PeopleOfWalmart launches with EmptySpaceAds!

If you haven’t checked out PeopleOfWalmart yet, you’re in for a treat. Pages of entertainment from America’s classiest individuals (yes, mother of mullet-baby, I’m speaking to you).

One of my favorite websites just got a little bit better: it just launched EmptySpaceAds! Move your mouse to the margins of the page and you’ll see the new ads come up.

EmptySpaceAds is the same start-up I was working for before I left to go back to school, so it’s really exciting for me to see this development.

Now, I know ads aren’t exactly exciting for most people – who likes ‘em? They replace regular content and get in your way as a result. That’s why EmptySpaceAds is so great – it’s in the margins, so it won’t replace any “real” content, and it doesn’t get in your way like many pop-up ads.

For publishers, it offers similar benefits. You can increase the number ads you show on a page (and therefore your revenue), or you can replace your ad units with EmptySpaceAds. Either way, you’ll see a boost in your revenue. And, best of all – you don’t have to sacrifice content that brings customers to your page.

Check them out at: PeopleOfWalmart.com and EmptySpaceAds.com.

Outsourcing Your Life in 8 Easy Steps

Think Less, Experiment More: 5 Lessons on Entrepreneurship

A guest blog post I wrote for Women Grow Business:

New! Affiliate Program for CareerCup

Good news bloggers and website owners!  CareerCup has just launched its new affiliate program.  CareerCup’s affiliate programs allows website owners to post a link / ad for CareerCup’s interview guide and, in return, collect some of the revenue from any sale.  Best of all, it’s super-easy to use!

In Defense of Outsourcing

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve started outsourcing. A lot. Most of the outsourcing goes to an (awesome) assistant in the Philippines, who does everything from online research to document editing. She’s great, and she’s quite literally changed my approach to working.

Although most people are merely intrigued by my hiring a remote assistant, a surprising number tell me that it’s unethical, supplying one of these reasons:

Exploitation: “You’re only hiring someone from because they’re cheap. You’re not even paying them minimum wage!”

While it’s true that some people I hire are paid well below US minimum wage (you can find assistants for as little as $1.50 per hour, though mine are paid considerably more), it’s hardly exploiting them. I do believe that employees should be paid a livable wage, but that means a livable wage for their country, not for the US.

It’s surprising to me that so many people would complain about this, when we’re all perfectly accustomed to salary adjustments based on cost of living. For example, Microsoft pays California employees 15% more for the same work than they do the Seattle employees. Likewise, they no doubt pay their India employees considerably less. Exploitative? Of course not.

Now, I’m not an expert in economics, but I would guess that, far from being exploitative, outsourcing is quite good for the target areas. You’re providing the people with work. Doesn’t that boost their economy? Isn’t that good?

Protectionism: “What about the US? You should be hiring US workers!”

Most outsourcing-supporting respond with the following:
1) “By outsourcing to India / Philippines / another country, we can expand our company and eventually hire more Americans.” I don’t know in which cases this argument is true, but I can certainly say that it’s been true in my case. The outsourced workers I’ve hired have been the reason that I’ve been able to generate revenue for CareerCup. It simply would not have been possible without them. This revenue, in turn, enables me to hire Americans for things that do need to be done in the US.
2) “Welcome to a global world. If you don’t operate efficiently, your competitors – who may not be American – will simply out perform you.” This is possibly the most compelling argument. A business has an obligation to its shareholders to operate efficiently. If it doesn’t operate efficiently, another company will. And then, if that happens, how have we helped the US?

In addition to those two points, however, I’d like to make a third:
3) Why are Americans so important? Why is hiring an American inherently “better” (ethically speaking) than a hiring someone from India? Are we not all people? In fact, I could very well argue the opposite: supporting a person in a poorer country, whose children may struggle to eat or to get an education, is more ethical than hiring a comparatively wealthy American. (I’m not saying that that’s true; I’m merely arguing that the reverse isn’t necessarily true either.)

Suffice to say… I feel perfectly at easy with my decision to outsource. I’ve employed some extraordinarily talented people and rewarded them well for their work. I understand that there’s an awful lot I don’t understand about globalization, so perhaps someone will open my eyes to some horrible truths. Until that day, though, I will continue to use outsourced workers to build and expand new projects.

