Smoking and Sloppiness

We all know the job market is tough - lots of competition for any decent position, tricky and mind-bending interview questions, lack of reliable feedback during the process, hiring managers unwilling to make the call on the offer - you get the idea. In addition to the clear and obvious barriers and hurdles to that job seekers have to overcome, there can often be another set of hidden, and much less obvious things that might result in a candidate getting eliminated from contention for the job.

These are the kinds of attributes we generally like to classify as 'fit', which is kind of a made up construct to collect all those traits or background elements that we can't really quantify or easily justify in our screening process, but we know what they are when we see, hear, smell them. 'Fit' could come to mean just about anything depending on the organization, position, or whim of the hiring manager. Did the candidate graduate from Auburn and the boss bleeds Alabama Crimson? Maybe the candidate spent the last few years at a company known for its freewheeling and anything goes culture, and your shop thinks cutting loose is casual Friday during the summer. Or maybe a solid candidate just went a little too heavy on the Jean Nate after-bath splash and you couldn't really concentrate on anything they said in the interview.

Or, if you are looking to get hired as an assistant football coach working for the 'Ol Ball Coach Steve Spurrier on the University of South Carolina staff, you might not want to be a smoker. Or fat and sloppy.

Yep, according to a couple of tweets from a Coumbia State newspaper reporter, the 'Ol Ball Coach when asked what he was looking for in potential assistant coaches, Spurrier said he wanted non-smokers, and also had a dislike for 'fat, sloppy guys.'  Here are the tweets from the press conference:

Not great if you happen to be a good coach that is a smoker who is also fat and sloppy.  It is kind of tough to take a lot of offense with Spurrier's point of view, many companies are now starting to penalize smoking employees with health insurance surcharges, and some are refusing to hire smokers at all.

The 'fat and sloppy' part of the opinion is perhaps less defensible. But like smoking, and at least in Spurrier's opinion, being 'fat and sloppy' suggests something about a candidate, that they won't be a good public face for the team, that they might be undisciplined, or they might not been seen to 'project' some kind of image that Spurrier envisions for the team. Truth is, it is hard to know what exactly is in Spurrier's head, or any hiring manager's for that matter, when they start evaluating, ranking, screening, etc. on these kinds of 'fit' factors.

If you are a job seeker, you already have a lot going against you, mostly things you can't do much about. It might be too late and too expensive to get that Harvard MBA, or score 10 years of 'progressive managerial responsibility' in the EXACT industry you applied to. 

But if you are still smoking you probably can quite. And you might be able to lose a couple of pounds. And tuck in that shirt while you are at it. You never know what you're begin graded on, so you might as well assume it is everything.

Better Job Ad Writing and Selling Snowblowers

The other day the SAI site featured this piece - This Epic, 900-Word Classified Ad For A Used Snowblower Has Canada Agog, a review of a story out of Northwest Canada and one guy's efforts to sell his used snowblower on an online classifieds site called Kijii.  The Machine of Snow Doom

The SAI piece links out to the full classified listing for the machine on the Kijii site, and I highly recommend you take a few minutes to read the entire ad, (even if you are not in the market for a used snowblower, and besides the machine did already sell for asking price). Then spend some time thinking about how this truly epic snowblower ad kind of debunks many of the typically held assumptions about writing ad copy, be it for machinery or even job postings on the corporate career site or job board.

Some highlights from the epic snowblower ad:

1. Opening Line:

"Do you like shoveling snow? Then stop reading this and go back to your pushups and granola because you are not someone that I want to talk to."

Boom - sets the context of the opportunity, challenges the reader, (or for you the job seeker), to immediately consider whether or not they should keep reading.

2. Connecting to the Need

"Here’s the deal. I have a snow blower and I want you to own it. I can tell you’re serious about this. It’s like I can almost see you: sitting there, your legs are probably crossed and your left hand is on your chin. Am I right? How’d I do that? The same way that I know that YOU ARE GOING TO BUY THIS SNOWBLOWER."

You need to read the entire ad to really see how Cho makes an effective and interesting case about how the snowblower will be the answer to the buyer's problems, but suffice to say that 95% of job ad copy does nothing to acknowledge the value proposition back to the job seeker. Mostly, throwaway lines like 'Join our firm and take your skills to the next level' pass for addressing the needs and dreams of the job seeker.

3. Call to Action

"Here’s what you do. You go to the bank. You collect $900. You get your buddy with a truck and you drive over here. You give me some cold hard cash and I give you a machine that will mess up a snowbank sumthin’ fierce. I’ve even got the manual for it, on account of I bought it brand new and I don’t throw that kind of thing away. Don't want to pay me $900? Convince me. Send me an offer and I'll either laugh at you and you'll never hear back from me or I'll counter."

