March 10th, 2010

One of the consequences of accepting a job offer is that you might end up working with an interviewer who didn't like you

At an informal gathering, my colleagues and I started talking about our experiences being interviewed at Microsoft. One of the people there remembered how one of the pieces of feedback on the interview lo these many years ago was that although my colleague was certainly smart enough and hardworking enough, there seemed to be insufficient enthusiasm for the subject matter. I mean, my colleague cared about the subject matter but apparently didn’t care enough to satisfy the interviewer. The offer was extended despite this reservation, and my colleague joined the team. Years passed, and the details of the encounter were largely forgotten. Microsoft is a large company, and the group you end up assigned to may not have any members from your original interview loop. The assessment of my colleague as insufficiently enthusiastic was ironic since this particular informal gathering took place at the PDC. If you’re speaking at the PDC, then presumably you’re not totally disinterested in the material.

Upon completion of this story, another colleague spoke up. “Hey wait, I think I was that interviewer!”

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Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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