You Forgot Stupid

Posted by on Jun 23, 2010 in Fast Horse, Marketing Industry | 7 comments

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Pathetic.  Weak.  Idiotic.  Illegitimate.

Those are only some of the words “experts” and other commenters used to describe our recently completed intern search.

With our newest hire packing his bags for the move to Minneapolis, we thought we’d offer our perspective on some of the issues raised during our Summer Intern Search, as well as some thoughts on what all of this meant to Fast Horse.

First the issues.  The StarTribune subhead accompanying the story about our search read as follows:  “Marketing firm Fast Horse cut the field for an internship to three finalists – then lets Facebook vote on the winner.  A clever way to test their marketing skills? Or just arbitrary and unfair?”

While the feedback we received  through-out this process was overwhelmingly positive, the enterprising StarTribune reporter was able to find a few folks who took issue with our approach.  For example, the story quoted Nora Paul of the University of Minnesota Institute for New Media Studies, who suggested that the process was unfair because one candidate might have a larger family or “have more connections” than the others. She also had concerns that the voting could somehow be gamed.  For those reasons, she suggested our Facebook vote was not a legitimate way to hire someone.

We respectfully disagree, Professor. 

This is a relationship business. Our business depends on our ability to attract and retain clients. The vast majority of our clients find us because there is a previous connection with one of our people.  And the main reason they stay with us, or any other professional services firm for that matter, is because they have forged a strong relationship with our team. Our Facebook vote gave all three candidates a platform outside the traditional interview process to show how well they connect with people.  The intern candidate who had the most skill in forging connections absolutely had a leg up on landing a gig here. That’s not unfair.  It’s just prudent for an agency that relies on strong connections.   

Nora Paul’s concern about voter hanky panky also left her wondering about the legitimacy of the whole thing.  But consider this: “According to ADP Screening and Selection Services, 40 percent of applicants lie about their work histories and educational backgrounds and about 20 percent present false credentials and licenses. Nationwide, an estimated 30 percent of job applicants make material misrepresentations on their résumés. Another survey found that 95 percent of college students said they would lie to get a job and 41 percent said that they had already done so. One survey of top executives found that 15 percent admitted falsifying résumé information.” So much for the legitmacy of ANY hiring process. Seems gaming a Facebook vote would only be one of the newest ways to cheat your way into a job.  Something tells us this one would be easier to sniff out.

Another issue raised was that our process was somehow shallow.  “Is your goal to find the best person or to create buzz on how to find the best person?”  asked one communications firm President quoted in the StarTribune story. 

Can we allow that those two things are not mutually exclusive?  Additionally, there’s no guarantee that the traditional hiring process always yields the best person, or even that there’s only one great candidate in the field. Besides, we weren’t hiring Dentists via Facebook, we were hiring marketers. Why not add a step that further tests candidates skills in areas that are critical to success at Fast Horse – persuasion, creativity, understanding of non-traditional marketing, initiative, etc.?  These sorts of tests happen all the time in other businesses.  Even college football  players are given tests that measure speed, strength and intelligence before they are drafted.   

And about that goal of creating buzz on how to find the best person? Guilty.  Buzz happens to be the business we’re in. We were delighted that the Strib and St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Daily wrote nice features and a few national ad and PR trade pubs also picked up the story.  Even our candidates were able to secure their own media coverage, as theysuccessfully pitched TV and radio stations in their hometowns trying to drum up votes.  Additionally, we went from about 300 facebook fans to around 2100 during the three weeks of the search, and spiked our website traffic by more than 25 percent during that period. 

Pathetic?  Weak?  Idiotic? Guess that depends on how you feel about marketing.  Illegitimate?

The 725 people who rallied behind Andrew Miller don’t think so. And neither do we.

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  • Neil Smith

    Well said!

    (But please stop double-spacing between sentences. It isn’t 1970.)

  • Jorg

    Thanks for the groovy feedback on the double-spacing, Neil.Won’t happen again.

  • http://wwww.pushthefuture.org Forest

    I double-spaced up through Junior year of college – I blame the fact that my mother has been teaching second graders since the mid-70′s. Many red marks on j-school assignments later …

    As to mutual exclusiveness, that seems a lot like criticism levied at businesses touting their sustainable initiatives. Creativity deserves a platform because it’s worth it. It inspires. There are hundreds of firms that want you to submit a resume, follow-up with a call, etc. etc. It just promotes a stale, mechanized process that starts new comm. professionals out with the idea that we don’t have time for spontaneous creativity.

    Could large families an x-factor? Sure, could be, but I have a large family and they definitely did not all buy candy from me when I was jockeying for crappy prizes during middle school fundraisers. If we were all starting from an equal baseline, then I would already have an awesome mustache … damn you genetics!

  • Ellen Mrja

    Jorg: As a professor of journalism/public relations for decades who has had the opportunity to work with Andrew Miller, I proudly branded my name to his during this campaign when I recommended him. I can assure you and any skeptics that Fast Horse has hired an intelligent, informed and talented young man. All three of your candidates seemed exceptional.
    All the best,
    Ellen Mrja, Mass Communications Department
    Minnesota State University, Mankato

  • http://knoxesque.wordpress.com/ Nate

    The intern search was a great idea. In fact, I was surprised that this was the first time I’ve seen it done just like this.
    The whole idea was clever because you aimed it towards applicants, but gained immense coverage yourselves. I noticed the huge jump in Facebook “likes” and media coverage.
    The cynic side of me wonders if that was one of the main goals and the intern, though an obvious WIN, was a smooth distraction.
    Either way, it worked out really well for you guys and you landed a top-notch candidate.

  • John R

    Nate, thanks for the kind comments — and put your inner cynic back in the box!! We’re not big enough that we can waste an intern position just to get some publicity. We would not have gone through with this if we weren’t confident we’d wind up with a top-notch intern.

  • Dustin

    I thought this was a very successful process and thank Fast Horse for daring to break up the standard hiring process. Who knows, it might lead to a trend in the future. Those who criticize the vote as being “unfair” don’t understand the nature of the job. As Jorg pointed out, Fast Horse isn’t hiring a dentist. They need a candidate with actual marketing skills. Someone with a thousand FB friends might have a head start, but that doesn’t mean everyone else is doomed (unless all you can offer is a good filling).

    Going through part of the process myself, I was certainly planning a strategy outside of FB (as I’m sure most everyone else was, too). Clearly, some of that “je ne sais quoi” better shine here. In the end it took a well-organized campaign from the winner, who finished with more “non-friends” casting their “like” for him than actual Facebook friends. Go figure.