Smart Lemming Diary: Behind the Curtain

behind-the-curtain

August 5, 2005

Recruiting Process: Behind the Curtain

Not only was this my first week as Director of Marketing, but I observed how my new CEO recruits new hires. Tom believes in hiring based on personal work references. He’s open to a referral under the following conditions: the former colleague was a good employee, you think they’ll be a fit, and you’d like to work with them again. If the position is an urgent hire, like this week, then he gets impatient and excited, wanting to move as quickly as possible. For example, we’re recruiting two my former coworkers. Amanda referred one in and I referred the other one. To Tom, the Sales and Marketing teams are critical, so he’s this is how he’s approaching it:

  1. Tom’s all over our HR consultant to get the resumes.
  2. The HR consultant makes the first phone call and tells the job seeker he’ll schedule a call with Tom.
  3. Tom talks with you again, checking if you’ve called your referral, if not, then he’ll say, “May you should call them.”
  4. Tom waits a day, then pings the HR consultant again. He’ll talk with you again saying, “I’m impatient, since you really like this person, we have to get them in here ASAP.”
  5. Tom asks us to call our respective referrals, getting them excited about the company and the job opportunity. “Tell them I want to meet then next week, because I’ll be traveling the week after. I’ll call the former sales coworker over the weekend for the first call, and then schedule her to fly in next week.”

This guy moves fast. Now, I know what happened behind the scene, during my negotiation process with Tom. Communicating indirectly for him, he sets you lose on the person you want, so you can get them excited about the position.

“Tom, I want my former colleague. Let’s talk.”

Knowing that Tom wouldn’t go for it, I still asked, “Tom, I want my former colleague to work for us. I don’t know your policy on stock options, but just in case you don’t offer options to his job class, I’m willing to reduce my stock options to him, as part of his compensation package. I think a little will go a long way with him. That’s how much I want him.”

As he gives me a blank stare, and then a smile, Tom says, “Wow, that’s not necessary. But now I understand how much you want him. It’s my policy to give everyone stock options, depending on their job class. In fact, I’ll have to check, but I believe that there’s a clause in the stock option paperwork that in the event of an acquisition, a majority of the stock options vest. I don’t want you to worry about us getting sold before your stock vests.”

This comment was for my benefit, since we have yet another potential channel partner coming in next Wednesday. They, of course, really want to buy us. During my negotiations, I should have asked about the stock options in the event of an acquisition.

First Management Team Meeting

I had my first management team this morning. I had my status report ready to go just in case I needed to present an update. Tom was kind and gracious in welcoming me to the team by saying to the group, “I’m so happy you said ‘yes’ in joining the company. I’m glad you’re sitting with us today.” I thank Tom and the team for hiring me, and then we moved on to a discussion on the Human Resource Plan.

It was interesting to see the COO, Controller, and VP of Engineering in action. They clearly know how to keep Tom focused, since he accidentally goes on tangents. What’s interesting to see is how this approaches the HR plan. They made an offer today for a sales engineer. But they also identified two more unanticipated positions in Client Services that Tom was surprised to hear about this news. They’re balancing these hires with making sure they don’t burn through the extra funding they just secured. I remain impressed with their casual work style. This is a good group. I made the right choice in joining this company. I was skeptical about it, since I wasn’t looking for a job. I love it here.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company.

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