This is what I'm looking for
I almost declined their request for an interview. "Thursday morning at 9:30am? In NYC? What the hell?" And then when I read to the bottom of the e-mail, I realize its from Deloitte & Touche. "Wow! This is an awesome opportunity!" I think to myself, so I read the job description. They are looking for a person who has a duel degree in Computer Science and something in Business. Wow, yet another near perfect fit! Ok, so I accept their interview. I find out that they will be paying for all accommodations, including transportation, hotel if I need it, food, and other random stuff. "Wow, they are willing to drop money on me, they must want to talk to me!"
Ok, so this email was sent to me late Monday afternoon, meaning I had to plan out everything in a day, which may not sound too difficult but with classes and such, I was busy all Tuesday and Wednesday. I decided not to spend Wednesday night in NYC, figuring I needed to finish up some work Wednesday night and it would give me time to talk to my parents to see if they could give me advice.
So, fast forward to Thursday morning. I woke up at 5am to catch a 6:12am Acela train to NYC. This is when I regret my decision not to sleep at a hotel in NYC the night before. Not only that, it was a TERRIBLE day to be traveling, since it was rainy and windy and cold. Anyways, I get to NYC a little before 8 and I eat breakfast and such and get to the World Financial Center 40 minutes before my interview time. I spent a few moments looking across the street at Ground Zero. It was the first time I've been to the site since a few months before 9/11 and I must admit, it was really weird seeing that huge void right in the middle of the city. I saw some tourists pose near the window with ground zero in the background, and for some reason it didn't feel right. I mean, thousands of people died there, seems a little strange to be smiling and posing near it. I don't know, maybe its been too soon, maybe in the future it'll be like the Pearl Harbor museum. I took a few pictures of the site (with no posing people in it), but for some reason, I can't find it on my memory card anymore. How strange...
Anyways, I had 4 interviews while at Deloitte on Thursday. I had a feeling of confidence walking into these interviews. I did my homework on the company, I rehearsed my interview questions with my parents and with Tiffany, and I had a few good questions to ask them. All of this was for naught after the first question. The interviewer looks at my resume and after asking me what courses I've taken at UD, asks "Well, what is a linked list?" WHAT?!?! Ok, I know what a linked list is, but I wasn't ready for such a question. Why are they asking me such technical questions?? So after a slight hesitation, I give him a pretty crappy description of what a linked list is, even though I know exactly how it's implemented. He proceeds to ask me more about comp sci stuff, then eventually he describes the job and what he does. My best answer that day was when he asks me "Well, how do you feel that you won't be using your degree in Econ that much in this job?" to which I retort "Well, I still feel like I can speak to and understand business people and translate that to a more technical, IT type person to make the job more efficient." Man I'm brilliant. So, the first interview I felt was a lot like a technical skills type interview, where the interviewer tested me on my knowledge. I think I did OK on this interview, I was a little shocked at first but I think I recovered well.
The 2nd interview was more of the traditional type. She asked a lot of the questions I had rehearsed before that day. Stuff like: "Why are you interested in this job?", "Explain a time when [insert situation here]." She explains the job a little bit more in detail to me, explaining how she was part of the "Oil for Food" scandal investigations, and how she helped figure out where the fraud took place and how much Saddam had been illegally making. That immediately caught my attention and made me realize that this was the job for me. I came out of that interview with a big smile on my face. I remember thinking to myself "Ok, the past 2 interviews haven't been too bad...don't screw up now." Can you guess what happens next?
Now, in between the 1st and 2nd interview I had, I had a few minutes to recuperate and gather myself as I walked to the next interview. Not between the 2nd and 3rd interview. It was literally a 30 second walk to the next interview, and I felt like I was being thrown into the lion's den. The next interview was with a Asian woman, who just happened to be the manager of the department I applied for. She immediately begins to grill me on anything and everything. "How much do you know about databases?" "You know access? How do you do [insert obscure thing] in access?" Wow man! At this point I'm freaking out a little bit and starting to get a little nervous, but the woman continues to hand it to me. "Why is Java's GUI interface separate from all the other interfaces?" "How do you convert a decimal number to binary?" WHAT??? Who asks that in an interview? I completely bomb this interview, although I like to think that this interview was more of a behavioral interview and not really a technical one. Perhaps she was just asking those tough questions to see how I'd react? Either way, that interview sucked and I really really hope that one didn't affect my chances of getting this job.
