Diary of an up and coming sociopath

So. My interview.

It seemed to go quite well. As I said, my take it may be wildly out fo step with the standards set by everyone else, but I didn’t make any huge mistakes so at the very least, I can be confident I did the best I could. I learnt quite a bit about it in the interview and there’s nothing in it that I can’t already do, and certainly it would allow me to improve my existing skills.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I found myself awake at a surprisingly early hour, especially for me. I had a reasonable night’s sleep, but the hard part was dragging my sorry rear out of bed. I set three alarms, but I only needed one. The first thing to do was get dressed. Mum bought me a suit for interviews when I pointed out that I didn’t have one, nor did I have the money for one. I’m not really a suit person. More of a jeans and t-shirt person. That’s quite obviously noticeable by the fact I can list the entirety of the times I’ve worn a shirt this year on one hand - Relly and Paul’s Wedding, Interview at SPG, Graduation, Interview this week. I mean, I’d wear smart stuff if the situation warranted it, but given the choice? I’ll take the denim/chest logo route every time. Still, I have to admit the suit had the desired effect of making me look almost like a professional. Unfortunately, the long hair probably made me look like a slacker/wannabe web developer attempting to appear professional, thus negating the effect. At first, I thought the suit was so cheap it had fake pockets, but Ian later claimed that it’s standard practise to have to cut suit pockets open yourself. Some life lessons really pass you by.

I walked up to the tube stop and then was unsurprised to discover that I’d be standing most of the journey. I look forward to perhaps making that trip five times a week, but I’d hope in the future I’ve got a book I can take along. I got some odd looks, which concerned me because I couldn’t fathom a reason why. I could’ve been developing stigmata for all I know. I think it’s more that when you’re on a tube carriage there’s nowhere else to look than at other people, because you’re packed like cattle into every available space. I made the change at King’s Cross as if I’d been doing it all my life. I thought I was getting quite good at navigating the tube system, but then on my way back I got on a train to Uxbridge rather than Heathrow to save time, and missed the place I was intending to jump off and switch to a Heathrow train because I was deeply engrossed in an article from a discarded copy of Metro, about the failing educational system. Nice one, James.

When I got to Old Street, I was faced with a similar problem I had when I went for my last interview, and had to reconcile the map off the website with the train station I just walked out of. This time, I had zero problems and even arrived at the building early. It’s a large tower, with a huge marble-floored lobby, lots of chrome and various landscaping features, which was kind of intimidating because it looked like it cost some serious money. I’m used to hanging around University buildings which are mostly 90’s prefab decor with 70’s concrete block architecture, and look like they were paid for by the contents of the single, broken vending machine which resides in the lobby of each one. If I had imagined interviewing at a place like this a few months ago, I’d have probably been quite bemused by the prospect. I was picturing small offices above the local Woolworths, not office towers which cost equal to the GDP of Belgium to decorate.

So I made it to the location on time. I was collected by the interviewers and taken to a large room where I had the first part of the interview. The head of the systems development told me what the company did, and then one of the development team leaders asked me about my technical experience. I was incredibly surprised not to be answering the usual crop of non-questions like “What would you ask me if you were interviewing me for this place” and “What do you think is more important, synergy or dynamic solutions?” The questions were mainly technical and occasionally about my past experience. I spoke about the current big thing in web development (accessibility) and my personal favourite, W3C standards. I showed them some stuff I’d done, along with source code and used the online verifier to show that it was standards compliant, and then I cleared up my remaining questions about the role and company. They then left the room and gave me a 5 minute proofreading test, which I found quite easy, and I’d hope I’ve got decent marks on it. After the test was collected, I was told I’d done well in the first half of the interview, and that if i wanted, I could move on to the second half.

Obviously, I did want. I had the chance to come back another day, but I didn’t need it. I was definitely ready straight away. The second half of the interview consisted of about an hour’s worth of numerical and verbal reasoning tests. I’ve never done either of those in a formal situation before, but if nothing else I got the examples questions spot on, so I’d hope that bodes well for the completed test. I think I only got about halfway through the numerical one, but I don’t think it was expected to be completed, given the calculations required. I’m near certain I got all but one of my answers correct on the numerical test, so that should count (ha ha) for it. The verbal reasoning test was a little less clear cut, in those kind of assessments you can find yourself inferring information from the text, when you’re really supposed to just extract what’s there. I had time to run through most of the test again, and my answers all matched up the second time over, so while a perfect mark is unlikely, I’d hope it’s a high one.

Which concluded my interview, really. I left feeling that I’d done my best in the interview, doubly so because I felt I’d handled the unexpected tests well, and I hope that my performance was enough for them. I really need a job, and by christ, I really want one exactly like this, a foot in the door of web development. I’ve been extra-dilligent in applying for anything and everything recently, so if there’s any karma in the world, I’ll be rewarded. At this point, if I don’t get it I can at least look back and say that I did all that was possible.

In the afternoon, we went and told Adams that we didn’t owe them extra rent and they were receptive of the truth. Not like the bunch of crooks at Isis. In the evening we all played Delta Force, and then today Dad gave Isis a ring to see if he could sort them out, and Nikki came up for the weekend after Uni. We watched another episode of Joey, and it seems to have levelled out at “humourless, but inoffensive.” Slightly better than the last series of Friends, then.