Best Resume Ever: How to Woo a Startup

http://blog.ridejoy.com/how-to-woo-a-startup-the-best-resume-ever/

by jasonshen • 14 years ago

228 69 14 years ago

blog.ridejoy.com

aorshan• 14 years ago

This is awesome. I love her initiative and even more I love how the guys at ridejoy responded in kind. Really shows they love what they do and are having a great time.

margotleong4• 14 years ago

Aw, thanks so much! I was absolutely blown away by how Ridejoy reciprocated; I honestly wasn't expecting that at all. (I may even have teared up slightly, but I'll never tell!) They're an incredible team and I am so lucky to be working here.

zacharycohn2• 14 years ago

Congrats, Margot. Have a great time working with Jason & Crew!

_feda_• 14 years ago

In my experience you do a good job :)

kalvin• 14 years ago

Not sure if this is too adorable (adorkable?) for Hacker News, but it's certainly relevant!

It's a bit irrational to put this much effort into a job app-- but it's also an incredibly strong positive signal.

For early-stage startups, passion for the space, the people, makes a huge difference. You don't just want the right skills and talent (which Margot also had in abundance), you want people who care.

(And of course, we're hiring a lead designer and engineer: http://www.ridejoy.com/jobs/. Don't worry, preparing a slideshow is not actually necessary.)

SomeCallMeTim2• 14 years ago

I disagree on the "irrational" part: I think it raises your chance of getting an interview by a huge amount, and getting that interview sooner rather than later.

Also, consider: The whole effort doesn't need to be unique. Yes it would need to be customized for each employer, but once you've done the work, you can potentially use it again.

Unless it gets featured on Hacker News, of course. At that point you'd pretty much need to start over for your next job application. But hopefully at that point it's earned you a job. :)

driverdan• 14 years ago

Doesn't the fact that she got the job prove your claim of it being "a bit irrational" wrong? Not only did she get the job, she was (apparently) the top candidate as soon as your team watched it.

Plus, as an added bonus, it got her and her new company on the front page of HN. Have any of your other new hires done that?

joshontheweb• 14 years ago

I think the best way to get a job is to take your top choice and be irrationally invested in working there. When they are sifting through resumes and you come with this, you are in!

patio11• 14 years ago

It's a bit irrational to put this much effort into a job app

It's perfectly rational if you're being savvy about how you approach your job search. If you're playing a numbers game and sending out 200 resumes a day to jobs you're poorly qualified to work at, this is very irrational, since it will not meaningfully increase your hit rate but will severely decrease the amount of resume spam you're capable of. Don't do that.

If, on the other hand, you've done your research and know that there are three positions out there you'd be perfect for, spending two hours (or ten hours) on a sales presentation is a pretty good use of your time. The NPV of a job upgrade, particularly from unemployed or student to "first gainful employment in a meanginful role", is staggering. Heck, I'd do this just to close consulting sales if I thought it would meaningfully affect outcomes -- it's a LOT less work than often goes into getting five figure engagements on the calendar.

Now is it the best possible job search tactic ever? No. Major points for creativity, and "do the job before you have the job" is one of the most effective things you can do in sales, but you'd probably do even better to get a warm intro to the hiring manager and convince them in person that you're the perfect candidate for the position. The resume is optional at that point, but if you've already met them, you're essentially guaranteed that they'll actually review it. (The likelihood of falling out of the funnel before your content is even seen is a major reason why I would suggest not just e.g. throwing one of these into someone's inbox and praying.)

darxius• 14 years ago

Wow now that's a great use of an awesome piece of software. I wasn't expecting that.

Putting myself in the shoes of an employer, this would be an instant win. It shows she took the time to put something together that's more than just a resume. However, I don't know how well this will fly with a large multi-national company (think IBM, Alcatel, etc). That's why I like startups, they're usually filled with happy people and good ideas.

ericdykstra• 14 years ago

I'm a big proponent of resumes that show personality and break the mold. Do a search for examples of designer resumes and you'll see how much of a person can be expressed through just the design choices, while still expressing all of the relevant content that you expect.

I've heard from resume screeners that a lot of them are told to throw out anything that doesn't match one of the standard formats, or that has color. But do you want to work for a company that imposes such arbitrary, or at the very least stale, rules from the get-go? I think the corporations (generally larger ones) that have these kinds of restrictions could be missing out on the most creative and self-driven employees.

SomeCallMeTim2• 14 years ago

Thinking about it, I am absolutely certain that I'm not interested in working for a company that would throw out resumes with color.

In fact, I'm going to have to add color to my resume now just so that I don't accidentally get an offer from a company like that. ;)

grecy• 14 years ago

Not trying to be a buzz-kill. It's a neat idea, sure...

