So last week I lost my man purse which contained my TI-89 calculator and travel charger for my laptop, amongst other things. I knew I had taken it to my first class that morning and was fairly sure I took it out of that classroom. But after that, I had no idea where I might have left the bag. Ugh.

Then, a stroke of genius. I remembered that my second class of that day is videotaped for remote students. Luckily, I always sit in the front row of that class, so I am always visible on the lecture videos. I quickly surfed to the video lecture site and opened up the lecture on the day I lost my bag. I saw myself walk in, with the bag (woo hoo!), set it under the desk, and, when the lecture was over, stand up and walk out without the bag.

Yes!!!!

So now I knew where EXACTLY I left my bag and focused my search to that building. After a day of searching through the building's many lost and founds, I finally found my bag sitting in the ACM room.

The internet is...amazing.

So I was in rscchat yesterday having a little debate with some other RSC employees about religion. Those of us against religion, of course, came down hard against religion and demanded that those who argued against us give us good reason to believe what they claimed. Of course, the chat got heated and eventually, the religious folks used the words "open minded" against us, claiming that by rejecting their beliefs, we were contradicting our own beliefs as Freethinkers. How dare we so callously and rudely reject their ideas. Our minds were clearly shut to the idea of religion.

Well, it's a silly argument. Being "open minded" doesn't mean you must accept anything as possible. That would be a pretty crappy way of living. Imagine if you generally accepted any idea that someone posited. "The sky is green and your name is Dave," someone might say. Does that mean that I should seriously consider that the sky is green and that my name is Pat and question all the evidence I already have leading me to believe those things are true? No.

What being open-minded means is listening to evidence of new theories and weighing against existing evidence for old ones. If someone claimed the sky was green, had a photograph to show it and flipped to a news station reporting the same, I would be more swayed. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of God, and therefore I can reject religious claims out of hand. To me, it's just like someone claiming they have an invisible friend Peter standing next to them. I refuse to accept that hypothesis without some shred of evidence.

So yes, I am open-minded, but that doesn't mean I have to listen to your drivel about Jesus dying on the cross for me. Sheesh.

As many people already know, this week I had my on-site interview with Microsoft at their Redmond campus in Washington. I thought I'd give a quick run down of what my experience was like so that others can have a better idea what to expect.

The Build-Up

First, let me say that Microsoft was just awesome about everything concerning my trip. I set up my trip a couple weeks in advance for two nights and three days. They flew me out of Champaign to Chicago on American Eagle (pretty much your only choice) and then to Seattle on Alaska Airlines. Despite my complete unawareness of the existence of Alaska Airlines, the flight was great. All the seats were leather and mine was by the window. I saw, probably, the most beautiful aerial landscapes my eyes had ever beheld just east of Seattle. The mountains and sunset were gorgeous. If only I had my camera. Upon arrival, I picked up my Chevy Cobalt which was waiting for me (also on Microsoft's dime) and drove to the hotel where I learned that anything except alcohol and movies were paid for by Microsoft. I was, um, titilated. So much so, I accidentally ordered $38 in chinese food my first night.

My excitement, however, quickly turned to fear. I started looking up some sample interview questions in my hotel room on my blazing fast "high speed" internet connection in the room (yeah, right). Anyway, I suddenly felt completely unprepared. I knew I wanted this job, but all my projects had precluded me from studying as much as I wanted. Every sample problem I couldn't get caused by heart to sink further and further. I vigorously studied, crammed and fell asleep in the king size bed a nervous wreck sure of failure the next day.

Well, I woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep. I'd never been nervous for an interview before, but unlike past interviews, I really wanted this job and was scared I'd look like a fool. I drove off to the Microsoft campus early determined to walk around a bit and hang out to calm my nerves. At the building I was told to go to, Microsoft had a Surface to play with and Rock Band set up. Some of the other candidates, the MS concierge (who was reallllly nice and helpful), and I fooled around for about an hour on the devices and had a blast. I'd never played drums on Rock Band before and the concierge said I was pretty good for a beginner. It was fun.

Then, right on time I met Amy, my campus recruiter. She brought me back to her office and sort of told me what to expect for the rest of the day. She said I would be in three to five interviews and that I would be meeting with the Windows Live people as I requested. We chatted a while about miscellaneous things and I felt a lot calmer after leaving her office. She bade me farewell and I hopped in a Microsoft shuttle off to the RedWest campus.

The Interviews

I won't say exactly what happened in the interviews because it probably wouldn't be fair, but I'll go over the kinds of people I talked to and a general idea about what to expect.

