How I started working for REAL Software

So here's a cute story which some of you may find amusing. It's the story of how I came to start working for REAL Software.

I had been papering the United States with applications for a few weeks, applying for any jobs that looked remotely interesting. I was mainly looking for a Windows programming position which would require Win32 API knowledge and not MFC or VB. On average, I was putting in about a dozen applications a day.

Then, one night at around 9pm, I get a phone call from a guy named Geoff wanting to discuss a position at a company called REAL Software. The first question he asked me was "how familiar are you with what we do?" Heh, I had no idea. I didn't even recall which company that was because it could have been one of a number for the last few days. :-P So Google to the rescue! I had about an hour-long chat with Geoff about the company, the product and the job. He told me that I could expect a phone call the next day from one of the engineers for a phone interview. Awesome! Second level interviews are a good sign.

So I got a good night's rest, was awake bright and early the next day so I wouldn't be goggy on the phone. About 9am I get a phone call from a guy named Cortis. We have about an hour long phone interview with some very standard programming questions. He basically wanted to make sure I knew my way around C++ and general logic problems. The interview was a breeze. He said that someone would contact me for the next step. What that "next step" was, I guessed it would be a face to face interview or an offer.

Instead, an hour later, I got a call from a guy named Joe. He was also an engineer, and he had about an hour's worth of questions to ask me. A lot of his questions were more theoretical. "How would you solve this" and "what pattern would you use here" type of questions. I finished that interview and was rather pleased that I did so well on no notice.

Then I got another call, this time from a guy named William. He was quiet, but had a ton of Windows programming questions. Up until this point, no one had asked me any Win32-specific questions, which I found to be rather surprising. William made up for it. His interview was shorter, only about a half hour. But still rather hair-raising since it was my third interview for the day.

You'd think I'd be done by this point, but alas, Mars called me after William was done. (Keep in mind, I've had no information about what's going on at this point -- these are just random calls). His questions were by far the worst. He had me good and scared at one point, but revealed that no one had gotten his question right. I was at least as good as everyone else. :-)

Phew! Four engineering interviews in one day. I was fairly well exhausted from all of them. The last phone call I got was from Geoff. I thought, "surely I'll get an offer now. I ran the gauntlet and survived." Nope -- he wanted to fly me down for a face-to-face interview. I was supposed to go down to Austin on Saturday, hang out with guys from the office on Sunday, interview on Monday and fly back on Tuesday.

My flight on Saturday was canceled due to a gigantic snow storm which rocked Minnesota the night before and day of my flight. So I had to call Jason up to let him know that I'd be catching the 6am flight out the next morning. 6am flight time equates to about a 3am wake-up time because of the drive and the lines. So early, early early on Sunday morning, dad drives me down to the Cities. I get in to the airport, and get on my first plane. I was supposed to meet a connector in Chicago at about 9am, and then get into Austin by noon. Instead, I sat on the runway in MSP for an hour. Then we had to change planes -- mechanical problems. The next plane we got into was also delayed due to mechanical problems. Only this time, they told us what the problem was: they needed to reattach the cockpit window. Let me restate that slower. They. Need to. REATTACH. The friggin cockpit WINDOW. Um... ok, so if we can fix that without moving people to a third plane... that makes me wonder what the heck was wrong with the first one!

So we wait for about another hour. At this point, I'm pretty mad because my connecting flight was leaving Chicago before I was even in the air at Minnesota. So I called Jason up again and told him I was running late at the airport. He laughed and said not a problem.

We finally get into the air, and have a rather uneventful flight into Chicago. Except for the landing. You see, weather travels west to east in these parts. That huge snow storm which hit MN was in Chicago. We "landed" at O'Hare. And by "landed", I really mean "we eventually slid to a stop because of friction."

Ok, fine -- missed my connector by about two hours. No big deal. Got onto the next plane, which was a layover of about 2 hours. So I'm basically running 4 hours late at this point, not counting time in the air. So I landed in Chicago around 10am, waited until noon for my flight to Austin, which is a 3.5 hour flight. Get onto that airplane, which is of course delayed due to snow. They had such a mess with planes and snow plows on the runways that we sat on the tarmac for yet another hour. Finally, about 1:30 or so, the flight takes off. 3.5 hours later, I land in Austin.

And they lost my luggage.

You knew that was coming, right? All those plane changes and delays and such...

So I get into Austin, and I realize that I checked everything. Everything. EVERYTHING. I didn't even have a change of clothes. So my first excursion into Austin was with Jason, Mike and Jason's wife to a WalMart so that I could get a change of clothes and a toothbrush. They asked if I wanted to go out for dinner, and my prompt reply was "I want to go to my hotel and hang myself in the shower."

The plan for the next morning was to be picked up by Lorin and David at about 8:30 so we could be to the office at 9. So I was awake at 7am, and ready to go! I hung out in the lobby of my hotel (where they were supposed to meet me), and didn't start to worry until 9. Then, about 9:15-9:30, Dave comes and grabs me from the lobby. No one warned me that Lorin was a racecar driver in a past life. I honestly thought I was going to die before I'd even get to the office.

We get to the office (which at this time was Geoff's house), and I finally get to meet everyone. It was a relatively uneventful day (by comparison) that I spent mostly writing code with various engineers. Then 4pm rolls around and Cortis hands me a "little test" and says "I'll be working a bit late tonight, so don't feel like you have to be done at 5, you can take until like 5:30 or so."

This "little test" was the computer science GRE (which is an 8 hour test that most people study for months to prepare for).

It's a good thing that I have a sense of humor, and so does Cortis. I completed the first few pages before handing it back to him and saying "that's as done as I'm going to do." Turns out he gave me the test as a joke to see how well I'd handle having strange and impossible tasks thrown at me. I'm not entirely certain he was expecting me "I could give a shit" response, but honestly, after the ordeal it took to get to the face-to-face interview, I didn't even care anymore.

So that night, I went out to dinner with Geoff and his wife. I thought, "ok, after all that, this is the part where he offers me millions of dollars to come work for him." We went to Hut's hamburger joint down on 6th (delicious burgers, I might add). After dinner had completed and he was getting ready to drop me off at my hotel, I finally blurted out, "when will I find out about the position?"

Geoff's answer: "In two weeks. We're flying another candidate down tomorrow."

Oh dear god... you mean, after all that crap, I *still* didn't know if I had the job or not?

So Tuesday morning comes, and as I am waiting for my cabby to arrive to pick me up and bring me to the airport, a curious thing happens. My cabby has my luggage. They finally got my luggage, and it just so happens that the guy who was picking me up was also dropping off my luggage. Go figure.

My flight back was really easy (no lost luggage because I didn't check it, no delays, nothing). When people asked me "how did your interview go?" they received a glare for a response.

After all that monkey business, it turns out that I was the best candidate for the job and so that's why you're stuck with me. Just be happy I accepted -- after such an ominous process of trying to get the job, I honestly had second thoughts about accepting it! :-)

I've been with REAL Software for five years now, and it's been an awesome experience. I'm glad I took the job, even if I had to endure hell to get it.