1. It's too slow. I want to know about you, now. I'm a fast reader and want to get on with reading at my own pace, not the pace you've decided to have fancy transitions slide in.

2. I don't have a ton of time to sit through this.

3. There is no detail. You show logos of some impressive places you've (presumably) worked... but... what did you do there? What did you learn? How will that experience make you a good fit at company x?

zacharycohn2• 14 years ago

She submitted a resume as well.

mdwrigh2• 14 years ago

> 1. It's too slow. I want to know about you, now. I'm a fast reader and want to get on with reading at my own pace, not the pace you've decided to have fancy transitions slide in.

Fair point. Had this been poorly done, I would've hated that I couldn't flip through it quickly, but since it's well done I don't mind it so much.

> 2. I don't have a ton of time to sit through this.

This is essentially the same point was 1.

> 3. There is no detail. You show logos of some impressive places you've (presumably) worked... but... what did you do there? What did you learn? How will that experience make you a good fit at company x?

She also included her resume, presumably with that level of detail.

jasonshen3• 14 years ago

I agree that if this was the only thing Margot sent, it would not be as compelling. But she also sent a resume and an exceptionally well-written cover letter with a lot of great ideas about how she'd engage the Ridejoy community (we ask for 5 ideas from all job applicants).

I think we would have at least phone screened her without this video slideshow, but it took us from "interested" to "wow, this girl looks super legit and really wants this job". If you're a job applicant, that might be worth a lot.

dmd149• 14 years ago

I now see what I was competing with. Great choice!

dasil003• 14 years ago

> 2. I don't have a ton of time to sit through this.

What startup do you work for and how many resumes do you get? If someone made the effort to submit this to mine, I would "sit through" it.

alexfringes• 14 years ago

I agree. Although the format has its drawbacks, the effort will get attention if the startup's culture is right. If it isn't, somebody like Margot probably would not be interested in working there anyways.

maneeshgoel• 14 years ago

As a way to separate oneself from other candidates, this cannot be beat. Amazing job, Margot, and RJ for the great reply.

I am so sick of that song.

tptacek6• 14 years ago

Killjoy, I know, but you'd probably want to have permission from Spoon (or, more likely, Merge Records) before repurposing their most popular track commercially.

Similarly, annoying as it probably sounds, virtually anything a startup would ever want to do with a piece of music anyone has heard of before† is probably not kosher. On the flip side, there's thousands of amazingly talented musicians willing to record tracks for tiny amounts of money, so maybe investigate that instead of just grabbing random tracks from iTunes.

The obvious and (please presume) prolific apologies apply if rights to You Got Yr Cherry Bomb were secured for this. Totally possible.

† Including but not limited to putting it center stage on a cheerful and uplifting branded company blog post about resumes.

margotleong4• 14 years ago

Good point! My understanding, from speaking with the SlideRocket team, is that it's kosher to use another artist's song as your presentation soundtrack as long as you attribute the song in your presentation somewhere. But if I were doing a similar project in the future, I'd absolutely love to work with a musician to record something - that's a terrific suggestion.

EDIT: Just spoke directly with a representative at SlideRocket, Sogol Motiey, who says, "Nope! No copyright issues."

tptacek6• 14 years ago

Pretty sure that's totally not true, but, boy would I ever like to be proven wrong about this. As I understand it, and excuse the language, but attribution has fuck-all to do with the rights to music.

There's a whole market for "royalty-free music" (all of which costs money, but at least doesn't cost money per view) that exists entirely --- again, as I understand it --- because you can't just use random copyrighted songs in presentations, on websites, &c.

Sliderocket even links to some of these sites on an article about adding audio to presentations:

http://www.sliderocket.com/blog/2010/07/incredible-presentat...

Note conspicuous lack of "and if you like Apples In Stereo, just drag an MP3 into this window and make sure to say thank you in your presentation". :)

In any case, so I don't sound too much like a message-board-crazy, let me at least commend you on your taste in music. At least it wasn't Ke$ha.

blasdel2• 14 years ago

So they pay streaming license fees to ASCAP / BMI on behalf of their users?

Public attribution does nothing to make it kosher, only reporting it so the royalties get doled out to the appropriate artists does that.

wgx• 14 years ago

"is that it's kosher to use another artist's song as your presentation soundtrack as long as you attribute the song in your presentation somewhere."

No, it's not kosher at all.

Regardless of your opinions on copyright, etc - this is simply not correct as it stands.

mynameishere• 14 years ago

The underdog holds that distinction I think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1hZVDLkJDc

Spoon is the only existing band I don't hate.

pitdesi• 14 years ago

We've found that candidates who submit a dynamic resume are good because

1) it shows personality

2) it shows initiative

and 3) a willing to think outside the box, all of which we value.

