Best Case Scenario?

So I had my day-long interview bonanza at National Instruments on Friday. The day started at 7:45 and proceeded as follows:

• Meet host and have breakfast
• Presentation about the company
• 1-on-1 interview
• Peer discussion with the other IT candidates and all of our hosts
• Lunch
• 1-on-1 interview (the dreaded technical one!!!)
• 1-on-1 interview
• Meet and schmooze with all the VPs in IT
• HR benefits presentation

That all went up to 4:30, at which point I raced home to change and pick up Christa. We then met back up with my group (all the IT candidates and their hosts) at Buca Di Beppo. It was a pretty cool place. The food is served family style so we ordered 5 or 6 dishes for all of us (there were probably about 14 of us) and everyone shares and there was still plenty left over when all was said and done. After that we all went across the street to Dave & Buster's to hang out and play some games for a while. At one point I ran off about 8 wins in a row on the air hockey table. Good times!

At about 10:30 Christa and I decided it was time to call it a night and said our goodbyes to everyone and headed for the door. Jason (the main recruiter for IT and a Texas State alum) walked out with us and informed me that they are going to be making me an offer. They are going to put it together tomorrow and overnight it so it should be in my hands some time Tuesday. Obviously this was the highlight of the day since I really didn't expect to find out if I was going to be offered a job for at least a couple weeks. I was actually quite shocked that he told me right then and there. Definitely made for more lively conversation on the way home.

Overall the day was really enjoyable. The two behavioral interviews were pretty easy (the beauty of being an older/experienced graduate is that I have more stuff to draw upon for all their screwy questions). I think my favorite question that I got was "What was the most unique decision you ever made?" That one definitely caught me off guard and made me stop and think. The technical interview also went better than expected. I'm starting to come to the realization that I'm more technically competent then I generally give myself credit for and that I need to stop psyching myself out in anticipation of stuff like that. The biggest thing for me about the day is that the people were all great. If the people I met on Friday were an accurate sampling of the people working in IT at NI, then I would definitely feel at ease there. They were just a great group of (mostly) guys.

I don't really know what else to say right now. I'm just kind of in a holding pattern waiting for their offer. I really hope everything works out well because this is without question where I want to be working after graduation. Stay tuned...