Uber chief subjected prospective job applicant to gruelling 30 hour interview
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has made headlines after it emerged he’d kept his now chief technology officer Thuan Pham on tenterhooks for a full 30 hours whilst quizzing him constantly on the phone for two weeks straight before securing the plum role.
The former VMware executive’s ordeal began when he turned up for a regular one hour interview which subsequently overran to two hours.
Things didn’t end there however with the tortuous interview dragging on for a further fortnight as Pham faced a continuous grilling on the phone, racking up 30 hours of call time with the Uber boss.
Pham recalled: “We’d pick each topic and drill all the way down. One topic could be how to hire and fire people. Another was about project management and engineering management.
“I had my view and he had his, and because he’s an engineer by training as well, we just jammed like that."
Fortunately the arduous process ultimately paid off for Pham, who was duly appointed as Uber’s CTO, which he has grown from a team of just 40 to 1,200 over the past three years.