Over the years, I’ve had a lot of jobs at a lot of different companies. By default, that means I’ve had a lol of job interviews.
About 2015, I was interviewing for an IT Project Manager position at a large health care company. It was a four hour interview which started and ended with big wigs; The middle two hours was filled in by a motley collection of members of the project team.
One of those team members was a 20ish programmer. He was earmarked with all of the typical nerd stereotypes (gaunt, pale, socially inept, etc.).
He and I chatted for a while. The conversation was a bit staccato, but it wasn’t too bad until he asked me an exploratory brain teaser type question. He said, “If you were stranded on a desert island what one piece of technology would you want to take with you? “
My answer was on the tip of my tongue, but he rapidly continued, “For me, it would be my HTC Vive virtual reality headset. It’s awesome. I can pass hours with it. . . “ He also spewed forth a few hundred words describing these virtually reality goggles interworking s and specifications.
He finished by saying, “So, what single piece of technology would you want to have when you’re castaway on a deserted island?”
I said, “A satellite phone.”
“Why did you choose that?”, he asked.
“So I can call someone to rescue me and get me off of the island so that I can get back to all of my toys and tools.”
He left the room abruptly. I didn’t get the job.