It's Amazing

It's amazing how much less stress is involved in a job interview when you don't actually want the job to begin with.

My Skype with the architectural firm went really well. I have an in-person interview scheduled for next week.

In the interim, one of the multitude of blind, generic, desktop support positions I have applied for over the past month finally got back to me.

Turns out it was with a large, well-known national insurance company. Not my first choice, but I agreed to the interview, even though with the possibilities of the architectural firm looming large, I really did not want the job. But I also viewed it as practice for the important interview next week.

First bad vibe was the campus itself. It was like a military installation. The guard at the entrance had a RIFLE slung over his shoulder. Seriously?

"Do you have any weapons in your car?"

Only my farts, I thought. As Ben can attest, those can be deadly.

There were cameras everywhere. I thought DISH was bad. I guess a hell of a lot more people get angry at their insurance company than their television provider.

I met with the department manager (who was ten minutes late) and two potential peers. As we were waiting for the manager to arrive the peers were chatting with the HR Admin and said, "Yeah, this is number four today."

Already just a number.

First thing the manager pointed out was that since this was a contract position, I'd have to wait six months before coming back for a second gig.

Dude, I'm already turned off to this place. Are you trying to make it worse?

I answered all the technical and customer service related questions to their satisfaction, but I could tell the manager had reservations. I'm sure he took one look at me and thought, "old man" because he made a point of letting me know—more than once—that "This is a really big building and there's a lot of walking involved. We rarely do anything remotely, preferring to go deskside when possible so the end-users get to know us." He then pointed out that they "regularly lift 25-35 points of equipment and transport it from one end of the building to the other. "With the walking and lifting are you up to that?"

My first thought:

I told him I was, but it was obvious the interview was already over after only 20 minutes. I asked a couple bullshit questions about size of the department and what types of software I'd be supporting and then we all said our goodbyes.

And I DID. NOT. CARE.