We’re looking for a Growth Marketer to join Headlight as Employee #1
As you may have gathered from the title of this post, Headlight is hiring.
In this post, I hope to convince you to either apply or send this post to someone you know who should apply.
Most job descriptions aren’t great. They’re full of jargon and don’t give you a sense of what it’ll really be like to work at the company and do the job.
Let’s see if we can raise the bar here.
A video job post
If a picture is a thousand words, and a video is 30 images per second… well I don’t think that math is fair. Suffice to say, sometimes videos can convey more than words.
I took a moment to share some of the highlights of this role as a video for those that do better with audio-visual information. Obviously there are more details in the paragraphs below but this might give you a sense of the opportunity and who we’re looking for.
Interested? Apply by emailing jason@headlightlabs.com or through our official job page.
Please include a resume and a cover letter in your application that offers some specific thoughts on how your experience and skills relates to the work we do at Headlight.
Want to learn more? Read on!
About Headlight
Headlight is an early-stage performance hiring company.
We offer first-round technical screening services to companies and run online competitions like the NYC Engineering Tournament where tech professionals can compete for prizes and get matched for new opportunities with hiring managers. We’re working to create a world where people get hired for their true skills and abilities, rather than their background and pedigree.
Headlight was founded in fall of 2017 by me, Jason Shen, and Wayne Gerard. We’re experienced founders who worked on the same product team at Etsy before deciding to pursue this venture together. In the spring of 2018 we raised our first round of financing from leading East Coast investors and are ready to grow our team.
We’re hiring our first full-time employee: a growth marketer focused on leading our Tournaments program. You’ll technically report to me, but practically speaking you’re going to have a lot of latitude to make decisions and act autonomously.
Check out a deep dive into our first Tournament, which was for product managers, here:
Areas of Responsibility
Note: this role covers a lot of breadth and we understand that most people may not have experience in everything listed. That’s ok, we include it to set expectations and help insure
- Immerse yourself in the world of technology recruiting. Learn about how this world works from the perspective of hiring managers, internal and external recruiters, and candidates.
- Own our Tournaments strategy. Lead the development and execution of our unique hiring competition and associated events. How can we scale this experience across roles and locations? How do we automate more aspects of the operations? How do we making bringing on candidates and employers easier?
- Support our content marketing efforts. Work on the research and production of compelling, empirically-driven materials around hiring and recruiting — like The State of Tech Hiring as well as new projects you come up with. This might include blog posts, email marketing, and white papers, as well as promoting them on social media and aggregators Hacker News or Reddit
- Support lead generation efforts. Help come up with and execute projects to capture leads, primarily hiring managers and technical recruiters
Desired Competencies
Note: If you have developed these competencies outside your full-time employment such as side projects, contracting or consulting engagements, etc we welcome that.
- Ability to think about marketing strategy on how to position and promote a tournament to capture the attention and interest of candidates and hiring managers
- Ability to organize and stay on top of a project like an Engineering Tournament with many moving parts
- Ability to create smart, compelling long-form and data-driven content
- Nose for identifying the channels, influencers, and tactics to garner reach for that content
- Familiarity with lead generation and lead nurturing technologies and best practices
- Thoughtful, considerate, and thorough communication whether over email, chat, video, phone, or other media.
Bonus Points:
We welcome applications for anyone who thinks this role is a good fit, and we’d be particularly excited if you happened to have one or more of the experiences or qualities.
- You have organized a competitive activity for a group of people (hackathon, trivia night, dodgeball tournament, gaming event etc)
- You have organized a conference, Meetup group, or any kind of large performance (theater, music, dance, etc)
- You have been a core contributor to a popular blog, email newsletter, podcast, or YouTube channel
- You’re looking for an opportunity to step up into a bigger role and take on a bigger challenge
A Typical Week
Note: there is really no typical week at a company as small and young as ours. Still, we thought this would be a useful baseline to consider.
- Developing the concept for our next Tournament — what type of role will we target? What kind of prizes would we give out? How will we raise awareness and get competitors signed up?
- Coordinating with a venue on hosting a panel discussion at their space as part of the promotion of our next tournament. Do they have a speaker system? How would the chairs be set up?
- Speaking over the phone with a leading bootcamp to talk about how they could bring our tournament format to their next cohort of graduates. Would they be able to get employers onboard? What kind of timeline makes sense?
- Analyzing the findings from a survey you helped design and run with 500 hiring managers for a blog post you’re working on, tentatively called “The Technical Skills Hiring Managers Actually Care About”
- Scheduling a month of tweets to promote earlier content we published on various platforms.
- Turning a old blog post we did on take-home best practices and turning it into a 5-part email series
Benefits & Perks
- Generous medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family
- Competitive salary ($75k — 95k) and meaningful stock options
- A dedicated desk in our private office in Chelsea (Alley Coworking) and $500 to set it up
- Catered lunch once a week
- 15 days paid vacation and as many sick or mental health days as you need
- $1,000 annual stipend to spend on professional and career growth (hire a coach, attend a conference, take a class)
- An opportunity to challenge yourself, grow personally and professionally, and help make hiring a more fair, open, and efficient experience for both candidates and employers.
How We Work
Note: this is not a exhaustive list and will likely change over time. This is meant to give you a snapshot of how we operate.
- Our core working hours are 10am — 5pm with some of us coming in earlier and others staying later or working in the evening. This role may require you to work occasionally in the evening or weekend to attend Headlight-sponsored events (that you’ll probably be organizing!).
- We do not accept behavior that demeans, harasses, or assaults other employees, customers, or anyone else you interact with at Headlight. Jerks will be asked to leave the company no matter how “high performing” they are otherwise.
- We strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment for everyone, no matter your race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, or veteran status.
Interested? Apply by emailing jason@headlightlabs.com or through our official job page.
Please include a resume and a cover letter in your application that offers some specific thoughts on how your experience and skills relates to the work we do at Headlight.
