Well, another year has come and gone, and it’s time for some reflection. GazeHawk has crossed a number of milestones: we’ve hired our first new team member, moved into our first office, and launched our first redesign. Looking back on the first part of GazeHawk’s life, there are a few things I would change. Most notable, and worth writing about, is how we handle hiring.
When we first started hiring, Joe told me we should reply to every application we got, even if looking at the resume resulted in an instant “no”. I, in my usually procrastinating ways, put these off for so long that replying to the person at that point would be rude (imagine getting a rejection email months after applying to a job, when you’ve all but forgotten about it). I figured a lot of these people were blasting their resume out to a bunch of companies, and why should I waste the time crafting a personalized response when it would barely be read.
Thinking about it more, and as we ramp up hiring more heavily, I realize how incredibly wrong I was. Finding the right people is our biggest challenge right now. We reply to almost every inbound partnership request, support request, and sales request we get. Why should hiring be any different? If it makes one person like us a little more, maybe they will recommend us to a friend who’s a better fit. Maybe they talk about us to a potential client. While these odds are pretty low, that often makes the difference between success and failure in a startup. Plus, I hate waiting for a reply from someone, especially if I’m not sure if it’s even going to come. To expect responses to everything and then not provide them myself is hypocritical.
So here’s GazeHawk’s New Year’s resolution: we will reply to every job inquiry we get from now on. We’re not going to write you an epic poem criticizing your resume, but we will at least tell you where you stand in the process. If you blast us a form email that you send to 10 other companies, we will reply with a form email. If you obviously took the time to look through our website and craft us a personalized email, we will grant you the same courtesy. If anything notable stands out on your resume (good or bad), we may even give you some feedback.
So there you have it. If you’re an engineer who wants to work at an awesome startup on crazy web technologies (things that make you ask “can you really do that?”), please take a look. We promise we’ll get back to you 
.
Why does it have to be personal? Why not not just bcc N-many at a time “We appreciate your application but we don’t think you will be a better fit elsewhere”. Efficient with the key acknowledgement that an engineer needs – unless of course you feel specificity of skill-lack will make a difference in a impressionable engineer’s life.
BTW, typo on your signup page – “Once you purchase you first study”.
Ha, typo above “We appreciate your application but we think you will be a better fit elsewhere”. Or something like that.
I don’t know about bcc-ing n-many at a time, but you’re right; we might not always be very personalized in our responses. The point is, it takes a certain amount of effort for someone to send us their application. The courteous thing to do is to respond, and we’ll do our best to encourage applicants and show our appreciation.
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