Interview story (a while ago)

Originally written 2005-02-08

Holiday Inn Clinton

After I picked up the rental car (with GPS) at Newark airport, I was on the way to my destination. I took an exit on I-78 by accident, with the help from GPS I did get back to the road without problem. At about 9:40 PM I arrived the hotel. I could see the snow on the parking lot — it’s colder in NJ than in St. Louis. The hotel looks pretty nice, and the town reminds me of Rolla, a small mid-west town where I spent 3 years for study (1997-2000).

After dinner and shower I began to prepare my presentation for tomorrow (2/04/05). My bro told me run it 4-5 times before the actual presentation. I wrote down what I want to say for my slides. Besides work related stuff, I also put down some light side stuff: where I grow up, hobbies, things/places I experienced in the States. This is my first time to give presentation after I graduate from school in 2000. A bit nervous, but my experience in presenting research in car companies during school days did help a lot. I also ironed the shirt for the big day. Went to bed at 1 AM.

Interview

The presentation went very well, much better then I expected. The participants (mainly managers) were impressed. Then comes the harder part.

HR manager is a middle-aged lady who seems very sharp. She talked about the Chinese employee’s work ethic and China’s growth. She also asked about questions about working availability/eligibility, how I heard about the opportunity, and some other behavior type questions. I think it went OK.

Manager 1: this is the make-or-break time. Because he is going to be my boss if I get the position. I heard from HR manager he is a very aggressive person, and he moved around a few times inside the company to get his current position. He asked many technical questions (Qns), some of them I am not comfortable with. At one time I asked why I left my graduate school in China (not get the degree) and come to US. Why not come to US after getting the degree. This is a legimate Qn but I was annoyed by the way he went about the Qn. Finally I told me there is not an ideal way around this, because of visa and financial support issue. He asked if he regretted my decision at that time, I said no. I don’t know if I would be better off or worse off if I made another choice at the time, but I want to look forward. In retrospect, I think I would say there is always things to lose when you try to get something (trade off). This reminds me another Qn I was asked by an interviewer in another company: what I would be if I stay in the same company, and how to work towards to that position. I goofed on that one because I said it just takes time to become a senior engineer/project leader. I took a facility tour with him after the Qn session. General impression was good, the cafeteria and fitness room is much better than my current employer’s. I saw many Indian engineers, later on I learned from Product Mgr they are hired from India on H-1B. In retrospect, I think one reason he is asking tough Qns because he wanted to test my skills to handle the stress situations, which will be very common if I take the position.

Manager 2: he is my would-be-boss’ boss, he, Mgr 1 and I had a lunch together. They’ve all travelled to China on business. He tried to initiate the conversation and asked me a few common things, talked facilities in China. I really regretted with the big sandwich I ordered, but I tried to talk as much as I can. I think it went OK.

Manager 3: he is a product manager, and he seems like a nice guy. His team will rely on our system for new product development, so he wanted to make sure the system is up and running, and the data is not corrupt. He listed an instance that half-a-years’ product data get lost during data migration (from old system to new system). I don’t know if that eventually get resolved or not, but it seems like a common problem.

Ms. C and Mr. D (would-be direct reports): teleconference went not very well. Like Mgr 1, they also prepared a list of technical Qns for me to answer. I think I scored poorly (<50%). It looks like I’m the guy to solve their problems and headache. But again In retrospect, I think one reason they were asking tough Qns because he wanted to test my skills to handle the stress situations, which will be very common if I take the position.