One of my favorite subjects, Jobster CEO Jason Goldberg has taken it on the chin a lot these past few days. I kinda feel bad for the guy. I mean if we follow the old adage of “put yourself in his/her shoes” (in this case Prada), then you just may feel the weight of the world bearing down on you.
There have been quite a few posts here on WORKFARCE where I have completely made fun of Goldberg, but in all honesty, I have an immense amount of respect for the guy.
No matter how he got to this point, Jason has raised a TON of funding for a fledgling online job operation…acquired his competition and complimentary services to the initial Jobster offerings and has made Jobster a “household” name in the recruiting industry. Sure he’s made some mistakes…very very public mistakes, but all in all, what he has been able to accomplish is truly impressive. He also has a reputation…but show me ANY person in a leadership position in politics or business who does NOT have a reputation…Jack Welch was a bastard, Jeff Taylor is a shitty DJ and was a suspected womanizer…Ronald Raegan was really that nice and Mark Foley…let’s just say he never used a bookmark when he read, he just liked to bend over the pages…
I admittedly never really GOT jobster. I never understood its direction and what it wants to become when it grows up. I know that many companies have used them, tried them, liked them, hated them and everything I between. I also know that Goldberg promised profitability THIS YEAR. Yep. Just like I am gonna be the father of Halle Barry’s first-born child THIS YEAR.
I once worked at a start-up in New York City where the CEO’s favorite activity was to get coked-up and bring the entire business development staff into the conference room and tell us things like he “would smash our heads in”. All the while ranting about why he was SURE our company could kill monster.com, the Brassring Applicant Tracking System and every freaking vendor management system on the planet. He was a rough guy…full of passion, wrought with debt and totally and utterly full of himself.
I soon realized that working with him would not last long… after the Sept. 11th attacks on NY, despite the televised instructions from the Mayor to stay home on September 12, my boss wanted us there at 9am… He was an asshole
However, being there was singularly the WORST and BEST work experience I had ever had…you could never PAY for an education like that…sure, the company contracted, and swelled, and contracted again, almost collapsed, but is somehow alive to this day. My Co workers and I formed a special bond as each one of us was jettisoned from the company. We would talk shit about our former boss over drinks, bash the company and its direction/strategy and breathe a collective sigh about “being free’.
Bottom line,…I learned too much to even describe and I have a feeling that Goldberg just may be that EXACT prototype-personality. Ton of Cash, ton of Pressure, big freakin ego, no patience and forced, at times, to do the inevitable…be human. However, for the sake of this comparison instead of being like my boss an angry Italian beast from Long Island, Jason is a fashion conscious little man living in Seattle…but everything else is seemingly consistent.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Jason may come out of hiding today…ready to pounce.
A guy like him; feisty, entrepreneurial and competitive can only sulk, watch the rain trickling down the seattle-loft window and cry for so long about all of the crazy rumor mill. That people have tuned on him and this bullshit people are writing about him whirling around on some very popular HR/Recruiting blogs. He won’t lay down… and take this bullying anymore. This will either get really nasty really quickly, or Jason will come out of the closet/hiding once again and amaze us with a new jobster “moment” so stupefying that it will completely make his employees, critics, past employees and client base forget what the hell was just going on (what blog’s?)…forget what day it was and make us love him all over again…
It is his time to shine…I ask the readers to let him be human. Everyone needs to f*ck up now and then…it keeps us humble and makes us appreciate our successes . We learn from our mistakes and our industry can learn from Jason Goldberg.
