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Patrick McKenzie
@
patio11
東京都 Tokyo
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I work for the Internet, at @stripe, mostly on accelerating startups. Opinions here are my own.
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34.796
Tweetovi
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Pratim
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72.638
Osobe koje vas prate
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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27 min |
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And while one could talk in detail about lessons learned from a failed sole proprietorship or a novel that didn’t get finished or a tree house built none of these generate positive signal about future so let’s just talk about that instead.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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28 min |
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I think this is one of the cases “explored some projects” does great work on in our industry, because “project” covers just about everything, many are exploratory in nature and the social expectation is not that all will have objective success metrics, etc.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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34 min |
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Interestingly, while both sides of the Pacific tend to view Americans as being extremely direct, a more nuanced explanation of that sentence would say:
The word “again” matters, the fact Misako is a woman matters, the fact the task was note taking *specifically* matters, etc.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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36 min |
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A thing an American could say with a clear intention that would likely be misperceived by a Japanese salaryman?
“You suggested Misako take notes again, but I think we should load balance better here.”
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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47 min |
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“Wait what is the boss supposed to do with that?”
If boss comes back with “Perhaps you could [concrete action such as ‘present your findings on Tuesday’]” then that says “This is actually an order” + “FYI: Recalibrate on whether you’re reading me accurately, but don’t feel bad.”
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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52 min |
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One of my documented examples of this: I once sent an American “That is an interesting idea, boss. I will think about it and get back to you.” and *did not remember* that that wouldn’t be automatically translated into “Firm no. FYI: I perceive you as being supportive of the no.”
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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57 min |
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An amusing part of giving people the “Working with me” speech is addressing being a Japanese salaryman and entrepreneur, which are two canons of behavior that I spent material effort on, can code switch into, and *do not have full introspection on when they are operating.*
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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Some people are wired differently, and there is almost literally no piece of advice about The Rules which is too explicit / too basic / etc in such a way that it creates no value for no person.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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FWIW, I had a very simple view of the world when I was e.g. 22, was raised that honesty was the best policy, and would not have had a good mental model on there being times to not give verbose, directly responsive answers to any question asked me.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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“Looking for new challenges” is ambition; “bored” means you lack control over your own mental state. Much of the work at the new company will be “boring”, too, but extremely necessary; that is one reason they they pay you a salary rather than expect you to do it cheerily for free
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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All conversations on this topic redound to the disfavor of the candidate. The candidate should always want to move the conversation to how the candidate will create outstanding value in the new job.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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With an example for concreteness.
Candidate: “I was denied promotion.”
Hiring manager (thinks): “Oh so you were not exceeding expectations?”
HM says: “Oh. Why?”
Candidate: “My work was judged unfairly.”
HM (thinks): “Do I believe that? Or do I believe they are miscalibrated?”
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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“I felt like I had contributed what I could contribute and am looking for new challenges.” (h/t @tqbf)
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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I’d steal @tqbf verbatim here: “I felt like I had contributed what I could contribute and am looking for new challenges.” and then *move on.*
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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There is almost no conceivable way to have either the content of the message or the data point “Candidate said the content of the message out loud” be read in one’s favor.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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It is entirely reasonable to leave a job because it missed payroll, because you had an irreconcilable difference with a boss, because the office had poisonous politics, because you were bored, or because you were denied promotion.
If you say that out loud, 2 data points on you.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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This is one of those hiring questions to which there are no right answers but many wrong answers; your answer will be scored as either neutral or disqualifying.
Another question with similar dynamics: “Why did you leave your last job?”
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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1 h |
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HN asks: how to address a 12 month gap in employment prior to current job search? news.ycombinator.com/item?id=222253…
My answer, regardless of cause: “I took some time off to explore projects and am excited to get back to work.” then *move on*.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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4 h |
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Everyone is welcome; it is highly likely we'll include opportunities of interest to people PMing currently.
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Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
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5 h |
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Mind if I ask you a little more about the state of being large? Would love to hear what you specifically think is the tradeoff there.
(I have my own answer to that question but like hearing others' thoughts, partly to provide signal and partly to make sure we don't go BigCo.)
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