Think of publishing and you may think of the Devil Wears Prada. Or educational textbooks. But, there’s a lot more to it. Hear we learn the scoop on working in the industry from Adam Eisenstein,a Marketing/Branding Specialist for Talent Acquisition at The McGraw-Hill Companies, working across all business lines to connect recruiters to talent and vice-versa. 

If, after reading more about Adam’s work, you want to learn more…you can search & apply for jobs at the McGraw-Hill Career site, connect with Adam & McGraw-Hill recruiters via @McGrawHillJobs on Twitter & Facebook.  Or go old school email at adam_eisensteinmcgraw-hill.com.

What do you say to those who’ve declared the publishing industry dead? What types of jobs are you hiring for right now?

The biggest thing that I say is “it doesn’t really matter.” We are not really a publishing company anymore and haven’t been so for a while. We are in the business of delivering information.  If people want to see information in books, we’ll give them books; if they want it on their desktops or on an iPad or mobile, we’ll do that!  We use the tools and technology available today to help people succeed.

The thing people don’t know about McGraw-Hill is that Standard & Poor’s and Platts are huge parts of this company. Energy and financial services are our biggest growth sectors. We are a lot more than education. We still have jobs that are in Editorial, but editorial here spans from educational publishing to writing for Aviation Week or covering European energy markets.

If there’s one thing I wish every job seeker knew about McGraw-Hill, it would be the huge range of businesses, and that there are more opportunities in different fields and job functions than you have ever thought of.

How does a candidate get your attention?

You have relevant skills and experience – and you are passionate about the specific industry you are applying to work in. You have to care about the sector you are covering, show curiosity, and possess an understanding of the needs our products serve. If you don’t care about it, you won’t be good at it. When I talk to people at McGraw-Hill about their jobs and what they’re working on, their eyes light up.

If we’re looking for someone to work at Standard & Poor’s, we want to see candidates who are passionate about financial analysis. Candidates for jobs at Platts should be as passionate about energy as people are at J.D. Power about customer data and market research. McGraw-Hill Construction employees love building and architecture. And people at McGraw Hill Education are naturally passionate about education. It’s not about textbooks, it is about coming out with ideas – like McGraw-Hill Connect’s interactive platforms for high school teachers like McGraw-Hill Connect’s assignment and assessment platform, for example.

Do you have any “never do” tips for individuals in working with recruiters?

I understand what it feels like to be between jobs. It is a numbers game to some sense. But you’re not helping yourself by rolling through things and doing cut and paste. Don’t use the wrong company in a  cover letter, for example.

The biggest thing that my recruiters have as a pet peeve is when applicants don’t pay attention to the job description. Show that you’ve read it. If you’re not taking the time to assess whether your experience meets the role; it’s a waste of everyone’s time. People are upset when they don’t get follow-up. But the fact is on the other side of the equation, recruiters are working on up to 30 jobs. Don’t waste our time.

We have pre-screening questions; it’s easy to figure out what we’re looking for…Pay attention to those. Apply for the jobs you are qualified for; don’t pick the answers we want to hear.

Any bad assumption that you’ve seen job seekers make in applying for jobs with McGraw Hill?

McGraw Hill is known for educational publishing.  Many people remember using a McGraw Hill textbook for U.S. History. But publishing textbooks is only a fraction of the work we do. Only a minority of our jobs are in book publishing. Even in publishing, there are diverse jobs from social media marketing to public relations.

We are a global company with 20,000 employees and multiple business units. You need a lot of infrastructure to support that. We hire international employees in China, Brazil, the UK, and more.  More and more, we are looking for employees to start their careers in the U.S. with an eye to eventually move abroad.

Are there any questions I haven’t asked that I should be asking? What’s the question, and what’s your answer?

Why are you blogging? (McGraw-Hill has a Careers blog called The Virtual Cooler.)

Not just because everyone says you have to do it. For me, it’s about helping people help themselves get hired. We want to help people know how they can fit in. You look at job description after job description, sometimes it’s hard to know what applies to you. There’s always a gap between a job description and what the job is like in actuality – in a workplace culture. We like to fill in the gaps. We want to show you what it’s like to work at McGraw Hill and help you understand how you can fit it and what you could do with us.

