Seeking Extraordinary Talent Acquisition Professionals: Boston, Redwood City, and Beyond

In putting together a job description/ ad for the talent acquisition professionals I’m looking for, I wound up writing a manifesto. Not sure it’s what I’ll run with, but I like it. Kind of a lot. thought it deserved life somewhere, and since I have this handy-little platform available to me, I’m going to take advantage. Please, feel free to pass along, dissect, disavow, dissemble, diagnose… just, don’t duplicate (unless you’re willing to pin the blame on me). Never was a fan of copycats.

In any event: I’m building a team. It’s going to be fun. There’s loads of potential, a great platform, some interesting challenges, and support from the executive team. Don’t expect me to breathe down your neck, but do expect me to help you when you need it. I know I need people in Waltham (near Boston), Redwood City (that’d be near San Francisco), and I’ll probably need somebody in Gainesville.

Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant                                                                                                                               

Ever want to be part of building something extraordinary? Now’s your chance.

Why Join Mobiquity? Why Now? Because it’s Your Best Move, and Now is When it’s Available

There’s a reason why thought-leaders like Andrew Hiser, the pioneer of human-centered software design, have joined Mobiquity. It’s because they see the future becoming the present: Mobile changing everything.

It’s the 5^th Wave. The world in your pocket. Applications that tell doctors how well your medication is working as it passes through your body, to ones that alert a restaurant that you’ve pulled into their lot and are ready for you to walk their take-out to them.

Apps that help drug addicts recover, and apps that will help you retire wealthy.

We’re not talking about flinging birds at pigs anymore (fun as that is). We’re talking about changing how people behave, how business gets done, and how we will shape the future.

Mobiquity is at the leading edge of the wave. Positioned to define the future of mobile, a name that will become as familiar to the world as the names of the biggest successes out of the Internet wave.

Talent Acquisition Makes it All Possible

Without solid talent, organizations stagnate, and fade away. Without the greatest talent, organizations can’t surge, can’t become the key leaders in their space. Our job is to make sure that happens. We seek real recruiters. Budding talent acquisition thought leaders. We get the big It: that it’s always about the people. That A players hire A players, while B’s hire C’s, C’s hire D’s, and well… then you get to F. Failure.

Our role is to find the A’s, engage with them, excite them, and help them through the hiring process. We’re matchmakers to the Nth degree, but we’re also business people. We use marketing, social media, talent pools, innovative sourcing & research, and a degree of sales skills to attract the very best. We never cut corners, we don’t lie, harass, or avoid hard truths: we are the A-players of recruitment.

We Are Looking for You

Join us, if you see recruitment as much of a calling as a profession – if it’s your passion, as much as your paycheck. We’re going to blow some things up. You should find that exciting. You should find process a tool best used lightly. You should be funny. Funny matters, in this role and in life.

If you’re sitting there, thinking “holy crap – I’ve been looking for this!”, you have a next step in your journey to greatness: Find Martin Burns, Director of Talent Acquisition at Mobiqutiy. Work for him, if you want a boss who wants you to teach him some new skills, who wants you to try new approaches and make some mistakes along the way, and who wants to hire people who he can help grow into leaders in our game-changing, rapidly evolving  profession.

Make the Best Move – Join Mobiquity

You can find Martin all sorts of places: mburns@mobiquity.com. 617.851.7277. twitter. linkedin. facebook. etc, etc…. You’re in the game. You get it.

Related articles

• Dr. Changelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying, and Went to Mobiquity (recruiter.wordpress.com)

Dr. Changelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying, and Went to Mobiquity

Funny, how life goes. A few weeks ago, I was buzzing along, running Talent MatchUp & working with a great client called Magenic. I’d been working onsite with them for a little over two years, and it was great. Smart people to work with, a nifty little model that I think may be a significant part of how we do recruitment in the future, and I’d become friends with many of the people there.

All that said… something was missing.

That’s not unusual, of course. You spend a few years doing the same thing, and you can start to feel a bit stale. The work had become fairly routine, I was in a pattern, and… I hate that. I’m not someone who’s good at rinse-cycle-repeat, and that’s where I’d gotten myself. Not that the work didn’t have its fun challenges, but still. I wanted something harder.

