Be prepared for the worst when it comes to cold weather interviews. It just so happens that I think I can provide you with the worst case scenario from my experience in Syracuse.
I drive up from Baltimore the Sunday before the Monday interview. I check into the hotel around 7, then go to look for something to eat for dinner. The roads are covered in slush. Some of the side streets are almost impassable. In addition EVERYTHING is closed, well, with the exception of the Pizzeria/Laundromat. I pass on that, and go back to get some rest. The following morning it is cold, I mean -12F cold. Luckily I had my overcoat. "I'm so well prepared I though to myself." I start the car, check out, and start on my way towards the interview. Half way there, the car starts wigging out. After losing power steering, I pull over to the side of the road, check my map and the time and realize if I want to make it I have to walk the rest of the way.
The funny thing about maps is that they make things look a lot closer than they really are. I wound up walking the last 20 minutes or so on the -12F, ice covered streets of Syracuse, and get to the interview local just in time to meet my interviewer on my way to the waiting area. I chatter my way through two interviews, trying to explain that my car just broke down, and my teeth don't usually do this.
I had only booked one night at the hotel, so I had to ditch all of the afternoon tour etc. and call AAA. I walk back to the car on the by now maybe -3F, ice covered streets expecting AAA to be there already. But no, I had to wait another 20 minutes for them to show up. They take me to a local shop where I find out the water pump had broken. I explain to the shop that I'm not from here and I need this car fixed today. By chance, some of the parts they had been expecting didn't arrive, and they could squeeze me in. I sat in the shop office for 3-4 hours while they get me road worthy. I settle up, get in the car, and can finally get the hell out of Syracuse.
It had started to flurry by then, but I had expected that. In fact, I was so concerned about the possibility of snow that I checked the Monday night weather forecasts for both Syracuse and Baltimore. Light flurries they said. I had not, however, checked the Monday night weather forecast for the ~300 miles between Syracuse and Baltimore. Much of THAT weather forecast called for near blizzard and blizzard conditions, Syracuse and Baltimore catching the front edge flurries.
Somewhere on the NY/PA border, my "all weather" tires lose grip on the road, and I wind up spinning out into snow bank that just yesterday had been the median of I-81. After spending 20 minutes on the phone with AAA ("I don't know where I am, do you understand that? Do you get that? I am somewhere on the border of NY and PA on I-81, about 20 minutes outside of Binghamton." "I'm sorry sir but did you say you are in NY or PA") someone stops with their Jeep Cherokee and snow tires and pulls me out.
I'm back on the road in the back of a ten car long caravan of cars doing 20mph on I-81 (the same road I had done 90-100mph on the whole way up) looking for some sign of civilization and hotels. By this time it's make your own lane time on the interstate, at least until jackass tanker truck drivers comes barreling up from behind us doing the speed limit. Have you ever sat in a car on the side of a busy road and felt the shake that a fast passing car can put on you. The same thing happens when you're driving. And when the road is covered in snow, and you don't have snow tires, you get a little more than a shake.
I'm not sure whether I hit the guard rail front bumper or rear bumper first, but I do know that when I got out of the car, neither of them were there.
Between the hotel,towing fee, water pump, towing fee, motel, body work, and train fare from my house back to Baltimore back to my house, I estimate that that particular interview cost me ~$2,500.
And the real bitch of it is, I didn't even get in. (not that I wanted to go to their lousy school for jerks anyway 😛)
So yeah, buy yourself a nice coat.
lol
great tip 👍
