Hey, this would be big news back in 2001, but now? Come on and be serious!
EVERY COMPANY I KNOW is hiring like crazy. Like it’s 1999. Not just Google or Yahoo. If you are a great programmer and you don’t yet have a job, let me know. I know lots of people who are struggling to find great programmers.
But, I think the future of hiring isn’t going to be hiring people for jobs. It’s going to be hiring people for building huge expansive visions of where this industry should go. You think that Gabe Rivera of Memeorandum is capable of working “a job?” I don’t. Neither is someone like David Heinemeier Hansson or Blake Ross or Mena Trott or Matt Mullenweg or Kevin Burton.
Those folks don’t want to work for “the man.” They wanna improve the world. And, in many ways, those guys already have, so what can a big company offer them?
Actually, quite a lot. For one, you hang around people who are at the top of their fields. Hanging around smart people who’ve done something interesting in the past all day does make you think different (in just the group I’m in I work with former executives and developers of NeXT and Napster and IBM among many other companies). Plus, all these famous authors, speakers, politicians, experts, come on campus and visit. Some even say that you should be fired. Ahh, the fun. There are many other perks too. I’ve seen geeks get wooed by Bill Gates’ staff. Ahh, that’s always fun! (If you’re ever in that position, ask for a Bungie-like operation and see if they go for it!) If you don’t get that, at least ask for a data center like what they have over in building 25 so that you can scale your dream out to hundreds of millions of people. Oh, wait, that dream is pretty small. You wanted to develop a Hotmail killer, right? Heck, why don’t you come help the Hotmail team? They are developing a Hotmail killer themselves (it’s pretty cool, actually, I’m alpha testing it). Or is that a killer Hotmail? I get so confused at 3:45 a.m.
Oh, I’m a devious mofo. 🙂 I better get some sleep. Big day ahead.
Scobleizer 
Hey, been reading your weblog for a while now, but I loved this post. You and Paul Graham both say smart young people should have no problems getting a sexy new job changing the world.
What about those of us of average IQ, average ability, plenty of entheusiasm but no prospects? I live in an area of high unemployment, sky high house prices… blah blah sob story 🙂 haha!
I just love to think that some lucky person is going to be hire by you guys! To come work with geniuses. Wow.
monk.e.boy
LikeLike
Hey, been reading your weblog for a while now, but I loved this post. You and Paul Graham both say smart young people should have no problems getting a sexy new job changing the world.
What about those of us of average IQ, average ability, plenty of entheusiasm but no prospects? I live in an area of high unemployment, sky high house prices… blah blah sob story 🙂 haha!
I just love to think that some lucky person is going to be hire by you guys! To come work with geniuses. Wow.
monk.e.boy
LikeLike
Monk.e.boy: there are lots of jobs out there right now for anyone who can code. Can you code? Got any samples? Got a blog? Got a resume?
LikeLike
Monk.e.boy: there are lots of jobs out there right now for anyone who can code. Can you code? Got any samples? Got a blog? Got a resume?
LikeLike
monk.e.boy, you are not of average IQ and ability or you wouldn’t be reading and posting here. Besides that, you do admit to plenty of enthusiasm – and that’s the secret sauce Robert’s talking about. Noone changes the world without it. 🙂 Robert’s right – brush up your resume, or start a blog, or start checking out who is hiring for what. Come to think of it, that start-an-intelligent-blog thing is about the best way to leapfrog the typical job-requirement-bean-counting thing, ain’t it?
LikeLike
monk.e.boy, you are not of average IQ and ability or you wouldn’t be reading and posting here. Besides that, you do admit to plenty of enthusiasm – and that’s the secret sauce Robert’s talking about. Noone changes the world without it. 🙂 Robert’s right – brush up your resume, or start a blog, or start checking out who is hiring for what. Come to think of it, that start-an-intelligent-blog thing is about the best way to leapfrog the typical job-requirement-bean-counting thing, ain’t it?
LikeLike
Hotmail killer? You mean gmail right? 😉
Working for a corporate churn with political and rating games as an extreme art-form, with endless meetings (and email tag) and a slew of strategy taxes, with a depressed stock price and no options and low industry salary levels. And even if you do change the world, which you won’t, you won’t own it. All that won’t fit into the driven personality no matter how many already richer-than-God ‘smart’ people you rubs shoulders with in the cafeteria.
