absolutgcs.org

i don’t remember when it was, possibly high school or maybe college, but the phrase “poor form” stuck with me as a way to describe something that disappoints. this sentiment is what i’m referring to in the title of this post.

so in the last few months of finishing up my last project, i got the bright idea to start looking around for a job elsewhere in the valley. i wasn’t entirely serious about it because i wasn’t sure i was ready to job hop, but the economy is up in the valley and i figured i should see what’s out there. well, i ended up cancelling the majority of my interviews mid-process because i found something within my company that i absolutely could not pass up on. i’m not gonna name drop who i cancelled with but i will point out two companies i found to function in poor form.

i talked to a couple of startups in my mish-mash of conversations. one named sharpcast, another named palantir technologies. sharpcast is in the mobile space, an industry i care about after my experiences with 4thpass. one of their founders is a stanford alum and posted to our email list about opportunities there. i figured, what the hell, i’ll fire my resume their way. they’re working on keeping mobile devices synchronized with people’s desktops and a web workspace in real-time (or at least the application world’s definition of real-time… those of us in the embedded space would laugh at their #’s). sharpcast’s motto is “be nice. be scrappy. be creative.” the interview was a trainwreck during the first half. i’ll admit it and i don’t have many excuses. i was rusty, really rusty. the second half went well and there was an exit discussion with their recruiter.

during the 2nd half of the interview and the exit discussion with the recruiter, i got a lot of hot air about how they really stand by their motto and how they really believed in their founder(s). sounded like a bunch of brainwash garbage in spite of my efforts to believe how genuine they sounded. the exit discussion with the recruiter was a fuckin trip. i think she was on drugs, lots of drugs. she looked pretty strung out and she kept saying “thank god” for this and that, only to repeatedly correct herself with “thank allah”. was she muslim? i don’t know of many white muslims. did she think i was muslim? did she ever think if she was wrong about that, she would come across as a really strange person? that’s why my explanation is that she was strung out on drugs.

anyway, what’s my ultimate rant? their motto is BULLSHIT. be nice? ok, how about contacting me after the interview to at least inform me that they will not be continuing with me. shit, i’ve interviewed lots of people and have been interviewed dozens of times. i know my trainwreck during the first half would disqualify me from hiring myself. i would have been incredibly surprised if they decided to continue the process with me and would probably have used it as grounds for deciding against working there if i were to get an offer. but how about the appropriate behavior of following up with individuals who come in for interviews? they didn’t, that’s poor form and far from BEING NICE.

now on to palantir. an acquaintance of mine from school contacted me about this startup. he left microsoft, others there had left big companies to join this startup funded by peter thiel, founder of paypal. it all sounded very impressive without knowing any details and my acquaintance was actively recruiting me to this startup. to begin with, the person who was supposed to interview me was terrible with responses and coordinating a time and even forgot to call me at a scheduled interview time! we finally had that interview, which i was told was an initial review of my work experience and resume details. turns out he flipped out some technical questions. i nailed all of them without any pen/paper (did the interview in my car). the interviewer told me they would bring me in for an interview. a week later i get an email from their “recruiter”, a classmate of mine from school who graduated my year, indicating they had satisfied their hiring needs but would contact me when they were hiring more people. at this point i didn’t really give a shit, since i had already secured the awesome opportunity with my existing company. well, guess what i saw in my daily digest from my alumni email list?

Subject: Palantir Technologies is hiring multiple Software Engineers
From: Akash Jain
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 10:51:03 -0700
X-Message-Number: 7

poor form. you tell me you’ll contact me when you’re hiring more people, but don’t get in touch with me in advance of this posting? courtesy dictates you say you’re moving on if you don’t feel i fit the requirements, etc OR you actually just mean what you say when you tell me that i’m qualified by you’re not adding people at the moment.

anyway, that’s my rant. i’m not trying to come off as “oh i’m hot shit and i can’t believe they’re passing on me” but rather focus on the lack of proper courtesy. but i do believe i’m hot shit and they’re missing out nothing’s wrong with some confidence and hey i believe i’ve got the work experience/reviews, degrees and accomplishments behind me to feel that i can push for any job or project of interest.

i’m just glad i started my new project, i’m psych’d about the research area, and i’m going to be learning about a lot of cool shit. more details on it later. time for sleep…