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January 3, 2032.

For several years now, programming has been a required course for all grade-school students.

The tech field is flooded with talent, and it is virtually impossible to get a job.

The technical interview has grown at an unbounded rate.

An aspiring engineer walks into the interview room, freshly shaven. He sits down, cracks his knuckles, takes a long sip from his branded thermos.

Waits.

And then it begins. The interview.

10, 100, 1000 logic puzzles. Faster than seems possible, he recites answers memorized from algoexpert.io.

Cut to a wide shot. Speed up time. Stubble, then a beard, appear on his face. The sun rises and sets, and yet he dare not sleep.

Eventually, he forgets language, reason, civilization, coffee. The touch of his baby son's skin, although he's not such a baby anymore.

He grunts, diagrams, and whiteboards. That's all his life is now.

"Ok, well thank you very much! You'll hear from us soon," Says the interviewer. The sounds are foreign to the engineer, but he is lead out of the office and onto the bright street. His car sits there, rusted.

The interviewer motions the next candidate inside.

He doesn't hear from them.





Text link: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06...

(Haven't had a chance to read it yet)




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