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![[image loading]](http://www.simpli.fi/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/five-elements.jpg)
update Tuesday 18th: I have reached out to 15 candidates for appointments
update Saturday 15th: I will try to go through the rest of the 60 CVs I have today and tomorrow. If you want to apply, please do so until Sunday at the latest. If there is an interest for it, I'd be willing to share some of my decision making afterwards.
update Thursday 13th: Starting tomorrow, I will reach out to the first applicants, either to schedule Skype calls, or to schedule doing my tasks. Currently, I have about 45 CVs, and 5 open spots. A couple of people from close to our headquarters have responded, those, I will hand off to my colleague in TX.
since the question came up repeatedly: Once you know what you are doing, one iteration over an 'easy' campaign would take 5 to 20 minutes. At the beginning, people only work on easy campaigns. Later on, there will still be easy ones, but you would get trickier ones, where the customers have very specific wishes, or where we are actually looking for conversions (people signing up, or buying stuff, or requesting a quote), not just for clicks.
If you are under 18, we will not be able to contract you. If you are about to turn 18, feel free to apply
Who are we and what do we do?
Simplifi is a startup from Fort Worth, Texas. Our company timeline can be found here
We do online advertising. We do 'Real Time Bidding'. This means that our customers set up campaigns with targeting criteria of their choice and we bid for them on so-called ad exchanges, one banner ad at a time, up to 400 000 times per second. Imagine ebay, with 40 milliseconds between putting the auction online and the ad being sold and displayed.
We are looking for contractors to help us in our day to day campaign work.
Contractors, what does that mean exactly?
You need to be able to legally invoice us on a montly basis. In some countries this requires setting up a company, or it would at least be highly advisable for taxation purposes. You are responsible for your own health cover, there are no paid sick days or holidays. You work x amount of hours in a month, send an invoice of x times your hourly rate, and we pay that.
We currently have contractors from the States, from Germany, Slovakia, England, Australia, Czech Republic and Bulgaria, so if you are from those countries, we could probably give you some pointers what you have to do to set up shop.
We communicate via Skype and email and collaborate via google docs and google drive. We try to do regional meetups every couple of months.
Our starting hourly rate is 15 dollars, if you just meet our requirements. For more qualified people, 20 dollars is possible, and if you really impress us and - thanks to your existing online advertising knowledge - we don't have to train you, we'd offer 25. Once you show us how hard-working and efficient you are, the 15 dollars will go up rather quickly.
What are our minimal requirements?
- fluent English
- ability to quickly analyze data, quick judgment
- ability to handle multiple projects
- tech savy
- broad knowledge, open minded, detail oriented
- work unsupervised
What will you do?
absolute entry level:
- run reports, change parameters to make campaigns meet the campaign goals
- expand targeting to spend the budgets in full
- contribute to building a library of targeting information
'senior' level:
- manage clients independently
- access to production servers: logfile analysis, database queries, administrative tasks
- use of our homegrown reporting engine
- design tools to streamline work
possible avenues for personal growth:
- Gentoo Linux admin
- (P)SQL god
- expert for ad-issues (shockwave, macro-expansion, javascript, iframes)
- graphic design work
- contribute to open-source software we use and customize: nginx, redis, nagios
- write, use and deploy shell or ruby (or any other skripting language) skripts
- DNS wizard
How do I apply?
Send me an up to date CV and a quick introduction of yourself. matthias_at_simpli.fi
How does the interview process work?
We will schedule a Skype call to get to know you, these typically last 30-60 minutes, we will ask some questions about you and also some technical questions, as we had our share of fabricated skill sections in CVs. You get to ask us questions as well, of course. These interviews will not be done by HR, or some manager, but by the people who are already working on campaigns for years and make up our 'AdOperations' team. If we like what we hear, we will send you some actual pieces of work that should take again 30-60 minutes to analyze, based on how well you do on those tasks, we will make a decision.
Have you played Starcraft?
Yes, I have. We were having a LAN session in my parents' basement the week it came out and played it pretty much non-stop then. I have also played on Bnet and my crowning achievement was beating OgerRod and OgerTob in a 2on2 LT at a LAN. I have never played Starcraft II however. Currently, I am playing a bit of Dota2 and the Alpha of Grim Dawn.
Any questions you have, feel free to post in this thread, send me a PM, or email me at the email address mentioned above.
On June 11 2013 13:32 Starcraft 2 wrote:
It looks interesting, but can you expand on what the job actually entails?
