Captain Recruiter

Email Etiquette

2012-01-12T14:50:00.000-08:00

Captain Recruiter deals with a lot of emails every day. A lot. So we see a whole range of email styles, some more formal, some less so, bordering on rude.

A quick guide to writing a professional email:

"Hi [First Name],

Content. Be polite, brief, and use complete sentences and proper grammar.

Thanks/Best/Take care/etc,
[First Name]"

It really is that simple! Be sure to address people by their names (unless you've been exchanging several emails back and forth, in which case you can skip the salutation) and sign your name at the end. This is especially important if you're writing to a group of people or to someone you're just starting to correspond with.

P.S. Captain Recruiter would love to hear from our readers in the comments section - feel free to tell us what you think or ask us questions!

IDing What You Need In Your New Hire

2012-01-03T10:41:00.000-08:00

Not knowing what you want in your new hire is common, and can be a costly waste of time and money. This is especially common in startups where your company has many needs, and is hiring for a new position, or trying to replace a founding team member who wore many hats.

The idea here is not to get stuck on a long list of must-have's for any one position. Try listing all of your needs and then prioritizing the list. Look at the items at the very top of the list and determine if they are typically found together in one applicant's skill set, then start by trying to fill that position first.

Sample of a prioritized list of needs:

1. JavaScript for front end work
2. iOS developer to make app
3. HTML + CSS
4. Rails back end developer
5. Linux admin
6. Photoshop/illustrator
7. Someone to order lunches

Based on this list I’d suggest looking for a JavaScript engineer first. You could probably look for a front end engineer with JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Bonus points could be for Photoshop. That’s a fairly common set of skills to find together, so you won't waste lots of time looking for a unicorn who does everything.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T10:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

Captain Recruiter will be closed from 12/26/2011 - 1/1/2012, and will return on 1/2/2012. See you then!

Recruiting In The Holiday Season

2011-12-15T15:01:00.000-08:00

On the one hand, candidates don't want to apply to jobs:
- They're not thinking about working, they're thinking about vacation! Trip planning, gift buying, etc. make getting a job low on their priority list.
- They're afraid to apply to jobs because they're worried that if they got a response, they wouldn't be available for interviews or would have to ask for time off if they did get the job.
- They're waiting for their holiday bonuses before they leave their old jobs!

On the other hand, companies have a lot going on other than hiring:
- Lots of hiring managers are on vacation or are preparing to be out of the office, so they don't have as much time to get back to candidates or schedule interviews.
- If there's a team of people in charge of making hiring decisions, even one person's absence holds up the entire process.
-Holiday parties, team off-site meetings, or company getaways mean fewer hiring managers are around to be in touch with candidates.

Captain Recruiter recommends that hiring managers hold off on recruiting around the holidays if at all possible, especially if you are just starting your search. Instead, use that time to figure out exactly what you're looking for and what role this person will fill. Work on scouring your network for people who might be interested, but let them know that you'll reach out to them in the new year.

If you're already in the process of recruiting, don't be afraid to let candidates know that there may be some lag time in the process. Tell them that you'll be out of the office for a few days and when they can expect to hear back from you. Then, enjoy your break!

The Interview is a 2 Way Street. Pitch Your Company

2011-12-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

It's always important to sell your company during an interview if you like an applicant or even think you might like an applicant...

1. What's important to the applicant? One of the first things you should do if you think someone's a fit for your needs to to figure out why this position would be a good fit for them. What's important? Location? Projects? Management style? Compensation?

Take note of these facts because you'll want to bring them up again in the offer process.

2. Keep the interview as fun as it can be.
- Interviews can be long and grueling. Simple kindness like asing the person if they want a beverage, a bathroom break, etc is always nice.
- Even better, take them to lunch and stop grilling them for a while. Let them enjoy the banter of the team and picture themselves hanging out with your crew.
- It's okay to pay an applicant a sincere compliment every once in a while. If they tell you something you like, let them know.

3. Circle back around to what the applicant said was important to them. Talk about the benefits that your company offers and make sure to highlight things that specifically appeal to them. Did they say they have a dog? Make sure to mention the dog-friendly office!

Tips for Writing A Job Ad

2011-12-06T10:45:00.000-08:00

Tips For Writing A Job Ad:

1. Make it concise, listing only what you really need to see in a candidate under "job requirements". List other skills under something like "bonus".

2. Sell your company! Include a blurb about what the company does, any cool new technologies you use, and any cool projects this person will get to work on.

3. Tell people about benefits and perks you offer. Is it a dog-friendly office? Is occasional telecommuting an option? Those things make a big difference to some folks!

4. Only list requirements that are relevant to the job this person will do. A laundry list of requirements or a super-long job description scares off people from applying, and can make the focus of the job seem different from what it's really like.

5. Edit your ad as you go along. If you talk to a few people and they're not quite what you're looking for, change the ad to reflect your new requirements. If you start working on a new project or adopt a new technology, add that in!

Recruiting While In Stealth Mode

2011-11-28T14:04:00.000-08:00

Recruiting for Companies in Stealth Mode - 5 Reasons Why It's Hard:

1. Can't sell your story. Candidates like to research a company to get excited about it, and you deny them this opportunity. In a tough job market, you want to make your company stand out as much as possible, and it's hard to do that when you can only give general information.

2. Great applicants wishing to decide who sees their resumes will not apply to a company blind. The best candidates will often times already be employed or are heavily recruited, so they want to guard who sees their resume.

3. Anonymous job postings are often used by crappy recruiters, and that's no fun. "Anonymous" can often be read as "we have something to hide".

4. You can't differentiate yourself from other companies in stealth mode. Y'all look the same from the outside! Engineers want to know what they'll be working on, where they'll be working on it, and who they'll be working with.

5. Candidates don't like it. Would you rather make applying to your company more or less attractive to top talent? Is keeping your company secret worth missing out on a superstar?

Moneyball For Recruiting

2011-11-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed the movie Moneyball, probably because I love the idea of an old and stuffy way of doing things being disrupted by a more innovative approach. In the recruiting world a lot of people are excited about applying quantitative analysis in some sort of Moneyball approach to recruiting.

In my opinion, the recruiting business is a long way off from offering a really interesting quantitative tool one can just buy off the shelf. Here are a few reasons, in no particular order:

Companies don't share their recruiting data in any meaningful way. Google and Facebook fight over talent all the time. Each company has it's own tips and tricks for attracting good people, but they're not going to share that talent with each other. If you can't compare the recruiting processes of each company, you can't figure out the common denominator of what does and doesn't work.

Applicant tracking systems like Jobvite and Taleo have access to pan-company data, but they aren't in the business of selling their customers data. My impression is that these companies lockdown their customers' data pretty tight and can't/don't/won't share much at all.

Recruiting databases and job boards like Monster.com and Dice.com are in the information hoarding and selling business. I doubt they'll share their trade secrets with you and I.

Staffing agencies like Robert Half and ReadyForce are in the information business, too. Good luck getting them to give you access to their secrets.

Social services liked LinkedIn and BranchOut are another breed of information hoarders.

I'm sure there are services that exist that would love to help job seekers and employers come together based on a data driven approach, but these services are virtually unknown and lack wide exposure or adoption.

What I really want to see is a vertically integrated recruiting service actively working to connect with employers and job seekers and then sharing every bit of non-secret information possible. Get a venture capitalist to fund that idea please :)

Reject, Deny, Pass…Go ahead break their hearts…

2011-11-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

Reject, Deny, Pass…Go ahead break their hearts…It’s better than limbo:

Everyone an applicant interacts with when applying to work with your company should represent your brand well. From the admin who sets up the interview to the recruiter, hiring manager and team this applicant will potentially work with, everyone should be polite and respectful.

Even if an applicant isn’t a fit, that’s no reason to treat them poorly. Being interviewed and applying for jobs isn’t all that much fun - people are judging you and you’re putting yourself out there big-time.

Things you can do that mean a lot:

-Be prompt with responding to their application, try to contact them within a week at the most.

-After an on-site interview, if you’re still not sure about what to do with the applicant after a couple of days, contact them just to let them know when they can expect to hear from you. Some kind of "thanks for the interview, we’ll be in touch by Friday…"

-Finally, even if an applicant isn’t the right fit right, notify them. A nice way to do this is to let them know that you appreciate them taking the time to apply, but that you’re going to pursue other applicants at this time. Bam. Nuff said. They got the memo and it took a second. Now when they think about and talk about your brand they’ll have a nice feeling about your company. Much better than …."Oh yeah I applied for a job there once and never heard back about my application".

Dear CR: How do I move from consulting to a startup?

2011-11-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

DEAR CAPTAIN RECRUITER,

I currently work for a strategy consulting firm, 2 years out of undergrad, but know I want to start my own business (currently running 2 very small ones on the side). I'd like to go work for a startup, as I understand some funded startups have openings for product managers that come from consulting.

Short of quitting, moving to SF, dressing in a suit, camping outside of BizTechDay and asking "Spare any business cards sir?" of every passerby with a forlorn look on my face, how can I find these types of companies?

I looked on Startuply and few others, but most of the posts are for people with 5+ years of experience in their respective fields, which is not too surprising so they can lower their hiring risk, but not helpful when looking for companies that hire ex-consultants.

I can analyze markets, competitors, customers, etc to help support strategic decision making, and learn very quick, but just don't have the years of hands-on experience with product management.

Any suggestions on the types of companies that may be more likely to hire someone with my background, and how to find these companies, are very much appreciated.

Thank you,
Consultant

------------------

DEAR CONSULTANT,

We specialize in placing folks at startups and have filled several project manager positions. Lots of people from different backgrounds are attracted to the project manager role, but there are also a lot of experienced PM's out there looking for the same jobs.

Realistically, with no PM experience, the job you could most likely land at a startup is probably an entry level position - something like an admin, executive assistant or office manager.

The reason for this is that most small, funded startups these days don't have money to throw around offering salaries to less experienced unproven candidates. However, they'd be crazy not to want smart, eager, driven people in their company somewhere. Entry level positions like admins and office manager jobs are a great place to start. The old cliche is right...Just get your foot in the door. And yes, move to a place where these startups are. Face to face with good recommendations to back up what you say is the way to get a job like this.

At a growing company you can work hard and make yourself indispensable. The founders will quickly recognize your aptitude and you'll be able to move into other positions that you're more interested in.

Hope that helps,
Captain Recruiter

Breaking Out Of A Big Company

2011-10-31T15:29:00.000-07:00

During a recent conversation with a friend working at a large software company, he told me that in the next couple of years he'd like to move on and join a small or medium sized company. During our conversation I was talking with him about how he should start positioning himself to appear as if he's prepared to work for a smaller company, and he didn't quite understand what I meant.

In my experience, people from larger companies aren't conditioned for life at a startup. There are 1000 little things you have to do yourself that are taken care of for you in a larger company. Take a look at this article, for example (though Captain Recruiter doesn't necessarily agree with the tone of the piece). And even if he's ready 100% to go work for a smaller organization, or he's worked at a startup before, I'd be willing to bet that a hiring manager may think it'd be too hard for him to acclimate to startup life again.

In his mind, he's already conditioned to work in smaller company without big company resources. In his job now he's forced to roll up his sleeves and deal with all sorts of things, from corporate shenanigans to deadlines to managing third party relationships. It's not really possible for me to say with certainty whether he's prepped for small company life or not, so when he asks me why I think he might not be ready, I find it hard to give him a good answer. All I can tell him are what red flags a startup might see when they look at his resume.

After realizing that there was no way to conclusively say that he is or isn't prepared for work at a small company, I recommended a different approach. My suggestion was that he call up 3-5 people that might hire someone like him and ask them what they look for in a new employee. He may as well go straight to the source.

Top 5 Ways to Get the Job

2011-10-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

1. Make a good first impression. The first thing we see is your resume. Keep it concise – 2 pages maximum. Keep it relevant – the last 5-10 years of work experience is fine. Double check for spelling and grammar errors, and even better if you can have someone else read through it for you.

2. Consistency is key. Whatever job you're applying for, make sure it matches any job goal you have listed on your resume and your email address. A resume targeted for a DBA job that shows up under a Java job raises an eyebrow. Same with emails – it's fine if your email is javaguy@email.com, but you might consider having a more general account if you’re trying to branch out into a different area.

3. Be timely. If you get an email from a recruiter or hiring manager to set up a phone conversation or to ask for more information, answer it as soon as feasible. A lot can happen in a day or two in the hiring process. If we want to talk to you – it means you’ve passed the first hurdle!

4. Be considerate. If we’re taking the time to talk to you, you’re one step closer to the job. A call with a recruiter is an interview and your key to the next step in the process. Be on time, or give as much notice as you can if you’re running late for any interview – phone or onsite. Save time to find parking and the office for onsite interviews. It's always better to be early than to be late! Likewise, if you take another offer, let us know so we can move forward with other candidates.

5. Be prepared. At every stage of the interview process be ready with key information. Know what salary range you need and want. Know when you can start. Know your visa status and what a new employer may need to do to add you to their team. Expect to have a technical interview if that's the type of job you’re seeking. Have references at the ready – make sure at least 2 are professional ones. If asked to provide their information, try to have phone and email information for each one. And take the time to contact your references to 1) verify their information and 2) let them know someone will be contacting them.

You’re probably reading along nodding your head to most if not all of these things – but these are small stumbling blocks we recruiters and hiring managers run into every day. Putting these few small things into practice during your job search will help make the process of getting your dream job that much easier. You’ll come across as prepared, professional and ready to take on that new role!

Top 5 Ways to Waste Money on Recruiting

2011-10-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

1. Don’t respond quickly to candidates the recruiter sends you. Good candidates are likely to be wanted by other companies too, so if you wait two weeks to call them back, they may well have another offer already. Try to respond to candidates within 24-48 hours.

2. You don’t sell your company to the candidate. Software Engineers are in really high demand right now, so it’s just as important for you to sell the position to the candidate as it is for the candidate to sell himself to you. You want to make sure that you highlight any benefits or any training you offer, positive aspects of your company’s culture, and the cool new technologies you use.

3. Lowball an awesome candidate. You have your perfect candidate, he’s interested in working for you, and he’s even within your price range. Sadly, you try too hard to get a better deal and you end up scaring him into accepting an offer from another company.

4. Reject candidates because “your gut” tells you to. Try to figure out what the reasons are behind your feeling. Chances are you have valid reasons, and if you can communicate those reasons to your recruiter, they can change the job ad or change the way they filter future candidates. That way, you don’t get people missing something key over and over again.

5. Provide a job description for one position and hire candidates for another. It’s fine if you’re not sure what you’re looking for in a candidate – a good recruiter will help you pin it down – but it’s not fine if you have a specific list of criteria that you need your candidate to meet, then reject every candidate you get sent who meets that criteria. Use your recruiter as a resource to help you pin down what you’re looking for and to make your expectations realistic.

Case Study: Captain Recruiter helps Brad at Allpointe Insurance

2011-10-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

Meet Brad At Allpointe Insurance:

Brad is the owner/operator of Allpointe Insurance. He was the sole employee of his company when he decided he needed to hire a part-time Operations/Office Manager to help grow his business.

Why Brad Needed Captain Recruiter’s Help:

He runs a small business (just him before Captain Recruiter came along) and had a big need to bring someone else on board to facilitate the growth of his company. He posted a job ad and got 50 resumes. He felt pretty daunted by the process. He got through the first round of filtering, but couldn’t figure out how to narrow down the 10 candidates he had left. That's when he decided he should probably look for outside help.

Captain Recruiter To The Rescue!

Brad came to Captain Recruiter with 10 resumes that he'd picked out of the original 50 he got from his Craigslist ad. Captain Recruiter uploaded additional resumes as more people applied. We developed a questionnaire for the applicants to narrow down their ability/interest in particular job duties that Brad needed them for. We also asked more standard questions detailing their interest in the position, proximity to the office, etc. After each applicant filled out the questionnaire, we were able to narrow down the candidates based on their answers and their resumes and rank them.

We sent Brad the top candidates along with copies of their resumes and their answers to the questionnaires. Brad scheduled his own phone and on-site interviews with the candidates he liked the most, but Captain Recruiter could have done that if he’d preferred. We did two reference checks for each of his top two candidates and provided Brad with a detailed reference check report for each one.

Hired!

Captain Recruiter provide Brad with enough high quality candidates that he ended up with two hires!

How Captain Recruiter Can Help You:

Brad came to us with a problem that a lot of small businesses encounter - the need to hire quality employees, but a lack of time and resources to do so effectively. We were able to work within Brad's budget to help him make several successful hires while he focused on growing his business. It was quick, high touch and clearly effective as he hired not one, but two employees.

Captain Recruiter can offer flexibility. In many cases, we come in at the very beginning of the hiring process: we write and post ads, set up applicant questionnaires, filter out the strongest candidates, phone screen, and send the best candidates to the hiring manager. We set up interviews and do reference checks and are in contact with the hiring manager on at least a weekly basis. For smaller companies like Allpointe, we offer a highly efficient way to do hiring on a smaller budget. It was cost effective, efficient and very successful.

Captain Recruiter hold Office Hours

2011-10-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

Captain Recruiter is super excited to start holding Office Hours!

Today, from 4-5pm, we will be at the Starbuck's at 170 O'Farrell St near Union Square. We'll be happy to answer any questions you might have about your resume, your company, recruiting, or anything else you can think of!

Stop by and say hi!

Why Recruiters Should Adapt to the Changing Job Market

2011-10-06T08:58:00.000-07:00

As recruiters, we often forget about the changing landscape and stick to what we know. However, understanding the current job market and trends will help us be better recruiters and make stronger decisions on strategy and hiring. Understanding the job market and watching trends of job seekers is becoming increasingly important as the competition for quality candidates grows.

While the current economy hasn’t been particularly easy on the unemployed, things have been steadily improving since the market crashed in 2008. According the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s (BLS) website, the amount of jobs available in 2008 declined from 4.39 million in January to only 2.93 in December. Needless to say, the job market has had a rough several years, but 2011 marks a steady growth and abound of opportunity.

Health Care Industry is on the Rise

The BLS also indicates that the occupation with the largest growth potential is the health services industry. It claims that the fastest growing occupation projected for the next decade is registered nurses, followed by home health aides and customer service representatives. Additionally, the rapid growth of the health services industry will have a higher projected salary and wage potential.

