blog364

I love Apple products. I love how they look, I love how they function and I love how they make me feel when I use them (Seth Godin was right in All Marketer are Liars when he said that we don’t buy products, we buy the stories that we tell ourselves about the products we buy!), but please don’t call me a “fanboy”. A “fanboy” has nothing but great things to say for the brands/products he/she loves. As much as I can see and appreciate the greatness in Apple (whether you like it or not they’ve come back from an ‘almost’ assure extinction), I can also see its shortcoming, mistakes and fumbles. From the app store approval process to the recent “antennagate“, Apple has had and will continue to have its share of issues. But one issue that no one seems to have brought up or made much fuss about is the current inability to delete any one of the pre-installed Apple apps on any of the iPhones.

My iPhone 3G came with 20 pre-installed apps. Of all these, there’s only one that I can think of that shouldn’t be deleted: Settings. This would be the same as deleting the Control Panel on a PC or System Preferences on a Mac. Clearly there’s a need for it. But why can’t I delete any of the other applications, such as: Weather, Stocks, Clock, Photos, et’al? Certainly, there are thousands of other applications in the App Store that can do the same things that these pre-installed apps can do and better. Why is it that Apple will let me uninstall pretty much any application that came pre-installed on my MacBook Pro but won’t let me do so from my phone?

So I decided to call Apple Care (I paid a pretty penny for it, so I figure I’d put it to some good use). After a little bit or “routing me around” I finally heard what I was expecting: “We don’t support that functionality. If you don’t want to see the pre-installed apps, just move them to the last ‘page’ on the phone.” Again…. F#$*ING LUDICROUS!!! Move them? Shove them under the proverbial “carpet”? OMG – LOL! This to me sounded much like the, now infamous, email from Steve Jobs to the user complaining about the iPhone 4 reception issues where he tells him to “Just avoid holding it in that way.”

I’m not saying: “don’t give me any pre-installed apps with my new phone”. All I’m asking is to have the choice to remove them if I want to. It’s my phone, I should be able to have a saying in what I put in it and what I remove. Can you imagine Ford telling you that you cannot change the tires on your new car or the stereo? Ludicrous!!!

Not too long ago Microsoft was made to capitulate about including Internet Explorer with Windows OS. Microsoft argued that it needed to include IE with Windows for the OS to work. The courts didn’t buy the argument and Microsoft had to provide a way to remove the intruding program (albeit in a way that made you feel that you were better off WITH the program rather than trying to go through the week long process to remove it!). That was ONE program. My iPhone has over 10.

To: Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive, Apple designers, et’al: your customers are smarter and more capable to make choices on their own, even if you don’t agree with them, than you give them credit for. Exercising such a tight control over your products long AFTER they have left the factory and been paid for will only help, in the not so-long term, to alienate your core supporters and only leave the “fanboys” behind. Of which, I’m sure aren’t enough to sustain your delusions of grandeur. You created the BEST MP3 player in the world but you didn’t tell us how to fill it up. You gave us great laptops but trusted us to fill them with useful applications…. please trust us that we are equally capable with your….err…. OUR phones!

Sincerely,

A loyal Apple user, but NOT a “fanboy”

This post is similar to the previous one about “Baby proof my stereo” in that it finds, yet, another everyday household item which could use a little bit of TLC-UX redesigned aimed at parents with young children. I’ll tell you, there’s nothing like having a young kid in the house to teach you a thing or two about the difference between how product manufacturers intend their products to be use and how they actually “could” be used.

Two days ago, I got a very clear demonstration. I was in the kitchen preparing breakfast when I hear the door of the microwave oven close and the a series of beeps. I hadn’t heard anyone come into the kitchen but I figure it was my wife warming up her cup of tea, so I said: “Good morning love.” The answers surprised me…”Hi daddy!” I turn around and see my son standing there, adorable as always, with a big smile on his face. He’s a very happy kid and smiles a lot, but that morning there was something particularly suspicious about it. It was a mix of angelical with “Oh boy am I gonna get in trouble now or what!” I said: “Dash, are you playing with the microwave?” Without losing his smile, he said: “No. I’m drying clown fish (don’t worry, we don’t actually have a living fish in the house!)” Clown fish is his favorite stuffed animal. Trying hard not to lose it or laugh I asked him why was he putting him in the microwave. He explained to me, with terms and logic that only a soon-to-be three year old knows how, that he had wet his pants and “clown fish” and he wanted to dry him.

