Scott Forstall

In 1992, Scott Forstall had just gotten his graduate degree, and lined up interviews with two big tech companies: Microsoft, where he had previously been an intern, and NeXT Computer, the computer startup that Steve Jobs had founded after his ouster from Apple. –

A few minutes into Forstall’s job interview at NeXT, Jobs rushed in, pulled his first scheduled interviewer aside, and took over. Jobs “peppered me with questions,” says Forstall. The two talked for 15 minutes before Jobs seemed to make up his mind. – “I don’t care what anyone says the rest of the day, we’re giving you an offer. Pretend you care in the interviews, though,” Jobs told Forstall. “I’m giving you an offer, and I know you’re going to accept it.”
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He was intrigued by the possibility of working for Jobs and the team of experts he had assembled. And so, he did indeed take the job at NeXT, and politely turned down an offer from Microsoft. –

The very next day, a package showed up on his doorstep: A “very large dead fish,” on ice, with no message, but a return address on the Microsoft campus. This caused Forstall to freak out a little bit, and he called the Microsoft recruiter with whom he had been speaking.
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“You know, I watched movies about the mafia,” Forstall remembers telling the recruiter. “What the hell?” –

It turns out there was an innocent explanation. Microsoft thought that a deeper appreciation of Seattle and Washington state, where the company is based, might get Forstall to reconsider the offer. So the recruiter went to Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market, picked out the biggest fresh fish they could find, and had it overnighted to Forstall.
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Forstall came along for the ride with NeXT and eventually Apple, leading the user interface team for what would become Mac OS X. When the iPhone project began, it was Forstall who was chosen to lead the iOS team. That one funny interview with Jobs ended up leading to much bigger things.
– **Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/296304

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