What Company Culture IS and IS NOT
Frustrated. Disturbed. Disappointed. That’s how I feel after reading a recent article that appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek called “Job Applicants’ Cultural Fit Can Trump…
Hiring
Startups Cannot Afford to Have Indispensable Employees (and not for the reason you think)
“Become indispenable to your employer.” That’s the advice I see from job training and professional coaches all the time. And I can empathize with…
Why Every Company Should Have a Marketing-Focused Webdev Team
Ask any marketing consultant focused on inbound channels (SEO, social media, conversion rate optimization, email, etc.) what the most challenging part of their job…
Why Are You Hiring for the Job I Want to Grow Into?!
I really, really like Moz’s Renea Nielsen. I was having a rough day at the office today, mostly because my calendar was filled with calls…
Understanding Stock Options at Startups (and at Moz)
Last Friday, SEOmoz held our “allhands” meeting at the Big Picture theater. Out of ~98 Mozzers, 85 of us were in attendance (sadly 3 had…
Time Recovery Hacks
Startup life has intense time requirements. In the early phases, there’s a lot of nose-to-the-grindstone need, and if the company successfully scales, the internal…
Some Thoughts on Firing Employees
This past week, I read a terrific Quora thread on firing. The depth and breadth of answers shows the wide range of opinions and…
When Brilliant Minds Become Brilliant Jerks
The NYTimes Bits Blog has a worthwhile read from last week entitled “What Do You Do With the Brilliant Jerks?” I’d encourage startup founders…
Interview Questions and Interview Strategy
It’s struck me of late that many smart companies with reputations for giving tough interviews are weirdly anti-strategic in their approach to interview questions.…
The Uncomfortable Challenge of Topgrading Your Startup’s Team
If things go well at your startup, there will inevitably be a point where the business is growing ahead of the team’s abilities. Engineers…