Developer curses at man on subway, meets him again in job interview

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.

The London subway isn't the most elegant of places.

It reeks of malodor. It's dripping with secondary moisture. And then there's the difficulty of shoving far too many people into a confined space and hoping that, in some very British way, they'll all get on.

One man got on the subway train last Monday morning and wasn't in the mood for politeness or pleasantries. As another man stood in his way, he shoved him and, so that there was no doubt as to his intent, told him to "Go f*** yourself."

This is morning talk for "Oh, do please get out of the way."

Perhaps the curser thought nothing more of it. He went about his day. He even had a job interview later in the afternoon.

He walked in and, within seconds, began to curse himself. For his interviewer turned out to be the very man he'd cursed at on the subway. Being a Python developer, and therefore a man of some rational bent, he might have attempted to work out the chances of such a serendipitous event.

However, as Matt Buckland told the BBC: "It was totally awkward."

Buckland, you see, was the interviewer. He's the head of talent and recruiting for Forward Partners. This is a VC company that offers money to fledgling entities. You'd imagine he might have been tempted, in this job interview, to reciprocate the developer's morning greeting.

Instead, he admitted to the BBC: "I approached it by asking him if he'd had a good commute that morning. We laughed it off and in a very British way I somehow ended up apologizing."

The story emerged before millions of eyes, because Buckland garlanded his Twitter feed with it. His now-classic post read: "Karma - the guy who pushed past me on the tube and then suggested I go F myself just arrived for his interview...with me..."

The developer didn't get the job because he wasn't, according to Buckland, quite right for it. Might his predilection for ill temper have contributed to him not being right for it? Buckland didn't say. The job, though, is still available.

One way of preparing for this particular developer interview is surely to ride the London subway all day long, trying to be nice to everyone you meet.

I don't suggest, though, too deep a belief in karma. We all remember the rare times when karma seems to bring a delicious justice to an unfair world.

But look around and you'll find a remarkably large number of notably unpleasant people in positions of great power.