LikeLike
Hotmail killer? You mean gmail right? 😉
Working for a corporate churn with political and rating games as an extreme art-form, with endless meetings (and email tag) and a slew of strategy taxes, with a depressed stock price and no options and low industry salary levels. And even if you do change the world, which you won’t, you won’t own it. All that won’t fit into the driven personality no matter how many already richer-than-God ‘smart’ people you rubs shoulders with in the cafeteria.
LikeLike
No, Hotmail killer. That service has 200 million users. Why would we want to kill a service with only a few million on it?
LikeLike
No, Hotmail killer. That service has 200 million users. Why would we want to kill a service with only a few million on it?
LikeLike
Theres plently of oppurtunity out there, i have registered with various online recruitment agencies and i get a decent job offer at least once every 2 days, theres literally 1000’s of jobs for developers out there. All you have to do is get a decent CV typed up show some enthusiasm and be able to demonstrate your knowledge and experience.
Im 24 now and working for one of the largest technology companies in the world Acxiom, when i left school at 16 with just a handful of GCSE’s i never thought i could become a great programmer at a top comapany but thirst for knowledge and determination has got me where i am. Ive got 7 years comemrcial experience now in the IT industry and have got that without A levels or university degrees. Companies out there need good programmers just get your foot in the door.
Her scoble my ambition is to move to the US from the UK in the future and land a job with Microsoft, how feasible would you say that prospect is?
LikeLike
Theres plently of oppurtunity out there, i have registered with various online recruitment agencies and i get a decent job offer at least once every 2 days, theres literally 1000’s of jobs for developers out there. All you have to do is get a decent CV typed up show some enthusiasm and be able to demonstrate your knowledge and experience.
Im 24 now and working for one of the largest technology companies in the world Acxiom, when i left school at 16 with just a handful of GCSE’s i never thought i could become a great programmer at a top comapany but thirst for knowledge and determination has got me where i am. Ive got 7 years comemrcial experience now in the IT industry and have got that without A levels or university degrees. Companies out there need good programmers just get your foot in the door.
Her scoble my ambition is to move to the US from the UK in the future and land a job with Microsoft, how feasible would you say that prospect is?
LikeLike
Hey guys, it’s the first time I have heard that a blog can get you a job. Can you expound on this a bit? I always assumed that putting a blog address in a resume would weed you out–making the employer think you would be doing this (blogging) during work hours.
Take my blog for instance, nothing incredible, just my two readers and I talking about tech stuff. All that proves is I follow trends in technology and know the killer apps when they come out. How does this translate into the perfect hire, who writes bug free code, and does it fast?
Thanks for the great blog Scoble.
LikeLike
Hey guys, it’s the first time I have heard that a blog can get you a job. Can you expound on this a bit? I always assumed that putting a blog address in a resume would weed you out–making the employer think you would be doing this (blogging) during work hours.
Take my blog for instance, nothing incredible, just my two readers and I talking about tech stuff. All that proves is I follow trends in technology and know the killer apps when they come out. How does this translate into the perfect hire, who writes bug free code, and does it fast?
Thanks for the great blog Scoble.
LikeLike
Jason: the first trick to getting hired is getting noticed. All three of my most recent jobs were at least influenced by my blog.
Well, your blog demonstrates that you keep up on the industry, that you can write fairly well and professionally too, and that you’re passionate about technology. It certainly tells me more about your interests than just a resume would (and a resume wouldn’t get you into Google or MSN).
Oh, and now we have something to talk about during your interview, if you get that far. That really helps a lot. I find I enjoy interviewing people who blog a lot more than people who don’t.
LikeLike
Jason: the first trick to getting hired is getting noticed. All three of my most recent jobs were at least influenced by my blog.
Well, your blog demonstrates that you keep up on the industry, that you can write fairly well and professionally too, and that you’re passionate about technology. It certainly tells me more about your interests than just a resume would (and a resume wouldn’t get you into Google or MSN).
Oh, and now we have something to talk about during your interview, if you get that far. That really helps a lot. I find I enjoy interviewing people who blog a lot more than people who don’t.
LikeLike
> Monk.e.boy: there are lots of jobs out there right
> now for anyone who can code.
I don’t live in the USA 🙂
But even so, resumes with average exam scores (Cs and Ds) poor employment record, no managerial experience and mostly grunt programming work. A resume like that is not in the few that are called for an interview. Unfortunatly.
