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Chapter 12: Interviews
June 24th, 1994
Will pulled up into Geoff's gravel driveway at eight on Friday. The two were going to drive down to San Fran together. Madre was taking on a few more graphic designers for the new headquarters and Geoff, the most senior graphic designer around (though he rarely did that sort of work anymore), was going to sit in on those interviews. Will was initially going to drive but Geoff insisted on trying out his new car. One of these new half-van half-jeep things. Despite the initial 'Wow! This is a Polyester Palace on wheels!' reaction, after an hour's drive Will began to miss his second-hand Concorde. This thing seemed more for driving through war zones than the humble countryside and Will felt like a despot being chauffeured around in a tank. A rocket couldn't penetrate the thing and so neither did the fresh mountain air or sound of birds. For a while Will wondered if the windows weren't actually TV screens, broadcasting a nature show rather than the real thing. Geoff seemed to like it, though.
As planned, they stopped off in Berney to drop off the signed petitions. Will had been making a point of getting coffee and pastry from Naught? Latte everyday this week despite the war it waged on his waistline since, at the end of the week, they might be gone. It was high noon and the second hand was clicking steadily towards showdown. Will strolled up to the saloon doors and burst through. Che's posse had come to town looking for trouble. Now Will had assembled his band of good men and was going to lay down his terms. He could picture Che - a fat, unshaven Spaniard in a large sombrero and a multi-coloured, striped poncho?with a bad tobacco chewing and spitting habit. Or maybe Che was the slick, top-hatted, stripe-suited investor come to buy up the town, put down oil interests and screw the locals - that was probably more accurate. Will was going to stick up for the people.
"Hi Will," said the bar-maid. Nicole again.
"Howdy." He handed over to her the seven pages of petition he'd managed to fill up, some three hundred signatures. "I got some signatures from around the office."
She smiled and took them. "Wow. That's great. Thanks. We've got a whole stack now."
"How do you think it's going?"
"Well," she said. "We're optimistic. But the new lease owners, Che's, haven't said anything?so we don't know."
"I see. I guess we'll have to wait."
"Yeah." The naturalness of her smile somehow contrasted with all this talk of leases and buyouts. "But I have a job interview at the hardware store next Wednesday, just in case. What can I get you today?"
Will ordered a latte, a choco-ccino and two scones?one with the white chocolate in it. Nicole handed the order, tucked away in 100% recyclable materials, over the counter.
"This one's on the house," she informed.
"Oh no," said Will. "I couldn't really?not with all the trouble."
"No. It's ok," she said. "If we're going out of business, then we might as well treat the customers who made us a success. Besides, management has made a lot of money and you helped us out a lot."
"Wow. Thanks."
"Our pleasure." She handed over the bag and smiled. "Hope to see you again," she said.
Knowing that they may not be around Monday Will said, "Yeah. Me too."
Getting back into the beast of a vehicle, Will handed a scone to Geoff.
"Just put the coffee in the holder there," said Geoff.
Will looked down. There were 8 possible coffee holding choices?and that was just in the front seat. Ridiculous. Will picked one and dropped the cup in. They continued on towards San Francisco.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the response to Kendra's job solicitations had been overwhelming. Actually, she'd only got two feasible responses so far?but one was an interested reply from the author she had contacted? She'd booked that interview for today, worried that if she took her time it might slip away. As she stared out the window near the cooler into the forest she slowly sipped her coffee and sighed at what a great day for an interview it was. A lot of people in the office had taken this Friday off, aside from the bug-testers on the soon-to-be-released HomoSapien Quest 3 team. Kendra returned to her desk.
THINK OF GOOD INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
You sit at the desk and think about what kind of questions you want to ask. Kathy Willis comes in for coffee and an interview at 1?so you can take your time.
As they moved down the highway, Will flipped through the interview book he had picked up at the library a few days ago. "Geeze. Can you believe these questions?" he asked shaking his head. "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?"
Geoff laughed. "Rubber," he said. "Does it actually have that question in there?"
"Yeah. It suggests a bunch of them. Says it's supposed to throw the interviewee off and draw out their 'real' personalities?force them to be creative and open up. As well as see if they can think on their feet. Here's another one: What do you think is your biggest fault?" Will put the book down and thought in bewilderment. "What kind of question is that? Of course everyone knows how to answer that question. You just make something bad sound good. It just gauges how good you are at lying!"
