Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

I was surprised today to see this Facebook Ad from a recent MBA graduate looking for a job. You can target very specific companies in Facebook advertising, so theoretically any candidate could bombard any one or more company’s employees with their pitch:

Hi. I am Shweta. I graduated with a MBA Degree . My dream is to work for Goldman Sachs. Can you help make that happen? Click 4 resume.

While an unconventional approach, the ad linked to a resume hosted on Adobe’s cloud. I won’t link to it here because it contains personal information, but it reminds me of the Google Please Hire Me websites that popped up a few years ago. These were mostly gimmicks which attracted some attention, and typically led to nothing.

On the other hand, Youtube Instant generated a spontaneous job application. Perhaps the better approach is to build something awesome and let the job offers pour in?

I was reading the news today and came across this article, US sues school over denial of Muslim pilgrimage, which details an interesting case of law:

The federal government sued a suburban Chicago school district Monday for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion. [...]

Khan wanted to perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia which every adult Muslim is supposed to make at least once in a lifetime if they are physically and financially able to. Millions go each year. [...]

Berkeley School District compelled Khan to choose between her job and her religious beliefs, the lawsuit said.

Interesting stuff. As an employer, I believe that you should make every possible effort to strike reasonable work-life balance for your employees. Unpaid time away to get married, look after family, and fulfilling religious obligations are all the sorts of things that you would reasonably expect accommodation for. In more civilized countries, you would be accorded sufficient paid holidays to do much of this. Unfortunately, in the United States, by law, there is no requirement to offer any holidays at all!

Ignoring the religious and racial overtones in this news article, what I found interesting was the comments thread. Check these high-rated gems out:

• “they want, want, want but don’t want to give. Special treatment! Whatever happened to the (former) American work ethic?”
• “Contract, obey the rules and live with them or dont sign up”
• “Whoever hired her should be fired.”
• “This is a sham on the american way of life”
• “Seperation of Church and State. Take a Religous Holiday when everyone else does.”
• ” She signed a contract, then did not like it. Tough. Think I like paying my credit cards? No, but I have a contractual relationship to pay .”
• “What a bunch of bull. This should not even go to court. She should be denied time off for this. Try this at a real job and they will tell you “no”! Here is why, if you want the time off then use your vacation time. That is what it is for. Your employer is not obligated to give you any more time off then what you have accrued.”

It’s an interesting fact that Americans have the least paid vacation days in the world (0 by law), some of the most mediocre students in the world, the largest wealth-gap between the rich and poor, etc. Yet when confronted by an individual who is trying to improve the American standard of living (by advocating for improved time-off rules), American internet commenters essentially say, “I don’t have this right; why should you?”

I don’t understand this.

Do you want America to suck? You should be cheering this woman and the ALCU on, because they are fighting for your rights. (If you feel like commenting that I’m an elitist foreigner who should shut up and work harder, please don’t even bother to leave a comment.)

Update: It’s nice to see Netflix lets its staff take as much holiday as they want, whenever they want – and it works come out today.

If you’re a recruiter, listen up! I’ve got a lesson for you in what not to do when hooking up with potential recruits on LinkedIn.

Here’s a real invitation I just received (censored to protect the guilty):

Raspberry has indicated you are a person they’ve done business with you at Orangutan Syllabus Technologies:

Hey Elliott,

Being both Crasselnach alumni and in the same industry, I thought we should connect. Also, would you be up for a chat in the coming week sometime?

Thanks,
Raspberry

My reply to this was brief:

I don’t think we’ve met–why do you think we’re in the same industry? I am not interested in discussing career opportunities with you at this time.

Why is this a bad way to make an introduction? There are three reasons:

• I have never worked at or with Orangutan Syllabus Technologies; to say that “Raspberry has worked with me” is a lie.
• The message tries too hard to connect at a personal level. I currently work in finance; Raspberry is a recruiter. We are absolutely not in the same industry. We both went to Crasselnach, but Raspberry was a Business major, while I was in Computer Science. We never met. Trying to draw up false connections is just condescending.
• The “let’s chat” is excessively vague. Most recruiters I know spam you with job descriptions. This is OK, because it’s honest and up front, and also very detailed. When I get one from companies I like, I express some enthusiasm, and add them on LinkedIn for the future!

When building your professional social network, keep things professional.