Does it surprise you when I confess that there are lots of balancing acts behind the scenes of a successful company like Viget? As someone who helps with recruiting, I often find myself balancing priorities and expectations. I’ve written about our approach to recruiting before; we try to be creative in our efforts and we expect applicants to do the same, but we also prioritize some very traditional values like integrity and hard work.
Our colleagues at OnWired recently pulled back the curtain a little on their recruiting process. It’s interesting - and in this case fun - to see what other companies are doing and what their results are. They share snippets of responses from design applicants to their request for "The World’s Greatest Cover Letter." I love OnWired’s playful tone and it is clear that a lot of applicants love it, too. I know they do great work, so I assume OnWired’s recruiting strategies are paying off.
I’ll admit that at Viget I sometimes struggle to peel back the layers of "personality" from applicants’ cover letters and find their “real” professional identity. Out of this struggle comes my evolving expertise at balancing expectations for professionalism with expectations for enthusiasm and creative energy. With practice, I’ve honed a pretty nuanced sense of what “works” and what doesn’t when I review an applicant’s materials. I’ve also come to feel some camaraderie with candidates when I can tell he or she is walking the same careful line; just last week someone ended a very professional cover letter that may have otherwise been lacking personality with, “P.S. I didn’t think it was appropriate to add to my resume, but my Wii bowling skills are out of this world! Thanks again for your time.”
Viget really is what we describe it to be. My coworkers and I work hard to live up to the company’s reputation, maintain a good sense of humor, and achieve ambitious professional goals. But the truth is that all of those things are balanced by a lot of hours spent working very hard in a sort of quiet way. I encourage potential Viget applicants to write a strong cover letter, but I challenge you not just to be creative or to show some personality; I challenge you to be authentic and honest when you tell us about your skills, interests, and experience. Balance the description of your unbridled personal ambitions with some humility and plans for growth or improvement. Be confident, but above all, be real.
Recruiting is part of my job here at Viget and as everyone knows, it’s hard to find great people. We know the traditional methods of recruiting often fall short and that hiring exceptional people may require exceptional methods. We recently started a recruiting experiment and the results were exciting. I thought a summary might be valuable to other employers who wrestle with recruiting challenges.
In September, we posted two different advertisements for an Office Manager job. They produced distinctly different responses from applicants. One job listing (see #1 here) was a replication of the standard job description on viget.com. The other was more creative – “A Letter to the Hard-Working-But-Currently-Uninspired Job Seekers” who are looking to work for a company “that values its employees and holds them to high standards.” See #2 here. We posted them about a week apart on the DC craigslist under the office/admin category.
The first thing that stuck out was our job title. Skimming the category (which has several listings each day) reveals a lot of repetition. Recently, the category listings included:
- Administrative Assistant/Office Manager (Fairfax)
- Executive Assistant/Office Manager (Arlington/Chevy Chase)
- Office Manager for Child Care Company (Montgomery County)
- Office Manager / Sr Executive Assistant (Mclean VA)
- Administrative Assistant (Washington, DC)
- Office Manager (McLean, VA)
Our first goal was to inspire someone really looking for something special to click and read our job description. Our unique title provided the hook. Our results looked something like this:
- 9/11/07 Straight job description: about 100 applicants in 1 week
- 75% gave standard response
- 25% gave less than standard response
- 9/19/07 Inspiring letter: about 80 applicants in 1 week
- 50% gave 2-5 paragraph personalized letter and resume
- about half of these made an additional creative gesture
- 40% gave standard response
- 10 % gave less than standard response
It’s worth noting that we received fewer responses to the “inspiring” post, which was both expected and appreciated. One of the big recruiting challenges for a small company is digging through all the noise. The hurdle of reading a more involved post successfully filtered out a lot of potential applicants that lacked the initative we were looking for.
The “standard response” from applicants was a 1-3 line email, a 1-3 paragraph cover letter, and a resume. In the second round of applicants, the standard response was perceived as sub-standard; we couldn’t believe anyone would read our letter, decide to apply, and not make any effort to be personal or creative.
