That Time I Nailed the Interview
I posted this anecdote from earlier in my career several years ago on LinkedIn. I return to it occasionally to remind myself that dismissal of fresh perspectives runs the risk of missing opportunities. I decided to share it here.
Thank you for reading.
The job interview was going well. The hiring manager and I had hit it off.
The year was 1998 and I was interviewing for a job as a GIS developer on a team that had little GIS experience.
The manager talked about how he imagined web mapping would work. He described a database of map images that were queried and sent to the browser.
With all of my GIS expertise, I explained map symbols, projections and other GIS details that made what he was describing impractical.
Not only did he see his error, but I got the job.
In 2005, after I had moved on from that company, I saw Google Maps for the first time. When I saw that it used pre-rendered map tiles, I flashed back to that interview.
Seven years prior, my hiring manager had described map tiles and I had talked him out of it.
I was the “expert” and he was the neophyte. But he, like Google, was unencumbered by preconceived notions based on how things had always been done.
I learned a valuable lesson:
Never get so wrapped up in your own experience that you ignore outside perspectives.
Experience is good, but innovation rarely comes from experience alone. It often requires a fresh viewpoint.
Every time I look at Google Maps, I am reminded of that.