Linden Lab’s Job Fair in Boston – With Open Bar?
by Pixeleen Mistral on 06/06/07 at 9:53 pm
An LL wanna-be attends real life job fair – and is not impressed
by JayR Cela
In the 21 months that I have been a citizen of Second Life, much has changed. SL is no longer a just a RPG hang out. Real life is encroaching, and the best we can do it roll with the punches. Some times I applaud the Lindens, other times I just shake my head in wonder. But a recent conversation with a well respected, dear friend who just attended the LL Job Fair in Boston, just blew me away. Here is an inside peek at what is actually going at the recruiting station for happy land. My friend wishes to remain anonymous – and please remember this is only one side of the story – maybe it was all a dream?
The job fair scene described is hard to believe, but so is a woefully underpowered, inadequate database engine, inventories that won’t, massive amounts of data packet loss, inability to TP or cross a sim border without hilarious results, Ruthed avatars, failed transactions, lost inventory, & money, and the list goes on. The Lab certainly needs help. Let’s see how they go about recruiting.
Anonymous: well i went to the SL Linden Lab job fair last night..i got home this afternoon
JayR Cela: how did that go?
Anonymous:well.. it was interesting to see the types of individuals that are on SL, and to see who Linden Lab’s recruits. The people who seem to work for them are all very young mostly in their 20′s, not to many older people
JayR Cela: and?
Anonymous: it was held in Boston in a well know Club,Bar. 33 Restaurant and Lounge, on Stanhope Street here in Boston.
JayR Cela: in a Bar?,geaze o petes are they a bunch of party morons too? Sounds like a bad way to make first impressions on a potential employee or employer for that matter.
Anonymous: well they did a nice job but your right lol…open bar…definitely not a good thing for a company to chance,was not your typical job fair lol
JayR Cela: no wonder they can’t fix problems plaguing the client & server software / they to busy screwing around.
Anonymous: some of their employees weren’t so nice either. I think they have a social deficit. lol. I saw a woman, an attendee, trying to take some pictures, and one of the Lindens, a young girl said to her. Don’t take photographs! We want to stay anonymous!! she was very ill mannered, and then what do they do? They walk around taking photos.
JayR Cela: Oh that is too much. They want to remain anonymous, but the hell with anonymity for the users. Give me a break, PLEASE.
Anonymous: and they didn’t interact that well together themselves. the outsiders were the professional ones. Lol
JayR Cela: I kinda figured LL was unprofessional.
Anonymous: Yes they sent a bunch of kids from San Francisco to test the waters, if this was their way to introduce SL to Boston, it wasn’t a very good idea
JayR Cela: LOL crap, is no wonder they seem to have there heads up their ass / they Already Know Everything ! / cant tell em shit
Anonymous: yup you got it! it was a casual introduction, but yes with an open bar…:(
JayR Cela: Not much in the way of common sense either
Anonymous: Oh that young woman complaining about pictures being taken, she had no class at all.
JayR Cela: LOL, oh but they want to add voice to SL thats real anonymous for role player’s NOT. It is for corporate and love sick real lifers, but give us pretty skies, and don’t be bothered with fixing TP’s and the attachment problem, or get their Database to work for poop, so now they expect to let the corporations take over and turn SL into an extension of RL. And they want to remain anonymous / holy moses / that is way to much / Rofl :_)
Anonymous: well after she said that, my friend who has a very well know Art Gallery in Boston, was talking to that girls boss. and i was standing near by, and he acted so crude in front of us..so it may go to show you the types they do hire.. I am not interested. Lol. and what i came away with was a feeling of I don’t want to be a Linden lol and neither do my friends. we can mange fine with out them in SL
JayR Cela: They may have ego problem’s , after all they are Lindens / LOL :_)
Anonymous: it wasn’t the lindens that impressed me it was the members
JayR Cela: did they seem to favor a certain type of person for possible job candidates over other types ?
Anonymous: yes they did in away
JayR Cela: what types ?
Anonymous: more men than women and young
JayR Cela: well thats typical
Anonymous: i know. i left there going hmm ok..i spoke to allot of people but after seeing that..it left me with a poor impression..not making me think the whole clan of lindens is like that but a few
JayR Cela: what ? explain please, you thought most were jerks ? or no ?
