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.

Software Engineering Jobs Around Boston

Hey, you.

Psssst – yeah, you. The one with the job you kinda-sorta like, where you’ve been comfortable for a couple of years. The problems are relatively interesting – not amazing, and, honestly, getting redundant – and you know where the cafeteria is, the short cuts home, all of that. Frankly, it’s not great – morale’s down, and turnover’s increasing, but, hey, it’s better than nothing, right?

Right?

No. No, it isn’t. We both know you’d be happier somewhere else. We also know the economy the past few years made the idea of a job search, well, dicey. Out of the frying pan, a quick bounce into the fire, and then likely into the unemployment line. So you held onto your job, watched friends get axed, took on their work, maybe (if you were lucky) took on some extra pay as a “thank you for doing three people’s jobs, here’s a nickel” kind of thing, and quietly said “I’ll move when it’s better.”

It’s better. Really, really better. I’m kind of at the tip of the spear when it comes to hiring, just the nature of my role, and I’m busy.  Frankly, I’m busy enough that I need candidates more than I need clients. The seesaw supply-and-demand nature of my industry just flipped (as it does, over and over and…)

In any event, I’m looking for a few good people – primarily software engineers – for clients in and around Boston. The opportunities I’m working on range from consulting to product development to R&D. Tech from .NET to Java, Ruby to Python.

Spread the word, and reach out yourself if you’re interested. The game’s afoot. You can reach me at: mrtnburns AT gmail

Okay, Look…

…if the job requirements include: Semantic Java, Hibernate, etc.  And the company is: a Web 2.0 business information engine that’s created (and is creating more) highly disruptive products.  And the team we’re looking to hire for: is our Core development team, which focuses on natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and information integration.

And you are: an embedded software engineer with a PhD in electronics, and a Masters in signal processing and controls.

Then, you can’t claim in your cover letter that your: “working experience closely matches the position requirements.”

Here’s the thing.  If this cat had made a strong, thought out pitch about how his work experience was in any way relevant, it’s not out of the realm of possibility he would get considered by some companies.  Not here, because we honestly need directly relevant experience for this critical hire, but a larger organization might have thought “hmm, smart guy, can communicate – and, it never would have occurred to us from his resume, but yeah, that project he did is relevant to what we do…”

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Looking for a Job? On Twitter Yet? How ’bout Slideshare?

 

Quick tip from behind the Green Curtain: I’m looking for a software engineer with experience working with core Java, and (hopefully) some semantic Java experience.  Just did two searches that I think you, as a job seeker, should be aware of:

1. Ran a search on Slideshare looking for people who’ve posted presentations they’ve made around those topics, and reached out to the interesting ones
   • If you’ve ever done a presentation on the topic you make your bread from, you should upload it and be found by geeks like me
2. Ran a search through Twitter for people who’ve used phrases like “semantic java”, “core java”, “java”, etc recently.  I also added in “software engineering job” as a variable to each search (and removed to expand them)
   • If you’re looking for a job, create a Twitter account (takes about a minute), and make some comments (I don’t like using Twitter lingo, because they make my 20 month old sound like a linguist by comparison, but they call them “tweets” – I know, I know… just don’t ever call me one of your “tweeple”, or we’re going to have words.  Mine will actually make sense)
   • As you grow your list of followers/ followees, makes sure you connect with people that might be able to help you, and that you can help
   • Occasionally mention that you’re: a [insert your profession here] who’s looking for a job – use variations.  The key thing is to imagine me, trying to find you, using keyword searches.  Make sure you put out ones that help me find my way to you.
   • Feel free to follow me

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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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