Especially "run reports, change parameters to make campaigns meet the campaign goals" and "expand targeting to spend the budgets in full".
We have a campaign that is advertising for a retirement home in Baxter, Minnesota. The daily budget is 10 dollars. Currently the campaign is set up to target people that have searched on a list of about 2300 related keywords within the last 7 days, and their IP addresses resolve to the following locations:
Minnesota > Baxter
Minnesota > Brainerd
Minnesota > Crosby
Minnesota > Merrifield
Minnesota > Nisswa
Minnesota > Pequot Lakes
Minnesota > Pillager
Ads are displayed up to 3 times in a 12 hour window to them, and we are blocking around 600 domains where we don't want to serve ads on for this campaign.
The client put a click-through-rate goal into our UI of .2, we are currently far from achieving that.
We have about 10 different types of reports available through our UI (hourly, adposition, by exchange, domain, keyword, etc.), and about 30 more through our special reporting engine. The 'factors' from the latter can even be combined (query for geo-information, combined with contextual, timestamp, grouped by browsertype), but that is usually not necessary.
Based on these reports, you edit the campaign to get the click-through-rate closer to that .2 goal. One example would be to remove the keyword 'obits', since it was spending a good portion of the budget without seeing any clicks, or noticing that no clicks are occurring between 3 and 6 am and not serving ads there during that time period.
![[image loading]](http://adspreview.simpli.fi/ads/live/27513/165563/345e2.jpg)
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Looks like fun, e-mail sent!
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On June 11 2013 04:44 Audemed wrote:
Looks like fun, e-mail sent!
Thanks. You weren't even the first  .
Btw, I might have to put that into my initial post, but we really do not care from where, how and when you work. One of our top foot soldiers right now has been traveling in South America for the last 15 months, and has a pretty colorful past that includes the army, being a chef, working for one of the big 4 and almost a stint at McMurdo among other things.
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So x hours a month is a variable, not some undisclosed quota?
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Correct, I also sent that out via PM right now: If people commit to 20 hours or more per week, we are talking.
However, if I ever end up in the situation of having identical twins, with the exact same skillset, one wants to work full time, the other part time, and I can only hire one, it's going to be the full timer.
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Well sure. Thanks for clarifying.
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I'm 17 years old and I meet the minimal requirements. Worth giving it a shot or are you guys looking for more 'mature' employees?
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GRAND OLD AMERICA16375 Posts
Looks promising. Good luck on this.
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On June 11 2013 05:30 Flowne wrote:
I'm 17 years old and I meet the minimal requirements. Worth giving it a shot or are you guys looking for more 'mature' employees?
I have to check with our personnel guy if 'not an adult yet' excludes you from working for us.
If you can make a compelling argument for just how motivated you are and ace the interview and the task, I don't have a problem with you being young.
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something im definitely considering, I actually live right next to fort worth
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I just sent you an email, also 17. Seems like a very interesting job and a great company
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Very interesting company, definitely interested. So there is no definite "education" requirements right? I am a college student, and got some spare time and can definitely use a home-based job instead of the job I have now :D.
EDIT: I really like how you guys are using a CV instead of just a resume. Shows seriousness and definitely selectiveness as an internet base company. Even if I am not consider I hope you guys do well in the future! :D
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On June 11 2013 07:11 Advantageous wrote:
Very interesting company, definitely interested. So there is no definite "education" requirements right? I am a college student, and got some spare time and can definitely use a home-based job instead of the job I have now :D.
EDIT: I really like how you guys are using a CV instead of just a resume. Shows seriousness and definitely selectiveness as an internet base company. Even if I am not consider I hope you guys do well in the future! :D
There is no education requirement. Our best lady warrior has a degree in bookkeeping and couldn't tell a switch from a hub if her life depended on it.
And about your edit: You might be reading too much into that, actually. I'm German and have never even tried to understand the nuances of the US system of applying for jobs.
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Are You interested in someone from Poland, that will end his Law studies in about 3 weeks?
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hmmm... I dont even understand what your company does exactly ;o I guess my English isnt fluent enough and I shouldnt even bother ? :o
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matthias_at_simpli.fi
Is this the email we send to?
Wondering since I tried to send it to that address and it would not send?