However, construction still has the fastest salary growth rates overall, but the health services industry is a close second. The health practitioners industry, nursing and residential care industry as well as the hospital and home care industry are all listed in the top ten industries to have the largest salary growth. This is promising for both employees and recruiters alike as this sector continues to boom over the next ten years.

Beware: Stronger Economy Means Higher Employee Turnover

While industry and jobs continue to expand, there are additional important factors to consider. As the economy continues to improve, so do people’s desires to snag better jobs and to always be on the lookout for one. With the amount of opportunities increasing, companies may need to prepare for an increased employee turnover rate as they accept other positions, perhaps from competitors too.

An increase in competition means a higher demand for recruiters and a good strategy. Employee satisfaction is a key factor for retention, and companies and recruiters, alike, must be aware of the possible repercussions of the rapidly moving job market.

Recruiting on a Global Scale

In addition to industry growth and employee turnover, companies are starting to take advantage of a globalizing world in regards to their recruitment efforts. Perhaps someone abroad can fill a specific skill set that they have been unable to find in the U.S. Additionally, this person may be able to speak multiple languages which can help the company succeed in business abroad. Recruiters may need to expand their hunt and start looking globally.

Why Company Culture is Important

2011-10-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

Why should I work here? This question is on everyone’s mind when they are looking for a job. Career site visitors are interested in learning more about your company. Having a clearly defined company culture helps jobseekers make the decision to apply. If you love your job, then it’s equally as important for potential candidates to believe that they will love their job just as much.

Engaging Readers Right Away

When displaying corporate culture on your career site, you must first be consistent with your brand and the type of work environment. Is your company more “bring your dog to work” or suit and tie only?

The facets of your corporate culture should be easily unveiled when browsing your career site. Before people apply to a job at your company, you want them to be convinced that it’s the right choice for them. Providing career site visitors with genuine insight into what it would be like to work at your company will help attract the candidates who fit in with your culture and will work well with current employees.

Understand Your Audience

Google, for example, clearly shows on its career site what life is like at the company and how it is “committed to retaining a small-company feel.” Although Google is notorious for offering over-the-top perks, such as on-site oil changes, massages, meals and more, what defines its culture more is trust.

Google’s motto for employees is: “Don’t be evil.” Under that circumspect, candidates are screened for ability to do their job and how well they fit into the culture of the company and of the team on which they will be working.

Even though Google is one of the largest and most coveted places to work, adopting its corporate culture will not necessarily complement your workforce. By clearly communicating your company’s personality on your career site, you can make sure that you entice applicants that are not only interested in working for you, but that are also a good fit.

The Basics of Hiring Employees Who Need H1B Visas

2011-09-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

The following is a guest post from Kirsten Schlenger. Captain Recruiter says "Many thanks, Kirsten, for sharing your knowledge!"

In order to compete in the market for global talent, you need to know some basics about the U.S. work visa process, including timing and costs. The most commonly encountered work visa in the Bay Area market is the H-1B specialty occupation visa, which is addressed below. However, note that there are a handful of different visa options (O = extraordinary ability, L-1 = multinational managers/specialized knowledge, J = trainees, R = religious workers) with very specific rules and requirements that are not discussed here but may be better options than the H-1B for a particular case.

Introduction to the H-1B Classification

Q: What are the basic requirements for H-1B status?

A: The position at the company must require at least a Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent (3 years experience =1 year of bachelor’s level education) in a specialized field, and the potential employee must have the Bachelor’s or equivalent in that specialized field.

Q: Must the employer place ads and prove that there are no U.S. workers who can fill the H-1B position?

A: No, this is not generally required for the H-1B.

Q: What is the difference between transferring an H-1B visa and sponsoring a new one?

A: As far as the work and time required by the employer and/or immigration counsel, as well as the basic visa requirements, there is no real substantive difference in transferring versus filing a new visa. However, two things to consider for a new H-1B visa application are: 1) There needs to be an H-1B number available for a new visa, and 2) The H-1B applicant may begin to work for the sponsoring employer only after the petition is approved in the new-visa context. H-1B visa numbers are limited to approximately 80,000 in any one year. When the demand for new visas exceeds the supply, there may be a wait of six months or longer until a new H visa becomes available and a new employee may start working in H status. In contrast, for H-1B visa transfers, an H number has already been assigned, so in moving from one company to another, there is no need to secure a new H number. Also, an H transferring employee may begin to work with the new employer immediately upon filing the new H petition rather than waiting for an approval, which can take several months after filing.

Q: What are the approximate costs for filing an H visa?

A: The USCIS filing fees can range from $1,825 to $3,850 depending on whether there are family members filing with the employee, whether the company has more than 25 employees, and whether the petition is expedited (processed within 15 days). The legal fees generally will range from $2,500 to $5,000 depending on the complexities of the case.

Q: How much time will it take someone at the company to do the work necessary for an H-1B petition?

A: If the person at the company does not have any exposure to U.S. immigration law, it could take 15-25 hours to figure out the various parts of the process, complete the necessary government registration and postings, and comply with the government’s instructions. It is a complicated process and one that requires expertise. If an experienced immigration attorney is retained to work with the company person, then the employer’s involvement on the initial H could be approximately 5-10 hours for the first H petition, and on repeat H-1Bs could be as little as 1 hour or less.

Q: What does it take to make the H-1B visa process go smoothly?

A: Engaging counsel who knows the process — and has systems in place for moving through the necessary requirements and gathering the required information and documentation — will make it go more smoothly. Also, having one person at the employer charged with managing the visa process who is able to partner with counsel will improve the chances of success.

Q: What factors make the process difficult?

A: Some factors that will delay the process or make it more challenging and costly are: 1) if a transferring employee is at the end of the six year maximum period of time permitted in H status (in the fifth year without a permanent residence application on file) 2) if the employee has not been working for more than a week but has remained in the US in violation of H status, 3) if the employee has previous violations of immigration status—worked without authorization, not worked for the authorized employer, failed to maintain valid student status 4) if the government’s stated prevailing wage for the position is significantly higher than what the employer is willing to pay, 5) if the degree of the foreign national is not related to the position or the person does not have a degree, just many years of experience, or, 6) if the person has been in the US on a J visa that requires them to return to their home country for 2 years.

Q: How long does the process take?

A: If you are working with someone with immigration expertise, from initiating a case to filing will take approximately 3-4 weeks depending on how quickly the requested information and documentation is provided by the employer and potential employee. For someone without immigration expertise, it could take six weeks or longer. The USCIS is generally taking 2-4 months to process H petitions. That can be shortened to 15 days if the expedite fee of $1,225 is paid.

Kirsten Schlenger, a certified specialist in Immigration & Nationality Law, is the founding and managing partner of the business immigration law firm of Weaver Schlenger Mazel LLP. The above information is provided solely for informational purposes and is not legal advice. Transmission of these materials is not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Readers should not act upon the information contained in this without first seeking advice from a qualified attorney.

Tips for Phone Interviews: Conversations with a Recruiter

2011-09-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

When searching for the right job, you will certainly have your fair share of interviews with recruiters. Whether you find them or they find you, that initial phone interview is crucial in building a relationship with the recruiter.

Talking to a recruiter about a job should feel like any other conversation about work. Treat it as if you're at a meet-and-greet and an industry colleague asked what you do. Be confident and comfortable.

Plan Your Pitch

With phone interviews you have the privilege of being about to look at notes. Take a piece of paper and fold it in half. On one side write down the job requirements in your own words and on the other include the qualities that you have that meet those points.

Next, you’ll want to differentiate yourself from other candidates who may be equally qualified. Think of an elevator pitch for yourself. Why would this recruiter escalate your resume over someone else’s? Start with why you want the job then think about how you can help the company by either increasing the bottom line or adding unique skills that they need. The rest will come naturally.

Again, write it down.

If you don’t end up looking at your notes during the phone interview, it will still be cathartic and help you gain perspective and drive toward your goal of getting the job – or at least a second interview.

Interview Back

Remember, you're having a conversation, not a Q&A session. Ask the recruiter questions about the job, the company, the industry, etc.

Recruiters are not only trying to match skills to a job, but also a corporate culture. You may fit the bill for quality and experience but not be a fit for culture.

Do your research.

Is this the type of company you want to work for? If you're unsure, ask questions. Take interest and find out more.

Build a rapport with your recruiter. That way, if the company or the job doesn’t match you, at least you’ve made a strong connection. The recruiter may think of you for other available positions at that company or at others.

The Importance of Using Social Media to Find Talent

2011-09-20T16:43:00.000-07:00

Recruiting is a continual process, especially here in the San Francisco Bay Area; and finding the right person at the right time can be both daunting and frustrating. The solution: find candidates, lots of them.

Well, not exactly.

It’s not about quantity, but quality. So how do you fill your candidate pipeline with qualified applicants who ALSO fit into your corporate culture?

The answer many recruiters are turning to is social media. With two thirds of the U.S. population on Facebook (750 million!) and over 300 million active users on Twitter and LinkedIn combined, tapping into these resources can help recruiters find and engage a large pool of candidates, filtering out those who wouldn’t fit into the company’s culture.

How?

Define your culture

It begins with identifying exactly what type of people you want working in your company. Is your culture more suit and tie or do you have ping-pong tables and a kegerator?

A candidate who is looking for a more serious corporate environment will be disappointed if you bring them into an interview where everyone is in jeans. Having a clear idea of your corporate culture will help you share and build your talent brand.

Make Your Mark

Here’s where social media can help.

Having an online and social presence will help you to attract the right kinds of candidates and deter the ones who won’t fit into your culture. Remember that social media is social. Do not build an online presence and leave it in the ether.

Be Responsive

According to CareerBuilder’s Social Media Infographic on job seeker’s expectations, 57 percent expect a company to interact with its fans and followers and 70 percent agree that positive feedback on a company’s social networking pages would make them more likely to apply.

By connecting and engaging job seekers through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, you open the doorway for communication about your company and its talent brand.

For programmers or anyone who needs help getting a job!

2011-09-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

I get a lot or requests for advise from applicants looking to stand out among the crowd or wanting to improve their prospects of getting a job. Everyone can benefit from standing out as a good applicant, but especially applicants who have a strike against them such as:

job seekers who’ve been out of the job market for a while and want back in
job seekers who are out of the country and want to relocate to the US

The fact is, if you’re one of these types of job seekers you’re going to have to work that much harder to get your foot in the door. You need to show that you’d be great employee and should be hired.

Here’s my 3 step plan on what to do:

Primarily you need to demonstrate to potential employers that you're good at what you do, and up to date on new technology. But how do you do that when you don’t have a job?!

1. How to demonstrate that you’re good at what you do:

Make something cool*: Go make a Iphone or Ipad app and get it in the app store. Make an android app, make a metrics dashboard, submit patches for open source projects…whatever you think would showcase your skills. This project doesn’t have to be huge and you don’t need to be paid to make it for it to show potential employers you’ve got the skills they need.

*Depending on what kind of job your looking for, or what part of the stack you want to work in, your ideas for “cool” projects will be really different, but make sure the project reflects the type of work you want to do.

2. How to show that you’re up to date on new technology relevant to the job you want.

Use new technologies, or at least best practices, while working your “show off” project. You should be proud of the code you write, and if you want to showcase that you pick up new skills quickly then use something new and relivant to the type of job you’re interested it. Right now skills with Node.js, Ruby on Rails, Scala, HTML5, MongoDB, Chef, Hadoop, objective C are all good things to show off.

3. In order to “demonstrate” or “show” anyone anything you need to be able to communicate effectively, and get the word out.

Talk about what you did. Blog about it, share it at meetups, present it, commit open source patches and projects on Github, share your handle with potential employers so others can look at your code…

A final word of warning about this formula

If you choose to do only single step or a combination of 2 steps but not all 3 you will dramatically increase your chances of failure. A cool project you made using archaic technology is a lot less appealing to a hiring manager…than a cool project with new technology. Similarly you telling people about how good of a developer you are, without having anything to demonstrate your skills won’t get you in the door as quickly.

I hope that helps!

-Jessica

Thoughts On The Necessity Of Recruiters

2011-08-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

Bill Radin, a successful recruiter, just wrote a blog post called Are Recruiters Really Necessary? The short version is that a Bill wants to introduce a candidate to a VP and get paid for the introduction. Bill also wants to add value by helping the VP manage the recruiting process and get an applicant to accept an offer.

It's important to understand the two ways recruiters are compensated:

Time. If a recruiter makes money from a job without filling the position, then the recruiter is paid for their time.

Filling the position. This means that at some point after a job seeker accepts a position, the employer pays the recruiter.

The VP doesn't want help finding job seekers, meaning he doesn't want to pay to fill the position. Bill is trying to make money by filling the position, so it's not a surprise the VP isn't buying that. The VP doesn't know that he needs help managing the recruiting process, which means he needs to pay for someone's time.

Are recruiter really necessary? Yes. Will you struggle selling a service to someone that doesn't want it? Yes.

Dear CR: Why Aren't Recruiters Calling Me?

2011-07-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

DEAR CAPTAIN RECRUITER,

Here is a question for you in response to your blog post about the guy who got 136 calls, 46 voicemails, 115 and emails in three days.

I'm a programmer with 20+ years of hardcore development experience w/ C and C++. I have spent my career writing extremely complex, multi-threaded, high performance, high capacity engineering software. I was even the founding member of a publicly traded company in the 1990s.

Despite my accomplishments, glowing professional references on LinkedIn, and living in the SF Bay Area, I am hardly ever contacted by recruiters. I currently have a good position and despite wanting to make a change to finding new opportunities in other software development area I haven't posted my resume any place but LinkedIn. I know that C and C++ are not the sexy hot languages like Ruby, but with all the reports of shortages of programmers (especially in the SF Bay Area) you would think that company's would be interested in a highly motivated experienced developer even if they were not an experienced in the language-du-jour. Or am I wrong about this?? The few recruiters that have contacted me have generally never followed up with me once I have indicated that I may be interested in the position they contacted me about.

So my questions for you are:

Am I over-qualified?

Do I appear too successful as being the a founding member of a large software company?

Am I too old?

Or do I just need to market myself better and re-educate myself in those technologies that are in high demand today?

Should I submit my resume in response to job postings that look fun and interesting despite I may not have the skills that are required?

THANKS!
C++ GUY

--------------------

DEAR C++ GUY,

First, let's make a few assumptions:

You are a great programmer in general.

You can learn the basics of a new programming language within a week or so.

You are genuinely interested in non-C++ programming jobs.

You're not too old. You're not over qualified. You do have a marketing problem, and you should be actively working on development in areas you are truly interested in.

Given that Captain Recruiter is actively developing it's own Ruby on Rails web application, I'll speak to you directly about why I might not hire you.

Have I met you at a Ruby on Rails related event? I'm not hanging out at C++ events. It's hard to recruit you randomly if we never meet in passing.

Are you interested in web development? It sounds like you're interested in C++, but I don't see momentum in anything related to Rails, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, yada yada. Letting you learn those things on the job will cost me tens of thousands of dollars and force me to be very patient. Help me out by showing me that you do this stuff even when I'm not paying you. My investment in you should be to help you turbocharge what you're already learning, not buy you a cruise ticket on a voyage of self discovery.

I'm not calling you because C++ doesn't usually show up when I search for developers proficient in Ruby on Rails. I know a lot of companies like that their web developers understand C/C++, but it's not what they seek out. Populating your resume with keywords does help, but don't overdo it.

Recruiters are looking for people who are experienced in a company's current need. If I need a Ruby on Rails Engineer, even if I found your resume, I'm only going to call you after I've called all of the other people with more Rails experience than you. But if you find me and write me a short, humorous note about why you'd like a shot, I'll probably give you some of my time.

HOPE THAT HELPS!
CAPTAIN

A Few Good Men & Women

2011-06-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

I just read a blog article called What It's Like To Be Recruited and the sequel titled Recruiting Is Broken: The $2400 Face to Face Interview.

The author wrote...

As an experiment, I submitted my resume to Dice, Monster and CareerBuilder seeking a Ruby on Rails application developer position.

He got 136 calls, 46 voicemails, and 115 emails in three days. Holy crap, congratulations! It's really hard to find a decent job, and it sounds like you've got a lot of leads. I'm happy for you. It's nice to feel wanted. You must feel like this guy...

I was hoping to read on about how grateful he was to be in the spotlight, but my takeaway is that he got really frustrated by the experience. Here's a few of thoughts I have in response...

You are highly employable. The is extreme demand for software engineers in San Francisco, and you are one of the better ones. Most companies writing software want to interview you. If you put your resume up on public job boards for all the world to see, that feels to me like a pretty woman walking into a bar and buying all the guys a drink.

If you want to use job boards and manage the flood, set up contact information that relates only to your job search. 1-800-AVAILABLE and looking-for-work@gmail.com are your friends.

I'd recommend not taking time off of work to interview unless you are serious. That way you'll feel good about the time you spend interviewing. You don't feel like you are pouring money down the drain when you take a vacation, do you?

There are a lot of recruiters. A few are excellent, many are good, and more are something else. That distribution is true of any population, including software developers. Work with the ones who provide value for you and don't spend time with the rest.

The fundamental problem that aggravates your job hunting experience is a shortage of good engineers. We're in the tightest job market for tech talent in San Francisco in over ten years. Companies are going to fight over you because they are desperate. No software solution you come up with will eliminate third party recruiters. Recruiters exist because even companies with truly powerful tools (Google, Facebook, any company using Jobvite) can't get enough talented people to apply.

Walk Over And Introduce Yourself!

2011-05-31T18:05:00.000-07:00

Learning how to introduce yourself is worth it.

A couple weeks ago, I went to a meetup of the San Francisco Ruby Group, hosted by Loggly. At the end of the evening, a few job announcements were made, a two people in the audience announced they were looking for work. The meetup organizer did a quick show-of-hands: 15 people hiring, two looking for jobs.

Now, Ruby on Rails is a fairly specialized skill, and I assumed that the other recruiters and hiring managers in the room would all jump at the chance to talk with these two potential candidates sitting not 10 feet away. In fact, only two or three of the hirers (including myself) approached the seekers. As it turned out, one of the prospective candidates is fairly advanced in his field, and another is more junior but still skilled. I set up an interview with one and started an email conversation with the other.

