"Gaming" interviews (was Future Trends in Technical Writing)

[John Garison]

Sorry about getting into this late ...

I had the most bizarre interview of my life when I joined DEC back in 
the early 70s ...

Walked into a room right after lunch, and there was a bunch of stuff 
written on the blackboard. I sat down and a minute later an older guy 
(probably the same age I am now) walked in carrying one of those wooden 
pointers with a little rubber end and whack one of the quotes on the 
board and said "This is from Thomas Mann. What does it mean to you?" I 
mumbled something and he next pointed to the word "Parallelism" and said 
"Define this."

This went on for about a half and hour and someone came in, escorted me 
out and asked "So, how was that?"

I commented on its surrealist elements and he said "Good reaction ... 
he's the Senior Fellow and does this to everyone. It helps us separate 
the wheat from the chaff."

I got the job, so I guess I was wheat.


John G