My brain is full, must explode...

I just had the weirdest phone interview with a major online retailer today. The interview was the first step in a long gauntlet of phone and in-person interviews, and when I found that out, I just locked up and panicked. Couldn't even repeat some of the basic OSI layer stuff, that I know by heart (and is so basic, I never even think of it. It would kind of like being asked to define the difference between something like transitive and causative cases in a sports journalism interview). After it finally sunk in that I was panicking because I really really hate gauntlet interviews, I just ended it. In spite of that, they really insisted on scheduling me for a second barrage. I politely declined.

Gauntlet interviews suck. They are an artifact of the old dot-boom days when you couldn't find a decent admin among all of the wanna-be's (and that included the ones with certifications). You have one to three recruiter/hr droid screenings, then you get a first technical screening (usually with someone who is never going to work with you). Then you have the two to six phone screenings from various functional groups barraging you with questions outside of your immediate area of knowledge. Then you start on the inperson interviews, sometimes going on as long as three full days before an offer is made. Then there is the negotiation phase. All of this is designed to find out how well the person will do under stress, and if they are a perfect fit for the interviews' work environment. In practice, only the ones most desperate for a job ever complete the process, and to be honest, nobody is perfect for a work environment that has to heap that much stress on you to get the job, much less hold it.

A few minutes after that I called up my old ISP and asked them to renew my service, because I had finally:

1. Gotten through the dispute process with the phone company, which took 4 months to get credit for a mis-billing.
2. Tried some other connectivity solutions, and they all sucked.
3. Was wanting something easy and constructive to do while having breakfast on what would normally be one of my days off.

I got my service turned back on, and also had an interview with the owner. Apparently, he was handling phones that morning and was simultaneously going through resumes for a part time sysadmin job there. I had actually submitted a resume, but did not know whether they had the hours or pay to cover what I would need out of part time work- the crux being survival until a second or third contract comes in. I don't really have any idea how it went, but I definitely liked it better than the one that started my day. Regardless, the neighborhood is going to have another open access point up in a few days, which is a bonus :)