hires

The 404 211: Where Wilson wears a BeenVerified condom all day

Our reservoir of embarrassing stories about Jeff is bottoming out, so we're happy to welcome his old chums from BeenVerified.com to refill the glass. Josh, Ross, and Jay are ushering in a new generation of background checks for employers and job seekers, but today they're not afraid to use their powers for evil to dish the dirt on our fellow co-host. They also help us weigh in on virtual larceny, the problem with young whippersnappers, how to answer a professional call of doodie, and Josh spouts praise for his favorite luxury gadget: the $5,000 toilet.

We spend the first half of the show talking to the guys about their brand-new company, BeenVerified. They're no strangers to starting innovative sites, and this one is no different. In an age where employers are starting to perform pseudo background checks through social networking sites like FaceBook and MySpace, BeenVerified takes it a step forward and offers a background checking service for employers and job seekers alike. After talking to Josh, Ross, and Jay, we're afraid to see how many skeletons in our respective closets, but here's the beauty of the site: users must approve the release of their information to the public before anyone can see it, so if don't want to be exposed, just say no! Of course, seekers will benefit from being an open book in general, so let that freak flag fly. Best of all, you can apply it to other transactions in your personal life, for example, screening Craigslist meetups, online daters, and nannies. Listen to today's knee-slappin' show and check out the animated short below for more about BeenVerified.

Episode 211 Download today's podcast … Read more

How do you hire good employees in Latin America?

I'm asking the question about how to hire well in Latin America because of Red Hat's success in Latin America, as well as my own company's download rates and incoming leads from Latin America, but it could very well be generalized to, "How do you hire employees in areas where your company has no physical presence?"

I don't know. For months I've been meaning to hire a pre-sales engineer/consultant down in Brazil or Argentina, but I haven't the first clue as to how to find someone capable of working alone so … Read more

Employment outlook gets murkier at tech companies

With Microsoft having, at the very least a "hiring chill," we decided to check in with other big tech giants on their hiring plans.

It's a little hard to get a clear picture of what other companies are doing--in part because so many have already announced plans to cut jobs. Intel's workforce is down thousands from where it was a couple years ago. Hewlett-Packard has already said it plans to shave 24,000 jobs as part of its EDS purchase, while Dell and others have also been cutting back.

Yahoo, already under pressure from competitor Google … Read more

Microsoft denies companywide hiring freeze

Microsoft on Friday said it is reviewing its hiring plans amid the economic uncertainty, but denied a report that it has instituted a companywide hiring freeze.

IDG News Service reported Friday that Microsoft had instituted a hiring freeze, citing a source who had seen a company memo. A source close to the company said that report is not correct, but said Microsoft did send out guidance this week that it plans to tighten up hiring amid signs of a weakening economy. The company still expects to add jobs overall, however.

CEO Steve Ballmer spoke last week of a certain "buoyancy" … Read more

Microsoft looks to nab Yahoo workers

Having failed to buy all of Yahoo, or even its search business, Microsoft is now looking to take an even more piecemeal approach--hire its workers.

The company took out an ad in the San Jose Mercury News touting the fact that it has search jobs available in Silicon Valley.

"There are now very few companies that remain truly committed to defining the future of search and online advertising," the ad reads. "Microsoft is one of them."

Microsoft's not-so-subtle dig at Yahoo is particularly well-timed amid rumors that Yahoo is in a hiring freeze, or at … Read more

Open source executive moves: Red Hat, Bitrock, and more

People have been changing places within the open-source ranks of late, and I figured I'd note a few that have recently come to my attention:

Charlie Martin, once of Ximian (Novell) and then MuleSource, has landed at Red Hat as Western Regional Sales Manager. Well done, mi amigo! Erica Brescia was recently named CEO at Bitrock, an upgrade on her former role as vice president of Business Development. Yes, I did try to hire her once. And yes, she did reject me :-) ; Martin Musierowicz became vice president of Alliances at Alfresco, changing from his previous role as senior … Read more

Schmidt: Google couldn't keep up with new hires

Google slowed its hiring because the company couldn't keep track of what everybody was doing, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Wednesday.

"We have slowed our head count growth for a couple of reasons, but the biggest reason is it began to feel like we really didn't have a good sense of what people were doing," Schmidt said in an interview with CNBC. "The systems in the company, literally who's doing what, what are they doing, seemed to lag our ability to hire these great people."

Though the company slowed hiring later in 2007, … Read more

To all Vignette employees: The open-source grass is greener

CMSWatch describes the sad demise of a great company, Vignette. The company used to be one of the heavyweights in the web content management world, but has since dwindled in importance. My own company has welcomed its exodus of employees and customers.

It seems that the only way for proprietary companies to continue to thrive is to consolidate into mega corporations that are somewhat impervious to the pressures of SaaS and open source. For the more niche proprietary players like Vignette, there is no safety in remaining proprietary.

Here's a good description of the problem:

In any event, we think Vignette's troubles are probably larger than any temporary tumult in the banking industry (or even in the U.S. economy). Vignette's product release cycles are long. Its sales force seems unfocused. The company is under pricing pressure (something CFO Pat Kelly admitted in the earnings call). And as CEO Mike Aviles himself suggested, Vignette is not the bastion of innovation it once was.

To all my Vignette friends: The grass is greener in open source. … Read more

Building, not buying, tomorrow's open-source superstars

I love Arsenal. If you read this blog (or have talked with me for more than five minutes about anything other than software), you know this. At the heart of Arsenal is its amazing coach, Arsene Wenger. I just read an interview with Arsene that jibes well with how I feel about hiring in open source, too:

I am not scared to spend big money but we make the superstars. We have a feel for the game and the way we want to play football is linked to development. I have not seen a number of what you might call 'world-class' players. Maybe world-class prices, but not world-class players.

"We make the superstars." While most clubs are spending outlandish sums on "proven" soccer stars, Arsenal tends to spend comparative pennies on 15-16-year olds with potential. It's how we roll.

It's also a good model for growing an open-source business.… Read more

Open sourcing help wanted ads

I really like the advice in this 37Signals' blog post about writing good 'Help Wanted' ads. As with open source, the general theme is to be transparent. No hiding behind superficial buzz words and such:

The kind of help wanted ad you write can help determine what kind of applicants you get. Write an honest, thoughtful, clear ad and you're more likely to hear from candidates with those qualities. Spout a lot of buzzwordy nonsense and you'll attract people fluent in bull[potty].

Amen.