Circa 2010 I got an email out of the blue from a Google recruiter. “We looked at your LinkedIn and you’re a good candidate for a ‘product manager’ role.” Cool;

Circa 2010 I got an email out of the blue from a Google recruiter. “We looked at your LinkedIn and you’re a good candidate for a ‘product manager’ role.” Cool; let’s talk by phone, I replied. The phone interview was insane. I asked the woman what about my work history made her suspect that I’d be a good PM and she was not able to respond. I asked her what product she anticipated that if work on and she said we would figure that out after I started, as if that was the most natural thing in the world. And I asked her how they handled remote employees, to which she replied that the person who took the role would be moving to Mountain View. “So,” I said, “you do not know why you are hiring me, and you do not know what I would be hired for, but no matter what it is, the job is in Silicon Valley? She said yes, already sensing where this was going. I asked her if she could make sure Google never contacted me again for any reason and she agreed that was probably for the best. I did not get the job.