Random Traffic Through Nick's Brain

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title="Boston Public Library: Reading Hall, Boston, 2005-09-17, © Nick Varacalli."
/>By the numbers:

• 1 sore throat.
• 3 phone screens today.
• 1 dinner interview today.
• 7 total interviews and screens scheduled for this week with 5 different companies.

I can’t talk about all of today’s interviews. Describing them would be like some of the logic puzzles Dina and I have been doing lately. This is not a real logic puzzle, but I might take the time to write one. If I do I’ll obviously blog it.

• I’ve been interviewed by 4 people who each work for a different type of company. I snagged the interviews through unique means, and was grilled on different topics at each. The interviews obviously happened at different times of the day. I have different levels of interest for each: blah, ok, hmmm, and wow!
• Don, who does not work for the Web2.0 startup, asked me about polymorphism on the phone. He wasn’t the first company I talked to today.
• Adam, who does not work for the Social Networking site, did not ask me any SQL questions.
• Bob, who works for the Financial Giant, grilled me on Interfaces and Abstract Base Classes and did not find me through a prestigious web job board.
• Claire and the Consulting Firm found me through my online résumé and a recruiter, in some order.
• The company that quizzed me on User Interface Design and Usability interviewed me before the company that I found because my good friend emailed me their job ad.
• …

One company presented me with the DW-dating conundrum. I feel I did badly enough on the interview that I’m not sure that I’d want to work there if they brought me back for a second round.

Many, if not all, of the companies / interviewers have Googled me / read my blog. As transparent and straightforward as I attempt to be here, I find this presents an interesting set of constraints on what I can and can’t say about my current thought process. Appearing too psyched about any one particular company may erode my bargaining power down the road. Chronicling my worries about another company may cause them to ding me before I have time to explore those issues further in a subtle manner in order to satisfy myself that all is well. It especially constrains me from making blanket statements such as “None of the companies foo.” or “All the companies bar“. (Note to techies reading this, I have never named a code variable foo or bar.)

This interview process is interesting. I think it is much more about bi-directional fit than any of my previous job searches. Part of that is the time-scale I’m operating on (long), part of it is the fact that I have some fall-back options, part of it is that the job market is healthy without being overheated. Surprisingly, in some ways, I’ve done very little to look for a job other than telling people I know that I’m looking, and making myself attractive. I still haven’t gotten around to some of my job-search-to-do items such as “Search Monster, CareerBuilder, and BostonWorks”, and may never do so this time around. Most of my interview traffic comes from:

• Friends / peers / my ‘network’.
• Companies finding my résumé online.
• Companies approaching me through LinkedIn.com.
• Recruiters finding me through one of the above channels.

One final note, Google passed on an opportunity to interview me. I figured it was a long shot anyway.

I’m really, really rusty when interviewing. I’ve been dinged on a much higher percentage of interviews than I have in the past.

Mind you, on one of them I just gave up in the end when I realized that they were jokers.

I’d encapsulate that part of the logic. I’d write it once and unit test the heck out of it.

When that answer isn’t good enough / the right way to do things, it’s time to realize that it’s probably not a place I want to work anyway.

Update – 2007-03-08 08:45 – After I wrote this, one firm semi-un-dinged me, they’d like to bring me back for a 2nd round, in part due to some of the blog entries here.

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alt="Photograph: Giza, pyramid, desert, Cairo, 2005-10-07, © Nick Varacalli."
title="Giza, pyramid, desert, Cairo, 2005-10-07, © Nick Varacalli." />I’m currently looking for a great job that I can stay at for years to come. For those who’ve asked what I’m looking for, here’s a synopsis. I’m writing this for people who can help me find a job, prospective employers who want to know more about me, and in order to clarify my own thinking. Overall, I’m flexible.

Basics

• Qualifications: My résumé. (I’d be grateful if you could proofread it / give me feedback / constructive criticism / suggestions.)
• Position: Full time, permanent position. Willing to work part-time if compensation (see below) works out.
• Location: Boston area, preferably within the 128 circle. Not looking to relocate but would consider it for a job with enough compensation or prestige.
• Company: I tend to like working in small to medium size companies: it’s easier to make an impact and get things done. They tend not to be burdened with bureaucracy (not to be confused with process). That said, I’m willing to work at a large company if I can get things done within it.
• Compensation: Made up of money (salary, bonus, restricted shares), lottery tickets (options), and quality of life. I’m flexible in the trade-offs along these three axes. I’m willing to work longer and harder for more money. I’m willing to take less money for a shorter or more flexible schedule that lets me spend more time with Alex. As for lottery tickets, EV is less important than a higher probability of a pay off.
• Environment: I enjoy working with fun, intelligent people I can learn from. I enjoy working with what I call small-p process, where there is structure in the development environment. I dislike big-P Process where the company switches to the current process fad every 3 months. It’s great to work at companies that score high on the Joel Test or who are willing to let me improve their score. Generally, I’m a Microsoft .Net developer. I’m more than willing to learn other languages, OSes, and environments if a company is willing to let me learn.

Type Of Work

• Desktop UI: I enjoy writing flexible, aesthetically pleasing desktop applications that optimize for user efficiency, either in user input or display to the user. If you want someone to write you a beautifully slick interface for something, I’ll need help from a graphics designer. If you want someone who can write an interface usable by the one-time user, casual user, and dedicated user, all in one, I’m your guy.
• Web UI: Pretty much the same spiel as for desktop UIs. I won’t write the latest Flash-based ad-site for your whiz-bang product. I will ensure that the interface is usable, will work on most browsers, and you’ll have less user drop-out once I’m done. My AJAX experience is light, but I’m interested in the promise of this emerging technology.
• Middle Tier: I like wrapping my brain around complex business logic and problems. If you want simple middle tier components that take data from the database and massage it a bit before passing it to the UI, I’m not really interested. If you want someone who can retain, understand, and manage complex state with a lot of corner-cases, I’m your guy. One of the reasons I like financial programming is it’s really challenging in the ways mentioned above.
• Developer Productivity Tools: I hesitate to list this here because it tends to be something that I do on the side, and not normally a dedicated role. That said, I enjoy doing things that help me become a better and more efficient developer, and propagating those changes to the rest of the development staff in order to save everyone time and effort and increase product quality.
• Project Management: I’m looking to transition into software project management.