If you are truly serious about hiring, I strongly encourage you to also introduce yourself to anyone in the room who is clearly looking for work. As it is, I feel like I'm recruiting all the good people myself! (And yes I'm available for hire!)

Here are a few tricks I've developed on how to work a room:

Do it more than once. Practice makes perfect-er.

Talk to loners too. While all the social butterflies are talking to each other, strike up a conversation with the person in the corner sipping a beer.

Stay late. If there’s one person you want to speak with more, be the last person they talk to. You can even get more time by walking with them out of the event.

Be sneaky. If you want to recruit someone, especially if they're currently employed, ask them two questions. First, "What are you up to these days?" Chances are they will tell you what they do or have done professionally. And secondly, "Are you having fun doing that, or do you see yourself moving on?" Unless they blatantly declare everlasting love for their job, this person is subtlety asking to be recruited.

A Short Rejection Letter

2011-05-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

Captain Recruiter uses some automation to send rejection letters, but I used to write every note by hand. I'd usually write something like...

Hi X,

Company A has decided not to pursue your application, but thanks for applying.

-Michael

Some people's rejection letters are more direct than I mine.

Questioning The Value Of Higher Education

2011-05-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of buzz about the value of higher education lately. Advocates like Vivek Wadhwa think college still makes sense. Opponents like Peter Thiel are betting against higher education.

The challenge colleges face is that we believe they work - that we're going to be better positioned in the career world after we graduate - but we don't know if that's actually the case. We live in an era where everything can be measured. Someone is going to come up with a way to measure the actual value of a college degree and exploit those measurements. Higher education is screwed the moment someone can make a profit from proving there is a more effective alternative.

From 2002 to 2004, I was in an MBA program at Claremont Graduate University. It was a really good education, but I went to school for all the wrong reasons. Here's a list of assumptions I made before grad school and my experience after graduating:

Upon graduation, I will have at least one high paying job lined up.

I thought an MBA from a good school would open up access to jobs that were unavailable to non-MBAs. I was wrong. After 5 months of living off credit cards and crapping in my shorts from anxiety, the job I found paid less than the job I had before grad school.

Upon graduation, I will have access to a powerful network of alumni that will help me conquer the world.

I wish. The only network you have upon graduation is the one you build yourself. The network of contacts I had were my fellow graduates who, ironically enough, were also looking for work.

Upon graduation, alumni from my school will be hungry to hire me.

Ha! I was able to leverage the alumni network to get some job interviews and introductions to interesting people. However, I had no tangible special skills upon graduation and alumni meetings were just an extremely efficient way to find out I wasn't any more employable than I was pre-grad school.

Grad school will prepare me for the working world.

Grad school taught me how to pay other people to judge me on how I write papers and take tests. I'm pretty sure this is the opposite of how the working world operates.

The money I borrow is an investment in my future.

You know why Sallie Mae loaned me so much money to go to school? It's not because they thought I was a great investment. It's because if I default on the loans, the US government pays Sallie May every dime I borrowed plus interest. Then Sallie Mae gets to double dip and is paid again if they are able to collect any of the money I defaulted on. Luckily I haven't defaulted on my student loans!

The school's career center will help me find work.

Nope. The career center is a place to practice finding work. They help you with mock interviews, writing a resume, etc. I know they wanted to have meaningful career fairs, but it turns out that's a hard thing to do when you're a small school.

The trouble I have with higher education is that it is impossible to predict the value of all the hard work you put into it. What happens if you graduate from medical school with over $150,000 in debt and decide you don't want to be a doctor? What happens if you go to law school and can't pass the bar exam? What if all the assumptions you make about going to college turn out to be wrong? What if you graduate and earn barely more than you owe?

Recruit Smokers

2011-05-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

I went to a GitHub drinkup last night at Thirsty Bear in San Francisco. It was packed. It was hard to navigate the room let alone have a conversation above the noise. I had been hoping to strike up conversations with potential recruits, but the crowd density made that difficult. It was a drinking party, not a networking event.

After deciding to call it a night, I stepped out of the bar. At that moment I noticed a guy standing alone looking at his phone and puffing on a cigarette. I said hello. It turns out he is a software engineer in town for a conference and he's considering moving to San Francisco. We exchanged contact information and I followed up with him. Less than 24 hours later he's interviewing with one of our clients. He's talking to his second interviewer right now.

The next time you need to recruit someone, strike up a conversation with a smoker.

Recruiting for Nonprofits: What We've Learned

2011-05-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

In the last 12 months, Captain Recruiter has filled 17 positions for Kiva, a rapidly growing nonprofit based here in San Francisco, CA and our first nonprofit client. Working with Kiva, we’ve learned a lot about what makes nonprofit recruiting unique, and no it's not that their salaries are lower!

There tends to be two main demographics of people who apply to nonprofits. The first are the wide-eyed, world-saving folks that most of us think of when we hear the word “nonprofit.” They are passionate and motivated, but they may not be particularly realistic about what they can expect from a job or company, and usually have no idea what their own strengths and limitations are. As a recruiter, these guys can be difficult to assess—they might have dreams of ending world poverty through microfinancing, but can they also code PHP in their sleep?

The second big demographic looking for work with nonprofits is people at the other end of their careers. These are people who have spent most of their careers working for decent to generous pay in positions that utilized their skills, but maybe not their hearts. It’s easy to undervalue these candidates’ good intentions because they may not be as vocally impassioned as the fresh graduates, but they may feel just as strongly about the mission, and they are seasoned professionals with advanced skills to match.

Regardless of background, the overwhelming majority of nonprofit applicants do care deeply about the organization and the mission in general. These people are the lifeblood of the nonprofit world, and they must be treated with respect, even if they can’t be hired. They feel they have a personal connection to the nonprofit, and so communication is key-- reach out to each individual you must reject, and let the down easy. For many applicants, the recruiter they speak to may be the only human contact they ever have with this nonprofit—if they have a poor experience, they may abandon their connection forever. This means lost donations, lost volunteer hours, and negative word of mouth for your client.

Nonprofits have a reputation for offering salaries well below market rate. In a lot of cases this is true, but many nonprofits can actually offer a competitive or even above-market package. It’s important to communicate clearly and as early as possible what a general salary range might be, but it doesn’t need to be stressed ad nauseam. There’s no need to be self-conscious about your salary range-- if the applicant is aware of what she might be offered and still chooses to proceed with the hiring process, be confident she feels it’s worth it.

We now work with a number of nonprofits, and every one is unique in its own way. As with any company, it takes a little time to get to know exactly what they’re about and what they’re looking for. But, nonprofit recruiting can also be a lot of fun—seldom will you speak to such a diverse and well-informed pool of applicants, and when you finally find the right match, you can take a little world-saving credit yourself.

Finding Work Through A Recruiter

2011-04-25T09:44:00.001-07:00

I got a call this morning from a woman asking if I could help her find a marketing communications employment opportunity. My first thought was to tell her that Captain Recruiter isn't able to represent individuals, but that didn't seem like the most helpful answer I could give. Instead I came up with the following 3 points:

Recruiters are paid by the employer, not the job seeker.

This is good to know, because it helps you understand a recruiter's motivations. How hard do you work when you are unlikely to be compensated? If someone offers to help you find work for a fee, run the other direction as fast as you can.

Focus on the position before the recruiter.

If you see a job posting or a recruiter approaches you with a specific opportunity, you are heading in the right direction. The recruiter wants to fill that job (see the above point). If you are the right person, a good recruiter will let you know pretty quickly. If the recruiter isn't reaching out to you, move on.

Ask the recruiter if they've placed people like you in the past year.

If a recruiter doesn't have an open position for you, feel free to ask if they've placed people like you in the past. If the answer is yes, let that recruiter know you'd be interested in hearing from them regarding future opportunities. Reach out to that recruiter once in a while (every three months?) to remind them you are still on the market.

If you can't find a recruiter with open positions, you need to work extra hard to find employment on your own. No one cares as much about your future paycheck as you do.

Being A Screwup Is Human (And Awesome)

2011-04-12T08:06:00.001-07:00

I just watched an interesting sub-2 minute video on Silicon Valley's unique ability to embrace failure.

It's nice to be reminded from time to time that all of my screwups are character building experiences. I didn't move to the San Francisco Bay Area to become a screwup, but it's nice to know it's part of normal life here. One small example of failure being part of life here is FailCon, a conference dedicated celebrating failure. FailCon has been a smashing success, selling out twice since it was started in 2009 by my friend Cassie Phillips, San Francisco's most awesome event planner.

Get used to failure; it's a powerful way to learn.

Public Relations For Startups

2011-03-10T03:02:00.000-08:00

I've learned that getting new customers is hard work! In an effort to learn how to better promote Captain Recuiter, last night I attended an event hosted by Girls in Tech about public relations for startups. The information shared by the panel was so damn good, I felt compelled to write it all down.

Here's my best effort to share what I picked up:

If you want press coverage, approach reporters directly, don't waste your time with editors. Reporters are always on the hunt for a good story and are quite approachable.

Cold calling and directly pitching your story to a reporter who doesn't know you is hard. You goal should be to earn a reporter's trust over time.

Establish credibility at the beginning of a pitch.

"I've been a rocket scientist for 10 years and my rockets have launched 87 people into space. I'd like to tell you about my new solar powered rocket..."

All reporters have an agenda. Ask each reporter what his or her agenda is. If your story doesn't fit into a reporter's agenda, you won't get covered. You can also ask if they know which reporter might be appropriate for your story.

Feeding relevant content to a reporter is an excellent way to cultivate relationships. To find out what a reporter is looking for, stalk them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and anywhere they have a presence. Actively monitor a reporter's communication, and help out when you can. Sooner or later, you'll be able to sneak in your own content.

Megan Pittsley, a career coach and friend of mine, has gotten press coverage using PitchRate and Help A Reporter Out. She was able to get a segment about resume writing on NBC!

Local coverage needs a local angle. If you're in San Francisco, pitch something about your product in San Francisco.

If telling your story involves being on camera, help the reporter understand that your story has visuals. For example, a television news segment on Captain Recruiter helping the unemployed might want to have "action" shots of recruiters in the office and show a B-roll of people standing in an unemployment line.

A story needs to be relevant to you. Don't be afraid to walk away from an opportunity to get press coverage if the story doesn't promote your agenda.

Reporters hate crazy pitches. Come up with a story that pitches itself.

A story with a genuine personal origin is always good material. Talk about how you struggled with something, saw that others had the same problem, and describe the path you took to bring your product or service to market.

Gavin Newsom, former Mayor of San Francisco and the current Lt. Governor of California, was in attendance. He said every pitch needs audacity and veracity (i.e. be bold and tell the truth). He also recommended you shouldn't aim to be the best of the best, but rather be the only one who does what you do.

The purpose of public relations is to acquire more customers, drive more revenue, or promote your brand.

A good pitch can be explained to a 5 year old.

Be authentic. Telling candid stories about the core of who you are is the strongest way to connect with your target audience.

Always work on being succinct. Say more with less.

You should be able to pitch your product in 30 seconds. Don't get discouraged if you can't explain what you do in 30 seconds. Just work to refine the product pitch to 30 seconds.

Actively comment on blogs with content relevant to your product.

Scott McGrew, a reporter for NBC, recommends the book Rules For Radicals.

Reporters work on deadlines. If a reporter gives you an opportunity to tell a story, be prepared to spring into action. If you hesitate for a moment, they'll find another source. This is one reason a 30 second pitch is ideal :)

Talk to your customers and find their most powerful stories. Andrew Sinkov, the Vice President of Marketing for the Evernote, had a great story. Evernote, which helps you remember things, had a customer who had little-to-no short term memory. They captured the story about how the customer used Evernote to log and recall recent events, built a case study around it, and then got Psychology Today to publish the story.

Leverage unexpected opportunities to get media attention, like when you get a cease and desist letter from the National Pork Board for selling canned unicorn meat as the new white meat.

Tim Ferris, author of the Four Hour Body, was in attendance. He suggested people read The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing.

How To Find An Unpaid Internship

2011-01-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

If you need experience and no one offers you paying work, find someone with unpaying work. I'm not talking about volunteering; you can do that at any nonprofit. What I'm talking about is a chance to go to school for free. Someone teaches you something, gives you a task, you work, and if you're lucky you learn something in the process.

To find a meaningful unpaid internship, find a person with too much work (they need help your help) without money to spend (they can't hire the help they need). This person should be a risk taker, because only a crazy person would trust an inexperienced worker (you) with anything meaningful. You want meaningful work, otherwise you're not learning much.

Entrepreneurs are great example of risk-taking busy people who are broke. There are an unlimited number of people with a great idea that needs help like yours to get off the ground. Not every entrepreneur can help you. On occasion people ask for a recruiting internship at Captain Recruiter, but I haven't been able to think of something a newbie could help out with. Most of my work is time sensitive in nature and requires at least a little training.

If I was seriously looking for an unpaid internship, here's what I'd do:

Talk with people who might hire you. The easier path is to meet them in person all at once. Organizations like SVASE hold events geared towards entrepreneurs. You could also call them via phone or go knocking on doors. The point is you need to have conversations with people who need you. Remember that your target mentor is busy and broke.

Introduce yourself to everyone while asking about internship possibilities. Something like... "Hi, my name is Michael. I'm a junior X and am looking for an internship doing X. Do you know of anyone who needs X done? I show up on time, I get it done, and I work cheap." You approach will be so memorable, I guarantee that someone will appreciate your drive and find a way to help you out.

Show Me Something, Give Me A Valid Reason, Or Cross Your Fingers

2011-01-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

If you have never done something, please don't tell me you know you want to do that as a career. Why? Because you don't know. How would you if you've never tried it?

A person just called me up asking if I had any ideas on how he could get into software development...

Person: Can you help me find an entry-level software position?

Me: Are you currently writing software?

Person: No, I'm pursuing a gardening certification.

Me: That has nothing to do with software development. Why are you doing that?

Person: A friend told me it'd be useful later in my career, and I'm currently too busy to write software.

Me: Hmmm...

Show Me Something

Two people are interviewed for a job. Person #1 says they're really good at the duties of the job, but can't quantify their experience. Person #2 not only claims proficiency, but has great examples to show of work done.

Have you heard the term seeing is believing? If you tell me you want to get into software, show me some code that you've written, because I'm interviewing at least one other person who will. It's not about whether or not I believe a non-coding person is sincere about a coding career. It's just easier to trust someone who shows me something I can see.

Give Me A Valid Reason

If you've never done it before, you can't show me the work you've done. If you can't show me, at least help me see you doing the role.

Every job applicant has a story about being willing to learn, work hard, and be loyal, so to stand out you need to a differentiating story. I recommend making it personal...

I've been dreaming doing this job since I was a kid.

It was my major in college and I loved every second of my coursework.

My child needs something that is super expensive, and this career will let me pay for it. I'm willing to endure the pain of learning to ensure my family is provided for.

I won't take up more the 2 hours per week of your time, I'll train myself, and I'll work for free.

I realize this is a stretch, and I give you permission to fire me at any time if things aren't working out.

Cross Your Fingers

If you see a job that you've never done and never thought about doing before that moment, you can still apply. There's nothing wrong with it, I just don't think it's a very effective strategy. If you think crossing your fingers and hoping for the best is a good strategy, go for it!

How To Choose Programming Languages For Team Projects

2010-12-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

The programming language(s) your software team chooses to use is a key factor in whether your company succeeds or fails. Your best bet is to pick a commonly used language with wide adoption and positive momentum; if you do this it'll be easier to hire experienced people and recruit newbies worth training. If you pick an esoteric language no one knows or an older language that is trending downward, you are digging your software project's grave.

It's The Jobs, Stupid

People are more willing to work for you if they think their skills will be transferable to other jobs. The more jobs there are for a programming language, the more likely your people can find other work after leaving your company. Everyone leaves eventually, so at least make it easier for them to join. Check out the number of jobs available on job aggregator Indeed.com as of December 6, 2010*:

Java - 105,322

C# - 48,792

PHP - 23,351

Ruby - 11,853

Scala - 374

Haskell - 200

Live Near The Fire Station

Something is going to happen that causes a big problem that your team won't be able to fix. Maybe you're only software developer will be on vacation, or maybe no one on your team knows how to debug the problem that made your entire site crash. In a pinch, you need to call for backup. When the backup arrives to put out the fire, you want a fire fighter capable of putting out a 5 alarm fire. Here's number of people listing various programming languages as a skill on LinkedIn as of December 6, 2010:

PHP - 289,178

C# - 221,905

Java - 204,488

Ruby - 57,201

Scala - 9,857

Haskell - 5,865

It's A Popularity Contest

People are more likely to work for you if you are working with tools they use anyway. A savvy leader merely jumps in front of a crowd going in a certain direction and yells, "follow me!"

What are people learning in their free time? Let's look at sales rank (lower is number = more popular) of the most popular O'Reilly book for each programming language on Amazon.com:

PHP - #12,300

C# - #14,003

Ruby - #34,743

Java - #54,483

Haskell - #138,717

Scala - #265,125

What kind of projects are people working on in their spare time? Let's look at GitHub's cool language section to see what's popular:

Ruby - #1

PHP - #6

Java - #8

C# - #12

Haskell - #15

Scala - #17

Beyond The Numbers

Using the numbers above, I think you can make a compelling argument for building a team that uses PHP, C#, Java, or Ruby. Scala and Haskell lose in my opinion. It's hard enough to build a good software team, so you may at least try to recruit for languages that give you a fighting chance. If you want to be a software hipster and use Scala because no one else does, here is what will likely happen:

You'll have to train everyone in Scala from scratch, which takes time and money.

You're most talented Scala developers will be recruited away by companies with unlimited recruiting budgets like Foursquare or Yammer.

You'll have to train yet more people in Scala from scratch, which takes time and money.

If you are lucky enough to get big that your software systems get complex, it will be impossible to recruit experienced Scala developers, and the one person you do find you won't be able to afford.

You will run out of money and your company will die.

I'm Just A Recruiter With An Opinion

This back-of-the-napkin analysis is merely meant to get you thinking about the ramifications of choosing a language, because that choice affects your ability to build a team. If you don't put at least a little thought into what could happen if you pick a certain programming language, you're likely to regret that lack of planning later.

