I'm back from five days in Mountain View. It was an extremely pleasant trip, although I now know that three interviews in thirty-six hours is just Too Many. My brain is still full.

The interviews, in order:

Tango Communications interviewed me Tuesday morning. This is Rachel's company, and thus I was trying to convince them that I'm really a Java programmer in sysadmin's clothing. First I talked to Vipul, who will be managing me if I'm hired. He was much more laid-back than I was expecting, and asked lots of good questions about the sorts of things I'd done as a sysadmin. After much conversation he said that I didn't have the background that they were looking for, so why was it that he should take a chance on me? I said a lot of things, most of which I no longer remember, but felt very calm and eloquent -- and I guess I was, because by the time we were done talking he said he'd be willing to take a chance on me, based on Rachel's reccomendation -- which I think was shorthand for 'if the technical people like you'.

Once Vipul was done with me I was handed a written test on SQL, C/C++, and Java. Eep, I said. Jim and Rachel had taught me SQL the day before, but all I could remember was select. One command. I scribbled some random thoughts about how I'd set up the database if I knew what the commands were, and then spent the rest of my time on the Java section. I wasn't sure how to do a lot of what they asked for, but I answered the questions on OOP easily enough, and explained how I'd structure the code they wanted if I only knew how. Omi showed up while I was writing frantically, soothed my fears, and took me to a coffee shop across the street for my technical interview.

I got water, Omi got coffee. He asked me questions. I commented on the oddity of being interviewed by someone I knew socially (Rachel introduced me to him last year, and he went to the Indigo Girls concert with us on 4 July), and answered his questions. He had me write code, which was frightening, but I did all right at it. I was not stunningly brilliant, but I managed to ask the right questions and get the point across, and (with help) wrote the code he wanted.

Eventually we went back to Tango, where I talked briefly with Pierre, who is the company CEO, and then said goodbye to Vipul, and then Rachel walked me to my car (well, Jim's car -- he loaned it to me for Tue & Wed so I could get to my interviews) and we compared notes. She said Omi was pleased with me. I said that I'd gotten along well with Vipul, and thought he was pleased with me. We decided to be guardedly optimistic, and I went home on a hopeful note.

I made Vipul laugh a lot. That was nice.

Stanford University was my next interview. They want me to join a group called CAST as a sysadmin. Scott Brylow, who is (deep breath) an ex-Techer that Jim worked with at his previous company whom I met at a party in SF last December (what a description) reccomended me for the job. I got only a little lost on the way to the interview, found a place to park, fed coins to the meter, and then got a little more lost finding Sweet Hall & remembering which floor I was going to. Fortunately I'd shown up early, so I got to the right place at exactly the right time.

I was first interviewed by the manager, whose name (confusingly enough) is also Jim. He asked some good questions, and I asked him a lot of questions while struggling desperately to stay awake. Then the sysadmin group showed up, and I went to a conference room for them to ask me questions. This did not work so well as it might, since any answer on my part seemed to require large amounts of inter-team gossip about similar situations on theirs. I did, however, discover that I adore Christine Quinn, who is the woman I did my phone-screening with. She was absolutely as keen in person as she was via phone, and I hope I can keep in contact with her even if I don't end up working at Stanford.

They didn't ask me much that was technical. It was odd.

Eventually this wound down, and I had another brief interchange with Jim-the-manager, and was then sent on my merry way. I drove all the way around the loop, to Junipero Serra, and took that to Page Mill. It was a very scenic way to get home, and made me want to take up bicycle riding.

I got home and was dead-tired. I phoned Jim to let him know I was around and could pick him up from work when he wanted to flee, and then fell asleep on the couch in my interview outfit. It's a wonder I was able to stay awake through talking to the Stanford people -- which is not meant as a reflection upon them, but upon my own exhaustion.

Jim and I had Rangoon for dinner. We talked to Czr. I read a bunch. Eventually we went to sleep, not as early as I'd have liked.

My last interview was with Cendant Internet Engineering in San Mateo. Wednesday morning. I dropped Jim off at work and then drove through hideous amounts of rain until I was at CIE. Most of the morning was spent talking to Josh, who is the fairly young geek-acting-as-manager. He talked quite fast and slurred his words a little; this, combined with curly hair, reminded me of my Marcus, an old friend who's still in Oklahoma.

So Josh talked. I was tired, but more awake than previously. I asked some questions. We were just warming up to some technical stuff when Charlie appeared. Charlie looked like an older, curly-haired version of Jeremy Bales, who I went to high school with. He was even dressed similarly, in black pants, some unmemorable shirt, and an army-green jacket. I stared. It was very disconcerting.

Josh asked me technical questions, which I answered well. Charlie asked me logic-problems, which I floundered on, feeling extremely stupid and more than a little angry at his aggressive, confrontational attitude. Nothing like being in an interview where someone is telling you how stupid people who can't answer their questions are. It was nightmareish.

Eventually this passed, and we all went to a Thai place for lunch. Once out of the interview context I could deal with Charlie much better, and found myself enjoying talking to him. He's clearly hyper-intelligent, which is a Good Thing in my opinion. and in a social situation I could match his snide cynicism with some of my own.

After we had lunch Josh introduced me to a bunch of people, answered a few more questions, and then let me flee home -- where I called Jim and then crawled into bed and slept until Jim phoned me to ask to be picked up from work.

Capsule summary: I would work any of these places. I would be least happy at Stanford. I would be very happy at CIE, in a known-factor sort of way. I would be plunging into the unknown at Tango.

I hope Tango hires me. If they make me a reasonable offer I'm going to say yes. Ambar pointed out that this is a rare chance; I can go back to being a sysadmin pretty easily, but how many times is a random startup going to be willing to take a chance on me as a programmer? Maybe zero, but if it happens once I really ought to take advantage of it.