provided the same excellent training to everyone whether u needed it or not. U did not need to have an IT background to get hired. I had an IT background, so the training would have been less important to me.

I was a wanna be rock star with long hair and a beard.

Here is how it went:

They bragged that 99.7% of their offers get accepted. It was a 6 interview process. After the 1st interview, u were assigned to research and report back on what an amazing guy Ross Perot was. Between about the 3rd and 4th interview, u were asked to interview for any and all jobs available and report why u would choose EDS. The 5th interview u brought your spouse - even your spouse had to pass the cultural fit sniff test. All the while I was reminded that I would need to shave and cut my hair before the final interview - in Dallas.

Interviews 1 thru 5 were all in SLC for U students and with the same recruiter a week or two apart.

He then asked me this question:

IF IF IF we were to offer u $X to start in San Diego, assuming u pass interview 6 in Dallas, would u accept an offer? IE offer not actually made yet.

I had no desire for their style and culture and had the other offers, so I kept answering that I was very interested and that I would seriously consider it, but that I could not guarantee that I would accept it. I was tempted to guarantee acceptance and then turn it down, but could not go that far.

He called me a dozen times including on weekends to ask that same question so he could schedule the final interview. My response was always the same and I never was scheduled for the final interview.

Thus the 99.7% acceptance rate stayed intact.

If I did not have other offers, I would have cut my hair and shaved and bought a bunch of suits and black wing-tip shoes and signed on the dotted line. It would have been very valuable experience.

It would have been a job putting in systems for health insurance companies. EDS was the pioneer of outsourcing for that.

My final job as a CIO was with Blue Cross Blue Shield. There were still a few Blue plans around the country using old EDS systems, but, most had moved away from that and implemented software packages from Trizetto, QCSI, and others.