IS A BIG HIT

Seventy No Shortage of Work subscribers converged on the offices of New Work City on Wednesday, April 7, 2010, for what can only be described as our best networking party yet.

Unlike our prior party there was no music, which was a welcome relief; our crowd was loud enough. By 8:00 p.m. it got so crowded that some people moved into the hall for one-on-one discussions. New Work City is moving soon to a bigger space, and we are all hoping we will be invited to hold a party there soon.

(Note: The next party will be on May 10 – look for an announcement on this site.)

Humor was provided by someone identifying himself as Kotow Shergar, an editor at Humongous Shortage of Work. Mr. Shergar handed out a flier recommending attendees go home, and if they chose to stay they avoid talking to strangers and be very suspicious of offers to help. Ironically, Mr Shergar stayed until the very end, and his handout made the claim that he wrote for the Onion and was offering to help people with their writing.

Elissa Desani, of Glass Ceiling Films, collected stories and suggestions from attendees. She even caught on tape a heated argument between Kotow Shergar and Brooke Allen, regarding the reasonableness of people helping people without money changing hands.

Below are more photos from the meeting:

NSoW Volunteers meet for dinner before the party.

NSoW Party attendees brought their own beer, wine, soft drinks, and munchies.

Left to Right: Kotow Shurgar and Brooke Allen argue while NSoW subscriber, David Brett, looks on in disbelief.

Attendees wore color coded tags identifying them as willing to be mentors, looking for work, or looking for help.

There was more than enough to drink and eat.

Elissa Desani of Glass Ceiling Films

Tony Bacigalupo, Founder of New Work City.

About Our Hosts: NEW WORK CITY

New Work City is a co-working site where membership gets you access to their workspace, their mailing list, an excellent community of NYC independents, and much more.

To learn more, go to: nwcny.com

I don’t have much turnover in my group. Everyone has been with me for between 5 and 10 years. Sadly, Darla, who I only hired last year, has had to leave. She did wonderful work and we all loved her. And she liked it here too, but something unfortunate came up.

So, I’m hiring again.

We placed an ad in Craigslist.

Within three days, hundreds of people replied. If they were interesting, or they asked good questions, I responded, by sending them everyone’s questions and answers.

If a candidate was still interested, I then invited them to attend one of a few open houses.

We had our first yesterday where I met nine interesting and wonderful people.

I introduced myself, the team, and described the work. Because there are so many of them, and only one job, I suggested that, rather than having them all try to compete to impress me, we all work together to help everyone get a job. That way, I can differentiate the people who are only good at selling from the ones who like to help others.

If you are one of my applicants, please feel free to post a comment about your experience of this way of hiring.

Thanks,

Brooke

Brooke and NSoW member Lou Belle will be heading to a JobNob event in NYC on Tuesday, February 9th. Jobnob’s purpose is to connect job seekers to start-up firms. You are welcome to meet up with other NSoW members at 4:00PM before the happy hour. The event starts at 4:30PM and the extra 1/2 hour will give us time to meet each other and plan our approach to the event. For details, visit our last newsletter.