I don’t know why but the image of the “Gremlin in the microwave” image immediately rush through my head. And then… a more sinister thought: what if he tries to put our cat in it? OMFG! This got me immediately thinking: how can you “baby/kid poof” a microwave? The answer came pretty quick. The SAME way that you baby proof a stereo!

Remove the interface controls in the unit and put them on a remote control. The only button should be the one to open the door. Nothing else.

Microwaves have simple enough functionality that fitting it in a decent size remove shouldn’t be too difficult. With bluetooth or some other wireless technology, you could even control it from any room in the house. If you have small children in the house this would be a wonderful solution. You’d never again have to worry about how the microwave “could” be used or whether the family’s pet might end up in the nightly supper stew, or whether they kids might set the house on fire (clearly the cooking stove is another candidate for this, but this article is not about “baby proofing” it. At least not yet!).

Now, this idea of removing the interface to all our daily household appliances and putting them on a remote control might seem over simplistic, or extreme, or both. But why not? The only reason that microwaves and stereos still have controls built in, instead of being remote-only operated, is because that’s how these products have been designed for decades. And they were design with these built-in controls because the technology to use remote controllers didn’t exist yet. But today, that’s not the case any more. Today we have technology to get satellites to send us photos from million of miles away; I’m sure we can warm up a cup of tea from another room. The cat would surely feel safer for it!

Now, a slight detour….

Having objects that can only be control in one particular way, from one particular location doesn’t fit any more with the way in which we want to live our lives. We are constantly searching for ways to improve how we do things, become more efficient, more flexible and unconstrained. It’s only logical that we start thinking on how our current products and services can be redesigned to fit with our new routines and always-on-the-go habits. So let’s take this remote controlled microwave a step further. Why not build one that can be controlled from our smart-phones? You can control your TiVo with one!

Imagine, you get home from work one Friday evening. You are planning on sitting in front of the TV (multiple remotes in hand) to eat some pizza and have a few beers. You open the refrigerator and, in horror, realize that you don’t have any. You decide to run to the supermarket to get some, but before leaving the house, you put a pizza in the microwave. You don’t start it because you don’t know how long it will be and you don’t want the pizza to get cold (you hate re-heated pizza. It’s so saggy). You grab your smart-phone and get in your car. Once you are in line at the supermarket to pay for your beer, you estimate that it will take you 20 minutes to get back to the house. You reach for your phone, open the MicroCook app and set it to: 10′ defrost – 5′ cook @ 90 power <RUN>. Presto! You get home 20 minutes later and you have a delicious and warm pizza waiting for you.

Oh, the possibilities! It’s not just about “baby proofing” our products and lives. It’s about getting more control without having to sacrifice our freedom, independence and flexibility. We are, slowly but surely, morphing from a “push” society into a “pull” one. This means that we want products, services and data available when/how/where we need it. We don’t want to have to be at a particular place and/or time to be able to take an action. Technology exists today to give us 24/7/360 access and control to most things that we need to from any where in the world. It’s time to start thinking whether we want to be restricted and constrained in what’s possible with the products or services we use and start re-thinking and breaking out of our user-experience boxes and designing and demanding the experiences that we truly crave.

Hopefully, some of this will become a reality in a not too distant future. Hopefully before “clown fish”, Shamu or Pipking the penguin get nuked!

There’s been quite a bit of fuzz and buzz in the last year or so about whether “Googling” someone before an interview should be legal/accepted and/or used in making hiring decisions. I have several friends that work in HR for a few startups and established companies and they’ve been going crazy training employees and managers on how to conduct themselves online and how to go about performing a background check on a candidate and what can and cannot be said or used during the interview. Is all this really needed? All this “don’t ask” even though “they” (the “will be” candidates) are telling (by posting their lives on the web)? Have we become so incompetent at following basic social and democratic guidelines that we need laws to save us from our own stupidity?

