Engineering – Circa 1993

Citrix Engineering was fairly small in 1993.  I think there was about 15 people in the group (dev and test).  It always was surprising how much we could accomplish with such a small team.  I was thinking about this blog today when I realized that our secret probably came from our hiring process.  Instead of having our hiring being driven mostly from HR, we took a very active role in hiring people.  Everyone that interviewed the candidates had a say in whether or not the person should be hired.  Even if just one person said no, that was enough to justify not hiring them.  I remember that it was based on counting to three and then showing either a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

There were three departments in Engineering.  Two in dev and one in test.  Scott Kinnear and Andy Stergiades ran the dev group while Russ Naples ran the test group.  Most of the devs did not mind much which manager they had.  We really just worked as a group anyhow. 

Teamwork was pivotal to getting things done.  We made a point not to hire someone that wasn’t a team player.

Most of the devs had come from IBM but we also had people from Harris.  It was a good mix of talent.

We basically claimed half the floor for dev, test, and the labs.

About Jeff Muir

Live near Brisbane, Australia. Software developer currently focused on iOS and Android. Avid Google Local Guide