Module 4

The Job Interview:

The company I choose to research is Prohosting.com. Prohosting.com is a web hosting company that offers a variety of web hosting services. They have been in business since '97, which is very early for a web hosting company. They started out of San Jose, California, and have since relocated to Dallas, Texas. They are also in the process of setting up operations in Provo. I am fortunate know a friend who knows the owner of the company Lance; and thanks to another flattener of the world, Facebook, I was able to contact Lance. He was more then happy to help me with this project and give me a phone interview.

To begin, I asked a bit about his background. He informed me that he does not have a college education, but what he lacks in 'Education', he more then makes up with experience and pure motivation. Upon making the the phone call I call could immediately tell this guy was incredibly smart, not only with computers, but in business as well. He knows multiple programming languages and multiple Operating Systems. He has setup many different business and even mentioned how he suffered during the dot com bust. I thought this to be kind of funny because I did not bring up subject, he did. He re-assured me that it did in fact happen, and a lot of people did hurt from it.

After learning about him, he then flipped the table and proceeded to learn about me and what my qualifications were. I preceded to tell him all the certs that I either have, or that I am working on. A+, Net+, MCSE, Linux+, and security+. I think he was most impressed with the fact that I was learning an operating system other then Windows. Not that he said Windows was bad, but it good to have diversity. He was impressed with the fact that I was studying Linux. This is good news to my ears because now I feel that all my time invested into the OS is validated. I feel real good about my educational background, I have made some right choices there, but Lance gave my some pointers that could help me obtain a job.

The first being typing speed. He told me that in some cases, a persons typing speed will be the difference maker. There are two reasons for this. First, the obvious, anyone that can type fast is more efficient. But secondly, he told me that anyone that can type fast obviously spends a lot of time around a computer. Hmm, this is useful info. His remarks on typing speed caught my attention by surprise. To be honest I have no clue how fast I can type, so off I go to take a typing test on Monday.

Another couple of points of observation he taught me were about perspective and attitude. He asked if I could make an iphone app? I immediately responded no because my knowledge of scripting languages is very limited. Lance, laughed and told me that he could make any app that he wanted to. Yet he isn't very knowledgeable in those languages either. He told me that even though it might take him a year to make that app, compared to a couple weeks for someone who is experienced is really not the point. The point is that with all the knowledge available to him, he could make an iphone app and that won't be a lie; and I could to.

The biggest theme I took from this whole conversation however, was motivation. It was very clear to me that Lance is very self-motivated, and continuously strives to improve himself and his companies. He explained that even though he was the owner, he is constantly doing grunt work to make things happen smoother. He is always learning more about computers and technology. Being in I.T. Is an ever learning process. So ok, I do have the education, what I need to do find it is find it within myself to shift to a higher gear and be more motivated, just as Lance.