Results tagged “job” from KPAO

I get calls regularly by recruiters, and it amazes me the number of them who have their caller ID blocked. A blocked number already looks pretty sketchy, so I rarely answer it. But when I do and I find out it's a recruiter, it really throws me off. I would think recruiters would want to advertise themselves as much as possible. Wouldn't recruiters want their phone number to appear in my call history to make it easy for me to call them back?

Overall I've had pretty good experiences with recruiters who work directly for a company. But 3rd party contract recruiters have been the polar opposite. Perhaps I'm overly sensitive to these things, but I have to wonder how any of them stay in business given their work practices. Or said another way, I wonder how much more successful they could be if they would only approach their business with a more customer-centric view.

After my last post on choosing between a start-up and an established company, I talked to a few people about my decision in a bit more depth. There are clearly a lot more factors that go into picking a job, including scope of influence, the people you'll be working with, career growth opportunities, the particular domain you'll be working in, etc. But for me, the deciding factor turned out to be a simple one: how excited the company and the team was to get me on board and work with me.

I understand the economy is tough. I understand that there are more great candidates vying for fewer positions. I understand that the hiring managers have the upper hand these days. But even taking all that into account, when you find someone you really like, you still need to recruit them. You need to get them excited about joining your company. You need to convince them that this job is by far the best option among all the others out there.

I interviewed at many companies where, after the interview I was on the fence about them. There were pros and cons and no clear yes or no. In this situation, how a company reacts to me has a major role in helping me decide. When those companies come back with responses like "we're interested, but we still want to interview a few more candidates" or "would you mind starting off as a contractor with the option to convert to a full-time hire?", it speaks volumes. It says they don't really want to commit to me.

When I was at Microsoft, the hiring process was pretty simple. At the end of the day, either the candidate was a "hire", or they were a "no hire". There was no "maybe" or "hire, but for another team" or "let's try them out as a contractor first". All of those responses = "no hire". Either the candidate is an emphatic "hire", or they're not. I guess that's why when I hear these sort of wishy-washy statements, I immediately hear "no hire". And I move on.

But the company I took the offer with was clearly excited about me. I went in really tentative about joining a massive enterprise company. But they really made me feel comfortable and won me over. They called me to check in. They sent me a gift basket. They followed up with me. And that makes a difference. And that, for me, was the deciding factor.

I just completed the most extensive job search of my career. I originally thought that I wanted to work for a start-up, but I ended up taking a position at an established company. Why?

I ultimately decided there is really only one reason to work at any start-up: you need to passionately believe in the vision of the start-up to the exclusion of every other opportunity out there. It needs to resonate with you at your core. You need to think that this is such an amazing opportunity that you can't imagine why anyone would work on anything else. You need to fully submit to the reality distortion field.

Because when it comes down to it, start-ups can't offer the guaranteed compensation that an established company can. You are betting on the dream — the one that nearly all start-ups have — the dream that they will become a runaway success with massive impact and profits to match. But we all know logically the odds of that happening. Which is why you need to be emotionally involved to have it work.

There's another twist, and that's your percentage of equity. Because even if a startup is successful, it's a bit irrelevant if you hold .01% of the company. That $100 million payout translates into $10k. Sure it's a nice bonus, but it's not life changing. And it's no different than a bonus you might recieve at an established company for a great yearly performance review. So even for those few companies I talked to that I could get passionate about, there still wasn't enough equity on the table to make up for the reduced compensation. Well, unless it went onto become the next Microsoft or Google.

So at this point, I think I'll need to be a founder of a start-up to make that jump. And I need to find that idea that I just can't help but tackle. I'm still looking for it...

In the process of looking for a new job, I was contacted by a recruiter via LinkedIn. She was looking for a Director of Design for an established start-up. This was a rare instance where a recruiter pinged me with an opportunity that sounded like a good fit. So I wrote her back requesting a time to talk on the phone.

I got back a multi-page Word doc a baker's dozen of questions in it. Things like Why are you interested in joining our company? and How do you manage stakeholder feedback when it conflicts with your own ideas? Basically it was a form full of typical interview questions. So I told the recruiter that I'd be happy to answer those questions in a phone screen.

Her reply: the hiring manager requires all applicants to fill out the form.

And I know I'm being a bit irrational here, but that was a deal-breaker for me. I felt that since they were the ones who were reaching out to me, it was a bit impudent to suddenly turn around and ask me to jump through hoops. It's not that I wasn't willing to answer the questions. But for a company I didn't know that much about, I simply wasn't willing to invest the time and effort to craft the appropriate replies.

I think this was a bad filter. It turned out to be a deal-breaker for me. And because of it, they never got the chance to really talk to me, convince me of the amazing opportunities that the company had, and get me excited about investing some extra time and effort into the recruiting process.

It probably worked out ok for them. I'm sure in this hiring environment they found someone perfectly adequate for the position. And who knows, maybe I'd be no better than the person they ended up hiring. But thinking more broadly, would the best candidate, who has been cold-contacted by a random recruiter really go through the effort of filling out forms before they were convinced it was an opportunity worth pursuing? I think not.

I appreciate all the happy birthday wishes I've received today. (If Facebook's good for nothing else, it's at least good for that.) And while I did receive a nice gift from my wife of something I really desired but didn't actually need, I got the best gift of all from a guy @ Oracle that I just met on Monday: a job offer.

I suppose it's about time for me to stop being an unemployment statistic and do my part to pull this economy out of the doldrums.

While I'm on the subject of bad experiences during a job hunt...

For the second time in just over a year, I'm actively looking for a job. Both times I applied to Google. And both times, the Google recruiting process utterly failed.

