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Neil Patel’s wrong about why you don’t have a job

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Entrepreneur and blogger extraordinaire Neil Patel just wrote a post called “You’re the reason why you don’t have a job“.  I saw the tweet, and clicked over, expecting him to talk about your lack of passion, innovative thinking, creativity and the like.

Instead, he covered the mundane basics — things like having a 2-page (or shorter resume), personalizing your cover letters/intro mails, being on time, networking, etc.

I think the things he covered are the oxygen of job-hunting and interviewing — that is, if you aren’t doing those, you are going to be out of luck forEVER in today’s economy.

I think the real reasons that most people don’t have jobs go far beyond his list — these are the types of things that really get the door opened, and people paying attention:

1) Show Passion!  Your cover letter should contain your login/profile for the website (if it’s a consumer web company), your top idea(s) as to how to improve the experience, questions you have about things that puzzle you about the company, and more — show that you’ve dug in and are willing to question the status quo.

2) Go beyond networking.  Have back-channel feedback loops installed (i.e. ask a friend to introduce you, even if you’ve already made an initial outreach).  Get active on blog comments and/or tweet streams.  Show passion in user communities (i.e. if you’re an active Twilio-an, you’re much more likely to be noticed in the interview loop)

3) Volunteer/make a bold offer.  No one wants people to work for free (at least, ethical employers don’t want that), but we DO appreciate people who are willing to make us offers we can’t refuse.  That, plus a strong background, passion for our work, and social justification (#2 above), make it much easier to pull the trigger.

4) Get off your ass!  So many people sit around ‘waiting for people to hire them’; they’re the same people who bitch and moan about being asked to put in extra effort once they’re hired.  Get used to selling yourself, your skills, your abilities, and your passions — no one else is going to do it for you.

Also, refer to my ‘how to hire/fire at startups‘ — focus on the inverse of many of my examples — look for things that are trigger points in the relationship, and then just think the inverse.

Ernest Shackleton got 3,000 Applicants for this Job Posting

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I’m having a great time at the Founders Institute event tonight in Seattle. I really enjoyed this image that Dan Fine included in his presentation, of an advertisement that Ernest Shackleton posted for explorers for his ship. It read:

“Men wanted for hazardous journey.  Small wages.  Bitter Cold.  Long months of complete darkness.  Constant danger.  Safe return doubtful.  Honour and recognition in case of success.”

I LOVE that!  Remind me to edit our TeachStreet job descriptions going forward 🙂

Best Practices for Hiring (and firing) Startup Employees

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I was fortunate to learn many of the basics of hiring (interviewing, job descriptions, networking), management (goal setting, reviewing performance, PIPs) and firing (layoffs, termination) in previous roles — Amazon.com was extremely good at teaching me effective, behavioral interviewing practices, and many other elements of this presentation.

But it wasn’t until I founded TeachStreet that I became the person wholly responsible for the implementation of the decisions throughout the process — the presentation included below tries to summarize many of the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

The Founders Institute asked me to give a presentation this evening in Settle, covering the topics “Hiring, Firing and Co-founders” — really, I think these principles apply to all early-stage startup employees (who all share characteristics of co-founders). I’m sure that I’ve omitted elements in the attached presentation, but I’d appreciate any feedback, and I hope you find this useful.

I have the greatest respect for my current and (most of my 🙂 ) past co-workers — I hope that the terminology in the presentation doesn’t convey anything different than that — I tried to use terms and imagery that will stick with the imagination and memories of the audience.

Keep in mind that employees can substitute the word ’employer for employee’ in almost all cases — that is, if your employer/boss sucks, you should fire them as quickly as possible!

Andy Sack – hero or madman?

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andy sack seattle

I’ve been in a bit of a blogging funk — my reason is a good one. I’m going on public record that I’m starting a company. There. I said it!

As part of that process, I got sidetracked reading local Seattle entrepreneur Andy Sack’s blog — he’s the driving force behind community review site turned local deal and coupon site Judy’s Book.

What I found so compelling is that he opened up and shared the good and the bad from the Judy’s Book trials and tribulations. Along the way they found some things going well (and vice versa) and they decided to change course — it makes for incredibly interesting reading.

To save you some time, here are my favorite posts from August 2006 thru May 2007:

You Can’t Pay Someone to Care

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I’m not sure if this is an original thought or not, but I didn’t want to do a Google search to find out that I am again, unoriginal. I was thinking today about the fact that “You Can’t Pay Someone to Care”.

You can pay a person to do a job, and you can reward them for doing a great job. You can pay someone to work overtime, and to work on weekends. You can even pay them to do something they hate.

But, you can’t pay them to care. They either care, or they don’t. And if they don’t care, you’re screwed, because they’re going to create so many hidden problems for you that you’re kidding yourself by keeping them around.

Do them a favor. Do the other employees a favor. And, most important, do yourself a favor.

Amputate them from your organization. Remove them from your life. Fast.

Oh yes… and if you don’t care about what you’re doing… change it!