Anyways, my last interview was with a senior associate in the group. He stayed away from the main interview questions and asked if I had worked in a team before. Of course, I bring up the project from last semester (it really is proving to be a great interview topic) and he asks me to explain it in detail. He was particularly interested in how the "mapquest" portion of the project worked. (To refresh your memory, the user was able to enter and starting and ending address on campus and the program figured out the best bus path to take, much like Mapquest or Google Maps.) Now, it was a good thing I was team leader AND I was one of the people (Nick was the other one) who worked on this part of the program. So I go into excruciating details on how that part of the program worked, right down to how the code was laid out, how classes were defined, and how they interacted. In fact, I even got into specific for loops and if clauses. This explanation lasted nearly 20 minutes, with me drawing all over the whiteboard, but him understanding everything and following my logic. This interview was definitely a test of my problem solving abilities, and I feel like I demonstrated it extremely well. Hopefully, this interview makes up for the previous one.
So, all in all, it was definitely a very good experience for me to go up to NYC and take this interview. And to think, I nearly declined it because I was afraid of missing some classes. This is most definitely the kind of job I am looking for. That, combined with the fact that it is with Deloitte, one of the biggest auditing companies in the world, AND its in the heart of NYC, I couldn't ask for a better opportunity. I really hope I get this job, I don't think I can possibly find a better job than this. I've already declined a few other opportunities hoping for the call back next week with good news.
Did I mention how excited I am and how much I want this job? Tiffany, being the gold-digger she is, said we would get married if I got this job so we could share a ridiculously cheap apt in Manhattan. You must admit, Tiffany Zee Nguyen has a nice ring to it. Hahahaha! But let's think about it, we'd have the most screwed up marriage ever:
1) No sex, in fact I'm pretty sure we'd never see each other naked during the duration of our marriage.
2) Affairs galore. I would so blatantly cheat on her. Hell, I'd even tell her I was cheating on her, bring my "mistress" back to the apt, and we'd eat dinner together. Now this would probably work both ways. There is no doubt Tiffany would end up bringing some dude home and we'd play Cooking Mama all night. Oh wait....
3) Our in-laws would think we were crazy, but for some reason I totally think they would encourage this idea. Well, maybe not Mama Zee or Mama Nguyen.
Can anybody say "prenuptial agreement"?
Ok, so this email was sent to me late Monday afternoon, meaning I had to plan out everything in a day, which may not sound too difficult but with classes and such, I was busy all Tuesday and Wednesday. I decided not to spend Wednesday night in NYC, figuring I needed to finish up some work Wednesday night and it would give me time to talk to my parents to see if they could give me advice.
So, fast forward to Thursday morning. I woke up at 5am to catch a 6:12am Acela train to NYC. This is when I regret my decision not to sleep at a hotel in NYC the night before. Not only that, it was a TERRIBLE day to be traveling, since it was rainy and windy and cold. Anyways, I get to NYC a little before 8 and I eat breakfast and such and get to the World Financial Center 40 minutes before my interview time. I spent a few moments looking across the street at Ground Zero. It was the first time I've been to the site since a few months before 9/11 and I must admit, it was really weird seeing that huge void right in the middle of the city. I saw some tourists pose near the window with ground zero in the background, and for some reason it didn't feel right. I mean, thousands of people died there, seems a little strange to be smiling and posing near it. I don't know, maybe its been too soon, maybe in the future it'll be like the Pearl Harbor museum. I took a few pictures of the site (with no posing people in it), but for some reason, I can't find it on my memory card anymore. How strange...
Anyways, I had 4 interviews while at Deloitte on Thursday. I had a feeling of confidence walking into these interviews. I did my homework on the company, I rehearsed my interview questions with my parents and with Tiffany, and I had a few good questions to ask them. All of this was for naught after the first question. The interviewer looks at my resume and after asking me what courses I've taken at UD, asks "Well, what is a linked list?" WHAT?!?! Ok, I know what a linked list is, but I wasn't ready for such a question. Why are they asking me such technical questions?? So after a slight hesitation, I give him a pretty crappy description of what a linked list is, even though I know exactly how it's implemented. He proceeds to ask me more about comp sci stuff, then eventually he describes the job and what he does. My best answer that day was when he asks me "Well, how do you feel that you won't be using your degree in Econ that much in this job?" to which I retort "Well, I still feel like I can speak to and understand business people and translate that to a more technical, IT type person to make the job more efficient." Man I'm brilliant. So, the first interview I felt was a lot like a technical skills type interview, where the interviewer tested me on my knowledge. I think I did OK on this interview, I was a little shocked at first but I think I recovered well.