Update:
Hehe, posted this article on Hacker News and got a lot of comments disagreeing with my thoughts on this topic. Instead of arguing with anyone reading this, I'll just pose a few follow up questions:

Would you rather work with Python or Visual Basic? If the first programmer chose Visual Basic, would that affect your decision to join a project as the #2 coder solving a worthwhile problem?

Would you rather take a programming job paying $X/year on a project you love or a $X+30K/year on a project you merely like? Would you spouse's opinion matter?

Do you think most great programmers would be interested in working with a 10 year old code base to fix bugs and add features? If the answer is no, how do you solve that problem?

Sometimes you don't have a choice what language is used.
If you ever needed to outsource software development for an existing project, could you find a decent vendor to work on your Scala code base?

If you had to rely on a recruiter, could your recruiter find you engineers for a language that wasn't mainstream?

I most certainly don't have all the answers. I can tell you that I've worked with many businesses that trying to cope with forces that come into play as a project grows, becomes more complex, and needs arise that are time sensitive. A friend of mine said that best defense against lock-in was to build modular code and make heavy use of APIs; maybe this is the best approach.

Networking Tip - Search Eventbrite To Find Relevant Events

2010-12-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

I want to attend more events where I meet people who may buy Captain Recruiter's services. The challenge is identifying which events are a good use of my time. Here are some steps I take to identify events that are good for me.

Who Do I Wish To Meet?

Captain Recruiter sells recruiting services to businesses, and typically the sales process starts as a conversation with a business owner. We also maintain relationships with intermediaries, sources of referral business for Captain Recruiter. Intermediaries are the people who spend time around business owners: accountants, lawyers, investors, etc.

Where Are Events Listed?

There are a ton of events in San Francisco that are attended by business owners and intermediaries, but no event is called Some Event For Business Owners And/Or Intermediaries. Sites like Gary's Guide and the San Francisco Chamber Of Commerce show events, but it's hard to tell who will be in attendance. I like events listed on Eventbrite because many of their events list who the actual attendees will be.

Use Google To Search Eventbrite

Not every event on Eventbrite can be found through by searching their website, so I like to use Google. Let's say I want to find events that list the attendees in San Francisco in December 2010. All I have to do is run this search on Google:

inurl:eventbrite.com "Attendee List" ("san francisco" OR 94101..94127) december 2010

inurl:eventbrite.com - searches only within events listed within http://eventbrite.com

"attendee list" - limits search results to events where attendees are listed.

("san francisco" OR 94101..94127) - searches for events that reference San Francisco or list a San Francisco zip code.

december 2010 - targets the timeframe I'm interested in.

Now I've got a list of ~95 events, including the list of attendees. A quick glace through an event's list will show me whether or not the crowd will contain an interesting number of business owners and intermediaries.

Tip For Networkers On A Budget

If you want to attend an event that costs money and can't afford it, contact the organizer and give them a 3 sentence explanation of why you'd like to attend and ask to work out a deal. Example:

"Hi Mr./Ms. Organizer. I'd like to attend the panel discussion How To Survive A Zombie Apocolypse on December 18th. This would be an opportunity for me to network with people in my industry. Since I'm out of work and on a budget, may I volunteer in some capacity to earn admission to the event?"

You might get in for free, but be prepared to work a bit to earn your keep.

Act Like You Don't Deserve It

2010-12-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

I was recently helping the career center at the University of San Francisco as a mock interviewer for college students. Working with young people is fun; if you have the chance to do so, I highly recommend it. The format was pretty basic - ask student what kind of job they want, use a video camera to record a mock with student, review interview with student, give them the recording to do with as they please.

During one of the mock interviews, I decided to push one of the students a little bit to see what would happen. I asked her why she deserved the "job" over the other students, she answered the question with a reasonable answer, and then I told her she didn't deserve it. She got pretty upset for a moment, and then I told her that no else deserves the opportunity either. I continued to explain that by letting go of any sense of entitlement, she could give herself a leg up on her Generation Y competition.

Which Question Answers Sound Better To You?

Tell me why you think you'd make a good employee in this role.

"I am really excited about working for a company that will train me in what they do. I'm really good at learning."

"I will give you 110% in whatever tasks you give me, and in return I expect you to teach me your business that that I can make you even more successful. While I'm not entitled to anything, I'll perform better if you invest in me."

Where do you see yourself professionally in 3 years?

"In 3 years I'd like to be a manager at a large corporation. I applied to this job because it looks like a path to general management. You provide training, right?"

"For now I'll focus on being the best at what's in front of me. 3 years is a long time from now, but I plan to have earned more responsibility that I started with. I don't see any reason I couldn't be a team lead or a manager if I execute well."

Why do you deserve a shot?

"Because I'm enthusiastic, I work hard, and I'm fun to be around."

"I don't, but I'm confident enough to ask for one anyway. After I make you rich, some of that is bound to come back my way."

Unemployed Wins In 3 Rounds

2010-11-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

It's time for a winner-take-all smackdown between Employed (E) and Unemployed (U). In one corner we have the work-a-holics, the friends who are too busy to come out and play, unable to enjoy all of the money they are making. In the other corner are the unemployed, entrepreneurs, and "consultants", broke as hell and loving every minute of it. Ready? Fight!

Round 1 - Scheduling The Interview

The employer calls E and U to schedule an interview for the middle of next week. What happens?

E: "My schedule is really tight. Most days I never know when my boss is going to need me. Can I confirm a time early next week?"

U: "My schedule is generally flexible with advance notice. What time(s) do you have in mind?"

Winner - U. As a recruiter I can tell you that trying to schedule interviews for people who are employed can be a pain. The interviews require a lot of planning and the schedules are less flexible when adjustments are necessary.

Round 2 - Switching Careers

You need to switch careers to stay sane and have more fun. What happens?

E: "I hate my current job. I think I want to go from Corporate America into Nursing, but I'm addicted to all of this money that I'm making and can't afford to quit."

U: "I'm going to volunteer at the hospital for a month to see if I like it."

Winner - U. Unemployed people have free time. If you don't have the experience or skills that you need, you can go get it.

Round 3 - Streamlining Your LIfestyle

You're spending too much and not saving enough. What happens?

E: "Why do I work so hard? Most of the money I make gets spent on junk I don't need to help me feel less depressed. I tried saving half my income for a little while, but do you know how hard it is to see that money piling up when I could be driving a new BMW?"

U: "If I spend money like I did, I'll be out of cash in 4 months. If I ditch the nice apartment, eat out a little less, and ditch cable TV for Netflix, I can easily support myself for almost a year."

Winner - U. It's easy to see how important money is when you're not making any. Learn to tighten your belt and get by on less. When the big bucks do start coming in again, you'll be better trained to spend less and save more.

Results - U Wins 3-0.

The next time you are jealous of your friends who are working, remember that most of them wished they had a better job. Not having any money certainly sucks, but you have the free time they wish they had. Learn to push past the depression and create results. Start by working on answers to this one question - "If applying to jobs online isn't getting me interviews, what is another way to get noticed (without becoming a stalker)?"

A Few Thoughts On Saving The World

2010-11-15T09:02:00.001-08:00

Last week I had to let someone know they weren't getting a specific job, something I have to do on a regular basis. This person is someone that I like and I wanted to help out. I offered to spend some one on one time with this person to discus his job search and he accepted that offer for help.

We scheduled a time to speak at my office on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. I showed up on Friday right on time and waited for Mr. Job Seeker to come along. He was a no show. It wasn't a complete waste, I got in a good 30 minutes of World of Warcraft (WoW) hacking and slashing while I waited. Later that morning I received an email that he had gotten a last minute job interview that morning, and asked if we could reschedule for Monday at the same time.

This morning comes around. Same routine - arrive on time, no show, 30 minutes of WoW. I'm not mad or annoyed, I've got better things to do than feel that way - like write a blog post - but it did get me thinking about how I spend my time.

Helping people is a compulsion for me. I think I'm finally learning how to help people in focused & effective ways. While this the following list is by no means complete, it's a tidbit of what I've learned (and try to practice):

As a general rule, only offer help to people that ask for it. Just because you think someone can use help doesn't mean they need or want it.

When someone needs help in the moment and might not think to ask for it, such as walking around with an open zipper, it's appropriate to discretely say, "XZY."

If you aren't qualified to help someone, let them know you don't feel you are the best fit. If they still want your help, feel free to commit a small dose of time to see if you can point them in the right direction. They may only really need someone to bounce ideas off of.

Keep an open mind. When someone on the street asks me for help, I try to listen. 9 out of 10 times they want money and I've become efficient at rejecting that request. However, I get surprised. Yesterday a guy asked me for help, and it turned out all he needed was help getting up from the steps he was sitting on; it was a classic case of I've fallen and I can't get up!

Don't give what you can't afford to lose. You're no good to anyone if you can't take care of yourself.

Help because you want to, not because you have to.

Focus on input and output. If you give someone X, how will it help them?

Don't be afraid to lose a little bit. You'll become a more effective giver if you make mistakes in allocating your assistance and learn from the experiences.

TL;DR - Practice helping people and get better at it. The world needs more effective, generous people.

Captain Recruiter Learns To Hack

2010-10-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

Both my clients and Captain Recruiter itself build web applications. I'm fascinated by the magic that happens behind the scenes of all the websites I visit, especially Google. How do people build this software? How does it run? When it's done, how does it become viewable by everyone on the Internet?

I gave up long ago on a career in software engineering, but I still like to learn about it as a hobby. A few weeks ago I decided I want to know more about how web applications are hosted and deployed. To learn, I decided I was going to set up a virtual private server, also known as an instance, in the cloud. Cloud computing is just a fancy name for renting someone else's computer(s). Given that web applications live on web servers, learning how to set up a server seemed like a good starting point. I'd been told that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the more difficult services to use, at least for a novice, and I decided that trying something hard would be a good learning opportunity.

Signing up for an AWS account is easy. I found my way to their EC2 service and figured out how to rent an instance. After a few minutes I had my own micro-instance up and running. Then the learning began. I had rented a cloud computer in 3000 miles away Virginia that had no monitor, mouse, or keyboard. It didn't take me long to figure out that I had no idea how to even access the computer. After reading the directions on the EC2 website, I started to believe what I'd heard. EC2 isn't for beginners. The directions didn't make any sense to me, and I couldn't figure out how to get started.

I was stuck on the question, "How do I log into EC2?" I felt like I'd rented a car and had never even been behind the wheel. A few weeks went buy and I intermittently tried figuring out the EC2 access problem. Rereading the instructions wasn't helping, and no one I asked was able to shed light on the solution to my challenge without knowing more about which specific part I was struggling with. I needed to put more effort into this problem if I wanted to solve it.

One day last week Sarah Allen asked me if I'd be willing to volunteer for a hack session at Get Satisfaction's office in San Francisco, something about being paid in beer to help... I stopped reading, she had me at beer. Also, this would be the perfect place to find one or more geeks to help me with the EC2 access puzzle. I knew people attending would be the types who could figure this out.

After filling my commitment to volunteer by ferrying people through a maze of locked doors and elevators to get into the office, I got straight to work. I asked every hacker I bumped into the long version of, "How do I log into EC2?" No one at the event that I spoke with knew the steps by heart on a Windows machine (my laptop runs Windows 7). Few people even knew where to get started with Windows at all, they are mostly a Mac crowd.

The fact that a room full of smart people who could solve the EC2 problem couldn't immediately solve the problem was interesting to me. I've discovered that software developers, the people make cool magic things like Google and Microsoft Office, don't know everything. What they do know is how to solve a wide variety of problems by using a predictable, repeatable process. They Google answers to questions and get stuck on things just like I do, but when it comes to software they just have more experience than I do.

I left the hack session without having found an solution to my problem. However, I had learned a trick that would end up being the key to my success.

During my investigation at the hack session, someone taught me how to get my computer to tell me what it was doing as I tried to login into the EC2 instance by using the -v option when using SSH.

1. Try logging in.
2. It didn't work.

1. Try logging in.
2. OK, I'm trying to connect now.
3. I've found the instance.
4. You told me the password is in this file, let me look it up.
5. Hmm, there seems to be a problem. The password file isn't where I was told it would be.
6. It didn't work.

After getting more information, I was able to spend more time on Google using the error messages to find solutions to the problem I had. Within a couple hours of leaving the hack session, I was found the answer and was able to log into my EC2 instance for the first time.

TL;DR -- I learned how to solve a problem by committing to a path, asking a lot of questions, and achieving MVGS (Minimum Viable Google Savviness).

Don't Put Your Picture On Your Resume

2010-10-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

I don't like pictures on resumes. I don't like logos for certifications on resumes either. While there isn't anything specifically wrong with a picture on your resume of you smiling and flashing your teeth, it violates tradition (at least here in the United States). Most resumes don't have a picture, and when you add one it looks odd.

Logos are not good on a resume either. Don't add a logo for a fraternity, sorority, professional association, certificate of accomplishment, or anything else. In my opinion, resumes should only contain words and simple symbols like bullet points. You can always add a picture to your LinkedIn profile if you like and add a link to that profile in your cover letter.

If you are applying to jobs in an industry where pictures are a requirement - modelling, entertainment like acting, then feel free to ignore my advice and go picture and logo crazy. Otherwise, you're likely better off skipping them.

If you disagree with me, conduct a little experiment. Show two copies of your resume to a hiring manager or two, one with a picture and one without. Ask which one makes you appear more professional. I think they'll agree with me.

Cathy And Lance

2010-10-13T22:44:00.001-07:00

A well groomed, 20-something Caucasian woman with glasses and long braided hair stood on the sidewalk holding a sign a cardboard sign with the words willing to work for less than minimum wage (not what's in the written on the sign in the picture, but that's what I remember). With her was a 20-something man wearing a black leather jacket and slicked back hair. Here in San Francisco it's a daily routine to see people holding signs asking for help, but rarely do I see someone offering to work and not asking for a handout. Even though I was curious, I walked past and continued on may way.

After passing the young couple, I'd walked almost a mile and had nearly reached home, but something was bothering me. Only seven month earlier, I had been struggling to find work and housing myself, so I had some empathy for their situation. While I didn't have a lot to offer them, I certainly had enough to make a meaningful impact on their current situation. I decided to follow my heart, turned around, and walked back towards where I had last seen them. On the way, I stopped by an ATM and withdrew $300.

They were still standing in the same spot. I walked up and introduced myself. Their told me their names, she was Cathy and he was Lance. There was a Subway just down the street, and I asked if they'd eaten dinner. They hadn't eaten at all that day. I offered to buy them sandwiches if they'd be willing to tell me their story, and they immediately agreed.

After we got the food, Lance did most of the storytelling. They were originally from Florida. Cathy had been laid off from her job as a page at a public library and Lance had been laid off from a construction job. Neither of them had had any luck in finding meaningful employment, and they quickly found themselves running out of cash. They'd traveled from Florida to Chicago to Las Vegas to San Francisco in search of opportunity, but they hadn't been successful in finding a way to generate income. Lance spoke of how they'd been squatting in an empty building in San Francisco for about 5 months, but that ended when they were discovered and chased off. They'd scraped together enough cash from collecting cans and turning then in at a recycling center for a couple of nights in a fleabag hotel, but they were going to be officially homeless at 10 a.m. the next morning.

Without thinking too hard about it, I offered to help them out with rent at the hotel. I explained that I had been struggling financially just a few months earlier, and that I felt compelled to help them because I hadn't found meaningful work when I was down and out. They looked at each other, thought about the offer for two seconds, and with a healthy amount of skepticism in their voices said they'd be willing to let me help them.

We walked three blocks to their hotel and approached the front desk. We inquired how much a room for one week would be. The price was $190. I whipped out some cash, paid, and immediately got thanks from Lance and Cathy. As I was standing there, my generosity didn't feel like enough, so I doubled down. Without knowing what they were qualified to do, I asked if they'd be interested in doing some work for me and they said yes. I pulled out another $100 and handed it to them. It was a Thursday night; I gave them my business card in case they needed to reach me, told them to take a few days off, and meet me in the lobby of their hotel bright and early on Monday at 9:00 a.m. What the heck was I getting myself into? I had no idea, but I decided I didn’t need to figure that out right away.

Monday rolled around and I arrived at their hotel at 9:00 a.m. sharp. Cathy and Lance weren’t in the lobby, which was really more of a hallway. I decided I’d wait until 9:15 and then leave. At 9:12, they stepped off the elevator. It was hard to be annoyed at their tardiness - the crappy elevator had gotten stuck and they’d been trapped for more than 10 minutes before it unstuck itself.

I took them out for breakfast to Mel’s Diner and started asking what they could do. Neither of them had a lucrative, in-demand skill, but it turned out they both had basic proficiency with computers. Since I had a need for some basic research and data entry, I offered to pay them a modest wage to look up information on the Internet and record that information in a spreadsheet. They were both eager to earn their keep, but there was a problem; they didn’t have a computer or an Internet connection.

Continuing the trend of not thinking too hard about it, I didn't want common sense talking me out of my mission to save the world, I offered to take them to Best Buy. We found a small netbook that they'd be able to use for data entry and I bought it for them outright, including a 2 year extended warranty. For Internet, we learned that the public library offered a free wi-fi connection.

After speaking with Cathy and Lance, we decided that Cathy was the most qualified to do Internet research. Over the next few weeks she and I worked together as she did various projects for me. She looked up information about random things that I asked her to research. Everything felt great. I'd hired a homeless person, trained her to do a job that I needed, she worked hard, and it was going pretty well. Well, it was going well until I realized I was running out of stuff for Cathy to do.

Have you ever had one of those days when you realized that someone is completely financially dependent on you and cutting the flow on money would mean they'd end up back on the street? I have. To make matters worse, Lance hadn't had much luck in finding work himself. Have you ever had one of those days when you realized that two people are completely financially dependent on you and cutting the flow of money would mean they'd end up back on the street? I have.

I could justify keeping Cathy on the payroll to do work that I actually needed, but I didn't need Internet research anymore. What was the next step? Just support the two of them? Make up some busy work for one of them to do? I found the answer by accident.

