| 21 nov 2001 phew. i must have been fretting about my 2nd round at cisco last night, because i really couldn't sleep at all. i finally conked out near 3am, and woke up a mere five hours later to JACKHAMMERS tearing up the pavement outside. how fucking rude, i must say. but anyways, i tried to sleep for another hour and half (unsuccessfully), and got up, checked my e-mail, got dressed, and jet for cisco. so i met with five more people, which brings my total headcount meetings to nine. the first guy kinda scorched me with this baffling throughput problem, but it turns out that the example numbers he gave me were completely messed up. so he wound up asking me how a 179Gbps input could sustain a 10Gbps output, and i was like, "WHAT?" i'm not saying that had he given me the correct realistic numbers, that i would have gotten the question (because i was definitely not sure what he was asking), but still... i think the fact that he messed up kind of concealed the fact that i had no idea what he was talking about. the second guy was pretty cool... because he was from stanford! yup. he was only two years my senior, so i could definitely see myself getting along with him... hanging out and watching stanford basketball games and such. his name was wil. the only downside is that he plans to leave soon (from what i gathered by talking to him) and head for a startup after soaking up all he can learn from cisco. other guys weren't that special, but the last guy i talked to was john, and i remembered his name because he interviewed me FOUR years ago! yup. he was the guy from granite systems that got bought out from cisco, so i pretty much know that he's rich, even with the depressed stock prices. in fact, i have a feeling that all the people at this division who were from granite are LOADED. but john is a vp. so that means he's done well for himself since i last talked to him. he looked kinda dorky in his military-type crewcut, but still, he's a cool guy. friendly guy. i hope he liked me. from what i've been told, at least two other guys who were laid off with me at vivace have found jobs. one other guy is already working at cisco, and the word is that they made him decide ON THE SPOT whether or not to accept the offer. which would be bad news for me if that happens, because i have yet to interview at three other companies who have shown interest. no, make that four. caspian, afara, greenfield, and 3pardata. so... if cisco forces me into that situation, i don't know what i'll do. i dunno about cisco. it seems like a great place to learn, which is one of my career objectives (learning about networking), but the culture seems really boring and lifeless. people don't seem to have any pep, and there isn't any buzz of excitement in the sea of TINY cubicles when i was walking through. i dunno. the only guy i can see myself becoming friends with is wil. argh. on a tangent, my friend jack called me this afternoon right when i got back from my interview. we went bowling with him and his wife amy. yay! bowling! i bowled a 120 the first game, and a 153 the second. i did my between-the-legs bowling in the last frame, and luckily (we were using bumper lanes, so fun!) i got a strike! ha ha. but anyways, bowling is fun. and we went to the stanford mall afterwards to kill time until gombei's opening at 5:30. when i walked in, i heard "dardy!" and i saw amabelle, her sister felicia, and bill! (happy birthday, bill!) so i talked to them (well, mainly to bill, about jobs and stuff) for a brief while before ordering my chicken katsu don. bill is like a stud or something. he knows all about silicon valley business and people and technology and stuff. i don't know how he's so well-informed. it makes me feel lazy and small, frankly. but at least, in the meanwhile, i can ask him for advice and some guidance. and, currently, he's trying to get my foot in the door with caspian networks. hopefully they'll call next week. jack has this funky bowling technique where he bowls with his right hand, but the ball actually SPINS to the right as well! it's like an inside-out thing! but he did get more strikes than any of us, so maybe he's onto something. um. yeah. i realized that i'm still kinda on japan time. i mean, i'm falling asleep around 6pm and getting up around 4-5am japan time. which is not exactly totally normal, but it fits more than my schedule in the states. man. is it possible to still have jet lag THREE MONTHS after the trip? so it looks more and more like i won't have worked at all in this month of november. being without a job for so long kind of makes my like feel like a waste of time... i'm not furthering myself in any way. the only thing i did was send my resume to a bunch of places, answer a few technical questions, and talk way too much about what i've done at my previous two companies. i'm SICK of talking about my past assignments. blah blah blah. but i have to admit i'd rather do that than rack my brain with puzzles that i can't solve. bleach. whoops. i thought eric's birthday had come and gone with me forgetting. all i know is that my birthday is coming up, and eric's like 20 days younger or older than me. ah. i just checked his webpage, and he's younger. oh yeah. one last beef with cisco... very little or negligible financial upside. i am still dreaming of the possibility of retiring at 30 (that doesn't mean i won't work, just that i'll be financially secure), and working at cisco just won't do that for me. and that really bothers me. yes, i know life's not all about being a mercenary, but i haven't given up on that notion just yet. i don't know why i want the money. i mean, it's not like i crave a mansion or a porsche or anything like that. it's just that i have a feeling it'll give me peace of mind. *shrug* *sigh* all i know is that a month from now, i hope all this job shit will just be like a bad dream i hope to forget as soon as i can. amen to that! happy thanksgiving, y'all. in case i don't update tomorrow. stil don't have concrete plans yet. |