It was wild. Around 1999, I interviewed for my first proper tech job. I had no commercial experience. For the interview I had to drink vodka with the guy inter

It was wild. Around 1999, I interviewed for my first proper tech job. I had no commercial experience. For the interview I had to drink vodka with the guy interviewing me and shoot some shit. The interview ended when he fell off the chair. I got the job: decent salary, stock options, really nice office. Hardly anyone there knew what they were doing. That was good for me because I got to pick whatever tech I wanted (open source over the in-house Microsoft stuff). The software and our management processes were a mess. But that didn't matter, because the company was a dotcom darling. I think we charged one large client $1m to make an online store. It sold about 10 products, if I remember correctly. Most of our websites didn't really work very well, though they tended to look pretty nice. There was plenty of daytime drinking, and drugs and parties. Not long before the crash, several thousand employees were flown to Vegas from all over the world. Lots of partying, cocktails in the pool, mixed in with some bizarre team-building workshops. For the finale, a specially-built circular auditorium with techno music pumping and spotlights whirling, into which the CEO himself drove on an electric scooter to the wild cheers of the crowd, pumping his fist and going round and round in circles. I found it utterly demotivating to be involved in doing such a bad job of making such overpriced websites, all to the sound track of masturbatory, content-free self-promotion. I left shortly afterwards. It is interesting to me that a number of alumni have gone on to successfully make their millions in their own startups. P.S. Before my stock options vested they were worth well over $100k. By the time they vested I got $7k.