There isn't really a board for interviews 😛
I was very lucky to get this interview from Adam, Vice Presidant of Operations of cPanel. He is a great guy and very friendly and professional to talk to. Here's my interview with him 🙂 I hope this is something you guys find interesting!
Tell us a bit about your self.
I am originally from Iowa and have lived in Houston, TX for 3 years now. It's been a wonderful change, however I very much still and Iowan at heart. I enjoy playing poker, drinking massive amounts of coffee and spending time with my wonderful family. I have been happily married since 1996 (1 year after Windows 95 was released) and married by high school sweet heart. Together we produced two wonderful children and I have a feeling (based on my work history) that I will be working for my son someday.
For those who don't know what cPanel is, can you explain it?
cPanel is a software company that produces web hosting automation software. Websites need a place to live on the internet and our primary product (cPanel & WHM) provides server based software that turns a plain centOS, Red Hat or CloudLinuxOS server into a fully automated and feature rich web hosting platform. cPanel & WHM provide a web based interface to manage servers, users, resellers, and websites. What is more appealing is that cPanel & WHM has an extensive API that allows larger hosting companies to control large number of servers and application providers to extend the product functionality.
What is your role in cPanel, how long have you been in that role?
I am the Vice President of Operations and I have been in this role for 3 years and 12 days.
What has been one of the worst and best experiences at cPanel?
Man, that's a tough question that I have used frequently in interviews and never expected the table to be turned on me. The last 3 years have been nothing less than an experience of a lifetime and each milestone (both the good and the bad) have resulted in expanding my horizons and my professional growth. I work with really smart and intelligent people and often find the intellectual conversations at work over my head. The best experience and worst experience are the same, in which I decided to take the position at cPanel. After nearly 10 years in my last position and a perceived destiny of living in Iowa, I was presented with this opportunity on a very short timeline. Within 2 weeks, I had a lot of tough decisions to make. Moving away from family and friends was a tough choice, but in the end resulted in being one of the best experiences and choices I have made in my life.
Do you find working at cPanel, a passion or just a job you're getting paid to do?
It's definitely a passion and we have great purpose in the world. Our software is utilized by a large percentage of websites around the world and it's important role provides website owners, web hosting companies various venues to express opinions, run businesses and be part of the Internet. Part of the passion is figuring out how to take our software and company to the new level without compromising the elements that have made it successful in the past.
What did you do before working at cPanel?
I was VP of Sales/Marketing at a company called FastServers.Net. A large part of our customer based was powered by cPanel & WHM and we were one of the first 5 companies in the world to start using this. The owners of FastServers.Net met Nick Koston (cPanel's CEO) on IRC when they were teenagers. For 10 years, cPanel and FastServers literally grew up together and it's one of the reasons I ended up here.
What would you say makes cPanel better than any other paid or free control panel out there?
I don't know if it's better than any other paid or free control panel. It's a software tool and we don't really have an opinion on what other people choose to run their operations. We strive to provide phenomonial support, stable releases, and work towards an evolving product that helps our customers be better hosting providers.
What's your favourite cPanel feature?
Funny you ask, I was just thinking about this the other day and I have two features I really enjoy.
Feature 1: Account Creation. It seem's simple enough, but cPanel & WHM has some really nice options when it comes to customizing web hosting accounts and provisining features. The ability to control feature, packages, quotas and many more features allows hosting companies to setup new hosting accounts in a few seconds. I remember setting these up by hand and walking through a 45 point setup process to get such things as SSH, FTP, directory creation and many more features setup for one account. Today we send an API command or fill out a simple form and the account is created in seconds.
Feature 2: Box Trapper has been something I have been using for about 6 months on my own account.
http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/CpanelDocs/BoxTrapper
Do you personally have any projects outside of cPanel?
None, unless you count fatherhood --> which is a pretty big project.
Wildcard Question - Microsoft, Linux or Mac OS as your favourite OS?
No favorite OS here, they are all just tools and it's like asking me if I prefer hammers over screwdrivers. If I need to pound a nail in, I prefer a hammer. If I need to tighten a screw, the screwdrivers becomes my preferred tool of choice. I will say, if given a choice, I enjoy power screwdrivers over the old school hand held version.
