Tales from the Interview: The In-House Developer

James was getting anxious to land a job that would put his newly-minted Computer Science degree to use. Six months had come to pass since he graduated and being a barista barely paid the bills. Living in a small town didn't afford him many local opportunities, so when he saw a developer job posting for an upstart telecom company, he decided to give it a shot.

We do everything in-house! the posting for CallCom emphasized, piquing James' interest. He hoped that meant there would be a small in-house development team that built their systems from the ground up. Surely he could learn the ropes from them before becoming a key contributor. He filled out the online application and happily clicked Submit.

Not 15 minutes later, his phone rang with a number he didn't recognize. Usually he just ignored those calls but he decided to answer. "Hi, is James available?" a nasally female voice asked, almost sounding disinterested. "This is Janine with CallCom, you applied for the developer position."

Caught off guard by the suddenness of their response, James wasn't quite ready for a phone screening. "Oh, yeah, of course I did! Just now. I am very interested."

"Great. Louis, the owner, would like to meet with you," Janine informed him.

"Ok, sure. I'm pretty open, I usually work in the evenings so I can make most days work," he replied, checking his calendar.

"Can you be here in an hour?" she asked. James managed to hide the fact he was freaking out about how to make it in time while assuring her he could be.

He arrived at the address Janine provided after a dangerous mid-drive shave. He felt unprepared but eager to rock the interview. The front door of their suite gave way to a lobby that seemed more like a walk-in closet. Janine was sitting behind a small desk reading a trashy tabloid and barely looked up to greet him. "Louis will see you now," she motioned toward a door behind the desk and went back to reading barely plausible celebrity rumors.

James stepped through the door into what could have been a walk-in closet for the first walk-in closet. A portly, sweaty man presumed to be Louis jumped up to greet him. "John! Glad you could make it on short notice. Have a seat!"

"Actually, it's James..." he corrected Louis, while also forgiving the mixup. "Nice to meet you. I was eager to get here to learn about this opportunity."

"Well James, you were right to apply! We are a fast growing company here at CallCom and I need eager young talent like you to really drive it home!" Louis was clearly excited about his company, growing sweatier by the minute.

"That sounds good to me! I may not have any real-world experience yet, but I assure you that I am eager to learn from your more senior members," James replied, trying to sell his potential.

Louis let out a hefty chuckle at James' mention of senior members. "Oh you mean stubborn old developers who are set in their ways? You won't be finding those around here! I believe in fresh young minds like yours, unmolded and ready to take the world by storm."

"I see..." James said, growing uneasy. "I suppose then I could at least learn how your code is structured from your junior developers? The ones who do your in-house development?"

Louis wiped his glistening brow with his suit coat before making the big revelation. "There are no other developers, James. It would just be you, building our fantastic new computer system from scratch! I have all the confidence in the world that you are the man for the job!"

James sat for a moment and pondered what he had just heard. "I'm sorry but I don't feel comfortable with that arrangement, Louis. I thought that by saying you do everything in-house, that implied there was already a development team."

"What? Oh, heavens no! In-house development means we let you work from home. Surely you can tell we don't have much office space here. So that's what it means. In. House. Got it?

James quickly thanked Louis for his time and left the interconnected series of closets. In a way, James was glad for the experience. It motivated him to move out of his one horse town to a bigger city where he eventually found employment with a real in-house dev team.

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