"Sometimes," Geoff said pretending to answer the question. "I work too much." They drove on in silence for a while as Will continued to flip through. "I'm an organization freak," Geoff continued. "Everything I do is always just so?in order. I know it's bad but?"
They drove on for a bit. "You know my nephew had an interview at a soup company," Geoff started up. "You know, doing the cash register and ladling soup. In the interview the guy asked him 'What's the one word your friends would use if I asked them 'Who is Derrik?' I couldn't believe it! For ladling soup! The questions should be, 'Can you ladle soup? Can you do simple math?' It was ridiculous."
"What did your nephew say?" Will was curious.
"I can't remember. I think it was 'efficient'?or 'determined'. Something like that. Either way, apparently it was the wrong word as he didn't get the job."
"It's the latest business fad?these questions." Will continued. "Remember when all the businesses were hiring security managers. Every company needed a security manager or they were unhip?going down the tube. Where are those security managers now? I mean, a book can't teach you how to run a company but I thought this book might be helpful in interviewing for a professional manager?but it seems so ridiculous and rigid. I'm used to normal interviews where you ask them what they can do and they tell you and then you chat a bit and then go away and make a decision."
"So you're not going to use any of those questions?" asked Geoff cheekily.
"Yeah. I'll use one or two of them. I mean, it's what these corporate types understand, right?" Will picked up the book and began to leaf through it again, hesitantly.
Geoff smiled to himself as they drove along. He was glad he didn't work for that kind of company.
Kendra led Kathy Willis (the author!) to the spacious room beside the meeting room. It didn't really have a name. It was used for a lot of things. Around the office it was just known as 'the nice room.' A couple of Naught? Latte coffees had been set up around a small, low coffee table that Kendra had brought in for this interview. A few pastries were there too. The chairs were facing the table at 45 degree angles. An informal interview. Kendra was dressed in her usual casual Friday wear. She was encouraged to notice that Kathy hadn't come in a suit and tie either, though still professionally done up. It was a meeting of the minds.
They both sat down. Kendra tucked her legs up onto the seat beside her.
"Oh? Is this for me?" Kathy asked reaching for the coffee on the table.
"Yes. I hope you like chocolate."
"Wow. Chocolate coffee for an interview," Kathy carefully sipped. "All the interviews I had before I started writing full time, the best you'd get was forty-five cent coffee from the staff room."
Kendra smiled. "I didn't expect you to reply so soon. Actually, I didn't even know if you'd reply at all. It was just kind of a wild idea to fire off an email to someone whose book I'd enjoyed. I'm glad it worked."
"Really? You didn't think I'd reply? Well, I guess you don't know me." Kathy laughed and took a sip of coffee. It was delicious...especially on this cool, summer day. "My son has all your games. He just talks about them non-stop. How could I turn down a personal interview from Kendra Roberts! You're a god!"
Kendra blushed slightly. She never thought of herself this way. Although, articles in the game magazines had been writing this way about her for years, it was unusual to get it in person. "Really? Wow. I didn't know if you'd have ever heard of me."
"And I have to confess," Kathy continued, "I've developed a nasty habit of playing them late at night before I go to bed?almost secretly. I really like the Fantasy Quests. And I like HomoSapien Quest too. I've beaten most of the Fantasy Quests?the only one I didn't like was the first one because I kept falling off that stupid bridge in front of the castle and dying?so I just gave up."
Hmmm, Kendra thought. This is going better than planned. Not only does she play the games, she's recognized problems with them. And Kendra hadn't even asked a question yet.
"Yes. I realize that was a problem. It was our first game 3D adventure game?so you improve over the years?learn what not to do and so on."
Kathy took a sip from her coffee.
"I have a confession to make too," said Kendra. "I really loved Death in a Cavern. It was a great book. I read it in two nights."
"Wow. Really? That's nice. At least somebody liked it."
"What do you mean?"
"It was hell getting that one published. I've only written two as you probably know. This was the second one?and my publisher said it was no good. But I convinced them to print it. Then it got terrible reviews and has been selling terribly."
"Really? But it was such a good book!" Kendra was surprised by this kind of modesty in an interview. "It was more than just a mystery?"
"Yeah. Well I liked it." Kathy said with a laugh.
"Me too." There was a pause. "Well," Kendra continued. "I don't really have a set format for this interview. Usually I just talk, and see what you can do?and see what kind of ideas you have."