Nice one. Here Cho lays out what you are going to de next, after making the case for why you would do it in the first place. He even allows for some real-life negotiation for people genuinely engaged in the process. The connection to the job ad? Mainly the impersonal, one size fits all, same generic and cold process steps for every person, every job that is posted, and no real connection to the organization and the opportunity as something the job seeker can see themselves a part of. Mostly job seekers just feel like they are entering the abyss when they hit 'apply'.

The end result was that Cho did sell the snowblower as I mentioned, but not before attracting over 500,000 views of the online ad, and receiving over 1,400 responses, including (according to Cho), job offers, requests for dates, and advice on writing ad copy. Wonder what other benefits better job ad writing might accrue to the smart organization?

The big point in all this? That a random guy, (not a trained writer or marketer), can use real, simple, and creative communication to attract attention, engage an audience, and make a boring 4-year old snowblower seem like a dream-fulfilling wonder machine.  

What do you think? Could any of these approaches or ideas help your organization advertise its opportunities?

The Most Interesting Corporate Career Site in the World?

It just might be this one, from stealth start-up Scopely. Scopely is clearly after talent that will match up well not only with the skills and experience that their opportunities require, but that will fit with its, let's say, out of the ordinary culture. When your CTO takes front and center on the company career site, complete with martini and a series of irreverent pitch lines like 'Did GOD use your wireframes to CREATE the HIMALAYAS?', candidates certainly get the impression that Scopely, at least taken at face value, is not looking for 'average' talent.Are you sure you want a job here?

And beyond the CTO as the Dos Equis man picture, and the pithy come on lines, Scopely sweetens the pot with an aggressive and creative sign-on/referral program. Newly hired engineers, (or their friends that make a successful referral), are eligible to receive a package that includes some of today's 'must-have' tech wizard items like a speargun, a 'fancy tuxedo', a year's supply of the aforementioned Dos Equis beer, and oh yeah - $11,000 in cash. Face it, no matter how cool your employee or alumni referral program is, unless you can find some 'sex panther cologne' or have some Cuban cigars laying around in the supply room, our clever friends at Scopely have you topped.

What does Scopely even do you might be wondering? Who knows, exactly? And the careers site, for all its fun and wackiness, doesn't make it easy at all to figure out. But perhaps that is part of the point. While the 'Dos Equis Man' takeoff, and the promise of beard oil and bacon wrapped cash, (did I forget to mention the $11K bonus comes wrapped in bacon?), are mostly designed to grab attention in a really competitive market for start-up software development talent, there is also just a hint of expectation that prospects, (or referrers), would have to do some digging to really learn about the organization and the potential opportunities. Sort of the same way most of us expect candidates for our organizations to do.Your referral bonus

And one more point about Scopely, their sort of insane careers page, and the most bizarre referral package I've seen in ages. No matter what you think of it all, and you're probably thinking it's either stupid, or just amusing, and NOT AT ALL what would be appropriate for your company, they have done all of us a favor of sorts. By setting a new kind of ceiling for recruiting fun and surprise, they in a way have given any of us a type of permission to get more creative and fun ourselves.

No matter how offbeat, unusual, unexpected, and crazy by your standards idea you have seems, the kind of idea that the suits and the bigwigs would NEVER approve, there is almost no chance it would top Scopely in those departments. So you have a kind of out, an excuse, a way to play the 'Look, I know this idea seems wild, but it really isn't all that crazy, just look at what these idiots at Scopely are doing. See, my plan is actually kind of conservative.' 

Maybe the comparison won't get your idea approved after all. But even if it doesn't, you'll at least get to have a few laughs with the boss while you Google 'Sex Panther Cologne'.

Yes! Automation! Now let's hope the volume picks up

This weekend while perusing the Human Resources news and headlines, (in the almost unusable 'new and improved' Google Reader), I came across this story from the Wisconsin State Journal:What's the URL again?

City's Job Application Process Goes Online.

The 'city' in the headline is Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. Madison has a population of about 230K, and employs about 3,000 or so people in a number of professional, technical, service, and administrative positions. And the linked story describes Madison's transition to a new system for posting available jobs and for accepting job applications.

While in late 2011, a city and employer of that stature and size to finally move to an automated online job application process might paint them as being a little late to the HR and Recruiting technology party, it still is a move that should be recognized and congratulated. Progress is progress, and it stands to reason that whatever the new technologies being implemented would have to be an improvement over what was likely a combination of paper, email, and disconnected databases that would have been used to keep track of job openings and applications.

