Travis Seitler: Web Designer

Over and over again, in every industry, precisely the same calculation takes place. “Should I pay significantly more to have it done the old way, the local way, the traditional way, the way that pays my neighbor a living wage—or should I keep the money?”

[...]

Abstract macroeconomic theories are irrelevant to the people making a million tiny microeconomic decisions every day in a hypercompetitive world. And those decisions repeatedly favor fast and cheap over slow and expensive.

Over the weekend I picked up Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? from the library. (My hold request was behind a few others. I think this is a good thing: it means there’s people in the Sarasota area who (a) use the library for its intended purposes, and (b) know enough about Seth Godin to want to reserve his new book within the first few weeks after it hits the shelves.)

I’m still only in the first chapter, but I really like what I’ve read so far. This seems to be a bit different from Godin’s previous books.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but he almost seems to be focusing more on sociological issues and concepts in this book’s opening, where previous books started off using more personal anecdotes and individual experiences. It makes Linchpin feel like it doesn’t belong with his previous “business/marketing” books so much as with McKibben’s Deep Economy and Postman’s Technopoly.

I like that. And even if it’s not how the rest of the book will read, it’s still good for Godin. Criticism levied toward the ideas in his books often takes the tone of “he’s just a clueless huckster using anecdotes to advance untested ideas.” This opening shows that, at the very least, he’s done his homework.

When an economy operates locally, everyone in it enjoys some measure of power. But when an economy operates globally, only a select few ever rise to a level of power.

Dan says that statement seems backward, but if you toss Dunbar’s number into the equation, I think it all makes sense.

When the scope of the economy is, say, 50-250 people, then (generally speaking) each person is able to maintain a relationship with each other person in the group. These connections keep us “in the loop,” which is absolutely necessary for one to retain that measure of economic power.

When the scope is increased to over 5 billion people, there will be only a very few who are able to forge and maintain a sufficient number of relationships to key players. Those few become the key players, and it’s only by their maintaining those relationships (or by being pursued by other key players) that they retain their power and influence.

Granting that we don’t like such a system, what would the solution be? We can’t force people to not use the transportation and communication tools at their disposal—particularly when doing so appears to be economically sound. (Just look at the environmentalist movements of the 20th century: it’s still the case that, for the vast majority of humankind, “earth-friendly” alternatives are only pursued when they are cheaper, more convenient, or both.) Very few households are truly willing to pay higher prices supporting local economies when they can save a few bucks buying from China.

How did this happen? It’s said that “if you tax something, you get less of it.” For decades our Local, State and Federal governments have increased taxes and regulations on businesses within this nation’s borders while removing tariffs and other barriers to trade with foreign nations. The result is that it’s cheaper to have food shipped over by boat or plane from the other side of the planet than it is to stock shelves with produce from the farmer on the edge of town.

Ultimately, I don’t think we can say that the customer is the one to blame. Free trade with other nations has been pursued at the same time that trade amongst ourselves has been made more and more restrictive. (It’s gotten to where you risk fines, or even jail time, for keeping an eye on your friends’ kids for a few minutes “without a license”!) So if you want to change the system, you may need to change the system.

(or, “Why I Don’t Work With Recruiters.”)

Despite having spoken with and submitted resumes to a good dozen technical recruiters, I’ve never once gotten a job as a result of speaking with a headhunter. Every job I have ever had came as the direct result of a personal connection; some friend playing “matchmaker” between myself and the employer.

So I’m skeptical whenever one contacts me. Especially when they use my “Monster.com only” e-mail address. And most especially when they use that address, but ask questions that are answered by the resume that address appears on.

Anyway, I got a particularly juicy one today, and thought I’d share it with the rest of the class. This guy called me on the phone and sounded like a telemarketer. His accent was so thick, I couldn’t place a word of his introduction; sounded like he said his name was “Chauncey K.” I couldn’t tell who he said he was working for, but it sounded like one of those stereotypical “Generic Business USA” names a scam operation uses when they want to sound legit. And when I asked what he was calling in regards to, he just repeated his name and rank like I was an enemy interrogator. So I hung up, thinking he was trying to hoodwink me into buying satellite service or life insurance or something.

Turns out he had something more devious in mind, because ten minutes later, I get the following e-mail from “Kant CK”:

From: “KANT@ABSI”
Subject: Attn Please: Need 3 HTML Developers at Columbus OH
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:01:11 -0500

Hello Travis Seitler ,

This is Kant CK at American Business Solutions Inc. based in Columbus OH. We have many Fortune 500 companies as our direct clients. We have potential openings for the following skills with one of our clients. Please let us know your interest with answers to the questions below and by providing your MS Word format resume.

Client has an urgent need for 3 HTML developers. They must have strong HTML experience with client-side web development. They should have 3+ years of experience, as they have recently had some issues with people who are too light in their experience. As you know, the environment is fast-paced and very flexible, so the experience will help them to be autonomous, yet not afraid to ask questions when they have them.

Client will interview very quickly, as they would like to have someone start on Monday, if possible.

Questions

Are you available to work onsite at client location in Columbus OH?
=>

What is your current location?
=>

There will be an In-Person Interview after telephonic, are you OK with this?
=>

How you rate yourself on scale of 10 for this position?
=>

Are you on a project or ending your current assignment soon?
=>

Have you given any interview recently, if yes, please mention client?
=>

How soon could you start?
=>

What is the expected Hourly Rate? On 1099 or on w2
=>

What is your Current Status? (Please mention: US Citizen / Green Card /EAD)
=>

Best phone number and time to call?

Please provide 2 professional references?

