Backstory

A summary of what's going on in my life, for those that don't already know.

In early December, I was contacted by a company called [redacted for paranoia]. It seems the CEO of this company was seated next to a good friend of mine, on a flight in the US. My friend was reading an extremely technical book on Software Engineering, and the CEO of this company, noticed this and struck up a conversation. One thing led to another, and (so I gather) the end result was "I met this great guy on the plane. He's already got a job, but he knows someone who's almost as good!". ;)

Two phone interviews later - one with the CEO and one with their head of engineering, and they wanted to get me up to their main office for a round of interviews in person. After some wrangling arranging (unpaid) leave with my current employers, I flew up for a few days. The first full day I spent being interviewed by half a dozen people about different aspects of my Software Engineering experience. The one that stands out in my mind most was the interview with their database guru. This ...