Interviewing with the USDS
This all happened in mid to late 2015 sometime. I didn’t get the job, but I intend to try again in a few years.
I was interviewed by Charles Worthington. He was very informative and asked good questions. This particular interview was (yet another) big factor in why I am impressed with the USDS.
These are my notes. :) Not all of these answers are not still the answers that I would give from scratch if I had to make up new answers today, but they’re pretty close.
What are you passionate about?
- Helping users do things.
- Building sturdy things.
- Treating people as people rather than things.
- Designing flow (rather than UI).
- Doing good at what one does.
Why you applied to the U.S. Digital Service
I was discussing work with a friend of a friend and we were joking about whose startup was less useful, and I realized that that wasn’t what I wanted. It’s one thing to make software as a craftsman rather than an owner, and another thing to carve the same knickknack over and over. I’m proud of what I’m building now- the quality and usefulness of it- but I’m not fully convinced that it’s better than using pen and paper. I want to build something that needs to be- and is- useful to its users. Building something that people depend on is terrifying. I like that kind of terrifying.
How do you want to put your own dent in the universe?
I want to be part of the invisible force that makes mountains move. I like being on a team that makes things work surprisingly well. Making edge cases work better- a lot of human life is edge cases.