The JAR Group wants you to create your own *damn* search marketing job!
The JAR Group is a three-year-old company with a smart, energetic staff. We pride ourselves on having fun while doing high-quality work (We have the expected benefits, but we also have an on staff DJ, a growing bicycle gang, bagel Thursdays, free beer Fridays…and best a great team).
We may be small, but our goals are big. We pride ourselves on our ability to grow our clients’ revenues; clients seem to like that. The good news is, we’re growing, and what that means is that we need to bring in new people to join our team. We might just be looking for Y-O-U.
We’ve all seen those job posts that describe the perfect candidate—a bullet point next to every requirement. We don’t think that those sorts of listings are particularly effective, and we are afraid that if we tell you exactly what we want, we’ll miss out on meeting the perfect candidate. We aren’t looking for a candidate that fits any specific list of requirements, rather, we’d like to find a candidate that wants to help us grow and create value for our clients.
What we need is a hard-working, personable human being (you MUST be human—although there may be exceptions made for well-documented demi-humans) who is extremely organized, creative (no in-the-box thinkers allowed), good with numbers, a self-starter, and most importantly, we want someone who loves search marketing and understands how it integrates into the overall online marketing arena.
We are interested in working with interesting people. So, you need be an advocate of the value that search marketing can bring to clients, be able to lead and grow a team, and be able to roll up your sleeves to get “it” done. Basically, we need you to be a little bit of everything. How you do it and with what mixture of skills and experience, well that is up to you.
We want you to tell us what you think the role should be.
This position has no title. You can apply to us as a Director of Search Marketing, a Search Strategist, or even a Lion Tamer for all we care. We just want to find a good person who rocks hard on search marketing (air-guitaring while developing link bait… bonus points) and who fits in with the team like a well-placed puzzle piece. You know what you can do so we want you to create the role around our needs, and more importantly, around the needs of our clients.
To be considered, you need to do more then just send us a resume (resume email bombs go straight to our archives). Just tacking on a generic cover letter will also probably get you archived without any conversation. Email us, twitter us, blog about us, or hire a skywriter and let us know what you want to create. We have the team to make you great, so all we ask is that you make us great. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
So what do we want you to do?
- Dive into our site
- Ask questions in the comments to this post, we’ll try to answer, but more importantly, we’ll start an F.A.Q.
- Research
- Think of ways to engage us in conversation online or off (hey, we’re always at Digital DUMBO Drink ups)
- Get us to think
What do you get?
- You will join a great team
- You can create the role that you know should be created around search marketing leadership
- You will be part of the management team driving the future of an exciting agency
We won’t pay you like a first round draft choice, sorry, we’re a start-up, but you will be paid well. In addition to a salary (job description speak- Salary Commensurate with Experience), you will be eligible for profit sharing (and yes, we make money). It is so important to us that you make us money, we are willing to give a little bit back as part of your package.
If this sounds like something you, or your friends, would be interested in let’s start talking…
UPDATE
There seems to be a lot of interest in our job posting; we’re really excited about that. But please, when you apply, we can do without the superfluous expletives. We are looking for a creative, clever person, and the excessive use of profanity (I promise) displays precisely the opposite characteristics. After all, we aren’t in high school anymore. Also, remember, the person we are looking for is going to be leading our SEO initiatives. Before applying, make sure you are up to the task of organizing and evangelizing SEO both in-house and to our clients.
(Another) UPDATE
Below, my friends, is the long awaited FAQ. This is a compilation of all the questions you have asked to this point, with more still to come. Stay tuned. We will be tweeting about any future updates to this post.
Job Proposal FAQ
What would a typical day be like for someone that earns this position with the JAR Group? What would you say the environment is like in the office?
From our job posting, I think you can get a feel for what The JAR Group is. We are a group of hard-working, yet laid back men and women who are proud of the good, high-quality work we do.
Our workday begins at around 10am and ends at around 6pm everyday, but you’ll find many of us online later into the night. Dress code is casual (but we wouldn’t hold it against you if you insisted on wearing a tuxedo to work everyday), unless we’re meeting with clients, in which case we begrudgingly come to work dressed business casual.
Since we’re a startup, there is no shortage of work to do. Your typical day would be filled with meetings and personal tasks tailored to the skills you are bringing to the table. We want to find someone who will pitch in wherever work needs to be done; someone who can wear many hats and execute projects at any level.
How does the company/employees keep up with the EVER changing digital world?
We’re a new company. So, we are part of the ever-changing, digital world.
We are fully aware that the SEM industry standards are always in flux. It’s our goal to be a pioneer in the field. We have been successful thus far, and part of this job search is about looking for someone who will keep us on our toes. We want to remain innovative; we want to remain new. So, I guess I turn the question around. How will you help our clients and us keep up with the ever changing digital world?
What measures do you currently take within SEO to make sure the campaign has reached its full potential
We employ white hat techniques to make sure that our sites are continually indexed highly (but we make sure to keep up with the Black Hats of the world). To do that we have access to all sorts of SEO tools, and we’re always looking for new ones that will make us more effective and efficient (right now, for example, we’re looking at possibly purchasing a HubSpot account).
In the end, we measure our success in growing our client’s revenue. A big part of our business is performance based, which is a fancy way of saying when we make our clients more money, we make more money.
Do you believe the future of search is in real time services, i.e., will Twitter eclipse Google?
No. Google is like the Borg. Resistance is futile…yada yada yada…you know the rest. It is my (Joshua Unseth’s) professional opinion that Google will keep up with the trend, whatever it is. The reality is that Google owns 78%-80% of the search engine market share, and that’s a lead that is going to be nearly impossible for anyone to dissolve anytime soon. I know there’s been a lot of talk about Twitter-like services becoming the future of search, but let’s be honest, do you think Twitter (a company that makes no money) is going to be able to take on Google (a company that makes over a billion dollars a year) in terms of market trends. The reality is, Google has a huge leg up on any competitors. It can afford more brain power. I’m willing to bet that Google is paying a bunch of employees to figure out how to make their searches more efficient, more relevant, more intelligent, and most importantly more quicker…more faster…. Then again, what do I know? There is such a diversity of opinion on these issues. And that’s why we’re looking at you.
If so, to what extent, and how is the company poised to capitalize on that shift?
Just in case Google is taken over by a Twitter-like service, we are prepared to handle it. For now, we are living within the moment. We are employing white hat techniques that Google and other SEs like in order to make sure our clients are continually indexed well. In addition, we have some interesting ideas about how to use programs like Twitter to generate buzz for our company and the companies we work for. We don’t pretend to be prescient, so if you see something we’re missing, we’d love to hear it. In fact, telling us something really important that we don’t yet know (and we’re really smart) might be a really great way to stand out from other candidates applying for this job.
What avenues exist for experimentation outside of your established methods in your current workflow?
There is a lot to do. We are small but busy, which means that every employee takes on a lot of responsibility. Even so, as long as the work gets done, we encourage experimentation. There is plenty of room for ideas and the capable hands that know how to implement them.
Is there good food to be had near the office?
Really? This is New York. Of course there’s good food near the office, especially if you’re one of those people into sampling various ethnic cuisine. Some of the finer eateries include the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck (only on Mondays though), Superfine, Foragers, and Rice. And Melissa claims to be working really hard on bringing Soccer Taco here as well.
Do any of you play Guitar Hero?
We’re not really into the whole Guitar Hero thing. It’s too individualistic. The JAR Group is all about the team, which is why we’re more into Rock Band.