Use it now—actionable—advice for job seekers:

Find a way to get introduced. Over 30% of our hires come from referrals. The biggest advantage you can have is when people know you. Get someone inside the company to advocate for you. Find the job, than find someone who can vouch for you, and apply for it. By the time the job is posted, it is almost too late. Hiring success often comes from someone you know.

Like what you’ve read? Catch more of StartWire’s exclusive insider Q & A interviews as well as the lowdown on companies that are hiring through News.StartWire.com. 

New functionality makes that ‘thanks for applying’ email the key to closing the dreaded application black hole and getting hired

Lebanon, NH (PRWEB) June 13, 2011

– StartWire™ (http://www.startwire.com), a start-up focused on radically improving job search, announces a major upgrade that addresses one of the big complaints of online job seekers: the dreaded ‘application black-hole.’  The newest release of StartWire allows job seekers to track and get automatic updates on their job applications from thousands of employers by simply forwarding their application confirmation email to apps@startwire.com.

Using this new feature, a job seeker simply shares basic information with StartWire about where they’ve applied and their application by emailing their ‘thanks for applying’ emails to apps@startwire.com or completing a brief web form.  StartWire’s application update engine then provides automatic alerts for all ‘tracked’ applications and instantly notifies the user with an email or text message alert if their job status changes.  Additionally, StartWire’s recommendation engine provides job seekers with job and job search recommendations based on their actual application history.

“Just like TripIt.com brought order to chaos in the travel industry by allowing frequent flyers to organize and socialize their trips by simply emailing their disparate itineraries to plans@tripit.com, I believe this new release shows StartWire is doing the same in job search,” says Kim Mohiuddin of Movin’ On Up Resumes.

StartWire co-founder and EVP, Tim McKegney commented on the release: “Jobs seekers can now organize their job search, get automatic updates on their applications, find out who they know at a target company, and receive targeted job search recommendations…all by hitting the forward button in their inbox. And the best part is that StartWire™ is free and works across all industries and functions.”

Today’s release supports application alerts for more than 2,100 employers with that number set to grow to more than 5,000 in the coming weeks and months. 

About StartWire

StartWire™ launched in early 2011 to rave reviews and write-ups in US News & World Reports, About.com, AOL Jobs, CNN, ERE, and HR Executive Magazine. 

New functionality makes that ‘thanks for applying’ email the key to closing the dreaded application black hole and getting hired

Lebanon, NH (PRWEB) June 13, 2011

– StartWire™ (http://www.startwire.com), a start-up focused on radically improving job search, announces a major upgrade that addresses one of the big complaints of online job seekers: the dreaded ‘application black-hole.’  The newest release of StartWire allows job seekers to track and get automatic updates on their job applications from thousands of employers by simply forwarding their application confirmation email to apps@startwire.com.

Using this new feature, a job seeker simply shares basic information with StartWire about where they’ve applied and their application by emailing their ‘thanks for applying’ emails to apps@startwire.com or completing a brief web form.  StartWire’s application update engine then provides automatic alerts for all ‘tracked’ applications and instantly notifies the user with an email or text message alert if their job status changes.  Additionally, StartWire’s recommendation engine provides job seekers with job and job search recommendations based on their actual application history.

“Just like TripIt.com brought order to chaos in the travel industry by allowing frequent flyers to organize and socialize their trips by simply emailing their disparate itineraries to plans@tripit.com, I believe this new release shows StartWire is doing the same in job search,” says Kim Mohiuddin of Movin’ On Up Resumes.

StartWire co-founder and EVP, Tim McKegney commented on the release: “Jobs seekers can now organize their job search, get automatic updates on their applications, find out who they know at a target company, and receive targeted job search recommendations…all by hitting the forward button in their inbox. And the best part is that StartWire™ is free and works across all industries and functions.”

Today’s release supports application alerts for more than 2,100 employers with that number set to grow to more than 5,000 in the coming weeks and months. 

About StartWire

StartWire™ launched in early 2011 to rave reviews and write-ups in US News & World Reports, About.com, AOL Jobs, CNN, ERE, and HR Executive Magazine. 

Jeff Moore is a Lead Engineering Recruiter for Google and has over 10 years of recruitingexperience in the High Tech and Software Industries.  Jeff is currently responsible for recruiting world class engineers to join Google’s offices across the United States Eastern Region including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington DC.  He is an active blogger with interests in social networking and mobile technology.