"I'm sorry," said Kathy. "You didn't really say in your email what this interview was about?just you were looking for a game designer. Are you looking for a new series? A mystery series or something?"
"Actually. I'm quitting the Fantasy Quest series."
"No! Really? But they're so great!"
"Yes?but I'm getting a little tired of it. I want to do something new."
Kathy thought about this for a moment. "I understand."
"But we can't just drop the Fantasy Quest series?there's still a lot of demand. I think there's still a lot of potential in the series just?I'm running dry in the idea well."
"Oh. So the new designer would take over the Fantasy Quest series?"
"Basically. I'd be a supervisor to make sure it flowed well with the previous ones. And the new designer could probably work on other projects too, if she wanted," Kendra gestured towards Kathy, "but basically, they'd be in charge of Fantasy Quest 6."
Kathy was awestruck. She had been stunned by the out-of-the-blue interview request from Kendra Roberts?but she never imagined she'd have the chance to take over the Fantasy Quest series. Her son would be really impressed.
Three finalists enter an interview: an old business guy, a forty-something upper manager, and a yuppie thirty-something computer whiz/entrepreneur. To Will it sounded like a joke from a Swarthy Victor game. But these were the three finalists. He looked over the sheets on his desk in the interview room atop the Sampson towers?their new head office was now almost workably furnished (though a very low level of workability...). They had a front desk?and the interview room - soon to be a meeting room, he guessed - was carpeted. Behind his large oak "I'm the boss" interview desk the windows looked far down onto the San Francisco streets. Will felt a little uncomfortable behind the pretentious piece of furniture, but he supposed this was what corporate managers expected to see in a serious, corporate manager interview. It would do. The interview, not the setting, was important.
The first interview was scheduled for 2.
When Interviewee #1 arrived, Will thought he looked just like the experience on his resume. Interviewee #1 was a tall, partially bald, white haired fat guy in a very fine, black suit. He wasn't quite as tall as Will, but he had a very sturdy presence, an air of experience about him?like the fat, suspicious casino-owner from a film noir. He looked like he would be at home managing a stock broking firm on Wall Street, or speaking at the podium of some giant automobile company about profits. In actuality, he came from one of the largest pressmaking companies in the U.S., a member of the board there. They made commercial presses or something.
Interviewee #1 sat down in the comfy, leather chair provided. Will felt ill-at-ease in this office that looked more like the dining area in the great hall of William Randolf Hearst than an office or a meeting room. But it was hard to buy corporate offices that didn't look like this, he'd discovered.
"What's your favourite sport?" Will asked. That was the least dumb of all the suggested questions in the book?and he figured he could get away with it right off the bat. A test run.
"Golf," said interviewee #1 without much hesitation.
"I'm sorry," said Will. "I have this interviewing book and it suggested a bunch of questions that are supposed to provide me with a wealth of insight into my interviewee's personality. I had to see for myself."
"And did it work?" asked the man.
"I'm not sure," smiled Will. The man laughed?almost showily. Will extended his hand. "Hi. I'm Will Roberts."
"Herbert Reynolds. I wouldn't know much about interviewing," laughed the man, his well clothed gut shaking, "Usually they don't do interviews for Executive Officer positions."
Will was hesitant as to what to say. He felt like replying 'really?' to facilitate conversation?but that would make him look out of touch?and he knew this. These interviews, apparently, were all done between bigwigs over cigars and wine at rich restaurants charging lunch to expense accounts while chatting about fishing and international shopping hotspots. No resumes, vague discussions of visions, the only requirements for the positions seemed to be a membership at the right club and mentions in the Wall Street Times. This wasn't really an executive officer position either?but Will didn't want to mention that at this time. So, instead, he just smiled and went to the next question.
"I always wanted to see the Fantasy Quest series return to Hylandia," Kathy said. "That was a great place you only got to see a little bit of at the end of Fantasy Quest 2?but it was my favourite part."
"I hadn't thought about that," admitted Kendra. They had both slipped off their shoes and were snuggled comfortably deep into their chairs. "It was really an interesting part of the game."
"Perhaps the game could start out there, with entirely new characters?totally unrelated to the previous Fantasy Quests aside from the fact that it takes place there?and you only discover later how it is connected?they have to journey back to Jordinal."
"Wow. That's a great idea." Kendra smiled. Even SHE was getting excited about the next Fantasy Quest game now. Maybe she would do more than just consult.
