On being a “cog”

Although I’m developing a startup myself, I figured I’d slip back into the grad student mode and try my hand at one of these “interviews” that are all the rage these days.

The company, who will remain nameless, didn’t make it too hard for me either — a free flight to Boston and a very generous meal expense that I made sure to take advantage of. I even had the pleasure of staying with a good friend in Boston for an extra day to real get a feel for the city…and its beer. In my mind, I had already won.

The interview(s) would take place on Saturday, and I would be joined by 38 of my peers to be herded through an introduction, tour, and group activity. It was all peachy, and it seemed like I would have a shot on working on some really cool stuff at a place filled with really cool things and really cool people. Having established this, I had three personal interviews with 4 people that I would eventually be working with.

Each was a very enjoyable experience: a nice, two-way conversation about myself and my attributes, my work and my desires. In fact, each conversation was dominated by the existence and merits of my startup. Luckily for me, the interviewers found it interesting (of course right?) and it was at least the most current example of my technological endeavours and abilities, so the conversation was natural. There weren't really any hard questions that all of the interview mythos had prepared me for: what is your biggest weakness? Tell us about a time you overcame conflict. If you were a kitchen utensil, which one would you be and why? The only hard question of the day came like this:

“Your achievements so far are very impressive for your age, and it looks like you've got the chops in both native mobile dev and pure front-end to fit in here. We talked about how you “wear many hats” and I was the same way. But if you were to ask me if I wanted to work for [redacted] 20 years ago I would have said hell no! Those guys are the man! We do some pretty awesome crap here, but the reality is that you’ll also being doing some pretty boring crap here sometimes, so how do you really feel about being a “cog” in the machine working for “the man”?

My cover was blown.

I was very upfront about my work on my startup, in fact, it was the centerpiece of my resume and my most current technical endeavour. I was 100% clear and honest about my work and future there. So as I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have a lot riding on this job interview, I had figured it would be a good experience and a fun trip. In fact, if I did indeed get an offer, I was actually more anxious about having to weigh such an option against the future of my recently founded company, and therefore confirm or deny my trajectory as an entrepreneur. But the question had come sooner, and slapped me in the face.

I don’t think he asked it in a malicious way, in fact, I think he was really asking it from one human to another, not as an interviewer to an interviewee. But it really hit me:

Am I ok with being a cog? Do I want to be a cog?

I don’t underestimate or look to invalidate the value of hard work and its contribution in a team setting. And with any gearbox with more than one gear, cogs are a part of any organization looking to achieve something. While the mechanical advantage of many gears in synchro is greater than the sum of its parts, is that what I want?

I’m certainly not the only one to say no,nor am I the first to say it, but I think many of us have a desire to, in the most literal and kitschy way possible, wind our own watch.