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Have you guys considered hiring people through oDesk? I work through oDesk and would be interested on working with you guys in a near future. Let me know if you would be willing to work through oDesk with an hourly contract
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On June 11 2013 06:21 Rimstalker wrote:Show nested quote +On June 11 2013 05:30 Flowne wrote:
I'm 17 years old and I meet the minimal requirements. Worth giving it a shot or are you guys looking for more 'mature' employees? I have to check with our personnel guy if 'not an adult yet' excludes you from working for us. If you can make a compelling argument for just how motivated you are and ace the interview and the task, I don't have a problem with you being young.
Yep I'll be 18 in two months, should I apply now if I'm interested or wait?
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It looks interesting, but can you expand on what the job actually entails?
Especially "run reports, change parameters to make campaigns meet the campaign goals" and "expand targeting to spend the budgets in full".
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On June 11 2013 11:06 jacson1253 wrote:
matthias_at_simpli.fi
Is this the email we send to?
Wondering since I tried to send it to that address and it would not send?
try to read it like an email, and not copy and pasting it blindly.
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Wow, this sounds awesome. Would definitely apply, but I just signed a contract. 
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On June 11 2013 11:30 Zethiel wrote:Have you guys considered hiring people through oDesk? I work through oDesk and would be interested on working with you guys in a near future. Let me know if you would be willing to work through oDesk with an hourly contract
we have looked into mechanical Turk in the past, but it didn't really meet our needs. What would be the big advantage for us to use oDesk? The feedback from other guys running projects?
On June 11 2013 07:39 Exil wrote:Are You interested in someone from Poland, that will end his Law studies in about 3 weeks?
we don't discriminate against Central Europeans, however, as with all non-native speakers applying, we will be looking at your level of English very closely.
On June 11 2013 13:32 Starcraft 2 wrote:
It looks interesting, but can you expand on what the job actually entails?
Especially "run reports, change parameters to make campaigns meet the campaign goals" and "expand targeting to spend the budgets in full".
We have a campaign that is advertising for a retirement home in Baxter, Minnesota. The daily budget is 10 dollars. Currently the campaign is set up to target people that have searched on a list of about 2300 related keywords within the last 7 days, and their IP addresses resolve to the following locations:
Minnesota > Baxter
Minnesota > Brainerd
Minnesota > Crosby
Minnesota > Merrifield
Minnesota > Nisswa
Minnesota > Pequot Lakes
Minnesota > Pillager
Ads are displayed up to 3 times in a 12 hour window to them, and we are blocking around 600 domains where we don't want to serve ads on for this campaign.
The client put a click-through-rate goal into our UI of .2, we are currently far from achieving that.
We have about 10 different types of reports available through our UI (hourly, adposition, by exchange, domain, keyword, etc.), and about 30 more through our special reporting engine. The 'factors' from the latter can even be combined (query for geo-information, combined with contextual, timestamp, grouped by browsertype), but that is usually not necessary.
Based on these reports, you edit the campaign to get the click-through-rate closer to that .2 goal. One example would be to remove the keyword 'obits', since it was spending a good portion of the budget without seeing any clicks, or noticing that no clicks are occurring between 3 and 6 am and not serving ads there during that time period.
On June 11 2013 13:22 Pokebunny wrote:Show nested quote +On June 11 2013 06:21 Rimstalker wrote:On June 11 2013 05:30 Flowne wrote:
I'm 17 years old and I meet the minimal requirements. Worth giving it a shot or are you guys looking for more 'mature' employees? I have to check with our personnel guy if 'not an adult yet' excludes you from working for us. If you can make a compelling argument for just how motivated you are and ace the interview and the task, I don't have a problem with you being young. Yep I'll be 18 in two months, should I apply now if I'm interested or wait?
I asked yesterday, our CEO didn't know, but said he'd find out. If you are that close to 18, I wouldn't keep you out of this round of interviews however.
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Hi Rimstalker,
I'm curious why are you targeting gamers for the job wouldnt you get overwhelming amounts of people from simply advertising on other job-search site?
to me this job would be perfect next year because ill be overseas and need remote work. I'm a graphic designer mostly working in advertising.
is it possible for you to predict position availability next year?
cheers ahead if u have time to respond.
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Hey Rimstalker,
I was thinking about applying, but I am wondering if my english is on a high enough level.
What kind of niveau is required to be considered? I have the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE). Is that enough or are you in need of poeple with better english than that?
