First Interview

Amazingly enough, I had an interview today, and I'm probably a strong candidate. I had heard about the position through a friend, and have even worked with one of the people on the project, which gives me an edge. Only one problem: I would hate the job.

For one thing it's back to the large-scale bank applications world. This application, part of Corporate Treasury, disseminates deposit and loan rates to all the banking centers in the country, so it's very important. Typical of large applications, it has a web of interfaces to various deposit and loan systems. No change is small: coordinating testing with all the other systems is an immense task. It certainly would be swimming in a bigger pond. I'm more a small pond kind of guy, though. I'd rather have more direct control over my work, and be able to accomplish things without UN treaties.

The work environment sounds like I'd be walking into a hornet's nest. "Highly demanding" was the universal description for Marilyn, the main business partner. She is never satisfied, needs everything ASAP (they had to waive a five-day DBA delay rule because it was too much time), and verbally berates programmers for any mistake. The woman that interviewed me worked 70 hours last week and looked stressed out. On long conference calls with Marilyn she has to use a speakerphone; the user acts up if she tries to use a headset.

Their boss's boss is new as of March, is highly into metrics, and sounds like on top of all the staff. Only certain people are allowed to work remotely, since in the short time he's been there he already feels the productivity is not the same for some. My former colleague knows he needs to stay on top of things when he's remote "or it will be taken away".

MBNA merger initiatives will fill the next few months. They have a delivery deadline of August, even though they don't yet know what changes are needed, because their work is a prerequisite for all the other systems. In the midst of big changes they continue to be bombarded with ASAP smaller projects needed yesterday that prove highly disruptive.

A new environment requires a learning curve while getting up to speed. I question, in this environment, whether you would be judged prematurely and found wanting. Then of course you could be dismissed for "cause" without a lick of severance.

Ironically, they described the work itself as "tedious", manually poring through hairy code to insert a particular comment, or change a certain font. Just because it's technical work, that doesn't mean it's analytical; and it's the problem solving part I enjoy. Ideally I like scope in my work, a mix of the technical and business sides of the equation; this, on the other hand, is all technical, all the time.

Finally, as this is the Corporate Treasury area, there are disclosure rules regarding your financial holdings. You must declare all stocks you own. Any stock trades must be approved before you can go ahead. Your holdings must be even with certain "preferred brokers" (probably those they can monitor). I don't day trade, but the loss of privacy in this area seems like the last straw.

I hate to turn down a position that would let me stay with the Bank. But I would be miserable here. I'm not asking for a lot, but I am asking for more than this.