Now, I’m all against discriminating (whether be it for a job or in any other situation) based on skin color, age, gender, social class, religious affiliations, etc. and I understand why managers have to be reminded to stay clear of these areas during an interview. But, what’s the real harm in “Googling” someone?

Here, let me paint a scenario for you: You have a 16 year old daughter and she’s very pretty. She has never gone out on a date before, but you know that day is coming. Until one day it just happens: the family is sitting at the table having a nice dinner when she says: “Today Chuck Waggon asked me out on a date. He’s picking me up at 8 pm” – It’s 7:30!!! You dash out of the room…. Where do you go? To your office. What do you do? You Google: “Chuck Waggon”. It doesn’t take you too long to come across his Twitter/Facebook/MySpace/Hi5/etc. profiles and updates. You recognize that smug face. There, for the whole world to see are pictures of “Chuck” with some “ladies” in some interesting “situations.”  His Twitter one-liners aren’t much better…You’ve seen and read enough. You run to double-bolt the front door, set the alarm and fetch the family dog. You sit back at the table and your look says it all: “He’s been GOOGLED! You are NOT going out with him!”

Now, this might be a little bit funny and not very related to an interview situation… or is it?

We live in a 24/7/360 digital, always connected world. The barriers (barriers? What barriers?)… never mind… There are NO barriers to keep us from dumping every little detail of our personal and professional lives online. Tweeter and Facebook have proven that. We use the “my First Amendment rights say…” excuse to justify and explain why we feel that we should be able to say/post anything we want online. The only problem is: We want people to find and read it but NOT to judge us by it.

Let’s not be hypocritical here! If you want the right to say/post whatever you want to (clearly with the intention/understanding that it will be found – otherwise you’d be keeping an old-style paper journal in a safe at home) then you should do so knowing that it will be found and that, YES, people will read and talk about it and, very possibly, JUDGE you by it. We need to learn to respect other people’s points of view and ideologies, but we don’t necessarily have to agree with them. As much as we are all free to write/post whatever we want to; we are also all free to form our opinions based on what they post and make decisions/take action based on what we learn about them.

We are constantly searching for information and using what we learn from it to make almost every decision about our daily lives…So, now we need to hire the best possible candidate to fill in a position but we are not allowed to use what we learn on Google/LinkedIn/Facebook/Tweeter et`al to make the decision? That’s not only crazy…. it’s STUPID!!!! We have access to one of the best resources of information available in the history of mankind but we cannot use it for what’s intended (i.e.: search, gather, interpret/analyze, use information)?

We Google the movies that we want to see and the books we want to read. We Yelp a restaurant that we want to try out before making a reservation. We listen to previews on iTunes before downloading. We Bluebook a car before we buy it and read the MySpace/Facebook/Twitter/eHarmony profile of our next date. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Like Joshua, the computer, said in War Games “the only way to win is not to play.” If you are so concern about the possible repercussions of something that you are about to post on the web, then take a moment to think it over before pressing the SUBMIT button. We own our silence but are slaved by our words and in this day and age of great technology we are slaved by everything we post online!

—

I’m not sure if what I’m about to say and do has any legal standing… but there’s only one way to find out. So here it goes:

i. I, Diego Schmunis, hereby grant permission to any and every future employer to “Google me” (let me make it easy for you, here’s my Google link) . That means that you can search and re-search me online to your hearts contents and use this information in my interview/hiring process.

ii. As long as I’m being treated fairly, the information about me is not being misconstructed in an unfairly manner and am given a chance to explain and/or answer any questions regrading information that you might have found about me online, I resign any and all rights to “sue you for discrimination”.

Happy now? You can know as much as you want to about me… anything that I’ve posted online is fair game and you won’t get in trouble for knowing about it or asking me.

But let’s take this a bit further: “Googling” me is a REQUIREMENT if you want to hire me! That’s right. As much as you, my interviewer, expect me to know about the company I expect you to know about me. It’s a two way street. Besides, you know that I’m going to “Google” every name in the company directory that I can find and find out as much about them as I possibly can. If what I find out about my will-be manager and team mates isn’t good, chances are that I’ll decline an offer no matter how good. That is NOT DISCRIMINATION…. it’s being smart and avoiding making a bad decision.

