I think this can be true, to a point. The danger is in getting lazy.
Time for my story:
Last October, I released a concept video of a next-generation desktop UI that garnered a surprising amount of blog coverage. Within a week, I had received emails from people at Google, Apple, and Microsoft, as well as a few startups.
As you might imagine, I was rather excited. This was exactly what I'd hoped might be a result of the video: I'd get noticed, talked about, and picked up by an industry leader.
Yet here I am, nearly a year later, still at my old job. What happened? I'd figured I had it in the bag, that all I had to do was put my best foot forward and I'd be well on my way to my dream interaction design career. In truth: I got lazy.
The interview at Google the next month went well, but a month after that, I got the bad-news call. Apple took me through a series of wide-spaced phone screens that never went anywhere, only to restart the recruitment process for a different division several months later, finally getting bumped by an internal candidate. Microsoft got lost in the shuffle, I went through some disjointed recruitment processes at a few startups with a bit of contract work, but finally, even that went quiet.
Where did I go wrong? I think I assumed I'd gone far enough for the time being, that this one video marked my arrival and that was it. But I lost my momentum. Lengthy recruiting processes can make it seem like you have time to kill, but you don't! I shouldn't have missed a beat; I should have doubled down on my concept and explored it even further instead of pinning my hopes on getting hired somewhere cool.
My advice to Feross or anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation: Don't stop now!
I wouldn't classify holding down a fulltime job while doing a side project AND going through fairly rigorous recruiting processes as anywhere near lazy.
"... holding down a fulltime job while doing a side project AND going through fairly rigorous recruiting processes as anywhere near lazy ..."
I'd agree but @mortenjorck probably means "focused". One of the things I noticed reading the description was it sounded similar to how Linux started - Linus stayed on task with the OS but released early and often (with the help of GNU). I bet the "hiring plebs" at SoftCo. would have been going overtime if the idea was distributed and used by increasing numbers of users.
Your 10GUI concept is very innovative! I'm surprise the big 3 wasn't serious in hiring you. Looking back into the interviews, can you tell what may have caused their decisions?
Not necessarily. Hiring processes aren't just designed to identify good candidates. They're designed to identify good candidates who want to work for you.
Someone who's highly skilled but only marginally interested in what you're doing will probably be a worse employee, over the long run, than someone who's marginally skilled but highly interested in what you're doing. When you let the ball drop in a hiring process (as I did when applying to FriendFeed, sigh...ah well, maybe it was my subconscious telling me something), you're saying you're not really all that interested in the company.
Pretty much, if you ARE interested in leveraging such attention into a position, you'd better pursue it wholeheartedly and not just assume you're a shoo-in.
edit: I'm not sure who Morten Jorck is. It sounds like it's R. Clayton Miller's alter-ego. mortenjorck's HN profile links to 10gui.com and in the video it says the original concept is by R. Clayton Miller with the voice-over done by Morten Jorck. But the HN profile also links to twitter.com/claymill Are these two names the same person who came up with that brilliant and highly detailed concept video?
Ha, yes, that's me. "Morten Jorck" began as a stage name for my music project (which is the "Presteign" credited with the soundtrack on the 10/GUI video). I guess it was just a particular self-consciousness that impelled me to use that name in the credits, as well as for my HN username.
Time for my story:
Last October, I released a concept video of a next-generation desktop UI that garnered a surprising amount of blog coverage. Within a week, I had received emails from people at Google, Apple, and Microsoft, as well as a few startups.
As you might imagine, I was rather excited. This was exactly what I'd hoped might be a result of the video: I'd get noticed, talked about, and picked up by an industry leader.
Yet here I am, nearly a year later, still at my old job. What happened? I'd figured I had it in the bag, that all I had to do was put my best foot forward and I'd be well on my way to my dream interaction design career. In truth: I got lazy.
The interview at Google the next month went well, but a month after that, I got the bad-news call. Apple took me through a series of wide-spaced phone screens that never went anywhere, only to restart the recruitment process for a different division several months later, finally getting bumped by an internal candidate. Microsoft got lost in the shuffle, I went through some disjointed recruitment processes at a few startups with a bit of contract work, but finally, even that went quiet.
Where did I go wrong? I think I assumed I'd gone far enough for the time being, that this one video marked my arrival and that was it. But I lost my momentum. Lengthy recruiting processes can make it seem like you have time to kill, but you don't! I shouldn't have missed a beat; I should have doubled down on my concept and explored it even further instead of pinning my hopes on getting hired somewhere cool.
My advice to Feross or anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation: Don't stop now!