Well, hey there. Gretchen here. After a long hiatus :), I am back in the blogosphere. Did you miss me?
Let me be the first to officially welcome you to our new home, the JobSyntax Blog. I’ve got so much to write, but I’ll need to save all the juicy news and advice for future blog entries. So I’ll use this first entry to tell you a little bit about how we got here. It’s been a long, crazy journey.
As long-time readers know, until a few days ago, I was a Microsoft recruiter. About 2 ½ years ago, I was hand-picked to join a start-up team within the company’s recruiting organization. Also chosen for that team was Zoe Goldring. We were tasked with building a community and pipeline of qualified and interested software developers for the company’s openings. (Is this starting to sound like the pilot for a cheesy sitcom yet?) :)
Two years ago, Zoe and I founded the Technical Careers @ Microsoft weblog (JobsBlog) as a way to connect with the developers who were latching onto the blogging phenomenon. Quite honestly, we had no idea what were doing and definitely not what we were getting ourselves into.
Being the public faces for Microsoft’s technical recruiting effort was both extremely exhilarating and challenging at the same time. Personally, I loved that I had such a positive impact on so many applicants. I joined the recruiting industry because I wanted to improve the candidate experience, and each day, I saw tangible results of my efforts. I impacted so many more candidates via our blog than I ever could as regular recruiter
But being in a self-imposed public position like that for the company really tested my confidence, too. I never knew what posts, comments, and emails would be taken out of context, and for all the fans out there, there were also many nay-sayers. I’m not sure you ever get used to that. The blogosphere can be tough.
Anyway, about fifteen months ago, Zoe left Microsoft to pursue a career in a new industry. I was, of course, extremely sad to see her go. I’ve never worked as well with someone as I’ve worked with Zoe. Our passions are similar yet our skills and strengths are very different and complimentary. It’s a nice combo. When she left, we made the promise to each other that we’d work together again.
Time moved along, and many things changed in our lives – yet we still held onto our promise to each other. Finally, we decided the time was right … Personally, we were both ready for new and different challenges in our careers. Professionally, it seemed that our collective passion for technical recruiting, a positive customer and client experience, and strong jobseeker and employer education coupled with, well, the returned rise of the tech market meant it was time to strike out on our own. The time was right. The time is now.
So here we are. Welcome to JobSyntax, and we look forward to all the good times ahead. Let the games begin!
gretchen