Well, I just got back from a 28-hour excursion to Austin, TX.  I’ve been to Austin before, but not like this… usually it’s for Cowboy Band stuff, but this time I was on my own, headed for two interviews in the North Austin area.  Crazy?  Maybe.

I left Thursday at about 7:30 PM and checked-in to a hotel a little after midnight.  I booked the hotel before I left on Hotwire.com (which was super easy), and I got a pretty good rate for a decent room.  This, in and of itself, was great because that’s something I’d never done.  I’ve never traveled to another city and stayed in a hotel by myself, so this was yet another experience that made me feel more “grown up” (I’ve had a lot of those lately).  I stayed up a little longer to do some research on the companies I’d be interviewing with in the morning, and then crashed.

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I got up in the morning and was ready at 11:00 AM for my first interview with company A.  Company A is looking for a front-end web developer to implement their product on client websites (though, they give this position the fancy title of “Implementation Engineer”, which I think I like better).  I met with a panel, then a group of two for a “culture interview”, then with one guy for a “technical interview”, and finally with two of the managers of different divisions there.  I think the interviews went really well; I feel like I made a positive impression with everybody I interviewed with, and I had fun at the same time.  I was there for about 2 hours, yet it didn’t really feel like that, though I’m not sure if it’s because I was enjoying the interview or if I was just so nervous I didn’t feel the time flying by.  After finishing up at company A, I had just enough time to grab a chicken salad sandwich combo from Chick-fil-a before going to my 2:00 PM interview with company B.

As a sidenote, can I just mention how elated I was to discover that my favorite item on the Chick-fil-a menu has finally become a combo meal?  I’ve always loved the chicken salad sandwich, so much so in fact that once (I think I was 10 years old?), my mother asked what I wanted from Chick-fil-a (and for some reason we hadn’t had it for awhile)… I told her I wanted “the Chick-fil-a sandwich”, and I was shocked when she brought back a regular chicken sandwich!  I had believed until that point that the chicken salad sandwich was THE Chick-fil-a sandwich!  Anyways, combo #7 has instantly become my favorite combo number.

Company B is entirely different sort of company and as such the job there would be totally different.  However, they’re looking for a junior web developer (they’re expecting to have to teach stuff), so it would be a great learning experience.  On the other side of that, I would have to be learning a lot, because I don’t have much experience in the platforms they use.  The interview was with one person, and was interesting; he had me work through solving a logic puzzle, and though he had to guide me a little to the correct answer, I found the answer pretty easy once it was revealed.  I’ll type out the puzzle at the bottom of this post and you see if you can figure it out.  Anyways, I think the interview here went well, but we’ll find out soon because I should hear either way from both of these companies next week.

After finishing my last interview, I found somewhere to get out of my suit into normal clothes (I didn’t see a single person wearing a suit all day), and called up an old friend from high school that just graduated from UT.  We had dinner at Hula Hut, and once again I’m going to digress to talk about food.  The Cowboy Band eats at the Hula Hut every year following the Chuy’s Children’s Parade, but we always get the same shortened menu, and when I say shortened menu, I mean there’s like 4 or 5 items to pick from on there.  So, this was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to go to Hula Hut and order off the regular menu, though I didn’t really need the menu; I already knew what I wanted.  Every year CBB went there, and every year I saw someone (not with us) get a sizzling plate of fajitas topped with… pineapple.  Crazy, right?  NO.  AMAZING. I’m not kidding; today I think I ate some of the best fajitas I’ve ever had the opportunity to digest.

IMG_0032 I hit the road at about 7:30 PM once again and got back to Abilene a little after midnight.  It’s late and I’m running out of things to write about, but it was an interesting day for sure, and I’ll be sure to post here if I get a job!

Logic Puzzle:

You’ve got 8 balls, all the same size/shape/weight except for one that’s defective and weighs less.  You have a balance scale; use the scale to find the defective ball in only two weighings.  Note: you cannot cheat by just holding them and feeling the weight difference.