Re:Ask HN: What do you wish you had known before you took a ...
by muzani on Wednesday June 05, 2019 @11:39AM
(#20105508)
A lot of this is instinct. We may have very little experience interviewing, but we have decades of experience with humans. Nearly all the terrible moves I made was ignoring a base instinct for some positive signs.
1. Incompetent boss - drove a car he couldn't afford, was completely out of touch with his business. Excited for new technology that he didn't understand. Ended up bouncing across multiple ideas, never focusing enough to make one work, even though there was a waiting client.
2. Dishonest partner. Knew he was dishonest, took him anyway. Ended up burning all our other partners and flaking out of agreements.
3. Narcissistic client. Talked about how his staff were donkeys, to be motivated by carrots and sticks. Contact person was flaky on price, because they knew the boss would negotiate hard and move goalposts.
4. Impossible project. Project had years long history of attempts. Client brags about how marketing is the only thing that matters and that he comes from tech background. Turns out that the client overpromised to investors, can't gauge difficulty properly, and makes unreasonable requests.
5. Asshole client. Refused to pay for drinks. Spent the hour first meeting criticizing competitors. Later ghosted after I spent 2 weeks on a prototype.
6. Incompetent company. Boss had serious personal space issues. Was unable to explain his product. 6 years of bootstrapping to little success. Turned out that they had extremely serious issues that bled them major clients, and only won clients through blatant lies.
1. Incompetent boss - drove a car he couldn't afford, was completely out of touch with his business. Excited for new technology that he didn't understand. Ended up bouncing across multiple ideas, never focusing enough to make one work, even though there was a waiting client.
2. Dishonest partner. Knew he was dishonest, took him anyway. Ended up burning all our other partners and flaking out of agreements.
3. Narcissistic client. Talked about how his staff were donkeys, to be motivated by carrots and sticks. Contact person was flaky on price, because they knew the boss would negotiate hard and move goalposts.
4. Impossible project. Project had years long history of attempts. Client brags about how marketing is the only thing that matters and that he comes from tech background. Turns out that the client overpromised to investors, can't gauge difficulty properly, and makes unreasonable requests.
5. Asshole client. Refused to pay for drinks. Spent the hour first meeting criticizing competitors. Later ghosted after I spent 2 weeks on a prototype.
6. Incompetent company. Boss had serious personal space issues. Was unable to explain his product. 6 years of bootstrapping to little success. Turned out that they had extremely serious issues that bled them major clients, and only won clients through blatant lies.