Google is the king of search engines, how do you find candidates?

We find candidates every way you can imagine — from programs, employee referrals, events, online applications. No stone unturned. We do look at people who have applied for jobs in the past and haven’t been a fit at the job they applied for. We do that all the time. We hire a lot of people who have interviewed before and didn’t get hired. A lot of companies miss out on good people by not going back.  We don’t.

How does a candidate get your attention?

Having a clean, clear crisp resume that shows off skills. File that one as obvious. Employee referrals and having done good work is important. A cool research project or a great internship. Those kind of things really jump off the page.

What does a good write-up on a project look like?

A good write-up explains what you did, how you did it, what skills you used. What the results show and the impact of your work on the company. Talk your potential hiring manager or recruiter through the project through cradle to grave – show the outcome that it made. That’s huge. We like to see results, as well as the why. We want to know how it worked.

What makes a great candidate beyond the tech skills?

The ability to communicate. We are very collaborative. You’ve got to be able to communicate, work outside your team, and communicate what you want to get done.

Do you have any “never do” tips for individuals for working with recruiters?

I think the biggest one – to be honest  — is being shy when asking for questions, checking in, or asking about status. Don’t be shy if you want follow-up. A lot of people don’t do this. You should do this.

Any bad assumption that you’ve seen job seekers make in applying for jobs with Google?

People assume that they aren’t going to get into Google. The reputation is such that it is very hard to get into Google. And so some people don’t even try.

I didn’t go to a great school. I didn’t have an amazing GPA. But I work at Google. So could you.

Don’t take yourself out of the game by making assumption and choosing not to apply. I’ve hired people who don’t have college degrees.

Are there any questions I haven’t asked that I should be asking? What’s the question, and what’s your answer?

Where is Google hiring?

The answer is everywhere. 2011 will be our biggest year in company history. There may be a role in your backyard.  Look for it.

Use it now – actionable – advice for job seekers:

Actively network. Network, network, network. Whether its with friends, colleagues, etc. It’s the networking that will help you find the job.

Like what you’ve read? Catch more of StartWire’s exclusive insider Q & A interviews as well as the lowdown on companies that are hiring through News.StartWire.com. 

At StartWire we’re passionate about helping people find work — and helping our users find out where the jobs are!   Recently, we wrote about job opportunities at Eventbrite, a company that gives you all the tools you need to bring people together and create an event. Projected to grow to 200 by the end of 2011, Eventbrite is hiring across the board. (We’ve registered up and attended plenty of events through Eventbrite so we thought it might be interesting to take a piece inside.)

We sent a shout-out to Eventbrite to learn more and sat down for a conversation with their Director ofRecruiting, Miles Parroco. As employee number 48 for Eventbrite has seen the company grow to 145 and secure $70M in funding.  He’s now busy hiring more people; check out their opportunities here!  

Miles has worked at enterprise-level companies and start-ups in the Silicon Valley since 2000. In 2004, he joined IronPort systems where he helped the company grow from 120 employees to 320 and a successful exit through a Cisco acquisition of $830M. In 2008, he joined Pure Digital Technologies (maker of the popular Flip Video Camera) and doubled the company from 70 employees to 135 before another successful exit (Cisco acquisition again for for $590M).

Eventbrite’s vision is that “Anyone can become an event organizer.” Are related skill sets—project management and operations must-have skills at Eventbrite?

We don’t deal in absolutes here. We are a big believer in finding individuals who can do the job and who can fit in with our small but growing family. We look for smart individuals who are flexible and who can learn it on the fly.  Being able to fit into the team culture and being able to be flexible are important.

We are growing fast, but we still have lunch together as a company every day. You have to be able to sit next to anybody any day of the week. The cultural fit is important. We place an emphasis on understanding that the candidate has the relevant skills set, and that then after that – it’s a cultural fit. Knowing how event management works is a plus, but it isn’t necessary. Are they accessible? Empowering? Open? Social? And humble? Those are things that we look for.

We started out 2010 with 30 employees, we have 144 employees now and we’re looking at being around 200 by the end of the year. Each and every individual we hire makes a huge impact. When I worked at CISCO we made a lot of hires. Every hire makes a difference, and there are high fives around the office when it gets done.

We are building a culture that people want to come to work and participate in.
 

Eventbrite features include integration with social media. Is the best candidate one who demonstrates that they understand this integration?

