Intuit had a job listing on a Usenet listing in ba.jobs for Software Engineer. (Think Facebook group without graphics and you get the idea). I applied.

A nice lady called and talked to me about my Mac and Windows experience, and about computer science in general. She told me that she would get back to me about scheduling an onsite interview.

About a week later, she called back, and said that they had decided not to pursue me any more.

When I started dating my now-wife, I mentioned this to her. One of her friends worked at Intuit, so she talked to him. According to her, an executive at Intuit who had worked at Claris told the team that I was not a good engineer, and they should find somebody else.

Thing is, I loved this executive. I would have done just about anything for him. I consider him a role model for leadership.

Even after he torpedoed my chances at a job at his new company.