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On June 11 2013 20:44 Chrono000 wrote:
Hi Rimstalker,
I'm curious why are you targeting gamers for the job wouldnt you get overwhelming amounts of people from simply advertising on other job-search site?
to me this job would be perfect next year because ill be overseas and need remote work. I'm a graphic designer mostly working in advertising.
is it possible for you to predict position availability next year?
cheers ahead if u have time to respond.
I have used the TL workforce before, and was very happy with the result. We have advertised in other places, but I think a forum thread allows for a lot more interaction, and the reach is totally different than what we would be getting on any of the big job sites.
Simplifi is actually quite engaged in getting new staff, we are hosting some developer meetups in the Dallas Ft Worth metroplex (our new office building will have space for 150 or so people for such activities) and are talking to universities in the areas to get some mba-types as interns among other things.
about future hiring: Since October, the number of active campaigns in our system has grown by about 120%, if that is any indicator
On June 11 2013 20:52 EmcDreams wrote:
Hey Rimstalker,
I was thinking about applying, but I am wondering if my english is on a high enough level.
What kind of niveau is required to be considered? I have the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE). Is that enough or are you in need of poeple with better english than that?
What grade did you get? I'm also considering to hand out the tasks before I do Skype calls, as the bigger task I usually use is very selective on peoples' English abilities.
If I had to put a criterium into words, I'd probably say something along the lines of 'if processing the language slows you down in your work, it's not fluent enough'.
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On June 11 2013 21:28 Rimstalker wrote:
What grade did you get? I'm also considering to hand out the tasks before I do Skype calls, as the bigger task I usually use is very selective on peoples' English abilities.
If I had to put a criterium into words, I'd probably say something along the lines of 'if processing the language slows you down in your work, it's not fluent enough'.
Well, I actually took the First Certificate in English which is B2 level, but since i was awarded the Grade A on that my Certificate was "upgraded" to C1 level.
I think handing out the task before doing anything else might be a good idea, since understanding the task is the basic requirement and if that is not a given anything else is a bit pointless IMO.
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I'll save all the details and contact somebody in the future and take a chance then.
Hope you guys keep growing.
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On June 11 2013 22:23 EmcDreams wrote:Show nested quote +On June 11 2013 21:28 Rimstalker wrote:
What grade did you get? I'm also considering to hand out the tasks before I do Skype calls, as the bigger task I usually use is very selective on peoples' English abilities.
If I had to put a criterium into words, I'd probably say something along the lines of 'if processing the language slows you down in your work, it's not fluent enough'. Well, I actually took the First Certificate in English which is B2 level, but since i was awarded the Grade A on that my Certificate was "upgraded" to C1 level. I think handing out the task before doing anything else might be a good idea, since understanding the task is the basic requirement and if that is not a given anything else is a bit pointless IMO.
Understanding the task is not the problem, I can phrase it in a couple of words in plain English:
"Sort this into words related to some_topic and not related"
or
"Select/extract the words relevant to topic_x"
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I'm a dutch student who's studying in American TX at the moment for at least another year. I'm not allowed to work in America because I only have a student visa. Will this be a problem or will I be registrered as if I would be working from the Netherlands, since this is home based anyway?
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Looks like an intriguing opportunity which seems right up my alley. I will definitely be sending you an email tomorrow!
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I had one question. Are you looking for CVs specifically? I have a resume but I dont have any published work or educational experience (past high school). I'm 17 and will be turning 18 in 3 months
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Do I get a job if I beat you in planets?
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On June 12 2013 08:27 Qyntius wrote:
I'm a dutch student who's studying in American TX at the moment for at least another year. I'm not allowed to work in America because I only have a student visa. Will this be a problem or will I be registrered as if I would be working from the Netherlands, since this is home based anyway?
Simplifi will not employ you if it's illegal to do so. However, I would suggest that you check what your visa actually states, and also Dutch regulations, since Freelancing/Contractors have some special rules usually attached.
On June 12 2013 11:07 URHyDrew wrote:
I had one question. Are you looking for CVs specifically? I have a resume but I dont have any published work or educational experience (past high school). I'm 17 and will be turning 18 in 3 months
I have stated this before: I wouldn't even know what the difference is between a CV and a resume.
On June 12 2013 12:29 Dubzex wrote:
Do I get a job if I beat you in planets?
You are in teafoo's game with me? Unless you are teafoo, or maybe the Lizards, I don't see that happen.
However, since you asked: If we set up a 1 on 1 game specifically as a match for a job, and you beat me: yes.
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Since this is a contract job, I'd guess there is no overtime awarded? But would we be allowed to work over 40 hours a week if possible? Even at base pay of $15?
