Organic Transparency

Approaching Developers - Code of Ethics

2012-01-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

Working with developers is my life, whether it's meeting new ones or helping the ones I already know. It's all I've ever done and something that I'm very passionate about. I believe that when you're approaching developers you don't know, (whether its via email, social networks, phone, or in person) there are things you need to understand, things you need to do and most importantly things you should NEVER do in order to be effective and maintain a good reputation.

Understand:
-You need them not vice versa.
-They could easily find a job on their own.
-They're smarter than you.
-Everyone needs developers.
-They get contacted by recruiters on a daily basis.
-They get contacted by recruiters with bad jobs on a daily basis.
-The majority of developers have had at least one bad experience with a recruiter.

What to do:
-Be honest, respectful and to the point.
-Do your research and demonstrate that your message is not spam.
-Understand the technologies that you’re recruiting for.

What not to do:
-Call people at work.
-Send canned messages.
-Pitch a job the first time you contact someone.
-Contact someone based on buzzwords.
-Contact someone before you've researched their background, blog, twitter, github, etc.
-Try and be slick.

Why are tech recruiters so clueless?

2010-10-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

This is my response to David Heinemeier Hansson’s blog post “Why are tech recruiters so clueless?”

I’m not writing this to bash anyone, or because I’m some expert with the answer to what’s wrong with tech recruiting. I’m writing this because I’m passionate about what I do, and I figured putting my thoughts on paper in hopes of receiving feedback from people who have experienced the “cluelessness” would only make me better.

There's business in moving around mediocre talent. It's what most recruiters do. Why? Because a majority of recruiters are employed by recruiting firms and a majority of recruiting firms are about maximizing profits and not being truly good at what they do, or even understanding the industry they work in. If you’re trying to make money in staffing why would you avoid 80% of the workforce and only work with the top 20%? You wouldn't. Therefore these firms and agency methods become skewed because its no longer about finding and working with the best (candidates or companies), it's about maximizing, movement, lots of calls, lots of send-outs. Well if your presenting the top 15 or 20 percent of a certain vertical's talent then lots of movement is unrealistic. There isn’t a pool of brilliant programmers looking to jump ship. I’m not saying there aren't qualified candidates out there because there's plenty. It just takes a very detailed job description, communication with the CTO, lots of research, and a great company to attract them. It’s a matter of being a master at what you do vs. making the most money in your industry.

So why are tech recruiters so clueless? Lack of passion, lack of participation, and job boards.

Passion

Being passionate about tech recruiting means really enjoying and wanting to be the best at it. Being hungry to learn about new technologies, new companies, and most importantly building relationships. I think a majority of tech recruiters aren't hungry to do anything besides get their next commission. To provide any value recruiting in tech you must educate yourself. Not how to actually write code but at least learn what technologies go together, what a technology stack is, backend vs. front end, things like that. From there you can begin to understand what factors go into being a great developer. How does a recruiter get this education? By dropping their ego and asking lots of questions.

Instead of educating themselves many tech recruiters instead use this mindless, 4 step approach:

1. Get the job order.
2. Search for buzzwords in database and on Linkedin.
3. Spam everyone with the right buzzwords.
4. Present everyone who responds to client.

Just because someone has the same buzzwords on their resume as you do on your job spec doesn't mean they're good. For some reason tech recruiters forget developers are even people, they treat them like robots and if they have the right buzzwords they must be a fit. Well you idiot, think like a human, talk to them. Questions are key, especially if you lack the technical knowledge.

-What kind of applications are you working on or building with XXX?
-Are you on a team? If so how big?
-What is your role on that team?
-Do you attend any local user groups or tech conferences? either on your own or through work?
-How did you start programming?
-Do you have any side projects? If so tell me about them?
-Are there any technologies or languages that you want to work with but just haven't had enough time yet?
-Are they part of an internal tech department, a consultancy, or an actual tech company where they’re building a product/service on site?

These questions can reveal a lot about what kind of programmer someone is.

Participation

Tech recruiters spend most, if not all their time in the office, not in the community. You can’t recruit for a niche if you don’t participate in that niche’s community, especially in tech. Recruiters should be at more meet-ups, user groups, and conferences than the techies themselves. They should invest time and money attending as many industry gatherings as humanly possible- that’s how you build a network, not by spamming via email and Linkedin. Recruiting is about constantly networking in attempt to know EVERYONE in your niche. Building real relationships.

Job Boards

The great talent doesn’t need to post their resume anywhere in order to find a new job. Using Careerbuilder and Monster is a waste of everyone's time.