Interviewee #2 sat before Will now. He was a tall, thin, but muscular guy dressed in a really sharp blue suit. It looked good on him, but it had casualness to it somewhere that Will liked. Not like interviewee #1. Will felt like he should be breaking out pricelss scotch for that interview? Interviewee #2 was also a little bald, but his hair still had its dark, black colour and was artfully cut to neither hide, nor show baldness.
"Basically, we're looking for someone to take over the corporate side of the business?managing the various software assets we've acquired over the years. Madre is made out of several divisions, publishing and programming and distribution houses scattered across North America. Obviously, the three biggest subdivisions are Madre Coast in New Hampshire, Madre North in Washington and Synapse in Portland. But we have a 12 person programming team up in Toronto, for example, and a distribution warehouse in the Midwest. Small stuff scattered about that's important."
"So you need someone to organize and run this."
"Yes," said Will. "Basically, we need a big boss. Like at the end of a game." Will smiled at his joke, but Interviewee #2 had no reaction, as if he'd never played a video game. "Ahem. Madre has acquired new offices and organizations over the years as the situation has demanded. There isn't a lot of organization between these sectors, though. We've been doing that from our current HQ, the Redwood office. But the links and organization between these holdings could be--need to be a lot better. We need someone to take care of and run that?to open up new marketing channels, tweak up efficiency?
"I'll remain on as the CEO of Madre and in charge of game production?I'll, officially be the big boss, but in name mostly. I wish to devote my time to the Madre office, organizing and pushing the programmers to make state-of-the-art and entertaining games? Stocks, shares, distribution?that stuff I don't want to deal with. It's not my specialty, it's not my interest. I know Madre and the computer gaming industry like the back of my hand. But I need someone who knows about corporate management. The person we hire would have a great deal of autonomy with this."
"I see," nodded Interviewee #2.
Will flipped through the papers in front of him. "It says here that you were the senior manager and a Chairman at Softprint Inks?"
"Yes. Softprint was in the same situation you are when I came on board. It had been around since the late 1800s, changing radically in the thirties and staying nearly static since. They hired me on when they started dabbling in computerization. As technology changed, they'd bought out and expanded over the years to own a lot of modern printing houses, equipment and research centers. But the business had changed fundamentally. In the thirties they were a printing company with state-of-the-art equipment. But with the rapid changes they found themselves in the 90s as a state-of-the-art printing company wrapped around an old style printing industry with outdated management and distribution structure, scattered subdivisions, much like Madre. They hired me to co-ordinate the change-over. They had all the equipment and were a leader in the industry?what they needed from me, at the end of the day, was an organizational make-over."
"Really? Well, that certainly is relevant," Will noted. "And you dealt with software and computing a lot in that job?"
"Not exclusively or in a hands-on manner. I oversaw the changes, so I had to understand the structure and basics of printing and computing?but not the details. I dealt a lot with the software industry and the workforce as Softprint was moving from press and offset printing to digital. I was to handle, arrange and hire the new workforce and set up a streamlined co-ordination structure for the new?," Interviewee #2 put his fingers in the air and made quotation marks, "e-printing."
"Mark never broke any windows but he drank bleach once?when he was three. We had to rush him to the hospital. It was horrible."
"Geeze. That does sound hideous."
"Oh. It was," confirmed Kendra. "And my eldest is at that stage where she takes great offence when her parents try to take interest in what she does. So she hides in the study or her room playing computer games all the time?sometimes I think it's just to get away from us."
Kathy laughed. "Too bad you can't get her to bug test for you."
Kendra smiled. "Oh, she used to love to do it when she was younger. But now?you know." Kendra shrugged. Kathy nodded in agreement. "She can have a summer job here next year after she graduates, if she wants," Kendra continued, "I'm not sure if she'd go for it, though. I think she'd prefer to work at a Pizza Shack than for us. I can understand that, though, I guess." Kendra continued.
"Boy," said Kathy. "I'll have to get tips from you when my daughter gets that old."
"Of course," Will looked up at Interviewee #3, "you'd spend most of your time here in San Francisco, not up at our place in Redwood. We could probably do a lot over telephone and email, etc? But you would be expected come up every now and then since it is our main game production house and I work there."
