Job Market in New York

It seems like so many people have lost their jobs lately, especially in New York. I feel that almost 1/4 of the people in finance are out of a job... Some of them left willingly, some of them not (this includes me!). A lot of this happened very recently, within the last 2 months... The impact is dramatic.

Today, I posted an ad for a sales job at the startup I'm working on. I put it on Craigslist, where I found Mike. :) (Btw, he's doing well. He's cut back on smoking by at least 50%, I think. And he reports that he's feeling quite well.) The ad I posted is here. With the exception of adding the $400/week base salary, I basically reposted the same from 2 months ago. The first time I posted it in October, I got 8 resumes. Today alone, it was 19. Does this represent how much the job market has changed in the last 2 months, or are people really getting so excited about $400/week?

I had so many resumes that I couldn't even really skim each one. Like the first time, the person who got the job was the the person who called me on the phone to follow up. Of course, this wouldn't apply as much if the job was for a nuclear physicist. But I imagine most people hiring now, don't really have the time to look carefully at every resume they get.

Out of the 19, about 4 people called me I think. Here were the main questions I asked:
- Do you have institutional sales experience?
- Are you in New York?
- Walk me through from beginning to end, how you generate a lead, all the way to closing a sale. (I was particularly happy that I came up with this question?)
- Are you comfortable cold calling?
- How much did you make in 2008?
- How much would make you happy? How much are you looking for? (Those saying six-figures are thrown out the window and off the balcony...)

Mike and I agreed that the qualities we are looking are: hunger (for a job, not the frozen dinners in my fridge), genuine, reasonable intelligence, comfortable with cold calling, and most of all someone who'll really appreciate this lame-ass job. HBS grads need not apply.

Most were really bad, or too experienced. One of the guys sounded really hesitant and uncomfortable on the phone. This other one said he was about to close a big deal, but his manager stepped in and tried to sell the client on something else, so the deal blew up. Did he really mean to tell me that he doesn't work well with managers or try to help? Another started his resume by saying: "DESPITE MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND EGO, I HAVE A PASSION TO FURTHER EDUCATE MYSELF ON A DAILY BASIS ... I CAN BE FOUND IN MY FREE TIME LISTENING TO THE WORDS OF INDUSTRY LEADERS SUCH AS GUY KAWASAKI AND DONALD TRUMP." The Donald himself?!?! He really inspires the youth of America... This guy even had a picture of himself sporting a tight black shirt with the top 2 buttons loose and a white towel (perhaps it was meant to be a jacket) over his right shoulder. The way his eyes gazed into mine was a little hypnotic...and freaky.

But, the last call of the night was to a great kid. He sounded enthusiastic, had just got laid off. Said that he has references who'll attest to him being the first one in, last to go. He said at his last job, he'd make 400 cold calls a day. He also said that his employer would basically setup lies in order to help them sell. His group sold sports sponsorships to events. I guess like a 4some golf outing at some event with some celebrity. And when they called any potential client, they'd make up a story saying "Oh, Bear Stearns just cancelled last minute, and you have 72 hours to book this open spot, otherwise we have 20 people we'll call up next." And if they hadn't sold it after 72 hours, they'd really tell the client that's it's no longer available. Amazing... Turns out, Mike also worked at the same company previously and he too talked about how unethical this outfit was. How funny would it be if both of my sales guys came from the same place. In fact they know eachother? This guy also talked about how he's very familiar with getting through admins and receptionists to get to the decision maker (he could really help Mike here!).

All in all, I have a very good feeling about this kid. He's coming in Thursday for an interview - to my apt - originally I wanted to get some officespace and move out before we hired another person, but now I'm thinking maybe I actually want to find someone who can "accept me for who I am." =)