Interviewing Has Changed in the Last 16 Years

I am interviewing for a job tomorrow. Only there isn't a job opening.

A guy started a tech business with $30K of his own capital and has grown it to $20 million a year. He did this without any marketing staff and with his wife doing the books. He decided he needed some professional help and brought in a real CFO. The new CFO called me on his second day there, saying this guy needs marketing help, and asked me to come in and talk to the guy.

So I am going to talk to this guy tomorrow in sort of a job interview, and I reflected on how different this is from my first job interview all those years ago in 1989:

Job Opening:

Then - Designated entry-level job opening defined by the Texas Instruments HR department. HR sent someone to the Rice University campus to interview dozens of candidates.

Now - No official job opening. President of the company sort of thinks maybe he possibly needs a marketing guy. Perhaps. His new Finance guy is telling him he needs one, so has me come in to talk to the guy. I have to convince him that I would actually add value to the his company.

Dress:

Then - 2 piece suit that Mom helped pick out and helped pay for (hey, I was a poor college student!)

Now - I will be wearing slacks and a sports coat. A suit will be too suck-up for a SoCal tech company. I could go in without the sports coat, but don't want to be TOO casual for my first meeting with the CEO.

Resume

Then - One page. Formatted how the University Placement Office told me to do it. Had my GPA, listed some key classes, extra-curricular activities, and even had a few things from high-school on it.

Now - Two page, professionally prepared resume. Details only go back to about 1996, as all information before that is listed as "Other TI Experience". Professional degrees are listed at the end, almost as an after-thought.

Preparation

Then - Read up a little on the company to know that they did stuff besides made calculators. Otherwise depended on a firm handshake, good eye contact, and my winning smile.

Now - Prepared 20 page Powerpoint presentation outlining a marketing strategy for the company and how it will build the company's value. Also prepared 25 page Word document that is the start of a business plan, since this guy apparently doesn't even have one of those. I just got back from Kinkos where this was all bound into a professional looking binder for presentation and discussion. Total work for the "interview" is hours and hours of what could be free consulting work, or even wasted time if he throws it all into his circular file.

Expectations

Then - Job offer! Options? What are those? I don't get them anyway? Don't worry about it.

Now - If he decides to move forward, I am actually giving it a 66% chance that it is a consulting gig with a potential "bridge" to employment. And if it gets to that point, options are definitely a part of the deal since the whole thing that makes this opportunity attractive is the potential upside if this guy decides to sell out.

I'll probably know fairly quickly how it goes since the new CFO who is pushing for me is attending most of the meeting and should be able to give me some inside scoop in a day or two.