IBM Interview

In early March of 2007, about a month and a half before my Microsoft interview, I was contacted via e-mail by a software engineer from a local IBM office about an internship opportunity. The position was for developing mobile applications in Java. I submitted to the job requisition that was given to me and waited over a month and a half without receiving a response. Finally, I sent an e-mail to the original sender asking if the internship was still available and didn't get a response. He had included his managers name in the original message so I googled it and found his e-mail address. I e-mailed the manager and asked him about the internship. Surprisingly, he responded to me the next day and told me he was still trying to get approval for the position. He said he’d get back to me as soon as he knew the verdict.

A couple of days after my correspondence with the IBM manager, I was notified about my offer from Lockheed Martin. I only had one week to respond but was able to get the deadline extended an extra week (When you receive an offer, usually there is a one week response deadline for internships and a two week response deadline for full time offers. If you need more time, it’s perfectly acceptable to ask the recruiter for an extension - they’ll almost always give you an extra 1-2 weeks). This allowed me to stall a little to see if IBM would get back to me. Sure enough, the IBM manager did respond to me and we set up an interview one day before my Lockheed Martin deadline.

On the day of the interview, I made the 20 minute commute to the downtown area of the city that I live in. I decided to wear a suit because I heard IBM was a bit more conservative than other tech companies. I parked in the garage and made my way up to the 6th floor of the 20 story building. The manager let me into the office and took me on a quick tour. He showed me some of the labs and conference rooms and introduced me to a couple of his employees. He was a pretty easy going guy and I got along with him right away. The interview was very similar to the ones I had at Lockheed Martin in that there were no technical questions and only behavioral / resume questions (I doubt that IBM interviews this way for technical positions at its larger offices. In fact, later on I found out that the head technical manager was supposed to interview me but called in sick.). The interview lasted 40 minutes and when it was over he offered me the position. I asked if I could have one night to think it over and he agreed.

Even though I didn’t accept the offer on the spot, I was almost 100% sure that I was going to choose IBM. I asked for time to decide because I wanted to absolutely confirm that I was making the right choice. When it came down to it, at IBM I’d have the opportunity to work on commercial software and would have a much shorter commute. I felt that though Lockheed Martin was a great company, IBM had a reputation that was matched only by few others and would look better on my resume. The following day I left a message for the hiring manager at Lockheed Martin to inform him of my decision and thank him. I accepted the offer at IBM and was now officially finished with my internship search.

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