It depends on the particular position. If a job is for an engineer working on the back-end code, it’s helpful to understand the business. But the back-end coder doesn’t need to be a marketing specialist. It’s nice if they have an understanding of how it works.

We just recently brought on a marketing intern. That person is going to be solely focused on social media outreach. For that role, you need to understand the psyche behind social media and how that works.

What makes a great candidate beyond industry knowledge and experience? (Or what’s the hardest thing to find in a great candidate?)
 

Do they meet our brand tenets – accessible, empowering, open, social and humble? Are they passionate? If a software engineer isn’t passionate about our end-product and taking over the ticketing world, they need to passionate about writing clean code. You need passion for how your role relates to our business or our products. Better yet, is to be passionate about it all. Loving the end product, loving the environment. We want people who want to be here.

Do you have any “never do” tips for individuals in working with recruiters?

Never show for a phone screen without taking the time to know what we do. Take the time to research the company, our co-founders – what we do, how we do it. You are really shorting yourself if you don’t do your due diligence.

Any bad assumptions that you’ve seen job seekers make in applying for jobs with Eventbrite?

Occasionally, people aren’t humble enough. People say “I meet all the criteria for the job.” A lot of candidates have come in from our process and people have walked away saying “That’s the smartest person we’ve interviewed for this job but they come out of the interview saying ‘let’s not hire them.’ We like to see people who feel like they have something to learn from us, too.  I’m not going to ask you to rewire yourself.  You want people who can sell themselves, but people who can be themselves, too.

Are there any questions I haven’t asked that I should be asking? What’s the question, and what’s your answer?

What are your growth plans?

We just got $50M in funding. We don’t know how that will affect our hiring plan yet. But we’ve continued on the trajectory of doubling hires per year…we expect to be at 200 by the end of the year. We are trying to build not only a great project but a great program. People can feel the energy of a healthy and happy work environment. We pay people to do their job. Hopefully that is a sign of a company that values employees. We are a technology company, so we are looking to grow on the engineering side of things in particular.

But we are also looking for  sales and marketing candidates. And we are  growing both domestically and abroad. We have two jobs available in London, Customer Service and Event Evangelism. We are expanding. This is a very solid business, with a solid business plan. We’re disrupting the way ticket has been done from small events that are self-organized to a Black Eyed Peas concert with 50,000 attendees. We continue to grow. The goal in 2010 was to double what we had done – from $100 million in gross ticket sales to $200 million in gross ticket sales. We did it, now we’re on track to double it again.

Use it now—actionable—advice for job seekers:

Be passionate about what you’re doing. Have some passion for what you do or the company you are getting behind. Enjoy what you are doing or supporting. If you can’t you are in the wrong place.

Steve Jobs has made his second big announcement of the week: Apple is building a spaceship like campus in Silicon Valley to house over 12,000 employees. A sketch of the new facility looks a bit like a flying saucer; you can see a picture here – and check out over 2,000 job postings at Apple in California here.

In other Silicon Valley news, we see signs of the tech hiring boom continuing — with trickle down growth in the financial services sector. Here’s a round-up:

• Financial services advisory firm Robert W. Baird is expanding their team in San Francisco with two key hires, and gunning to grow more.Co
• Data management firm Splunk has a new office in Cupertino, California to supplement staffing needs. They’re growing quickly, HQ is in San Francisco. Career info and big number of job listings here.
• Mobile app company StackMob just received $7.5 million in funding; Xconomy reports that they will also be hiring. No listings on the site; but a contact list of staffers on the site.

Companies that grow fast often hire fast—very fast. For insider tips on how to get hired, check out our Insider interviews on the StartWire blog. Coming up: Tips from insiders at Google, McGraw Hill, and Eventbrite!

Got a company you’d like to work at, or want to see covered? Shoot us an e-mail: chandlee.bryan <at> startdatelabs.com

We’re invested in your success!

Are Manhattan streets to be paved with Gold?

Maybe not but discount but glam fashion company Gilt Groupe is gunning to be huge, with a recent valuation of a billion dollars. We see jobs across the board at Gilt Groupe in New York, Portland, and Dublin. Like many tech start-ups, they are in hot pursuit of engineers. Their carrot: the opportunity to give to commands to robots who work in operations. You can see the listings here.

