THIS WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MZINGA.COM ON 3/21
Today's Hiring Process
My company, Mzinga, is in the process of hiring for several positions. Given the fact that we are a company focused on building community for other businesses, the thought occurred to me that I might start practicing what we preach in the world of recruiting. In order to do this, changes to the existing process need to be made.
Like many other companies, here's what our basic hiring process looks like today:
- Open a job requisition
- Write job description
- Post job description
- Take in resumes
- Call/e-mail back potential candidates
- Interview leading candidates
- Hire the best candidate (in a perfect world at least)
Don't get me wrong, you can obviously get good candidates this way. For instance, when I needed to hire a marketing manager a year ago, I followed the process above and posted my job description to one of the oldest communities on the Web i.e. Craigslist. The result was impressive - 30+ resumes in 48 hours and several qualified candidates. However, what was broken about the process is that I ended up spending the better part of two weeks doing interviews. This go around, I don't have that same luxury so I need to find a better way to locate the best possible candidates with the right skill sets.
What's Broken | How to Fix It
The two biggest issues I have with the process I've outlined above is one, it's hard to really learn much about a person from a resume. Personally, I've been professionally employed for nearly 20 years now and I'll be damned if 3-4 pages in a Word document can do just to my experience during that time. Seth Godin talks more about this problem in one of his recent posts (thanks to @drthomasho for passing that post along.)
Now I understand that this is a necessary evil but that's where the power of community and social networks can really augment the process. In today's world:
My other issue I have is that even if someone looks great on paper, they may not be great in person. Now short of perfecting video conferencing (even that can be gamed), there is no substitute for a face-to-face meetings. However, if I could get a better sense of who someone is first beyond the 25-30 bullets they've used to sum up their career, I may be able to weed out people earlier on in the process. Conversely, I may be end up NOT weeding out someone that would have been cut early because I loved their blog or I know two or three of their colleagues.
What's in this for Me/Us?
If this works I:
- Can eliminate at least two or three steps from the hiriing process.
- Don't need to pay a broker - I can post on my communities (Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist)
- Should have a much higher success rate with whomever I hire because I'll already know a lot about them.
What's in this for You?
- A competitive salary
- A great job in a hot market
- 401(k) plan
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- You get to work with me!
Why this Might Not Work for Everyone
For people that aren't on social networks and don't blog, my new approach probably may not work. But the people we're looking for really need to be doing both. To that end, back to my "experiment" in hiring using community and social media tools.
The Rules
If you want to apply for one of these two jobs (descriptions below), here are the ground rules:
- No resumes. At least not the kind written in MS Word.
- If you want to get me your background, do it in the "community way." Either blog about why we should hire you or get me to your profile on LinkedIn (or your preferred social network.)
- DON'T e-mail me. If you are a community-centric person, connect with me on Twitter or Facebook - you can DM me on Twitter or email me through Facebook.
Ingenuity and cleverness count!
The Descriptions:
Social Media Marketing Manager OR Sr. Social Media Marketing Manager - located in Burlington, MA
In order to do this job well, you must:
NOTE: @conniecrosby on Twitter told me that I needed to add some "what will you be doing" bullets...
- Be a great writer - prove this to me with your blog. If you don't blog, your chances of getting this job are slim. The reason you need to be a good writer is that you will be:
- blogging
- writing presentations for various C-level executives
- podcast write ups
- session descriptions
- internal communications
- weekly columns
- Be detail-oriented - this doesn't mean that you keep all your pencils and notepads on your desk at a 90 degree angle but it does mean that you are VERY organized and that you don't let important items slip through the cracks. You'll be focused on:
- Love social media! A good lithmus test is whether or not you're active in FB, MySpace, Twitter, or some other social network (company communities/SN's count). LinkedIn and Plaxo sort of count but not as much as some of the others I've mentioned.
- You will help us evolve our Facebook, Youtube and Twitter strategies
- You will also be one of several company members that is visible in the social media community
- Bring High energy! I don't want you bouncing off the walls like you just pounded four cans of Red Bull but you need to be on your game most of the time.
- Be a hard worker. I am an always on kind of person (just ask my wife.) If this scares you, maybe you shouldn't apply. We promise not to chain you to your desk (that's why God invented laptops and WiFi) but don't expect 9-5 either.
- Have some marketing in your background. Ideally 3-5 years of experience at a big brand or start up. B2B marketing is a plus.
- Knowledge of conferences/live events/webinars. We speak and sponsor at a lot of events. Part of this job will be helping with presentations, manning the booth, and pressing the flesh.
- Podcasting skills or a desire to podcast (this is a nice to have not a need to have.) At a minimum, you will help with podcast production for the "We Show".
- Have an interest in being a community manager.
- A bachelors degree (can't get rid of all the "old school" requirements completely.)
PR Director (2.0 version) - located in Burlinton, MA
In order to do this job well, you must:
- Also be a great writer. Blogging is nice but you should at least be able to give us several writing samples that you'r proud of.
- Be able to collaborate with our executive team to establish PR/AR goals, objectives and metrics (no small task.)
- Manage our PR agency relationship (yes, you get a team to help you). Focus is on:
- Developing corporate a communications plan
- Writing and editing press releases including regular company communications, technology launches, customer case studies, partner releases, etc. (yup, back to the good old-fashioned boring stuff.)
- Conceive, write and edit bylined articles about relevant technology topics (do it well and you get to be famous!)
- Track competitive developments and craft creative responses, positioning, depositioning (translation = we measure stuff)
- Build and maintain relationships with technology, trade, bloggers, podcasters and business reporters in print, broadcast and online media - if you don't understand the term "don't pitch me bro', you may not want to apply."
- Build and maintain relationships with industry analysts; craft regular communications to key industry and technology analysts
Manage incoming media requests and conduct/staff interviews (translation = sucking up is highly encouraged - as long as it's legal.)
- Develop and manage speaking opportunities, develop speaking platforms for key Mzinga technology and business spokespeople - ideally you can trick our PR agency into doing this for you.
Qualifications:
- Minimum of 6-8 years of experience in PR and analyst relations roles, preferably in enterprise software / B2B high-tech companies, with knowledge in the areas of software, Web 2.0 and emerging technology(but we're open to creative experience)
- A bachelors degree (can't get rid of all the "old school" requirements completely.)
- Proven, measurable success in achieving positive PR and AR outcomes (there's that "measurement" word again.)
- Experience in working with technology media, business/consumer media and industry analysts required
- Experience in managing external PR agency (this should be easy - you get to tell other people what to do.)
- Excellent verbal, interpersonal and written communication skills (translation = you must be able to write good & speak good)
- Demonstrates a sense of urgency and a sense of humor (are you getting the sense that a sense of humor is a must?)
- Outstanding, detail-oriented writer and critical editor (yup, no 90 degree angles with pencils and pads but can't let the important stuff slip.)
- Expertise and success with blogs, social media and other “web 2.0” technologies as PR enablers essential. (Maybe it is a good idea if you know how to blog after all.)
- Ability to manage and execute multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-moving and competitive environment (if you can juggle - especially stuff that's on fire - you'll be a perfect fit.)
May the best (wo)man win!
UPDATED 3/21: This is what blogger (and Twitter friend) Kate Olsen had to say about this post...
UPDATED 3/22: Shel Israel's thoughts on this experiment. AND Bryan Person's take on the new way of hiring.