Great Quotes

2009-07-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

"Be the change that you want to see in the world." - Gandhi

"I want to put a dent in the universe." - Steve Jobs

"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements."
- Napoleon Hill

"Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything."
- Napoleon Hill

"Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."
- Steve Jobs

"Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true."
- Napoleon Hill

"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations." - Steve Jobs

"Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness." - Napoleon Hill

"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?" - Steve Jobs

"You have to just be really into what you're doing and what you're saying. You have to live it and if you live it and you mean what you say it comes natural actually. You don't try to be different because when you try to be different you end up being the same, because everyone's trying to be different. You know what you do, You be You, and if that doesn't work then this isn't what you should be doing. I don't stop. They ask me why do you work so hard? I ask them WHY NOT? I'm 24 years old, sleep for what.?"
- Dwane Michael Carter

"The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does." - Napoleon Hill

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Gandhi

"Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best." - Napoleon Hill

Rockstars of the Future

2009-07-14T16:02:00.001-07:00

Quick Tip for Sourcing Email Addresses

2009-06-01T23:05:00.001-07:00

This is an easy way to find email addresses on Google.

FINDING WORK EMAILS

Name - John Doe - Company - XYZ

"JohnDoe@xyz.com"

"JDoe@xyz.com"

"J.Doe@xyz.com"

"John.Doe@xyz.com

"John@xyz.com"

"JohnD@xyz.com

"Doe@xyz.com"

"John Doe" AND "@xyz.com"

To find personal emails use the same name variations in this search string.

"JohnDoe" AND "@gmail.com" OR "@hotmail.com" OR "@yahoo.com"

You can add multiple names by using OR - "JohnDoe" OR "J.Doe" OR "JDoe" AND "@gmail" "@hotmail" "@yahoo"

Google allows you to search up to 32 words at a time.

Entrepreneurs Can Change The World

2009-05-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

Colleges need to be significantly more involved with Chicago

2009-05-15T14:30:00.000-07:00

My dream is to develop an appealing program which provides great value to the savvy CS students at the top Midwestern CS departments, bringing them to Chicago roughly 4 times a year. As of now the students who possess brilliant ideas are usually packing their bags, Silicon Valley bound, by the time it goes viral. We need to bring them to Chicago before it's to late and get them involved with not only the city and its tech community, but other entrepreneurs from all over the Midwest.

The CS students apply one month in advance and are matched up with other cs students from different schools to work in innovation/mastermind type groups. We match prior so they don't have to network with too many people, for it would be to scattered for shy developers in a room of 800 to find like minded counter-parts. The first session will allow them get acquainted and modify their groups aside from our initial matching. From there, they will begin working together for the remainder of the visits and by the fourth trip each group will have developed their own product/service/application.

We will also involve the Chicago business/MBA students allowing the “CEO's to be” an opportunity to work with genius developers. Putting them together will provide more flexibility and balance. Teaching them to innovate and turn ideas into reality is great, but by connecting them with like minded entrepreneurs LOCALLY we set them up to hit the ground running post graduation (the ground being Chicago).

Down the road I would like to work in conjunction with CS departments by incorporating the curriculum into each conference, at the same time allowing students to make money by utilizing what they learn -as they learn it. Now it's either “stay in school to get a good job” or “strike big and dropout”. It needs to be a smooth transition, students shouldn't have to stress so much about internships, their resume, and where they are going to find a job. Students will receive money and/or college credit so there's no need to worry about time spent participating in this conference. Our society and the American dream is solely based around money no matter how you look at it. Why are we forcing brilliant young kids to spend the most creative, innovative, ALIVE, and dreaming phases of their lives in a institution in which they can't even make money? You don't graduate, get a job and continue to work for grades, so why are we training are “professionals to be” to work for a grade when in reality they will be working for money? The current education structure forces students who begin making money to run away. Colleges and Universities need to educate them further, and embrace the fact they can make money. It's too black and white, “College & Learn” or “Work & Money”. If a student can make 100k in a semester through selling ads on his website which he draws traffic to by using social networks, then I think he most definitely deserves an A in his “online marketing” course. Colleges need to incorporate this but its crazy to think you could just put this together and have everyone agree- instead we start with a local conference and act as an example.

For my company, I write tons of creative literature, I do power points, give speeches, do so much research, endless hours.. stuff I really want to learn, and I put so much passion and energy into all of it. I help people re-write their resumes, teach them to utilize social networks and provide personal value, spend endless hours on the phone and at networking events. Why isn't that worth anything? They want me to do similar things at school but for things that really offer no value to me.

I dream to put together not only an umbrella for all technology in Chicago but also for all students interested in pursuing a career there. We will be the start of what other industries can continue to move forward, a movement where students meet at local conferences and form into mastermind groups. By teaching students to innovate and collaborate with other students in their area, prior to graduation, we lay the foundation not only for our youth to easily chase their dreams and reach their goals but also for a booming Chicago tech community.