It’s time to even out the tables and stop the hypocrisy. If they can post it, then we can use it.

Good night.

As Friday morning approaches (July 16, 2010, at 10:00 am) and we all get ready for Apple’s last minute press conference about their new iPhone 4 and scandal, we can only guess and speculate as to what Jobs’ and Co. have to say and/or tell us about Apple’s latest and greatest PR fumble.

Right now the web is abuzz with blog postings about what Apple may say or do (“It’s NOT a bug. It’s a feature.” – FREE bumper cases for everyone – Total Recall!, etc). Where theories and guesstimates abound, a very important one seems to be missing from everyone’s predictions… and it’s probably the one that Apple “fan-boys” would like to hear the most: We, Apple customers, won’t hear:

iAM Sorry!

“I am sorry!”

Three simple words. Three simple words that had Jobs’ or anyone else at Apple said, as soon as the reports of the reception problems started coming in, would had diffused most of the troubles, angry customer and bad PR for Apple. Now, I’m not saying that just by saying: “I’m sorry” we would have just go ,quietly, back to our lives without feeling ripped-off that we spent $200 plus to get a phone that…well… it takes great pictures. No! It would have not been enough but it would have been a great way for Apple to star dealing with a situation that, I think, they knew it was coming.

A few years ago I was working at your typical Silicon Valley start-up. You know… “we have to build an N-tier application with a holographic communication device using only Lego parts and duct tape in three weeks and can only spend $1.29 (and that needs to include pizza and sodas).” That means that needs where greater than resources so we had to wear the proverbial “many hats.” One of the “hats” that I had to wear was that of “technical support and customer service.” Having a half baked application going live to customers (we only had $51c left) was a sure sign that we’d be getting plenty of calls in the “hot-line” – now, I’m not calling it the hot-line because it was our tech support number. I’m calling it that way because the phone was literally getting HOT from all the calls that we were getting. Now, we had customers calling us from the entire “anger/frustrated” spectrum (and let me tell you… it’s a looooooooong one). We knew that we couldn’t resolve all the problems for all our customers right away and/or in a satisfactory manner (but we were doing our best!). But we had a strategy to help us cope. Or more precisely, help our customers cope… The FIRST thing we’d say to our customers after they were done “explaining” their problems in as calm a manner as they could was: I’AM SORRY you are experiencing difficulties. YES, WE ARE AWARE OF THE ISSUE and WE ARE WORKING hard to fix it.” Read the upper-case parts again… trust me… they are important.

Three key parts in the message:

1. Apologize right away. Trust me, there’s nothing more disarming to an angry person than to hear: “I’m sorry” and/or “you are right”. Think about it. Here they come all ready to fight and yell at you. They are ready for, wanting, a confrontation just so they can tell you how much they hate you and your $39c product… Instead they get what they’ve probably never gotten before when calling customer service: an apology. It stops them cold on their tracks. They feel, partially, re-vindicated and that it’s not their fault. Another, side effect, of saying this and stopping the customer before they can really get going on their rant is that now they are stunned into silence, which give you the perfect opportunity to talk and explain to the customer how you are going to help them.

2. Acknowledge the problem/issues: Saying “I’m sorry” is a great start but, sometimes, not enough. Now you, and/or your company, need to own-up to the problem. You don’t have to go on a long story about when and how you first discovered this issue – it won’t change a thing to the customer. Just let them know that you are aware of it. This removes any “I’m the problem” doubt from their minds and diffuses their anger even more: it’s very hard to get any at someone one when they are accepting a mistake. WARNING: whatever you do, DO NOT attempt to deflect blame for the issue (even if it’s truly not your fault – this is not the time). Any sentence that has a “but” and/or “because” after the “yes, we are aware of it” is a clear sign that you don’t really believe that there’s and issue and/or if it’s yours and that will only re-start the customers fire and it will be directed at you!

