Brainstorming Job Descriptions

SANPRAM needs its first recruiting page. Let’s chart out what the page will look like.

Hiring Philosophy

1. Trust is foremost
2. Root for their success
3. Look for students of their craft – the very best way to see if someone’s really fit for a role or not.
4. Hire happy people – no complainers
5. Be welcoming to everyone

Audience

1. People who want to try something unique, adventurous
2. Motivated to learn new things and succeed
3. May be frustrated with job/internship hunting (not sure what they’re good for, ignored/ghosted by recruiters, impostor syndrome, submitting resumes etc)
4. Want to be given a chance, responsibility
5. Want to do great work
6. Heart of a teacher
7. Enjoys reading? (because I write a lot)

Job posts

• Build empathy
• Talk about the work itself, not the requirements you’re assuming
• Paint a picture of what it would be like to work here
• Describe clearly what they can expect from the process
• Don’t make “applying” a trivial thing.
• No resumes/CVs/cover letters. I don’t care.
• Encourages them to share their obsessions/side projects, not what they’ve done before.
• Send them a nice audio/video message while rejecting. Script it nicely to be encouraging and at least slightly personalized, instead of general and fake.

Messaging

• Have a hook (catch their attention)
• Remarkable, trustworthy, targeted

Remarkable

1. No resumes/CVs/unrealistic experience demands
2. Acknowledges that job hunting and career decision making is hard
3. Be sincere
4. Talk about them more than ourselves

JOB DESCRIPTIONS

High level sales areas:

1. Event tickets
2. Training programs for employees
3. 1:1 coaching program for leaders
4. Book sales

Action Areas

1. Event research, generate ideas for lectures, lecture preparation, getting guest speakers, promotion (social media and cold calls), delivery, follow up with participants
2. B2B and in-person sales: add products to website, do networking at scale, get contacts and upload to CRM, call, voicemail, email, follow up on social media and email 5x, conduct interview, keep in touch
3. 1:1 coaching programs: find on social media and online portals, engage, produce content, do webinars, podcast outreach, record podcast, post-production, publish, make clips and promote on social media, and further growth through connecting with people on social.
4. Book sales: write the book, keep interviewees in touch, grow an email list, reach out to appear on podcasts, make book marketing materials, promote book through affiliates in multiple countries. Engage on social media.
5. Creating reports about the industry: doing more research and analysis, writing the report, identifying journalists who would be interested and emailing them, promoting the reports through press releases.

Doing events is the most important – that’s direct sales. SANPRAM might become a company that’s primarily known for events, interviews and reports. And the coaching/training will come through the prospecting.

Priority List of Tasks

1. B2B leads data wrangling, email and phone follow ups – EA
2. Relationship nurturing after interviews: email, social media – EA
3. Podcast post production – Digital Media
4. Reaching out to podcast hosts – Marketing/BD
5. CEO guest research and outreach – Marketing/BD
6. Content creation, lead generation and strategy for social media – Social Media, Creative Writer, Digital Media
7. Events – Marketing/BD, Social Media
8. Reports – Journalist/Writer

Structure of job descriptions

Empathy building:

• They want to know if the job is worth applying for (what are their chances, is it a cool job, does it pay well)
• They want to move as quickly as possible.
• They’re tired of being rejected and of applying, and wondering “what went wrong.”
• For an unpaid position, they’ll only do it if they think it’s great for building their resume and lead to a better job down the line.
  • Companies want you to put down REAL tangible results in your resume. They won’t take chances on someone with no experience.
• They may not be sure about their chosen career path.

Goals:

• It’s a company of adventurers and open-minded people.
• Clearly answer what’s in it for them if they take the job.
  • Being able to visualize what they’ll gain on their resume.
  • Able to visualize what they’ll be doing, and how it will feel like.
  • Who the manager is and what the management style is like.
• Say that it’s an unpaid position. Also say that it will give them a lot of responsibility and we’ll invest a lot of time into them. What our beliefs about “internships” are.
• Put a face on the job description.

Structure of each job post:

• Intro
  • (External) What the company does, what we’re looking for, why we’re different. We know job hunting sucks, and we care: No resumes, no cover letters, no ghosting after interviews.
  • The importance of the position in the company
• The Role / Responsibilities
  • What they’re expected to OWN
  • What tasks would look like (what exactly I would ask them to do, and how they would be trained)
  • What are the challenges of the job – reading/writing a lot, making quick and dirty reports and presentations, (clear > beautiful)
  • Learning potential and unique benefits
  • Career growth
• Should you apply? / How we hire
  • Empathy: they don’t need to be an expert in day one, but they HAVE to be interested.
  • Ask if they’d be okay with challenges like XYZ (to be able to visualize themselves in the role)
  • It’s an unpaid position, and it’s a lot of responsibility/ownership of results. We can’t compete on salaries anyway. If they’re crunched on money, and they don’t want a rigorous internship, they probably don’t want this. Or they should apply but keep looking.
• How to apply
  • We want them to do some research and submit a form (should be as closely related to the job as possible)
  • Our hiring philosophy: be a student of your craft, be happy, be motivated to do a good job.