Doing What You Love….

You know what I hate? That ^^

You know why? Beyond the fact that Samuel L. Jackson never said it (yes, I checked), and it’s it’s just another sign of how lazy we’ve become, intellectually, as a society? I hate it because it sets people up for misery.

Misery.  

Here’s the brutal, cold truth: odds are, you aren’t doing what you love. Odds are, what you love involves some combination of a recreational activity (ranging from gliding around Gotham on your PS4, to frisbee golf), watching Netflix, beer/ wine/ tipple of your choice, and sleeping. You may also enjoy cooking, needlepoint, etc.

Heck, you probably love yourself some family time, too. One would hope.

So: in order to pay your bills (yes, them), buy food, as well as above-mentioned frisbees, overpriced video games, frisbees, thread, cable, and bedding… You have to have money. And what the quote that set me off early this morning is telling you is…. You are wasting your life if you don’t find some way to frisbee-knit-drink-nap your way to above said bill-paying.

It’s such BS. Utter, utter BS. Some people are fortunate enough to be in roles they love – and, yes, luck is as much about hard work and perspiration, as it is about random chance. So, some people work hard, and have Dame Fortune smile on them. Others – many, many others – work hard, and… work hard. Heck, unlike Mr. Jackson, they work hard for very little. Because that’s how life is, most of the time: real. It’s the rare minority who get to be memed about how great life is, how doing what you love is all that matters, blah blah blah. I mean, if you love painting watercolors of red lobster shacks, and your life involves supporting a family of 4, a mortgage, car payments, etc – unless you’rs some sort of frickin’ genius, there’s no way you can leave that job as an actuarial analyst (and the salary it affords), just so you can go sit on a dock in Rockport, Massachusetts painting Motif No. 1.

This will not pay for 2 college tuitions.

Here’s what I’d like to see – this. (why are there no down arrow symbols on my keyboard?):

Rant, pretty much wrapped up. I’ll leave you with this: your career may not be as bad as you think it is. It may be your boss. It may be your colleagues. Heck, it may well be… you. I’m not saying “be a good little drudge, put you eyes back on the grindstone, or you get the whip”. What I’m saying is, don’t kill yourself because some hack with a Meme Generate account cut and pasted some simple minded advice onto a picture of a smirking celebrity. Life moves quickly (unless you’re at the DMV, where they’ve figured out how to warp time & space), and then it cuts off. Love what you do for love, work so you can afford it, and keep an eye out for chances to make that side stuff pay your bills. It can happen, just don’t get worked up if it doesn’t.

Public Appearances: Panels, Speakers, and Tigers… Oh My…

So…. Dusting off the blog (yet again). I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been putting content seemingly everywhere but here (I was even trending on Twitter last week… sorta). Regardless, if you follow Good to Know, you may have wondered if I’d kicked the can into the great playground in the sky. Particularly if we aren’t connected on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or some other random social site (I probably still have a Geocities account somewhere – if only I knew Japanese…) I do tend to yap a lot on those sites.

All that said: hi there. I’ve been busy with some travel lately, and some of that has involved me confronting my greatest fear: public speaking.*

Since I’m a shameless, if slightly lackadaisical, self-promoter (you should be, too – it’s your career, you need to manage it), I thought I’d catch you up on where I’ve been – in case you own a Tardis, and want to go check it out.

These are a few highlights – I’ve done some breakouts, coffee seminars, etc in between. These stood out as, well, the most fun:

• First up, I spent last week at the annual ERE Conference in San Diego. I was lucky enough to be invited onto the keynote panel, where we chatted about Strengthening Your Recruiting Department’s Internal Reputation and Influence. I was also asked to lead a team of recruiting leaders in a discussion around using mobile in recruitment – a topic I find fascinating.
• Late last year, I was asked to present at HireClix’s Recruitment Media Day, which is a neat event where recruiting leaders get to meet with various vendors of recruiting tools (Indeed, LinkedIn, etc etc) all under one roof, and do some one-stop shopping. Lots of fun talking about what’s coming over the horizon in recruitment. Hat top to Scott Ryan and Neil Costa for inviting me.

Now, and, probably more importantly: where I’m going to be/ what I’m up to:

• iRecruit Expo, Amsterdam, June 4th & 5th: That’s right – I’m crossing the Pond. And, apparently the Channel. Also a few canals. I’m leading a panel with my pal, Gordon Lokenberg. We’re going to dig into using mobile in recruitment (because, that really is the big deal everyone thinks it is). I’m also running an unconference session there, thanks to Bill Boorman.
  • If you’re interested in attending, please let me know. I’d love to catch up with you in person.
• Day-to-day-wise, I’m still with Mobiquity. With our expansion into Europe, I’ve been spending about two weeks per month there at our office, helping with an integration, as well as looking at locations for additional offices/ hiring/ etc. It’s been fascinating. I’ve also started wearing skinnier pants, and funkier shoes. This gets me made fun of in our Boston office – and I like it…
• I’m looking at a writing project, either an ebook, or an actualbook. I’d like to look at where the industry is going, as I think we’re in another evolutionary phase in the talent field. If you know a good publisher… feel free to warn them.

More to come – a few deals I haven’t fully committed to yet, for the fall. Once I have them set, I’ll update.

Best,

Martin

*Fine: I find shaved bears more terrifying than public speaking. You would, too: I mean, just look at this thing.

