Justin, the campus director, addressed the entire squad today. We rarely get a speech from the head honcho–one welcoming soliloquy on the first day and the occasional off-the-cuff when Caitie was out of the building and a company was in for a showcase. Though brief, his talks have always had a clear and practiced structure to them. The point of this one: everyone needs to chill out.
The vibe at Tech Elevator since the matchmaking has been intense and strange. And it’s a vibe that Justin has experienced twice before. It’s not too bad yet, but the storm is brewing. The rumors are flying–somewhere between eight and ten people have heard back from companies in one way or another. Those who have not heard anything are doing their best to remain cool.
As Justin’s speech gave way to Caitie’s presentation on what to do follow-up-wise with the companies from matchmaking, Jason sat next to me with his eyes closed, breathing deeply. When there was a pause in Caitie’s presentation, I leaned over and asked, “Are you ok, buddy?”
He said he wasn’t. Why, he wondered, when a third of the group got a callback, he hadn’t. Had he said something wrong in the interviews? Did he screw them all up?
It made me feel terrible. The thing is, Jason is a really, really good coder. I hit him up for help all the time. He’ll certainly be snatched up by a company, and when he does, he’ll be extraordinary, particularly for a junior level programmer. But I know it doesn’t seem like that to him now.
All of us are experiencing more than our fair share of anxiety this week. Those of us fortunate enough to get an early callback had some of that burden lifted from our shoulders. The bad thing is, that weight was put directly onto the shoulders of our comrades.
From Retail to Programming 