Surely the simplest approach is not to use a wifi ssid that you don’t trust. Yes, mobile broadband is slower and more expensive, but is also more under your control, it is however harder for your boss to monitor.

If I was an it manager I’d probably want to keep an eye on WiFi traffic, even on the open ssid, just to see what’s going on. I don’t trust free WiFi.

If you can’t use 4/5g, and can’t find a suitable firewall or VPN, can you set up a different user on your phone? - and be disciplined in is use.

Another vote for scratch. Most kids that age want quick results and not to spend ages debugging something. Funnily enough I’ve seen the same scratch interface used to program industrial robots.

How much time one on one are you committing to spend with the child? This will make the difference.

Alternatively, think about some sort of robotics kit. Doing stuff in software is great but if it changes something in the real world, even better. Have you thought about something arduino?

Just for balance though, make a raft, a treehouse, a tent, make a fire without matches. It’s all problem solving but I bet any kid will remember getting muddy more than writing a neat while loop.

Has a psion5, brilliant tech. Loved it. The calendar was way ahead of its time, 2AA batteries gave weeks of life and you could just about touch type on the keyboard. If I could get it to synch with office I’d be tempted to dig it out again, it really was the future.

Eyesight started going in mid 40s. Still not happy about it.

Long day!

When I was working in Switzerland briefly, people would speak Swiss, German, French and Italian as well as English all in the same breath. I was told they used whatever word was easiest at the time.

I barely remember my birthday.

17.5C typically, but we have blankets to hide under. I lit the fire tonight though so it’s toasty. Drying the air with either the fire or a dehumidifier makes a huge difference.

Remember that you are also interviewing them. They won’t expect you to know all the answers, but will want someone that they can work with. If you can, answer questions with the STAR method (situation, task, approach, result), but don’t waffle. You can use one piece of experience in a variety of ways: teamwork, research, urgent deadline etc.

It’s ok to say that you are nervous, they should try to put you at ease.

You may be asked ‘trick questions’, these are not usually to to you up but to see how you work an unknown problem. There is no right answer. Not knowing stuff is ok. Not being able to think up a plan is less so.

Remember whatever the outcome, this is really useful experience. See if you can get a site tour, ask about the tech used… You can then add this to your knowledge for later. In my experience, industry is frequently several years ahead of academia so you get a good chance to understand the real world.

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