Sorry, but the geek in me compells me to say, “This is Red 5, standing by.”
Phew. Now that that is out of the way…
Red5, founded by former members of Blizzard Entertainment (the company behind titles like World of Warcraft), deserves recognition for its compelling, creative, entertaining, respectful, drool-inducing recruiting campaign.
If only everyone paid this much attention to detail. If only everyone spent so much time researching candidates that they were willing to go to these lengths to talk to them. If only everyone were so considerate and respectful. If only everyone cared this much.
How much?
Well to give you a taste before the jump, imagine listening to this on your own personally engraved Apple iPod Shuffle, delivered via FedEx, in a beautiful nested-babushka-doll-esque envelope system:
This is Mark Kern, President of Red 5 Studios and former team lead for World of Warcraft. I came across your blog on the net and was impressed with the depth of your inquisitiveness regarding game design, programming and mathematics. Your work at [insert gig of person here] is impressive and we’d love the chance to meet you. At Red 5 we’re assembling a team of incredibly talented individuals dedicated to pushing the envelope in online entertainment. We’re building a new type of game company and a new type of game. And we believe you’re someone who just might fit into the Red 5 family. Log into red5studios.com and enter the code found engraved on this iPod. We’ll tell you all about it.
And now, the more complete descriptions:
Why don’t people seem to care this much about their potential employees?
As usual, Seth Godin nails it. In his compact and pithy way:
The reasons are simple: most recruiters don’t really care about hiring the very best people, and/or recruiters haven’t yet realized that they are marketers too.
Please feel free to share this link with the next body-shop recruiter that calls you.
More than a living 
Great post. Wow.
Would this amount of attention make me feel like the most special flower in a field of poppies?
Darn tootin’.
When was the last time you felt like the company was more excited to discover you as the Possible Talent than you were to find them as the next Possible Paycheck (hopefully Challenge)?
Exceptional people probably already have a number of perks to keep them challenged and in place. To pry them free and land them in your shop, think about how you push the envelope.
I’m not sending you an iPod, so forget it. I’m tired of my advances being brutally rebuffed.
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