Interview upside down

Remember your last job interview when applying for a job? Who do you see yourself in 10 years? What are your achievements on your last job? Why should we choose you? From now on, only modern HRs take all these furious questions. Without thinking twice, I decided to turn the process described above upside down. Typically, Parallels co-founder and vice president Nikolai Dobrovolsky will interview all candidates coming to the company. But this time he had to have an interview. When, instead of answering the boring questions of the employer, you can ask them yourself. Moreover, for Dobrovolsky Parallels the first and in fact the only place of work. Last interview he had more than twenty years ago. Perhaps that is why the conversation turned out to be very funny in some places. Enjoy!


- In your opinion, what age is ideal for programming?
- Any.

- What does anyone mean? Do you know a programmer who is 65 years old, for example, and he is actively programming?
- Of course I know. We in the company have a person who is close to sixty. He writes a good code. Another example. Two or three years ago, I read a letter from our user. Uncle from America wrote: “I am 82 years old. I program from the very beginning to this day. I like your product very much. In general, this is the best of computer art that I have ever seen in my long history. ”
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- That is, age does not affect programmers?
- Just programming requires active brain activity. For various reasons, many, of course, relax with age. Therefore, probably, as in any general activity, most programmers have an active phase in the period from twenty to forty years. At the same time, this does not mean that after forty you will definitely lose your professional skills. I think that in ten to twenty years there will not be a single industry in which there would not be in one way or another programming elements.



- Who do you think is an outstanding programmer?
- Leshu Kuznetsova.

- I hesitate to ask, who is this?
“This is the legendary man who wrote the Linux TCP / IP stack with David Miller. Virtually all the features of the Internet of the 1990s became available to Linux users precisely because of it. Alan Cox (another world-famous Linux developer) said that he had thought for a long time that Kuznetsov was a collective name for a secret group of Russian programmers, because one person cannot write so much. Lesha worked for more than ten years in Parallels. He is still in office.

- Top 3 leading Russian IT companies, in your opinion?
- Parallels, Acronis, Yandex.

- And western IT companies?
- Well, Microsoft, of course. And I really like Tesla and Amazon.

- And how do they relate to IT?
- Tesla, in fact, is an IT company. If a little more to dig about them, everything falls into place. For example, I read a book about Mask. There, a third of the book is devoted to Tesla and another one - SpaceX. So, Tesla is really a computer. Of course, they assembled motors with batteries and all that, but, roughly speaking, this is a computer on wheels. Because if they improve something today or find a bug, an update rolls out at night, and you have another car for tomorrow. This is a great example showing the penetration of IT in all areas of life. Or, for example, the same Amazon, which everyone knows as the largest online retailer in the States. There are two kinds of artificial intelligence and machine learning, three orders of magnitude more than in any other office that we consider an IT company.



- I heard. So Tesla!
- No, Microsoft! Everyone scolds Microsoft, but they all use it. And it works well for everyone.

- You will interview almost everyone who comes to Parallels. The most unusual story after meeting with the candidate?
- Once a dude came, who named marriage with a Thai woman as a reason for leaving a previous job. It turned out that the guy went on holiday to Thailand, met the aboriginal, brought her to Russia, divorced his wife after 8 years of marriage, got married and left work in order to finally start life from scratch. True, a year later he secretly escaped from him and he, too, then left us.

- Who do you see yourself in ten years?
- I like what I do. I think that I will program and continue to work.



- What achievements and events in life could you celebrate?
- None.

- Modesty, the shortest path to suspense. All the same?
- Probably, in my life, while the biggest event is an in-person meeting with Steve Jobs. This was preceded by a lot of work, in fact, the birth of our product (Parallels Desktop for Mac - approx.) And our personal communication with the founder of Apple was the apotheosis. And this is awesome!

- Who is more important: a marketer or developer?
- Very dependent on the area. Take our product, for example. We wrote it, he somehow earned and advertised himself. In the beginning there was no marketing, no sales force, nothing. But the product was, and it began to sell very well. This is an example of how there is a product that sells itself and it does not need a marketer. Similarly, we know that there are great businesses when people sell snow to the Eskimos. And they do it well. They produce nothing at all, but at the same time they manage to sell something. Useless service, for example. Very good marketers. Of course, the above examples are more likely to be extremes. In fact, the truth is somewhere in the middle. The better you have symbiosis, when a developer and a marketer can work well together, the greater the likelihood of success.



- What is cooler than macOS or Windows?
- Better Windows on Mac! (laughs)

- Steve Jobs or Bill Gates?
- I like Steve Jobs more, although in life Bill is probably more correct.