3. Offer a solution: depending on what the issue is, you might have just “the right solution”, a “good work around”, or worst-case scenario… no solution at all. IF you have “the right solution” give it to them right away. They’ll thank you for it, go back to being a happy customer and tell all their friends about the product and how the customer support team kicks as. If all you have is a “good work around”, again, give it to them along with any and all important information/side effects that they should be aware of (i.e.: it will erase your entire HD but you’ll have the “pretty” icons back). In this case, more information is better than just enough. Not only you want them to understand how and why to work around the issue, but you also want to avoid them any possible “surprises” later on that might give them a reason to go back to square one. Now, if you don’t have a solution at all but are aware of the issue, then you most likely (“if” you want to stay in business that is) are working on it. You don’t have to apologize for not having a solution ready for them. Just telling them that you are aware of the problem and that you/your company is working on a solution is the best that you can do. Gather as much info about the customer’s problem and their contact information so that you can follow-up with any new information that you might have about their problem and/or to call them “as soon” as there’s a fix for it.

Three words. Three steps. You’ll be surprised how many karma points this approach will buy you.

—

Now, I’m not going to hold my breath until Friday morning and expect Jobs to offer an apology (I hope he proves me wrong). And that’s too bad. We’ve come to expect great things from Apple and most of the time they deliver. Why not give users what they really want: an honest “I’m sorry”, a FREE bumper case and the comfort to know that Apple still cares about providing an excellent customer experience, even if the path to it is not always what was in Steve’s mind!

WARNING: this is may be or may be not a rant

WARNING: this may or may be not a “conspiracy theory”

NetFake

Ok, I just canceled my Netflix service. I had it all of three short months.

How many movies did I watch?

ZERO!

Why?

There was nothing worth watching! For real!

Ok, here’s the deal: I signed up for the one DVD at a time plan. The real reason why I signed up for it was because they advertised that for $8.99 a month I could access and watch as many new releases movies online (TV or computer) as I wanted to. I really didn’t care about having to wait for the DVDs to arrive, however quick the service might be. The real appealing idea was to be able to get online, select a movie that I’ve missed on theaters recently (I have a kid at home and if you do too, then you know how hard is to catch the latest releases on the big screen) and watch it immediately on my laptop in bed or on the TV.

Ok, you say…”but they have hundreds of movies that you can ‘watch now’!”. Yes, they do. But what part of “new releases” didn’t you get? Go to the previous paragraph and read it again. This time, slowly!

Here’s a screenshot of their “New movies to watch instantly.” Go ahead, take a look… I’ll wait

New releases?

So? What do you think? Did you see any “new releases”? And by new releases I mean movies that have been in the theaters recently, NOT “new releases” as in straight-to-DVD release.

For all of 2009 they have 19 movies. Go ahead count them…

Do you see any “hits”? Anything that’s gonna make you wanna run to make some pop-corn?

Didn’t think so.

So that, in short form, is why I canceled the service. It didn’t provide the “service” that it said that it would. It was misleading and because I’m the one paying, I choose not to do business with misleading businesses.

Now, to say something positive (before really slamming Netfake) about them: Their account cancelation process was one of the smoothest ones that I’ve had online in al long, long time. And so far I haven’t received any annoying “please come back” calls, thought I don’t think I’ll be disappointed!

So, it could all end here. I tried the service, they didn’t delivered, I keep my money.

But it won’t…

After canceling I started thinking (Yes, I know… funny. Just one of those exercises that I like to do from time to time to find out if the Alzheimer’s is kicking in yet or not!).

So I thought… (Nope, no Alzheimer’s yet!)

How come I can get a lot more new releases on Comcast on-demand but not on Netfak…ok, I’ll be nice just this once…Netflix? I mean, come on… Netflix must have 4:1 ration of movies over Comcast, at least. So it’s not a lack of movies. No, it has to be something else.

Well, one reason why Comcast has a lot of new movies on-demand is because they don’t have a DVD delivery/distribution channel like Netfake does. Nor should they. They are in the business of Cable TV, so that’s fine for them.

Netfake HAS the movies (I know because they are available on DVD) and HAS the technology to stream them directly to me (I know because THAT’S THE SERVICE THEY ADVERTISE!)

