Name: Glenn Hilton
Glenn is the President and Founder of ImageX Media, an award-winning digital agency he founded in 2001 that specializes in web design, Drupal development & strategic consulting.
He is constantly on the lookout for A-level talent to join their growing team at their office in Vancouver, British Columbia (where he lives), and Kyiv in Ukraine.
He is passionate about open source and has been an active participant in the Drupal community for well over a decade.
Questions Interview:
I asked Glenn three questions that are specific to him.
- You don’t have a formal technical education, yet you run a technology company. What challenges has this created? And where do you think that it has helped you?
- Your company is located in Vancouver Canada, Kyiv in Ukraine, and you have people spread across North America. How or why did you decide to implement this kind of model? And how do you make this work?
- Technology continues to change at a fast rate. Skills that are gained in college can be out of date before they get their first job. What advice do you give to kids who are headed to college in order to prepare them for the jobs that will be available when they graduate and into the future?
I then asked Glenn the same six questions that I ask all interviewees – in a lightning-round format.
- What’s the most important factor you consider when hiring someone?
- Who was your most effective boss, and what made him or her stand out?
- What was the most difficult transition that you made in your career?
- How do you approach helping someone with their career development or path?
- What tools and tricks do you use to find work-life balance?
- How do you go about building relationships with your peers and other leaders in the company?
It was really fun interviewing Glenn. I got to know him when I was running FreshBrain, the educational non-profit that I started. Glenn, and ImageX Media, built the Drupal-based social learning website that we used to provide teens with a chance to learn technology through doing simple activities and projects.
Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from my interview with Genn. The first one is about hiring the right people.
“I made a wrong hire, it really cost me. There was a couple of projects that we got into … that we ended up going well over budget. It was a very, very costly year … I really learned a ton about hiring and getting the right kind of people.”
The second is about finding a work-life balance.
“In recent years I made a rule that unless it’s absolutely necessary, I don’t work in the evenings or the weekends.”
I love the journey that Glenn has taken. I think you will as well through his answers to my questions.
Career Path:
I then asked Glenn to share his career path. Start at the beginning and talk us through the path that he took, and the decisions that he made along the way that led to where he is today.
Glenn has taken an interesting journey, where the changes that he made along the way were logical but also not without risk. I think you will enjoy his journey!
See Also
Gary O’Neall – Starting as a Big Company Software Developer, Now Runs His Own Business
How To Deliver Software And Meet Commitments – The 70/70 Model