Thanks & Regards,
Kant CK
American Business Solutions Inc. (www.absi-usa.com)
(An Inc. 5000 & Columbus OH Fastest 50 Company)
8850 Whitney Drive / Lewis Center, OH 43035
Phone: 412-353-1089 (Direct) / 614-888-2227 (Office)
Email: kant@absi-usa.com / 614-917-2277 (Fax)
——————————————————————-
Partnership is our Service Philosophy
——————————————————————-

Now don’t get me wrong: I’m not such a snob that I’ll immediately reject an opportunity because it’s not presented the way I like. But there’s just too many missing pieces and red flags (coupled with a thick layer of boasting) for me to get too excited about this.

Plus, there’s the matter of asking me about things like my U.S. Citizenship status (which is clearly stated with any resume where they would have found this e-mail address).

And on top of all that, I did some quick digging and discovered that the guy’s name isn’t Kant, but Kanth. It’s not a huge difference, but it makes it seem like he’s the sort of person who tries to hide things… like the country he was born in. (Which seems a stupid thing to try to hide if you’re going to be calling people on the phone.) Dude, if you’re going to work with the tech community, you need to work on the transparency… pronto.

So after thinking it over, I decided I’d respond—but I wasn’t going to play the “desperate worker bee” role he was trying to shoehorn me into. If Kant wanted anything from me, he was first going to have to answer a few (reasonable) questions I had:

Subject: Re: Attn Please: Need 3 HTML Developers at Columbus OH
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:53:54 -0500
To: kant@absi-usa.com

Kant,

You’ve used an e-mail address which I only list on resume sites (all updated within the past month), so you already know about my location, skills and citizenship status.

If this is a serious offer (and not a “fishing expedition”), and if the client is truly looking to start someone on Monday? Then you will need to get back to me with the following information:

- Is this position temporary/contract or ongoing?

- As the work is to be conducted on-site at the client’s location, what are the hours of operation for this position?

- Given the timeframe for the hiring decision, the client will obviously already have an hourly rate in mind. What is that rate?

- You say client has an “urgent need” for 3 developers, and wants to start someone on Monday. What has the client done to the previous developer(s) to wind up in such a situation?

- What sort of development work is to be done in this position? “Client-side web development” is extremely vague, and no professional could rate their compatibility without more detail as to the actual job requirements.

I’ve dealt with recruiters before, and found the experience to be a waste of my time. Answering these questions will show me that American Business Solutions Inc. is a better than average recruiting firm.

Thank you,
// Travis Seitler

Could I have been more friendly? Certainly, but this is business: if a recruiter wants to get a commission off of my labor, they first need to earn my respect. Every single one of those questions is something I would need answered before I would waste any more of my time on such an “offer.”

I went back to work on projects for a few of my clients while I waited for a response. And I had just about given up on the guy ever writing back, when this lovely gem came back to me:

From: “KANT@ABSI”
Subject: RE: Attn Please: Need 3 HTML Developers at Columbus OH
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:57:44 -0500

Hello Travis,
 
I can understand your situation. But Its already late for submitting the resume for this position
If you are in need of job, Please send me your updated profile along with your contact details and your rate, if every thing is matching with the clients requirements then I will get back to you.
 
Thanks for you patience

Thanks & Regards,
Kant CK
American Business Solutions Inc. (www.absi-usa.com)
(An Inc. 5000 & Columbus OH Fastest 50 Company)
8850 Whitney Drive / Lewis Center, OH 43035
Phone: 412-353-1089 (Direct) / 614-888-2227 (Office)
Email: kant@absi-usa.com / 614-917-2277 (Fax)
——————————————————————-
Partnership is our Service Philosophy
——————————————————————-

Whaddya know… I ask a few tough questions about the job he approached me about, and all of a sudden it’s too late to submit a resume? But of course he’s more than happy to add me to his database of contacts. I’m sure that’s not at all why he tracked me down in the first place. Of course not–that would be deceptive!

Please notice how I told him that recruiters were, in my mind, a waste of time—but that he could convince me otherwise by answering my questions. He didn’t answer any of them (which he could have, regardless of my eligibility), so why is he even bothering to suggest I send in my resume anyway?

Sigh. And here I was so excited about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! I suppose next time I’m “in need of job,” I should put aside the stupid questions and just submit the resume before “Its already late.”

Now that I don’t work for Geppi anymore, I’ll go ahead and “out” him on this one.

For both 2007 and 2008, everyone at Gemstone Publishing was given pre-filled ballots (typically leaving one or two blank spaces for our own personal choices) to sign and send in. Nobody was required to submit the ballots (I didn’t either year; mostly because I was disgusted by the scheme), but I’m sure we still had two- or three-dozen nearly identical ballots sent for both of those years.

The worst part is that they were so pathetically obvious about it. In 2007, completely blank ballots were e-mailed to Gemstone employees… and then we were told to not touch those, but to instead wait for the “J.C. Vaughn-approved” (pre-filled) versions to be passed around.

In ‘08, after the pre-filled ballots were given to us, Vaughn had a member of the Scoop! editorial staff e-mail everyone in the company, looking for a tally of who all was going to submit ballots. (Now maybe I’m just clueless, but why would he even want to know… unless they were planning on submitting forged ballots “on our behalf”?)

Spammy, attention-grabbing behavior like this from the people in charge is one of the many reasons why I got off that sinking ship. (Sigh.)

I really don’t know what to suggest in the way of fixing the Harveys. Maybe a ballot system where you aren’t allowed to nominate any project you were involved with? You’d still get backscratching, but it wouldn’t be as much of a “biggest publisher who cares, wins” nomination process.

(This post originally appeared as a comment at Heidi MacDonald’s THE BEAT.)

UPDATE: Not only did my remarks influence a follow-up article at THE BEAT, but I’m getting incoming links from CBR’s Robot 6, Comics Worth Reading is quoting me, and I landed a mention in TCJ’s ¡Journalista! Nuts, I tell you! NUTS!

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