- Desktop or mobile?
- Mobile is increasingly penetrating our lives and someday everything will go there, but for the time being it is more convenient for me to work on Desktop.

- What are the three books that most influenced you?
- “Geniuses and outsiders”, “Design of habitual things” and various biographical works. There is a story about Amazon, about Ilona Mask, Steve Jobs.



- Three favorite feature films?
- I really like The Matrix. At one time she really struck me. I also liked the “13th floor”. And comedy "Election Day" and "Radio Day." In general, I really like what the Quartet I team does. Great humor.

- Three best actress in your opinion?
- To be honest, I do not really know actresses. Probably, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan and the third let it be Oksana Akinshina.

- Suddenly. What about the three actors?
- I like Alexander Zbruev, he plays in Lenkom. From Western Liam Neeson and Al Pacino.



- What about your favorite songs and bands?
- Are there many more such questions? (laughs) “Time Machine” - “Turn”, “Cinema” - “Changes”, “Tea” and Vysotsky. In general, I really love Vysotsky. "Bathhouse in white", "Horses fastidious" and everything like that.

- The best lesson after programming?
- Sport.

- Which one?
- Need to list? Running, biking, swimming, diving, parachute, skating, rollerblading, hockey. Just yesterday I went to the gum-rink. Hour and a half hour ride. Fine!

“ What do you dislike most of all?”
- Ironing shirts, for example.

- ski or snowboard?
- In fact, a month ago I would say skiing. And now I will say, depends on the company. Because now I ride on both.

- A small block of questions about Parallels. Who needs a company today if we are talking about staff?
- We always need intelligent programmers and testers. Now actively recruit salespeople around the world. Generally, as in any global company, we have all the divisions that grow, and periodically some people change in them. Fortunately, we have a good aura in the company, so most people grow and stay with us.

- How is Parallels better than other IT companies?
- First, we are a global company. We are engaged in very technological things and compete with the leaders of the world market. We have to work on interesting and challenging tasks, while withstanding the pressure from strong players. Secondly, that's for sure, we try to maintain the family atmosphere in the company. We have a fairly friendly team. Even corporate holidays we try to spend with families, get together and so on. That is, besides the fact that we are interested, it is also very comfortable.

- What values ​​of the company would you mention?
- Honesty. Openness Flexibility. Decency.

- And who would be difficult to work in Parallels?
- non-collective man who does not listen to anyone's opinion.

- How do you see the future of Parallels in 10 years?
- Light. We will develop and expand. We still have a whole bunch of plans and ideas.

- What do you dream about?
- Yes, I somehow do not really dream. I usually set a goal and go to it.

- Yes, that's the difference between a dream and a goal. What worries you in the modern world?
- What worries me most is the incomprehensible development of artificial intelligence. I am not afraid for us, but for our children and grandchildren. I will support the opinion of those people who are deeply immersed in this topic. They are concerned that the power is growing and the possibilities of artificial intelligence are expanding exponentially. And when he outgrows human intelligence, the consequences are unpredictable. You can guess, try, invent, but it is impossible to predict. Also, for example, how a monkey cannot explain most of our actions. Except very simple. For example, if she rang the bell, the naked monkey brought her a banana. And in fact, this naked monkey is just conducting his experiment. This is the next stage of development, and the consequences for humanity can be both magical and very sad. This is what worries me globally.

- How much money do you need for happiness?
- It does not matter how much money you have, it is important to have enough. I have enough.

- What is the difference between male and female programmers?
- No difference. There are just good programmers, but not so much. Among men and women there are those and others.



- What is the difference between programmers from Russia, USA, Europe and Asia?
- We are able to do technically cool things, but rarely think about the convenience of users. Good algorithms are excellent, but the service leaves much to be desired. We need to learn this.

- How often do you swear?
- I try to do it as rarely as possible.

- The most unusual swear word that you heard recently?
- Actually, I'm reading iPhuck Pelevin now. I can not remember ... There was an extremely funny word in the beginning. In general, he has a lot of funny quotes. Here, for example, "A person does not need three pines to get lost, - two nouns are enough for him."

- Well, well, thanks for the interesting conversation.



PS Well, friends, thank you for your attention and interest. Share your stories with job interviews. Following the results, we will choose three most unusual stories and reward them with three keys to Parallels Desktop Pro , which is almost 5,000 rubles each, plus we will give nice gifts. Good Luck!

By the way, if you read Pelevinsky iPhuck, can you write a word in the comments that Nikolai Dobrovolsky forgot about? Personally, I have not yet found this word.