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October 25th, 2007 -- by Rick Myers
Well, I received four comments on my first blog post so I’m going to address them one by one.
First, thanks to Nick for complimenting my post. I don’t know if I would go so far as to say it was the best post on the site, especially considering all the good authors Joel has assembled, but I appreciate Nick’s flattering remark.
Second, to Suzanne and the rest of you who have no idea who the hell I am, my name is Rick Myers. I founded and run Talent Zoo. To read more about me, see my bio page Joel posted on cheezhead. You can also click on over to Talent Zoo to learn about the company I lead. In short, Talent Zoo is the leading job board and career portal for Advertising, Marketing, and Media Professionals.
On to the third comment by my new friend Catbert. First I need to say I love the name Catbert. Feels good to say, “Catbert.” Ok, Catbert wants me to talk about Jobster, or as I call them, “Jokester.” I laughed when I saw Catbert’s request and thought, of course, someone wants me to talk about Jokester, and Catbert came right out and put it on the table.
Ok, why not. I promised you I would do my best to produce decent posts about the topics you’d like to discuss.
I always saw Jokester for what they are and the game they chose to play. The company has no product and provides no service. Making little to no money, behaving like a late 1990’s .com propped up on fat VC money, approximately $50 million in this case, hoping to quickly build a name so they can sell (dump) the company, making a few people rich. Jokester IS the product.
This may explain why many of you, me included, can seldom get a straight answer out of them when you ask them what they do. Scan the blogosphere and you can still uncover discussions where people are seeking the answer to the question, “What product/service does Jokester provide?”
Aside from filling no real need, two years ago I thought Jokester was likely headed for trouble when Talent Zoo had dealings with the Jokester CEO who complicated matters by unnecessarily running up his investors’ costs, and Talent Zoo’s, with legal issues and bills that could have been avoided.
In my opinion, it has been a paper company with no real idea or offering, run by an inexperienced CEO with access to large amounts of cash. They had plenty of money to allow for plenty of mistakes. The whole thing has stunk from the head down. I am sure there are plenty of good people who work there and I honestly hope they can turn the enterprise around and achieve success.
Enough on Jokester. On to the fourth and final comment from David Sickmiller (is that your real name, Sickmiller?) who asks what I think about the lack of integration between job boards and employer ATSes. I think it is lousy and there is plenty of room for improvement. If the parties involved can agree on uniform standards, everyone stands to gain, most importantly the consumer.
Until next time, Pow!
October 25th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Rick,
I like you more than Joel. Please buy Cheezhead and fire him.
Your new pal,
Catbert
October 25th, 2007 at 8:26 am
I love you too Catbert. -Rick
October 25th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Ouch!
October 25th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Laughing loudly over the comments. People near me looking strangely in my direction.