Hita - Anita Claire Page 0,4
else for a few years.
My professors have brought in some of their former students to judge and discuss our projects. The alumni use these opportunities to pitch their company to prospective employees. A few of the new companies actually look interesting. One of the speakers, Flint, is a guy I worked with my first summer at Google. He remembers me, and asks for my résumé. His company is three years old with over a hundred employees, a product with customers, and revenue.
When I go for the interview, their offices are in a new building that’s been decorated simply with brightly painted walls and hallways covered in white board. My potential co-workers seem to be smart, relatively normal, and technically competent. The company has a really young vibe since everyone seems to be under thirty, and they’re still pre-IPO, so there will be a financial upside that’s more than my salary. This company feels like a winner.
Chapter 4 - Juliette
Getting back to graduate housing, Juliette’s in the living room hanging with her boyfriend, Stephan. I liked her college boyfriend, Chris, a lot better. Stephan has this arrogant attitude, like he’s lived so much more than we have, even though he’s only a year older.
Juliette leaves Stephan in the living room and follows me into the kitchen. “Hey, how’d the interview go?”
After grabbing a drink out of the refrigerator, I answer, “One more interview, one more day of mind numbing questions. I don’t know how they can figure out if I’ll be a good engineer based on what they ask me.”
As my food search heads to the freezer, I finally choose to defrost frozen pot stickers for my snack. Juliette watches me measure them out, and then gives me a smirk. I laugh and empty the rest of the bag onto the plate.
Juliette asks, “Did they ask you any good riddles?”
We’re both math girls and really get off on trying to figure out mathematical puzzles. As I wait for the microwave to beep, I throw out the questions I was asked. Juliette and I discuss my answers.
As we eat the pot stickers, I question, “I wonder what answers they were really looking for.”
She shrugs and shakes her head as she munches away. “Have you thought of which company you want to work at?”
“This last one’s the best. They’re solving the hard problems; it seems like they have their act together when it comes to managing their money, and I didn’t run into any brogrammers or preeners.”
Chapter 5 - Princesses
The job offer from Flint’s company comes in along with a couple others I’m not interested in. Juliette and I decide to celebrate by heading to University Avenue in Palo Alto. We manage to drag Meredith and Jennifer, two more college princesses, along with us. Meredith’s long time college boyfriend Sam, also joins us. We nicknamed Sam “Mr. Big Love” after the polygamy show, since so often he winds up being the only guy with all of us princesses. Tonight Juliette has dragged Stephan along. Of course he’s going to order something unique and pretentious that no one has ever heard of. I wonder if Juliette can’t see his annoying characteristics because he’s so handsome.
We end up at Nola, a fun, loud, New Orleans inspired restaurant. We order margaritas and a bunch of appetizers, laughing and joking and generally enjoying ourselves. I drink too much as everyone toasts to my future success.
As I drink my margarita I figure I better enjoy tonights fun since I’m headed into the storm of finals week. I’m happy it’s my last finals week ever. After graduation I’m going to be taking a couple of weeks off to travel around California with my parents, move into my new apartment, and then start my new job.
Getting back to my classes, one of my professors gives us a twenty-four hour test. It’s a take home test that needs to be turned in within twenty-four hours of receiving it, which makes it sound easy. The thing is, the questions are so difficult it takes twenty-four hours to answer them all. I hate pulling all-nighters. By about three in the morning I’m starting to hallucinate, I’m getting to the point where I don’t care what the answers are.
When finals are over I sleep for twenty-four hours solid; waking up in time for my parents to show up for graduation. Making dinner for my parents the night they arrive, they bemoan the fact that I didn’t get a job offer at Google. Juliette shoots