Great until the world died

[fbhjr]

Today I interviewed a job applicant who was born, raised, educated and
began to work in the Soviet Union in the same city.
As I’m big on researching candidates I looked up Baku, where he lived the
first 30 or so years of his life. It’s on the Caspian Sea, and at least
from the Google Maps images looks fairly nice.

So, while he was showing me his six patents from the USSR from that time, I
asked him about it.
“Yah,” he said. “It was great until the world died in 1991.
“Everything closed down and I had to move here to keep working. It was a
lot of work to find a company brave enough to hire an engineer who had
never worked in America before this.”

It’s strange to me to think of it this way. It certainly isn’t the way the
“fall of the Soviet Union” is presented to me in the media.
About that same time I lost my job and had to move to a different state to
find a job too. For me it was only moving 150 miles away to where my (now)
wife lived until I could find a job. That was traumatic enough. This guy
crossed most of the world to do it without anyone waiting at the end to
help him.

On a side note, it is also strange to me that my father was born before the
Soviet Union formed and died after it broke apart. For all of the menace
Russia represented when I was young, my father had a longer life.

It is, at least to me, an interesting idea that the world can die so
completely for someone and have others who hardly notice.
But, I guess it has always been that way.

Comments

[evrgreen.livejournal.com]

I can see how this guy's perspective made it seem like his world had ended - certainly, there were some people who made out quite well during the union. And many whoh didn't do so well, but who still grew to appreciate that, while their life was nothing like it could be here in the US, having much of it planned out and structured for you could be reassuring. Sometimes the bird grows to love the cage that it is in, even if it is not gold. In any case, did he seem like a better candidate that some of the "winners" you've been hearing from lately? I've interviewed some former Russian engineers for positions before, though none have ever come from that region. Some of them were really quite good as far as the actual mathematics and techniques were concerned - they just weren't necessarily up to date on the latest tools and software, but those are the easily trainable skills to someone who knows how to design something already.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

He has been over here for more than 20 years now, so he's pretty up to date on the tools.

It's more a question of view point. "Machines are machines. Parts are parts. You put them together in a way that works." is what he said after I showed him our current machines.
I'm not saying he's wrong.
But, I hope for a bit more... I guess excitement is the word... for working on this sort of project.

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

That is interesting to consider. Varied cultural perspectives always fascinate me.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

That is one of the things I like about working here is we do have a very varried group. At least compared to other places I've worked.

[kismets-kiss.livejournal.com]

It is so interesting to think of how someone experiencing a similar situation in life can have such a varied way of looking at it, handling it, etc. And to think of yes, it would seem like the world dying, when everything literally ended in your existence. Other than life itself.

[evrgreen.livejournal.com]

It is always a Good Thing, to hire an employee who shares enthusiasm for the company's Major Project. While it is desirable, and conducive/helpful to the retention of employees, it isn't always necessary to get the job done. Especially if one finds one's self in a deepening personnel deficit and many customer orders on the horizon. And I've had some employees stick around for many years even when I was fairly convinced that they didn't seem to have any passion for the product segment we were working in, though they DID care alot about doing a good job and ensuring the work met strict quality metrics.

I think that some personalities, and maybe mostly older, partially jaded engineers, consider that they will work on whatever it is that is given to them and be satisfied with just trying to do a good job, without getting personally caught up in the magic of the moment. I am sure that there may even be a few of them at Apple Computer.

Still, if I had a choice of (2) equally qualified candidates, I would tend to pick the one who seemed to be more excited to come in to work on the Giant Robot Freezer every morning, where I in your shoes. But, if I couldn't find the equally qualified, enthusiastic one, well.. any port in a storm, as they say.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

He certainly isn't out of the runnig. He's tied for first place now.
But, I continue to hope for the perfect person and have few more in the queue before making the decision.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I tend not to be an enthusiast- or, at least, a somewhat muted one. It just takes too much energy to get really thrilled about stuff a lot- and I'd rather spend that energy on actually doing stuff.

My own experience has been that excitement =/= dedication. YMMV.