Well? Welllll? WELL?
I don't know. Really, I have no idea about
whether I'll get the job. I
thought the interview went reasonably well, though they asked some very hard
questions. (I admit it: I have no idea how you handle memory leaks in C++.
Fortunately, it turns out, no one else has a very good way to do it either, and
this is one of the major problems with C++. However, I probably should have known
that.) And they asked how I'd solve a problem relating to their application,
wanting to know more about my alleged math-modeling skills. (The math models I've
done in the past, though, have been simulating things like aircraft engine
crossbleed- starts or heat exchangers. Still, the basic engineering ideas should
apply.) The HR person told me I did very well, but I don't know whether she was
just being nice. (Though I'd think any reasonably good HR person would try hard to
avoid raising false hopes.)
(This is becoming a many-paragraphed
entry.)
The thing that's worrying me is not so much how I did, but
how everyone else did. They told me, when I asked, that they had interviewed
"several" other people for the job -- I figure that means at least three, likely
four or five. A lot of their questions were focused toward developing software,
even though the job ad was for a software test engineer, and it's true that if you
want a hot C++ programmer, I'm not the best person for the job. However, they may
have assumed I knew my testing and just wanted to see what else I could do -- and
if you really want someone who's flexible, who can code and test and document and
move into new areas quickly, then I'm your woman.
So I just don't
know. They're going to decide within the next few days, and have said I'll hear by
early next week. The HR person promised to let me know either way, though I've
heard that before. So now I will spend the next few days picking at my nail polish
and forcing myself to think about other things and apply for other
jobs.
It occurs to me that it may have been a mistake to tell diary
readers and everyone else I know (and my mother) about this interview; I figured
that would leave me no room to screw up, but didn't allow for the number of other
people looking for work, and thus the amount of this that's out of my control.