We recently posted the descriptions of our 2012 Summer Internships. Each internship description explains the tangible requirements for earning a spot, but I thought I'd follow up with some less-obvious thoughts on who should apply. Here are some things that are likely true of our ideal intern candidates.
EVIDENCE THAT YOU'RE A COMPETENT ADULT:
- You put Ikea furniture together like a champ. Not because we make interns build our furniture for us (well, maybe just a desk or two), but because you're the kind of person who is willing to sit down on the floor with a screwdriver and a booklet of useless instructions, and bust out some elbow grease.
- You -- not your parents -- are doing your internship search. Parents are great and we'd admire you if you seek their wisdom before making big life decisions. But at Viget we are all fully-functioning, autonomous people who like dreaming our own dreams and making our own plans.
- Flat tire? W-2 Form? Broken iPhone? No problem. You've been around the block and know a few things. What you haven't seen before, you can figure out.
PIECES OF WISDOM YOU'VE DISREGARDED:
Continue reading "You Know You’re a Good Viget Intern Candidate If…"
About 5 years ago, our then-tiny design team decided to take recruiting our next great designer into their own hands. They created teamviget.com as a place to show off why a designer would love to work at Viget -- the culture, the team, the work -- all described with a designer in mind. It was a simple site, but thanks to some nifty interactions it got some love on various galleries, and served us well. We've grown! Here's what the old site looked like:
Continue reading "Team Viget: Space Odyssey"
It will take a week -- maybe two.
My job is to facilitate the recruiting and hiring processes at Viget. Last week I wrote about how I want you to get the job (and shared some thoughts on how to improve your chances). This post is about how, even when an applicant is strong, we don’t tend to hire in a hurry.
We recently heard from a promising applicant and, 3 days later, when I emailed to schedule an interview with him (after he’d completed a quiz and we’d evaluated it), he let me know that he had already accepted another offer. I don't know when he applied to that other company -- maybe it was weeks earlier. But, it made me wonder if we're too slow with our decisions. After some thought, I decided we're not.
Here's why you'll never land a job at Viget in 3 days*.
Continue reading "You Won’t Get an Offer in Three Days"
About a thousand years ago, I was a teacher. It seemed to me there were two types of teachers: authoritative ones and supportive ones. Authoritative teachers seemed to delight in finding kids' errors while supportive teachers cringed to see their students do poorly. I am the supportive teacher here, wearing this recruiting/hiring hat at Viget. Let me assure you, I WANT YOU TO GET THE JOB.
I don't want to catch your typos or poke holes in your thin, vague, and poorly structured sentences about your qualifications for a position. That brings me no joy. What makes my day is when you send me awesome emails and beautifully formatted, strongly edited resumes. The designers and developers around me are throwing high-fives at each other all day long as they delight in their collective awesomeness (ok, that's not actually true), whereas I mostly work as a team of one. You know what gets me up from my desk to find a willing high-five partner? When you are awesome and you make it easy for me to see upon first glance that you’d be a great hire.
So, here are eight ways to help me help you get the job:
Continue reading "I Want You to Get the Job"
A new college grad's first job hunt is a different beast than any job hunt you will likely do in the future - you have to somehow show you are qualified without having any real-world experience. Plus, right now you have to paddle upstream against the economy and other recent grads in the same boat. I spent much of my senior year at UNC-Chapel Hill applying to jobs, and I was lucky to have one by the time I graduated last month. I'm not sure how many of my "strategies" actually helped me land my job at Viget, but some magical combination of this game plan (sprinkled with some good luck and good timing) led me to my new role at Viget South as a Web Project Manager.
Continue reading "The First Job Hunt: 10 Steps to Landing a Job After Graduation"
It's internship application season! We're actively reviewing applicants for this summer* and I'm reflecting on the talented people we've gotten to know over the years through our internships. Ah, nostalgia! Of course, a lot of them still work here with us, so I don't have to feel too nostalgic. Those who we don't see every day still have a place in the collective Viget heart and it's great to see them kicking butt at their respective crafts.
I thought I'd share what I know of the current status of our recent interns:
Continue reading "From Intern to Awesome"
Do you have what it takes to be a Project Manager?
There was a time when I asked myself that very question. Just a few years ago (as I explained to the Viget crew in my internal, company-wide LabShare presentation last week), I decided to change careers from a television marketing producer to ... Something else. I just wasn't quite sure what yet.
When a job listing for a web project management position first crossed my path, it sounded like a great idea. I was, after all, a TV "project manager" of sorts, and I wanted to work with the web.
Yet, I hesitated. "What exactly does a Project Manager do? Am I qualified for this?" I asked.
Well, the truth is that I'm not alone in asking these questions. Nowadays, when I tell people my job title, they often have no idea what it entails. "Project management" is such a vague term that it's easily misinterpreted or simply not understood.
So, what does a PM do? And, now that I'm an experienced project manager, what insight can I give you into the skills required to be a top-notch PM? Here is my very simple, very informal questionnaire to evaluate whether you have what it takes:
Continue reading "So You Think You Can Project Manage?"
I spend most of my time on LinkedIn -- more so than Twitter or Facebook. So, during my job search, I went to LinkedIn first. Here are some tips from my job search about how I got to know Viget and how I used that information to get my foot in the door. If you are unemployed or looking to change jobs, I hope you can use these tips to set yourself apart from other candidates and overcome that initial hurdle -- getting noticed by hiring personnel.
Continue reading "Three LinkedIn Tips I Used to Get a Job (at Viget)"
It's mid-March and our internship application review process is in full swing. We are looking for impressive rising seniors in college who have web design, development, or online marketing skills. Sadly, our internships are not right for people who want to learn the basics; they are geared towards young people who have found a way to pick up a lot of skills already. (Someday we'd love to create a pre-internship program to provide a crash course to the uninitiated.) We've heard from some talented people, but we're hoping to get a few more applicants in the pool before we make our decisions.
We recently posted a new internship aimed at MBA students or MBA hopefuls. Check it out and tell your entrepreneurial friends - it's a pretty unique position. Update: Position filled!
There are internship openings at both offices, they are paid, and they are intense. Read the details closely and apply with care. We only take the best!
Every day, we hear from hopeful applicants who want to join Team
Viget (
we’re hiring!). It’s a pleasure to read the
emails and review resumes. I love my job! But, every once and a while, I
have to shake my head at some of the ways people start their emails.
I’ll do a little compare and contrast for you … Here’s a list of the
actual salutations used by the ten people we hired most recently:
- Hi Brian
- Hi Brian
- Hi Emily
- Hey Brian
- Hello
- Hi
- Dear Viget Labs
- Hi Tom
- Hello
- Hi Emily
Here’s a sampling of salutations used by people we did not hire:
Continue reading "Studying Salutations"