Anonymous: no not all jerks but they did isolate others from the VIP area with great joy lol
JayR Cela: what do you mean? An elite gathering away from the wanna bee’s?
Anonymous: like the mob lol, or a bouncer type guy ..they were a young group trying to put on a party that was meant to impress those who were interested and wanted their image to appear to be hip lol. I could tell..kind of, you know posh fresh young group. anyway, they had two floors open..the top for those LL was interested in, and the bottom floor for people who were being considered.
JayR Cela: LOL
Anonymous: it was done well. But some came away from it seeing the lindens a bit above them selves or should i say full of themselves
JayR Cela: OK Sis answer this, you are a 40′s something college educated successful business woman right?
Anonymous: yes i am
JayR Cela: ok, and your overall impression with Linden Labs is that you want nothing to do with working directly for them
Anonymous: no I don’t think I would want to work with them, they spoke nothing about what Linden had to offer the employee. the only interaction with the Linden Lab employees to the crowd was a one on one or cluster of folks socializing. there was no formal “hello I am so and I am your host for the evening …nothing as to who Linden Labs is..even though we do know who they are but then again not really. that isn’t the way to conduct even an informal job fair. I observed others sitting by themselves thinking to myself they wont approach the lindens because they feel intimidated
Anonymous: my personal thought i spoke with some but felt the most charismatic individuals were the sl members. they networked, which is what i did..spoke to as many people as I could..and enjoyed my evening that way. they had people at the door with a list of individuals who were invited and some were only allowed the invitation to the VIP room which i was in but didn’t understand the methods of discrepancy do you know what i mean?
JayR Cela: yeah
Anonymous: maybe they felt intimidated i don’t know..but the only form of information given out was a little card at the door you had to pick up. they had a website www.lindenlab.com/jobs to go to and write a cover letter and submit your resume
JayR Cela: Hell you could of done that from home
Anonymous: I’ve heard a lot of the Linden arrogance, and that they really dont address allot properly. you dont hold a job fair without providing information on the company number one, and to not have a spokesperson speak on behalf of Linden was a bit odd as to make the audience feel all welcome instead of a few. that should be mentioned to bring it to their attention and I dont want to hear them say “Oh well everyone knows who WE R” no we dont ..tell us – and if someone is going to be employed for a company let them know what the company has to offer them. very unprofessional
JayR Cela: haha / that is obvious just in the way they refuse to solve nagging problems with the SL client and server software
Anonymous: right. the people i spoke with after said they don’t need them ..they can do more in world on their own just fine. also what was mentioned is that they are not keeping up with the technology. thats why we have allot of trouble with the system. they got to big for their britches
Prokofy Neva
Jun 8th, 2007
>This is a fairly common silicon valley type of thing. The VIP room is for folks who actually submitted resumes, and those who come to the event actually interested in getting a job. Since the guest list isn’t tightly controlled, tons of people will show up with no intention of submitting their resume so they don’t get VIP access.
Maybe they do it differently on the East Coast.
Yuh. They do.
And I’m glad finally to get a reading on this from someone who could actually comment as to whether this was “Silicon Valley Culture”. Of course Pathfinder, being from Boston, might be expected to know it is NOT East Coast culture (if one can speak of such a thing) but it’s often the case that new recruits to a cult can be the most vigorous in its promulgation and dissemination of its culture.
It would be one thing if the notice said, “Send your resume and get an invitation to our VIP lounge,” and it made it clear that if you didn’t send in a resume, you’d be in the first floor area with the newbs and rubes.
But…that isn’t how they said it. They said “Come to this party, and if we like the way you look and act, you’ll be invited to our VIP lounge.”
Ugh.
jessica
Jun 8th, 2007
regarding “silicon valley culture” and “hiring” party/fair events… I have NOT been to many hiring events on both coasts, so I am not going to try to make broad statements and comparisons. however, I recently attended a hiring event put on here in silicon valley by Facebook, and I’d like to describe a couple of its key differences from what’s been described about the Linden Labs’ event.
For those who are aware of/also attended the F8 launch keynote/hackathon, that is NOT what I’m talking about. Facebook has also held several hiring focused events.