As Cathy and I were discussing something, I noticed that she'd been drawing for fun on some white paper. Knowing what unprofessional doodles look like, I could tell that she had some skill as an artist. How good she was didn't matter, as long as she could draw people. For a couple of years I'd been pondering having some sort of Captain Recruiter comic strip or personal artwork. I wasn't sure what kind of artwork Cathy could do for me, but I decided to find out.

Over the next month or so, Cathy and I experimented with a few different ideas, from newsletters to greeting cards. In the end, we figured out that a way to keep it simple would be to have Cathy draw pictures for my blog. The pictures could be fun and informal, and she'd be great at that. On July 31st, Cathy's first drawing appeared on the Captain Recruiter blog.

Cathy knew from the beginning that I wouldn't be able to work with her forever, at least not on a full time basis. Last week I finally got to the point where I could no longer afford to keep her on board full time. I worked out a deal with her where I’d pay her a retainer for work to be done in the future. I prepaid her for a large number of hours, and that was enough for her and Lance to pay for housing for a couple of months.

The same day I told Cathy I could no longer pay her for 40 hours of work a week, she got some good news. Cathy is legally blind and had just been approved for Social Security Disability Insurance. Even though the money is not much, it'll be enough for her and Lance to pay for housing and buy meager supplies. She'll also have access to food stamps, health coverage through Healthy San Francisco, and in time Lance should be able to find a stream of income, too.

I'm proud of the fact that I helped Cathy and Lance get back on their feet. I did it because I know firsthand what it’s like to slide from a normal life into the abyss. They deserve a fighting chance at a normal life and I took it upon myself to give them an opportunity. The only thing they want in life is dignity and a sustainable way to support themselves. Hopefully what I was able to do for them will be enough and I pray that they'll be okay.

Introducing The Captain's Assistant

2010-09-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm Keely. I'm the Captain's Virtual Assistant. And no, I'm not an annoying avatar like the ill fated Clippy. I'm quite real - I'm in Kansas and the Captain is living it up in San Francisco being an awesome recruiter.

Captain called me out of the blue in July with an interesting opportunity - become his assistant and telecommute. Honestly, it was the perfect opportunity at the perfect time. I just started back to school and wanted something part-time to keep some income coming in.

So how do I assist the Captain? I nag him. A lot. I do the stuff I am good at, which interestingly enough is the stuff he isn't so good at doing. You know, editing and keeping track of stuff. I'd say paperwork, but that doesn't really apply here - lots of data entry and emailing. I essentially do the backroom stuff. He's out there being the Captain.

Telecommuting has worked for us for several reasons:

1) I appreciate the flexibility. You have to be flexible to telecommute especially in two different time zones. And especially with a family with young kids. If you don't have kids - trust me on this one. Flexibility is key.

2) I can work from home without succumbing to distractions. This requires the buy in of your family/roommates. How do I cope? I have a work space. I am vocal about when I am at work and on the clock. And I enforce it with my family and myself.

3) I like what I do. It is a daily challenge. I learn something new all the time working for the Captain. He has no idea how much knowledge motivates me and keeps me willing to work harder and faster (of course he knows now!). It's like dangling a carrot in front of a horse.

4) I, personally, like the Captain. He's a friend and has been someone I respect for a long time. Liking your boss is a definite bonus and makes working hard easier. Plus, we have a built-in rapport. He gets me and I get him.

5) Finally, I like the Captain's vision for Captain Recruiter. I like working for someone with big ideas. I like contributing to someone's vision especially if I believe in it. I feel like I'm making a real contribution to an idea and a person I can personally get behind.

Are there negatives? Sure! Communication is something that is harder without face time. We had a very productive 5 day face to face last month that was a huge help getting some big processes started. Without that, the process would have taken a lot longer. We tweak our communication all the time and obviously use lots of email and phone calling to stay on track.

Some other perceived negatives I don't see. I've never liked the traditional office or a traditional scripted workday. I'm better on the fly. Throw stuff at me and I thrive. Being a desk jockey pushing paper all day will bore me into a stupor. I work harder when there is more work to do.

For now - we've got a good system going and I have to say that I love my gig working at Captain Recruiter. It works for me and hopefully I continue to add value to the Captain's vision (and can keep myself employed!). And not get killed off like the previously mentioned Clippy.

Spontaneous Blogging

2010-09-06T17:27:00.001-07:00

I like being spontaneous. I'd even say I need to be spontaneous. If my schedule is too structured, I start to feel boxed in, trapped, or just plain bored. This is probably one of the reasons it's been hard for me to stick with a job that requires fixed office hours.

Over the last month, all of my blog posts have had illustrations. I started off writing blog posts about whatever I wanted but found that some articles were difficult to illustrate with an awesome picture. Then I tried writing an article with a specific picture in mind so I could make use of an awesome illustration. Finally I started having the pictures drawn first and then wrote an article based on the illustration. The spontaneity was getting sucked out of my blog, and I feel that a few of the blog posts were too forced and constrained.

It's time to refactor my blog writing process.

Here's Captain Recruiter's new rules for blogging:

I'm going to write what I want when I want. There will be no formal blogging schedule, although I'd like to maintain a pace of 15 posts/month if possible.

The pictures follow the blog post. If the article doesn't work with a picture, then there will be no picture.

No foul language. I'm allowed to used made up curse words like frikkin', frakkin', shiznit, and crapola. As much as I like run my mouth, I'm also a frikkin' businessman who needs a frakkin' professional image for clients so I can earn shiznit to pay for my crapola.

On topic for my blog is anything that has to do with business, recruiting, growing up, job hunting, job seeking, spandex, or anything that can be loosely tied to anything I'm working on.

Step Up To Move Up

2010-09-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

I recently met a guy, let's call him Rob, who saw an opportunity to step up for his current employer. Rob's boss, the CEO of the company, needed to do recruiting but was already slammed with too much work. Rob offered to help source good applicants and the CEO immediately accepted the help.

Rob began taking small steps. He advertised jobs & searched within his network of contacts for available job seekers. Before long Rob was having preliminary conversations with people interested in working for the company. Rob would occasionally check in with the boss to get feedback on potential candidates. In short, Rob turned the CEO's huge job of filtering through piles of resumes into an easy to swallow task of deciding between a few interesting applications. Rob is the CEO's new best friend.

Rob might get a promotion. Even if he's not appreciated by the CEO, he'll have a great story to tell a hiring manager at another company. The CEO wins today, and Rob wins forever.

Step One: Charge Blindly Forward

2010-08-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

Step One: Charge Blindly Forward. Netflix is awesome. When the company was started, the founders were probably thinking "Dude, Blockbuster is too far from the house and too damn expensive. Wouldn't it be awesome if DVDs magically showed up at our house? Is that even possible? Let's find out!" I love companies that build something new from scratch, and Netflix's is a perfect example with their home delivery DVD rental service.

Step Two: Figure It Out. Alright, so you've just founded Netflix and now you have to mail DVDs to and from pretty much everywhere. How do you mail DVDs reliably and profitably? You have a team work on envelope R&D. There's no instruction manual when you're starting out. I bet Netflix rented a bunch of DVDs from Blockbuster, bought a bunch of different types of envelopes, and then mailed all those DVDs to themselves just to see what would happen. It took several years and over a dozen envelope designs, but now they've got an awesome envelope that works like a charm and doesn't break the bank.

Step Three: Cannibalize Your Own Competitive Advantage (i.e. Repeat Steps One & Two) A few years ago, I bet some Netflix person was sitting around and thinking, "Dude, DVDs aren't going to be around forever. You know what we should do next? We should stream movies over the Internet! How do we do that? Let's find out!" Netflix approached every entertainment studio to discuss distribution rights over the Internet. Netflix approached anyone and everyone who builds any sort of doodad that connects to a screen suitable for showing movies. Fast forward to today. You can watch Netflix content on a phone, an iPad, a gaming console, TVs, computers, etc. While the less innovative Blockbuster is trying to survive by weakly copying the Netflix model, some person at Netflix is probably thinking "Dude, I wonder if it's possible to inject movies directly into your brain..."

I wrote this post because this week I've been stressing about not knowing everything about how to get where I am going. From time to time I need to do is remember that there is no formula for where I'm going. In 2002 I was saying "Dude, how do I find a better job?" I charged blindly forward and figured it out. In 2010 I'm a damn good recruiter and getting better all the time. In another 8 years (or less!) I plan to be running a an empire devoted to helping employers and job seekers find each other. There are so many obstacles in my way its ridiculous. How will I become successful? Charge blindly forward and figure it out (and do my best to keep self induced stress to a minimum).

How Not To Raise Money

2010-08-27T21:24:00.001-07:00

I don't know a lot about raising money from professional investors, at least not yet. No one should listen to anything I say about how to get an investor to write a big ol' check. I do know a ton about how NOT to raise money!

Even the most stellar idea does not equal money. No rational person is going to invest money in an idea alone. When you get your first flash of brilliance and realize you're sitting on a bajillion dollar idea, that is not the time to raise money. I spent almost a year working on my "perfect investor presentation" and giving pitches to early stage investors before I realized it was too soon to ask for money. Asking someone to fund an idea is worth about as much as a map to a pirate's buried treasure scribbled in pink crayon on a grease-stained napkin from McDonald's. Don't believe me? Try selling an idea on eBay.

Don't ask for money until you've got some ground under your feet. Traction is pretty much required. Your business should be growing and preferably making money. There is tremendous value is being able to show someone that you're offering a product or service people care about. Even established entrepreneurs need to have traction before attracting investment. Elon Musk spent millions of his dollars on Tesla before raising money because he couldn't prove there would be a market for electric cars. Tony Hsieh spent almost everything he had to keep Zappos afloat until he could prove that selling shoes over the Internet was a good idea (I recommend reading Tony's book Delivering Happiness). Evan Williams spent a few million on Twitter before raising any outside capital.

To not raise money, you need to try doing it by yourself. In order to attract investment, the company must be bigger than one person. It doesn't really matter if you are a single founder with a few key employees or co-founders dividing up the responsibilities; an investor wants to see relationships that can endure stress, have complimentary skill sets, and work well together. One person needs to be the clear leader, and the team needs to have a process for making decisions with less than perfect information.

To not raise money, talk to the wrong investors. You should find an investor who likes either the industry you serve, your business model, or the stage of your company. You don't even need to have a pitch yet. At a recent SVASE event, I asked JJ Freitag of Azure Capital a very specific question - "Would an early stage technology enabled recruiting service possibly be a business you could invest in?" He informed me that Azure is willing to explore technology enabled services earning at least $100K/month. During that same event, I also asked an investor from Claremont Creek Ventures if he liked the Captain Recruiter business model; he informed me that he focuses on specific industries like the energy sector and would not be interested in my business.

Investors want to put money in and get money out. If you have an awesome business that no one else would ever buy, no investor will put money into it. You need to show an ability to go public, get acquired, or at least pay dividends to the investors. My impression is that most investors are looking to get their money back in less than 10 years.

Raising money is hard - very hard - but not impossible. Get an idea. Get traction. Build up a rolodex of investors who like your business. Build a team. Focus on profits. By the time you can raise money, you might not even need it!

Find Out What An Interviewer Wants

2010-08-23T18:50:00.001-07:00

During my senior year of college, I interviewed for an information technology position at Countrywide Financial. The interviewer asked me what one of my career goals was. My response was "I want to be a CEO." I'm not sure if that was the final nail in my interview coffin, but I didn't get the job.

Though I had worked really hard to prepare myself for the interview, I failed to get to know the Countrywide interviewer. As a job seeker, it's your job to get into an interviewer's head and find out what they want. Looking back I'm not sure what she wanted to hear, but I guarantee she wasn't looking for future CEOs. If I had asked the Countrywide interviewer what she was looking for, she probably would have told me.

Here's quick and dirty example of a possible scenario:

Employer: Thank you for coming in to interview. Are you ready to start?

Job Seeker: I sure am. Before we get to far, may I ask what skills and experiences the right person for this position will bring to the table? I'd like to make sure I convey my most relevant qualifications.

Employer: Sure. What we're really looking for is someone who is proficient in X, has a demonstrated interest in Y, and has spent time working in the Z industry.

Ask what the employer wants to know; I think most will tell you. The faster an employer understands what you offer in X, Y and Z, the more time you can spend getting to know each other. The more an employer knows you, the easier it is to see you doing a job you interviewed for or give you specific feedback about why you were not the right fit for the job.

Blog Lessons Learned: Increasing Traffic

2010-08-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

I got a big traffic spike on the blog yesterday & today. Here's what I did:

Step 1. Wrote a provocative post about working with geeks.

Step 2. Submitted the post to Hacker News.

Start Small

2010-08-16T17:43:00.001-07:00

Start off small. You don't need millions of dollars or years of experience to start a successful business. If you did, no one would ever have start a new business.

Money helps a business grow but it doesn't ensure success. Having the money to build a lemonade factory won't help you sell lemonade if you don't understand the lemonade business. What does it take to sell lemonade? I don't know, but I'd start small, with a lemonade stand, to find out. I'd need to figure out what makes a good location, talk to my customers about why they buy lemonade, figure out how much it costs to run the business, etc. Maybe I'd never succeed because guys can't competitively to sell lemonade! One thing is for sure. If I knew the formula for running a successful lemonade stand and needed a factory because I couldn't make the stuff fast enough to keep up with demand, someone would invest the funds I needed in my business because I’d figured out how the business works.

Part of the reason I believe I have what it takes to build a multi-million dollar business is that I have a big mouth and talk about my insecurities. I used to put myself down by saying I didn't have the talent to run a large business. I told one entrepreneur that I wasn't startup founder material and he politely informed me that I was full of crap. He said that any idiot with the right idea can run a business. The key to being a success is building a business an idiot could run. Keep it simple stupid!

Based on my current set of experiences, here's what I believe it takes to start a successful business:

You're default setting is risk. Playing it safe is a great formula for being an employee. Risk takers walk on the moon, become president, and build great companies.

You can fire people. I hate firing people, but one bad apple can drag the best team down. Give bad apples the boot.

Diapers. Sheer terror will scare the crap out of you. The trick is not letting anyone notice there's hot steamy goodness in your shorts.

A product or service worth buying. I don't think this needs explanation.

Likability. You need people who like working with you. You literally can't afford people who don't like you. How much would I charge to work with a jerk? Too much for the sucker to afford.

Inherent masochism. Why would anyone who didn't like dealing with problems ever start a business?

Patience. It'll take longer than you think.

The ability to be wrong. You're going to screw it up. Own your failure, learn from it, and move on.

Persistence. Stick with it longer than any sane person would.

Ignore trolls. There will be a vocal minority who hates you no matter what you do. Ignore them.

Technical Co-Founders Are A Myth

2010-08-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

An Internet entrepreneur needs a website. Two years ago I got the bug to do an online recruiting startup and I began the hunt to find a technical co-founder - a software engineer who works for no cash - to help me build my dream website. Twelve months into my startup journey I had four half-built websites that had been built by my four ex-technical co-founders. You may get a software engineer to start something for you, but they won't stick with the project when it gets difficult. I learned something: technical co-founders are a myth. You're more likely to bump into a piece of talking bacon riding a unicorn on their way to a leprechaun's pool party than finding a software engineer who will work for free.

Most software engineers aren't business people. The only way a software engineer can tell a business idea is a viable is to see the money coming in. A business geek with no money and no income isn't going to inspire confidence in a software geek. If a software geek really wants to try building something for no pay, they're going to work for themself instead of following another cashless entrepreneur.

Max Shapiro's People Connect Staffing has an innovative program called Employees Without Paychecks. This program helps pre-funded startups get work done by professionals willing to work without a formal paycheck. These professionals can help with anything from finance to marketing, but you won't find any software engineers volunteering their services. Why? Because software engineers don't work for free.

If you want to build a business that requires software, be prepared to invest a little money. You can probably get away with spending less than you thought. I recently met a junior software developer working for $200/week + room & board at a business geek's house. The business geek needed a working software prototype and the programmer needed experience. The pair had never intended to build a lasting company together. The quality of the software didn't matter much because it was for display purposes only. After a few months, the demo site won a business plan competition.

My strategy for getting a website built was to make friends with programmers. I went to every programming event I could find on Meetup.com. I found the group of Ruby enthusiasts in SFRuby to be quite active and social. I studied programming at Alex Chaffee's house and that's where I met Sarah Allen. I volunteered as a teaching assistant in Sarah's very first class teaching Ruby and the two of us became good friends. Eventually I was able to scrape up a few bucks and hired Sarah to build me a website prototype. That prototype is now something I use everyday to run my recruiting business. I still don't have a technical co-founder and at this point - I don't need one. Eventually I'll hire a software geek of my own, but right now I'm doing just fine without one.

UPDATE: I have to link to this article by Joshua Volz. He's right on so many levels. I'm trying to create a technology enabled recruiting service for an unproven business model. In 2008 I was first time startup founder with no cash. Partnering with me at that stage was speculative at best. Even though the business is making money now, it's still a big risk for anyone involved.

UPDATE UPDATE: Josh Volz is a cool guy. He reached out to me personally and said hello. I think it's safe to say we both agree that good help is hard to find :) Keep rockin' it Josh.

Startup Life

2010-08-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Break the word "startup" into the words "start" and "up". Starting is the easy part, it's the up that is a real work. Your mission is to try new things. You're constantly in uncharted territory and there is no survival guide for where you're going, unless you've done a startup before. Once you build something and people like it, you have to make it better. While making it better, you need to keep your current customers happy. When your customer’s business relies on your product and it breaks, you have to drop everything and fix it. You will get punched by the “up” more times than you can count, so get used to it.

Startup companies can have nice perks - beer in the fridge, a ping pong table, a TV with a Nintendo Wii, sofas, nice computers, flexible work hours, someone's awesomely chill dog roaming the office, etc. For example, I used to work at a company called Transmeta where I enjoyed free haircuts and massages. It'd be awesome if these perks came from management's deep-seated desire to be excellent and keep you happy, but there's a more simple explanation –it is to keep you in the office. Google has onsite laundry facilities with people who do your laundry! But the only reason to do laundry at the office is you won't have enough time to do it at home.

