Apparently, last week's interview went well because I got a call Thursday AM from the recruiter, asking me if I could come in to do some paperwork and take the drug test. I couldn't because I was sick, but said I'd try to get there Friday.
Thursday night, though, my cold got bad and I was coughing a lot. So I went into our medicine stash and grabbed that bottle of TussionEx that my wife got for her cough last year's cold season, and I took a good hit off it. Worked like a charm. Slept well, too!
TussionEx, you see, is the magic prescription-only cough syrup that includes the secret ingredient Hydrocodone - a.k.a. Vicodin, a.k.a. the kind of thing that shows up on a drug test as an opiate. The kind of thing I'd probably need to show a valid prescription for, if it came up on drug screen. At the time, I wasn't thinking about drug tests, I just wanted to stop coughing.
I explained all this to the recruiter this AM, and she wasn't concerned. So, I took the drug test today. Hope all those charts that say Hydrocodone is undetectable after 3 days are accurate !
Good luck. Sorry you had to play the game.
I once asked an interviewer what would happen if I didn’t initial the paragraph granting the prospective employer the right to demand random drug tests. He leaned toward me, and said in hushed tone, “Don’t worry. Everybody here smokes.” You know, tech support guy.
:)
i’ve never worked at a place that did random tests. i don’t think i’d stay at a job that did – just on principle.
Why the f*ck would you need to take a drug test for a programming job? Driving a bus, operating dangerous machinery, fair enough I guess, but a C# gig?
it’s standard, these days. i’ve had to do one for every job i’ve had, since ’95 or so.
i was even fingerprinted, for one job, a few years back.
Unbelievable. What is it any of your employers’ business what you do in your own time? Since when were any of these companies in the business of law enforcement? Are they scared of getting sued if you code some bugs when caked? Jesus, I know people who claim to have written their best code when nicely toasted!
i used to know a guy who worked as a systems programmer back in the day, as they say. his boss would buy him weed, it helped him focus. he wrote an early version of nfs.
even when i had a security clearance, i never had to take a drug test.
welcome to the united states of hysteria.
and, congrats cleek! maybe you can work out some kind of 6 months on / 6 months off thing… :)
that would be ideal.
Unfortunately fruit-picking pays poorly.