Yay

I nailed that interview to the wall! After I did my crazy inzone dance and took some more time to think about it I realized some things. I wasn't asked a technical question at all. Not even the canonical OOP question. In fact the hardest question I was given was "Whats the difference between a test plan and test case"; a question I had actually answered while discussing my past experience.

Anyone of you who know the job market are probably thinking the same thing I thought when I realized this, but I rushed to read the job description and it is definitely is not a QAE/STE type job. The majority of the work is in Perl, if my interviewer and the job description are to be believed. So I am bracing for a much more difficult interview next time around.

The interviewer ended our chat by bidding me to bone up on Perl for possible future interviews. I had explained to him that I hate Perl and hadn't used it since I learned it my freshman year. I got a laugh out of him when I quoted, if I remember correctly, Will as saying "Perl looks like ASCII sneezed". So, much to my chagrin, I am now learning Perl again to possibly code in it professionally. I felt similar distaste when I installed windows for my first stint at Microsoft and that ended with my being a staunch "VS-man" so who knows how this might end?

While I am hovering on the subject, with the exception of my ill-fated go at the Linux Technology Center here in Austin this was my only interview I've discussed Linux in depth. I got a good rise out of that.