Jason Rodriguez - The Moose in the Closet: New Beginnings: The Interview

Christmas came and went – my family got along really well with Robin’s family. Apparently there was a rumor going around in my family that I was going to propose to Robin this weekend – suckers. Seven years strong, bitch! No, no – for the record, if anyone cares, we both decided to wait until Robin finishes school because I sure as hell ain’t planning a wedding and she just doesn’t have the time now. So, it’s either be engaged for three years or wait another year-and-a-half (although, I likely won’t wait a whole year-and-a-half anyway).

Anyway, Christmas was good. Got plenty of fun stuff – got a Sirius radio set up and a home kit, plenty of new shirts, a couple of video games, some DVDs. The nice thing about having Christmas with the two families is not only do I get Robin’s gifts (and we ALWAYS spoil each other) but I get gifts from my parents, my sister, Robin’s parents and Robin’s sister – that’s a good Christmas. The tree was packed with presents for everybody and although I didn’t get Robin an engagement ring, I got her a Coach bag to go with all the little things which, in the end, is what she’d rather have anyway.

Hope you all had a good holiday. I’ll be back in NY Tuesday. I might take G to the Buzzscope drink-up and meet some cats, play some poker some other night and then New Years at my boy Colin’s house followed by bar-hopping on Smith Street. But I’ll be checking in here everyday to drop a story and some words and some of them – they’re going to be pretty revealing.

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I went on several pre-interviews when I was in college. Various companies would come in and do quick 15-minute interviews to gauge how good you were at lying about your qualifications so you can get a real interview. Out of three pre-interviews I didn’t get a single invitation for a real interview. Same with job fairs – talked to plenty of people, got plenty of business cards and shook tons of hands – dropped off my resume and never heard from anyone.

It was the GPA – when you’re graduating college all you really have is your GPA – the ability of schmooze could technically get you in but you need to find the right people and have enough time to make it work. I wasn’t having much luck – so I signed on with a headhunter.

I got a couple of calls here and there but nothing really panned out. I was trying to stay in Boston and those were the most contested jobs – no-one wanted to leave Boston. I mainly wanted to stay around because Robin was doing another year of school and I didn’t want to risk losing her during a years worth of long distancing. But the head hunter got a hit for me in Washington DC doing work for an acoustic company (which is what I was doing my research in) and paying the high end of what I was asking for. He also sold it well – he told me I’d be a NASA contractor and, having no idea what the fuck that meant, I heard the word “NASA” and rolled with – told all of my friends and family I was interviewing with NASA.

I have an hour long phone interview with this guy David and it seems to be going well – he finally invites me down to DC to interview. I agree to come down and he tells me to book the airfare and they’ll reimburse me. I stall for a moment and say, “OK”, hang up the phone and try to figure out how the fuck I was going to afford airfare.

In college I had no money and a credit card with a five-hundred dollar limit. I found airfare for around three-bills and almost maxed out my lone credit card to book it. The day of the interview came and I was looking fly in my DKNY suit, sunglasses on and a fresh haircut. Robin was primping me up, wishing me luck and I was feeling confident as all hell.

I fly into Dulles airport in Northern Virginia, get off the plane and look for the limo driver with the white poster-board that says, “Jason”. I don’t see him so I find a pay phone and call David who says he’s glad I made it in and to get a cab and ride it on over to the address.

Suffice to say at this moment I realized the interview process was nothing at all like I imagined it to be.

I guess I just expected them to make a big deal about me and, you know, make it convenient and easy for me – impress me a little bit. I was broke – I hailed a cab and hoped the twenty bucks I had in my pocket was enough to get me to the interview since I had no other cash to fall back on. I get into the cab and go happy when I realize that they take credit cards – the cab ride cost enough to truly max out my credit card but at least I got to the place.

The cab driver has no idea where I’m going, or so he claims, he makes several wrong turns and continuously consults his map. This was out in McLean, Virginia – not a well known part of town for the cab drivers, I’d imagine, and I was on an obscure street.

When I pull up to the office I instantly know where I am. Across the street was the Hilton I stayed in during my sixth grade trip to Washington DC. I kind of believe in omens and I took that as a good one. I go up to the office and the receptionist instantly strikes me as a mildly retarded woman with a cat obsession who won’t shut the fuck up – later on I’ll realize how wrong I was - she’s fully retarded.

The receptionist is making me nervous with all of these idiotic questions she’s asking me and awkward attempts at small talk. David finally comes into the lobby, shakes my hand and asks me if I want to get some lunch. We exit the building and he starts listing off what’s around.

“Let’s see. There’s a sandwich shop next door. Another one across the street. The Hilton has food. Or we can drive to the mall and eat in the food court.”

I was getting pretty frustrated at this point but I thought of the money and pushed on.

We ate at the Hilton and it was pretty cool – I remembered the inside of it so well from when I was there in the sixth grade. The two of us just shot the shit for a little bit, David was likely one of the biggest dorks I ever met. There’s a huge difference between school dorks and working adult dorks – a whole new level of sadness to them. But I’m cordial and don’t let my diagnosis of dorkiness affect the interview more than it should.

After lunch we go back to the office to start the interview process. First it’s sort of a gangbang – several guys from the company sit opposite me in a large conference room and take turns throwing questions out at me. They’re interested in the research I’m doing and it turns out one of the guys interviewing me is good friends with my mentor – that’s a breather right there.

I get through the group interview well and they all start to pass me around and talk with me one-on-one, showing me demos of their products, the labs and introducing me to all of the employees. The HR chick goes over the benefits with me and I have no idea what the fuck she’s talking about. All I know is that they sound good, mainly because she’s smiling while she tells them to me and she’s wicked cute.

When it’s all said and done I say my goodbyes and hope a cab back to the airport, use the last of my cash to get there. I thought the whole process would take a lot longer than it did, the flight home I booked didn’t leave for another three hours. But I called Robin, told her how it went – she was excited even though in a way you can tell she didn’t want me to move to DC about as much as I didn’t want to go out there. But I needed a job – I needed to get some money – and it’s hard to argue against that.

But the interview went well, no denying that, and I was talking to Robin on the phone the idea that our relationship was coming to an end was already starting to sink in.

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New Beginnings: The Interview

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

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