An Interview with Madison

As you all know, I had an interview in Madison this week.  I was flown up on Wednesday and then did a full day of interviewing at the company on Thursday.  And because I'm sure you're all very interested, I'll tell ya what I did...

First off a small note on airports.  I had a short layover in Detroit on the way up and another in Chicago on the way back.  The Detroit airport is very nice and so is the one in Madison.  I could tell that Chicago O'Hare was older, but it was still nice.  However, St. Louis Lambert compared poorly to all of these places.  I think its in the middle of a renovation, but it still looked sorry.  Detroit was newer and had tons of those motorized walkways.  I love walking on those.  I feel so fast.  Though there was an uncomfortable moment when riding on it reminded me of how the vampires 'walk' in Twilight.  (Yeah, it was a pretty bad effect.  But then, that movie was in general.)

Once I got to Madison, I went to the hotel the company put me up in.  Very nice.  Called The Edgewater.  And my room was literally on the water's edge.  My window looked out onto one of the two lakes near Madison, and right below the waves crashed on the rocks of the shore.  Really pretty.  And calming when I went to sleep.  I could see windsurfers and sailboats jetting around the lake, and I thought, Okay I can dig this place.

After unpacking, I went walking around the city.  I was close to downtown and I walked around (and in) the state capitol building.  And then I strolled down State Street and grabbed coffee at one of the many coffee shops.  (The mint mocha was pretty excellent, and I thought of you, Ada.)  The feel I got from downtown was very similar to downtown IC, just bigger.  It's very much a college town, but it's also a capitol and just bigger than IC.  It seemed very homey and cozy, more so than St. Louis (especially in the safety department)  but not stiflingly so.  It was also very pretty with the 2 lakes.

I could see myself possibly living there.

Well, except for the death-winter season.  That would be shit.

Wednesday night a person who works at the company took me and two other guys out to dinner.  We ate at a place right off Capitol Square.  And the food was great.  I had my first cheese curd.  (Cerasi should know what this is, but for everyone else, it's like a mozzarella stick except in the form of a ball and with cheddar cheese.  It was delicious.  But then, I'm a sucker for fried anything much less cheese.)

Later that night I went over the presentation I had to give as a part of my interview.  Let me tell you, thrilling.

That morning, I got breakfast delivered to my room.  (Also on the company tab.)  The taxi was late and I was freaking out because that meant I was gonna be late, so I called them and said I would be late while apologizing profusely.  I arrived maybe 5 minutes late, instead of my projected 10, though and they were totes cool with it.  Turns out there was another girl even later than I was.  She missed the tour.

Oh, the tour.  We popped in 3 of their 11 buildings.  I swear, I did more tromping around in my wedge heels that day than I have since I purchased them.  But whatevs, back to their 11 building campus.   The buildings are gorgeous with neat, mountain-logdge like architecture.  They have landscaped the shit out of the surrounding area.  And the interior design of each building is based on a different theme.  (which include Heaven, Jungle, New York, Dungeons and Dragons...)  Fabulous.  The more I see, the more impressed I get.

It was a long day of interviewing though.  We watched a presentation of the software they produce.  Then we talked to an actual project manager about what he does.  There was a strange interview part where another guy and I were put in a room, given a case study and given 10 minutes to analyze it and come up with suggestions.  And then the same guy asked us some random questions.  Then it was lunchies!  (Outside of which is a deck on a little pond with a waterfall running into it..)  After that I had 3 different assessment tests to take.  (Fuck me, one was math.)  Then I had to give that presentation, which I think went okay.  And finally I talked to my recruiter.  She asked a couple more situational questions (what would you do if...) and personality questions.  Then I asked questions.  And we wrapped it up.  They'll let me know within 2 weeks if I made the cut.

You'll notice there was no technical writing stuff.  That's because when they sent me the invitation email to come up to interview they screwed it up.  They put technical writer instead of project manager.  Huh.  My dad said I should send them a thank you note thanking them for interviewing me for a software engineer position.

When I asked about this during the day, my recruiter took me into her office and apologized and said that they were looking for a very specific style of writing and mine didn't seem to match.  But they thought I was strong candidate, blah, blah and they wanted me to do something else.  Well, lucky for them, I am still interested in the project manger thing.  (In fact, I thought there might have been a mix up like this since a few days before I got the invitation they called me saying I was no longer considered for writing, and if I'd still be interested in project management.)  Anyway, ballsack.

So we'll see.  I think I'd be good at project management, even though it's not what I intended to do.  And it's not like I can't write creatively on my own.  Maybe it's better to just do that.  I don't know.  Oh, and I'd be traveling 50-70% of the time.  That's a lot of goddamn travel.  In my life right now, that sounds kind of exciting.  But I don't know if I'd want to do that my whole career.  Like if I settle down and get a family and all that.  Not that I would have to worry about that now, but it's a little relevant.

So I'll let you know what they say in 2 weeks.