These days, it’s so easy to land a job in most of Silicon Valley, one could pretty much land a new job during a lunch break. But is that how quickly you want to make career decisions? Perhaps not.
Even with a red-hot the job market, it’s crucial for that job seekers carefully evaluate the opportunities before jumping ship — especially in the face of enticing pitches and the vastly different working environments out there. Candidates should be guarded against some of the new ways companies attract and hire talent.
When headhunting for a marketing vice president last year, startup e-business infrastructure provider UptimeOne Inc. implemented a new recruiting tactic: a “marriage” proposal. According to a company release, chief technology officer Mike Bertrand got down on one knee to “marry” vice president of marketing recruit Gigi Wang to the company, the idea behind this being to prosper together…happily ever after. Wang is now firmly entrenched at UptimeOne, proudly wearing the diamond ring that Bertrand (and the company) threw into the deal.
ScreamingMedia, one of Silicon Alley’s hipper Internet startups, is going out on a limb, too. The company, which provides content from a variety of news sources for Web sites such as drkoop.com, America Online and the Microsoft Network, threw a hip cocktail party in December. The clincher is that the 75 guests invited to the thirteenth floor of a renovated Chelsea warehouse, weren’t there just for the open bar — they were there to sell their personalities. By the end of the party, the company had made about five hires on the spot, and had scheduled many more follow-up appointments.

The Personal Touch
Hot Indian startup Unimobile.com (formerly Grey Cell Inc.) built a skilled elite task force through more traditional headhunting and sheer persistence. Founder and chairman Rajesh T.S. Reddy says he spent a lot of time personally hand picking and wooing his original team of twenty-somethings. “When I was trying to recruit our CFO — who was then working for a multinational company — I would drive down to Madras every weekend from Bangalore to try and convince him to leave this great paying, secure job for Grey Cell, then a relatively unknown startup (in Bangalore). This went on for four weekends in a row, at which point he realized how dead serious I was about hiring him, and decided to join us.”
The strategy is still paying off, as all of the company’s top people are still there and doing phenomenal work. Added incentives for each Unimobile employee is a car and cell phone along with salaries comparable to US rates, as well as stock option packages that are among the best in the world. Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, Unimobile offers a free desktop tool for mobile instant messaging, personalized email and Internet content delivery on any wireless device including cell phones, pagers, PDAs and WAP phones.
Professionals are also attracted to the Unimobile work (and play) culture — young, informal and vibrant. The company pitch is stated boldly on the Unimobile Web site: “Does working for HIGH stakes turn you on? Do you want to work in some place REALLY different? A place that challenges you every day, makes you want to rush into work and never leave? A place where performance is the only yardstick?”
Reddy sought potential employees everywhere. Speaking at a recent panel discussion at the Harvard Business School, Reddy found himself surrounded by a swarm of future dot-com entrepreneurs seeking advice — and many even handed him resumes. Reddy declares he will definitely follow up on the good ones.

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