Tami Reiss

CEOs may seem scary, but at some point most of them were in your seat.

I’ve been interviewing at a company over the past few weeks for a position I didn’t want. The position was way to analytical for me, and though I can pull data and make pivots tables and write up reports… I’m a people person and much more than 25% of my day doing that drives me pretty nuts.

My first interview was with the director of finance, he made me do math on the whiteboard.

My second interview wa with the director of product, he couldn’t promise that my day would be less that 60% analytical stuff.

Somehow, these people still liked me enough to invite me back to speak with the CEO today. I guess I’m pretty good at math. Though the position I first came to them for was this overly analytical opening, in my second meeting they mentioned potential marketing openings. I figured, if I met the CEO, and he liked me, chances are he could recomend me for one of those. CEOs get to make decisions like that

So I met the CEO, and within a few minutes we agreed that the analyst role was not for me, and that I was more suited for openings in marketing and web development. He then had the CIO and CMO meet with me… you know because CEOs can do that sort of stuff. I hit it off with both of them, and they are now entertaining the option of bringing me on for jobs that I probably would  never have been interviewed for because they were impressed with my energy, and know that the CEO will back their decision.

Lesson learned… if the CEO is going to meet with you… you show up.