Best Resume Ever: How to Woo a Startup
blog.ridejoy.com
blog.ridejoy.com
Similarly, annoying as it probably sounds, virtually anything a startup would ever want to do with a piece of music anyone has heard of before† is probably not kosher. On the flip side, there's thousands of amazingly talented musicians willing to record tracks for tiny amounts of money, so maybe investigate that instead of just grabbing random tracks from iTunes.
The obvious and (please presume) prolific apologies apply if rights to You Got Yr Cherry Bomb were secured for this. Totally possible.
† Including but not limited to putting it center stage on a cheerful and uplifting branded company blog post about resumes.
EDIT: Just spoke directly with a representative at SlideRocket, Sogol Motiey, who says, "Nope! No copyright issues."
There's a whole market for "royalty-free music" (all of which costs money, but at least doesn't cost money per view) that exists entirely --- again, as I understand it --- because you can't just use random copyrighted songs in presentations, on websites, &c.
Sliderocket even links to some of these sites on an article about adding audio to presentations:
http://www.sliderocket.com/blog/2010/07/incredible-presentat...
Note conspicuous lack of "and if you like Apples In Stereo, just drag an MP3 into this window and make sure to say thank you in your presentation". :)
In any case, so I don't sound too much like a message-board-crazy, let me at least commend you on your taste in music. At least it wasn't Ke$ha.
Here's some more on "Fair Use": http://www.benedict.com/Info/FairUse/FairUse.aspx
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/...
Note the "four factors" in fair use:
* The extent to which the use transforms the original work
* The nature of the work being used
* The amount and substantiality of the use
* The effect of the use on the market
I'm pretty sure soundtracking your resume with almost the entirety of a signed band's most popular track flunks all these tests --- charming though that resume is.
I'm actually not at all concerned about musical resumes --- seriously, does Britt Daniel care about resumes? Of course he doesn't --- so much as the mentality at startups that this stuff is always going to be kosher. Not so. HN just got finished shellacking a different YC company over this exact issue.
Be careful about music, is all I'm really saying.
It is improbable that someone is going to issue a DMCA letter because of this, but it does (to your point) outline a couple of problems in S.V., one of which is the misconception that "It's not stealing if you attribute the artist" is widespread. And incorrect, at least for anything (c)All Rights Reserved.
If in doubt, it's a good idea for startups to consult their attorney (and not the PM, or lead engineer, or friend-in-a-band) when in doubt when using music, art, or what-have-you in public fora.
So am I crazy or did whoever this person talk to at Sliderocket give her ludicrously bad advice?
Even if they could win this in court (which they probably couldn't), it's certainly not so cut and dry that anyone would just say 'nope, no problems, carry on' and be done with it.
I mean... yeah, using the music means that a payment should be made, but why is it copyright rather than performance rights?
This is just a general question. I used to work in the industry and only reading this do I see how weird it is.
We had the MCPS and PRS. One does physical copies of recordings, and the other does performances of a recording.
Performing rights are what should be applied here, no copy is being offered, it's simply a broadcast.
That being so... why would copyright apply? And if that is the case, then surely all of the fair use doesn't apply because that's related to fair use of copyrights, not performance rights.
Example: If I made a video and had the Beatles on as a sound track. Then I need to make sure I have performance rights (usually by a blanket fee), and don't need to consider copyright at all.
PRS music fees are covered here: http://www.prsformusic.com/users/broadcastandonline/onlinemo...
Obviously this all has a UK slant, it's what I know... just curious as to why a similar thing doesn't apply here and it's considered copyright (MCPS equivalent) when no copy is being made.
No, it's not kosher at all.
Regardless of your opinions on copyright, etc - this is simply not correct as it stands.
Public attribution does nothing to make it kosher, only reporting it so the royalties get doled out to the appropriate artists does that.
Kickstarter must have to deal with this shit all the time in the project videos
MAKING IT YOURS
And remember, don’t use music, images, video, or other content that you don’t have the rights to. Using copyrighted material is almost always illegal and can lead to expensive lawsuits down the road. The easiest way to avoid copyright troubles? Either create all the content yourself or use content that is free for public use. For example, you may be able to use some Creative Commons-licensed music — per the terms of their licenses — that's available on SoundCloud. Other resources you can explore: Vimeo Music Store, Free Music Archive, and ccMixter.
Spoon is the only existing band I don't hate.
1. It's too slow. I want to know about you, now. I'm a fast reader and want to get on with reading at my own pace, not the pace you've decided to have fancy transitions slide in.