If you're considering joining a startup, be prepared to work - a lot. Don't be dazzled by all of the amenities and window dressing. Focus on the underlying fundamentals of the job. What are the work hours like? How much does it pay? Is it work you will enjoy? Will you be challenged? Is this location within commuting distance? Will this job be fun? I've seen many startups with a big screen TV and a gaming console that never get used because everyone's too darn busy working.

Monster Killer

2010-08-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

I don't like Monster.com. As a job seeker I've never found a job through Monster.com. As a recruiter I’ve never had success using Monster.com to fill a position. I find Monster.com's user interface horrendous and ineffective. Simply put, Monster.com isn't worth my time and I'd never recommend it to anyone.

Why hasn't anyone killed Monster.com yet? Plenty have tried, but it's not so easy. If I tried to take on Monster.com head on, I'd get eaten alive. Outspending Monster.com to buy market share with advertising or a sales force is prohibitively expensive for all but those with the deepest pockets. It is highly unlikely that a new technology or business process could come along that would give a Monster rival any sort of durable competitive advantage. To take on Monster.com, you have to find the weak spot in their armor and exploit it.

The chink in Monster.com’s armor: their site is designed for employers but not job seekers.

Monster.com doesn't call you to congratulate you on getting the job. They don't even know if you do or don't get the job. The majority of job seeker applications submitted to Monster.com will go unanswered. Monster.com doesn't help you get interviews. Monster.com won't introduce you to potential employers. Monster.com doesn’t know individual job seekers at all.

If you can design a job application site that prioritizes interaction with the individual job seeker and can develop a business model that allows it to make a profit on every transaction, you've got a winner and a Monster.com slayer.

YCommonApp - One Application, Many Startups

2010-08-09T11:56:00.001-07:00

HireHive's YCommonApp is a new tool for software developers applying for jobs. The idea is simple - fill out one basic application and apply to multiple companies at once. While YCommonApp is only for techies applying to YCombinator startups (unlike the picture above), I'm certain HireHire plans to offer YCommonApp type programs to a broader audience very soon.

Completing a YCommonApp is simple:

Step 1 - Click here (webcam - recommended) or here (no webcam).
Step 2 - answer a few straight forward questions.
Step 3 - submit application.

Improvements I'd love to see in YCommonApp:

The ability to select which companies get to see my application. I like to at least have the illusion of privacy when applying for jobs.
A spam filter that removes unqualified applications (like the test app I just submitted).
The ability to automatically filter out applicants I would be unable hire, such as someone overseas who cannot relocate to my locale.

I wish HireHive all the best. Online recruiting is a tough space to compete in!

Telecommuting For Startups

2010-08-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

A lot of people like the idea of telecommuting. Working at home in your pajamas with the TV on in the background sure beats the heck out of working in a sea of cubicles. Or does it?

In 2008 I recruited a software engineer - let's call him Bob - in California to work remotely for a startup in New York. Within 30 days of taking the job, Bob quit (right before he was about to get fired).

I'll never REALLY know the true reason Bob couldn't cut it, but I know that telecommuting wasn't going to work for him. Bob's previous job had been working onsite at a large financial company with sprawling offices and large teams. At home Bob lived with his wife and their toddler child. He existed in two ecosystems, one at work and the other at home.

From the very first day working for the startup, Bob was being set up for failure. Working from 3000 miles away via email and phone, Bob was never able to integrate with the New York team's intimate in-person environment. The New York team's pace was fast and iterative, a far departure from Bob's previous experience of working monolithic projects with glacial momentum. At home his professional and personal life collided as he tried working in a house with a young child that acted, well, like a young child. Nothing Bob tried allowed him to overcome the difficult situation and within a month he was looking for work.

Telecommuting is not a good option for small, fast paced teams of generalists that already rely on face to face communication to complete their work. There is no substitute for being able to tap a colleague on the shoulder when you have a question or being able to draw a diagram on a white board to illustrate a point. Bob may have been able to enjoy and keep his job had he been able to integrate with his co-workers.

Telecommuting for a startup can be done successfully. Matt Mullenweg's startup, Automattic (the makers of WordPress), has numerous employees and no brick and mortar home office. Automattic has committed 100% to the concept of a virtual office. All of their employees are able to work in a setting conducive to programming.

Bob could have been successful as a startup telecommuter under the following conditions. First, Bob needed his own office away from the house. Second, he needed to join a team that was committed to his development as a telecommuter; the New York startup wasn't able to nurture Bob, but a company like Auttomatic and its virtual office culture would have given Bob a chance to succeed on his own. Lastly, Bob needed to make a strong personal commitment to making it work, from self-managing with no one to look over his shoulder to the realities of no in-person contact with his colleagues.

Find Important Numbers To Measure

2010-08-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

As a recruiter, it's important to be able to say how many jobs you've filled. As of July 31, Captain Recruiter has filled 24 jobs in the first 7 months of 2010. That's the best number I have to date for measuring my success. I have a list of people that I've placed in jobs at various companies, and every single person on that list will say I helped them get that job. Before 2010 the highest number of positions I'd filled was 20, and this year isn't even done yet. While everyone will want a different level of detail about what jobs I've filled and how I did it, the point is that by providing a metric I've got a great icebreaker for any conversation about recruiting.

When you are writing a resume, find numbers you can measure. It's important to do a little detective work and find out what you should be measuring. Pretend you work at a coffee shop and you're building a new resume from scratch. You might write something like...

Served an average of 36 drinks per hour, each custom tailored for the individual orders.

That might be a good number or a bad number. You have no way of knowing unless you have a benchmark. After you talk to a few people, you might find that a Starbucks barista pumps out 360 drinks per hour. Before getting depressed about your ineptitude, you dig a little deeper and find that Starbucks has a magic gnome under the counter with a magic wand that summons drinks on demand. Now you can rewrite that line on your resume and have it say...

Make and serve an average of 36 made-to-order drinks per hour by myself, including taking orders and operating cash register. Unlike the drinks from the magic gnome behind the counter of "megacorp coffee mill", there's handcrafted love in each tasty brew I deliver!

As I sit here and write this article I'm thinking about additional numbers by which to measure my success. How long does it take to fill each job? Did I do it solo or did I have help? What's the average recruiting expense per hire? What numbers would potential clients find interesting? I can definitely do a better job of tracking my own numbers!

As you are deciding what numbers to measure, remember to keep your target audience in mind. My audience is people who might apply to jobs and employers who need a recruiter. The more jobs I fill, the more successful I appear. However, I may need to provide different numbers to different people. A potential investor may want to know how fast my business is growing. A VP of Sales might want to know how much money I've made in a given year. An HR executive may want to know statistics about my commitment to creating a diverse workforce.

From No To CTO

2010-08-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

This past March I rejected a job seeker’s application for a Chief Technology Officer position. He didn’t fit the narrow filtering criteria I had been asked to use in filtering applicants. In May he got the CTO job. Say wuh!? When I rejected his application, I told him why I was turning him down. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it went something like this:

Hi Mr. Job Seeker,

We’re going to pursue other applicants, but thanks for taking the time to apply. We’re looking for X, Y, Z in an our new hire, and I don’t see all of those experiences on your resume. If you feel I’m missing something, please let me know. Thanks for reaching out.

-Captain Recruiter

By telling him why I was rejecting him, he knew my letter to him was both personally written and what prompted the rejection. He responded with a polite note about what I had missed and we got a dialogue going. By standing up for himself, he got my attention and eventually the job.

Blurnout

2010-07-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

Blurnout = Blogging Burnout. I’m certainly not the first person to run out of ideas to blog about. When I started this blog, there was plenty of time to sit down and write. Words flowed through my fingers on into the blog with relative ease. Now I’m busier. A lot of what I initially wanted to say has been said. It’s hard to be spontaneous. Keeping the blog going in a meaningful way might require doing something crazy - like planning ahead!

This morning I sat down and wrote out a list of 7 or so top things that I’d like to write about. Now I’ve got a queue of ideas. My intent moving forward is to publish one article every workday. I can write more if I want to, but it seems like building up the pipeline of content makes more sense. By planning ahead, I’m also able to get input from friends and family as to what ideas deserve more merit.

Another nice thing about writing articles in advance is I can reduce typos, too. I’m the king of tipoes.

Recruiting Entrepreneur Profile - Mark Thomas

2010-07-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

Mark Thomas, a friend of mine for the past three years, is a serial entrepreneur in the recruiting space. I decided to write up this little blurb because I've learned a couple of tricks from him, and I think his story is interesting.

Back in the day Mark was a number crunching analyst type who didn't really fit in well with his corporate job. The pay was good, but working in finance for a megacorp isn't exactly where the action is. Mark started wanting more for himself.

As Mark explored his options, he learned that he has an entrepreneurial itch to scratch. While continuing to keep his day job, on nights and weekends he decided to try recruiting. He hustled, found a client who was willing to work with him, and before he new it had placed a few engineers and was making serious money pretty quickly. When the check came in, Mark quit the day job and devoted himself full-time to the side-biz-turned-moneymaker Thomas Executive Resources.

Over the next three years, Mark built up his staffing business and explored many different business models. Mark worked out a consulting model paid the bills, but he was starting to get the entrepreneurial itch again. Mark didn't feel building up a consulting business slowly over time was the right path for himself, so he sold the business and started looking for his next big idea.

Mark decided on trying to develop a pure website for recruiting, and his first attempt was a site called MoneyBackJobs.com. The idea was simple - apply to job, earn signing bonus if hired. Employers would advertise jobs with a signing bonus, any one hired would get a signing bonus, MoneyBackJobs.com would earn a fee on top of the signing bonus. The concept met an unserved market niche, but it practice it was a difficult business model to sell. Employers were skeptical about the loyalty of job seekers being lured with cash incentives, and the process of the cash bonuses approved was arduous. In the end, Mark shut down MoneyBackJobs.com and moved onto other ideas.

As Marked explored different ideas, he noticed a trend common among all employers. The main bottleneck in reviewing the qualifications is scheduling and the amount of time available for phone calls. A light went on in Mark's head. He decided to challenge the assumption that phone screens need to people to talk and a predetermined time. Within a few months SayHired was born.

He's a blurb about SayHired in Mark's own words:

SayHired offers the world's easiest way to phone screen job candidates. Our system automatically phone screens candidates without a recruiter ever having to pick up a telephone. It's simple: SayHired will post jobs for employers on their behalf, candidates will apply to the job, take an automated phone screen with questions that either the employer chooses or that SayHired provides, and the employer gets access to the audio recordings of the screens as soon as they are complete. No more wasting time with candidates that look great on paper but are terrible on the phone. We offer pricing as low as $10 per screen for subscription purchases. We also offer a way for employers and recruiters to conduct reference checks automatically through our system. Lastly, we're a developing an algorithm that automatically sorts and ranks candidates' phone screens so that employers know instantly who to bring in for on-site interviews and who to pass on.

I love the fact that Mark has taken the time to identify a pain point for anyone trying to do high volume recruiting. The biggest challenge to recruiting in my opinion is the sheer volume of applications that employers get. If you ever find yourself with 20+ qualified applicants to screen and not enough time to talk to them all, Mark @ SayHired would like to speak with you :)

No One Who Matters Will Judge You

2010-07-20T12:12:00.001-07:00

Period. Except for maybe a judge.

UPDATE: I changed my mind. We judge each other all the time. It's probably best just to get used to it and not let it bother you.

Throwing Darts

2010-07-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

Up until now, there hasn't been a cohesive Captain Recruiter communication strategy. I've been throwing darts as I try new things. For years I've known that Captain Recruiter was me, and last summer it became me and my blog. Now I'm creeping towards something a little more formal. Formal isn't bad, if you can hang onto the magic.

Who is my target market? What am I selling? What's my value proposition? I love the fact that I can ask these questions, because it means I'm growing up a little bit. The dream of Captain Recruiter has so much potential, and things are starting to get pretty exciting. What's my dream? Stay tuned.

Education Supply & Employer Demand

2010-07-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

The US Military trains all of its soldiers. I can't think of any other employer, at least in the US, that does this. When the military is having difficulty recruiting for certain positions, they offer cash bonuses to the recruits. The more in demand a skill, the higher the bonus.

When it comes to preparing students for going to college, there isn't system of supply and demand. There may be a need for X graduates per year in computer science, but there is no mechanism to getting the right number of people into computer science programs. There also isn't a system that ensures students are getting the kind of education that will help them in the real world upon graduation.

Isn't it time to steer students toward educations that will benefit them? Giving a clueless 18 year old guaranteed access to student loans and the ability to pick any major to study seems a little silly to me. How about only guaranteeing student loans for majors that have been identified as being in demand? Even better, make the education cheap (or free!)

I'm Changing My Name To Spammy McSpammer

2010-07-16T22:34:00.001-07:00

I guess one or more of my Facebook friends thought I had been a little bit spammy or inappropriate. I got a few emails tonight saying that all of the links back to my blog had been reported as abusive. Of course I have no idea who reported the links, or what their particular beef was.

I'm mildly annoyed by anonymous complaints, but it's hardly a big deal. Part of Captain Recruiter's mission is to put a face on all transactions. One of the things I like about putting myself out there for all to see is that it forces me to act a certain way. The staffing industry has not done a good job of engaging with their customers; their very business models are based on hoarding information and I bet they don't even know how to be open and transparent. In most cases, doing the opposite of whatever the staffing industry has traditionally done has worked well for me so far, including being open and transparent.

It'd be a waste of time to sit around and apologize to an anonymous for having offended them in some way. Still, it's nice to know that someone didn't like something I did. When you're doing everything right, there's no incentive to improve your game. A recent comment from a family member helped me notice that some of my blog posts contained some angry shit, and that was probably from me reflecting some inner frustration from that time.

Part of becoming a better writer is paying attention to how people react. I don't need to do what people tell me, I've never really been good at that anyway, but I do need to practice listening.

UPDATE: Or it could just be that there was a bug on Facebook, because all the links seem to be working again :)

Captain Recruiter Says, "No 3rd Person References On Resume."

2010-07-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

Captain Recruiter feels that talking about one's self in the 3rd person on a resume is weird. He recommends avoiding in this blog posts, too.

Don't Quit Your Job In June or November

2010-07-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

If possible, it's best to have a job while you are looking for another one. Still, sometimes that's not possible. People move, can't stand a boss, can't interview while working for someone else, yada yada.

If you must quit a job before you can look somewhere else, don't quit in June. Based on my own personal observations, July and August are slower periods for hiring new employees. The period between Thanksgiving and New Years is slow, too. If 3 or 4 people weigh in on a hiring decision, there's a pretty good chance one of them will be on vacation during the summer or holidays. Even if a vacationing interviewer can speak by phone, it's not as desirable as interviewing in person.

Even if you can afford to be unemployed for a while, do you really want to start your job search off during a slow period? The subtle influences that affect you during a lethargic hiring process will creep into your subconscious. You may begin to doubt your desirability or chances for success.

Trying Too Hard To Sell Me Stuff

2010-07-14T20:37:00.001-07:00

Read Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion by Robert Caildini if you want to understand how people press your buttons and get you to do stuff.

Today I was approached by a cute woman carrying a folder; I immediately guessed that she wanted to sell me something. She asked me "On a scale of 1 to 10, how cool are whales?" I gave a generic whales are a 9.7, reserving a 10 for any whale that can spit purple flames out of its blow hole. Then I told her I am poor and don't have any money to spend. By this point I've figured out from her t-shirt that she's soliciting donations for Greenpeace. Her next question was asking if I care about the work that Greenpeace does. I told her once again that I'm poor and didn't have any money to spend. She finally told me that she's looking for people who really want to save the environment. I told her she wasn't getting any of my money and walked off.

I don't mind people tugging on my heartstrings to try and get me to buy something. What I don't like is when someone tries to compel me to do something I don't really want to do. If you ever go into sales, learn to accept no from a prospect. It's still possible to convert a no into a maybe or a yes.

Don't try this...

Bad Whale Saver:

Me:

Bad Whale Saver:

Me:

Bad Whale Saver:

Me:

But you might try this...

Good Whale Saver:

Me:

* See how Good Whale Saver slipped in the teaser pitch? That's a good, noninvasive technique to flip a no into a maybe.

Semi-Coherent Rant #1

2010-07-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

Instead of coming up with a perfect blog post, I decided to just type and see what came out. Enjoy!

I can't tell you the number of times I've come in 2nd in job interviews. I interview really well, but I usually lose out to someone who has a little more experience in the job I was interviewing for. In a winner take all scenario, coming in 2nd kind of blows.

Even though I've stuck with recruiting for 5 years, I've thought about getting out many times. Recruiting has beat me up more times than I care to admit. On down days, I've taken a look at different opportunities in sales, management, technology, yada yada.

Two things have kept me in recruiting. First, I've been lucky enough to not find a better opportunity. If some shiny new job had come along, I would have walked away from all of my recruiting experience and started over. In less than a year I'd have realized the grass wasn't greener on the other side and I'd be dreaming about the good ol' days as a recruiter. Second, if I'm a good recruiter and I truly have a passion for it the only way I'm walking away from recruiting now is if I can retire and Captain Recruiter can go on without me.

Now that I can look back at my path and reflect, I can see decisions I've made that have allowed me to evolve and thrive. I didn't like contingency recruiting, so I tried retained search. I'm not a huge fan of retained search, so I became a contract recruiter. Contracting for one company can be a grind and I kept recruiting myself out of a job, so I learned to be a contract recruiter for multiple clients at once. I got to the point where I had to turn business away, so I started bulding a technology infrastructure that would allow me to scale my business. I couldn't raise angel funding with traction, so I learned how to bootstrap. I couldn't afford to develop a lot of software, so I learned what was minimally functional and built that. I became too disorganized, so I decided to hire an admin. I learned the value of bullet points, and decided I just didn't care for this paragraph.

I started off heading off in a random direction wearing a blindfold, and now I'm climbing an unclimbed mountain. There's bigger unconquered mountains behind this one, and I'll climb one (or all!) of them, too.

Previously Enjoyed

2010-07-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

While standing in the checkout line at Walgreens this morning, I noticed a bin of DVDs. I picked up one of the movies and noticed a sticker on the back that read "Previously Enjoyed". Leave it to marketing people to come up with way a put positive spin on selling used movies.

