Magenic is Hiring - Are You Ready?
To follow on my trend of obvious corporate shill posts - I write this message as a public service.
Magenic is hiring a few great .NET consultants. Let me use this opportunity to compare Magenic to the company you might work for, if you are unlucky, perhaps called "Busywork Oriented Zealot Organization"* Consulting - aka BOZO Consulting.
BOZO Consulting was the job you got in 2003, because they were the only guys hiring at the time. You went to work for them because you had to, certainly not because you wanted to. Frankly, given the economy during that era, you were happy to be getting a paycheck at all. Your neighbor who used to be a Project Manager was delivering pizzas to get his mortgage paid, while you were quaking in your boots because that dot-com job you managed to hang on to despite 6 rounds of layoffs just missed payroll. Again.
Out of loyalty, you are still at BOZO. But some things are bothering you at BOZO - and in fact, always have. BOZO existed in 2003 because they would tell the few clients that existed at that time exactly what they wanted to hear, No Matter What. And you know what, that can sell when the economy is tight. They are the company that cuts rates such that margins are so thin that the company itself operates out of a basement - if there are margins at all. But they did survive, as that kind of frugality allows you to do, when you have no other redeeming features other than the ability to be a soothsayer to your clients, most of whom are your golfing buddies. And you still work there.
However, BOZO has some habits that just do not do well today:
* At BOZO, the sales staff estimate the projects. If a technical person is brought in at all, it is to simply make it seem like they had a say in the estimate. Estimates will, generally, equal what the client is willing to pay for, minus 20% so that the deal can be closed more easily. Of course, you have worked on a few projects like this, because at some point, they almost always become death marches with tons of unpaid overtime - because "we made a committment, gosh-darnit, so make it happen". No worry for the sales staff though - the commission they make is based on revenue, not profitability, so even if they routinely sell dollars for eighty cents, they make their commission regardless. In fact, the more perversely they price deals, the more they close, and the more commissions they get.
"Unpaid overtime" is almost unheard of at Magenic. You bill 45 hours in a week here, you get 5 hours of "bonus time". Estimates for projects are vetted by technically competent people - heck, most of our GMs are technically competent people - and there are incentives and controls here in place that make the "sell dollars for eighty cents" scenario something that is punished, not rewarded.
* At BOZO, they don't do blogs. In fact, at BOZO, they probably have a policy that your personal blog can't even talk about work related matters, or anything else that involves the company brand. Because the sales group runs BOZO, and because they see the idea of having the consultant be considered one of the company "voices" scares them to hell and back, you will see the Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl (sorry, Buffalo fans) long before you will see BOZO do a blog - much less one that involves actual consultants.
At Magenic, Consultants are urged to build their personal brand. In fact, the success of out company depends on our consultants growing into industry recognized names, like Rocky, Michael Ruminer, Jason Bock, and numerous other MVPs and general smart people who work here and participate in the wider community. Many of us blog, and even more of us work the MSDN forums, run user groups like CNUG, and generally, so long as we don't make an ass of ourselves or the company, get to speak as part of it. Magenic is a place where you will be rewarded for building your own brand, not punished for doing so. This not only helps your career, by increasing your name recognition over time, but it helps Magenic, as we can, like I have mentioned previously, bring technical credibility to the table which helps us close deals that BOZO has no hope of closing, even if they heavily discount their rates.
In other words, if they will let ME blog (god help em!) - they will almost certainly let YOU blog.
* BOZO consultants constantly worry about time spent on the bench. In fact, BOZO might even have a policy that lowers your compensation while on the bench. And at BOZO, you will spend a lot of time there, because BOZO doesn't specialize in anything. BOZO might be 30 people doing everything from Java to Cobol to Manual Data Entry - whatever dollar the sales guy sold last month for eighty cents.
Magenic knows what it does well - and operates a coherent strategy for maximizing the ability to operate from it's strenghts. We do technology strategy, Microsoft platform architecture and development, and Microsoft platform application maintenance. We don't lose our focus. Therefore, we generally have a good sales pipeline of Microsoft development work that most of our consultants are qualified to do. It allows us to operate in a manner where we can support you on the bench - if we need to. That said, our pipeline is good enough that bench time generally isn't much of a problem.
* BOZO consultants often spend a year at a time working on solo projects - without ever hearing from "the mother ship" so to speak. At BOZO, the company culture is, if lucky, an annual event with a bunch of people you probably don't know, since you work at the client, not with the other consultants.
In our Chicago office, we have events, user groups, and other ample opportunities to get to know other consultants. Much of the time, in fact (though not all) - you will be working with other Magenicons, or at least near other Magenicons. In fact, we have a person in each office whose job it is to make the consultant feel "connected" with the company.
* At BOZO, there is no career path for you. It is a transaction, you work the hours, BOZO get's its cut, and next year, it is the same thing, if your lucky. Nobody goes from a technical consultant position to a position of authority at BOZO - those jobs are reserved for the sales rainmakers. In fact, at BOZO, any consultant who starts to make too much noise about their own brand, or god forbid advancement, will be labeled a "troublemaker", and possibly shown the door.
At Magenic, our Consulting Managers almost always come from the consultant ranks, as do many of our General Managers. Between your own brand building opportunities (book publishing, articles, etc) - or traditional management path opportunities, you can advance as far as you talents and ambition will take you.
The case for coming to Magenic - especially at this time, when we are on a leg of a pretty substantial growth spurt - is very compelling. We look for talented .NET developers, project managers, user experience specialists, and others who want to build their own brand while helping us grow as well. From the culture, the people, and the respect you get around here, to the incredible opportunity that Magenic provides for your own visibility - you should really consider Magenic as your next step.
Rocky Lhotka wrote a similar email about a year ago, which I responded to - eventually landing me here. One year later, I can definitley say that I could not be more glad that I made the jump! This is certainly a great place to be. In a similar fashion, email me at aarone@magenic.com if you would like me to get you a "fast track" interview with our recruiting team. While I can't promise you the world, I can promise you that at Magenic, we have a "no BOZO" policy.
* OK, so I made the company fit the acronym... sue me :)