How Not to Hire a Web Designer
Looks like hiring time is upon us, because over the past two weeks or so I’ve gotten four unsolicited emails (three from recruiters, one from a “hiring manager”) asking if I’d be interested in setting up a phone interview.
Every one of them spends at least a paragraph describing what an exciting, fast-paced environment their company is, with a diverse client portfolio developing custom dynamic interactivity-driven blah blah blah web sites.
Another paragraph is spent discussing what they expect from me; self-starting detail-oriented multi-tasker fluent in blah blah blah 2.0 SEO social networking purple monkey dishwasher.
Why I’m Not Going to Interview With Any of Them
Aside from, well, already having a job; not one of them actually told me why exactly they want me to come work for their company.
Why not take the time to at least pretend to be somewhat interested in me, personally? Get me excited! There’s even a whole (albeit rambling) page right here chock full of details to pull from.
Ask me what I’m currently reading or how I learned to Waltz. Make a connection!
There’s got to be something in there that we have in common. Hell, lie to me!
“Hey saw you play the drums, so does my husband!“
“What position do play in soccer? I played in high school too!“
The point is, If you’re going to come to ask me to apply to your company, I would be much more interested if I thought that maybe, you know, you actually wanted me to come work with you.
Get me excited, make me feel special. Tell me how pretty I am that you think I do good work and you just have to talk to me.
Thanks, But No Thanks
While I appreciate the interest, don’t send me a form letter and a copy of your classified ad pasted into an email. Next time I’m out looking for a job, don’t you worry— I’ll find it.
Comment
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I can relate. For about a year I had recruiters hounding me, mostly sending me boilerplate job descriptions probably sent to 100 other folks. One of them was an in house recruiter for a large company. I told them all to buzz off.
Then an external recruiter called me, took the time to make a connection, and what do you know I heard her out, even though I wasn’t interested. After talking with her, it turns out I was interested, and the job was the one the internal recruiter had tried to get me to interview for months before.
· beth · 26/10/07 09:13 AM · #
Must be experienced with Dreamwever, FrontPage, Coda, PHP, ASP.net, Cold Fusion, Java, Ruby on Rails, Ruby, CakePHP, Symfony, Ajax, JavaScript, HTML, XHTML, WML, CSS, CGI, Flash, SOAP, REST, APIs, Microformats, XPATH, WSDL, RDF, IIS, Apache, Mongrel, Lighttpd, MySQL, PostgreSQL, COBOL, C#, Oracle, DB2, Windows, OSX, and nginx.
Sound interested? We are a fast paced web 2.0 technology company that builds social networks that tie in openID and Microformats to allow for portability. We are competing with the likes of Facebook and MySpace.
Hope to have you on our team!
· Nate Klaiber · 26/10/07 09:46 AM · #
Nate you forgot to mention that this is an Entry-Level position; 3-5 years experience in an agency setting and 4 year degree required, Masters preferred. Some administrative/office work also included.
° brendan · 26/10/07 11:22 AM · #
@beth — a while back I had a recruiter sending any and all IT related job my way, up to and including tech call-center crap. Once I explained to her what exactly I’m qualified for, she actually took the time to listen to what I be interested in considering and only sent me relevant postings.
Of course she left the company right when I realized it was time to leave my last job…
Don't know how I ended up on these lists (perils of having a portfolio site I guess), but the stuff they send out is garbage. And why is it so taboo to give out a ballpark salary range?
° brendan · 26/10/07 11:28 AM · #
Nate posted: “Must be experienced with Dreamwever, FrontPage, Coda, PHP, ASP.net, Cold Fusion, Java, Ruby on Rails, Ruby, CakePHP, Symfony, Ajax, JavaScript, HTML, XHTML, WML, CSS, CGI, Flash, SOAP, REST, APIs, Microformats, XPATH, WSDL, RDF, IIS, Apache, Mongrel, Lighttpd, MySQL, PostgreSQL, COBOL, C#, Oracle, DB2, Windows, OSX, and nginx.
I say: What? No XML? Clearly, such a job is BENEATH me. I know everything about everything and this company might limit me or box me in!
(raspberries)
· Bridget Stewart · 26/10/07 02:04 PM · #
When I see crazy stupid job postings I see opportunity. That’s when I swoop in and tell them that they won’t find that person, they don’t exist. Now I should probably mention that I have never gotten any work from doing this but it has started conversations and you plant the seed. I should also mention that those conversations usually end with the potential client(s) saying “Wow, your expensive”.
· Brad · 29/10/07 02:24 PM · #