How I accidentally landed a job in IBM

from homeless to happiness...

I had no home, no job, and 27 days left on my expiring visa. My girlfriend and I had just broken up, and I lived in the hottest place in Spain… in a desert… with no air-conditioning. I say this not to make you “feel for me”, just to paint the picture. Life was making me it’s pretty, little boyfriend, and I was thoroughly not enjoying it.

So, as I slept, wet with sweat, on the floor on my Italian friend's, Claudio (because any other name wouldn’t be fitting), apartment I searched my mind for a memory of the moment I had gone wrong in life.

How did I go from living my dream in Brazil, to… this BIG, AMAZING improvement??? (sarcasm, noted)

Well, the reality of “adulthood” was starting out great.

I had sent 105 résumés to 4 countries, and managed to get 2 calls back (I would later learn why).

One, in Valencia, to write about Yachts and travel to Monaco to document all of its glory and wealth (Legitimately is a paying job).

Or two, an interview at IBM. 

How was I going to get up every morning and write about the wiring that holds up a sail? I have never been farther away from the coast than boogie boarding in northern Florida, and rich things makes me uncomfortable (possibly envious).

So, I put all my efforts into the Big Blue (Company). A single email. My response. A game of tag. Phones calls, emails, whatever it took. Constantly forging an opportunity, and dear god did I have luck in the form of Maite Iniesta.

Important note: this was July-August in Spain. The unofficial, official, NO ONE WORKS, months on the calendar year. I, clearly, had no idea or warning.

She was Murcian, my adopted hometown. She was young, and understood being different was good. She was patient, and didn’t get mad when I called her even though she was sun tanning on her beach vacation.

Why Maite was interested in my resume? What could I have possible done in my favor?

I would later learn directly from her, which was:

1.    For starters, I had placed a photo in the top corner (Honestly, the only headshot I had of myself) of me biting an apple. I thought it was cool. The majority at IBM HR, thought it was weird. In a pile of hundreds of CVs with similar beginnings, middles, and ends… I stood out. My authenticity, my goofiness, made all those ties and suits and professionally shot photos look… less genuine.

2.    My experience. From professional athlete to vodka salesman (which neither helped much) I had put a lot of unrelated jobs, but the savior of it all… Design Thinking and Design experience with a handful of major clients while working in a studio in southern Spain.

 {How I found innovation in Murcia is another tale. It just so happened a demand in IBM for my skillset was rising, small but big enough to catch the eye.}

3.    Undeniable energy and hunger for the job. Speaking in broken Spanish and consistently checking on updates on my opportunity, I kept my name relevant, without being “pesado”. I can honestly say, Maite became my friend and spiritual guide through the (tough) experience of landing the job, and all the foreign documents that came after.

Part 2

I had done it.

The logic test, magically passed. Math test, with word questions, in Spanish, passed? Maybe they added a curve… The English Test, I crushed (still mad about the two I missed).

I had successfully landed an interview.

Now something called a Group Dynamic hung over my head… which I felt like would cause me to possibly fall flat on my face.

 Remember, all the following happened in Spanish. And I, Johnny Saye, was not really equip to debate in any foreign language.

I arrived having slept awful on the couch of my ex (bad decision, lesson learned), dressed as something between an asshole and stylish in the only suit I owned.

What. Had. I. Done… I entered the big building to see an even bigger group of candidates. Not even that, literally everyone was taller than me and Spanish… Oh, and they all had degrees in tekkie things like Engineering and Telecommunication. Cool, well I studied Journalism and can draw alright…

And so, I tried to maintain my calm, playing the mysterious foreigner and sitting on a leather chair in reception waiting for something, or someone to give us direction.

Maite entered the room and herded us like a group of cattle to: “The Room of Destiny”, where fate (and a panel of IBM professionals) decide your future.

… And like that, the Hunger Games had begun.

Sitting at a large square table of 20 chairs, seeing the range of faces, from nervous, to confident, to obvious confusion, we sat surrounded by Managers of various departments and Human Resources. They would be hand picking the CHOSEN ONES. 

At this point, I was in a mental panic, but I kind of love pressure and magically do better under it. Seriously, I go blank and come to with everything way better than it started out.

REFOCUSING on the story, first task of the day. Introductions. IN. ENGLISH. I nearly cry at my luck.

A girl a few chairs to my left begins, telling the classic: hometown, work history, reasons to want work there… And around the table we go, with a variety of levels of English (some good, others… more or less) as I wait patiently for my turn, more excited and with a strong urge to vomit each minute.

