Would you want to hire someone who's a huge fan of the service vs. someone with some professional distance? I meet people who gush to me about the Windy Citizen sometimes and that's great, but I'm always a bit more impressed by the people who offer useful criticism of how to make the service better.
It would ultimately depend on how the interview would go. I'm not sure she's so much an ass kisser as she is just really excited about the company. But I agree, giddiness and dog-like loyalty definitely do not impress me as much as useful criticism. That being said, I'd much prefer a highly motivated and happy employee, who feels the company and their role in it have meaning, to, oh, an employee slightly more productive who doesn't really care. Happy people are much better company.
Actually, her writing is forward, personal (sometimes a little too personal for my stodgy taste,) and affable. Her personality pours through what she does, and on twittershouldhireme.com and her personal blog, she expresses an understanding and passion for the hyper-social zeitgeist that is finally going mainstream. I'd say she is a great candidate to work at twitter, and agree with tptaceck below about how great it would be to have such motivated candidates.
Ever hire someone insanely smart and qualified and had them turn out to be a total dud? Ever object to a candidate, get talked down from a "NO HIRE", and then had that person turn out to be an absolute total rock star?
I'd kill for a candidate pipeline that produced people like this. That's enthusiasm, initiative, and (a very small amount of) cleverness.
Here's as good a place as any in this thread to say this: a lot of the comments here are beneath HN. They're unprofessional, they add no value to the discussion, they do not help us sell more widgets to people, and they're needlessly mocking of real, actual people.
Check out her resume. She has a degree in social sciences with no less than 5 concentrations, one of which is conflict resolution. Oh my!
But then again, hiring a super excited person can be a benefit, as long as they stay excited, which may be difficult. The manic people of this world are difficult to wrangle.
I think its safe to assume I'm skeptical. Also, just for her benefit, someone should tell her a 1 page resume is the norm for entry-level positions.
Clearly she isn't technical. That's OK. But she apparently has no experience doing marketing, building communities, or other non-technical stuff people can do for websites like Twitter. Exploring "the intersection of work, life, and sex"? What?
Sounds like she's excellent for Twitter! If she hasn't got any concrete ideas for a business model either, then I don't see what they're waiting for personally.
I think what she's doing is great. While she may seem a bit "unhinged," as the currently top rated comment says, I'd at least interview her. I think finding highly motivated, loyal, and enthusiastic employees, at Twitter's stage, is very important.
I don't think she's applying for Alex Payne's position, everyone. Ever work with a Director/Marketing, or even a Technical Product Manager? I'll trade 10 shots of "professional experience" for a single shot of engagement.
I don't know, it's pretty well known that "you can't fix stupid."
I'll take a motivated capable person and teach them skills in a new area, but just being motivated alone isn't enough. Many incompetent people are highly motivated and completely unaware/in denial of their own incompetence.
Most people can be motivated very easily by throwing money at them.
Admittedly this doesn't work for everyone (many also need other factors) but I'd say that covers roughly 90% of the skilled population.
Now teaching a motivated person a complex skill is a completely different story. Yes, money (and lots of time) can help there, too, but the scales are not normally realistic. How long does it take to turn a given, motivated person into a great programmer, even assuming an unlimited budget?
Twitter at one point had a recruiter specializing in finding female CS people. I'm told they made at least one hire from this source. I wouldn't be surprised if she gets an interview, given Twitter's desire to maintain some gender balance.
It wasn't that deep a comment, at all. It was more like, she's a girl who wants to work a technical company but doesn't have discernible technical skills that she's touting. But as someone mentions downthread, she's just applying to be the secretary. So, I stand corrected.
But there was no sexual innuendo embedded in my comment, at least not as intended it anyway in the slightest.
Almost immediately after hearing that they were hiring, when Evan Williams was on Charlie Rose, I did something similarly creative (though not so public) for my application. The thousands-of-dollars bounty they put on the heads of finders of potential employees is so off-putting. Still crossing my fingers. :)
Interesting idea, but the presentation is remarkably unprofessional. I mean... cookies + me = job? I think that the enthusiasm and originality is great but I just don't understand the tone of the site, considering it's intended application.
You know... these types of sites are a great way to show your enthusiasm for a specific thing. I made a website (wpi-should-let-me-in.com) a while ago to get me into WPI. It worked, but unfortunately they didn't give me enough money.
I wish you good luck and hope that Twitter sees that people like you will certainly be useful/helpful.
On the whole I am unimpressed. The idea is funny, but she doesn't have anything to back her initial wow value.
If she really wants to get the job she should incorporate twitter into her site in a unique way and show rather than tell them that she is indeed capable of creative community-building.
I did something silly like this too a year back, sent a tweet to Evan Williams asking for a job and he replied too with "Great, Do you code" kind of tweet.
