Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Upcoming Interviews

Ok, so I've got a technical call with Google on Thursday night and a second interview with GridApp on Friday.

First the Google interview. It's a phone interview, estimated to last between 45 minutes and an hour:

I was told to expect three parts
* An algorithms portion (presumably this is to see if I know how an AVL balanced tree works)
* A "brain teaser". I don't know what to expect here other than it being something along the lines of what they had in their "G-CAT" employment test.
* A "coding question". I'm not sure how this will work unless he plans to email me the problem. It's kind of hard to answer stuff relating to code during a phone interview.

If I pass the technical interview, my application goes to a hiring committee. If they decide to proceed then I will go to the New York office for a second interview. There will be between three and six interviewers, and alot of diagramming stuff out on a white board.

If I pass the second interview, my application goes to a second hiring committee. If they like me than supposedly they would make me an offer.

I got the email today with the name of the interviewer for the phone call. Ran him through Google (yes, I see the irony), and I'm really hoping he isn't the guy who helped author the C++ standard. I'm going to get steam rolled.

Now the for the GridApp interview. It's much less formal.

I show up at 1:00. I'm going to meet with the CTO (Chief Technical Officer) and do a couple of other interviews. If that goes well then I will take a "test", which will demonstrate that I can do network programming in C++. Of course I don't really C++, so let's just say this is going to be interesting. I've been studying for about a week. I guess they will make me an offer if they like me.

I should have just taken the job at Motorola developing Voice-Over-IP for cable modems. At least then I would feel like I have some idea what the hell I am doing....

It's funny because I'm usually pretty confident about my abilities. I guess perhaps it's just that I'm applying for jobs where I am clearly not qualified.

Tuesday, July 5, 2005

The hunt is on....

Ok, so a few things have happened in the last couple of weeks.

I'm tired of working at Netilla. This isn't new, but Dan finally talked me into putting my resume on monster.com. Kyle hooked me up with a friend from Google who I sent my resume.

I have been emailing Bill for the last few months since he left Netilla and I mentioned to him last week that I had started the search and if he knew anybody. Turns up the company he now works for (Gridapp) is looking for engineers and that "I would fit right in". So now I have my first interview tomorrow afternoon.

It's another startup and it's in midtown Manhattan. It's a Linux based platform, so I think it could be right up my alley. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if the skillset is a match. www.gridapp.com

On the Memvidia front, the project is starting to actually take shape. We bypassed the acquisition problems (interlacing issues, etc) by using a COTS DVD recorder, so I think this will be good enough for the proof of concept phase. I don't know how this whole thing will work out if I take the new job. I guess it's good to have options.

Don't know what I will do about the living situation if I take a job in Manhattan. Guess I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself.

Kyle and Pete have been in Hawaii for the last week. Would have like to have gotten her advice before tomorrow's interview. Such is life.

Fourth of July went well. On Sunday Naomi and I met up at Rick's house for a barbeque with the rest of the family. Was lots of fun. Later that night, we went with Lauren and Kevin to the fireworks in Bradley Beach.

On Monday we went and did a barbeque at her family's house. Again lots of fun. I really need to work on my strategy for Rook, since I keep getting crushed. Better yet, I should find a group that I can play card games with regularly so I can get better in general.

Ok, off to read this week's book, "The Art of Unix Programming" by Eric S. Raymond.