Quotes from the tech interview

(In a conference room with seven of them and one of me)
Him: Now that we have gone over your implementation, I want to ask: how long has it been since you have written any embedded code like this?
Me: A memory allocator? Yeah I have to admit I have written one before. I didn’t think it would be fair to go back and look at that code, since this was a coding question for an interview, so I didn’t.
Him: Okay, and how long has it been since then? Or since you've written ANY embedded code?
Me: Oh. Um. I guess not counting cell phones, uhhhh... 2005 or so? (Embarrassed look)
Him: *high five gesture* I just wanted the team to know that.

(Interview, mid-day)
Him: Now that we're done with the interview questions, I know you get this a lot but can I ask you veterinary stuff?

(Last interview of the day, videoconference, with a founder)
Him: I admit when I saw your resume I was a little concerned. More than ten years out of the field completely, and you think you can do this? I have trouble remembering things a lot more recent than that. How will you approach this? What makes you think you can do it?
Me: Well, at least this is a field I’ve seen before. Last time I took on a challenge this big I was going into completely unknown territory. But I won’t lie, I know it will be a bumpy road and I will have a lot of work to do.
[some discussion of how to approach it]
Me: I'm somewhat smart, but I'm also pretty stubborn, and sometimes that's what works.
Him: Now that I see you and know your personality a bit, I think I get it.

(Driving down the hill on the way out for the day)
Her: I love living nearby. I used to commute from Mountain View and it just got to be too much. Where are you coming from?
Me: Sunnyvale.
Her: Oh! Where do you work down there?
Me: Uh, Sunnyvale Veterinary Clinic.
[Pause]
Me: I’m a veterinarian.
Her: Oh! I thought you were... [trailing off, confused]
Me: Applying for an embedded systems coding job? Yeah.
[Pause]
Her: Oh WOW. ... Hey, did they tell you about our trial run with bull semen?

I gotta hand it to them, they’re flexible and engaged and they think a wacky unconventional background is intriguing rather than terrifying. I’ll take it. If I can.

A little too little, a little too late?

Had lunch with a friend of mine, a local emergency veterinarian and vet school classmate. She is sad that vet med is losing me and thinks I’m a great vet. (She said “ninetieth percentile.”)

I had to ask how she knows. The last time we worked alongside each other was before graduation.

I’d forgotten: I transfer cases to her 24 hour center all the time. She may not be the first to take them, but if they stay hospitalized, she will see the records. She sees patients who have been worked up and those who haven’t; she sees the medical records, indicating how the referring clinician was thinking; she sees whether the client was told what a 24 hour center would likely do and recommend and cost or whether the client wasn’t prepared for any of that at all.

Okay. So she has at least SOME basis for saying what she says.

I honestly am extremely poor at self evaluation. When I graduated as a veterinarian I thought I was bright and had pretty good potential. (Whether I was right, I have no way to know.) By the end of internship I thought I still had good potential but I thought I was too high strung to be good at emergency. Now... I’ve frankly had my self confidence completely and utterly destroyed by the past couple of years.

So a local emergency vet (whose cases I’ve seen come back, and I think she’s super) thinks I’m not just a good vet but a really good vet.

If I had known that six months ago, would it have changed anything? I’m not sure. Maybe. Maybe not.

I guess either way I need some income. :/