Soooo....here goes.
This guy really let me play Lubie's advice through very carefully.
IT was like he had spoke to Lubie and come to a consensus on what to ask me and how to do it.
He asked me about previous projects and he asked me about previous successes. I told him them and told him what I learned during those successes and how I think those will help me when he hires me.
He asked me where I see myself in three years *IF* this opportunity never existed. My response was I would still be working toward the same goal.
He asked me to name three failures. LEft it open ended like that so I did; I named three key failures and elaborated the lessons I learned from them and how they will help me when he hires me.
Then; every chance I got I made it clear I wanted the job. I made it clear that this was an exciting opportunity for me and that I was chomping at the bit to get going on it. All true too of course. In every response I highlighted how my experience and knowledge was going to help him make money.
I'm in IT so he asked me how I felt about being in a support posture. I told him I wasn't comfortable in a pure support role because I Wasn't making money for the company directly. My job while it does support the bottom line does not "make money" if anything it saves money. I've been in the making and the support money makers role and I much prefer making the money and the bottom line. The bonuses are bigger there and I have a family to support.
That was a nice segway to asking me about my family which I told him about. He asked me how I felt about travelling to San Jose once or so a month. San jose isn't that far so it's no big deal. I used to go there for day trips for my previous job on occasion.
Then the close; I said I really appreciated the opportunity to talk to him and I extremely wanted the job (I didn't word it exactly like that). I was very excited about it and the chance to work with the folks that I would be working with (turns out I know them a bit). He told me that I did very well and that he was going to have more engineers call me.
Then he asked me to prepare a 15 minute sample presentation that was 5 slides on a subject (which he told me) and said I could get help from my insider (who used to work for him) if I wanted too.
So...there it is. I think I did as well as I could have done over the phone and I want to say thanks to all who helped me. I'll keep you posted.