I have no doubt the Midwestern CS departments are infested with Google's and Microsoft's of tomorrow and I can't stand watching another black swan spread his wings and fly to the west coast.

The Essential Trio

2009-05-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

There are 3 essential social networks that you MUST be on if you are on the hunt for a job. One for business information, another because its packed with personal information, and one for very relevant, up to date info. As you uncover names and leads you can usually find just about all of them on one of these 3 sites.

*LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) - Social network for business professionals.

- Connect with all of your email contacts, co-workers, ex co-workers and classmates. LinkedIn allows you to display your skill set / work history / and interests for other professionals to view (several of which being recruiters.)

- Search by zip code, city, or state to find certain types of people, or companies within an industry.

*Facebook (www.facebook.com) - Popular social network for the younger crowd.

- Connect to all the same people as LinkedIn, except now you get to see things like their birthday, religion, favorite books, bands, movies, quotes, etc.

- Use the "Profile Search" to look at different companies in your network and find contacts to call regarding a job.

- Check out http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics to see some interesting facts about Facebook.

*Twitter (www.twitter.com) Most popular & most valuable.

- Twitter is "Micro blogging" so basically you find people you either know or want to know and "follow" them. After you begin following them you will start receiving updates like "@JIM IS AT THE WEB CONFERENCE DOWNTOWN CHICAGO" or a lot of times people will post links.

- For you job seekers, Many companies use Twitter for branding and to build a sense of closeness with their customers or client base. I've noticed that several people within companies who are involved in the staffing process will post about job openings and the types of people they are looking for like "@JOE LOOKING FOR JAVA DEVELOPERS FOR CHICAGO OFFICE" you can then click on Joe's profile and In most cases find out his name or get a link to his website.

- So how do you look through all of the Twitter updates and find jobs? I've found a site called www.monitter.com and it monitors every update from every twitter user. It lets you filter the updates by entering a zip code and selecting a mile radius to search within. You then can select 3 keywords and if anyone within in your radius writes on Twitter or (tweets) your keyword, it shows up on your screen. For example, If you're a .NET guy with a lot of back end and SQL experience. You could set up the three columns ".NET" "Back end" "SQL" -- Now anyone within lets say 40 miles of "60606" who writes anything about those 3 things you will see it
immediately as it happens.

Be Proactive

2009-05-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

I have put together some links as well as advice for being proactive in your job search. The links vary from job board search engines, to Chicago related tech news and event sites, and also networking resources for finding the events here in Chicago.

Indeed (www.indeed.com) - Indeed grabs job postings from several job boards and allows you to search them all at the same time. * A great tool for job seekers to use on Indeed is the
"employer/recruiter" filter. By selecting employer you are then just looking at companies that are directly posting the jobs and not using a 3rd party. You can then go deeper searching by date to see the most recent job postings which are yet to be bombarded by dozens of job seekers.

Chicago Tech News (www.chicagotechnews.com) - Todd Allen has put together a great site tracking Chicago's Tech Community.

Chicago Business (www.chicagobusiness.com) - A great source for Chicago business news.

The May Report (www.themayreport.com) - An Inside look at Chicago's Tech Community.

Chicago Tech Report (www.chicagotechreport.com) - Another great source for tech news here in Chicago.

TechCocktail (www.techcocktail.com) - a MUST ATTEND event for any Chicagoans interested in technology!

Windybits (www.windybits.com) - Windybits Rocks! People from all over submit the "WHAT/WHERE/WHEN" for all of the Chicago tech events. (5-15 every day) *Attending the events found on WindyBits gives you a great edge on getting a job. It allows you to be in the same room as several hiring managers from all sorts of companies.

Some advice if you're applying - Don't just submit your resume like every other John Doe. Go on LinkedIn/Facebook and try to find out who over sees the development staff @ XYZ. Then get around 3 names and try to track their emails, allowing you to write them personalized custom emails. Research the company you are applying to, try to get a good understanding of the culture there and also what kind of goals they are striving towards as an organization. You need to be in tune with where a company is going-then describe how you can help get them there. This is something few candidates are doing, and it will provide you with an advantage over everyone who merely submitted a resume. You should separate from that crowd and show not only that you're valuable, but also that you're proactive- Be a hunter not a farmer.

BE PROACTIVE AND LEVERAGE YOUR NETWORK!
We really need to come together and work to help one another! Stop relying on job boards and wasting time with recruiters who think .NET is the ending of a URL.

"Why Join the Navy If You Could Be a Pirate?" - Steve Jobs

2009-05-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

Society has a way of portraying life to be all about money. I am a firm believer that life is all about being happy.

