Small Town, Big Ideas

Interviewing Tip: Have Questions… and Ask Them

I'm simply amazed at the number of interviews I do these days where the candidate has no questions to ask me or the other interviewers. Here they've got people who are very passionate about Webmail across the table from them and they don't have any curiosities about the company they say they want to work for. Hmmm…

A lot of people ask me what types of questions they should ask. The best answer I can give is to ask the questions you want answers to! Perhaps some better advice is to write down all of the questions that you have, big or small, leading up to the interview. Chances are, you will be nervous during the interview and may forget some of the things you wanted to know. That is understandable, but since you have time to prepare, it's not an acceptable excuse.

If you don't have any questions or curiosities, are you really interested in the job or the company? We think not.

Paul Graham on How to Do What You Love

I’ve blogged before about how I love what I do. And I meant every word of it. Probably because I’m lucky enough to have found a career where I love going to work every day, I’m constantly evangelizing to people—family, friends, employees, and prospective employees, etc.—how important it is to do what you love. I wish I could get through to more people than I do. It really pains me to see so many people wandering aimlessly through their careers with no passion for what they do and no sense of direction for how to fix that. But what I’ve realized over the last few months is that most people simply don’t know how to do what they love. They don’t know where to begin. Many don’t even think it’s possible. To some, I just sound like some crazy idealist—or at best, someone that only loves what I do “because I started my own company” (as if that’s some kind of walk in the park!).

So how do you figure out how to do what you love? I’m not even going to try to answer that question because Paul Graham did it for you. Paul is one of the best writers I know of and he articulates, “How to Do What You Love,” better than I ever could (go here, print it out, and read it all—its 14 pages but well worth the time).

The best part of the entire article, in my opinion, is his answer to the question, “How much are you supposed to like what you do?” He says:

Here's an upper bound: Do what you love doesn't mean, do what you would like to do most this second. Even Einstein probably had moments when he wanted to have a cup of coffee, but told himself he ought to finish what he was working on first.

It used to perplex me when I read about people who liked what they did so much that there was nothing they'd rather do. There didn't seem to be any sort of work I liked that much. If I had a choice of (a) spending the next hour working on something or (b) be teleported to Rome and spend the next hour wandering about, was there any sort of work I'd prefer? Honestly, no.

But the fact is, almost anyone would rather, at any given moment, float about in the Carribbean, or have sex, or eat some delicious food, than work on hard problems. The rule about doing what you love assumes a certain length of time. It doesn't mean, do what will make you happiest this second, but what will make you happiest over some longer period, like a week or a month.

Unproductive pleasures pall eventually. After a while you get tired of lying on the beach. If you want to stay happy, you have to do something.

As a lower bound, you have to like your work more than any unproductive pleasure. You have to like what you do enough that the concept of "spare time" seems mistaken. Which is not to say you have to spend all your time working. You can only work so much before you get tired and start to screw up. Then you want to do something else-- even something mindless. But you don't regard this time as the prize and the time you spend working as the pain you endure to earn it.

Even I would rather do some of those activities—right this second—than work. ;-)

Hindsights by Guy Kawasaki

I recently started following a new blog authored by Guy Kawasaki, one of the more famous venture capitalists and author of several books on starting companies. Today he’s got a great post called Hindsights, which is a speech he gives to graduating high schools and colleges. The speech reflects back on the last 32 years of his life (he’s now 50) and provides us all with advice based on his personal experiences (hindsight can be 20/20). His ten pieces of advice are:

#10: Live off your parents as long as possible.

#9: Pursue joy, not happiness.

#8: Challenge the known and embrace the unknown.

#7: Learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument, and play non-contact sports.

#6: Continue to learn.

#5: Learn to like yourself or change yourself until you can like yourself.

#4: Don’t get married too soon.

#3: Play to win and win to play.

#2: Obey the absolutes.

#1: Enjoy your family and friends before they are gone.

I think you need to read the full post to understand the meaning of each of the above. For example, I completely disagree with #10 after reading the title, but after reading the full text, I think it mirrors the advice that I give to young people. Just remember Guy, not everyone comes from rich or well to-do families. But that doesn’t mean they can’t become independent early, do [paid] internships and co-ops, work part-time jobs, travel, and not rush through college and into the real world. In fact, I think that becoming independent early, doing all of the above, and not living off of your parents for too long can help prevent what you call “the inevitable entry into the workplace and a lifetime of servitude to bozos who know less than you do, but who make more money.” But I think I’m digressing. :-)

This is all outstanding advice. We should all take it seriously.