2. I don't have a ton of time to sit through this.
3. There is no detail. You show logos of some impressive places you've (presumably) worked... but... what did you do there? What did you learn? How will that experience make you a good fit at company x?
I think we would have at least phone screened her without this video slideshow, but it took us from "interested" to "wow, this girl looks super legit and really wants this job". If you're a job applicant, that might be worth a lot.
What startup do you work for and how many resumes do you get? If someone made the effort to submit this to mine, I would "sit through" it.
Fair point. Had this been poorly done, I would've hated that I couldn't flip through it quickly, but since it's well done I don't mind it so much.
> 2. I don't have a ton of time to sit through this.
This is essentially the same point was 1.
> 3. There is no detail. You show logos of some impressive places you've (presumably) worked... but... what did you do there? What did you learn? How will that experience make you a good fit at company x?
She also included her resume, presumably with that level of detail.
It's a bit irrational to put this much effort into a job app-- but it's also an incredibly strong positive signal.
For early-stage startups, passion for the space, the people, makes a huge difference. You don't just want the right skills and talent (which Margot also had in abundance), you want people who care.
(And of course, we're hiring a lead designer and engineer: http://www.ridejoy.com/jobs/. Don't worry, preparing a slideshow is not actually necessary.)
It's perfectly rational if you're being savvy about how you approach your job search. If you're playing a numbers game and sending out 200 resumes a day to jobs you're poorly qualified to work at, this is very irrational, since it will not meaningfully increase your hit rate but will severely decrease the amount of resume spam you're capable of. Don't do that.
If, on the other hand, you've done your research and know that there are three positions out there you'd be perfect for, spending two hours (or ten hours) on a sales presentation is a pretty good use of your time. The NPV of a job upgrade, particularly from unemployed or student to "first gainful employment in a meanginful role", is staggering. Heck, I'd do this just to close consulting sales if I thought it would meaningfully affect outcomes -- it's a LOT less work than often goes into getting five figure engagements on the calendar.
Now is it the best possible job search tactic ever? No. Major points for creativity, and "do the job before you have the job" is one of the most effective things you can do in sales, but you'd probably do even better to get a warm intro to the hiring manager and convince them in person that you're the perfect candidate for the position. The resume is optional at that point, but if you've already met them, you're essentially guaranteed that they'll actually review it. (The likelihood of falling out of the funnel before your content is even seen is a major reason why I would suggest not just e.g. throwing one of these into someone's inbox and praying.)
Also, consider: The whole effort doesn't need to be unique. Yes it would need to be customized for each employer, but once you've done the work, you can potentially use it again.
Unless it gets featured on Hacker News, of course. At that point you'd pretty much need to start over for your next job application. But hopefully at that point it's earned you a job. :)
Plus, as an added bonus, it got her and her new company on the front page of HN. Have any of your other new hires done that?
I've heard from resume screeners that a lot of them are told to throw out anything that doesn't match one of the standard formats, or that has color. But do you want to work for a company that imposes such arbitrary, or at the very least stale, rules from the get-go? I think the corporations (generally larger ones) that have these kinds of restrictions could be missing out on the most creative and self-driven employees.
In fact, I'm going to have to add color to my resume now just so that I don't accidentally get an offer from a company like that. ;)
Seriously though, she could learn a thing or two about brevity and efficiently communicating a message. I lost interest quickly.
If someone send me such a resume for " engineering position ", i would probably stop watching after 10 seconds.
Hate that!
EDIT: We just edited the blog layout to make our logo go to ridejoy.com!
Putting myself in the shoes of an employer, this would be an instant win. It shows she took the time to put something together that's more than just a resume. However, I don't know how well this will fly with a large multi-national company (think IBM, Alcatel, etc). That's why I like startups, they're usually filled with happy people and good ideas.
Do companies really want to sift through video slideshows for, say, engineering jobs?
I am so sick of that song.
I guess that's why I and my local marketing organisation don't always see eye-to-eye.
Pictures are worth 1000 words, as they say
1) it shows personality
2) it shows initiative
and 3) a willing to think outside the box, all of which we value.
Obviously the content of the resume has to be great and everything else has to line up too, but this gets you a lot of facetime that not everyone gets. We were looking for a UI guy and got a ton of interest from folks (thanks HN!), but one applicant stood out to us because he went through the effort of making a site focused on getting the job with us (http://jaredhardy.com/fee-fighter/). We hired him.
Changed my mind after seeing her photo.