Creative gestures from applicants included:
- a homemade post card sent by USPS
- a basket of brownies left at the front desk (highlighting a previous catering career and a tendency to over-achieve)
- extensive power point presentations
- several cleverly photoshopped photos depicting the applicant as a needle in a haystack
- a box of professionally printed cards which elegantly highlighted the candidate’s skills and experience with one line printed per card
We were reminded that lots of people want their jobs to be more than just a paycheck. Many wrote passionately about seeing the Office Manager position as a chance to make a powerful impact on Viget’s culture and well-being. The opportunity to contribute to a company in a meaningful way was one of the most often cited reasons for applying.
It was also informative to see what they felt was worth emphasizing. One candidate wrote that she was excited about the possibility of a job “where people have high expectations of me because they believe in my ability to work hard.” This comment was a positive contrast to the many applicants who emphasized wanting an opportunity to be better appreciated by their employer.
I felt much better equipped to assess the second batch of applicants fairly and I think on average they were more qualified and well-suited to the position. I also got a sense of how much energy and effort each person was willing to put forth to make an exceptionally good first impression. This quality was critical to our evaluation of candidates.
Lastly, it was a lot more enjoyable to review the second set of applicants. The brownies and packages were surprising - who doesn’t love brownies? - but the real pleasure was actually connecting with human beings. We had a deep need for an awesome office manager which we wrote about honestly. I received emails from people with a deep desire to work hard in such a role. I felt like we were connecting with the applicant pool in a much more meaningful and productive way.
Our experiment worked! Hilary, our new office manager, exceeds our (high) expectations on a daily basis. She’s happy to have found a great place to work and we are thrilled to have her. We have since used a similar job listing approach to find a new Internet Marketing Specialist who will be starting in January, and we’re trying another variation to attract the ever-elusive exceptional Ruby on Rails developer.
Whether it’s microsites like teamviget.com or creative job listings on Craigslist, we’re committed to trying new things to stay fresh and targeted. Will they continue to help us find the best and brightest? Only time will tell. Good thing this creative recruiting stuff is pretty fun!
Once a quarter (roughly the third Thursday of every third month) we take an afternoon off with the whole staff and do something fun together that has nothing to do with our day-to-day work. It’s a tradition that began when we started the company almost 8 years ago. Over the years, we’ve done everything from sailing to baseball games to go cart racing to cooking class.
It’s officially considered a “teambuilding” activity, but we’ve never taken it too seriously. We work hard all year long, so in many ways it’s just a chance for us all to take a break together, have some fun, and recharge. Since we now have two offices, getting everyone together for events like this is even more important.
Last week we had our most recent outing, and we braved the mud and welts for an afternoon of paintball. Two teams—the Rats and the Dogs—were chosen at random. The Durham office made the trip, any they were into it.
It’s fun to look back over the years and see how the team has grown. Here we are at Cantler’s in Annapolis in 2004:
This is from a cooking class all 7 of us took in early 2002:
Traditions like this are a big part of making a company feel like more than just a place to go to work. The bigger we get (we’re hiring!), the more TTTs feel like official “events” as opposed to simple afternoons out of the office, but they’re always well worth it. I come back feeling refreshed and reconnected with everyone—especially those whom I have to blame thank for my various paintball bruises.
Our square footage in Virginia doubled when we moved, and our Durham office is still a few people short of a kickball team. Accordingly, I’m spending a lot of time recruiting for both offices. I love this part of my job in part because I get to tell people how cool it is to work at Viget and they get to tell me what appeals to them about the opportunity. I gush, I learn, and we all feel inspired.
Awhile ago Cindy posted 5 informative tips for how to get our attention as an applicant. All 5 tips are timeless – more than a year later they are just as true. I wanted to expand on her first tip to reiterate the importance of making a strong first impression. Here are some more suggestions:
- Reference the job title and job description. If you are specific, we know you are attending to the details and not sending a form letter.
- Make a few explicit connections between the job description and your resume. Explain to us how your experience is specifically relevant. Yes, this is time-consuming; but, it’s a chance for you to demonstrate that you are intelligent and diligent. Think of it as a bit of homework.