So how come they don’t do it? It can’t be cost. It cost the same to stream a one hour forty minutes bad movie as it does a new one (also Netflix offers to stream HD movies, so bandwidth is not an issue).

Ok, you guys ready for the “conspiracy theory” part?

They are using the “watch instantly” product as a kind of”loss leader“, with the added functionality that by not making new releases (the ones that you actually want to watch) available for streaming over the TV or computer they are hopping it will motivate customers to sign up for a “larger” DVDs per month package, so they can get the latest movies. They make more money by sending DVDs to your home than they do by streaming them.

Think (you need to check for Alzheimer’s too)… If you could watch as many truly great new releases for $8.99 a month as you want to, they’d go out of business. If you could truly watch all the “new releases” on-line, unlimited, for $8.99 then no one would ever upgrade to get more DVDs at the time delivered (‘cos lets face it… we live in America. Why get one DVD in the mail at the time, when you can get 3, 4, 5, etc?). No big DVDs per month packages, no great revenue.

So, the solution? Control, without saying it of course, how many movies your customers really may want to “watch” online. How? Simple, offer the “lesser” quality movies online, and keep the best ones for the delivery service (which of course, makes more money for them)!

You see, someone, somewhere inside Netfake’s belly figure out that many people might sign up for the $8.99 package (for what they ‘advertise’ it as, is a great value) initially but that after seeing the “poor” selection, they’d want to “upgrade” their accounts to get a “better” selection. Caching, caching, caching… all the way to the bank!

The problem with this “business model”, OTHER than being dishonest, is that it opens the door big and wide for another competitor (Comcast and Apple come to mind – major problem: COST. Comcast charges anywhere from $3.99 to $6.99 per movie, and Apple’s pricing isn’t too different. Also, I wouldn’t be too surprise to see Google or Amazon give it a go and Oh boy! If either one of those two companies want it, I don’t think there’s much Netflix, Comcast or Apple could do to stop them or even slow them down – but if Comcast and/or Apple could drop the prices to $1 or so, Netflix would be out of business over night!). May be the guys running Netfake haven’t noticed or heard about something called “cloud computing“, or noticed the fact that the cost for online storage and bandwidth are dropping even faster than house prices in the Bay Area (I know bad joke, I own a house here!). So why? Why when everything is moving online, set your business up to keep it the old and slow way (after all, I could watch, God… I don’t know… over 12 movies BEFORE the next DVD arrives. Oh, wait… right…. there are NO good movies to “watch instantly”!). Well, I don’t know but also don’t care to find out. I’m sure that the other companies mentioned above are just drooling at the opportunity!

So there you have it. Why I closed my (I’ll be nice one more time) Netflix account and why I’d never go back!

And, please! Don’t call yourself “Net” anything when you still rely on snail mail for your business!

Now, I have to go download a “new release” from TPB!

I recently had the opportunity to interview at an up-and-coming Internet startup near my home in the Bay Area.

It was at a company that has had quite a bit of “buzz” in the technology blogs and I was pretty excited about the opportunity.

It was your typical interview with your typical interview questions (we’ll cover those in another post).

I met with two member of the development team and we had an energetic and stimulating conversation about their product, the challenges and where my help would be needed the most.

After about an hour, they said that they didn’t have any further questions, that they’ve enjoyed meeting me and that they’d be looking forward to working together.

Ok, that sounded pretty good… as good as a “potential” offer can get without the offer.

Next came the VP of Engineering (i.e.: the “decision” maker). Again, we did the usual interview dance…

What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
How do you get along with co-workers?
Do you mind working late nights?
Etc…

I must have been a pretty good dance partner because after another hour or so he said that he thought I’d be a great fit for the team and the company. He said that he had a quick chat with the other two guys from my previous interview and that the feedback was really good. OK, offer’s on the way….

Everything would have been great if we had ended the interview right there. But there was one problem… he asked me if I had any questions for him.

