Recruiting trip to MIT, Harvard, and Brown

At the beginning of November (11/7 – 11/10), Stuart (our HR guy) and I will be taking a trip to the Boston area to visit Harvard, MIT, and Brown. We’ll be doing a fun dinner event and then running interviews on campus.

Here’s the schedule:

• 11/7 afternoon – Arrive in Boston
• 11/7 at 7PM – Run a dinner and fun talk about interviewing and the new generation of internet startups. (The Kendall Hotel, 350 Main Street, Cambridge, MA)
• 11/8 – Interview candidates from MIT and Harvard
• 11/8 at 7PM – Drive to Brown and run another dinner and talk (The Tree House, Brown University, Career Center)
• 11/9 – Interview candidates from Brown
• 11/10 morning – Fly back to San Jose
• 11/9 morning – Fly back to San Jose

I’m going to be talking about two things: How to beat the interview and thoughts about working at internet startups nowadays. The first part, how to beat the interview, is an interviewer’s worst nightmare. I’ve been both an interviewee and an interviewer for many different companies; I’ll share with you formulas to answer all the normal interview questions you’ll face over and over… you know the ones: “Tell me about a team situation where there was conflict and it was resolved.” “What is your proudest accomplishment?” “What is your greatest weakness?” and the ever popular “If I asked your colleagues about you, what would they tell me?”

I can also share my Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and Amazon interview experiences with you if there’s time

The second part is quite interesting too and it’s inspired by many of the e-mails I receive from people. Oftentimes, they’ll ask me about evaluating different job opportunities or people want to get my opinion on working for Google vs. Microsoft. I’ll be covering how I analyze different career opportunities and I’ll also do a quick run down of what I know about the workings of the internet startup world – stuff I wish I knew when I was graduating from college.

Anyways, after these talks, I’ll probably post my slide deck and notes online. If you’re a student at Harvard, MIT, or Brown, come out and join us (shoot me an e-mail so we can make sure to have enough food and drink). If you’re looking for a job bring your resume and if nothing else, we’ll have plenty of free food

UPDATE: These events are actually open to all who want to come. Just let me know ahead of time so we can be sure to have enough food

UPDATE 2: We’ve gotten 0 interest from people at Brown so we’re cancelling that part of our trip If you’re a student at Brown and you’re interested still, drop me a line.