Thank you, Sanjiva.
And, How To Interview With The CEO
I’m CEO at WSO2, the world’s largest open source integration company. We are approaching 600 employees and 500 enterprise customers. Our software powers more than 6 trillion transactions each year. By all measures, we are one bad ass little engine that could.
I’d like to take credit for this company’s success. I’ve been on its board for more than half its life and lead its Series B financing when there were only 50 employees. That should get credit for something.
But the credit for this company’s success goes to its founder and original CEO, Sanjiva Weerawarana.
After 13 years, Sanjiva made his last day as an employee on August 31st. He stepped down to focus on passion projects that he’s been dreaming about ever since I met him. It would not surprise me if over the next few years Sanjiva causes Ballerina to become a top 10 programming language, start a university, support numerous non profits and enter national politics in Sri Lanka. Sanjiva’s driven by community and contribution, and is a rare mix of genius, passion, and selflessness. It’s uncommon to find someone whose intellectual domain spans technology and society, but Sanjiva is that anomaly in biped form.
Sanjiva started WSO2 13 years ago born out of frustrations that he had experienced working at IBM. It was their approach to collaboration, lack of transparency, and financially-driven business model that told him that things were not well. Driven by an indescribable force of will, his entrepreneurship lead to an indescribable cycle of innovation that lead the WSO2 team to invent and reinvent a modern day integration platform many times over. Along the way, the company’s customers and employees swelled in followership, inspired by the principles and founding tenets that software can be superior and sold ethically.
There were more than a couple times where WSO2 was on the verge of non existence. Grit, toughness, determination, grace, and a little luck is required in any leader to overcome those scenarios. I think there is a club for entrepreneurs who experience such near disaster, as only alumni can recognize the toll and raw power required to survive such an endeavor. I overcame it a couple times when Codenvy was 45 employees. I witnessed Sanjiva overcome it with 100s of employees. You didn’t think his baldness was genetic, did you?
Over the years, Sanjiva has been an inspirational teacher and mentor for me. I’d be lucky if I’ve passed along a fraction of what he’s sent to me. The most lasting impact is the fundamental rewiring he caused by making me believe, and then later championing the idea that a business and society can be a meritocracy, though its leaders must be prepared for true sacrifice. He may not realize it, but I probably believe in the power of transparency and community more fundamentally then he does and am plotting how essential principles can be more deeply ingrained within WSO2 now.
So, along with the 1000s of well wishers who will be eagerly seeing what Sanjiva’s next chapter will be, I join their chorus.
Interviewing With the CEO
At WSO2, one of the traditions that Sanjiva started (and frankly a really good idea) was that every potential employee meet with the CEO. It’s a practice that we use to ensure that everyone who is coming into the company is going to be a good culture fit. The only way to be sure is to have each person meet with a broad group and to also have the CEO (who meets everyone) do the same.
Interviewing for a new job is one of the most nerve wracking experiences that anyone goes through. You have little idea of the expectations and the thoughts of the counter party. There are inherent inequities and an unfair power balance between yourself and an interviewer. Given these dynamics, it’s amazing that any of us ever get offered a job!
Since joining WSO2, I’ve done many dozens of CEO interviews now. I do many each week and our employee team just schedules them onto my calendar. I do them at my home, in our office, at an airport. It’s always a short Zoom session and I’m happy to do them any time of the day or any location.
Interviewing with the CEO can be nerve wracking and it doesn’t need to be. Here are some thoughts that I have for you to help prepare for our chat.
I’m the CEO of WSO2. I’ve been involved with WSO2 since 2010, a board member since 2012, and its CEO since 2017. Prior to WSO2, I was founder and CEO of Codenvy which was acquired by RedHat in 2017. While slaving on Codenvy, I was (and still am) a partner at Toba Capital, where I invest in DevOps and middleware related companies like Cloudant, Sauce Labs, InfoQ, and Sourcegraph. Prior to investing, I spent 15 years working on middleware in a variety of technical and non-technical roles. I love what I do.
So, what is it like to interview with me?
It’s fun, I promise. There is no need to be nervous (some people are). I’m a human being just like you and have human strengths and fallibility. Our chat is an opportunity to make a new acquaintance, express or personalities, and learn a bit about what motivates each of us. It’s not my job to determine whether you are fit for the job. If you are talking to me, others have already made that determination. It’s my job to make sure that you will fit in with our unique culture and no-politics environment.
Our conversation will be short and informative. There are a few things that I may ask you:
- Are you a dog or a cat person? Seriously, I am a dog person and curious about those who worship cats.
- How did you hear about WSO2 in the first place?
- I will make a (usually bad and wrong) guess at the historical relevance and significance of your name and accent. Don’t laugh, but I am curious about where you came from and how you ended up where you are at.
- What do you hope will be on your tombstone when you leave this world?
- What are legal, ethical, and financial implications of Redis Labs’ alteration of their BSD open source license to create stronger commercial protections? Just kidding, but if you have a point of view, then we really should talk more.
- What would you like to know more about our company?
- What kind of commitments do you make to improving yourself, your team, and your family? We have a simple performance review process here and it’s focused on how you are working on self-improvement and commitment to self, team, and company. We care deeply about how you are developing yourself in any dimension or aspect of life that matters to you.
So that’s it. It’s a quick call. I get a chance to reinforce the importance of our corporate values and to learn more about your background. You get a chance to ask questions about open source and WSO2. And then we wish each other well and get onto our next things.
For everyone else, WSO2 is growing rapidly. We are planning to hire almost 150 people in the next calendar year in offices around the world. If you are inspired by what we do or how we do it, we’d like to talk to you.