Senior Talent Acquisition Positions – Mobiquity – Boston, New York City

Just to follow up on my previous post, here’s the official job:

Senior Talent Acquisition Specialists – Mobiquity – Boston and NYC Offices

Are you interested in being a key part of a new recruiting department – one that’s focused on 21^st Century recruiting? Inbound-marketing oriented, utilizing the most cutting edge tools available today, a team that will invent practices and approaches that will be emulated by other recruiters?

Want to change the world (of recruiting, at any rate)? Want to have fun while you’re at it, as part of a highly respected team that works for a company that gets how important recruiting is?

Then, what are you waiting for? Seriously: skip reading the rest of this if you understand how unique that all is, and apply. Now. Toot suite, and all of that. And (or), reach out to Martin Burns, Director of Talent Acquisition: www.linkedin.com/in/martinburns/

The idea is: you get it, too. You’re a recruiter, and you think that’s pretty darned cool. You’re proud of what you do. You want to be valued, given lots of room to experiment, and take pride in helping build a company. It’s what you do.

Recruiting for a services company is fascinating: the number of moving parts, dynamic nature of the business, and how important it is to hire the absolute best makes it a unique environment for recruitment. Layer in a start-up, rapidly scaling tech company on the cutting edge of the next wave of technology, and you’ve got a unique challenge. Mobiquity is a professional services firm working with the Global 2000 to create innovative mobile solutions and apps that drive business value.  Combining strategy, user-experience design, app development and backend integration, Mobiquity delivers solutions that span the entire mobile ecosystem, driving business innovation and competitive advantage. The people are key – and, so is recruitment.

Here are some bullets….

Roles & responsibilities

• Be awesome. Funny helps, too.
• Create, and maintain, talent pools of appropriate candidates for a group of roles you’ll own – heavy on the tech side, but likely to include a mix of marketing, sales, G&A, etc
• Treat your candidates like people – because, that’s what they are. Get back to them on time, be honest about their status, don’t overpromise.
• Partner closely with hiring authorities, making sure you understand what they need, and keeping up active communication with them throughout the hiring process.
• Create engaging recruitment-marketing, from job descriptions and live events, to campaigns that drive candidates to the company.
• Research & source from unique corners – you’re not on Monster: you’re on GitHub & Stack Overflow.
• Prescreen candidates: you find it a point of pride that when it’s time to make an offer, you know exactly what it will take to close the A-player you’re looking to bring onboard.
• Gather input from subject matter experts across the company – you’re probably a sponge by nature. You find learning fantastic.
• Set up related campaign workflow, tracking and alerts within the CRM and marketing automation systems
• Track, analyze and communicate to stakeholders about candidates, the hiring market, and what it will take to keep a pipeline of A-level candidates engaged and – ultimately – hired.

Qualifications & experience

• At least 3-5 years of experience in a fast-paced recruitment environment
• Ideally, you’ve worked corporate and agency sides of the business
• Experience working with an ATS – we use JobVite, but that’s not required, everything’s teachable
• You like people – and, they tend to like you…
• Solid writing skills – you have fun creating engaging copy and job descriptions
• Did we mention a sense of humor?
• Organizational skills help – but, not rigidity. You need to be comfortable with a bit of chaos. It’s spicy.

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 feel process is 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 the next step in your journey to greatness: Find our Talent Acquisition leader, Martin Burns (you can use your mad Boolean to do that right now, or just scroll down a bit). He’s looking for people want you to share some new skills, try new approaches and make some mistakes along the way, and to grow into leaders in our game-changing, rapidly evolving profession. His goal is to make sure you get the opportunity to do all of that.

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.

The Funny Things Candidates Send Us

JobMob has a post up with a list of funny things candidates send to recruiters (hint: if you’re formatting your resume like a Playboy centerfold “fact sheet” – and you list “intelligent people” as your biggest turn-on, spell intelligent right). It’s a pretty fun read, and eye-opening. Some of those tactics actually worked.

Granted – many of them don’t. I generally recommend you only go all-in if you’ve got a good, relevant reason to do so (for instance, I’m sure Playboy’s seen the centerfold-resume schtick before, and are probably okay with it, but Bank of America might not think it’s as… appropriate). Also, be careful what you send – boob cupcakes (sense a theme here?) can, and did, misfire.

In my time, I’ve gotten a few fun ones: giant novelty aspirin; Target flip-flops; a vinyl copy of Stand! by Sly and the Family Stone; a copy of The 21 Balloons; money (seriously – well, not “real” money, just a book of McDonald’s coupons – which showed lack of research, as I’m not a fan of the golden arches). Actually, the only one that got the candidate an interview was the giant aspirin, and that’s because it was a prop in a nifty marketing campaign from the candidate. Who I’m still in contact with, because he’s clever and interesting.

I’m curious – if you’re a recruiter, what sort of weird/ greatness have you gotten? If you’re a candidate, ever tried this approach? Succeed? Fail? Would you do it again?

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

On: May 2nd, 2012 at 8 am

Hope to see you there.

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

Dangerous Status Updates

Oops.  Just saw this status update on someone’s Facebook page. Not going to mention their name, but I sure as hell hope they aren’t friends with their boss (or for that matter, anyone who knows their boss). This could get ugly:

is jealous of people that love their jobs…wish I was one of them..or at the least had a manager that gives a crap!@@%%&&