Casey West

I work for Socialtext and I really like my job. Sometimes I like my job too much. Moving on.

We’re hiring!

I think you should get hired at Socialtext. I am going to give you some insider tips on a few ways you can really hurt your chances of getting an interview or getting an offer to work here. Normally I charge for this service but since it’s the Holiday season I should be in the spirit of giving. Most of these comments are directly related to being hired for technical positions.

How to get hired at Socialtext. Pause. NOT!

Step 1: Send us a résumé without a cover letter.
We get a lot of applications for each job we post. Something about working with interesting people, from the comfort of your own padded toilet seat, and being paid well is a huge draw. The first group of people that vet incoming applications are the developers. Not our HR guy, the developers. This saves time. We also pretend it eliminates false positives (it doesn’t).

Now, as I said, we’re interesting people (and humble, too :-). We hire really talented people in all areas and we don’t skimp. We expect you to be interesting, too. As developers at Socialtext, Yet Another Startup, we don’t have a lot of time to read through your application. One of the ways most of us reduce the amount of wasted time is with a first pass filter set to: “Did this person write a cover letter or not?” This is roughly translated into: “Is this person interesting?”

I know this may sound harsh, but the truth is that unless you’re compelling we will probably overlook you. If you don’t think you’re compelling enough to write about it’s hard for us to be compelled to read about you. If your standard method of applying for a job involves attaching your CV to an email that says “See attached.” that’s translated into:

Step 2: Rapid Fire Applications
If you send us a cover letter that’s generic and clearly intended for all possible open positions matching the word “compensation” that’s translated into:

Step 3: Sending a non-text résumé
Speaking of Resume.doc, most of us don’t have Microsoft Word, many don’t bother to install OpenOffice.org. I’m going to give you a great tip on how to improve you chances of being noticed!

Tip: We’re a software company specializing in online collaboration using tools such as a wiki. Where do you think your résumé ends up when you send it in? How might you format it to have the greatest impact? Hopefully I won’t have to go any further and resort to actually tapping on the glass.

Step 4: Having no experience with social or collaborative software
This is what we do, it’s what we work so hard for. You should at least be a user of some social or collaborative software system. You should know how to use a wiki. Here’s the great part, you don’t even have to know how to use our wiki! If you want to work here, though, you should get a free personal account on our hosted service, or install our Open Source package, or something. At least try.

We will ask you about your experience with our software during an interview. We will ask you why social software rocks your world. We will ask you how you want to change the world.

Tip: Tell us how you would make our software better, or what you think sucks. Bonus points for bringing those things up in your cover letter.

Step 5: Show no enthusiasm
Lots of books tell you that during an interview you shouldn’t show how excited you are to have that job. They claim that if you slip, showing your enthusiasm, you’re giving away valuable leverage for negotiations. They’re dead wrong!

First, at Socialtext we have a fixed and internally public salary structure. There are three options and you’re going to take one of them if you accept a job here. Second, you’re losing your chances of inspiring us when you play the poker face. It’s especially critical since almost all of our interviews are done over the phone. We only have one physical sense to get a feel for you: hearing your voice.

If you don’t tell a story – with words and inflection – that suggests you’re excited about working here and making a big impact we’ll assume you don’t really want to work here. You will lose leverage in being offered a job.

If you can’t follow these guidelines I encourage you to go apply for a job at Socialtext today!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 5:44 am and is filed under Ruminations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.