The Interview II

I havent blogged for ages... I have been plodding as usual..

Well anyway, here is how the 3rd interview went.

It was a Wednesday so I was formal as usual. I arrived 30 min early
however i have a good friend who works in the same building so I go
visit her.By the time I am through with her it is 5 min to my interview. I

make a quick dash to the lift area to get a lift to go to the 6th floor (I was
on the 2nd) and the lift takes what seems to be like 10 days to arrive.
Anyway, I manage to reach on time and when I arrive at 2:30 exactly
I am given a form to fill my names,academic qualifications, what I
earn and what I would like to earn. (So what is the point of my CV??)
And I never know how to answer the question: "How much would you like
to earn??"
I hate redundancy...anyway, I enter a small conference room - more
like an unused office and I find 2 other people (men) waiting for
to be interviewed. Funny enough, 1 of them was about 4years ahead of
me in campus and is a good friend of mine (He was interested in me ,
I wasnt and we ended up being good friends -those rare cases)
anyway, we sit and we are suprised to be at the same interview
but its always nice to see a friendly face in unfamiliar places.

What was really annoying was that he was to be interviewd at 1:30
(it was 2:30!!!) and the other guy 2:00 then me.
Oh my goodness!! I knew I was going to be so late returning to the
office...alarm bells..I dont have top up time (oh my!) anyway i relax,
and John goes in for his interview.So I am left with a fairly
older man (looked in his late 30's early
40's) he says he did the same course as I did back in the day then he
goes on to provide a detailed account of his CV. Oh I have worked
here, there and there and there and there too. Right now I am working
here but I am providing consultancy to XYZ. I admit I was abit
demoralised, so I gave an excuse and went to send a message to the
office saying I will be late from lunch.

When coming back I meet John at the lift area (This was like 15 min
later) telling me he wishes me the best and that is a job that suits
me,he doesnt think they will give him the money he wants and that he is
so comfortable being self-employed.
Well I wish him well and say goodbye.
To my relief , i find a different man in the conference room , the
older demoralising man has gone for his interview.
I chat with the "new" guy, i have to calm the nerves somehow..finally
the older guy saunters in almost 10 min later (ok to be fair it was
15min) and says "Athena, lets meet in the streets one day."And he was
off.

I was finally ushered into a room by a lady.
When I looked up I see about 10-12 people seated around a u-shaped
table all of them facing me.
The chair of the panel introduced herself and the panel (there was
someone represnting the U.S gvt -though he was mum the
whole time),congratulated me (whatever for) and asked "Tell us abit
about your professional life?" What does that mean????? So i decided
to talk about what I do everyday and some of my goals but it all
seemed technical and some didnt seem to understand what I was saying,
basically I work here, this is what I do, these are my goals.

Ok, then the others were invited to ask questions.
The technical guy there starts asking me:
(not in this order,its just how I can remember)
-Whats the difference between dynamic and static web pages?
(oh my God, what type of question is that?)
-How would I optmise a database ?
-What is the difference between a DBA and a sysadmin?
-What is normalisation?
-What is the structure of a C++ program? (I answered header files,
main program, ,functions,classes...hope that was it)
-What is disaster recovery and what mechanisms would you use for it?
-Other such like questions.

Another one - who was non-technical, asks me , "i dont know what a
system admin is , tell me his functions?"
I answer to the best of my knowledge.
Then he asks again, "So what is the difference between a sys Admin
and DBA?" I hate being asked techinical questions by non-technical
people, anyway, i explain in simple terms.
Then he asks me "What is a firewall?"
Woi.I answer in very simple terms using the analogy of a gate.
Ok.He asks what do i know about the functions of the Organisation.
I had read about that the same morning. So i vomited what I had
read.

Another asks me, "explain (again) what disaster recovery is since he
is a layman?"
I answer.

Another asks me "You will be leading teams, how would you manage
conflicts?" I answered. (If you are interested in my answers let me know)

Then a lady asks "You dont have your degree certificate?" I went on the
defensive and said that I havent had time togo pick it and that I could
get it the next day.
In retrospect I should have been calm and answered that the
certificates were released a few weeks ago and I havent gone for it.

Then the chair of the panel asks me"How much do you currently earn?"
Why did I fill in that form? Why did they ask us to write in our applications how much
we earn and our expected renumeration?????
I answered and I was thanked for my interest and I was dismissed.

I sneaked back to the office and I realised my message that I would
be late wasnt communicated. Argh.After a few tense minutes I was back to
work.
================
My feelings:
I am not particulary excited, after meeting so many non-technical
people, I realised it would be one of those jobs where you balance
politics and your work. Maybe , no I like being around other technical
people..

Nevertheless, I am not ruling it out and I am hoping for the best.
I really want an 8-4 or 8-5 job.