Friday the 17th of June. Woke up at 6am for the 8am interview. First half of the day was filled with 3 interviews: a behavioral one, a technical one, and a decision-making one. Met with 5 different people. For lunch, they took me out for lunch at a Tai restaurant, brilliantly choosing two younger people to take me out. They told me “now is the time you can ask us any questions you wouldn’t want to ask the ‘older guys'” Then we somehow ended up talking about hunting for about 20 minutes.
I was feeling pretty good until lunch, and through it too, but afterwards I felt the worst jet lag come on, coming from Toulouse, where they are on GMT+1, and I was in time zone GMT-8. For mathematically challenged (or if you’re just lazy), that’s 9 hrs of change, effects made “better” by the food being digested in my stomach. On the ride back, I nearly fell asleep in the back seat of the guy’s car, and felt like I was dreaming walking back into the building. I made myself the biggest cup of coffee I have ever made in my life.. since I don’t drink coffee.. it was supposed to make me feel back to normal. haha. more like drugged up.
The afternoon was rounded off by 2 other interviews, during which I hoped I was at least somewhat coherent. Looking around me in the canteen (that’s where all of the interview was held – and I even mentioned to the interviewers how nontraditional that was, but cool.. it made the whole experience less nerve-wracking and more natural, they just said they ran out of conference rooms ..), there were about a dozen other interviews going on just in the one section of the room I was in.
During my bathroom break before the last interview, I walked by an interview pair, where the interviewee looked like he was minorly constipated, he was so nervous. Also, the contrast between the interviewer and the interviewee was huge, the younger, new grad-looking interviewee in a tie and crispy white shirt, dress pants, shiny shoes. The interviewer, older, slightly weathered guy, no tie, comfy pants, relaxed posture.. It was quite amusing to watch.
At the end of the questions, I was lead out by the last interviewer, a very intelligent but kind of quiet Indian lady. Collapsing on a stone bench a little off to the side of the entrance, I breathed hard, heaving kind of a sigh of relief, whew, it’s over.. now the wait begins.