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On June 13 2013 00:03 GertHeart wrote:
Since this is a contract job, I'd guess there is no overtime awarded? But would we be allowed to work over 40 hours a week if possible? Even at base pay of $15?
We don't impose any maximum hours on our contractors. If you can deliver quality work, 100 hours a week, we will let you work that, with the occasional suggestion to get out to catch some fresh air. The only limitation at the beginning will be that you would probably need someone from our team online to ask questions if any come up, but that is usually the case for about 18 hours per day.
We have very straightforward ways of measuring how active you are, our UI also draws some graphs that show the direction a campaign or a group of campaigns is taking, plus we run a bunch of automated reports and get feedback from our sales team and customer service of course.
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So you have to be 18 to work no exceptions?
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They are going to 1099 you. Meaning you file 1099 form for taxes.
Normally a company pays a portion of your tax (social security etc) and u file a 1040.
1099 means that you have to pay all taxes including self-employment tax.
If you make your own company, pay yourself, and file as s-corp you can save some money. (this takes time and if done wrong could cost you money/time)
In the end expect to make around half of the hourly. (So, $15... $7.50/hr)
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On June 13 2013 02:51 Kyuhyuck wrote:
So you have to be 18 to work no exceptions?
Correct. In 'western' counting  .
On June 13 2013 03:16 loft wrote:
They are going to 1099 you. Meaning you file 1099 form for taxes.
Normally a company pays a portion of your tax (social security etc) and u file a 1040.
1099 means that you have to pay all taxes including self-employment tax.
If you make your own company, pay yourself, and file as s-corp you can save some money. (this takes time and if done wrong could cost you money/time)
In the end expect to make around half of the hourly. (So, $15... $7.50/hr)
Yikes. Some quick googling suggests roundabout 40% (of course after deductions) unless you end up in the higher tax brackets for US citizens. German tax law actually exempts me from 'business tax' for the portion of my contracting work that I put in outside of German jurisdiction, I also save a ton on health insurance and pay no social security at all.
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Quite cool!
Should we mention anything if we've had some light experience with CPI ads etc?
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On June 13 2013 22:46 mizU wrote:
Quite cool!
Should we mention anything if we've had some light experience with CPI ads etc?
Sure, can't hurt.
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Sent an email ^^
I have to say, this is an interesting place to post a hiring announcement but due to the nature of your company I can totally relate!
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Belgium9946 Posts
Worked with this guy before, was a very pleasant experience. Definitely recommend it!
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wow I'm checking my email every few minutes lol.
Goodnight see you all tomorrow.
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Interested. Will be updating my CV and sending it soon.
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Just saw this thread. E-mail and CV sent. Very interested in the job.
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Had a lot of trouble sending it through g-mail for some reason, I had to write it out in notepad then send it in, reformatting it alone didn't help for some reason, first time this error has happened to me. Was fun to fix.
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I would love to do this job. Good choice to put the vacancy up on this forum, I hope you find competent people to work for you!
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It doesn't look like a normal job. More like temporary distance workers? And for North European workers the salary seems low (in the region of slightly below minimum wage for teens). There are also a lot of competent workers like this on Elance and odesk.
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I know my application is very late, but I sent you an email with CV!
I am a native Texan and local college student. I believe I could be a perfect fit for Simplifi.
-Jordan Rushing
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On June 17 2013 17:31 peacenl wrote:
It doesn't look like a normal job. More like temporary distance workers? And for North European workers the salary seems low (in the region of slightly below minimum wage for teens). There are also a lot of competent workers like this on Elance and odesk.
Not temporary. Every single one of the contractors that started working fully is still with us. Two started and bailed out rather quickly. In the case of me, they even tried to green card me to come and live in Texas.
I have asked earlier in this thread for the big advantages that odesk would have, no response was forthcoming.
I think this job has enough other perks to make up for not paying a huge salary.
On the update front: I am 95 % done going through the resumes, will create a detailed post with feedback, reasoning and a bit of stats in the next two days.
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On June 17 2013 22:12 Rimstalker wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2013 17:31 peacenl wrote:
It doesn't look like a normal job. More like temporary distance workers? And for North European workers the salary seems low (in the region of slightly below minimum wage for teens). There are also a lot of competent workers like this on Elance and odesk. Not temporary. Every single one of the contractors that started working fully is still with us. Two started and bailed out rather quickly. In the case of me, they even tried to green card me to come and live in Texas. I have asked earlier in this thread for the big advantages that odesk would have, no response was forthcoming. I think this job has enough other perks to make up for not paying a huge salary. On the update front: I am 95 % done going through the resumes, will create a detailed post with feedback, reasoning and a bit of stats in the next two days.
