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In 1993 I was interviewed for an operating job in a power plant for a major airline, assigned to their data center. At my current job, I was working in a high r
by bloomingeek 2y ago
In 1993 I was interviewed for an operating job in a power plant for a major airline, assigned to their data center. At my current job, I was working in a high rise office building with sixty-six floors.
The operating system computer was a JC8520, which was running a version of MS-DOS. All commands had to be typed in correctly or nothing would happen. While operating the plant, several commands had to be entered every shift, since the owners didn't purchase a very automated package.
In the interview for the data center job, I was asked if I had any experience with Windows. I didn't understand the question because I wasn't aware they were talking about a computer operating system! So, I replied at the office building I worked in there were outside contractors who cleaned the windows.
After my reply all seven of the interviewers were all grinning and I was aware I said something they weren't looking for. One of the men politely told me Windows was a computer operating system. My reply was, "Oh, I see."
When I returned home I told my wife what happened and we shouldn't get our hopes up. To my utter shock, a week later I was offered the job, which I took and after some training, learned something I didn't know before.
- conradfr 2y agoVery funny. Did you ever bring it up with those people?
- bloomingeek 2y agoI did, the interviewer who told me what Windows was, Dave, told me years later I was hired because, in no particular order: my age (they wanted someone who could give them their monies worth after training (I gave them thirty years.), a former co-worker recommended me based on my experience, After they asked, I told them about my family (they knew I would show up everyday.), I didn't freak out or become agitated when I realized I accidentally embarrassed myself on the Windows question and I promised them I could work well with others. (A kind of weird question at the time that I fully understood after a few months on the job).
- remoquete 2y ago> While operating the plant, several commands had to be entered every shift That reminds of the bunker from Lost.
- Cyphase 2y agoThankfully IRL no planes were at risk of falling out of the sky, I assume.
- HenryBemis 2y agoDefinitely not the ones with the bouncy sound..
- _han 2y ago4 8 15 16 23 42
- jonplackett 2y agoYou must have absolutely nailed the rest of the interview!
- bitwize 2y agoIt was the early nineties. If you've touched a computer, companies would assume that any skill gap you had you could straightforwardly bridge yourself, on the job. It wasn't like today where you have to be a perfect cinnamon roll of a candidate who ticks all of HR's required-skill checkboxes before you can move on to the grueling 5-6 rounds of interviews.
- mhaberl 2y agoThis is so true. I remember one of my interviews that went well in the end. In the middle of the interview, they mentioned using Java and building web apps. At the time, I was a C++ developer with no web development experience. I said: "I never did web development," and their response was, "You do know how to write source code, don't you?" I said: "Of course I do, but..." They cut me off with: "You will pick it up, don't worry about it."
- CoastalCoder 2y agoMaybe they figured knowing C++ was a sign of your general programming aptitude? Also, how right were they?
- johnchristopher 2y agoI have seen a C++ dev. almost brought to tears when trying to fix a CSS issue at a previous job. Then he broke into tears of laughter when I showed him `yarn build:dev` and the tailwind config. and package.json files :D. Better to laugh about it than cry about it, eh :].
- brk 2y agoI recall interviews from that era too, where the interviewers didn't fully comprehend the jobs they were hiring for. "You know how to write source code, don't you?" Answer: "yes, but I mostly prefer to write fully compiled code directly to disk. Much more efficient".
- e4325f 2y agoI was once asked about Slack, fortunately they were already a colleague
- lrm242 2y agoMan I really hope other people get this one, because it is awesome.
- adr1an 2y agoPerhaps you can explain the joke, and why it's funny for you..? I do enjoy jokexplainings, not as much as a joke I do understand, but even more than jokes that I didn't get.. ;)
- krispyfi 2y agoJ. R. "Bob" Dobbs?
- leemailll 2y ago>a power plant for a major airline an airline owns power plant?
- brazzy 2y agoA small-scale Cogeneration[1] plant could very well make economical sense for any facility the size of a maor airline hub. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogeneration#Industrial_CHP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogeneration#Industrial_CHP
- hackmiester 2y agoSure, why not. Delta Air Lines has a fuel refinery. Large air lines are quite the "at scale" operation.
- mlrtime 2y agoNot as good as your story, but here's mine: First job out of school, fresh ECE degree in my back pocket. I was hired to be a Unix Administrator (SunOS, AIX, Linux). This was a AS/400 shop and nobody knew Linux, the last guy just left. They show me a Linux terminal that was just booting to a 'LI' and asked me to fix it. I had never fixed a lilo issue at the time and my skip manager, a as/400 guru figured it out by reading the docs. I felt like an imposter and an idiot in on day. But I learned that I didn't know sh*t and my learning was just beginning.
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoI work with Apache Airflow. But lead my sister to believe for a time that I had begun to transition to a career somehow related to HVAC and solving the problems associated with "patchy" airflow in certain places.
- michaelcampbell 2y agoThat's where Apache got its name; "a patchy" [web] server. (It's since been backronym'd a bit.)
- dennis_jeeves2 2y ago>After my reply all seven of the interviewers were all grinning and I was aware I said something they weren't looking for. One of the men politely told me Windows was a computer operating system. My reply was, "Oh, I see." That is how a conversation between mature adults should be. Contrast that the typical today's IT interview questions, all posed to prove that is the interviewer is of superior intellect.