I had an interview with Markit today at 3PM. When I first walked into the office, nobody there. But when I looked around, I noticed something positive: high-priced metal-framed chairs.
I first talked to the head of the IT in North America. Vladimir Gilinski. A funny guy, it seems. He is either Polish or Russian, probably Russian. In any case, his English was not that good. He explained how Markit got hold of all of the projects, that they’re growing, from the current 50 people to around 100 by the end of 2007. He asked me to rate myself on different technologies, I gave myself high scores for Core Java, Spring, SQL, HTML/Javascript, not so hight for shell scripting, J2EE, EJB, JMS. He also asked me why I want to leave. I told him that I would like to have a leadership position and a possibility of becoming a manager. He said that there are opportunities, but I did not get the answer I was looking for.
In any case, this position was for a Senior Java Developer with 7-10 years of experience.
After Vlad finished with me, another Vladimir and Tom, technical guys came in. I did OK/good on several things, but I struggled on several others. I had issues with the synchonization block and threading overall. I had issues in defining the difference between HttpSession and SessionBeans. I had difficulties of telling them how to create a Synchronized hashmap. I could not tell the difference between a Hashmap and a Hashtable. I had an issue with defining what difference are between forward and redirect. I did not know what happens when you put a scriplet on a JSP page, what does the compiler do? I had an issue of how the application server know where the stateful session exists. I had an issue of what happens if the server for both the HttpSession and Stateful session bean gets killed.
Now that I think about it, I did not know a lot of stuff. I should be happy that I am considered, or as they said, that I’m in “the pool.” I am not sure and not too hopeful that I will get the job.
But I will try getting it…
I would like to work there. They have a dynamic environment. The guys know what they’re doing — I could learn from them. It looks like a nice environment. And the best thing of all, I would get a chance to work on a lot of different projects, some from scratch and some maintaining.
On the negative side, I don’t think I will become a manager there. It’s almost the same position as in Ask. Do I want that? I should first try getting an offer. If it is a great one (or better than what I have), I will take it. If not, hey, I’ve got some learning to do!
I am going to write a thank you letter and see what happens. All in all, I am happy that I went there.