Okay, but I mean it's not a real job or a company hiring to pay a salary of some sorts. Because if we invoice you, you can decide to kick someone out instantly because you are the customer (and it's perfectly legal). Furthermore, there are no employee benefits like most people are used to, if I understand correctly. Just to create some clarity for the fellow forums members expecting a real job out of this.
.
And this is crucial, especially because as some might need to put up a business, they would have to ask at least twice the normal wage - while 25$/hour is already very low -, Because of all the extra costs they have such as insurance, pension, income tax, company costs and any healthcare costs. To be honest, this is more of a warning to the good people on this forum. Unless you live in Asia with few living costs, 25 dollars is not a whole lot.
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On June 17 2013 22:22 peacenl wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2013 22:12 Rimstalker wrote:On June 17 2013 17:31 peacenl wrote:
It doesn't look like a normal job. More like temporary distance workers? And for North European workers the salary seems low (in the region of slightly below minimum wage for teens). There are also a lot of competent workers like this on Elance and odesk. Not temporary. Every single one of the contractors that started working fully is still with us. Two started and bailed out rather quickly. In the case of me, they even tried to green card me to come and live in Texas. I have asked earlier in this thread for the big advantages that odesk would have, no response was forthcoming. I think this job has enough other perks to make up for not paying a huge salary. On the update front: I am 95 % done going through the resumes, will create a detailed post with feedback, reasoning and a bit of stats in the next two days. Okay, but I mean it's not a real job or a company hiring to pay a salary of some sorts. Because if we invoice you, you can decide to kick someone out instantly because you are the customer (and it's perfectly legal). Furthermore, there are no employee benefits like most people are used to, if I understand correctly. Just to create some clarity for the fellow forums members expecting a real job out of this. . And this is crucial, especially because as some might need to put up a business, they would have to ask at least twice the normal wage - while 25$/hour is already very low -, Because of all the extra costs they have such as insurance, pension, income tax, company costs and any healthcare costs. To be honest, this is more of a warning to the good people on this forum. Unless you live in Asia with few living costs, 25 dollars is not a whole lot.
It honestly depends where you live in the US. In Washington state, I wouldn't even bother applying for this job. But since I live in Tucson this is a very decent pay for Tucson AZ, where jobs pay as little as 3 dollars an hour here. Also the living expenses are quite low here. In Tucson you only need to make about 12 dollars an hour to afford a nice house if you are frugal with your money, 15 is a boost from that. That would be one of the reasons why I applied for the job, let alone probably knowing how to do some of it already.
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On June 17 2013 22:22 peacenl wrote:Show nested quote +On June 17 2013 22:12 Rimstalker wrote:On June 17 2013 17:31 peacenl wrote:
It doesn't look like a normal job. More like temporary distance workers? And for North European workers the salary seems low (in the region of slightly below minimum wage for teens). There are also a lot of competent workers like this on Elance and odesk. Not temporary. Every single one of the contractors that started working fully is still with us. Two started and bailed out rather quickly. In the case of me, they even tried to green card me to come and live in Texas. I have asked earlier in this thread for the big advantages that odesk would have, no response was forthcoming. I think this job has enough other perks to make up for not paying a huge salary. On the update front: I am 95 % done going through the resumes, will create a detailed post with feedback, reasoning and a bit of stats in the next two days. Okay, but I mean it's not a real job or a company hiring to pay a salary of some sorts. Because if we invoice you, you can decide to kick someone out instantly because you are the customer (and it's perfectly legal). Furthermore, there are no employee benefits, if I understand correctly. Just to create some clarity for the fellow forums members expecting a real job out of this. . And this is crucial, especially because as some might need to put up a business, they would have to ask at least twice the normal wage - while 25$/hour is already very low -, Because of all the extra costs they have such as insurance, pension, income tax and any healthcare costs. To be honest, this is more of a warning to the good people on this forum. Unless you live in Asia with small living costs, 25 dollars is not a whole lot.
Your post sounds very US-centric. Which confuses me a bit, since I was under the impression that job-safety doesn't really exist there anyway. I have stated before that other countries have other laws in place, I personally pay less taxes on the US income than what I have to pay on German income tax (could probably even save more if I started declaring one room of my flat as my office...), no social security and less for health insurance.
