Larry Engholm landed at Exa! Read insights from his experience.

Posted by: "Larry Engholm"
engholm@gmail.com
 

lengholm

Mon Oct 5, 2009 8:25 pm (PDT)

I'm happy to report that I accepted a job offer today. I'll be working at

Exa writing software that allows car companies to do computer simulations

rather than wind tunnel simulations which require building a $1M physical

model. I start a week from Tuesday (after Columbus Day). Unfortunately

their web site lists only two jobs -- the one I took and one in Korea.



Here's some information about how I went about my search. Some of what I

mention below probably helped and some probably hurt my search, but I leave that for you to judge.



I was laid off from a software engineering job in November. (Unfortunately

they had another layoff last week.)



I'm kind of a generalist, without lots of deep experience in any one

technology. In my opinion my breadth of experience makes me move valuable, but I found that most job postings require specific experience which I don't have. I'm confident that I could do well at many of those jobs with a short learning curve, but those companies will end up with a less capable engineer who happens to have the narrow experience they're looking for.



When I started my search I concentrated only on companies with employees

that I'd worked closely with. I got a few interviews that way, but no

offers.



I interview poorly, so I had more success in getting interviews than getting

offers. I was even told from a past manager (long ago) that I definitely

wouldn't have been hired based on my interview, but was hired based on a

recommendation from somebody I'd worked with at school. I especially answer open-ended questions and behavioral questions poorly. But I interview much better than I used to, and the ten interviews I had since December helped me
get better. You don't want to waste a company's time, but if you think
there's a possibility of a match even if you aren't real psyched about a

job, interview practice can help. (And my first job out of college was from

what I considered a practice interview, so as it ended up I definitely

didn't waste their time by interviewing.)



I watched for jobs on Indeed, headhunter web sites, a college web site,

target company web sites, and occasionally Craigslist. I never used big

sites like Monster, because Indeed carries their listings. I used

changedetection.com to notify me when specific companies I was interested in

added (or removed) job listings from their sites. I recommend you check it

out.



I didn't post my resume on any generic web sites. I did post my resume for

a few specific jobs that I found listed. I was about to say they were all

black holes, but I just checked my records and that's how I contacted one of

the companies I ended up interviewing with, so it can work.



After about ten months of job hunting I shortened my hair by about a foot.



As it happened I found the job on Craigslist. It was also listed on Indeed

(via Monster), so just keeping track of Indeed would have been sufficient.

I didn't follow the instructions for applying. I checked LinkedIn to see

how I was connected to the company and found that a fellow networker that

I've gotten to know pretty well previously worked with a current employee

there. I've been attending a whiteboard programming group with my fellow

networker, so she has some idea of my competence in programming (and C++).
I asked her if she could electronically introduce us and she offered to

forward a message/resume from me to him. She included a glowing

recommendation. The job happened to be in his group, so he gave my resume

to his manager.



Four days later I received email from the hiring manager setting up a phone

screen, did a phone screen with him the next Monday, interviewed on site

Wednesday, and got the verbal offer on Friday.



Right after the phone screen with the hiring manager the VP of HR called to

set up an interview, and had "one last question," the salary question. I

said "You know they say you're not supposed to answer that." She said "I

know, but we have a certain amount budgeted and we need to make sure you're
in that range." So I replied "Really? What's your range?" I've heard,

even from corporate recruiters, that sometimes that question works, but her

response was "Come on, I asked first." So I told her. She responded

"That's our range too!" I thought my playful approach to the question

worked better than immediately blurting out the answer. The offer I

eventually received was for that amount.



I have the impression that the hiring manager and I have compatible

personalities. He strikes me as informal and has a good sense of humor, and

I felt like we clicked pretty well. Maybe that's one of the most important

factors in surviving an interview. Though I felt like I did pretty well

with all the (five) other people I interviewed with at this company too. I

felt much more comfortable with these interviews than most of the other

companies. Part of that is their style, for example not asking behavioral

questions.



I have no experience in the specific industry (computational fluid

dynamics/acoustics). I take it as a sign of an enlightened company when

they look for smart people that can learn a specific field rather than

looking for cookie-cutter people who happen to already know the specific

industry. They don't expect to be able to find good software engineers who

happen to know the domain.
To prepare for the phone screen and interview I read some of the stuff on
their web site and read up on relevant topics in Wikipedia. I think this
helped a little bit in that I was a little more comfortable with some of the
terminology and concepts so I could follow their explanations better. (I'd
never heard of Lattice Boltzmann methods, and read up a little on things
like Fourier transforms which I've never used except maybe in college.)



I accept LinkedIn connection requests only from people that I've worked with

or know well. Although this is what LinkedIn recommends, it's

controversial, and some people argue that the bigger your network the more

opportunities you have for useful connections. My policy worked for me in

this case, since I knew my fellow networker well enough to connect. Thought

I think it may have alienated at least one recruiter that tried to connect

before an interview.



When the company asked for references I supplied them via email and also

suggested they look at my LinkedIn recommendations, which happen to be from
different people than the references. I think that helped.



If you asked me when I got laid off how long I expected to be out of work I

definitely wouldn't have guessed 11 months. Last time I was laid off (2004)

I found another job the week I was notified. But it ended quickly. I
noticed this job posted and within two weeks I've got a job. The same could

happen to you.



I wish you all success in your searches.

--

Larry Engholm

http://www.linkedin.com/in/larry