Graduating and Finding My 1st Computer Programming Job

Graduating and Finding My 1^st Computer Programming Job

My brother-in-law, Ron, who I've been friends with since the 7^th grade, once accused me of just wanting a chance to prove that money meant nothing to me.

I had decided that I was ready to move on from college. I went down to the University office to apply to graduate and found the degree I was planning to graduate with (General Social Sciences) had been discontinued and since I had not previously declared it as my major I was “shit out of luck”. OK, I looked at all the various graduation requirements and at the hodge-podge list of classes I'd taken. Using my superior analytical skills I figured out that my quickest path to graduation was to make Computer Science my major. I needed a secondary emphasis and I had plenty of philosophy classes to qualify. Well those dirty rats rejected my philosophy choice. The reason given was philosophy was not a suitable secondary emphasis for Computer Science. I was told it could be business, math, a science like biology, or even psychology. Who makes these rules? Whose degree is this anyway? Math I get. Business, sure, but philosophy seems a lot closer to computer science than something like Biology to me. Psychology? Don't even get me started. I attempted to persuade them to see things my way but it became a clear case of “I fought the law and the law won”. Well, I had almost enough math so that I could still get out with my degree at the end of the school year by taking another math class or two.

I had taken a lot computer classes, but I took them because I was good at them. At the time I was not thinking of it as a major. But now that I was ready to be done with school I was going to have to be OK with it if I wanted to get out quickly and with a degree. I was never much of a planner and I never gave too much thought about college being a gateway to a job and a career even though I knew that's what it was supposed to be. My parents had always talked about college as if it was a given that I would go. A college degree was like a requirement to be a “legit” adult.

I graduated from the University of Oregon in June of 1978 with a degree in Computer Science and a secondary emphasis in Math. I would have had a double major except I was missing a math class. I had started to take the class but finding the professor to be, and I'm being charitable, sub-standard I dropped it. I was in my last year and he was the only one who would be teaching that class that year. Since I was the one doing the paying I was not going to pay for crap and I've never regretted not taking that class.

I had gone to school in Oregon largely because I wanted to live in Oregon. Upon graduating I had about $800 in the bank. I had taken out a $900 V.A.student loan my last semester and put most of it away. That way I would have some money available when I graduated to tide me over until I could get a job and, if necessary, relocate. Jobs were scarce in Eugene as it was going through a down period. Lots of for rent signs. There seemed to be few Computer Programming jobs anywhere in Oregon. Portland was going to be my best chance but I had no leads on anything there. I did not know anyone who lived in the Portland area that I could stay with so I was going to have to do my search for employment there from Eugene. I did have a good friend in San Francisco I could move in with if it came to that. I decided to stay in Eugene for a month or so while I looked for a job somewhere in Oregon. Well the truth is I did not do all that much looking. It was summer, I had just finished school, and I had some money. Plus I still had my part time job and was having fun hanging out with my friends. A month turned into two months and then three. I still had nothing on the horizon and I was running out of money. So much for that nifty plan to use a student loan to finance my post college job search...

I packed up and moved to SF to stay with my friend Larry who I'd been friends with since the Air Force. He lived in the Haight-Ashbury District. I arrived at the end of August with about $100 to my name. Turned out there were plenty of jobs in the Bay Area because, unbeknownst to me at the time, it was the mecca of the Computer Programming world. I know what you are thinking, how does a Comp-Sci major not know about this? Well sure, I had heard something about Silicon Valley but had never given it too much thought. As I said, Comp-Sci was a major of convenience.

By the time I settled into San Francisco I was quickly running out of money. Before I could find work and get my first paycheck I had to start living off my credit card and borrow from friends. I had one suit, 3 dress shirts, and 2 ties. I had to do laundry at least weekly if not more frequently. With my first few paychecks I paid back Larry and the others I had borrowed from. Next I paid down my credit card. I also bought another couple of shirts. Finally I bought another tie, some slacks, and a sports jacket so I didn't have to keep wearing the same suit day after day. Soon enough my credit card was paid off, I no longer owed anyone, and I rented my own place with two friends I knew from Oregon.

Larry & Me

I got interviews with four companies. The first one was EDS, Ross Perot's old company. They paid well. I knew EDS was a very conservative company. I had a conservative suit and tie and a white dress shirt that would meet their standards for the interview but my shoes, although nice, were not the kind with shoe laces that I expected they would want. I made sure to get a hair cut the day before the interview. At the interview the first thing I was asked to do was stand up and then turn around. In a very friendly manner the guy interviewing me then asked me to sit back down at which point he critiqued my dress and appearance. The guy told me I was dressed appropriately, my shoes were marginal but alright and my hair was good. If he was trying to make an impression on me he succeeded, but not in a good way. I was then told about the company after which the interview started. At the end of the interview I was told he liked me and was interested in hiring me. He wanted to bring me back in to meet some of the others. Then the guy said “Oh, and Dave you won't mind shaving your mustache will you”. If it was a question it was a rhetorical one. Two days later he called me and said he was excited to have me come in and asked when I was available. I expressed my appreciation but told him I was not interested. This seemed to shock him. He tried telling me why EDS was the place for me. Of course he was referring to the me without a mustache and at that time I wasn't too sure about the me without a mustache. I don't mind having to dress to their standards but I was not ready to be told how to groom myself. Too bad, that job paid $1600/mth to start.
A job recruiter got me interviews with two other companies, Bechtel and Burroughs. Bechtel liked me and offered me a position but after I looked into the company a bit I decided to turn them down as well. They were a large construction firm who specialized in building nuclear power plants. I was kind of an anti-nuke guy and it seemed to me we had not fully developed a plan to deal with the waste or some of the more significant safety issues. I couldn't see myself being a part of that so I turned them and their $1300/mth job offer down. This upset my recruiter and she quit me. I still had the Burroughs interview though and the position supposedly paid over $1000 a month. The guy who interviewed me was a little too impressed with himself and frankly, did not seem all that bright. He asked me if I'd done any research about his company. I hadn't but I told him I did some. During the interview he started to ask me things about Burroughs. Ut-oh, I better act fast. I decided to asked him some leading questions to get an idea of what he might expect me to know. Together with the little I already knew about Burroughs I felt I was able to glean enough information from him to at least give some reasonable answers to the Burroughs questions. For the final question I was asked to describe myself in one word. Hmm, I had a couple of one word descriptions for him but that wasn't the question. The best I could do for myself at that moment was clever. Burroughs did not give me a job offer, which was probably for the best all around.
Next I got an interview through a new recruiter with a company called General Business Systems (GBS). GBS was small, very much like a start-up except they had a few years under their belt. I was interviewed by a woman named Gary who would be my boss. I liked her right away and I liked that it was a small company. Gary seemed to be more impressed that I had experience keeping books for a small business than having a Computer Science degree. They made me an offer paying $800/mth. I took it.

In hindsight, clearly clever was not the word for me, unless it means a person who holds out for the lowest paying job. On the other hand, Ron may have been on to something...