I should point out that I am provably of Google caliber. Google gave me a job offer back in 2004 that I ended up turning down to go to Yahoo. (FWIW, I don't regret it. I gained great experience and grew significantly as a designer at Yahoo.) So it is a bit puzzling that twice within the span of a year, my conversations with Google recruiters have come to a screeching halt.

Here is the last missive from my conversation with them in 2007:

Only Mountain View, I'm afraid. I've got family in the Bay Area.

------ Original Message ------

Hi David.  Are you only interested in Mountain View?  Would you be open to Santa Monica or Kirkland?

 

And here is the most recent one from nearly 2 months ago:

http://tinyurl.com/dave-cortright-resume
http://tinyurl.com/dave-cortright-portfolio
(Both are also viewable online here)

I also recommend that anyone on the interview loop take a look at my Designing with Vision presentation. It's my design philosophy in 5 minutes or less.

------ Original Message ------

Hi David!

Thank you very much for your interest! I currently recruit designers for the User Experience Team at Google. I am working on filling a interaction designer role that will get allocated towards the Android team. I have attached a job description for your review.

If you are interested, I request that you send me a updated resume as well as a portfolio for us to review.

I'll keep you posted on next steps

Cheers!!

The conclusion is fairly obvious: they aren't interested in me. But common courtesy would be to come out and tell me that. (Communicate concisely, candidly, consistently, and conveniently.) While I generally am very positive on Google and its products, this whole experience leaves me with a bad impression: a bit for Google as a whole, but mostly of the personal brands of these two recruiters.

So I have to ask: does anyone have a recruiter they absolutely love? One who they feel like is only looking out for their best interests? One who makes you -- the potential employee -- feel like you are the most important person in their world? If so, I would love to meet them. Because I have to say, my experience with recruiters of late has left quite a bad impression with me for the profession as a whole.

I'm interviewing for a job at Jobvite. Well, I guess technically I was.

Their web site claims "Companies use Jobvite to hire faster." and "Jobvite streamlines your hiring process for speed." The great irony is that my initial contact with Jobvite was on Oct 21, exactly 7 weeks ago today. I have been in for 3 rounds of interviews, the last one on Nov 10. That was a month ago. And I've heard nothing since. This just plain sucks.

With a communications gap that long, I can only conclude they aren't interested. But for a company that is building the "next generation eRecruitment tool," this certainly doesn't make them look like experts in the space. No matter how great your tool is, you still need dedicated people using it to make your hiring process a success. As a company focused on improving the recruiting experience, I expected better.

I'm also interviewing at Mozilla  — which happens to be one of Jobvite's customers — and it is night and day comparing the process. I give a lot of credit to Dayna Wu, Mozilla's rock star admin who is totally on top of everything and communicates with aplomb. If Mozilla were offering a recruiting/hiring tool, I'd recommend it unreservedly.

The sad thing is, Jobvite's behavior is becoming the norm.

I've blogged before on how I have found recruiters to be "value subtract" to the recruiting process. Yet I continue to get pinged by recruiters, and I continue to run across interesting positions posted by recruiters. And worst of all, recruiters brazenly ask me if I know of anyone looking for the jobs they are trying to fill, hoping for the charity of my network in getting them their next commission.

Every large company I worked for offered bounties for employee referrals. Microsoft was a paltry $50 when I was there (now $1000; thanks, Andy!). Most places were at least $1000, and it went up to $5000 for key technical roles. I think this is a pretty good model, so it is one I am instituting for myself.

So recruiters, if you want my help in filling a position — whether the person hired is a referral I make, or even if the person hired is me — I require 30% of the commission you earn. I feel it is only fair, as I am referring top-quality candidates who are quite likely to get hired. So I am basically handing you free money with hardly any effort on your side.

If you're interested in such a business partnership, contact me.

I'm in the midst of a job search right now. And at this point in my career, I'm as much evaluating the companies as they are me.

Perhaps I'm overly sensitive to issues of customer experience since as an experience designer, that's what I focus on. But communiques such as these do not leave a positive impression on me.

Thank you for your interest in our recently advertised position of User Experience Designer and employment with Initech. Your resume will be reviewed over the next 5 days to determine how your skills and experience might best match our current opening.

If a match is determined, we will be contacting you shortly to arrange for an interview. However, if a match does not currently exist, we will maintain your application on file for future consideration for a period of one year.

Thank you again for your interest in Initech.

and

However, as we continued our interviews, we have found a candidate  who is a better fit for the requirements of the position. We will keep your resume on file, and let you know if we have any other openings in the near future. Thank you for your interest in our organization, and I wish you success in your job search.

This corporate impersonal tone was the standard for a long time, but it just doesn't seem appropriate in the 21st century.

Now in all likelihood, I probably won't end up with a job offer from either company. But what if I did? Or what about my perceptions of these companies as I talk to my friends and colleagues? Or write in this blog?

It's really surprising that people don't take more time and care on all of their company's communications. PR isn't just what the marketing department says it is. It's every interaction the customer has with the company.

I've been working on updating this for over a week now, and I'm finally ready to abandon it. (Designs are never finished; merely abandoned. Or released into the wild.)

I've been laid off for the second time in my career. Yes, in this soft market. I'm averaging one every 7 years. So maybe I'll aim to retire by 2015 so I don't have to go through this again. :-)

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. This whole thing was an experiment. I just thought it would go a bit longer. I entered the sales contest, and walked away with third prize.

I'm currently looking for the next big thing. I'd love to work for a small company (5–25 people) where I can be the lead designer.  Here is my updated resume. Feel free to forward it on to anyone who might be interested in my skill set. Thanks!