My first interview was with a Lead Developer on the WIndows Live Toolbar team. He was a veteran of Microsoft having worked on PhotoDraw (which was one of my all-time favorite MS applications) and MSN Messenger before working on Toolbar. I got there about 15 minutes early, so we had a whole bunch of time to sort of shoot the breeze and talk about random trivia. We discussed both of our expereinces with software for about half an hour and then the technical questions began. My first question was to recreate a function out of the C standard library which was supposed to be an easy warmup question. I talked out what I thought my solution should be, revised it as I thought out loud, and drew it up on the whiteboard (making sure to get my C syntax correct). I pretty much nailed it, I think, and was also able to modify it when the interviewer changed the problem. With our remaining time, the interviewer gave me a quick brain teaser which I was able to solve and then we discussed the code check-in, build, and bug tracking systems MIcrosoft uses. They were pretty damn cool. After about an hour, I got passed on to the next guy.

This interview was a lunch interview, so the first half was spent eating from Microsoft's cafeteria for free! Woo hoo! I had Mahi Mahi, which I'd never had before and it was really tasty. This guy worked on the SkyDrive team and we talked a lot about the history of Windows Live. It was pretty interesting. As soon as we got back into his office, I got what I thought was probably the hardest question of the day. Let me just say, know your data structures before you interview. Hash tables and linked lists are important. Coming out of that interview, I was a little down. I felt like I really hadn't done well, even though I eventually got an acceptable answer. I was scared.

My next interviewer was like a breath of fresh air. He worked on the FolderShare team, which gives him tons of points in my book. I love that product. But he was really cool and seemed like he was very willing to help me out as I went through the problem he gave me. I ended up with a solution I was pretty proud of and felt much better about myself. Then I was told I'd be seeing my fourth interviewer and I did a mental happy dance because this meant I wouldn't be seeing the minimum number of interviewers (A Bad Thing).

My fourth interview was a bit different than the others. My first question was a SQL question (whoa!) which, thanks to my recent SQL work, I nailed. We then went on to linked list and data parsing questions which I found challenging but doable. I ended the interview pretty satisfied that I'd done well. And then it was off to my final interview.

This one was out in left field and I knew it would be the minute I saw my interviewer come down the stairs not wearing any shoes. We walked up to his office and traded a couple jokes. As soon as we got in the office and I sat down at the table, the interviewer introduced himself as a GM (A Good Thing) and he informed me that he could ask me any number of techical questions, but that he wouldn't. I was confused for a moment, and then he said the magic words, "Because you'll definitely be getting an offer from Microsoft."

:-D

I was outrageously happy, especially considering my nervousness the night before. The rest of the interview was a whirlwind of Windows Live philosophy and "inside Microsoft" type stuff. To be honest, I was so happy, I couldn't have cared less what we talked about. If it was socially acceptable to do a jig, I would have.

My Tips

Given that I was lucky enough to get an offer, I thought I'd give a few tips that I think helped me:

• Dress comfortably. The last thing you want is pit stains from sweating under the pressure. Plus, everybody else is dressed that way (see my comment about the GM with no shoes). I wore a button down shirt and khakis and felt a bit overdressed.
• Know your stuff, but don't go crazy. I was freaked out that I would be expected to give complete solutions off the top of my head, but it was way more of a process. The interviewer would give me a question and we'd talk through the answer together. Anytime I felt stuck, I could count on the interviewer to push me in the right direction and it helps a lot more than you might think.
• Be yourself and be casual. I tried to make a lot of jokes and talk about myself open and honestly. I didn't come in with "talking points" or anything, I just said what felt natural. Nobody there is out to get you.
• They want to hire you. Microsoft wouldn't have spent $2000 or more to fly you out if they weren't interested in the first place. Know this and use it. Don't feel scared, you've already gone through the biggest screening process. Nobody is there to trick you into messing up the interview.
• The questions were almost all technical. I didn't get any phoney baloney questions about how to estimate the number of cars in Las Vegas or anything like that. All my questions were technical (i.e. coding questions) aside from one mathey problem. But nothing abstract and weird.
• They do talk about you behind your back. As you shuffle between interviewers, they seem to know more and more about you as you go on. They must e-mail each other or something while you wait. Just be aware of this. They aren't psychic.
• Relax and enjoy it. At the very least you got a trip to one of the most beautiful cities in the country. Take it in. It's awesome.

Welcome to my personal insanity.