Mr. Cano AKA Mini Steve Jobs
It was a long day, I don't remember when I got my turn to go into the conference room but it had to have been hours. Starting around 9 am they started to take people into the room and interviewing them. One by one they went in and left. What was amazing was the efficiency of the process, they would call your name, you go in and invariably that person would be out in minutes. At the time it didn't occur to me that this was actually a bad thing. Some of these people interviewing would go in and be out in less than a few minutes, what could that possibly have looked like? I could only image the conversation. The primary interviewer was none other than Steve Cano who many had pegged to be the next head of retail before Angela took over.
Steve: "Hello, Whats your name?" Fred: "Good morning my name is Fred" Steve: "Why would you like to work for Apple?" Fred: "Well I always liked my Power Mac G3" Steve: "Have a nice day Fred" Fred: "Excuse me?" Steve: "I Said good day sir!, I SAID GOOD DAY!"a
Mine was very different. When I had my turn, I waked in to the conference room with a big oval table. A couple of dudes standing to the side and sitting across a large oval table, lengthwise, was this tan, tall, good looking guy. Hands behind his head, feet up on the table with a big welcoming smile. I felt I was in the movie "Pirates of silicon valley". Was this guy going to ask me if I was a virgin? Like Steve Jobs did? The conversation began and was very friendly, easy like two old friends. I honestly don't remember much of what I said, what I remember was how charismatic Steve was. He told me his background being the youngest head of a bunch of Staples (if I remember correctly) and then was hired by Apple to help them grow the retail division. Later he managed the Palo Alto store (Steve Jobs home store) and then later Soho, then Japan!. I think this guy had a mini reality distortion field and my other 3 hired genii agreed. Charismatic, engaging and smart. I do remember that, like suggested by some book, I mirrored my interviewer. Yes, I put my hands behind my head and my feet on the table just like Steve, who told me that day, I was going to be a Genius!