An empty blog. So scrappy code examples (I could use a quicksort, but not program one)..
Next time you’re in a bar, hunt down someone with an average job and average wage (I don’t know the average wage in the US is? $20,000?), aged 35+ and ask them how the job market is for them. Ask them how often Microsoft calls them up 🙂
Thanks for the kind words, means a lot to me 🙂
monk.e.boy
LikeLike
> Monk.e.boy: there are lots of jobs out there right
> now for anyone who can code.
I don’t live in the USA 🙂
But even so, resumes with average exam scores (Cs and Ds) poor employment record, no managerial experience and mostly grunt programming work. A resume like that is not in the few that are called for an interview. Unfortunatly.
An empty blog. So scrappy code examples (I could use a quicksort, but not program one)..
Next time you’re in a bar, hunt down someone with an average job and average wage (I don’t know the average wage in the US is? $20,000?), aged 35+ and ask them how the job market is for them. Ask them how often Microsoft calls them up 🙂
Thanks for the kind words, means a lot to me 🙂
monk.e.boy
LikeLike
monk.e.boy. My brother only has a high school education. He sells tools to mechanics. He makes more than me. So is the economy doing so bad?
LikeLike
monk.e.boy. My brother only has a high school education. He sells tools to mechanics. He makes more than me. So is the economy doing so bad?
LikeLike
scobleizer – hey you should ask for a pay raise 🙂
LikeLike
scobleizer – hey you should ask for a pay raise 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Robert,
I think you should change that headline to add “… Americans in the USA”
It’s nigh-on impossible these days to get hired by a US company, being a UK citizen in London.
All this new VC is great. but there’s so sign of it over here in Europe. Where are the headlines?
I don’t know about ‘bubbles’, but it seems like too many people over here in Europe need a good stirring, just to build up a froth!
It’s weird being in the third most expensive city in the world, the pop-tech-tropolis that is London and get this awful feeling that we’re missing out on the party.
There seem to be alot of talk about stuff going on in the *insert meme*-o-sphere but no immediate ground-shaking *doing* going on!!
It felt like this the first time around, pre-dot-com-1.0 boom Everyone went to the valley. now it’s very different since 9/11. The world is alot smaller.
dont get me wrong. there’s alot of great tech work going on in europe, but there’s just no hype or buzz at all.
Gimme Buzz!!! 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Robert,
I think you should change that headline to add “… Americans in the USA”
It’s nigh-on impossible these days to get hired by a US company, being a UK citizen in London.
All this new VC is great. but there’s so sign of it over here in Europe. Where are the headlines?
I don’t know about ‘bubbles’, but it seems like too many people over here in Europe need a good stirring, just to build up a froth!
It’s weird being in the third most expensive city in the world, the pop-tech-tropolis that is London and get this awful feeling that we’re missing out on the party.
There seem to be alot of talk about stuff going on in the *insert meme*-o-sphere but no immediate ground-shaking *doing* going on!!
It felt like this the first time around, pre-dot-com-1.0 boom Everyone went to the valley. now it’s very different since 9/11. The world is alot smaller.
dont get me wrong. there’s alot of great tech work going on in europe, but there’s just no hype or buzz at all.
Gimme Buzz!!! 🙂
LikeLike
Good call Robert. While I’m not in the same class as Mena or Matt, I can’t imagine ever going to work for “the man” again. But, I love working on projects with vision, passion and energy.
It’s a good time to be in tech 🙂
LikeLike
Good call Robert. While I’m not in the same class as Mena or Matt, I can’t imagine ever going to work for “the man” again. But, I love working on projects with vision, passion and energy.
It’s a good time to be in tech 🙂
LikeLike
I think I have a problem working for “the man” too! Many people have said the way to get a really good job at Microsoft is to get bought out by them!
Come to think of it, Dan’l Lewin who you indirectly refer to in this post, kinda created the competition — seems like he’s got an awesome job 🙂
Creating the competition or a new market seems like the way to go to get to do the cool stuff at MSFT!
LikeLike
I think I have a problem working for “the man” too! Many people have said the way to get a really good job at Microsoft is to get bought out by them!
Come to think of it, Dan’l Lewin who you indirectly refer to in this post, kinda created the competition — seems like he’s got an awesome job 🙂
Creating the competition or a new market seems like the way to go to get to do the cool stuff at MSFT!
