Connare Tech: Owner’s Corner

On Monday, let me mark the date, March 5th 2007, I was interviewed by IBM. It still blows my mind that it was less than a week ago that I received an email from UB Career Services saying that IBM had selected me to be interviewed for a position in their WebSphere division. This division develops web related technologies and services much in the way Connare Tech does, but obviously on a much higher scale with a much bigger budget and with a much bigger reputation and name. In either case this interview started off as all interviews do.
“Hi my name is Sanjay Connare. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Immediately what stuck out was that there were two interviewees. I was surprised, though not taken back, as I had never been in a technical interview where there was more than one person evaluating me at a time. I was presented with more information regarding the position and what it entailed and then somewhere in the mix they asked me about my experience working with web applications. After that to me it was no longer an interview.

“Yea I have some experience, I’ve even developed a few through my own firm.” was the response I gave them, or at least something to that nature. “oh really, tell us a little more about that. we visited your web site, did you do that? how long have you been doing it for?”. Storytelling, I love it. It’s why I am writing right now and neither of them could have expected what was to come next from me.

I vividly recounted why I started Connare Tech, what it has meant to me and the both the experiences and opportunities that I have since been privileged to take part in. Once all the background information settled in I began to address their initial questions regarding web applications. Though instead of merely answering with something like “yea I’ve developed a few using lamp based frameworks”, I began to ask them the questions. “Would you like to see a demo of some?” They obliged eager to see what I had done and probably more so to see if I lived up to all my talk.

For the next thirty minutes I demoed all sorts of things that Connare Tech has developed over the past few years. I demoed the book inventory system, the redzone film playback and viewing history system and the city honors rugby site scheduling system. I emphasized the ease of use, interfaces that the admins used, and the power that occurred behind the scenes unbeknownst to the user.

When I had finished both congratulated me on my accomplishments. This was IBM saying Mr. Connare you’ve done excellent work. IBM, the #1 computer consulting firm in the world. They then proceeded to ask me when I was graduating and at that point the tone of the interview changed. The May 2009 graduation date stung like a thorn on a rose. The one interviewer told me she was going to be honest and straight to the point. She was sorry that it wasn’t sooner because there were so many strong candidates who were either graduating or about to graduate. The position was to serve as a stopgap for full employment, as many technical internships are. My graduation gap of three years was a little too much for them. As I prepared to leave the two interviewees gave me their contact information and hoped that I didn’t feel as if I had wasted my time. They reiterated their appreciation and acknowledgment of the work that I had presented to them and said that they wanted to stay in touch and would be in contact with me when they returned next year if I was still interested.

Afterwards the first thing I did when I got near a computer was look up the stats for connaretech.com and sure enough there were 2 unique hits from the domain IBM.com. While I didn’t get the job, was it a waste of time? No not at all, I enjoyed it all and still am taking it all in. So I thank them for honoring me with an interview. Besides as they said they’ll be in contact with me next year when they come back to campus. A lot can happen in a year but if i’m here next summer IBM if you’re reading this, yes I would be more than interested. Next on the agenda, my application to Microsoft. I hear back from them next week.