Although the end and fate of PowerComputing was lousy, I will always remember it being the easiest (and one of the best) job interviews I ever had. By the Summer of 1996, Apple’s tumultuous period was going full speed ahead. There was always a chance Apple would be acquired because it was too large to go under. Meanwhile, PowerComputing was gaining momentum with its ugly, noisy yet cheaper licensed computers running Mac OS 7.5.
Despite his reputation for being a hardass, my current Apple manager Murray Wheeler was a fair man. He had a good working relationship with Mike Keig at PowerComputing so he put in the good word with them to land me an interview. I had to rent a car for the weekend because they were in Round Rock and the Austin buses didn’t go that far north then.
How easy was the interview? I had already been through a tech screening with Doug Reed in the Spring while he was a manager at Apple. He chose to skip it and get to the point. What did I want to come over? My requests were pretty reasonable. Pay me what I got as a temp with Apple but make me a PCC employee, thus I would receive health insurance. With a health plan in play, I would use the difference to buy a car. It was a done deal and I’d report to work after Labor Day.
I was so stoked. It didn’t matter how much the rental car was going to cost for the weekend by then. I don’t know when I went by the only VW dealer in town to get a rough idea on the car I own today. But I did take advantage of having a set of wheels to see a movie at Highland 10 (Bordello of Blood starring Dennis Miller as he slid into lameness and obscurity on Fox News) and driving all the way to Lakeline Mall near Cedar Park with Sonia. The only negative vibe I felt was during a conversation with Paul and Helen. Landing the job with PowerComputing was really what I had been trying to achieve at Apple yet phone support had definitely worn thin then (some days, it still does). Joining PCC was like quitting McDonald’s to work for Wendy’s in the computer business and this was the position I should’ve been in three to five years earlier in my life. At 28, I felt behind the curve. No matter, the Silders were still encouraging because the uncertainty was gone (little did we all know, in 1997 with the return of Steve Jobs at Apple). I would also be surprised at how my role would change after a mere several months with PCC.