Company Loyalty = using Microsoft search to prep for a new job

Microsoft Loyalty Scorecard:
+ 1: Using Microsoft search at work.
- 1: Using Microsoft search to prepare for your upcoming interviews… at work.

Kumo is Microsoft’s new search engine that was released internally this month. No one seems to be talking about it much externally, and it doesn’t show up in Google Analytics under “Search Engines”. Kumo is, however, listed as a referring site for my site, CareerCup, which helps prepare for technical interviews. Almost all the Kumo users are, of course, from Redmond with a couple in Bellevue and Toyko.

Well, hey – while it’s not so nice to look for a new job while at work, at least you’re using Microsoft’s search engine to get there. Your boss must be thrilled.

But, if you’re still looking for a new job, I’ve got one for you.

Job Opening: Software Engineer / VP of Engineering at EmptySpaceAds

After I left Google and got the travel bug out of my system, I joined a tiny funded start-up called EmptySpaceAds. What excited me about EmptySpaceAds was more than just the product (although that was pretty neat) – it was the opportunity. With just one employee, EmptySpaceAds was small enough that I would lead the engineering effort. But, at the same time, it was funded. Funding = credibility + a great network of advisors. Our investors are actively involved – in all the right ways. How many other teeny tiny start-ups can say that they have funding? Not many!

Now, six months later, it looks like I may need to relocate and thus EmptySpaceAds must hire a replacement.

Know a rockstar developer – who wants to lead a start-up? Read on for the job posting!

Software Engineer / VP of Engineering at EmptySpaceAds

With over 40% of the space on web page consisting of “empty space” (margins, etc), empty space is the remaining element of the web to be monetized. EmptySpaceAds is turning previously wasted empty space into a growing revenue stream for our web publishers. Publishers no longer have to decide whether to use the margins for ads or for the aesthetic value of empty space – they can do both!

EmptySpaceAds is a small but well-funded startup. We are funded by Second Ave Partners.

Our Product

EmptySpaceAds allows a website owner to utilize the page margins for both “empty space” (eg, pages look better with a bit of emptiness), and for ads.

How does that work?

Our ads only show up when a visitor’s mouse hovers over the margins of a page. This means that when you visit a web page, it’ll look just as “pretty” as it did before. But, when your mouse hovers over the margins, an ad will (gracefully) fade in behind the margin.

And, here’s the best part: because the ads are reacting to the user’s mouse rather than being always-present, users don’t experience “banner blindness.” Publishers will see high click-through rates.

Who We’re Looking For

We’re looking for someone who is more than an engineer. Someone who can jump in and make decisions. Someone who can prioritize and schedule our product releases. Someone who can lead the engineering effort. Someone who can drive our product’s success.

As employee #2, you will be instrumental to the company’s success!

Here’s why you should join us:

• You will have incredible impact in our company as our first Software Engineer
  
• You will lead our engineering effort… future developers we hire will report to you
  
• Learn what it takes to run a startup. Interact with the founder daily and attend meeting with the company’s investors.
  
• You will reboot your career. You’ll learn more, fail more, succeed more, and take away more than you ever would at the equivalent Big Company experience.

Hard Requirements:

• B.S. Computer Science or equivalent experience
  
• Minimum two years of professional experience
• Possess initiative, leadership abilities, and the ability to make difficult engineering decisions
  
• Location: Seattle, WA (Pioneer Square)
• Full Time Only

How To Apply

Please email jobs@emptyspaceads.com with the following information:

• Resume / CV
• [OPTIONAL] Pointers to software you’ve written. Examples: open source contributions, examples of source code you’ve written, examples of live production software you wrote or were a contributor to
• [OPTIONAL] Links to places you discuss software. Examples: your blog, your website, etc
  

TechCrunch: "Why Google Employees Quit"

Last week, TechCrunch re-posted snippets from an email list for former googlers. This article was set up to make an obvious conclusion: Google is not the fairy tale land of employment.

Wait, wait, you mean not everyone loves their job at Google? Shocking! A logical person might point out that what one person loves another person hates and thus, it is physically impossible to have a large company where everyone loves their job.

That being said, allow me to make a few points:
1) Former Googlers are not representative of Googlers.
Imagine if you set up a group for ex-New Yorkers, and then asked why they left New York. You’ll probably get an usual number of negative complaints. That doesn’t mean that most people hate New York.