Gilt Groupe is being lead by Silicon Valley insider and former DoubleClick CEO Kevin Ryan; a smaller start-up that’s getting attention and funding love from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is NY-based interactive ad firm, Spongecell. The wires are above with info on Spongecell funding today; we anticipate more job listings to follow.

Other companies poised to hire in coming weeks in New York as we see it:

• Lightower Fiber Networks
• Service2Media

Lightower Fiber helps companies stay connected, Service2Media designs and deploys apps across platforms. Both companies are in the process of opening New York offices. (We predict openings for sales and engineering gigs.)

Not up for the work culture of a start-up but want a gig in NYC? Check out Citi; they’ve got over 800 listings with an estimated salary of $80K and above!

Well, it’s been a long month but the DEV team @ StartWire is happy to announce a major upgrade to StartWire.

Here’s what you’ll notice:

• You can now track where you’ve applied and get automatic application status updates just by emailing your application confirmation to apps@startwire.com.  That’s right, just take the ubiquitous ‘thank you for applying’ email, hit forward, and send it to apps@startwire.com.  If the email contains all the data we need to track your application, you’re done. If not, we’ll let you need to do next. Regardless, it makes keeping your job search organized and out of the black-hole a snap!

• A super-cool, new user interface.  We opened up the application, added a home page that includes some great easy-to-follow instructions, and made some of our most popular and powerful features a lot easier to use.

• Our jobs tab is now a recommendations tab.  We’ve talked to thousands of you about what you like and don’t like about your job search. Besides the black-hole, your #1 beef is that you’re flooded with jobs that don’t match your interests.  We’ve taken that to heart and have replaced our Jobs tab with our new Recommendations tab.  Now we SUGGEST jobs to you based on your profile, where you’ve applied, and who you know.  It’s version 1.0…so we’d love your input…but we think this is a critical 1st step to ending job spam. Check it out!

That’s it for now. If you haven’t checked out StartWire, we encourage you to stop by. If you like what we’re doing, share StartWire with everyone you know. If you don’t, write to us so we can fix it.

Happy Friday and Happy Job Searching,
The StartWire Team

StartWire research study finds that 50% of new hires applied within first week of job posting.

Lebanon, NH (PRWEB) June 2, 2011

StartWire™ (http://www.startwire.com), a start-up focused on closing the job application black hole today announced the results of a study examining the relationship between a job offer and the timing of a job seekers’ application.  

Data from over 6600 hires and across 10 industries show a consistent pattern: The early bird gets the job.

Of those hired 27% applied within the first two days after a job was posted. Nearly 50% of the hires were applicants who applied within the 1st week; approximately 75% of all hired candidates applied within three weeks. “Job seekers underestimate the importance of being at the front of the hiring line,” says Chris Forman, CEO & Co-Founder of StartWire™.

 “Once a hiring manager or recruiter does an initial pre-screen of candidates and makes an interview list, they rarely look back at applications that come in later. To optimize your chances, apply as soon as you see a job, and seek out an internal contact within the company who can put in a good word for you.”

“This research sheds light on a long known but little discussed reality in corporate recruiting,” says Mark Lotz, Principal at Camden Delta Consulting and former head of Talent Acquisition for Kimberly-Clark Corporation. “Given the upswing in hiring, corporate recruiters are often working on filling many positions. The reality is that if they find enough qualified applicants to satisfy the hiring manager, they rarely have time to go back to review the resumes of any new applicants.”

The data for this study was derived from a private, internal StartWire research project looking into online job search and hiring behavior. All participant information is being kept confidential. This study used blind application data from 15 leading employers gathered over the last 12 months. Application data was collected across all functions and levels. 

About StartWire™

StartWire™ closes the ‘application black hole’ by providing job seekers with free, automatic updates on their job applications from over 2,100 employers via e-mail and text. StartWire™ also provides a suite of tools that streamline the job search process from recommendations on where to apply and friends who can help, to status indicators of your chances of getting a call based on your application date, the age of the job, and industry benchmarks.

StartWire™ launched in early 2011 to rave reviews and write-ups in US News & World Report, About.com, AOL Jobs, CNN, ERE, HR Executive Magazine, & Career Xroads. StartWire™ is the 1st product commercialized by StartDate Labs™ – a recruiting and job search technology incubator. StartDate Labs is based in Lebanon, NH.

Want more information on the study? Contact us.