I said “well I don’t know if it’s a question or a request?”
He gave me a look as if to say: “there’s nothing you can ask me that I haven’t heard before. Go ahead and ask.”
I paused for a moment and then, in a very casual tone, said “can you make me laugh?”
He gave me the ‘dear in the headlights’ look. I guess there were questions that he still hadn’t heard.

I tried to throw him a lifeline: “do you know any good jokes?” I guess it was the wrong lifeline.
He asked me if I was serious. What could I answer to that but the truth.

“Yes, I am.”

Well, in a hurry he found a way to excuse himself. He told me that they’d be in touch and left the room. Two minutes later the secretary came to escort me out.

Well, you can probably guess … I never heard back from them again.

However, I did hear back from the recruiter that had gotten me the interview. He wasn’t amused by what he heard from the manager and probably the fact that I’ve cost him a nice finder’s fee did’t give me any extra “sympathy” points.

He asked me if it was true that I’ve asked the VP of Engineering of this “well-known” startup to “make me laugh.”

Again, the Truth should set you free: “Yes I did!”

So in his very “Hi I’m a Technology recruiter”, very serious (as in: “don’t f@*k with me”) tone asked me: “WHY? Do you think that’s an appropriate question for a VP of Engineering?”

I blew the interview and I'm happy I did!

OK. Enough story telling and dialogues recounting… Yes I did ask the question. Yes I knew ,and KNOW, that’s not your ‘typical’ interview question and I most certainly knew it was, most likely, going to cost me the position. So why did I ask anyway?

Because I needed to make sure that the team and the company were a good fit for me too!

Here is something that, I think, most of us have forgotten about interviews and jobs:

Whenever we go to an interview, it’s not just them interviewing us, we are also there to interview them. Do you really take whatever the recruiter or the ad on CraigsList says about the job and the company as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I don’t! Usually, after just a few minutes of interviewing I have a pretty good idea about the opportunity, whether it’s a good match for me and if I’m the right person for it. So at this point I see no reason for continuing to discuss technical “details”. Let’s get to the heart of the matter: is this a good “personality” fit for both sides? Will we enjoy working together (and have fun while we are at it)?

I know that working hard (specially at an up-and-coming startup) is unavoidable but, in my book, having fun is mandatory! And I needed to find that out during the interview. That’s why I asked the question. Once I take the job is too late. If I’m going to be surrounded by long faces and people that take themselves to serious and can’t put some fun, laughter and enjoyment with the long hours, then Thank You but no Thank You…I don’t want in.

We could argue for hours if there was a “better” way or question to find this out, but we won’t. The truth is: I knew I was going to put the VP on the spot and probably make him a bit uncomfortable (VPs always take themselves way to serious!). And that’s exactly what I wanted to do. Not out of ego or to get a reaction, but to have him (my “will be boss”) show me his “true colors”. And he did. He told me, without saying it, that laughter and fun are not part of his company’s culture. Again, not what I’m looking for.

Now, I am not passing judgement on this person. I know (I’ve done my research) he’s extremely smart, a very good VP of Engineering and very successful (and I could have learned lots from him too). And I’m sure this company will be very successful in the near future. I just refuse to accept the idea that work is “work” and it can’t or shouldn’t be fun. That’s wrong! I know, personally, that I do my best work when I’m having fun, because, if I’m having fun then I’m not working or just doing my “job”. And the only thing that I want more when I’m having fun is to have more of it! Work and fun are not mutually exclusive!

So, do I regret asking the question and not getting the job? Not one bit. Would I do it again? Yes, in a second. Do I recommend others trying similar tactics? Well, that depends… if you know what you want and what’s important to you in YOUR life, then there’s nothing wrong to ask for it – even if it means not using “standard” interview techniques. The worst thing that can happen is that someone says “no” or doesn’t make you an offer. And that’s ok. That’s a price that I’m willing to pay if it helps me find, not just the right professional opportunity but also the right “culture” where I’m allowed to have fun while contributing to the company’s goals. Just do it with conviction.

NOTE: “will be” recruiters, VPs of XX, interviewers, etc if you are reading this line it means that you’ve read the post. So consider yourselves to be forewarned. This way, you won’t give me the “dear in the headlight” look when I ask you “CAN YOU MAKE ME LAUGH”!