Surviving (hell, _killing_) the Technical Intereview

Mikhail Naganov has written a handy post for engineers who are stressing out about interviewing.  He’s spot-on when he says:

“what are the staffing needs in smart companies? They want people that can tackle complex problems in new problem areas. They want people that are responsible and passionate about their work. And, of course, they want people that can explain their solutions to colleagues.”

We’re going to grill you when you come through, but it’s not like we expect you to solve all of our problems correctly - if you do that, expect an offer before you leave (unless you’re a jerk - we have a policy against hiring those…)

One more resource I’d point you at (hat tip to Mikhail) - Steve Yegge’s poston interviewing at Google.  Worth a gander or two… That said, very funny counterpoint to Steve’s raving about Google culture can be found here (hat to William Wechtenhiser for that one).

Shameless, Shameless Plug…

…for votes :)  For whatever reason, Good to Know  is up for best recruiting blog of the year.  I’m pretty sure it’s not because my employer is paying for the grand prize (seriously - what I suspect is that Jason Davis, the guy who runs RecruitingBlogs.com, the organizer of the whole contest, is just ridiculously nice and felt bad at how poorly I did at poker last time we hung out).

While I’m under zero illusion I’ll win, I wouldn’t mind not coming in dead last.  Seriously.  Soooo…. if you’re so inclined, I’d appreciate it if you clicked here and exercised your right to vote.  Primarily in categories #1& #6 - well, feel free to vote in the rest, too - in fact, I’d recommend checking out all of the nominated blogs - there’s a lot of really great guidance out there, from a gang of remarkable minds.

Looking For a Few Good: .Net developers, algorithm engineers, product managers, sales reps, marketing managers, (oh, my)…

…for real.  There’s a ton happening on our end, and it’s all very, very good.  That said, my head’s going to explode somewhere along the way (and I promise to post the slow-mo of thatlittle beaut on YouTube).  Before that happens, though, I’m extremely interested in talking to people who have the chops to make it here (which means you have to be: smart, creative, pretty darned nice - funny helps, but we can always work with you on that one - oh, and you need to get the Web.  But you’re reading a blog post, so I’m guessing you kind of have that figured).  There are a bunch of open positions listed on the top left corner of the page, and they’re all very real.  Don’t see something that’s quite your size, smarty?  No problem - hook yourself up with an RSS feed from the ZoomInfo Career Site, and let the openings come direct to you as we publish them.

On that note - you should apply even if you don’t see a specific job.  There’s a listing for General Rock Stars you can go through.  I say that because we’re rolling out new openings according to a “plan” (it’s in quotes because we’re not thatmechanical - this is a Web company, baby, things are always a bit in flux).  If you apply, and there’s a job in the pipeline you match, we might just bring you in ahead of time - and boo-hoo to those who waited…

Executive Level Job Search Advice

Some good advice from the WSJ on resources for job seekers looking in the 6-figure salary range.  I’ve used some of the tools, to varying degrees of succes, for some of our more senior roles (btw, know a passionate, creative, Web-centric engineering leader??)

We’re Hiring - A Lot - Despite the Down Job Market

Hi there

This blog is first off an attempt on my part to help people out who are looking for work, or just unhappy where they are.  That said, I’m also hoping that people will take the opportunity to consider coming to work for us here at ZoomInfo - this is a really phenomenal place to work.  Our focus is, of course, to be a successful business, but we want to maintain the great culture that’s brought us to this point.

On that note: we have plans to do some serious hiring.  The time is right for us, as we’re anticipating lots of growth.  So despite the sharp drop in hiring that’s occurring nationwide, we’re a bit of a beacon in the dark.

I’d love to hear from you - the fact that you’re reading a blog in the first place means you must have at least some of the mindset we’re looking for.  Not all of the jobs we’re lining up are listed on our career site yet - you should apply anyways.  We can accelerate filling a role if we see a strong fit earlier than we were planning on hiring, and there are times we’ve created roles for people we just thought were too good to pass up.  Btw, I’m a sucker for a great cover letter.