Like many entrepreneurs, I don’t know how to say “ahh, this is good – don’t mess it up.” On the contrary. I honestly think I exist to mess things up. A little bit of chaos, of weird, seems to suit me. It’s probably why the Absurdists have always resonated with me. Why I felt so at home the first time I stepped into the ICA. Why I find comfort in The Fairy Fellers Master Stroke.

Safety isn’t exactly in my power alley.

So. Last Tuesday, like I do from time to time (and, you should, too), I reached out to my network. Said something along the lines of “I’m sure you haven’t, but if you’ve heard of my dream job being open, could you let me know?”

See, here’s the thing: sometimes, when you speak into the Void? The Void also speaks back to you.

In this case, it was my friend Steven. He’d heard of something. Something that was Really Cool. Perfect. Insanely great. So, like I’m always telling people they should do, I took the resume I routinely update (you should, too), and shot it to him. He made an intro to their insanely great Chief People Officer. We had coffee. She’s insanely great.

So’s the team that she lined up to meet me on Monday. They’re really great. Winning dream-time kind of people. A smart idea, and first to market. Profitable in their first year. An inspirational founder who has multiple successes under his belt. Big goals, and smart plans on how to achieve them. I really wanted in.

So… yeah. It happened. The big IT. Susan (the Chief People Officer – did I mention, insanely awesome?) asked me to come onboard, and build their recruiting department. I think I hesitated for…. no. Nope, didn’t hesitate. Couldn’t. Took the job.

So, in my rambling way, I’m very (very) happy to announce that I will be joining Mobiquity later this month, as their Director of Talent Acquisition. I’ll be rolling up Talent MatchUp in the meantime, since Mobiquity is going to be scaling hugely, and will need all of my focus (along with the recruitment team I’ll be building). It also means that Magenic will be looking for an experienced talent acquisition specialist for Waltham (know a good one? send ‘em my way, and I’ll treat ‘em right).

Mobiquity is going to be big. They’re a year out of the gate, and already a leader in the mobile space – and, with IT directors now saying that mobile spending will be  growing by 50% in 2013, that’s a good place to be. The executive team is impressive. Well planned expansion underway. They’re – wait, _we’re_  going to be hiring. A lot.

If you – or, someone you know – is looking to get in early with a game-changer, this is it. Find me anyway you can, and let me know who you (or they) are.

Short term (ie, yesterday, if possible), I’m looking to hire several experienced Sales Executives for New York and Philadelphia, as well as a Client Partner for New York. I’m going to have a lot more to share, soon (developers, developer, developers….G&A. Marketing. Recruiters…). Stay tuned.

Also: the career site needs some work. Which I find geekily exciting. Just bear with us for a brief bit.

Microsoft Tech Junkie? Like Your .NET, C#, SQL? Come to Code Mastery, Boston – It’s Freeeeeeee……

So, this is a little bit of me helping out a favorite client (Magenic), a little bit of me helping you out (if you’re a smartie who happens to dig developing in and around the .NET platform, or just wants to be around a bunch of nice geeks on a Wednesday), and a bit of me helping, well, me (because, I’d like to meet you, and help you with your next career move into a great company).

Magenic is a very cool, high-end custom application development shop. They do big project based work for clients that have hard problems to solve. The projects typically run 6 months+, are local to the office, six-seven figures in size, and require the use of the most cutting edge Microsoft technology available (for those of you whose religion is, say, Java, Ruby, whatever, calm down – .NET people are good people, too, they just develop in a diferent church platform than you do). The typical project team is a mix of architects(s), senior engineers, design, QA, project manager, etc. They don’t tend to outsource, as it helps with quality control. In between projects, consultants focus on training, speaking engagements, etc. Because they have to do some pretty heavy stuff, they hire really engaged, talented engineers and architects to get that done. Then, they give them lots of training opporunities, cool projects to work on, and the opportunity to speak at technical events like Code Camp, SharePoint Saturday, etc, about what they’re working on.

Which brings us to the post in question. They also run a series of events called Code Mastery. These are free, day-long events where they talk about what’s happening now, and whats coming, in the future for Microsoft. The speakers are interesting, bright, and highly informed, and include MVPs like Rocky Lhotka You’ll walk away with a ton of actionable information, as well ast contacts who do what you do, so well. There’s one coming up near Boston in a week that I think you should get to, if it sounds like your kinda gig.

