This was as boring and mediocre as they come. I had expected much more from an iconic corporation.

After the typical "upload-your-resume-to-our-outdated-cms" process, I received a call from a recruiter and scheduled an interview in Markham.

The interviewer was a 20+ year veteran of the company, accompanied by someone whom I can only describe as his lackey. They were shamelessly underprepared for any sort of meaningful engagement and didn't even seem to be aware that a candidate was in the office, based on their demeanor.

The primary fellow, a 20+ year veteran with a list of accolades as long as Jack Kerouac's manuscript, was wearing a grey t-shirt and jeans. He was the very face of festering suburban corporate entitlement, to such an extent that he was totally oblivious and thought he was actually being approachable.

I had prepared to the best of my abilities and dressed professionally; they couldn't even return the courtesy of following customary interview protocol. Of course, I know it's cliché in the software industry by now and it's a complete joke, but I wonder to this day: did he show up to his own interview all those years ago wearing a grey t-shirt?

I somehow don't believe it, but here's a pseudocode implementation of my internal logic:

if (he did) { his standards haven't risen in 20+ years; } else if (he didn't) { his standards have slipped over 20+ years; }

=> Either way: entitled and blindly, shamelessly so.

I rejected them during this interview, outright. The last thing I wanted was to spend any portion of my career working for this gray man in his gray world, lest the entitlement rub off on me too, by association.

They asked questions about my career and achievements. They told me about their lucrative arrangement with one of their partners in Cupertino. Apparently, this was a high-profile role, but they seemed to be sandwiched between meetings for the TPS report.