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I work with Apache Airflow. But lead my sister to believe for a time that I had begun to transition to a career somehow related to HVAC and solving the problems associated with "patchy" airflow in certain places.

That's where Apache got its name; "a patchy" [web] server.

(It's since been backronym'd a bit.)

> While operating the plant, several commands had to be entered every shift

That reminds of the bunker from Lost.

4 8 15 16 23 42

Thankfully IRL no planes were at risk of falling out of the sky, I assume.

Definitely not the ones with the bouncy sound..

Not as good as your story, but here's mine:

First job out of school, fresh ECE degree in my back pocket. I was hired to be a Unix Administrator (SunOS, AIX, Linux). This was a AS/400 shop and nobody knew Linux, the last guy just left.

They show me a Linux terminal that was just booting to a 'LI' and asked me to fix it. I had never fixed a lilo issue at the time and my skip manager, a as/400 guru figured it out by reading the docs.

I felt like an imposter and an idiot in on day. But I learned that I didn't know sh*t and my learning was just beginning.

I was once asked about Slack, fortunately they were already a colleague

J. R. "Bob" Dobbs?

Man I really hope other people get this one, because it is awesome.

Perhaps you can explain the joke, and why it's funny for you..? I do enjoy jokexplainings, not as much as a joke I do understand, but even more than jokes that I didn't get.. ;)

You must have absolutely nailed the rest of the interview!

It was the early nineties. If you've touched a computer, companies would assume that any skill gap you had you could straightforwardly bridge yourself, on the job.

It wasn't like today where you have to be a perfect cinnamon roll of a candidate who ticks all of HR's required-skill checkboxes before you can move on to the grueling 5-6 rounds of interviews.

This is not an exaggeration. Those boom times, much like the discovery of gold on the Klondike, was the wild-west of information technology. If you had a pulse, and knew which part was the "mouse", you were employable. Granted, you might be fixing dial-up modems or troubleshooting email settings all day, but work was plentiful. And yes, your job responsibilities and "training" were one and the same.

And dear reader, if this has you thinking that the early internet was a planet-wide bird's nest of bailing wire and duct-tape slapped together by amateurs, you're paying attention. Huge parts of it were just that. We're all better at it now, but "better" is a relative term and not evenly distributed.

"Entry level" doesn't even mean the same thing nowadays and it's a crying shame.

This is so true.

I remember one of my interviews that went well in the end. In the middle of the interview, they mentioned using Java and building web apps. At the time, I was a C++ developer with no web development experience.

I said: "I never did web development," and their response was, "You do know how to write source code, don't you?"

I said: "Of course I do, but..."

They cut me off with: "You will pick it up, don't worry about it."

Maybe they figured knowing C++ was a sign of your general programming aptitude?

Also, how right were they?

I have seen a C++ dev. almost brought to tears when trying to fix a CSS issue at a previous job. Then he broke into tears of laughter when I showed him `yarn build:dev` and the tailwind config. and package.json files :D.

Better to laugh about it than cry about it, eh :].

I recall interviews from that era too, where the interviewers didn't fully comprehend the jobs they were hiring for.

"You know how to write source code, don't you?"

Answer: "yes, but I mostly prefer to write fully compiled code directly to disk. Much more efficient".

Real programmers use a magnetized needle and a steady hand...

> today where you have to be a perfect cinnamon roll of a candidate who ticks all of HR's required-skill checkboxes before you can move on to the grueling 5-6 rounds of interviews

HR does that so they can empire build. If it takes 200 hours of HR work to hire someone instead of 20, then the director of HR has 10x the staff and can command higher prices.

My first job (mid 1980s) was writing video games in Z-80 assembler for chickenfeed. I still remember that in my interview my boss-to-be talked a bit about the company, and then hired me - literally without asking a single question.

He knew I was doing computing at uni and that seemed to be enough.

I do remember seeing job listings around '96 calling for 5 years of experience with windows '95.

Very funny.

Did you ever bring it up with those people?

I did, the interviewer who told me what Windows was, Dave, told me years later I was hired because, in no particular order: my age (they wanted someone who could give them their monies worth after training (I gave them thirty years.), a former co-worker recommended me based on my experience, After they asked, I told them about my family (they knew I would show up everyday.), I didn't freak out or become agitated when I realized I accidentally embarrassed myself on the Windows question and I promised them I could work well with others. (A kind of weird question at the time that I fully understood after a few months on the job).

>a power plant for a major airline

an airline owns power plant?

A small-scale Cogeneration[1] plant could very well make economical sense for any facility the size of a maor airline hub.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogeneration#Industrial_CHP

Sure, why not. Delta Air Lines has a fuel refinery. Large air lines are quite the "at scale" operation.

>After my reply all seven of the interviewers were all grinning and I was aware I said something they weren't looking for. One of the men politely told me Windows was a computer operating system. My reply was, "Oh, I see."

That is how a conversation between mature adults should be. Contrast that the typical today's IT interview questions, all posed to prove that is the interviewer is of superior intellect.