Having said all of that, the trend in CVs I received was that the US applicants were mostly in college or in very low paying jobs, while the people from the rest of the world were more experienced.
edit: And about the perks: I am writing this from a nice hotel in Southern Spain .
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wow i live in fort worth right now is it too late to apply
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On June 17 2013 22:44 Rimstalker wrote:edit: And about the perks: I am writing this from a nice hotel in Southern Spain .
Come north and interview me in person
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As for the pay, taking Spain as an example, in order to become "Autonomo" or contractor to work on your own, yo can declare on a minimum flat income of 800€ even if you make more than that, and with the ~30% rate, you have to pay 253€ monthly, flat rate, that is what most do.
And hired people on low paying jobs are making around 5€/hour, so 15$ before taxes is quite sweet.
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Received an email from Matt Dase, responded to him and never got a response.
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On June 18 2013 23:13 TXRaunchy wrote:
Received an email from Matt Dase, responded to him and never got a response.
I'll ping him for you.
edit: He found you in his Spam folder
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Rimstalker:
Sent a email back to Matthias giving dates to complete tasks. Have not received anything back. Are they sending them out tomorrow?
Posted on Tuesday 18th 12:39PM
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On June 19 2013 01:39 jacson1253 wrote:
Rimstalker:
Sent a email back to Matthias giving dates to complete tasks. Have not received anything back. Are they sending them out tomorrow?
Posted on Tuesday 18th 12:39PM
They? It's only me, and my inbox with 400 emails to go through coming back from Spain today at noon.
edit: If you are one of the 15 I asked for a time and date, don't sweat it, all of you will get a shot. It also helps - if you PM me - to include your name.
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If we haven't received any sort of response at this point, are we to just assume we're not under consideration?
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Wish I'd have seen this sooner
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On June 19 2013 06:16 AFKing wrote:
If we haven't received any sort of response at this point, are we to just assume we're not under consideration?
yes. this thing turned into an unbelievable timesink. at the moment, my plan was the following:
- point out the things that took people out of the race instantly (stuff like spelling errors in your CV, sending me CVs that were 'shared', but I couldn't access)
- give pointers as to what I was looking for in CVs and cover letters
- possibly give a heads up to the people that are in my list of 'would do in the 2nd round, if there is one'
- once I have run my 15 people through my task, I'd post the files and instructions online, so that people can try to do it if they wish to
edit: if people prefer a quick 'no' via email, I can do that as well, but I would assume that after my writeup (I promise to do it tomorrow at the latest), it should be fairly clear why I didn't reach out.
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reasons for not even entering the race, this applied to about 20 people:
- mailing me your CV from your current work account, with your work signature, and your employer's boilerplate beneath
- mistakes in your cover letter. Either spelling or grammar. Funnily enough, I never saw anyone who had only one mistake, the people I took out all had two or more. Most common mistake for people from Central Europe: Indefinite articles.
- mistakes in your CV. Proofread that thing, have someone else proofread it for you. Proofread it again. (To the guy who interviewed pilots: 'complied'. 'compiled')
- sending me links to shared documents on google drive that weren't shared with me
- going off on wild tangents in your cover letter about the importance of marketing and strong communication and sales skills. I need Rambo style solitary fighters with borderline autistic traits. We already have our share of crazy sales people that promise the moon to clients .
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Reasons to not work here:
On June 20 2013 23:44 Rimstalker wrote:
I need Rambo style solitary fighters with borderline autistic traits
Unprofessionalism
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On June 21 2013 08:39 Wubbles wrote:Reasons to not work here: Show nested quote +On June 20 2013 23:44 Rimstalker wrote:
I need Rambo style solitary fighters with borderline autistic traits Unprofessionalism
don't hate yo.
It's realllllly hard to get feedback from prospective employers as to why you weren't selected.
Even if what he gave was a slightly snide remark or whatnot, it's better than the deafening silence that usually occurs. For example, I interviewed 3 rounds with NCSOFT just last month -- and then never heard back. They didn't even have the courtesy to say I wasn't selected -_-
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On June 21 2013 09:13 d_so wrote:Show nested quote +On June 21 2013 08:39 Wubbles wrote:Reasons to not work here: On June 20 2013 23:44 Rimstalker wrote:
I need Rambo style solitary fighters with borderline autistic traits Unprofessionalism don't hate yo. It's realllllly hard to get feedback from prospective employers as to why you weren't selected. Even if what he gave was a slightly snide remark or whatnot, it's better than the deafening silence that usually occurs.
