Auditioning for a tech job
Athene Software in Boulder, Colo., sells Internet customer relationship management products and employs about 85 people. All but the first few hires landed their jobs only after completing the typical office-to-office interview march and a more unusual test of their mettle: a mandatory live "audition" - not a tryout, but a performance - conducted in front of the whole company.
And we aren't talking about a net administrator demonstrating her ability to troubleshoot a router or a developer showing off his coding chops.
This sounds more like "show 'n tell" meets "The Gong Show."
A quality-control specialist pounds out African drumbeats to illustrate how he'd tackle a job. A project manager uses his rock-climbing gear as a metaphor for workplace execution. A Webmaster who once toiled at a bread company serves up varieties of bread to show, well, what? That he won't loaf, I presume.
Those who attend the auditions pass judgment on the candidates and their recommendations on to hiring managers. About 80% of those who audition get hired, says Athene CEO Eric Johnson. Getting bad reviews isn't a deal killer, he says, but it hurts.
Johnson does a great job of selling this stuff. The auditions give hiring managers and a candidate's prospective co-workers an opportunity to learn things about the candidate that don't often emerge in an interview, he says.
"How much does somebody want to work for us? How creative are they? . . . Most people respond very positively," Johnson says.
Count me in the minority. Buzz has never been big on corporate rah-rah stuff, a reluctance that hasn't always set well with executive cheerleaders.
So there are two ways to look at Athene's auditions:
Let's say I desperately needed the job: Heck, I'd slip on a pink tutu, stand on my head and sing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" if it might increase my chances of getting hired.
On the other hand, if a company were wooing me to work for them (stop laughing; it's conceivable), they'd have to drop the frat-house initiation before I'd even deign to take their phone call.
Athene certainly will soldier on without my services. But, I've got to believe I'm not alone in cringing at the thought of "performing" before my future co-workers.
Which raises this question: Can any tech company afford to limit its applicant pool to only those who are willing to sing for their supper?
Aren't those foreign-language translation programs on the Web truly amazing? ... Well, yes and no.
Following a recent Buzz item that took a carrier to task for using a veiled vulgarity in an ad, readers were invited to "use any language you want" when writing with comments.
Robert Fenstermacher thought it would be amusing to take the offer more literally than it was intended, so he fired off an e-mail in Portuguese, which is Greek to me. I was able to guess enough of the words to presume the letter was friendly, so getting a fuller translation seemed worthwhile. A colleague suggested the BabelFish translator at www.altavista.com.
In went: "Eu apreciei realmente ler seu abril 2, coluna 2001 no mundo da rede. Eu gostei especial do "Play Ball" e de parcelas de SOL. Tenha um dia grande."
And out came: "I really appreciated to read its April 2, column 2001 in the world of the network. I liked special it 'Play Ball' and parcels SUN. He has one day great."
Let's just say you wouldn't want to rely on this thing if you had to translate a ransom note.
English is still your best bet for getting a reply here. The address is buzz@nww.com.
