Hiring

I responded to their online job ad. It was for "a senior level job" and I met or exceeeded all the qualifications. When I checked their web site, and later when I met the people at the company, I was impressed with the company and its people.

It had people like Elwyn Berlekamp of UC Berkeley, as its investor/advisor; David Donoho of Stanford University as one of its managers; Bob Burnett, the founding VP of Cisco as its president for whom it was the first business venture since Cisco, a dynamic Sumer Johal, MIT alumnus, who in 6 years since graduation had achieved a lot of business success, and so on.

Thomas Emerson, a maths Ph.D. from prestigious NYU, who previously worked at Bell Labs, was to be my co-worker. When I asked Sumer Johal, the Chief Technology Officer, about PSG Consultancy, a successful consultancy he formed that had clients like Nortel and ATT, he brushed aside my question. Obviously, he was modest too.

From the job ad to the hiring took about a month. They looked worried. Later Sumer Johal told me that they were very much interested in me but Xamplify had cash problems and funding for this position had dried out. Finally, Sumer Johal got the courage to ask me if I would be willing to work as subcontractor without any benefits like medical, pension, 401k, since the company didn't have money for the regular position. I have never worked as a subcontractor before and apparently the company had all the others working as regular employees but I could see their situation and agreed. Later when Sumer Johal asked me about money, I informed him about my previous job in Kansas City where I was paid about $2,000 a week where the cost of living is much lower, adding that I was underpaid for my skills, but was hoping for fair wages now. Sumer Johal sounded slightly hurt as he said with a very sincere voice," Off course, we will pay you fair wages." I felt bad about insinuating that such a business outfit with some of the richest and most brilliant investors and managers of the Bay area would even think of such an unprofessional action like paying me unfair wages. Shame on me. Company's web site and job postings have always mentioned things like "competitive wages," "top salaries," "excellent benefits" et cetera. As a subcontractor I had no benefits like medical, pension, 401k and so on but still. Well...I was hired.