The corrosion of Aaron Stone

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Job Hunting

I’ve been interviewing all week with small and large firms in the San Jose / Silicon Valley area for work as a Software Engineer. Interviewing is a lot of fun – dress just slightly better than the firm you’re walking into, but not too much better, else they’ll think you’re a business person and not an engineer – get tons of adrenaline flowing but stay calm and try not to forget everything you learned in school (which you’ll inevitably be asked to draw out on the nearest whiteboard) – and, most importantly, don’t forget to interview them! The company wants someone who wants to be there, so you have to ask a lot of questions about the company to see if you do want to be there. What’s their management style? How well funded are they? Are they turning a profit on current products? How many people work there? Is there a program in place to reward extra effort that you put into projects? Do they order in dinner on the late work nights before a major product launch? And when it’s over, don’t tarry, just thank them, give an honest impression if you liked the work place, and be sure to follow up in 2-3 days.