I was very lucky to get this interview from Adam, Vice Presidant of Operations of cPanel. He is a great guy and very friendly and professional to talk to. Here's my interview with him 🙂 I hope this is something you guys find interesting!
Tell us a bit about your self.
I am originally from Iowa and have lived in Houston, TX for 3 years now. It's been a wonderful change, however I very much still and Iowan at heart. I enjoy playing poker, drinking massive amounts of coffee and spending time with my wonderful family. I have been happily married since 1996 (1 year after Windows 95 was released) and married by high school sweet heart. Together we produced two wonderful children and I have a feeling (based on my work history) that I will be working for my son someday.
For those who don't know what cPanel is, can you explain it?
cPanel is a software company that produces web hosting automation software. Websites need a place to live on the internet and our primary product (cPanel & WHM) provides server based software that turns a plain centOS, Red Hat or CloudLinuxOS server into a fully automated and feature rich web hosting platform. cPanel & WHM provide a web based interface to manage servers, users, resellers, and websites. What is more appealing is that cPanel & WHM has an extensive API that allows larger hosting companies to control large number of servers and application providers to extend the product functionality.
What is your role in cPanel, how long have you been in that role?
I am the Vice President of Operations and I have been in this role for 3 years and 12 days.
What has been one of the worst and best experiences at cPanel?
Man, that's a tough question that I have used frequently in interviews and never expected the table to be turned on me. The last 3 years have been nothing less than an experience of a lifetime and each milestone (both the good and the bad) have resulted in expanding my horizons and my professional growth. I work with really smart and intelligent people and often find the intellectual conversations at work over my head. The best experience and worst experience are the same, in which I decided to take the position at cPanel. After nearly 10 years in my last position and a perceived destiny of living in Iowa, I was presented with this opportunity on a very short timeline. Within 2 weeks, I had a lot of tough decisions to make. Moving away from family and friends was a tough choice, but in the end resulted in being one of the best experiences and choices I have made in my life.
Do you find working at cPanel, a passion or just a job you're getting paid to do?
It's definitely a passion and we have great purpose in the world. Our software is utilized by a large percentage of websites around the world and it's important role provides website owners, web hosting companies various venues to express opinions, run businesses and be part of the Internet. Part of the passion is figuring out how to take our software and company to the new level without compromising the elements that have made it successful in the past.
What did you do before working at cPanel?
I was VP of Sales/Marketing at a company called FastServers.Net. A large part of our customer based was powered by cPanel & WHM and we were one of the first 5 companies in the world to start using this. The owners of FastServers.Net met Nick Koston (cPanel's CEO) on IRC when they were teenagers. For 10 years, cPanel and FastServers literally grew up together and it's one of the reasons I ended up here.
What would you say makes cPanel better than any other paid or free control panel out there?
I don't know if it's better than any other paid or free control panel. It's a software tool and we don't really have an opinion on what other people choose to run their operations. We strive to provide phenomonial support, stable releases, and work towards an evolving product that helps our customers be better hosting providers.
What's your favourite cPanel feature?
Funny you ask, I was just thinking about this the other day and I have two features I really enjoy.
Feature 1: Account Creation. It seem's simple enough, but cPanel & WHM has some really nice options when it comes to customizing web hosting accounts and provisining features. The ability to control feature, packages, quotas and many more features allows hosting companies to setup new hosting accounts in a few seconds. I remember setting these up by hand and walking through a 45 point setup process to get such things as SSH, FTP, directory creation and many more features setup for one account. Today we send an API command or fill out a simple form and the account is created in seconds.
Feature 2: Box Trapper has been something I have been using for about 6 months on my own account.
http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/CpanelDocs/BoxTrapper
Do you personally have any projects outside of cPanel?
None, unless you count fatherhood --> which is a pretty big project.
Wildcard Question - Microsoft, Linux or Mac OS as your favourite OS?
No favorite OS here, they are all just tools and it's like asking me if I prefer hammers over screwdrivers. If I need to pound a nail in, I prefer a hammer. If I need to tighten a screw, the screwdrivers becomes my preferred tool of choice. I will say, if given a choice, I enjoy power screwdrivers over the old school hand held version.