I've learned to talk about screw ups with a smile. Clients like to hear me tell stories of personal failure, taking ownership of mistakes, learning lessons, and crawling my way to victory. No one can really relate to perfection, but everyone can relate to personal tragedy and triumph.

I'm previously enjoyed. Are you?

My Basic Recruiting Process

2010-07-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

I have no idea who Shunryu Suzuki is, but I read a cool quote of his from Tony Hsieh's book Delivering Happiness (thanks for the gift Cyan!). Here's the quote...

In the beginner's mind there are many possiblities, but in the expert's mind there are few. -Shunryu Suzuki

Today a potential client asked me to articulate my recruiting process, and at best I stumbled my way through the answering the question. I've always struggled with that question because I think of 1,000 different possibilities whenever someone asks "How do you recruit?" In other words, I feel like a beginner. Yet I actually have a fairly methodical process to recruiting, and I've just never bothered to write it down. I think I'll flex my expertise and put it all out there right now...

Step 1 - Identify the concept behind the position. A client recently asked me to fill a marketing role. After 5-10 minutes I understood the core concept, called a friend who fit the bill, asked if she was available, she said yes, she interviewed on the phone, got an offer, accepted, and started the next day. The entire process took less than 2 hours. Why make things hard if they don't need to be?

Step 2 - I advertise, especially on craigslist. I don't care what anybody thinks about this, but it works. The value of advertising is that it's the quickest possible path to conversations. We learn by doing, and doing in my business requires talking to people. Every person I talk to helps me refine what I'm looking for, and can also generate referrals. Advertising is fast and efficient. While you are combing through your impressively large database, I'm talking to the perfect random stranger that I met via craigslist for $75.

Step 3 - Go out and find them. After the employer and I know they kind of person we really want, it's not so hard to hop on LinkedIn and target the right person. I also get a lot of traction using Meetup.com, Google searches, my personal network and database of contacts, etc. If you're going to go out and source people manually, you want to have steps 1 & 2 taken care of first. Manual sourcing takes 10x or more time per applicant than advertising.

This is my basic process and how I keep it simple. I'll write more in following articles about how I tackle tougher recruiting challenges.

Don't Rush The Interview Process

2010-07-05T22:14:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of 2009, I wanted to answer the question, "Does a thorough interview process decrease the likelihood of a new hire quitting within the first year?" To find out, I did a little research. I made a list of all 20 people I recruited in 2008 and put them into two categories - thoroughly interviewed and interview rushed. My sorting was based on my gut reaction as to whether or not I felt the employer had paid enough attention to the new hire's interview process. I contacted each person on the list to see if they were still employed, and here were the results:

Of the 20 hired, 5 had been laid off, so I didn't count them.

Of the 8 people I felt had been thoroughly interviewed, and 7 of them were still employed, and 1 had quit.

For the 7 new hires who had been rushed through the interview process, only 1 was still employed. 5 of them had quit and 1 had been fired.

I was amazed to see such drastic results in such a small sample size. I wonder if anyone else has even done a study like this...

I'm A Butterfly Biyotch!

2010-07-02T14:15:00.001-07:00

For the last few weeks I've been slacking on the blogging. In my head I pretend that I was in a cocoon transforming myself into a butterfly, but the truth is I've just been lazy and thinking a lot about where to take Captain Recruiter. I told that too a client/friend and he bluntly informed me that I was full of crap. He suggested that anyone who thinks of me should imagine nothing but a machine that fills jobs and makes money, which in turn is where my success will come from. He's right.

I'm recommitting to this blog and will force myself to pump out new and interesting things all the time. Who knows, maybe this blog will become TechCrunch for jobs. That'd be pretty cool!

The Craptain Effect

2010-06-23T17:19:00.001-07:00

I've got a good problem. I'm sitting here thinking about what happens if I say "no" too much. Applying to jobs via the Internet is a tough game to win, and I tell a lot of people they're not getting the job. It's better than not telling them anything at all, but hearing "no" a lot could really beat someone down. If I get big enough and end up saying "no" too many times, it is possible for Captain Recruiter to dig his own grave by pissing off the wrong person?

Hearing "no" from me dozens of times can't be good for my image. I dub this the Craptain Effect, as in "the Captain's a crappin' on me again. Can't this guy cut me a break?!"

One solution sucks, and that's just not telling people they're rejected. A solution I like better is providing better information in a kinder way. I'm not sure exactly what this means yet, but it comes down to providing access to valuable information or resources that can actually help one get a frikkin' job. Something like, "I'm not hiring your type, but my buddy at this other company is."

Stupid Craptain Effect...

Act

2010-06-23T10:54:00.001-07:00

I've been a little overwhelmed lately by the number of different things I need to do. It's easy for me to feel crushed by the sheer number of transactions that demand my attention. This morning I've been feeling suffering from analysis paralysis.

Time for a different approach. Instead of trying to find my last to do list, or writing a new one, I just told myself to act. There's no one task that's pressing over any other, so it doesn't matter which task I take on first. I am amused how much I got done in the last 30 minutes by just doing stuff instead of thinking about what stuff I need to do.

Kick analysis paralysis in the ass. Act.

Boldly Drink Beer During Business Lunches

2010-06-22T18:13:00.001-07:00

Whenever I go out for a meal with a client, I'm not afraid to order beer. If there's a rulebook somewhere that says you shouldn't do that, I haven't read it. Here's what I've learned about mixing business with pleasure...

Don't be the first one to get tipsy.

Life's too short to be too uptight, so if you want a drink, order one.

If someone else wants you to order first, there is a reasonable chance they're hoping you order a drink so they can do they same.

Drinks you sip are better than drinks you slam - order a Guiness and avoid the Irish Car Bomb.

Here in San Francisco, many people hit the sauce, so my advice may be really bad if you live somewhere else.

If there's beer in the fridge at work, drinking is acceptable at a work related function.

You can sneak in more than one standard drink by order one really strong/large drink.

Recovering alcoholics are used to others drinking, so you can drink in front of them. They want you to enjoy yourself and don't like being treated differently.

If you really, really need to pay attention during a meal, get the concentrating out of the way before drinking.

It's hard to avoid the stigma associated with drinking before noon.

Some Talk And Some Action

2010-06-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

I've enjoyed writing this blog. It's fun. Lately I've been trying to figure out where to take it, which is why I haven't been posting as much lately. Like sports, sex, entertainment, politics, and any other topic of perpetual interest, I could write forever about how to find a job. Writing no longer feels like enough for me.

Most of my writing has been inspired by a bunch of things I've wanted to say for years, and also by my daily activities as a recruiter. Since I feel like I've vented a lot and writing about yet more jobs I've filled is starting to feel repetitive, what next? Simple. Do interesting shit and write about that. I think I'll start writing about interesting stuff right now...

4 weeks ago I hired a homeless person, trained her from scratch to do odd jobs, and helped her find work. My favorite part is that I made money doing it. More to come on this topic :)

2009 Can Suck It

2010-06-11T12:21:00.001-07:00

2009 kicked my ass. I went from a six figure income to homeless in less than a year. My car got repossessed, I learned that I had been naive about so many things, and I learned that people close to me had been wondering about whether or not I was considering suicide (I can say with certainty I was not). In 2009, I wasn't much fun to be around.

Still, even as my life was going to hell, I found a way to crawl out of it. I found an active social group among the Ruby on Rails community here in San Francisco, and I did everything I could to leave my pity party at home when I'd hang out with them. Instead of begging for help, I became an active member of the community and helped out whoever I could in any way I could find. At best I created value for people and at worst I was a nice guy who tried to be useful (and no one complains about that).

Things are better now. In my fight to get back on my feet, I've developed the skills and relationships to become successful. I've grown the guts to forge my own path and make my own decisions. I go after what I want without apology, and I do my best to want things that are good for me and those around me. I'm heading in a certain direction, and I like the path I'm on. The destination doesn't even matter.

There's one thing I've learned. Having fun is essential. I know for a fact that part of what helped me keep my head above water was being able to look someone in eye and say "I'm getting beat up left and right, but I'm having a blast." I still get kicked in the nuts by life, but I just laugh it off and I crumple over in pain. After all, it's morbidly funny to watch someone get kicked in the nuts, so I may as well join in the fun. It's also nice to give kickee a hand up off the ground, so I might as well be nice to myself and pick myself up.

If I can, I'll pick you up, too. If I can help and don't, what's the point of it all?

1 Party, 2 Interviews, 1 Beef, 1 Mission

2010-05-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

I went to a party on Tuesday, and at this party there was much awesomeness. The awesomeness came not in the form of $7 drinks (including tip), but in what I got done...

8:00 p.m. - I meet a woman who was laid off from her executive assistant job the day before, and I happened to be recruiting an executive assistant. Within 5 minutes of meeting her, I've called my client and have her scheduled for an interview at 10 a.m. the next morning. I'm also happy because now I can bill my client for the party :)

8:15 p.m. - I meet a guy trying to hire a Rails developer. He needs a real pro, but can only pay 70-80% of market rate; the company is pre-revenue & pre-funding.

8:30 p.m. - I meet a professional Rails developer who is going to school and needs a flexible work schedule. He's willing to work at 70-80% of market rate if he can avoid a rigid 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule. I introduce him to guy from Bullet Point #2, and they conduct an interview right there at the party.

Here's my beef... Why doesn't all recruiting work this way? You couldn't buy that level of service if you tried, unless you hire Captain Recruiter of course! Sometimes I think recruiting is more broken than healthcare.

I'm going to fix recruiting. All of it. Looking for a job will be more fun than going on vacation, and everyone on the planet will have to deal with best problem ever - being forced to decide between multiple job offers. The staffing industry isn't prepared for what I'm cooking up. For the record, if I win a Nobel Prize, I'm spending the $1 million payout on beer.

Diversity Is Required

2010-05-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

For a while I've been helping the Sarah and Sarah with their Open Workshop Project, which to date has focused mostly on introducing women to Ruby on Rails. It's no secret that women are underrepresented in information technology, and encouraging a reversal of that trend feels like a good use of my time. As I dude I'll never fully appreciate what it's like to be a woman technologist working in a sea of male colleagues, but I'm learning about her challenges.

I think I really began to understand diversity this week, and I learned about it from a white guy. He'd been interviewing with a technology company, but the process hadn't been a positive experience for him. He mentioned that he thought he'd never get into the company because the all-male staff didn't include a single white man. I know for a fact that Mr. White Guy could get a job if he wanted at the all-guys-who-aren't-white company, but the fact that he thought it wouldn't work took me by surprise. Mr. White Guy's experience seems similar to comments I've heard from women that they avoid joining companies where they're aren't enough women.

People like working with those share similar backgrounds or experiences. If your company becomes too homogeneous, such all one nationality or gender, you'll push away people who don't feel like they'd fit in with your monoculture. Once you build a culture that limits the number of good people you can hire, you're pretty much screwed. Since good people are the lifeblood of any organization, and since a lack of diversity can turn people off, I've concluded that diversity is required to retain a competitive advantage.

Now all I have to do is master diversity recruiting...

Be A Team Contributor (Not A Team Player)

2010-05-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

You can sit on the bench all year long while your college sports team goes all the way to the finals and wins. You'll get a trophy and a lot of attention, but you'll never be recruited by the professionals because you can't actually play. Any one who matters doesn't care if you're on the team; they want to know what you can contribute to the team.

I used to say "we do this" and "we do that" when talking about work that I do. My professional identity was so wrapped up into what my company did, I lost track of what I could do. After figuring out that pattern, I overreacted and made it all about me. When I look back at my resumes from 2-3 years ago, I find them very self centered. I talk about positions I've filled, companies I've worked for, cool stuff that I've done; what I should have written about is how I helped other people solve their problems. Today I'm still struggling with writing a good resume, even though I know I work well with others.

By learning how to contribute to a team, you learn pretty quickly what your contributions are. It takes guts to put yourself under a microscope and reflect on what value you bring to the a potential employer, client, or even your own business. It comes down to two questions:

When you can say how YOU helped the TEAM, you're ahead most job seekers.

Ruby On Rails Internship (And Job!?) @ Scribd

2010-05-19T10:52:00.001-07:00

If this opportunity doesn't sound like you, please share it with someone who'd love to hear about it :) Tweet it! Email it! Blog about it!

You've been programming day and night without pay because you love it. Your passion forces you to find any excuse you can find to build anything from Arduino powered UAVs to web apps on Heroku. There's a sharp mind between your ears, and you're eager to prove it.

Scribd is partnering with Blazing Cloud to hire a few up-and-coming programmers for a 12 week software development internship - this could be your big break. At the end of 12 weeks if you like Scribd and they like you, you'll get a full time job offer - this could be your bigger break. Here's some stuff you'll want to know...

About Scribd:

"You Tube for Documents" - Have a document? Host it on Scribd!
Developing cutting web applications using Ruby on Rails and HTML5.
Visited by over 50 million unique visitors a month.
Started by scrappy graduates of the famous YCombinator program - they KNOW what it means to earn a big break.

About the Blazing Cloud internship:

1 week crash course w/ Sarah Allen - Ruby, Rails, Javascript, CSS, HTML.
11 weeks working on real world projects at Scribd.
Weekly Ruby classes - 6 sessions as student, followed by 6 as teaching assistant.
Write 12 blog posts to brag about how much you're learning.
40 hours/week @ $20/hour.
Located in San Francisco, CA

Required background:

You've mastered at least one programming language in a Unix/Linux environment.
You compulsively code stuff, and you can tell us all about your projects!
Problem solving mind - everything from framing the challenge to generating an appropriate solution.
We don't care about age - if you're 18 or 308 and you can "bring it", you should apply.

How to apply:

You don't need to send a resume (yet).
Step 1. Write 1 paragraph about anything you'd like us to know.
Step 2.Write a short summary about 3 projects you've built. Example:
Step 3. Shoot us an email with the stuff you wrote!

Spice Up Your Interview Without Being Pushy

2010-05-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

Spice up the answers you give to interview questions. Always answer a question directly, and then feel free to enhance your answer with a relevant alternative. Example:

Company:

"Can you do a 30 minute phone interview on Tuesday afternoon sometime after 1 p.m.?

Job Seeker:

Good Answer: "Yes. 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. work. Go ahead and book it. Alternatively, I can meet you in person if you'd like. I live 4 blocks from your office."

Not-So-Good Answer: "That doesn't really work for me. I'm not good at phone interviews. Let's do an in person interview instead."

It really helps to be proactive in your interview. How will a company know you're an excited bundle of relevant awesomeness if you they haven't given you the right opportunity to strut your stuff? Simple, you ask them if it's appropriate to demonstrate your mojo. Here's some possible examples of getting an interview to ask the right questions...

You're interviewing for a dog walking job:

You: Thanks for talking with me today. Before we go, I'm curious what do you feel makes a really good dog walker?

Interviewer: Personally I love people who volunteer time at animal shelters.

You: Me, too. I spend 20 hours/month at the Humane Society.

Interviewer: You're hired. Can you start Monday?

You're trying to stand out:

You: By the way, I found out before the call that my former boss knows your boss. Mind if I have my former boss contact yours to put in a good word?

Interviewer: Sure! I like people who go for it.

You're on a phone interview for a sales position:

You: Is there anything you'd like to know about me that would close this deal today and get me hired today?

Interviewer: No, we're still interviewing.

You: OK, thanks. Still, is there something you'd like to see or hear that you haven't? This opportunity really interests me.

Interviewer: I like the fact that your proactive and trying to get me to "buy". I'll tell you what, why don't you come down to our office on Tuesday of next week and we'll interview you in person. Wear a suit.

It's possible to be too proactive. When you volunteer information about yourself that hasn't been asked for, you're diluting your value proposition. If you're a REALLY good graphic artist applying for a non-artist job, ask the interviewer directly if skill as a graphic artist would be a plus. If yes, share away. In no, don't randomly talk about your passion for art and a 37 links to samples of your work.

Some Things Are Easier When They're Local

2010-05-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

Easier: Finding a job near where you live.
Harder: Trying to get an interview from a distance.

Easier: Getting someone to pay when you show up in person.
Harder: Getting someone to pay when they can ignore your phone call.

Easier: Meeting a prospect in a room full of prospects.
Harder: Cold calling someone who is way too busy.

Easier: Not going away until they fix that paperwork error.
Harder: Spending time on hold and being transferred around.

Easier: Finding a car you'll like to drive at an auto mall.
Harder: Researching fun cars to drive on the Internet.

Easier: Writing on a whiteboard.
Harder: Describing a picture over the phone.

Right now I'm struggling with a soon-to-be-former client who doesn't want to pay me for work done. I'd feel slightly more understanding about the situation if he were suddenly about to go out of business, but he's making millions. Unless they just cave and write a check, any option I take to squeeze payment out of them is going to take an annoying combination of time and money. I'm thinking that my best option is to hop on a plane, show up at their offices, and act like a crazy muther-f@#$^% who doesn't give a damn.

If I can cry my way out of a $13,000 hospital and come away owing nothing (I can and I have), then I can deal with this. I hope you're reading this Mr. Cheapskate, because when I decide I have a little extra free time, it's no more Mr. Nice Captain Recruiter.

Good Gatekeeper, Bad Gatekeeper (Part 2)

2010-05-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

There's a hole I keep digging myself into. I promise a job seeker that I'll respond to them by a certain date, and then I forget to follow up. Grrr. I do it less that I used to, but it still happens.

When I talk to you on the phone and you're a fit for a position, I want to keep you interested. What I tell you is something like "You'll hear from me by end of day on Friday", but Friday passes by and you're wondering what the heck happened. What's also obnoxious is knowing I said I'd follow up, but forgetting who I told that to :P If you haven't heard from me, the thing to do is follow up.

Companies and recruiters don't have a short term incentive to follow up. After all, it does take a lot of time and energy to do reach out to 99% of the people you don't hire and tell them "Hey, you didn't get the job". Still, I've decided to make it a priority convey news to job seekers, good or bad, 100% of the time.

Something I find interesting is that no piece of recruiting software that I've seen requires companies to follow up with job seekers, not even an automated email to indicate a job has been filled. That tells me that recruiting software vendors don't know how to meaningfully engage job seekers.

