You Should Have Mentioned That In The Interview

When you join a small company chances are you are going to interview with most of the company. That’s what happened with my current company. My company has 9 employees in our SLC offices. Ten now that you count me. There were a couple of developers that I didn’t meet with, but I interviewed with just about everyone else.

Knowing that they all got to weigh in on my position gives me great reassurance. But, after I started work I realized they forgot to ask an important question during the interview process.

My drink of choice is Cherry Coke. I like the taste. But, I also drink it because I have severe adult ADH and I don’t want to take Ritalin or other drugs. ADHD is an interesting condition. In fact, many people don’t believe it exists. So, they don’t believe I have it, and it must just be my addiction to caffeine that makes me think I need sugary drinks.

I envy those people. They’ve never had to watch a daughter suffer through a useless year of kindergarten because she has undiagnosed ADD and literally cannot sit still long enough to even color a picture. Those people have never watched their son ostracized from social groups because ADHD makes him respond awkwardly in social settings.

Yes, I envy them. ADHD is real. May you never be cursed with it.

Anyway, I drink Cherry Coke, for the taste. . .and to help me concentrate.

Apparently this has caused a small controversy at my new job. See, the office drink is Mountain Dew.

Mountain Dew, along with stale pizza, is so much a part of software lore that it’s become a cliche. A cliche that is true more often than not. And my new office mates drink it.

My brother used to drink a lot of Mountain Dew. I think he may have given it up in the past few years. But, at one point is was his favorite drink. (He also has ADD, not sure about the HDD part.) He was in Canada at one point giving a presentation and asked for some Mountain Dew. After drinking a couple of cans, his office mates said,

In Canada, Mountain Dew doesn’t have caffeine in it.

Of course it does! All Mountain Dew has caffeine.

Turns out that at that time Canada had a law that caffeinated drinks had to come in a red can. (Coke and Pepsi have red on their cans, not so much Mountain Dew.)

But, in the United States, Mountain Dew has caffeine. And my office mates think there’s something wrong because I “drink that brown stuff.”

All I can say is that if it was important to them they should have brought it up during the interview.

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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