I went to my interview. It was an interview as well, it said “chat” on the invite but never mind. Me and three guys who I would be working with if I got the job.

I think I did OK, we gelled at least a bit and I managed to break things down a bit by stumbling into discussions they were having and joining in. They were a fairly diverse group, one was clearly a programmer and asked me lots of tricky Java questions, none of which I really fumbled too badly, although it’s hard to tell. The other two seemed more in the admin side of things. I think I was OK there as well, I admitted that although I was experienced as a Windows user I’m not the greatest Windows admin, which I suspect may cause weaken my chances.

Overall I think I came across as a developer who’s a competent administrator in a small way. I made the point that IMHO a good admin is an internally focussed developer, which I hope went down well. I’m not sure if I will get the job, they have other candidates and they may be looking for somebody more on the admin side. The one question I did fail on was “Can you make network cables?” but how hard can it be? Fiddle fiddle, *crunch*, presto. I’d certainly be willing to learn.

Before I went I felt that whether I wanted the job or not would be decided by the level of opportunity for personal advancement. After talking to the programmer guy I feel confident that there’s a lot that I could learn from him and in the setting he and the other guys are in. That means I think I would be happy to do the job, plus the it seems fairly varied which will make it easier to move into it from freelance. As long as they let me use Vi.