Interview w/ a Startup in Cambridge, MA

Went yesterday to Cambridge to talk to people from this 10-year old startup. To my surprise they are literally next door to MIT. Very interesting: super-cool location, image must be paramount for them.

Nice people, a bit elitist as the subtext goes, interesting work to be done (f/t). Yet no special connection. While their premises were well-lit by daylight they put me in a dimly lit conference room. Not a mood enhancer.

I got a phone call today from their internal recruiter telling me that I did not click with anybody on the team and my personality did not match the team. Yep, just like dating as one recruiter put it. However I really do appreciate him giving me prompt and sincere feed-back.

What puzzles me about them is the length of time they've been around and they haven't been bought and they didn't IPO. Most startups end up somewhere after about five years.

-ulianov

Interview w/ C**tiza

I got a call from a recruiter about this job at C**tiza which is a startup in "stealth mode". The job seemed like a fit so I agreed to a phone interview. The hiring manager ended up not calling. Hmm.

Then C**tiza started pushing me to go there for an in-person interview ASAP, now! tomorrow!, skipping the phone step. Normally I need the phone talk so I know what to expect and evaluate whether is worth me going to meet them.

As the company was only 5-minute driving from work I agreed to go there.

Met four guys, engineers, nice people. They were extremely interested in my raw troubleshooting skills. The were extremely secretive about what they are doing at C**tiza. Hmm. Weird and sickening.

The hiring manager stiffed me again as he has in a meeting with some VCs. So I wasted 2.5h and did get to not meet the guy. Their idea was that I should come back at a later date, waste more time and meet the guy.

To make matters worse during the interview a flash flood-type of rain started and soaked my car [inside too as I had my windows open... it was a hot day!] and prevented me from getting to it for a while.

Jul 8 update: I heard back from the recruiter: my skills were good but C**tiza was looking for a 3G/4G guy. Same happened to another candidate. And the job description did not have that. Kind of a crappy place if you ask me.

-ulianov

Interview w/ V**eoIQ in Bedford, MA

Drove half hour to Bedford on some winding roads (did not want to take route on Hwys 2->495->3) and got to meet the folks of V**eoIQ.

They are nice and relaxed but a bit unfocused: they use C, Java and .Net in their software stack and that biases their hiring needs.

I applied for a platform job (C/Linux/drivers/troubleshooting) yet they wished for somebody that was good at C++ too. I am not. While I think there may be people out there with this background I do not suppose there are many of them, as C++/UML is a craft on its own.

Predictably I did not get the job (well I told them upfront I am no C++ fan). While the hiring manager who talked to me over the phone seemed OK with that [that's why I went there to meet them in person], the VP of Eng. was not thus I wasted four hours on the road+interview out of my work day.

Altho unrelated to the V**eoIQ, the building that housed them was reeking of a rancid smell. It made me quite sick to my stomach and quite unenthusiastic. I suppose it came from the pool supply company next door.

-ulianov