Trivia re HP :
A week or so ago, I went for a job interview at HP. The hiring manager was a guy called Joe Williams. When we met, I said "Hi Joe, good to meet you in person". His response was "in a formal interview situation, I would have expected you to address me as Mr Williams".
We went into a conf room to continue the discussions. I asked him how long he had been at HP - he says 6 months. Then I told him a story :
It was 1997, when I was at an exec/analyst briefing mtg to demonstrate HP technologies. At some stage, I went out to the smoking area to have a smoke. A few mins later Lew Platt (then CEO of HP) showed up, said hello, and asked if he could bludge a cigarrette from me. I gave him the pack, and said "sure Mr Platt, keep this, I have another pack in my bag".
Lew had his smoke, gave the pack to me, and then looked at my name badge, and asked "Kumar, how long have you been at HP?". I replied "approx 10 years Mr Platt".
He then said, "Well, to last here that long is good, but you will do better if you just called me Lew, and not Mr Platt - it will help your career if you adopted that position with any HP person of any rank in the management". |
