This Startup is Hiring A Few Good Men (Three to Get Ready video series)

The fourth in a series of interviews where entrepreneurs give their three top tips for getting a startup job, keeping a startup job, and knowing if it’s time to run screaming from your startup job.

The best part, most of these entrepreneurs are hiring now. Including this one!

Entrepreneur: Reece Pacheco
Company: Shelby.tv
Jobs: Full stack engineers for front-end development, or people with other skills if you’re motivated and interested in Shelby.tv (more on the jobs at minute 20:00)

You can’t handle the truth!

Or maybe you can. But fair warning, what you’re about to read may make you question everything you thought you knew about getting a job, resumes and fishing.

Yes, fishing.

Meet Reece Pacheco, co-founder and CEO of Shelby.tv. Smart guy, hot company. Or hot guy, smart company depending on how you look at it.

Reece and his team recently attended a recruiting event for their smart, hot company where they were approached by lots of people they’d put in the “brilliant” category. They met lots of people with the exact right technical skills Shelby is looking for.

But most of these people didn’t grab their attention.

Know who did grab their attention? The guy who sent in a picture of the big fish he’d just caught.

(For the time challenged all the juicy take-aways are summarized in the post.)

Yup. Shebly.tv was wooed, not by the great resumes they saw at the recruiting event, not by the impressive MBA credentials, not even by the technical engineering chops that they’re currently in need of.

The Shelby team was wooed by the catch of the day, and what I’m assuming was a big toothy ‘look at me ma’ grin.

The problem with the brilliant, credentialed, technically talented candidates they met at the event? Most were looking for a J-O-B. Shelby doesn’t have any of those. They are looking for a few good men.

Good men who understand that to work for a startup means that you’re not following a paycheck, you’re following a passion.

They’re looking for the few, the proud, the… okay, enough of that. You get the picture.

The story here is that Reece—like most entrepreneurs—is building a team, not hiring a position. And if you want to be part of that team, you have to understand the difference.

Need help wrapping your mind around the difference? Check out the video. He explains it very clearly. And what he explains applies even if the job you’re applying for isn’t with him.

Three to Get Ready Tips

GET the job (minute 4:28 – 8:20)
“Don’t send me a resume.” Did you catch that? This is video four in the series, and in one way or another, each entrepreneur has told you this same thing. They’re bored with your resume. They’re tired of the bland, generic, each-one-looks-like-the-next document.

You heard Chuck Dietrich in the first video, say “blah, blah, blah” in reference to resumes, right? You heard Michael Brooks echo the same in video two.

Listen….to….them. Find another way to communicate what you’re about. As Reece says, he wants you to “show me who you are. Less so, than here’s a bunch of places I’ve worked.”

What’s wrong with resumes? Well, I can tell you this; the concept wasn’t created by someone in marketing or advertising. In their standard format, resumes do nothing to showcase your personal brand.

And your personal brand is what startups are interested in. So much so, that if your brand is intriguing enough, you may get the job even if your skills aren’t a perfect match for the job.

Don’t believe me? See what Reece says about exactly that. (minute 5:10)

KEEP the job (minute 8:30 – 10:40)
For Reece, it’s simple; be on board with the vision. Be excited about the business. Enjoy the people you’re working with, cause you’re gonna spend some long hours together.

Though in a startup it’s less about clocking in, and more about checking boxes. Getting it done is what matters, not whether you did it between the hours of nine and five.

And someone who’s onboard with the vision isn’t going to have a problem with that vision getting executed on a Saturday afternoon. Or a very late evening. When you’re excited about what you’re doing, you live by the old Nike motto. You just do it.

LEAVE the job (minute 10:50 -14:50)
If the Righteous Brothers regularly sing in your head, it’s time to leave your startup. If you’ve lost that lovin’ feeling (whoa, whoa, whoa) lose the job as well.

When you’re not excited about the day to day, you’re not taking ownership of what you’re doing. And for a startup founder, that’s where they draw the line.

Reece’s tip, “don’t fight it. Find the next thing.” Everyone will be happier.

The JOBS (minute 20:00-22:00)
Full stack engineers to focus on front end development. Shelby’s stack: HTML5, CSS3, Java Script, Ruby on Rails. (I have no idea what I just typed, so hopefully it makes sense to you.)

But Wait! Reece says even if you don’t work in these languages but you’re good and want to learn them, reach out. Yes, he said exactly that. Reread the Get the Job section if you don’t believe me.

He tells you exactly how to contact him, and with what info at minute 21:40. Be sure to check that out first! No surprise, he leads with “no resumes!”

More info: blog.shelby.tv/workwithus

So, what’s shocking you most about the video series? (Besides how shockingly bad my video tech skills are.) Is it the tips? The fact that all of these entrepreneurs are hiring? The fact that none of them give a hoot about your resume? What? Tell me. Have a question you’d like answered by the next entrepreneur? Tell me that too. I’d love to know.

Know an entrepreneur who should be interviewed for this series? Are you the entrepreneur who should be interviewed for this series? Let me know. I’m also looking for a few good men. Or women. Doesn’t matter as long as you’re running a company, and even better if you’re running one that’s currently hiring. 

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