Serendipitous job opportunities and a strange interview

I guess I don't want my current boss to see this. But then again, when someone calls you for an interview and it is a company as cool as NetFlix, you take the opportunity. Especially when it was found in a passive manor. My LinkedIn profile.

I received a call from an Engineering director, John, and we talked for 2 minutes. He called me at work. It was strange, I did not post that phone number. I guess he just called the main number and asked for me.

We talked for about 30 minutes 2 days later. NetFlix is a Java shop. I've been a LAMP developer for about 2 years. I have not written java in 2 years. And have not lived and breathed Java in about 5 years. Just a little rusty.

Because of my overall experience, he wanted to bring me in. So the time was set for Monday Feb 20, Presidents day. I had off. So I would not have to make up some lame excuse at work.

I talked to one person. It was obvious that the interview was not going well. One, my Java skills were obviously out of date. Two, I fumfered over the question he asked. I did not know if he wanted to see if I was a bit twidler or not. I thought that is what he wanted, so that is what I tried to give him. Unfortunately he was just looking for straight proof I could write efficient code. I tend to over analyze what someone is asking in an interview sometimes. So things did not go well.

The next person comes in and starts asking me perl, since I said I was more comfortable with perl. But the question he asked I thought was a weird one. If someone reads this and can mail me the code that does it, I'd be happy. Here it goes.....

Have a log file piped into a filter and prints one random line. Here are the parameters:
- No buffering more than one saved line and the current line.
- Each line has a 1 in N chance of being the line printed. Where N in the current line number.

So line 1 has a 1/1 chance.
Line 2 has a 1/2 chance
Line 1013 has 1/1013 chance of being the line chosen.
So you need to write a function that knowing the line saved was line number X. The current line is N. Calculated if line X or N is the line to save.
I was lost. Except for an exercise in futility or statistics, why would you ask someone that question?

About 25 minutes into this, John walks in. Apologizes and says they need someone who can "Hit the ground running." I know that wasn't me. So I saved myself another 1 1/2 hours of wasted time for a job I would not get.

It's weird. I was not required to sign a non-disclosure. I know their OS, approx architecture, number of customer how many servers they have servicing these customers. I think I'm allowed to say. I know how a big part of their engineering process. Wow, some of the family jewels, and I was not asked to sign anything saying I would not talk about it. I even asked the receptionist If I needed to sign something. Anyone want to buy me a beer? :D

I thought it was strange. I have never worked for a technology company that did not have presidents day off. This made it the third red flag for me before I got there.

While talking to John, we talked about company bureaucracy. He said things are so light that Netflix employees do not accrue vacation. When you want to take vacation you work it out with your boss. Red flag, what if your boss does not want to let you take vacation. Also one of my indicators that I should take vacation is that my vacation balance is too high. If you don't take vacation ever, no one from HR bugs you that you are at a use it or loss it stage. And of course when you leave netflix, they don't have to write you a check for your vacation balance. Because of their development strategy, I would assume that it is very hard to schedule vacations. Red Flag.

I have been working from home atleast half time for the last 10 years. So this means 2-3 days a week. They only allow 1 day a week. Again because of their development process.

But their building is really nice. They just occupied it January 2006. They did something I thought was the smartest thing I've seen. They don't hang white boards. They treat at least one wall so that the wall is the whiteboard. Fucking billiant! I thought that was great!

Overall, I think NetFlix offers some interesting engineering challenges. It would be an interesting place to work.