I have a vision of a company where someone could be employed as a full time fisherman -if that's what truly makes them happy.

at the same time...

Another employee at this company is 100% happy chasing his dream of becoming a billionaire.

*The connection between the ambitious billionaire to be and the passionate fisherman is extraordinary.

This company wouldn't fire people, but instead evaluate them and utilize their strengths. I believe there is a way to place someone into something they are honestly, and genuinely happy doing. No matter who they are, or how much money they can make, the employee's will be excited for work everyday. It won't be a corporate structure, instead something similar to the inner-workings of a watch. No power or politics, but everything they do directly effects one another.

Service Providers - Proving to be an Investment

2009-05-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

How can a company legitimately find out who the best service providers and consultants are? You get a service or hire a consultant to grow your business, in which many cases they do. The problem it that everyone's claiming to have the best service or be the industry expert, but whats the proof? Fancy value propositions, all recommendations no complaints, basically companies harvest all the good data and at the same time discard and attempt to hide the bad information. We need a universal source of legitimate data, both good and bad, or a formula to build profiles on the different niche services. This will provide a way to see all the information and not just the info companies want us to see.

How can you tell if the recruiter you hire is worth the money being payed out?

There are several recruiters who have been major influences in successful companies by either putting together advisory boards, all-star development teams, or record setting sales organizations.
AT THE SAME TIME
Way to many recruiters collect money for semi decent work. The same goes for lawyers, contractors, consultants and subscription/service providers alike.

Everything is changing and its all about data mining, utilizing the information and remaining transparent in the process. Technology is too advanced for all these "below average" services/consultants to still be around providing poor work for premium costs. We need to structure and develop a way to prove that the service provider you choose to work with will indeed be an asset to your company providing long term value. It's funny, but in several cases a company is only as smart as their smartest IT guy. Well how do you even know that the guy is smart? CEO's should be able to know if their tech department is constantly innovating and adapting new technologies necessary to be competitive. Services alike, why subscribe to a service for a year unless you're 100% positive that service will constantly be updated, and the developers are constantly working as hard as they did to develop it? That's why I think many technologies fall off and new ones arise -people work so hard to build an app, service, or product, then move on after releasing it or start a new project maintaining the old one on the side. Any company that stops looking ahead sets themselves up for failure at some point down the road. Services need to be worked on non-stop as if they were still being developed.

In recruiter terms we have all these baby boomers with great track records and all these huge numbers, and impressive accomplishments, but are they still relevant? Are the top IT recruiters from the late 90's and early 2000's still constantly innovating? Well of course they are to a certain degree, they have to. My question is how much? Are the guys who staffed the CAD boom on top of iPhone development or have they merely moved on to basic Microsoft and Java? Do they even know how to work an iPhone?

So what about the big firms? Are they focused on training their recruiters weekly on where technology is going, the future of the cloud, is open source safe and reliable, etc, etc? Are they teaching their recruiters who the industry experts are, or how to track Google, Mozilla labs, Adobe labs, Microsoft MVP's & Evangelists, and other communities to see where technology is going? Have they even heard of those communities? I wonder what percent of "tech" recruiters here in Chicago land know that the founders of Ruby on Rails and Django both live in the area.

These big firms have quotas!
X # of Business Development Calls
X # of Candidate Calls

X # of Subscriptions to job boards
X # of incoming Resumes

A problem I see in Tech-Staffing way to much is the lack of innovation. You need to constantly be responding to the market and making changes to adapt. While this is present and known to many people and industries who do "Constantly Innovate", I see a huge lack here in Chicagoland with its big name IT staffing firms. A wide spread hate across Chicago is spreading in the development communities "I hate recruiters" but why? Because none of them innovate - Okay so a recruiter knows .Net and Java but he can't relate to me, he doesn't know anything about mobile applications or open source. He really doesn't know anything relevant at all, He doesn't know what happened at SXSW recently, or any upcoming events -nothing interesting. What he does know is that it's company policy to make 80 calls a day -which is why he is on the phone with you in the first place - not because he has any sort of valuable information to offer.

Now I want to get back to the topic of constantly innovating. In the past it was come up with a good idea, turn your ideas into a product or service, then hit the market. Now it's more to introduce a product or service and whoever can keep their product/service the most "hip" and "stylish" wins. My analogy for this is a fashionable younger person is constantly looking at Celebrities, Peers, and Icons. With so many sources for media and news the "young hipster" is constantly changing and adapting to new styles. If the "young hipster" wears a new jacket to school and gets made fun of chances are he wont wear that jacket again. The jacket gives you an Idea but its ongoing, they never stop, its a day by day bases who knows what will come out but they are constantly ready for change. Companies should strive to innovate in this same manner, surrounding themselves with people doing the same.