Teague Hopkins

Mindful Product Management

Unconference

Culture Camp DC Recap

Culture Camp DC was this weekend. We had an amazing group of attendees, fantastic sessions, brilliant ideas, and some great discussions.

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Photos

Photos from the event are available on Google+.

Blog Posts

In keeping with the spirit of an unconference, we’ll leave it to the attendees to tell you what they thought of Culture Camp DC. Here are two blog posts about the event written by our attendees.

Creating a vision or aspirational model for what you want your organization to be like as a persona by Paul Boos

Culture Camp DC: Innovation, Tinker Toys, and the Downside of Early Success by Brenna Cammeron

Twitter

You can also find discussions and live tweets from participants under hashtag #culturedc or by following @CultureCampDC on twitter.

Thanks to Motley Fool for hosting; Chad, Elliot, Paul, and Leah for helping put the event together; and to all our attendees for making the day great.

Job Descriptions That Don’t Suck

Most job descriptions are terrible – so are most resumes – but they don’t have to be. Startups, or people hiring for a new job, often have to write job descriptions before they have complete clarity about the position, and perhaps even before they have a lot of experience hiring. If you’re writing your own job description, here are some things you can do to make it better.

Include the best AND worst parts of your job.
You’re looking for a good fit. Leaving out the parts of the job that are turnoffs will just get you more applications from people who are going to leave once they realize that the job wasn’t what they expected.

Photo by Stéfan

Describe what a day might be like.
Telling potential job seekers what they might do over the course of a day or a week in this job is a great way to help them envision what it would be like to work for you, and for them to imagine whether it’s a good fit.

Show a personality, not just a list of attribute checkboxes (requirements).
Anyone can play “match the attribute checkboxes.” If you want applicants who are a good cultural fit, you have to give some clues about your culture. Telling people what you value is only marginally valuable; showing them by example is a much more effective way to attract like-minded people. Humor and tone are useful tools here.

Consider hiring someone part-time or on contract.
For some situations, doing projects with applicants before hiring them full-time can help you see if they have the skills you need, and if they work well with your team, much better than an interview or resume. Just be aware that there is a limit to how much of a commitment you can ask applicants to make before you’ve made a commitment to them.

If you liked this article, you might like CultureCamp, the unconference on creating company culture.

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