Texas State Lead Web Developer Interview

Interview Details – I met the team I would be working with, who asked me several questions related to mostly open source technologies to see my willingness to learn and/or my ability to lead projects using technologies that are not proprietary. Each person took turns asking 2-3 pages worth of questions about my favorite programming language, how I work, and what type of environment I do well in. I also had the opportunity to present my portfolio and demonstrate the results of my work. They said they would contact me within a week. I was interviewed on a Tuesday, and they contact me the Friday of the following week offering the position.

Reason for Declining – Texas State has a plenty going for it. However, the University had a few policies that made it not feasible for me to accept.

The University has a reasonable policy (on paper) about telecommuting, where such an arrangement requires a legitimate reason and approval; however, this can be misleading, as they will never approve an arrangement from my understanding.

The problem is San Marcos is halfway between San Antonio and Austin, and since I live in San Antonio, the commute was not worthwhile. They were willing to work around my schedule, being a college student myself, but the distance between my school and Texas State is nearly an hour-long drive, and it just wasn't worthwhile for the salary offered. Only time on-site counts--even if your job requires travel or going to a work-related event, you are not compensated for it (unless you have hours you can use to supplement it). Even if I was offered a higher salary (I was offered the maximum allowable for the position), it still would've easily burned me out to have to commute like that on top of being a student and having a family.

In the end, another company in San Antonio offered me a position with a higher salary and more flexibility (i.e. telecommuting), and I went with that position instead.