The 2nd interview was more of the traditional type. She asked a lot of the questions I had rehearsed before that day. Stuff like: "Why are you interested in this job?", "Explain a time when [insert situation here]." She explains the job a little bit more in detail to me, explaining how she was part of the "Oil for Food" scandal investigations, and how she helped figure out where the fraud took place and how much Saddam had been illegally making. That immediately caught my attention and made me realize that this was the job for me. I came out of that interview with a big smile on my face. I remember thinking to myself "Ok, the past 2 interviews haven't been too bad...don't screw up now." Can you guess what happens next?
Now, in between the 1st and 2nd interview I had, I had a few minutes to recuperate and gather myself as I walked to the next interview. Not between the 2nd and 3rd interview. It was literally a 30 second walk to the next interview, and I felt like I was being thrown into the lion's den. The next interview was with a Asian woman, who just happened to be the manager of the department I applied for. She immediately begins to grill me on anything and everything. "How much do you know about databases?" "You know access? How do you do [insert obscure thing] in access?" Wow man! At this point I'm freaking out a little bit and starting to get a little nervous, but the woman continues to hand it to me. "Why is Java's GUI interface separate from all the other interfaces?" "How do you convert a decimal number to binary?" WHAT??? Who asks that in an interview? I completely bomb this interview, although I like to think that this interview was more of a behavioral interview and not really a technical one. Perhaps she was just asking those tough questions to see how I'd react? Either way, that interview sucked and I really really hope that one didn't affect my chances of getting this job.
Anyways, my last interview was with a senior associate in the group. He stayed away from the main interview questions and asked if I had worked in a team before. Of course, I bring up the project from last semester (it really is proving to be a great interview topic) and he asks me to explain it in detail. He was particularly interested in how the "mapquest" portion of the project worked. (To refresh your memory, the user was able to enter and starting and ending address on campus and the program figured out the best bus path to take, much like Mapquest or Google Maps.) Now, it was a good thing I was team leader AND I was one of the people (Nick was the other one) who worked on this part of the program. So I go into excruciating details on how that part of the program worked, right down to how the code was laid out, how classes were defined, and how they interacted. In fact, I even got into specific for loops and if clauses. This explanation lasted nearly 20 minutes, with me drawing all over the whiteboard, but him understanding everything and following my logic. This interview was definitely a test of my problem solving abilities, and I feel like I demonstrated it extremely well. Hopefully, this interview makes up for the previous one.
So, all in all, it was definitely a very good experience for me to go up to NYC and take this interview. And to think, I nearly declined it because I was afraid of missing some classes. This is most definitely the kind of job I am looking for. That, combined with the fact that it is with Deloitte, one of the biggest auditing companies in the world, AND its in the heart of NYC, I couldn't ask for a better opportunity. I really hope I get this job, I don't think I can possibly find a better job than this. I've already declined a few other opportunities hoping for the call back next week with good news.
Did I mention how excited I am and how much I want this job? Tiffany, being the gold-digger she is, said we would get married if I got this job so we could share a ridiculously cheap apt in Manhattan. You must admit, Tiffany Zee Nguyen has a nice ring to it. Hahahaha! But let's think about it, we'd have the most screwed up marriage ever:
1) No sex, in fact I'm pretty sure we'd never see each other naked during the duration of our marriage.
2) Affairs galore. I would so blatantly cheat on her. Hell, I'd even tell her I was cheating on her, bring my "mistress" back to the apt, and we'd eat dinner together. Now this would probably work both ways. There is no doubt Tiffany would end up bringing some dude home and we'd play Cooking Mama all night. Oh wait....
3) Our in-laws would think we were crazy, but for some reason I totally think they would encourage this idea. Well, maybe not Mama Zee or Mama Nguyen.
Can anybody say "prenuptial agreement"?
posted by A. Nguyen at 2:13 AM
2 Comments:
very interesting..wanted to see deloitte interview experiences, thus bumped into ur blog..good stuff!!
You write very well.
Post a Comment
<< Home