My go. Having chased a lot of dreams, I have a few stories and experiences under my belt. So I rolled with it, putting on my Big Boy Face and began selling like the vodka salesman I once was. My former career as a soccer player, my falling in love, my design thinking, my Murcia. With a mix of humor, passion, and honest work experience, I turned my simple 3-minute speech into an epic tale… and it set the stage for my chance to get the job.

But, I had a group dynamic hanging over my head, which I later learned is essentially a battle between the room’s most talkative people to control (as they think it will be their main differentiator).

Sitting, with the challenge of redesigning a website between the 20 something of us, I made an important realization:

This is a design thinking workshop. I may not participate, but I can help guide.

Trying to share my vision of the direction for the project was… more or less well received, and we began to frame the problem, and from there came a solution. But how could we present it? We have no images, yet we are selling a screen.

I drew it. I drew a crappy sketch of an augmented reality chair on a webpage and a mobile device with a pen and paper. I did it by instinct. By luck. And so went my one moment of interaction.

“Why didn’t you learn Spanish better… idiot.” I repeated in my brain.

And just like that, it ended. We shook hands with the managers, said our good byes to Maite, and I wondered how on earth would I be able to be hired from that. I had high hopes my story was just enough to hold their attention…

As the Spanish do: we immediately went to the nearest bar as a group of stressed hopefuls. I immediately down a beer. For one, my nerves need it. For two, my break up needed it. And for three, I was dying of thirst. I had not eaten or drank all day.

Slowly enjoying my second beer and chatting with some potential new friend in a city I could potentially move to, my phone rang.

Maite. She had been searching for my number for a while. I am so dumb that I had put it wrong on my CV. Good one John John.

But she had called, and there was news, and it was good news.

I would be having an interview in 5 minutes.

Maybe that awful drawing wasn’t so awful after all.

I rush back to reception, which was only about 50 meters away, and notice that I now have a slight to solid buzz. A lightweight who hadn’t eaten, great. I’m going to the interview feeling drunk. How can this go well?

Part 3 

The interview:

Two people awaited my arrival, from the department of IX. Knowing nothing of technology, but a lot about design, I thought I might have a chance with this.

We hop in the elevator, exchanging chit chat (a strength of mine after many dinner parties at my grandmother’s house), and I am impressing myself with the Spanish.

We sit in what I would later learn is the coolest part of IBM Madrid building, and still in Spanish, the younger of the two dives straight into the questions:

“Have you ever designed a website?”

No.

I could only be honest. It was like the beer was a truth serum, and I was freaking out.

“Have you ever design an application”

I have made the concepts, but not made the screens or programmed one.

I tried to give them something more than just a no…

“What have you designed?”

Brands, marketing campaigns, lots of juice, packaging, and a clothing brand…

Finally, I can seem like I have done something with my life.

“If you had to learn to program, would you do it?”

If I can learn to speak Spanish like this in 6 months, I can learn to program. It is just another language.

With a few more winds and turns, the interview concluded. I tried to be “normal” and look somewhat comfortable, as wearing a suit is not my daily style.

We said our goodbyes and like that I thought… You really fudged that one up pal. You couldn’t think of anything to add to make you look like super Johnny???

Not more than a few days later I got the call. I had gotten the job.

Now all I had to do was move to a new city, do a mountain of documents for a new visa, and figure out how the heck I was going to work for a tech company when I still had no computer… But that is a story for a different day.

Maybe it is best that I have never been a numbers guy, because I would’ve understood how badly the odds are against me, but I think not. Being unashamedly authentic allows the people around you, the passions around you, and the opportunities around you, to automatically filter themselves out. I have never found the perfect job, just continued moving until incredible ones have found me.

Recap of the lessons I learned:

Be proud of all you know, but humble in the manner in which you share it.

Small, instinctive moments, are the deciding factors in big decisions.

Check résumé to make sure phone number (and other info is correct).

Know yourself, and how to communicate your strengths with others.

Be willing to show your passion, and if necessary take a risk (if it is important to you).

I have an insanely high level of luck.

The ability to learn rapidly is a fundamental characteristic.

Although some have done it (Santiago…), dress appropriately within your style.

Pressure causes different results on all of us. Understand how it changes you and work on managing it.

So after all the hub-bub of a story, there are obviously several heroes: Maite (for giving me the chance), IBM Managers for taking the chance, the mother of my ex (for forcing me to speak Spanish), and my great great grandmother for my Irish luck!

Thanks for reading this (very long) odd story of a how a guy with no home ended up at a dream job, I hope one day you can too.