Paul is clearly talented, and I'm sure you are, too. I believe the problem that big companies have with his lack of experience with "big projects" and "big teams" is nonsense. Narrow-minded headhunters, personnel jockeys and managers miss out on great new hires when they confuse experience with talent. Lots of people can conceive new products. Some can actually design them. But the rarest worker is one who can conceive and get a finished product out the door profitably and make customers happy. That's talent. Interviewers often do not know what to do with unusual people like Paul. Investors, however, do.

You are both at a crucial point in your careers. You have proved what you can do. Now you need the infrastructure that will enable you to do bigger projects. If you compromise on that, you will hurt your careers and make yourselves miserable.

Here is my advice. Forget about pursuing jobs. If you want a great job, create your own business. I'm not suggesting this is easy, but it's a path worth pursuing.

To start your own company, you will need to examine the market and the industry you want to specialize in. You will need to talk with many people, including prospective customers and distributors. You will need to talk to companies whose products will interact with yours, and with companies that produce related or competing products. All these contacts will guide your product development ideas and introduce you to the partners you will need. They will help you get funding, whether in the form of purchase orders or direct investment.

As part of your effort, you will produce a business plan. The plan is actually a substitute for a resume. It shows what you can do. However, unlike a resume, a business plan also shows how you will do it. That's what gets a company's attention and its investment. In the course of talking with these companies, your meetings will be a substitute for traditional interviews. Companies will get to know you far better than they ever would in a job interview. Your business plan and these meetings will help you overcome objections to your lack of "big time experience".

Some of your new contacts may help you start your business. Others will prefer to avoid competing with you -- and they will recognize the opportunity to hire you and Paul. Stimulated by your business plan, they may offer you jobs. The key is to introduce yourselves with a business plan instead of a resume, and with a business presentation instead of a job interview. That is how you will get past the "employers" so you can meet with the people in a company who worry about profit.

The traditional, small-minded hiring process of big companies doesn't hurt just the job hunter. It also hurts the employer. Thus, your challenge is to avoid the hiring process. Your challenge is to get to the corporate-level executive (preferably a board member) whose job is to find new ways to make money; to find new products; to create new markets; and to develop new partnerships through new investment. You cannot do that with a resume and a job interview.

Paul is a point on the productivity curve. He is a point on the very narrow, leading edge of that curve. He is unusual. Few companies will know how to interpret his resume or how to interview him. He has great abilities. Don't use those abilities to get a job. Threaten to start a company instead. You will get more attention -- the right kind of attention. And you will either get funding, or you will win a great job.

Best,
Nick Corcodilos
Ask The Headhunter®