Likewise, TechCrunch didn’t ask Googlers whether or not they liked their jobs – they took a thread from a list of former googlers. That is, people who didn’t love Google enough to stay, for whatever reason. So, you’re already starting with a list of people whose feelings towards the company skew usually negative.

2) The Email Thread is not representative of Former Googlers
People love complaining, particularly those who feel that they have been wronged in some way. If you start an email thread with the question “Why’d you leave Google,” you’re opening the floodgates for those who hated Google. People like me, who genuinely enjoyed their experience at Google, will stay silent. People like complaining more than praising.

3) TechCrunch was unethical in releasing the (first) names of the posters.
Though TechCrunch hid the last names of the posters, they released the first names. If your name is Bob or Mike, your secret might be safe. But, what if your name is “Gayle”, or one of the many ethnic or unusual names? Then they might as well have released your full name. Releasing people’s names added nothing to the article, but embarrassed – or potentially hurt the careers of – the posters.

4) Almost everyone at Google does like their job.
When I left Google, people were surprised. Everyone (or virtually everyone) likes it there. No one came to me and said “yeah, I want to leave too. I hate it here!” I did have several people admit to me that they were thinking about leaving as well. But, in every one of those cases, they said that they liked it, but wanted to go to a smaller company or to a different role.

5) Why I liked Google (and why I left)
I had a great team. I liked our project. I liked my manager. I was working on cool, interesting stuff.

Google is, in my opinion, the best place to be an engineer. Engineers are given more authority than I’ve seen at any other company. If you want to work on something new, there’s lots of other projects that you can easily switch to. You can work on your own personal pet project 20% of time. How many other companies let you do that?

For my 20% project, I got to teach two courses at University of Washington. It was an enormous time investment, but I loved teaching. I’ve kept in touch with many of my former students, and it’s amazing to see them to become fantastic engineers at Google, Microsoft and Amazon. I really appreciate both Google and UW giving me that opportunity.

Despite Google being a great place to be engineer, I realized that I didn’t want to be an engineer anymore. Ironically, the fact that I was so happy with everything about my job at Google made it the decision easier. After all, if everything was right about the job (team, manager, project) and you’re still not excited, the issue is probably the job itself.

Though I liked coding and considered myself fairly good at it, I wanted learn a little more about business: sales, marketing, product design, finance, accounting, etc. Google is a great place, but it’s not the place to learn those skills. I felt I could only get that education at a start-up, so I left.

Talkinator & The Value of Feedback

I’ve been using Talkinator, an embeddable chat program for websites, for a few months now.

I realize I might be the only post-1995 site to want a chatroom, but it’s actually rather useful. For example, when people are discussing, say, Microsoft Interview Questions, they’ll jump in the chatroom to discuss problems. This use was expected.

The more interesting use-case was simply feedback. People hesitate feedback via email, or even through anonymous forms. They will, however, jump in a chatroom and complain. I’ve discovered a number of bugs this way.

Nifty.

Why I left Google

Yes, folks, it’s true. April 11th, almost three years after my first day as a Googler (or “Noogler”), was my last day. Did I hate it? Did something go horribly wrong? Did the company completely change? No no, nothing like that.

I loved Google. It’s a fantastic company, particularly for engineers. You’re driving the products, it’s growing quickly, and you get to solve challenging problems all the time. I learned a ton and I’m really glad I had that experience.

But, with three years at Google and four internships between Microsoft and Apple, the experience I’m missing is a startup.

With that said, let me answer some questions:

Q: So, now that you’re not there, you can tell me what you were working on, right?

No, silly, that’s not how NDAs work! I’ll let you know when it ships though.

Q: Well, what are you doing now?

At this very moment? Sitting in a hotel room in Buenos Aires. I’ll be in Buenos Aires for the next three months, learning Spanish, drinking wine, eating good food, and playing around with some startup ideas. I’ll be back in Seattle on August 1 and I’ll eventually join a startup.

Got suggestions about what to do in Buenos Aires? Let me know!

Q: What startup will you be joining?

I’m not sure. Since I wanted to travel for a few months, I really had to do that first and then look once I get back to Seattle.

But… if you have suggestions, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Project management / business role at a small company, or development for a startup
• Seattle based (or allow me to work remotely). I like Seattle and I’m not planning on leaving anytime soon.
• Ideally consumer or mobile apps, but I’m open to other ideas.

Coming soon — Fun stories from Google: Pink Princess and the Annoyatron .