Well there's a big difference between providing constructive criticism in a professional manner, and speaking like this guy does. I personally didn't apply to work here (I already have a full time job), but to the people who did and got rejected, you should feel relieved that you dodged a bullet working for a guy who refers to his colleagues as people with "borderline autistic traits." You would think someone who is recruiting for their company would present himself as a mature, well spoken, respectful individual, and represent them well.
It's one thing if you're having an off the record, casual/laid back conversation with some buddies or a random dude, but when you're supposed to be representing your company and looking for potential employees, you should at least have some level of etiquette.
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On June 20 2013 23:44 Rimstalker wrote:reasons for not even entering the race, this applied to about 20 people: - mailing me your CV from your current work account, with your work signature, and your employer's boilerplate beneath - mistakes in your cover letter. Either spelling or grammar. Funnily enough, I never saw anyone who had only one mistake, the people I took out all had two or more. Most common mistake for people from Central Europe: Indefinite articles. - mistakes in your CV. Proofread that thing, have someone else proofread it for you. Proofread it again. (To the guy who interviewed pilots: 'complied'. 'compiled') - sending me links to shared documents on google drive that weren't shared with me - going off on wild tangents in your cover letter about the importance of marketing and strong communication and sales skills. I need Rambo style solitary fighters with borderline autistic traits. We already have our share of crazy sales people that promise the moon to clients .
U can't hate on the guy for being honest. I took the "Test" and I can see why he is looking for these "Traits". I do not really enjoy being considered " Rambo style solitary fighters with borderline autistic" however since my return from Iraq I do keep to myself, I spend about 80 percent of my time at home. Having said that I still do want the job, its really hard going to school full time and trying to support a family. Again thank you for the honesty, most people are not really honest with you unless they feel like they are going to die very soon. Hearing it from first hand experience, it's just very refreshing.
I do not mean to insult anyone, just one mans opinion.
Infantry Leads The Way
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there was slight hyperbole in that rambo statement.
maybe not 100% finished and thought out yet, but something at least:
At first some information about my selection process: I have collected input from various sources on the matter. Basically anyone I know who is involved in hiring and who was willing to talk. Starting with the manager of a drugstore who has about 30 employees, then someone who has been an internet entrepreneur, project lead for a couple of million dollars project and founder of two startups (both succeeded) and lastly to someone who has a degree in psychology and was head of HR for the lottery in one of Germany's states for many years.
What I have taken from those exchanges, and what I have learnt from the job interviews I conducted myself already:
- to trust my gut feeling
- you need to stick out of the crowd. 'I'm a masters player' does not make you stick out. It is duly noted and taken into consideration, but nothing more. 'I planted 250 000 pineapples by hand' is something I have used, and it was actually the interview that got me the foot into the door of freelancing and contract work and startup culture.
- KISS principle for the cover letter. I'm short on time. If I have to re-read a sentence that runs for five lines three times to understand it, you failed, not me. Sentences like that also give you A LOT more rope to hang yourself with grammatically.
- any technical skill you put in your resume that is relevant for the job, I will ask you about, and I will give you small practical tasks for those.
- if you put 'expert' into your CV on something, I will ask an 'expert' question about the topic.
What I was looking for in the cover letters and CVs:
- strong 'motivations' or 'causes'.
- self-study
- diverse experiences
- freelancing or online advertising experience
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The only difference is that Rimstalker is being honest about why you were not hired, don't blame him for that. Because on the other side of the spectrum there is the employer that just says: "Sorry you didn't make it, because {insert default reason, which makes no sense or doesn't help you one bit to improve}". And talking about him being unethical? Come on... welcome to the world of business, where large groups of the population sell things that other people don't need, people get fired because they are too old or sick and people that deserve a job lose or can't get one every single day.
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just to give an update here:
Matteo and Gert have started working, the latter one as an intern for the time being. Rob will start training soon and will start working more once his summer roadtrip is finished. Phillip should start this week. An offer for employment was made to Jackson, but it looks a bit like he chickened out. I'm still undecided about three candidates, Scott, Maxwell and Patrick.
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I would be interested in this too, I have dropped you an email. Sounds like a great opportunity!
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Is this recruitment still going on?
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EPT
