the type of personality they might have to deal with. At one point they described the work they had to have done in a year to which I replied “So, what are we going to have left to do after six months?” Cheesy, huh?

After all this I was sent over to visit with some other people I would have to work with and then the Assistant Director of the project. He asked me that famous open-ended question, “Excluding the bible and the dictionary, if you were stranded on a desert island which book would you choose to take with you?” Excuse me, who chooses the dictionary? I answered the complete works of Shakespeare since there are things in there that seem differently to me the older I get. When I’m younger I see one side and then I see something else entirely when I look back again. For example, the relationship between Hamlet and his father takes on a different dimension once you start to see your own relationship with your father from a different perspective. Just things like that. I’ve really only noticed this quality in Shakespeare, but I think all literature and art can function this way. Almost like the layers of the onion peeled off in sequence revealing new things.

I got called today for a followup interview with UT. Weeeee. Keep those fingers crossed. I may have a normal work schedule soon.

So, yesterday, I met Jody for lunch before the interview for her sage, last-minute advice and encouragement then I went and saw Sab and had a little chit chat and coffee and fished for more encouragement. Sab’s main advice was to forgo a coat and tie and wear nice black wool slacks with a blue shirt since he doubted anyone at UT ever wore a suit to work. Since, I still needed time to get ready before the interview I ran home and ironed my clothes and got dressed. While I was getting dressed, another company called me for an interview for tomorrow. When it rains, it pours, indeed.

I arrived at the interview a little early and met one of the other interviewees, Rhonda. I introduced myself and we made a little chit chat. She was nice and competitive in a quiet assured way which made me want to work harder too. A little later an older fellow showed up, Kevin, and he introduced himself. When he introduced himself I got the impression he thought we might be the people doing the interviewing. He seemed to be a little preoccupied like he had a lot on his mind and I picked up a faint northeastern accent which made me wonder what his background was. The woman leading the interview process showed up and gave us the rundown. She was very smiley and when she smiled her eyes almost disappeared but you could tell she was still watching from way back there. A little later the final interviewee showed up, a quiet young woman named Joy. I’m not too sure about her name since she was pretty quiet most of the time.

We were asked who wanted to present first and I said I’d go since I thought that the best thing to do either way. When I got up there and pulled up my sample HTML I said something like, ” Well, you wanted us to bring you some sample of our HTML work, so I decided to redo your website.” This got laughs from most everyone there. That has to be a good thing. Then I pointed out how I had included myself in the new page just to make things easier ‘just in case’. This elicited more laughter. I discussed what I had changed about the website and why, although since I was very nervous I went through everything very quickly. Too quickly.

After I finished, the other three people presented their work. Each person had strengths and weaknesses, but I think I was doing well compared to each of them. After everyone else had gone, we had to do a short group project while the interviewers watched us. We had to come up with a practice curriculum and a way to present it online as a course. It was weird working with your apparent competition. Rhonda and I basically took charge and we came up with the main ideas while I wrote and organized things on paper. Kevin made a couple attempts to really push for his ideas in the group which seemed to me a little ham-handed and not subtle enough. We ran over our time, which was reported to have been 15 minutes even though it seemed like thirty seconds, and we were told it was time for the writing sample.

This was not that bad except you really had to keep your eye out for editorial mistakes which made me paranoid about missing something. Also, since we were slowly running out of time tensions were high. Sitting next to me, I could hear Rhonda muttering oaths under her breath in frustration with the belly button like mouse on the ancient laptop they provided each of us with. I think this section went okay, since I remembered all the HTML tags I had to format it with and I caught a few grammatical errors, but I don’t know if I missed anything or not. We’ll see. I’m supposed to find out if I warrant a second interview by next week. Keep your fingers crossed.

So, I had until…mmm..like Tuesday afternoon to finish the little ‘presentation’ I have to do for this job interview. I was having a lot of trouble just getting started. The night before last was totally fruitless and I stayed up all night downloading music rather than work on the presentation. Last night was shaping up to be the same. I was having trouble getting started and sought encouragement from a few of my friends, namely anyone on AIM or at hand for me to kvetch with. Kelly gave me a lot of good suggestions since he does this sort of thing for his job. I finally picked up some steam and then, of course, it went very well from there. I am happy to say that I’m finally done. Soon I will try to sleep until about 12pm which should give me plenty of time to get ready for the interview. I don’t really like group interviews, but I think I did enough to make an impression. Basically, they wanted to see a sample of my HTML skills to present in front of the group, so I redid their main page. I just hope the person who originally did the page doesn’t feel like I’m taking liberties or stepping on their toes. Here’s what I have thus far….this is what I will be showing in front of the group. Let me know what you think. Oh, here’s their site as it is normally. Yes, I even did that animated GIF thing.