workingfortheman.com

There are lots of job websites out there. Most of them suck. Bad job listings are one thing, but the jobsites that pretend to be subversive are the worst. Top prize for lameness, however, goes to Monster.com for commercializing Robert Frost's The Road Less Traveled. There should be no forgiveness.

But there are some good job websites out there. Hireminds.com is one of those sites. Simply put, Hireminds.com gets it. Following is an interview with Laurel Touby, the brains behind Hireminds.com. [NOTE: Hireminds.com is now Mediabistro.com.]

When people write to you about Hireminds.com, what is it that they most appreciate about the site?

I think people who come to my site can almost sense that it's more than just a Monster Board for the Media. I think they appreciate the community I'm trying to build as well. I do this through offline cocktail parties and events, through personalized contact with people and by having a sense of humor about it all.

How are you getting the word out about the site?

I mostly use word of mouth. I don't believe in mass advertising campaigns. Until last year, the site was growing rather slowly. But then suddenly, it was like critical mass was achieved and the tsunami effect took over. Lately, the site has been growing at the rate of 20% a month, to 248,000 page views at last count!

You started your site back in 1997. What are the main differences between the internet now and back in 1997?

When I started the site in 1997, very few people knew about it or understood what I was trying to do on the web. My snobby print mag friends would glance over my shoulder whenever I mentioned the web site. They considered it this crazy little labor of love I was doing on the side (which it was!). THIS year, those same friends are looking at me a little differently. Now, they're asking things like--"hey, when's your IPO?" and "I have this idea for a site, can you help me?"

There was an article in the New York Times about how opportunities on the web are luring journalists / content producers away from print media. And many of the jobs posted at Hireminds.com are at internet companies. Naturally stock options and other financial rewards are main reasons why content producers would want to join an internet company, but it's more than that. What are the other reasons people want to join an internet company, beyond the financial incentives?

Great question. [I thought the article was in wsj.careers.com though] I think the biggest benefit of working on the Web is being able to leap-frog over all those offline people who were holding you back. You can be a measly edit. assistant at a major magazine one day and the next day, you can be lording it over five employees because you took a job as a "producer" on a web site. Since Web sites are trying to accomplish so much on such a short staff, you get more opportunities to use new skills than you ever would off the Web at a traditional (read: stodgy) organization. And don't forget to develop one really important skill: subtly dropping hints about your stock options to former bosses.

What are your thoughts on all the job boards or "career networks" that are popping up all over the web and inundating us with billboards, commercials, and popping web ads?

I think that they're all trying to be too many things to too many people.

How is your site different from Monster.com or Hotjobs.com?

My site aims to be THE best resource there is for one group of people: content providers/creatives.

What is the "working world" of a freelance writer?

The work world of a freelance writer is the space that we live in inside our own heads. For some, it's a world of excitement and new possibilities around every corner, for others (even the most established), it can be a world of panicking from one deadline to the next.

People often think of freelancing as an ideal way to work, in the sense that a freelancer is working for herself, that a freelancer is her own boss. Why would a freelancer chuckle at the word "ideal?"

Probably for the above reason I just mentioned. Plus, for most freelancers, it's impossible to get paid enough, editors seem to speak in tongues when describing what they want, rewrites suck, insecurity about the next assignment, insecurity about current assignments, editors rarely say "great job" (even when they're thrilled), oh, and did I mention, rewrites suck.

The workingfortheman.com site features biting, sometimes bitter, stories about the world of work. Do you have any quick anecdotes related to putting together your site that would fit into the workingfortheman.com type of story?

Not really much to say on this topic. I've had SO many people give me their time, energy, help, volunteer work, that I live in a state of Gratitude.

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