Interviews done

<Blogger was down last afternoon so this is a late post>

I had five interviews on Tuesday and one on Wednesday in the afternoon. The interviews were like none I've had in the past; the questions weren't really technical, they were more along the lines of solving man problems, resource problems and understanding the system end-to-end. This isn't something I have any experience with but being in projects at school was some indicator of how people should be allocated. Team projects, which I initially thought were bogus, actually come in handy at some point in life.

I think I did well in all my interviews - I answered the questions honestly and to the best of my abilities. Whatever the decision is now, I know full well that I gave it my best shot and if I am rejected, it's because I might not be a good fit for the team. The rejection won't be an attack on who I am, it's what I bring to the table for a team that is in flux. And there are always more opportunities to pursue, which makes me look ahead with a smile...

The Final Onslaught

It's 5:10 am on Tuesday, the day of my interview. I won't deny it, I was on edge last evening; a game of ultimate, some chitter-chatter with the boys, dinner and a good night's sleep have eliminated all of that. A very wise man once told me that if I sleep before midnight, every hour of sleep is the equivalent of two - I slept at around 10pm and woke up at 5, so that makes for nine hours of sleep effectively.

I'm rested, I'm stoked - now lets see if I am good enough...

Interview Studying - Round 1

The synapses were in atrophy - getting them to fire on all cylinder took a while but once I did, it was all good. This puzzle was what set me off:

You have 50 Red Marbles and 50 Blue Marbles and 2 Jars. How do you place the marbles into the jars such that the probability of getting a Red Marble is maximized?

I was asked this puzzle in one of my interviews by Karolys last year at which time I took a couple seconds to solve it - last night though, I couldn't remember the solution immediately but the thought process was stimulation enough to get me going. The rest of the evening was spent puzzle solving and code writing, the view of the Space Needle and the ambience at Bau Haus enhancing the creative flow...

Angst or not - I'm interviewing again...

<This post is a collection of thoughts, accumulated over the past week>

You read that right, I'm interviewing again. It has been less than a year since I went through a similar phase but I want something different from my job. At Microsoft, if you're so inclined, you can find what floats your boat. I've begun preparing for interviews with teams but this time around, I can't find it in myself to study hard. I remember the last time I interviewed; I prepared with such a passion and dedication that there was no way a team could turn me down. I think this time around is going to be the exact opposite of my last performance; I need to be galvanized, shocked into action because I'm plain burnt out.

Or is something else? Maybe I'm more self assured - the knowledge of who I am and what my skills are makes it harder to put my heart into reading up. Just learning something now and regurgitating it in an interview doesn't say anything about my skills and abilities. Or is it enough to be able to pull off an offer? Hmm, if that is what the system demands, I will do it.

As the interview day has inched closer, I have taken to reading seriously, making notes about what I should read up on, the algorithms I should know by the back of my hand, problems I should know how to solve and the like. Wish me luck and say a little prayer, I sure am gonna need all them best wishes...

Wait, my brain is a morphine maker...

Ahh, finally some scientist proves that Morphine occurs naturally in the human brain. No wonder we all strive to get more narcotics into our system, ours could be one of those that doesn't produce enough morphine. To quote the article:

Instead of pumping patients full of morphine, Stefano said, doctors could instead give a morphine precursor -- a molecule that would set off a chain reaction eventually resulting in increased morphine production in the brain.

The approach could circumvent dependency because it would increase an individual's own morphine levels instead of replacing natural morphine with a synthetic version.

I'm all for the natural stuff, not one to do drugs. Crack dealers didn't ever need advertisements to sell their drugs but now they have a legit license to peddle their wares and we all know how they can twist a fact to suit their convenience.

The return to Squash

I started playing squash on a whim during the first semester of my third year at BITS. I sucked real bad in the beginning - hit the ball too hard, didn't have any idea of where to place the ball - what I had working for me though was my agility and speed around the court. I was adept at racquet sports but was never good enough to be on a team; I'll rephrase that - I didn't persevere enough to get onto the table tennis team and was never that good at tennis.

I began to notice improvements in my game within the first couple of weeks that I played and that's what kept me going. It's what has kept me going to this day; there is a discernible improvement in my game as I play more. What I didn't take into consideration was the fact that being as competitive as I am, I'd push my body to extract that last bit of juice for a point, a game, a match. As someone said, most times when I lost, I never gave it up easily...

The inevitable happened - I pushed my body too far this past year. I've had my share of squash inflicted injuries: Raghupatruni's forehand return nearly took out my left eye in the first month I started playing, I tweaked my back, got tendinitis in my right bicep and right knee's ACL but I stayed number 1 for six months - now that's gotta be worth something, right? Wrong - nothing's worth killing your body over and I'll never repeat the mistake again. Will I start playing squash again? Yes - this week's the first time I'll step on the court since the last week of June and actually work my way around the court. My movements will definitely be ginger, the ball will fly out of the court, I won't reach many shots but I'll be on the court. I can't wait...

Mini-Microsoft: Your Review, Your Numbers, Your Choices

A not so succinct but poignant look at the review this past year at Microsoft.

My commitments from June are now ponderous reflections upon an optimistic era.

And then you get the sheet with The Numbers. Your level, responsibility, department, rating, current pay, future pay, any bonus, and any stock awards. "Wow, that's small." I let slip out, wondering if this damn blog had finally had a real-world impact on me and my compensation.

"No, that's pretty much inline with average," my boss said, and reviewed how we're inline with comparable tech companies and that 2% raises are about the max-average (?) this year, along with some % bonus I forget (10%?). Later I got home and unloaded my gear and went through old review numbers. Even in my worst year when I was totally ignorant about the review process I did way better than this year.

I guess we had a lean financial year.

The post goes on to reflect on things that employees can do to address the situation but I found this line particularly liberating:

The golden handcuffs were removed from your wrists long, long ago. You own your career. It's choice time.

Amen to that...