LikeLike
Robert, Dan Pink’s Whole New Mind is a book all about how things have changed and why. The new MBA is the MFA – as our values change, so does our need for more right brain/left brain balance. I suspect those are the qualities that set David Heinemeier Hansson or Blake Ross or Mena Trott or Matt Mullenweg or Kevin Burton apart from most. Yes?
LikeLike
Robert, Dan Pink’s Whole New Mind is a book all about how things have changed and why. The new MBA is the MFA – as our values change, so does our need for more right brain/left brain balance. I suspect those are the qualities that set David Heinemeier Hansson or Blake Ross or Mena Trott or Matt Mullenweg or Kevin Burton apart from most. Yes?
LikeLike
Well, I’ve been blogging and so far the only people I’ve been attracting are spammers!!! LOL!!! 😛 But then again, I’m not “actively” job hunting at the moment! (Keyword: “not actively”… does not mean “not at all…” — just trying to figure out what I’m going to do next…) 😉
My issue with job hunting is that I have problems meeting the people with vision. I’ve worked with technologies different from many of these visionaries. (Right now, I’m working on .NET stuff…was working on Weblogic before that.) Add to the fact that I have a life outside of my job and you’re looking at someone who’s more likely to be perceived as not have the drive to push things along and they’re more likely to move on to someone with that type of drive! But I would love the opportunity to learn from these people, all the same.
So how do I get myself in front of these people and show ’em what I got? (BTW: I’m not a geek (okay, maybe a demi-geek.) Heck, I’m not even a programmer, but I am an excellent QA Engineer/Lead!) 😉
(BTW: Thank you for posting this blog!!! Someone I know whom I’ve told the job market is getting MUCH better debated with me and said that the job market is STILL depressed out there!!! I’ll show him… MUHAHAHAHAHA *evil grin* )
LikeLike
Well, I’ve been blogging and so far the only people I’ve been attracting are spammers!!! LOL!!! 😛 But then again, I’m not “actively” job hunting at the moment! (Keyword: “not actively”… does not mean “not at all…” — just trying to figure out what I’m going to do next…) 😉
My issue with job hunting is that I have problems meeting the people with vision. I’ve worked with technologies different from many of these visionaries. (Right now, I’m working on .NET stuff…was working on Weblogic before that.) Add to the fact that I have a life outside of my job and you’re looking at someone who’s more likely to be perceived as not have the drive to push things along and they’re more likely to move on to someone with that type of drive! But I would love the opportunity to learn from these people, all the same.
So how do I get myself in front of these people and show ’em what I got? (BTW: I’m not a geek (okay, maybe a demi-geek.) Heck, I’m not even a programmer, but I am an excellent QA Engineer/Lead!) 😉
(BTW: Thank you for posting this blog!!! Someone I know whom I’ve told the job market is getting MUCH better debated with me and said that the job market is STILL depressed out there!!! I’ll show him… MUHAHAHAHAHA *evil grin* )
LikeLike
Robert, it’s a little specious to be talking up MS as such a great place to work when Bill Gates is on.the.record as begging for more h-1B visas so that he can hire more foreign programmers, because there aren’t enough smart programmers here in the US.
Of course, if you add in “That are young enough to work insane hours, don’t have a family or a life, and will take ten years to realize we’ve been effectively paying them a waiter’s minimum wage”, then it makes more sense. It’s too hard to get someone in their 30s-50s to buy into the “must work 60 hour weeks” bullshit.
Programming’s a fool’s game in this country as long as it’s so simple to make you train your outsourced replacement, and I think you have to like abuse to work in IT anymore.
LikeLike
Robert, it’s a little specious to be talking up MS as such a great place to work when Bill Gates is on.the.record as begging for more h-1B visas so that he can hire more foreign programmers, because there aren’t enough smart programmers here in the US.
Of course, if you add in “That are young enough to work insane hours, don’t have a family or a life, and will take ten years to realize we’ve been effectively paying them a waiter’s minimum wage”, then it makes more sense. It’s too hard to get someone in their 30s-50s to buy into the “must work 60 hour weeks” bullshit.
Programming’s a fool’s game in this country as long as it’s so simple to make you train your outsourced replacement, and I think you have to like abuse to work in IT anymore.