Interviewee #3 was the youngest of the three. He was tall, still had all his hair and it was still a dirty blond and really curly?almost crazy in comparison to those literary glasses. Of the three, he had dressed the most casual: slacks, dress shirt and a coloured tie. Will could appreciate the coloured tie. Interviewee #3 had a lot of experience in the software industry as a head programmer and founder of Ino-vision software. He was looking to get out of the partnership and find something new. They had a lot to chat about in terms of software and the industry and Will liked him quite a bit, on a personal level. Will was impressed by his quick answer to the "if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" question. Because of the easiness of natural conversation, they had taken longer to get to the actual interview?and now it was wrapping up.
"And so," Interviewee #3 asked, "What would this position entail, exactly?"
"Well, as the HQ manager, you'd be in charge of our network of game and programming centres, organize our marketing and operations as well make decisions on the company's financial and organizational ventures. Basically, you'd be in charge of the corporate side of Madre. You'd be able to select a lot of your own staff and begin right away to organize and improve connections between all our holdings?"
"Streamline the code," Interviewee #3 remarked.
Will smiled. Nice programming analogy. "Exactly. Of course the Madre division is our most important and you would probably make your way up there every couple of weeks to meet and discuss and just run things by me. But other than that, I'd leave it up to you to understand Madre and manage our network and resources as you think best."
"I see. Sounds like quite an organizational task."
"Yes."
"Sounds exciting, though."
There was a pause. "Do you have any other questions?" asked Will, dying to get out from behind this desk.
Interviewee #3 adjusted his glasses as he thought. "No, that's about it."
"Great. It's been a long day," he smiled. Interviewee #3 smiled back. "We'll be making our decision sometime in the next few days and will notify you at the end of the week."
"Great. Thanks for the interview. It was a pleasure to finally meet you."
"Likewise," said Will. It was interesting to meet one of the guys from Ino-Vision. He'd heard a few things about them and respected their work. Interviewee #3 took himself and his briefcase out of the room. Will sat back and sighed. It was almost five o'clock now and time for the long drive home.
Kendra and Will stared at the ceiling as they lay in their bed. They could hear the crickets from outside their window, creatures with similar minds as them. After a long and stressful day of interviewing they'd both benefited greatly from that lovemaking session. It felt like they'd just cleared a large hump at Madre. All the increasing chaos of the last few years was now going to settle down. Hump, Kendra thought, what an appropriate choice of words.
"So when does she start?" asked Will.
"The middle of August. She said she could move out at the end of next month. And she really liked the community up here, being away from it all."
"Wow. That was quick. Are you sure she's the one?"
"Yeah," said Kendra. "She'll do a great job."
"I think I'll go with number two," said Will, his arms crossed behind his head. "The first guy was just too?Citizen Kane for me. Reminded me of one of these guys on Wall Street that has a fireplace in his office and a big bear rug. He had the most business experience?but nothing in the new technology sector."
"I thought you liked the third guy best?"
"Yeah. He was great. I got along with him really well. He had the most software experience, an old hacker," Will used the term appropriately and with affection, as someone who could work magic with computer code, like a carpenter with wood or a wine-maker with grapes. "Good management experience too, but not at the corporate level. He reminded me of me. I'd hire him in a second to take over my job?but to manage the really stiff, calculable world of corporate HQ? I don't know. I was impressed, though. I'll tell him I'll keep his records on file if something in a division comes up. He'd be great for that. Maybe I'll even make a job for him."
Kendra smiled, rolled over and snuggled next to her husband. "So why do you pick contestant number two?"
"I don't know. He seemed very competent?not extremely stiff like the first guy. Easy to talk to, but with really relevant experience in the corporate business sector. And he had experience working with new technology. He seemed confident and had a strong business sense. He's exactly what we're looking for, I think."
Closing her eyes, Kendra nestled her head against his chest, feeling herself drifting off. "Are you excited about just working on Redwood business?" Kendra asked.
"Yeah. In a lot of ways I wish we were still just an independent software firm hidden deep in the forest?without an HQ and subdivisions and everything. But this is as close as we'll get, I guess."
Kendra was asleep. Will thought about interviewee #2 - Thomas Newman. He seemed to have the intelligence, the guts, the business savvy to move the business forward. The farm was getting big and he needed to hire ranch-hands?to settle the wild plains and guide the ever increasing number of livestock. Will rode this thought like a horse into the sunset of sleep, where he would soon join his wife, just over the hill.
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