James graduated MIT in 1997 majoring in Computer Science. Immediately after graduation, he worked for two years at MacroSoft, a market leader in Personal Computer software, as a member of a team developing extensions for Linux. Although he had some conflicts with his first manager at MacroSoft, Ben Lee (who soon left the company), all of his subsequent managers at MacroSoft valued his work, and, after fifteen months, he was made a project leader. After another eight months, he was promoted to team leader. James and his team developed a key software application two months ahead of schedule, and James won a prestigious company award that included additional stock options that would vest in five years.

A few months later, one of the members of James's team, Linda, left the company to go to work for a small fast growing Internet software company, Artemis Technologies. Linda was assigned to a project that was stalled, and when the division manager left, she and all the other engineers met with company's VP for Research & Development. The VP asked her if she knew anyone who could lead the division to produce quality software on schedule. She described working with James at MacroSoft and suggested him for the job.

The VP followed up immediately, calling James at home and asking him to meet with him several days later. The VP told James that he was interested in talking to him about a position at Artemis because of Linda's glowing description of his technical and leadership abilities. James agreed to the meeting two weeks later and started thinking about his future. Although he had been successful at MacroSoft, he wondered whether he really enjoyed the large company bureaucracy. He thought that this call came at the right time for him to look at a small exciting startup.

James arrived at the VP's office thirty minutes early dressed in a suit. While he was waiting to meet with the VP, James worked reviewing some MacroSoft documents. At the start of their meeting, the VP described Artemis's history, its product line, and its strong financial position. In the past two years, the founder and the VP developed the company from a small start-up to a strong competitor in its market. James immediately asked the VP about salary and Artemis's executive option program.

The VP then gave a general overview of Artemis's R&D organization and gave a general overview of the projects James would be responsible for. He stated that Artemis needed someone to lead the group to complete these projects on schedule and to institute new procedures that would improve the unit's processes for developing new products. He then asked James what he could bring to Artemis. James responded by describing in detail several of the products on the market he had developed at MacroSoft and then told about his UROP's at MIT in the Laboratory for Computer Science and the Media Lab. He discussed in detail how he solved some very difficult software design problems while optimizing performance.

The VP asked James what were his best characteristics. James responded that he is smart and good solving problems. He gave specific examples of difficult programming problems he solved at MacroSoft. The VP then asked James how well he worked with superiors. James responded that all of his experiences had been very positive except for one situation that was clearly Ben Lee's fault.

James then discussed how well he worked with subordinates. He stated that although he had not talked to Linda in several months, "she is one very smart woman," and they worked well together. He also mentioned his interest in trading commodity futures, and the large amount of money he had made in the past six months.

The VP asked whether James would consider making the change to Artemis. James responded that if the offer were exciting financially, he would consider the move. The VP then asked James if he had any additional questions. James asked if Artemis would match the value of his unvested options at MacroSoft. The VP stated that he would look into it.

James left the meeting feeling confidant that he would get called back.