For now I just do the best I can to follow up. In case any one is curious why I've forgotten to follow up, here's a list of non-excusable reasons why it didn't happen:

I lost track of your applicantion. Even the most powerful applicant tracking systems I've used such as Taleo, Jobvite, and MaxHire don't make this easy for me. I'm sure they'd argue differently, but I respectfully disagree.

My feedback to you was contingent on getting feedback from someone else that never came. I should follow up with that person, too, but again current software systems don't make this an automatic function and I'm still learning to be more proactive.

Recruiting was put on hold, but it might start back up again. It can be hard to balance giving you too much or too little information.

Sometimes I think you're both qualified and not the strongest applicant. When you're in the maybe pile, that's pretty much like being in limbo.

Good Gatekeeper, Bad Gatekeeper (Part 1)

2010-05-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

I have to reject a lot of applications, and I'm quite certain many of the people I reject think I'm an HR drone that doesn't know what the heck I'm talking about. Anyone who says I don't know enough about the position I'm hiring for is 100% correct. I don't REALLY know what a CTO looks for in a good software engineer, and I don't REALLY know what anyone is thinking at all. Still, I am forced to make decisions about who gets to play (aka interview) and who gets benched. So, how do I do it?

I measure how quickly you return emails and phone calls. The quicker you respond to my inquiries for anything from questions to interview scheduling and the less time I spend tracking you down, the more I believe you make my life easier and/or you're interested in the position.

I listen for how clearly and articulately you answer one of my questions. If I ask you a question, I want to hear you answer it without dodging me. You may or may not know something the position asks for, but if I ask you about growing bananas and you tell me about giant herring, I suspect something is fishy (pun intended).

I want to know if you can clearly communicate your compensation expectations to me. I'm willing to share with you what a position is likely to pay. If you tell me that you're looking for $X, or at least that you'll work within the salary range, we're golden. If you refuse to tell me how much you're looking for, or you say you're looking to find out more about the position before giving me a price, I know that negotiating salary with you will be time consuming. Things that are time consuming make everything more difficult.

Do I have to ask you to repeat yourself? I don't mind people with an accent, I have an accent to anyone who's not from the burbs of Los Angeles, but if we can't communicate clearly you are less likely to do well on a phone interview. Being effective in the workplace doesn't always require the best spoken communication skills, but it is something I pay attention to. I'm also very forgiving of people who use AT&T, because it's not your fault.

TIP: If you can, do a phone interview from landline, especially when you'll be doing the interview in any language other than your native tongue.

Can you tell me why you applied? I'm not expecting everyone to know what a position is all about, but I would like to know what got you interested in applying. If we both know what we're thinking about, it's easy to talk about why you may or may not be a fit. If you tell me you want to learn more about the position and you haven't given it any thought at all, that's when I start to cry. You don't want to make me sad, do you?

That's all I've got for now. More to come when I can think of how to expand on this topic.

Being Hot Or Not On LinkedIn

2010-05-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

If you're in demand, and I mean REALLY in demand, you'll know it. Until recently a friend of mine used to work at a hot startup here in San Francisco as a Javascript developer. He updated his profile on LinkedIn to showcase his most recent experience, and almost immediately his phone started ringing off the hook. Within days he'd been invited to interview with Twitter, Google, and countless tech startups.

My personal profile on LinkedIn does get me some attention, but I've never been called by Twitter or Google. I used to think that my LinkedIn profile wasn't nearly good enough, but it turns out my skill set just isn't something a ton of people look for on LinkedIn. In other words, there's a shortage of Javascript programmers and a surplus of recruiters. If you're on LinkedIn and your phone isn't ringing, don't sweat it. Just realize you'll have to find work the old fashioned way (by looking for it).

Here's a few things that have helped me get more visibility on LinkedIn in the last few months:

I asked people for references.
My profile has a link to this blog.
I have linked my profile to my Twitter feed.
I sometimes advertise positions I'm recruiting for on my profile, too.

Majoring In Philosphy Isn't So Bad After All!

2010-05-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

I just came across a humorous article call Worst-Paying College Degrees (I find it amusing that philosophy isn't one of them). After looking at this list, I came up with an idea...

Major A: graduation - $35K, 5 years - $50K
Major B: graduation - $70K. 5 years - $90K

I can imagine a group of indebted Spanish degree graduates protesting outside their college's admissions office with signs that read "No, no puede enseñar. No puedo darme el lujo de un doctorado!"

Scheduling Is A Breeze-ish With Tungle.me

2010-05-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

Whether I work at a client's offices or remotely, interview scheduling is usually a pain. If I'm lucky, a client with Google Apps with set me up with account that grants me access to see each interviewer's calendar. Usually I'm stuck with a more anachronistic solution that doesn't allow for efficient scheduling, such as Microsoft Exchange or plain ol' email.

Recently a friend introduced me to a service call Tungle.me. The short, short version is that Tungle.me allows others to see your calendar via the web; the service offers a simple to follow process that is able to access your calendar on the web or on your local machine.

I'm currently working with a client that doesn't have a dedicated person that schedules interviews across the entire company. Given that I needed to schedule a round of interviews, I asked each of the interviewers I'm working with to sync there calendars with Tungle.me. By seeing the times each interview is available, I was quickly able to schedule a round of interviews. This is especially valuable given that I'm working remotely and can't just walk by each person's desk to follow up.

Right now I just use Tungle.me to look at the calendars of people, but I still create and send iCal invitations manually. No software I've found, including Tungle.me, is able to automatically create a list of staggered interviews (i.e. Bob @ 1 p.m., Susan @ 2 p.m., etc.) It'd also be nice if Tungle.me allowed me to attach a file to an appointment, in my case I'm trying to attach resumes.

I look forward to seeing what innovations Tungle.me comes up with in the future.

Captain's Resume Revisited - A Different Approach

2010-05-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I started writing my own resume. At first I thought it was going to be easy. I was wrong. Writing a good resume is obnoxious, and here's why:

Every hiring manager or recruiter has a unique view of what information should be on a resume, which makes a universally "perfect" resume impossible.
Every job has it's only unique set of intangible requirements that could never be advertised, which makes a custom "perfect" resume impossible.
It's difficult to know what employers are really looking if you haven't done your homework, so figuring out what is "good enough" requires you to track down the decision makers at employers willing to conduct informational interviews.

I have only begun to scratch the surface of what makes a good recruiting resume; I'm going to talk to more people this week and see what they look for.

When working on your own resume, if you REALLY want to know what should go on it, it's really important to realize that you need to talk with decision makers (aka hiring managers). Anyone can help you find typos, make formatting suggestions, etc., but only the decision maker can tell you what they are ultimately looking for.

Telephonic Avionics - Fly A Helicopter With Your iPhone

2010-05-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

Ari Krupnik, a friend of mine (and a damn good software developer), loves everything about flying. He is building his own airplane, he's makes airplane art, he's a licensed pilot, and now he's cramming all of that passion into an iPhone.

You know how people tell you to do what you love? It also helps to do something you're good at. I personally also recommend doing something people will pay you for, and I suspect Ari will find a way to make money off of his cool project.

Meet iPhly. Go Ari!

The Origin Of The Purple Squirrel?

2010-05-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

Recruiters trying to fill an impossible job with an impossible candidate will say the candidate they are looking is a purple squirrel. I first heard of purple squirrels in 2005 while working in my first recruiting job, and I've always wondered where that term came from.

I think I may have found the origins of the purple squirrel, but I can't say I've found the missing link that explains how recruiters started using the phrase.

My theory is that a recruiter got bored and randomly wandered to Purple.com. After trying to actually find the purple squirrel, the recruiter associated Sciurus Puniceus with an impossible-hire-candidate. A domain squatter registered PurpleSquirrel.com in 1999, probably in an attempt to capitalize on a wave of purple squirrel fever that never generated enough buzz to warrant paying for the domain.

Captain Writes A Cover Letter

2010-05-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

Write a short, personal cover letter when you apply to a job. You can do it in 1 to 5 sentences. I figured it'd be easier to show you than explain it. At the bottom of this post is a job ad I yoinked from craiglist. It's work that I can do, but not something I've done consistently for a number of years.

Step 1. Frame the problem I believe the employer wants to solve.

This position was advertised in the sales section, not the HR section. I believe (but don't know!) Parker Lynch wants to hire someone who can build relationships with executives. They're likely only willing to hire someone who is experienced and doesn't require training on how to sell executive level recruiting services.

Step 2. Identify what I bring to the table.

Parker Lynch wants 10 years of recruiting sales experience, I've got 5. Good enough to apply.

I've placed 2 C-level executives this year, a COO and a CIO, and I've filled accounting and finance positions in the past.

I've got an MBA, and they're asking for one.

I've filled 15 jobs so far in 2010

Social media is hot right now, and I know some about sourcing candidates via social networks, so I'll throw that in.

Step 3. Write a cover letter, which is really just a short email. Any cover letter that needs to be in an separately attached file is way to long, and probably wouldn't be read. I prefer an informal style, which I think is appropriate for any job posted on craigslist...

Hi Michael,

I'm an executive recruiter with an MBA and 5+ years of sales experience. More about me:

* My clients have been technology firms and CPA firms.
* In 2010, I've filled two C-level positions so far, a CIO for a $300M Swiss company and a COO for a $30M technology startup, and 13 non-executive positions.
* I've successfully sourced candidates via social media and understand how to leverage the social graph of my professional and personal contacts.

If you'd like to talk, let me know!

Thanks!
Michael

--------------------

A job post yoinked from craigslist.

Parker & Lynch – Executive Search
Title: Executive Recruiter

Job Summary:
As an Executive Recruiter, you will manage the search process from initial client contact to execution of the completed search. Applicants should have the proven ability to develop strong relationships with business professionals and be effective at persuading and influencing executives. In this role, you will build key relationships with CFOs, CEOs, Vice Presidents, and Presidents with leading Fortune 500 Companies and consultant with them on their needs for top talent.

Skill Requirements:
•Candidates should have a strong track record of success working in an aggressive sales environment.
•Bachelor’s degree required. CPA or MBA preferred.
•Minimum of 10+ years of professional work experience ideally in one of the following disciplines: Recruiting, Sales, Finance, Business Operations, or Public Accounting. (Recruiting experience, while preferred, is not required.)
•Applicants must have a general understanding of corporate accounting and finance. Research skills are also critical.
•Excellent business acumen and strong written and oral communication skills are required.
•Proven negotiation skills, the ability to persuade and influence decision makers and executives.
•Effective at presenting to executive management, i.e. C-Level.
•Professionalism, personal integrity, a high internal commitment to achieve success, the ability to build and maintain a vast network of professional relationships over a long period of time, strong oral and written communication skills.
•Candidates must have a passion to achieve excellence in sales and be highly self-motivated.

What We Offer:
•State of the art technology & a robust CRM database.
•Ongoing training and development in sales, recruiting, and our technology.
•Fun and team driven work environment.
•Excellent compensation package and benefits.
•Challenging work and promotion opportunities for dedicated professionals.

How I Optimized My Career Path

2010-05-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Over lunch, I thought about assigning variables to a career search. Here's what I came up with:

I want make money as an X.
I want to live in Y.
I want to work at a Z.

In 2002, I wanted to change careers. My old job looked like this:

I make money as a QA ENGINEER living in SANTA CLARA, CA working for a SEMICONDUCTOR STARTUP.

And this is what I was looking for in my next position:

I want to make money DOING ANYTHING BUT QA WORK living ANYWHERE working for ANY COMPANY.

Do you know how depressing it is to want a career change, but have no direction? It sucks! So what did I do? The worst thing possible. I went to graduate school for an MBA, got a high powered education, buried myself in student loan debt, and still had no idea what I wanted to do. Things only started to turn around for me when I picked a direction. In May of 2004 as I prepared to graduate from grad school, I forced myself to pick this direction:

I want to make money in SALES working living in A BIG CITY at a COMPANY THAT PROVIDES TRAINING.

It wasn't a super specific plan, but it was good enough to get me going. I started off selling insurance for Farmers, and then for a great company called SelectQuote, and then moved onto recruiting. Now my plan looks like this:

I want to be the CEO & HEAD RECRUITER living in SAN FRANCISCO, CA of a BILLION DOLLAR RECRUITING COMPANY.

Whatever your status is, it helps to know how much direction (or lack there of) you have. You don't have to know everything about what you want to do, where you want to do it, or who you want to do it for. However, the more you avoid defining your own career path, the more fate/others/luck/any-force-but-you decides for you.

A Second Chance Via Startup Internships

2010-04-27T05:58:00.000-07:00

I love the idea of giving people a second chance. The hardest part about switching careers isn't learning new skills, it's getting someone to believe you're capable and serious of staying the course.

I'm partnering with Blazing Cloud to place Ruby on Rails interns at startups. Working with this program has been extremely fulfilling and rewarding. There is an entire population of people studying Ruby on Rails that would love to get into Rails programming professionally, and these folks just need a little help to show they are credible.

This person I know, let's call her Jenny, is a senior in college and has been programming for 8 years. She builds small business websites in PHP, Ruby on Rails, etc. Jenny knows how to write SQL, do front end programming in Javascript, etc. The challenge Jenny faces is 3 years ago she thought majoring in business would be a cool, but looking back she wished she'd picked computer science. Jenny wants to become a great programmer, but she needs to find the right opportunity.

The Blazing Cloud internship program makes it easy to hire Jenny at the right price. In advance Jenny is screened for technical depth, ability to learn, and motivation to become a programmer. Example - "So Jenny, you say you've been working on cool & complicated stuff. Show me!" Blazing Cloud works with Jenny teaches her enough about best practices, the latest and greatest in web development, and provides her the structure and oversight to become successful and self sustaining.

Jenny wins. The company wins. Sarah Allen, the head of Blazing Cloud, satisfies her compulsive need to make the world a better place. Everyone wins (and feels good about it, too!)

Captain's Resume Delayed (A Good Problem)

2010-04-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

In the last week, two companies approached me asking for help in recruiting new people. Both companies me to help them recruit, and neither asked for my resume.

Start a blog, put up a half-decent LinkedIn profile, and be good at something - apparently that's one combination for how to get work to find you. It'd be nice if everyone could chuck the resume forever!

Dear CR: Expenses High, Salary Low

2010-04-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

DEAR CAPTAIN RECRUITER:

I've got a lot of bills to pay and my current salary doesn't cover my living expenses. Normally I could earn more money, but there's a shortage of opportunity going around. Any suggestions?

SINCERELY:
BLEEDING GREEN

--------------------

DEAR BG,

You've got a few options, none of them easy.

First, you can cut your expenses. This is the hardest to do because it forces you to look at yourself and confront the fact that you can't live the lifestyle you've become accustomed to. I went through the process last year. At first I hated it, but now I love it. These days I hardly spend money on anything, and it feels pretty frikkin' good. It's easier to keep money you've got than to go make more of it.

Second, you can get a 2nd job. This option won't work for everyone given that there aren't enough jobs to begin with. Also, if your primary job requires you to think a lot, your performance may start to suffer. A good computer programmer working during the day and serving food at night is going to become exhausted, and thus a become bad programmer.

Third, you can move. There may be more opportunity somewhere else, so go look for it. Just be sure to make it easy on the employer who wants to hire you. Unless you're in high demand, no one really wants to think about what it'll take to relocate you and your family a bajillion miles. You also don't have to move to find another job. You could find a tropical location in a cheap part of the world and chill out for a year. Sitting on the beach doesn't cost a damn thing.

Use your imagination. Spend less and save more. You can do it.

LATERS,
CAPTAIN RECRUITER

Captain Writes A Resume - Day 6: Education At The Bottom

2010-04-21T23:59:00.000-07:00

From 4/16 to 4/22, I'm writing my own resume. It's time to stop pontificating and see if I can actually put one together myself.

I'm putting my educational accomplishments at the end of my resume. I'm already established in my field, which means my career doesn't depend much on what I studied where. And given that the degrees I earned at the schools went to don't hold much of a wow-that's-impressive punch, there's no special reason to flaunt my pedigrees.

There are good reasons to put education at the top of a resume.

You have no work experience.

You took time off to go to school.

You degree is directly relevant to the position you want.

Captain Writes a Resume - Day 5: Picking A Theme

2010-04-20T22:52:00.000-07:00

From 4/16 to 4/22, I'm writing my own resume. It's time to stop pontificating and see if I can actually put one together myself.

My theme is contract recruiter. I'm good at sales, recruiting, strategy, business development, and other things, but my goal is keep future clients focused on what they are most likely to pay me to do. I don't want to work for a staffing agency, and I don't want to work as a permanent employee. I want to work temp gigs as a recruiter, so that's what my resume is going to say.

Captain Writes A Resume - Day 4: Relevant Density

2010-04-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

From 4/16 to 4/22, I'm writing my own resume. It's time to stop pontificating and see if I can actually put one together myself.

There's no room for fluff allowed on my resume; every piece of information should say something about who I am or what I've done. There will be no phrases like "References available upon request" or "I wish to work for a highly dynamic and fast paced company." Believe me, if you really strip out the crapola, it can be hard to fill up one page.

The Recruiter Is Not The Applicant

2010-04-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

I just got an "application" for a position I'm trying to fill. The applicant isn't an applicant, because they included neither a cover a letter nor a resume.

For the cover letter they said "For resume contact me."

The document that should have been a resume said "For resume contact me."

I wouldn't have bothered mentioning this if it'd never happened before, but ~1% of applications I get don't include the information I need to even consider it an application. So, for all applicants out there, please do not ask me to ask you for your resume, because I won't :)

Captain Writes A Resume - Day 3: Feedback

2010-04-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

From 4/16 to 4/22, I'm writing my own resume. It's time to stop pontificating and see if I can actually put one together myself.

On Friday I sat down with a client and asked him point blank for feedback on recruiting I've done for him. He was willing to share, and listening to what he said was really interesting. Here's the short, short version...

What I did well:

Learning and understanding what the positions I recruit for are really all about.
Following through on things; I didn't have to be micromanaged.
Screening candidates very well and shielding the hiring manager from irrelevant applications.
I built a new QA team for him from scratch, and he REALLY valued this. I think this is going on my resume.

What I could have done better:

Be more proactive about setting expectations; the hiring manager was relying on me to convey recruiting best practices.
Focus more on selling the merits of the organization, not just the duties of the position.
Loosening up a little bit; I put a lot of pressure on myself.