LikeLike
I find it fairly difficult to find a decent place to work but then again I live in Northern Michigan! I find that many recruiters skip over resumes of out of area workers especially those without a bachelor’s degree…
I work for state government where I do not get paid a whole lot, have little room for advancement and get no opportunities for training. Hell, I have to travel 1000 miles round trip to get Vs .net for free from the release event on my own dime!
Unfortunatelly I cannot show much of my work since it is internal government stuff. I am in the Radio Frequency Id field (for cattle, NAIS). I am working on an associates degree, other than that I do not know what to do… big sigh.
Feels like I am stuck in a rut, end of rant 🙂
LikeLike
I find it fairly difficult to find a decent place to work but then again I live in Northern Michigan! I find that many recruiters skip over resumes of out of area workers especially those without a bachelor’s degree…
I work for state government where I do not get paid a whole lot, have little room for advancement and get no opportunities for training. Hell, I have to travel 1000 miles round trip to get Vs .net for free from the release event on my own dime!
Unfortunatelly I cannot show much of my work since it is internal government stuff. I am in the Radio Frequency Id field (for cattle, NAIS). I am working on an associates degree, other than that I do not know what to do… big sigh.
Feels like I am stuck in a rut, end of rant 🙂
LikeLike
I will GLADLY sleep in the Microsoft campus, live there, breathe there, and eat there.
Few smart people are around me, and those who are generally have a skill in a field I find no interest in.
If Microsoft wants to adopt me, and Scoble I am being as serious as possible, then I will pack my bags and just leave.
Give me food, a place to sleep/shower, and a broadband connection and I will rock the minds of the developers at the Redmond campus. I don’t even need pay, just the three things I previously listed. Being around fellow geeks who live and breathe technology. I will break my back for you guys, I just ask that I have a voice people listen to. I can’t code yet… sad but true (switched my major from CS to Biology after the bubble burst), but my passion lies in solving user scenarios, creating feature-lists, making a developer know how a user interacts with their software as well as how to increase productivity. 19 years old and I can’t even begin to list the ideas for innovation I have in my skull.
I am ready to be branded a Microsoft employee; I was born for this, just email me: DevilsRejection@gmail.com
LikeLike
I will GLADLY sleep in the Microsoft campus, live there, breathe there, and eat there.
Few smart people are around me, and those who are generally have a skill in a field I find no interest in.
If Microsoft wants to adopt me, and Scoble I am being as serious as possible, then I will pack my bags and just leave.
Give me food, a place to sleep/shower, and a broadband connection and I will rock the minds of the developers at the Redmond campus. I don’t even need pay, just the three things I previously listed. Being around fellow geeks who live and breathe technology. I will break my back for you guys, I just ask that I have a voice people listen to. I can’t code yet… sad but true (switched my major from CS to Biology after the bubble burst), but my passion lies in solving user scenarios, creating feature-lists, making a developer know how a user interacts with their software as well as how to increase productivity. 19 years old and I can’t even begin to list the ideas for innovation I have in my skull.
I am ready to be branded a Microsoft employee; I was born for this, just email me: DevilsRejection@gmail.com
LikeLike
I agree with Kosso. There may well be more jobs than you can shake a stick at because everything is so exciting in the States, but here in the UK it sucks.
What sucks worse is how difficult it it to get a Software Development job in the States if you don’t already live there. I’ve been trying to leave this country for years and the problem has always been getting a job elsewhere.
It doesn’t matter how young, talented or bright you are or how much you blog, if you’re in the wrong country then you’re stuffed.
LikeLike
I agree with Kosso. There may well be more jobs than you can shake a stick at because everything is so exciting in the States, but here in the UK it sucks.
What sucks worse is how difficult it it to get a Software Development job in the States if you don’t already live there. I’ve been trying to leave this country for years and the problem has always been getting a job elsewhere.
It doesn’t matter how young, talented or bright you are or how much you blog, if you’re in the wrong country then you’re stuffed.
LikeLike
Those ex-NeXT guys are amazing, aren’t they?
They make up the majority of Apple’s management these days.
Congrats to the Evil Empire on getting a couple of them. BTW, don’t waste them the way you wasted Cutler’s team. NT was a travesty.
LikeLike
Those ex-NeXT guys are amazing, aren’t they?
They make up the majority of Apple’s management these days.
Congrats to the Evil Empire on getting a couple of them. BTW, don’t waste them the way you wasted Cutler’s team. NT was a travesty.
LikeLike