Obviously the content of the resume has to be great and everything else has to line up too, but this gets you a lot of facetime that not everyone gets. We were looking for a UI guy and got a ton of interest from folks (thanks HN!), but one applicant stood out to us because he went through the effort of making a site focused on getting the job with us (http://jaredhardy.com/fee-fighter/). We hired him.

medius• 14 years ago

Looking at all this incredible talent makes my mind boggle with amazement. It's more than just the skill, it's being able to reach out to people in innovative ways that make the best impression. Pumping up a resume seems to be less and less relevant than showing what kind of person you are.

TomGullen2• 14 years ago

Unrelated but something that irritates me with company blogs is no easy link to view to product/go to homepage. I keep clicking logos on the page trying to reach their homepage and see what their company is about, but it's all in vain, I get frustrated and leave. I know I could manually type it in but I'm too stubborn.

jasonshen3• 14 years ago

Hey TomGullen, sorry you had that issue! We have a blue bar that says "Find friendly people to share rides with at Ridejoy.com! ►" and another link on the sidebar in the about section. Let me know if you have ideas for how to make the link more clear!

EDIT: We just edited the blog layout to make our logo go to ridejoy.com!

TomGullen2• 14 years ago

Lots better!

timjahn• 14 years ago

I've noticed this more and more too. Blogs often have the same design/layout as the actual site, but when you click on the company logo in the top left, it links to the blog home page, not the company site home page.

Hate that!

jasonshen3• 14 years ago

Great feedback! We just edited the blog layout to make our logo go to ridejoy.com!

harrisreynolds• 14 years ago

This was absolutely brilliant. Great work @margotleong!! ... and great work RideJoy too!

vbl• 14 years ago

Too long, didn't watch.

Seriously though, she could learn a thing or two about brevity and efficiently communicating a message. I lost interest quickly.

tptacek6• 14 years ago

Your patience apparently didn't carry you to the part of the post where she got the job because of this presentation.

TheCapn• 14 years ago

And reading a few page resume is quicker? I don't think you have a strong grasp as to what the presentation was aiming to accomplish or how the presentation stood out from the rest.

tonecluster4• 14 years ago

Seriously, perhaps you could learn an thing or two about focus. And paying attention.

devmach• 14 years ago

Well, it's boring but also it's good resume : she shows her interest and passion.

If someone send me such a resume for " engineering position ", i would probably stop watching after 10 seconds.

locci• 14 years ago

this reminded me of http://web.me.com/agueniot/Data/Flash/cven.html

jacques_chester• 14 years ago

I was more impressed by the content than the presentation.

I guess that's why I and my local marketing organisation don't always see eye-to-eye.

soosh• 14 years ago

yeah, I'm too old for this.

lrobb• 14 years ago

That's a lot of work to go through just for an application... How to "woo" a startup? What was that about a shortage of tech talent?

georgieporgie• 14 years ago

I'm curious how many other startups she sent basically the same template to...

dmragone2• 14 years ago

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but what does it mean to "Mainline RSS Feeds"? (slide 12 from the link)

pinchyfingers• 14 years ago

To consume them intravenously, as one would cocaine or heroin.

dmragone2• 14 years ago

Oh my. And here I imagined some nifty webapp for easier rss reading. I suppose that would work as well.

steve-howard• 14 years ago

I did that once, but a typographical error landed me in the hospital for months.

davidtyleryork• 14 years ago

Great resume, seriously.

Pictures are worth 1000 words, as they say

henry_flower• 14 years ago

Didn't like the resume (too slow). Very boring, imo.

Changed my mind after seeing her photo.

gcb• 14 years ago

Is she the author of all the power point emails my mom forwards me?

xpose2000• 14 years ago

This is one of the few times I've disagreed with hacker news. Sorry. Not a fan. :(

alexwolfe• 14 years ago

It's not the best resume ever but a terrific example of using some creativity to make a connection. I'm surprised more people didn't take that away from this slide show. It's about hustle, creativity, putting yourself out there. The essence of this is doing something to set yourself apart from the 10 other people looking for the same job.

jasonjei• 14 years ago

This is a sort of weird criterion, but I'm partial to the CVs done in LaTeX...

mseebach• 14 years ago

That not weird once you pick it apart. Chances are that you're not actually partial to LaTeX CVs, you're partial to someone who shares your willingness to invest the effort in learning the right tool for the job (and, boy, is LaTeX ever the right tool for many jobs?), rather than shying away at the first sign of difficulty.

kyrsey• 14 years ago

What happens when this "best resume" becomes "best practice" and people really take it seriously that this is "How to woo a startup"?

Do companies really want to sift through video slideshows for, say, engineering jobs?

bdg• 14 years ago

My firewall blocked your slides because all the requests were sent with null content-type headers.

Best Resume Ever: How to Woo a Startup

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