At the Facebook hiring event, there _was_ an open bar. And very nice finger foods. It was a relatively small gathering, perhaps 40 to 50 potential hirees. It was not open invitation. Recent applicants, and folks targeted by facebook’s employees and recruiters were invited. There were small gifts given to each attendee (these included a small wine glass with a facebook related etched image). Facebook also invited some folks who are NOT being recruited NOR work for facebook, just because they work on interesting projects and have interesting things to talk about. It was not overly loud – you could converse easily with people. Folks wore name tags. Facebook employees went out of their way to get conversations going and include everyone. I didn’t see people wandering around alone or with noone to talk to.
Facebook’s CEO _did_ give a formal presentation with slides. We were made to feel very welcome, and we were given a good understanding of what Facebook is about – not just the information you can learn easily with a little research about the product and company, but what it’s really like to work there.
I went away from it feeling that they’d done a very good job presenting themselves as a company, and their employees as your potential future coworkers.
Does this hiring event represent “silicon valley companies” or culture, any more or less than the Linden Labs event does? I have no idea. Did Linden Labs did do a good job, with their event, of representing their employees and what it’s like to work there? If so, then kudos to the planners.. if not .. then hopefully someone from Linden Labs is listening here and learns from this.. if that party didn’t represent what Linden Labs is about, they might want to consider doing things a little differently next time.
Based on the descriptions, I hope it doesn’t represent them accurately. But if it does, they’re probably pretty pleased with themselves!
But I’m writing this mainly in reaction to the comments about silicon valley culture. Facebook is not the only company whose hiring events I’ve been to, they’re just the most recent. The Google hiring event I attended also did NOT do a split off VIP area – that was in washington D.C. at a conference – so while it was a silicon valley
company, it was an east coast location and a broad set of participants from across the US and other countries as well. That was another silicon valley company’s hiring event which 1) did not do a VIP area and 2) did have
a formal presentation with slides, 3) had an open bar and tasty foods.
I personally think that the VIP area is a very bad idea, and that if you find yourself as a company thinking you need to have one at your hiring event, you might want to think about other ways to achieve the goals you have that led you to think about it.
But if the use of a VIP area accurately reflects the culture of your company.. then.. it makes sense!
Eh. I’m a bit rambly and unfocused. I apologize. I want to “defend” silicon valley culture, because this is my home, my culture, and I’m a hiring employer, and I’ve been to hiring events of other silicon valley companies that I thought did a great job. .. but it’s possible MY experience is the anomaly. So I’m just putting my thoughts out there to add to the mix.
-jessica
Dave Powell ("Times Sands" in SL)
Jun 14th, 2007
I too attended the party, was one of the few over-50′s there, and did find the environment a little odd. But I rather expected that!
I had posted my resume ahead-of-time, and received a confirming email that I should ask to go directly to the VIP room. But when I did ask, the hostess at the front desk sent me off into the regular top-floor frenzy. Only after I actually got to talk with the Lindens there, did they decide that I should indeed get the sparkly blue arm-band that opened up VIP.
While downstairs, I really tried to discuss issues relating to my target job (Boston Web Content Editor). But they suggested that I file my comments online, through the resume page, as “addenda” to my original application. I did, and haven’t heard a peep since.
I’ve contacted folks through email and in-world IMs, but everyone’s very closed-mouthed! I also found Cory Linden’s original blog about the party, and noticed that the last comment was asking for information about who got hired. But when I seconded that motion, my post was removed.
Short of dropping in during a Linden’s in-world office hours, I don’t know what else to do. Maybe nothing… I just noticed that the Boston Web Content Editor has been removed from their jobs page. Maybe that’s the only indication that people who aren’t hired will receive.
Dave Powell ("Times Sands" in SL)
Jun 15th, 2007
Just had another thought: Next time, maybe L.L. could hold the party in their One Broadway office in Cambridge. That would at least allow them to do actual interviews, if they wished. It’s a pretty nifty building too…with its own Cool Quotient.
Overheard at the party: “I love the way they keep resetting the virtual DJ through that notebook…Sooooooo ‘Linden’”
Sidney Smalls
Jun 22nd, 2007
*** Lastly… LL doesn’t use the normal boss/employee relationship, so really if someone said they were the boss they were either joking or violating protocol. ****
That’s incorrect. They have “directors” of development teams, which they call “studios.” They also have a variety of vice presidents, etc.