That went well

I got back last night from Texas, where I had job interviews with Northrop and Lockheed. I think it went really well. The Northrop guys really need somebody now and I made a good impression on them. A couple of my questions were a little painful for them. In architecture terms, Lockheed and Northrop has built a roof, and all the parts suppliers have built the foundations, and I get to be one of the guys building the walls connecting them. This could be very easy if they all read each others minds . . . Either way I'll be doing a lot of boring documents. So it looks good and I should hear soon.

Lockheed also needs people but it's not as urgent. This one is a lot more interesting. With the new "networked battlefield" concepts our plane has to be able to interface with everything else out there. I'd be one of the guys talking to all the other countries we're going to sell this to and finding out what their networks are like. Might also give me more of a toehold on the software world. My potential grandboss's attitude on it is "You don't have any experience in interoperability . . . but that's okay, neither does anybody else."

I suspect Northrop will make an offer first and that may spur Lockheed into making one. Timing could be a problem, hopefully it'll work out. Either way it's better than staying in Los Angeles.

It was a productive trip in another way too. I spent the flights writing up an eight-page adventure for GURPS Illuminati University.