So being the curious guy that I am, and interested in checking out the new applicant tracking system and process, I hit up the City of Madison's Human Resources and Employment page here. If you visit the page you will see a normal, if uninspiring career information page, with links to the different areas of employment, pages to get additional information, and a front and center 'Welcome' message that is kind of too long, (about 300 words), and does not really do anything to 'sell' the city as an employer.

But to check out the newly designed and launched online application system, I actually had to perform a search for open jobs, to see the search functions, how the open jobs present, how the registration and application process would work - things the average HR Tech geek finds fascinating. So I clicked the link titled 'Job Openings' to do what I figured was a 'blind search', one with no filters or screens entered so as to return all the open jobs at the City.

The new system immediately returned the list of open jobs. All one of them, an opening for a 'Streets Superintendent' with a pay range from $84,616 - $114,231 - not a bad gig at all. But that was the only job listed on the site. Pretty disappointing even for me, who only wanted to check out the new system and process, imagine what a real Madison, Wisconsin job seeker must have thought after reading all about the new online technology, and how it would be sure to streamline and improve the job application process. Streamline and automate? For one entire open job?

I get that times are really hard, particularly for cash-strapped cities and towns. And eventually, hopefullly, the City of Madison will soon be able to resume more 'normal' hiring for a 3,000 employee organization. But after reading about the new system and process only to find that the shiny new process is essentially useless, (unless you are a potential new Streets Superintendent), you're definitely left a little disappointed and perhaps even angry.

New systems for online job application and posting aren't free, and installing a new one, and then issuing press releases and statements indicating the same, at a time when there is almost no practical application for the system strikes me as a little unwise. Let's hope the new system was put in place at a downtime in hiring so that it will be ready and have all the bugs ironed out for when things turn around.

Until then, Madison you better make sure each and every candidate for Streets Superintendent gets the A-treatment. 

Recruiting on Facebook? Like Fishing Where the Fish Are

Today the folks at BranchOut, the professional networking application built on top of Facebook announced the general availability of Recruiter Connect, their new recruiter focused product designed to provide a platform to allow corporate recruiters to more effectively source candidates from Facebook's 800 million or so users, build private talent networks from which to cultivate candidates, and tap into the social graphs of employees and other recruiters in the organization.

I was able to see a demonstration of the product and ask some questions of the BranchOut team in advance of the launch today. From the functionality that I saw, and as you might be able to tell from the screen grabs attached to this post, the Recruiter Connect application is clean, easy-to-understand, and has a nice intuitive design and flow. As I watched the demo one of my notes simply read, 'This is really cool.' Maybe not a particularly insightful observation on my part, but still important I think. Enterprise applications, in a way, are not just for the enterprise anymore. Meaning that users of enterprise apps today, especially ones tied to consumer oriented social platforms, need to almost mimic the design, layout, flow, and feel of the fun to use and no explanation required to get going public social networks.Click for full size image

I'll have to admit I was personally kind of slow to come around to the idea of recruiting on Facebook, at least conceptually. Perhaps it was too many grad students over the past few years indicating they'd never see a reason or desire to want to be recruited via a social network seen to be a personal space, meant for sharing updates and photos with close friends and family. But over the last two years or so attitudes even among the most reluctant seem to have shifted, and as social networks in general, and Facebook in particular, have become such a central component of online identity, for the making and sustaining of social connections, and these days for seeking job opportunities and strengthening professional contacts; the ability to successfully tap into Facebook for sourcing and recruiting is fast becoming an essential capability for many organizations.

So if you are warming up to the idea that since everyone is on Facebook, (something you really can't say for LinkedIn, and definitely not Twitter, and certainly not some of the other job board or professional communities out there), then understanding the unique Facebook environment, articulating the correct approach and strategy, and importantly, finding the right tools to enable your social sourcing and recruiting strategies on Facebook; are probably on your agenda or soon will be as a corporate recruiting leader.Click for full size image

And for now BranchOut is leading in that space. Yes, there are lots of other applications and solutions that have either centered on Facebook as a sourcing/recruiting platform, or have augmented their existing ATS or other solutions to connect with and attempt to exploit the Facebook social graph, and I am sure they will be many more to come; but for now it seems like they're all chasing. Either chasing the platform itself and the attitudes and inclinations of its users, or chasing the first movers, (like BranchOut), in fear of missing their passage to social recruiting success.

Though the future past 18 months or so is just about impossible to predict, Facebook isn't going away anytime soon. And neither is most organizations' need to continually feed the talent beast, even in these tough economic times. So if the talent are mostly swimming around on Facebook, then you probably ought to consider how to drop a line in that ocean, and the tools from BranchOut are a good place to start.