So You Want to Be Our Marketing Director…

….huh-zah.

Seriously: I’m not being snide.  That’s fantastic.

So, why?

Why?

WHY???

Why did you apply?

Like the other 400+ people.

Most of them talented writers.

Put together one hell of a cover letter.  (Many of them referring to how they “don’t just think outside of the box: they live outside of it”  That’s a quote.  From about a dozen different applicants.  The box apparently got too full.)

When they did address it, it was “To Whom it May Concern.”  Or something equally personal.

Attached their resume.

Wondered why we never called.

You shouldn’t have applied.

None of them should have.

What you should have done (or, will do – that’s a hint, hombre) was to market yourself.

If a sales person doesn’t close me in an interview, they don’t get the job.

If an engineer can’t work (logically) through a problem, they don’t get the job.

If a marketer doesn’t market themselves for a job… well, you know…

The person who gets this plumb (hey, nothing more fun than reworking a brand and making it sing) job is the same person who has marketing in their DNA: it would never occur to them to just shoot in a resume and pray.  No matter how clever you write your cover letter, so did somebody else.  And somebody else.  And….

They’ll approach this the same way they would any campaign: research their target audience, figure out their pain points, and then come up with a clever got-the-recruiter-talking-about-them-at-the-coffee-machine approach.

 Because that’s the job.  Prove you can do it from the start.  Don’t just (e)mail it in.  Innovate a little, for gods’ sake.

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Summertime’s the Right Time…

…to conduct a job search.  This runs counter to some public opinion (companies aren’t hiring, people are on vacation and can’t interview, etc).  So far from the truth.  Fact is, business never stops, and companies don’t stop hiring just because the weather’s a bit warmer.  If anything, this is a great time to seek a job out.  Why?  Less competition.  Think about it: thanks to that common misconception, your competition for jobs is probably slowing down their searching.  They’re also likely sitting tight because they have some vacation planned and don’t want to lose that week in Maine because of a new job. 

Now, it can be tricky getting noticed during the summer, and responses from HR can be slower, because there is some truth to idea that vacation time within your target company means that the person you apply to may be out for a week or two and you’re resume won’t get looked at for awhile – worse yet, it may become buried.  So you need to accomodate for that.  Apply the usual way, but then try and find an alternate contact at the company (ideally, someone who looks like the might be a/ the manager in the department you’re applying to) – you can use a tool like ZoomInfo’s Fresh Contacts to find these folks.  Once you have that alternate, wait a day or two and then shoot them a note, along the lines of:

Hi

I applied for the role of Software Engineer – Java/ J2EE with ZoomInfo a few days back.  Since I’m assuming this is an important position for you, and I think I’m a good match for it, I wanted to make you aware of my interest in case the person who normally handles resume screening is on a summer vacation.  I’m attaching a copy of my resume – feel free to get back to me with any questions.  Hope you’re having a lovely summer!

Are you being a pest? Nope!  You’re considerate, and courteous.  Best part about this?  If your resume wound up in an HR black hole, and you really are a good fit, that manager will be banging on doors to get you in for an interview.

David Perry (Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters) – Good Advice

David Perry’s great.  He has a new book out – Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters – that you should buy, now.  Worth the investment.  Here’s a video interview he and  his co-author, Kevin Donlin, just did with the Wall Street Journal.

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Resume Phrases A No-No

Out of the box (By now, apparently, we’ve all crawled out of the box.  Hell, even the investment bankers did – and, whoops.  Apparently their box was the same one Pandora took a peek in)

Synergy

Team player

Excellent communication skills (usually with a typo or two)

Vast knowledge of (gee, that’s great – wait, is it you, God, with your vast knowledge?  It’s me, Martin…)

Win-win (oh, hell, any one of the 7 Habits)

Excellent people skills

……

What I’m Looking for in a Software Engineering Candidate

We’re doing some hiring in our engineering group.  Incredibly cool stuff happening here: complete rebuild of our our core platform, live apps, UI.  Re-architecting it all in Java (we’ve been a C#/.Net & C++ shop until now).  Taking our UI, and making it hugely interactive, yet elegantly simple.  Developing new metaphors for search.  And, more that we’re not public with yet.

We’re going to need software engineers with chops in Java for both our Core platform (semantic, AI, rocket-science type stuff), and Web Dev team (that beautiful UI I mentioned, plus major changes to our apps, and more to come). Lots of interesting problems, in other words.

It’s kind of like building the technology for a start-up, front to back, but at a place that’s already profitable, and has 5 million unique visitors per month (instant eyes-on your work – cool!)

We want you to come help us figure it out.

So, this is an opportunity.  A hell of an opportunity.  Let me repeat: an absolute (cover your kids eyes) mutha-fuckah of an opportunity.  Every software engineer in & around Boston should be clawing their way to get in here.  And, we’re getting some traction around that.

But here’s the thing: we want the best.  I figure it’s fair: best software engineering opportunity in Boston, possibly one of the best in the country, deserves the best software engineers.

No more or this “contributed to”, “supported”, “implemented” crap on your resumes.  I want you to brag.  Say “Architected & built from the ground up”.  “Led team to glory”.  “Researched and championed the use of [insert name of esoteric but cool technology here], which led to rapid scaling of…”

You get the idea.  Be amazing.  Don’t be some also ran, mostly worked as a consultant, never showed initiative.  Stun us.  We’ll give you work to do that you’ll thrive on.

I mean, think about it: this has been a Microsoft shop, and now we’re free.  But, the team’s light on Java – you’ll be the man/woman.  Major resource, cool cat, all of it.  Get yer ass over here, before somebody else does.

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