Will You Hire Me? I Have Not Used Your Product.

> Because my personal level of interest in what exactly you're selling may have little/nothing to do with my ability to deliver and passion to improve the infrastructure you use.

I agree. The problem with our industry is that people want it both ways. They still have the old model of thinking of a servant who is "asking for a job". They also want someone who is a collaborative partner who might actually extend your product in cool, different ways. Now, I am going to go ahead and point fingers at an exec (CTO, VP, Products etc) who goes in, hasn't used that product. However, an engineer, really? He needs that level of abstraction in order to be competent at the job? If I am making the pipes faster, I think abstractions at the stage of an interview for me to talk about pipes without having to worry about the color of your house are fine. After all, it is not like the stuff that I am interested in: how ugly your codebase looks comes up by me perusing your shiny site which was probably outsourced.

Side Digression on the phrase "asking for a job". I always find it amusing when I get on the phone with a company after they contact me. Then they ask me the phrase: "Why do you want to work for us?". Rarely, if ever, is the unanswered question addressed: 'Why do you want to work with me, the candidate?'