Life lessons: communicate that you are principled

"Principled" is a relative concept.  I thought I was principled, but I probably have some more ways to go.  Like everything I blog, what I write below is 100% true.  I think few people will reveal their failures and shortcomings as I do.  But I am mature and secure enough to own up to myself as a complete person--with strengths as well as weaknesses.

I have my LinkedIn setting to not receive any recruiter pings, but they manage to get through somehow.  A few weeks ago, a Tesla FW recruiter emails me: do I want to interview for a FW position?  I politely decline; I am well off at Jawbone and I haven't been at Jawbone long enough to have run out of learning opportunity, so I am not interested unless I get a significant pay raise, which I believe is not possible (recruiter told me Tesla likes to slightly underpay in return for equity).  Then the recruiter comes back: would I consider a TPM (technical program manager) role, since I have a lot of different experience in the technology sector?  I am surprised, and intrigued, so agree to phone conversation.

Several days later, a FW manager (Michael) calls me and tells me he needs a FW engineer.  I ask about the TPM role, but Michael tells me that's news to him, and he's only interested in my FW skills.  I ask him what he needs, and believe that I can do what he wants.  But I told him what I told the recruiter: I would be burning my bridges at Jawbone, so I would only consider moving only for significant salary raise.  That's the end of the brief phone call with Michael, and I don't hear anything back from Tesla.  When I ask the recruiter what they didn't like about me, he tells me because I put money as a precondition, whereas they are looking for people who buy into Tesla's mission, vision, etc.

Well this is the interesting part, isn't it?  I mean: why do we work for someone else (i.e. non-family or friends)?  For me, it's the paycheck first, and then self-fulfillment, and camaraderie.  Are there really people at Tesla who put the dream of all-electric transportation future above all else?  How about if Tesla stock was at $10/share?  Whatever the case may be, where I believe I rubbed Tesla the wrong way is that:

1. I didn't include company mission and vision in my list; i.e. I am not a Tesla fan-boy.  In fact, I am not a fan-boy of any kind.
2. I implied that all of the intangible reasons one works for a someone else--even a hot company like Tesla--have a price (high price in my case).

I own up to both.  It would be an arrogance on Tesla's part to consider its mission/vision to be any more noble than Jawbone's--even if it is the public's darling right now.  The second one is debatable:  Jawbone's last President (Sameer) left after only several months on the job because he "got an opportunity of a lifetime at Google" according to him; does that mean he is not principled?  My mistake was not presenting my thoughts in a more positive light.  Since I am well compensated and my situation is relatively secure at the moment, I was actually only interested in the TPM role; I would have considered leaving Jawbone only for say another $50k more--which would put me in an unheard of salary range for a FW engineer.  Since this was an impossibility, I should have just said I am not interested in the FW position.

I still wonder though: does being a realist mean I am unprincipled?