Jobs I Cudda Had
Jul. 16th, 2004 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisMy Mom always talks about how years ago she passed up an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of Fritoes (yeah the corn chips - the story starts at a cocktail party so I've always considered it pretty apocryphal anyway).
But, this morning on NPR, I was reminded of one of the two jobs that I sometimes wish I hadn't said no to quite so quickly.
The first one was at Amazon. Yep. Before they were 'live'. I was doing websites on my own and one of my clients wanted me to create a database of content and have the pages built on the fly. Radical back in the old days. I had ZERO clue how to do this but I had heard of this wacky guy who was building a giant on line bookstore and figured out he had to have the clue. I figured the easiest way to get the inside skippy on how he was going to tackle the problem, was to get a job interview.
So I dug up the info - seems like they had a little 'coming soon' website and sent my resume with cover email. I got a response the next day from the HR person asking me to come in for an interview. Their offices were in the south of town across the street from the old Sears and on top of the crumbling down Rodda Paint store. Seriously.
I interviewed with the baby HR boy. He looked like he was 14, acted like he was 12 but he was probably older - maybe 15 or 16. He said that the interview could not proceed until he had my SAT scores and my GPA. WTF???? I said that I was pretty sure those records were lost when the colonists took the country from the Indians. He didn't get it. And he knew nothing about the technology they were using.
But, at one point, a funny looking guy poked his head in the door to ask a question, came in and introduced himself as Jeff Bezos... excellent. He then pulled HR boy out and when HR boy came back he was now very polite and asked if I would mind chatting with Jeff a bit.
FINALLY I was going to find out about this whole database thing. (I was not then, nor am I now the quickest.)
Jeff and I chatted for a while and he wasn't giving up squat (I later found out that they were growing their own anyway). He laughed loud and hard when I told him about HR boy's requirements for my 30 year old scores. He asked me a few of the Microsoft puzzle questions. He was so nice and such a geek that when he got to talking about the various jobs he wanted me to start with, I had to fess up to my real mission. He gave me some excellent ideas for the project and we said goodbye.
I would have been Amazon's employee #15.
The NPR story this morning was about Computer Forensics. This is still a pretty small firm that does very cool stuff. In about 1995, I gave a seminar on the internet and web surfing to the local chapter of Women in Communications. I knew VERY little but they knew a whole lot less so it worked out fine. One of the people in the audience was the woman who started Computer Forensics. She was just getting the thing going and was thinking that someone with internet knowledge might be a good addition. We talked several times - she introduced me to what was then the best burger in Seattle - sadly no longer here...
But, I was really itching to work for myself and she really wanted an employee. She did hire me for a couple of small projects but then my other website clients kept me too busy to do her stuff and we kind of drifted apart. I don't regret not doing it but I do think about how cool it would have been - particularly back then when the web was simple and people had no clue how to hide stuff.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-16 11:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-16 11:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-16 11:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-16 02:13 pm (UTC)I knew you had been in the "business" for a long time, and
I'm enthralled to "know" someone working for Microsoft.
But those are great stories! (I still think the time when you were working from home in your pajamas sounds like a dream)
But...looking back now...who knows where life would have taken you?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-16 08:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-16 11:38 pm (UTC)If only there where time machines.