And, if you’re looking for a job, you may well walk away with an interview scheduled…

Here’re the particulars:

Register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3290438791?ref=ebtnebregn

Go here: 21 Jones Rd, Waltham MA o2451

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On: May 2nd, 2012 at 8 am

Hope to see you there.

Would You Rather Be a Boss, or a Leader?

This is a little off-topic for me, but I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about my dad, and just found it. I was reading Conor Neil’s excellent blog The Rhetorical Journey, and was struck by a guest post he has up. The author – Eric Ronning – was thinking about the impact his grandfather’s funeral had on his development as a leader. Without giving it away, he witnessed the impact being a genuinely good human being can have on your legacy – wealth and material success don’t buy you impact. Your actions do that – and it’s usually the small ones that get repeated by you, and then others, that have the biggest ripples.

My father was a leader. For as long as I can remember, his job was leadership. His role for the bulk of my life happened to be Dean of the Undergraduate School at Bentley College (now University, but always College to me). This was a significant posting – he had control over every undergrad department, all of their staff, etc etc. After that, he essentially ran St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York, while they held an interminable search for a President (one of the “must haves” was a vow of celibacy and a set of Franciscan monk robes – pretty sure that’s what ruled him out of the top job). This was an even more significant role.

Despite all of that, my dad was one of the humblest, most down to earth people you could hope for. He was incredibly kind, sensitive to the needs of others, funny, and a skilled carpenter. That last bit is relevant – promise.  The point is: he never led by force.  I can guarantee that – it wasn’t something he was capable of.  It’s a rare talent, and, honestly, the only way to lead. It’s the cliche from martial arts movies “bend like a willow, but never break”.

I’ve worked for a number of managers, and been a leader myself. I understand how difficult it can be to not snap, bark, or just say “get it done!” and storm off. But it’s not leadership. It’s venting to someone who’s looking to you for leadership and assistance. They’re not your psychiatrist.

Here’s a possible mantra: “My staff is not paid to listen to me bitching. We are all paid because we are working together towards a common goal. My role is to speed them on their path.”

If you are anything, you are their teacher, and they are your apprentice. It’s not enough to pay the people you work for with cash – you have to pay them with an education in your craft. They should leave your tutelage and be able to teach others. That’s how knowledge moves forward.

When my father died, it broke my heart. Almost literally. Sitting by his hospital bed, interminable hours filled with slow heavy air, watching his chest rise and fall, rise and fall, quietly begging it to rise after each fall. Watching his last breath expel, that long moment when his body lay still. Knowing the world without him for the first time. These are bad memories. I’ll carry them always.

What helped was this. One of his close friends and employees, in his eulogy, related this story: “John was teaching me about carpentry. We had gotten our hands on a bunch of raw mahogany planks from an old farmer in the hills, and were going to work with them. We worked with the wood for a bit, and I picked up some sandpaper to smooth it up. John stopped me. He said that wasn’t the right way. He said that it would work, after a fashion, but there was a better way. ‘This will take more time, but it’s worth it. Take some oil on your fingers, and work it into the wood.  Keep at it.  Mahogany has its own, innerlight, that over-sanding kills. Take the time, be gentle, and the wood will glow.’ John was like that with people. Anyone who worked for him, any student who came to know him will tell you the same thing. He was gentle. He worked hard to bring out the inner light in people.”

People drove from all over the country, to a remote part of upstate New York, to say their farewells.

Years later, I ran across someone who’d been a student at St. Bonaventure. He told me that his life was amazing – thanks to my dad. That he’d been about to get kicked out of school for partying too much, and was sent to Dean Burns’s office for what he thought were his walking papers. Instead, my dad had worked out a plan to help him get back on track, stay in school, and graduate on time. He’s married now, in a career he loves, with great kids.

The point isn’t that I am incredibly lucky to be reared by someone like him. It’s clear that I am. I’m twice as lucky because my mom’s just like him. What I’m getting at is that – in the end – your worth, your riches, aren’t in a bank account. It walks around in others. If you work to inspire, to bring out the best, and forgive error? You’re rich. You’re a success.  And, to an extent: you’re immortal. It’s the only way to lead – anything else is just bossiness.