It was me.

I had my interview at The School and I think it went exceptionally well. A few highpoints:

There were some 450 applications of which I am one of 4 or 5 that are being interviewed.

When the Manager took the position, the Help Desk was somewhat directionless. She has been moving towards a more customer service oriented operation which fits perfectly with my Help Desk philosophy.

She knows someone I know from another department and described him as "our best customer."

The Senior Consultant worked with my brother in-law.

The wife of the UNIX Engineering Manager works with my wife in a different department of The School.

All these connections were discovered after I made the "Final Four" on the strengths of my qualifications. These personal connections can only help to seal the deal.

The Purchasing Director recognized the Illuminiti tie-tack I was wearing. One of the Consultants also recognized it.

When the Senior Consultant was doing the first pass through the hundreds of applications, he saw that I had earned my Eagle Award in the Boy Scouts and on that alone flagged my resume for further attention. When I had been reworking my resume, my wife wondered if it was important and suggested I leave it out because it was from over 20 years ago. I insisted on including it and that decision has paid off.

The Network Manager had a sheet of networking questions. Things like "What is the difference between a switch and a router" and "What is IP?" I didn't do so well because, and I warned him about this in advance, I have worked with networks but have been out of practice. When I didn't answer the way he seemed to want he recited from memory answers that sounded right out of a textbook. Clearly, he was not focusing on the Help Desk philosophy. He also didn't seem too pleased with my lack of Linux experience.

It was immediately after that that I spoke with the Senior Consultant. "Did he ask you the 20 questions?" Apparently that sheet is a standard procedure of his and the Senior Consultant didn't seem too concerned (or impressed). As to Linux, the other Consultant in that interview said that he was hired with zero Linux experience but he learned it pretty quick.

The UNIX Manager also had the same sort of opinion of my lack of Linux experience and said that it is pretty much like Windows except that things are named differently and do things differently. That might not sound encouraging but, as with all OS systems, knowing that there is an analog makes it merely a matter of time to learn the nuances. He gave me a disk with a Knoppix version of Linux. This is a version that runs from the CD so it doesn't need to be installed, and also accesses the disk read-only so you can really work and navigate with the disk you have without risk. An excellent learning tool.

Almost everyone asked the standard question about why I wanted to leave my current position. I said that there were no opportunities for advancement, that I had gone about as far as I could and that I had not gotten a raise in three years. The Company had made a financial blunder back then and the employees were made to pay for it with a salary freeze. "That sucks!" the Help Desk Manager said.

"Yes. Yes, it does."

She said that they were going to interview 2 or maybe 3 other people this week. They would get people together to hammer out a decision on Monday and I should be hearing one way or the other after that. Probably Wednesday. When she first talked about how the process would go, it seemd like I would be brought in for another interview with the Department Manager. But at the end of the day it sounded more like that meeting would be more of a formality than a decision-making interview. Perhaps it was only an impression brought on by my good mood but I think that I really, really fit well into her idea of what she wants for the Help Desk. Whenever she spoke about her plans, I wanted to raise my hand and say, "Yea, that me."