Update on the job
I’ve culled 66 applications down to a final few candidates for the new Director of Digital Things job.
Since several candidates live outside Los Angeles, we did video interviews by iChat — which was a remarkably good second-best solution. It’s odd meeting someone on video, but once you push past the first 30 awkward seconds, it feels remarkably natural. I feel like I have a much better sense of the individual than I would on a phone call.
The contenders are each working on a short challenge project, which is due later this week. I’ve left it up to the candidates whether to make their work public.
Articles
February 16th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Nice to hear that everything is going smoothly.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Woot! And “the public option” (hee) is a good compromise. I’m so excited to hear about (and maybe see the results of) the rest of the process!
… Which is weird. Like, I’m more interested in how and who you hire as your assistant than I am in the hiring process at my own company.
February 16th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Totally unrelated to the job thing, but in this month’s (March 2010) issue of Food & Wine magazine there’s a list of, “… best Australian wines to drink now.” You mentioned that you were a fan of Australian wines so I thought I’d pass the info along.
February 16th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
John, totally off-message, but since I know you’re interested in the Gay marriage issue, I wanted to make you aware of this link to an article from the Columbia Law School Magazine in which four professors of varying marriage discuss gay marriage. The article starts with the supposition that we are now at the tipping point, with equal protection for gay and lesbian couples who want to marry being a near-certain eventuality. Here it is:
http://www.law.columbia.edu/magazine/153253/marriage-for-same-sex-couples-a-conversation
February 16th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
So they’re working on spec is what you’re saying. Too bad they don’t belong to a union.
February 16th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I guess my awesome bird picture wasn’t enough to get me an interview.
I am open to an iChat meeting though if you are still interested. Now for a teaser of what you will get if we iChat.
What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?
To be concluded on ichat.
Good luck with the whole process though. Sounds like a good time will be had by all.
February 16th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
@Joe Clark:
Nope. They’re not working on spec. If you’d bothered to read the job description, you’d know that.
But you didn’t, because you’d rather leave a smug comment.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
I feel the need to stick up for John in a non-ass kissing sort of way. This hiring process has been unusual and fun in a challenging sort of way. John has been very transparent about the whole thing and he is by no means trying to get “free work” out of us. We are being compensated for our time and the project is ours at the end anyway.
February 17th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
I would be very curious how you choose the final candidate. I have always gotten to that final stage only to be passed over. What’s the defining factor that gets that last candidate the job?
February 17th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
I actually kinda like watching people attack John… for the exact same reason I like watching people attack Halle Barry as Storm. – It always ends the same. – In a sort of ideological thud that I call: Articulacy Deficit Disorder.
Its not that I want the contestants to be put through it… but I’ll watch it if its on. :)
February 17th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
I was going to comment a while back when someone left a bit of a prickly message for John. Upon reading newer comments, I feel the need need to inform those who are unaware, of a natural phenomenon that exists in a select group. We gays: We may not have been born with the ability to throw and/or catch in front of our fathers. We may go into a panic at the sound of ‘pick-up game’ & ‘which position do you play?’ And in our closeted years, we put on a brave face for when our dads took us & the older straight brother to Hooters. But damn it, every gay man is blessed with something that gets us out of a backed-in corner faster than a flamethrower with a crossbow attachment. We have our razor sharp tongues that we have polished over the years to cut through and win every verbal confrontation. During casual conversation, we make the witty remarks & lay down sarcasm thicker than molasses blood. But when in a dialog showdown, no matter what the magnitude, we will win. Whether it’s to prove that the movie we love & no one else does, is in fact the best of the decade. Or prove that we have the right to marry who we love. We dig deep into our vocabulary & fine tune our diction and syntax (we know what those are) until we have a beautifully crafted sentence locked & loaded on our tongues, ready to cut through your previous statement like a cross-cut shredder. We carefully choose the caliber of our verbal bullets. Whether it’s short, subtle & stings like a dodgeball to the face. Or something long & laborious that will leave you feeling like you’ve just been issued Mortal Kombat’s Jax’s, Mincer ‘finish him’ move (block-up, down, forward, up). We only dole out what is necessary. A perfect balance between causing minimal humiliation with winning (we’re sympathetic like that). So a word for the unwise, before you start saying (or typing) something you think is clever & will poke us like a 10 penny carpenters nail. Take a good look into our eyes. You may be able to throw a perfect spiral over 75 yards & fantasize about Megan Fox, but we will cut you up & bury you in Olympic grade articulation.
February 21st, 2010 at 2:33 pm
I ran across this thread and just wanted to add my experience here, for what it’s worth.
@Joe Clark – I don’t know John, but as someone who applied and did not make the cut, I can say that he didn’t come off as being that dickish, rather sincere and genuine. Not only was that question already addressed in the job description, but he also took the time to send me a very nice note even though I didn’t make the cut. How many hiring employers would do that?
I guess some people just can’t accept goodness, or authenticity and genuineness in others. Oh well.
@Greg – I’m really hoping you guys will post your results and let us see what you’ve come up with. I’m totally interested in John’s hiring process for this job, and I’d love to see what the project is and how everyone approaches it. It reminds me of that one year in Project Greenlight where they had directors shoot the same nonsense script. Each one was so totally different. I love seeing things like that where everyone shows their individual sense of creativity!