- Make reference to our web site, our clients, our work, our culture – anything! A general statement about admiring our company is nice; but, a specific comment on something you saw or read will mean a lot more to us. Tell us what you like and why.
- Be distinctive. Make it easy for us to remember you (for something positive). If you do the first three things right, you won’t have to do anything extra to be distinctive.
- Proofread. Sending an email with typos and sloppy grammar is like coming to an in-person interview with a milk mustache and flip-flops. Proofread and save yourself some embarrassment!
Those of you thinking, “That’s nothing new – of course I’d do those things when I apply for a job," I hope you’ll apply for one of our
openings. We need more applicants like you!
Web business is booming again—and, as a result, new staffing requirements emerge every day. Like many of my colleagues at fellow web consulting firms, however, I find it frustrating to sift through the [virtual] mound of resumes to identify those perfect job candidates.
I’ve been with Viget Labs since we started (in my basement no less!) and have been at the forefront of our recruiting activities since Day 1. Over the years, I’ve read thousands of resumes and cover letters and have interviewed hundreds of candidates. If you’re interested in applying for one of our job openings, I’d like to share 5 tips on what we look for and how to grab my attention and distinguish your application from the rest of the pack.
1. Include a customized cover letter or introduction in your email selling yourself, your capabilities, and the contribution you hope to make here. Highlight the skills you have that match the skills identified in our job description. So few people take the time to do this that those who do really stand out and make a great impression.
2. Carefully proofread your resume and cover letter. Every job here may not require writing as a core job function; but, every job here does require attention to detail and a commitment to quality—and an error-ridden resume or email speaks volumes.
3. Designers, update (and trim) your online portfolios. We’re extremely picky and are looking for the best of the best. We want to see your most current work and we want URLs so we can take a peek at your code. We’d rather see a limited number of examples of your best work than many examples of outdated or mediocre work.
4. Developers, have code samples at the ready. If your introduction and resume pique my interest, I’m going to be asking to see a code sample as the next step.
5. Prepare for our initial phone interview—and relax! I’m really a very nice person and enjoy talking to people about their previous experience, their passion for technology, and how they can help us continue to do kick-ass work.
Keep those resumes coming—and good luck!
This content originally appeared as a press release on viget.com, and has since been adapted for our FourLabs blog.
Falls Church, VA - Viget Labs was featured in the business section of the Washington Post today. Andrea Caumont’s weekly "TechWorking" feature profiles notable local technology companies that are hiring, and her talk with Viget Labs co-founder and CEO, Brian Williams, outlined Viget’s plans to add up to eight people to the staff "as quickly as we can find great people to fill the positions," said Brian.
Visit the Washington Post web site to read the full feature:
This content originally appeared as a press release on viget.com, and has since been adapted for our FourLabs blog.
FALLS CHURCH, VA - Today’s Washington Business Journal includes a profile of Viget Labs and focuses on one of its most high-profile clients—pop superstar Britney Spears. While the article mentions many of Viget’s entertainment clients (who include Kenny Chesney, the Backstreet Boys, Shania Twain, and Usher), the article also notes Viget’s web development work for local clients such as Aptela and Georgetown University—as well as its web analytics and email marketing work for SunRocket, an Internet phone service provider.
About Viget Labs
Founded in 1999 and based outside of Washington, DC, Viget Labs provides web strategy, creative design, and technical development services to clients around the country. Viget Labs projects vary from media-rich web design to technically-innovative database and software development to complex systems integration and support services.
This content originally appeared as a press release on viget.com, and has since been adapted for our FourLabs blog.
FALLS CHURCH, VA - For the second year in a row, the Washington Business Journal has named Viget Labs, a provider of web-based software solutions based in Northern Virginia, to its "Top 25 List of Largest Interactive Design Companies" in the DC metro area. Viget Labs’ high-profile clients include Britney Spears, Shania Twain, Dave Matthews Band, and Usher, as well as prominent local organizations such as the Potomac Officers Club and Claris Capital.
