On Lunch: The Interview Day

"..At LinkedIn, my interview took me to the band room, and their employee band played some amazing songs for me from Seattle, and some of my favorite bands. When they found out I was an interview candidate, they wanted to make that moment special for me. In that moment, they were playing for me, on my interview day. I was having a blast.."

NOTE/DISCLAIMER: the opinions I share in this article are my own, and not those of my employers. Please take them with the necessary grain of salt, as my (possibly, or probably, incorrect) interpretation. As always your mileage may vary.

In Chapter 13 of Interview Poker, I give tips I've picked up over the years for how to best make it through your interview day. Having done over 20 on-site interviews myself as a candidate across Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and more, and having given well over 100 on-site interviews myself as an interviewer, I've learned quite a few tricks along the way, many of which have made the difference for me, and that hopefully can help make the difference for you also. One of my personal interview stories was even mentioned as a footnote in Work Rules!, but that's a story for another article.

In this article, I break with the traditional interview advice, and share a personal perspective from my favorite meal of the day--lunch--which to me tastes even better on the day of the interview.

Bon Appétit..

"..On lunch

Lunch interviewers typically don’t record feedback. Or at least many of mine told me this at the start of the lunch. Whether or not they did, I never really knew, but it always put me at ease a little anyways--not at ease enough to be off my guard though; you always want to make a good impression after all, and not slip up. It is an interview, after all!

For some companies like Apple, lunch is a team interview. I’ve sat through many lunches at Apple with the potential candidate we were going to hire. It was a trial run to see how they behaved socially outside the confines of the conference room. Were they friendly, could they unwind? Did they let secrets slip? Could we trust them? Were they a sloppy eater, and we’ll judge them based on petty things like this? I assure you not. But I'll keep a napkin in my lap just the same. This is a moment where you don’t want to let any red flags slip, but where you also still need to sell yourself. Always sell yourself, as best as you can. You’re on a job interview after all.

I always ask for tours at lunchtime, if offered, as a rule, and I ask to see any of the cool things that only the locals there would know about. This is their time to sell the company to you also, to show you reasons you should come to work for them, should you get the offer some day. Many are proud enough about it to help accommodate you, and you get to share in on some fun, as a sort of employee or coworker for a day.

At LinkedIn, my interview took me to the band room, and their employee band played some amazing songs for me from Seattle, and some of my favorite bands. When they found out I was an interview candidate, they wanted to make that moment special for me. In that moment, they were playing for me, on my interview day. I was front row for some great music, just barely making it back to my next interview in time, of course. I was having a blast.

Later on, I was even given a rather neatly printed and colorful visualization of the connections in my network, all centered around me in this sort of spiraled jellyfish, where the segments were colored each by the various places I had worked up until then. It was really neat to see it all visualized that way, and even better to receive it as a gift. It was as if my whole working life was laid out there for me to measure and see. I later framed and kept it as a sort of constant reminder and symbol of all of my interview days and the culmination of work that it took to achieve the various offers I eventually received. For some, this might be an easy road, and for others like me it's really something you have to put a lot of hard work towards.

On my first Google interview, my lunch interviewer was a PhD, a college professor on leave, from a fairly well known university, who went to Google to work on a cool problem. He did lunch interviews because it satisfied his interview requirements, and because he liked to meet people. He told me that most people usually don’t eat much during the interview. In fact, I ate a massive burrito, the size of my head. It was so good. Was this the free food everyone was talking about? It was amazing.

..My advice is don’t do that though. But I was a kid in a candy store, and I wanted to enjoy every moment of my employee-pretend day at Google..

This was a dream come true for me, to make it that far, to be around people that I considered to be so smart and of the highest cut, and at the time I thought that I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to work with that kind of talent, the imposter syndrome already setting in.

Eventually I did join Google and have had a fun career there so far, but in that moment of time I was used to so many no offer emails, that I, with an offer in hand already from Amazon, having been flown out last minute on the next flight the day before, was simply going to enjoy myself that day. This was all a bonus. In fact, I was the most relaxed I had ever been. I already had an offer at Amazon, after all, so I had a job no matter what. I was leaving my PhD program behind for Amazon, so I had no qualms about whether or not I was smart enough or needed to prove it to anyone. I was free to be curious, learn, and explore. This was a day of learning and experiences. I would take notes, and hopefully learn something to help me in the future should I be invited back.

That Professor gave me an amazing lunch interview, showed me around campus, I got some ice cream, I took a picture in front of the sign. I got to see the Google Maps car parked in front of the giant landmark icon. I saw a brightly colored conference bike, which many years later I would actually get the chance to pilot with my coworkers, pulling out in front of traffic at 5pm on a Friday--that's another story. On my ride in, I saw the self driving car going around. It was a perfect day, like something out of a movie? Where was the game of Quidditch? I wanted to see that too. I had never been happier up to that point than in that moment, and my inner fanboy set in.

Later on, their head of People Operations at the time would even pen a short mention in his book about a fun moment from that interview which happened to me, a story for another time. It just goes to show you that it was a magical day, and I always felt interview days had this sort of magic to them. At least, that's how you want to feel about them, whether they go your way that time or not. In your mind and in that moment, it's as if you are an employee there for a day, and for a time you get to experience what it's actually like to be there. That sort of feeling gives you confidence, makes you relaxed, it gives you interview armor to tackle the day. How can that not feel magical? And lunch is your time to take a break, to ask questions, to get that tour, to feel that spark. If you don't get it this time, that spark is what's going to drive you to work hard and earn your way back again.

And I hope your interview day will be magical too, whether or not it goes in your favor. I didn’t get the offer that first time, but I learned a lot and then blasted off to Amazon to fill in the gaps, returning to Google many years and many lessons later. I eventually got it though, and if you try hard enough, prepare hard enough, keep improving relentlessly, you’ll eventually get it too. As they used to say, winter can be rather cold for those without the memories to keep them warm. So never forget to enjoy the day, to have fun, because, of course, you never know if you’ll be invited back. It’s your day to enjoy, after all. You’ve earned it.."

Unpublished work. © Copyright 2020, Joseph Johnson Jr.