The Interview from Heck, à la Monty Python Videos for Engineers
Other
than the perpetually self-employed and the perpetually unemployed (aka bums), most people have been to at least
one job interview. Even after multiple interviews over many years, I was always nervous - mainly because I really
wanted the particular job being advertised - so messing up wasn't an acceptable option. Because the companies I
chose to apply with were all highly respected, there were never any instances of the interviewers being idiots or
hostile. I've been lucky. A lot of people have not been so fortunate. One person that called recently told of
being asked about how he'd approach solving a certain problem, and then the interviewer called him back again a
few days later to get additional detail about his idea for troubleshooting, ostensibly to gain more insight into
his abilities. It turns out that he thinks he solved a problem for them, and that the company was just exploiting
interviewees to get free consulting. That's the stuff of Dilbert comic strips, which, unfortunately, are largely
based on stories that Scott Adams gets from people's real-life experiences. Here is a classic Monty Python video
of an interview from Heck.
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools"
in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide
me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing
my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet)
was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity.
Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line,
and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...
Other
than the perpetually self-employed and the perpetually unemployed (aka bums), most people have been to at least
one job interview. Even after multiple interviews over many years, I was always nervous - mainly because I really
wanted the particular job being advertised - so messing up wasn't an acceptable option. Because the companies I
chose to apply with were all highly respected, there were never any instances of the interviewers being idiots or
hostile. I've been lucky. A lot of people have not been so fortunate. One person that called recently told of
being asked about how he'd approach solving a certain problem, and then the interviewer called him back again a
few days later to get additional detail about his idea for troubleshooting, ostensibly to gain more insight into
his abilities. It turns out that he thinks he solved a problem for them, and that the company was just exploiting
interviewees to get free consulting. That's the stuff of Dilbert comic strips, which, unfortunately, are largely
based on stories that Scott Adams gets from people's real-life experiences. Here is a classic Monty Python video
of an interview from Heck.
This archive links to the many video and audio
files that have been featured on RF Cafe.
