Google Please Hire Me :: Matthew Epstein

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Today’s interview was written and compiled by CareerSparx Managing Editor Kacey Valla.

Today’s interview is with the viral sensation Matthew Epstein who launched his own campaign (GooglePleaseHireMe) in order to be noticed, and eventually hired, by Google. We’re fortunate Matthew took the time to interview with CareerSparx and not only did we ask for career advice, but we wanted to know the true inspiration behind his mustache, why he doesn’t wear pants and the full scoop on his personal brand. Matthew just had his first phone interview with Google, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for him!

1) When did your fascination with Google begin?

I think it probably started when Google first came out with their search engine and all it had was a box with their logo. At that point no one had ever really done something like that before. I had always dabbled in Web design, and I had always liked minimalistic, simplistic design; that was really revolutionary. I think I became interested in Google when they first launched their browser. As far as wanting to work with them, it’s really been within the last five years. I’ve just been gradually migrating to all of their products — my website, calendar, Gmail, Droid, maps, YouTube — just about everything. I chose Google because the volume of their user base is incredible, but their products are really innovative. I love them; I use them every day. I would love to work on a product I’m actually using and then make it better.

2) How do you believe social media has changed the job search market?

I’m not really sure it has too much, at least not yet. I’ve seen people do things similar to me, but I haven’t really seen many examples outside of my case study. I know a lot of people are just starting to tweet HR professionals and key individuals they need to get inside the company. People are leveraging it [social media] to get a job. I’ve actually gotten a lot of emails and LinkedIn messages from recruiters saying, “People aren’t doing this. They should be doing this more often.”

3) What advice do you have for college students/recent graduates in regard to pursuing their passion?

Definitely first and foremost, don’t take a job for the money. Unless of course, you absolutely need the money, and then you have to take the job for the money. If you can, take less money or even an internship somewhere where you are going to love what you do, but more importantly, you’re going to learn the skills that you want to learn. I see a lot of people like me, or who were my age, applying to jobs just because they need a job or money, but it’s not really in line with what they want to do long term. So they find themselves in a situation where they have three years experience, but not experience for what they actually want to do. So the first thing, whatever you do, if you don’t absolutely need money, find something (whether it’s an internship or less money, even if you have to move somewhere) or get a job (if you know what you want to do) that’s going to apply to your skills in the long term.

The other thing is there are some people who are smart enough, just naturally genius, and people like that should be shooting for the stars, shooting for Google right off the bat. But the fact of the matter is you’re probably not going to land your dream job right out of college. Outside of an internship, that’s probably not going to happen, and that’s just reality. That’s why I said, make sure during your first few years you’re knee deep in what it is you want to do. Dedicating two to four years out of college to land your dream job really isn’t that bad when people spend 20 years trying to land their dream job.

4) What is the main lesson college students/recent graduates can learn from your experience?

1) As soon as you can, start building your personal brand. I would recommend doing this in college; I started messing around with my personal brand when I was sophomore. By your personal brand I mean your story — who you are, what you want to do, what makes you valuable, what differentiates you from your peers. It sounds cheesy to think of yourself as a brand, but I think of myself no different than I do Coke or Nike. I have a slogan and look; I have something that differentiates me. I’ve been working on that for years, but trust me as soon as I have a job, it’s probably going to evolve again. So first thing, create a brand. If you’re just “Michael Johnson : Web Designer,” there’s five million Michael Johnson Web designers. So the first thing is to differentiate yourself.

2) Never forget, and I think this is why I got so much response from recruiters and why my campaign was successful (besides the fact I wasn’t wearing pants), is I realized there are actual people reading my resume, and they are people just like you and me. It doesn’t necessarily have to be entertainment, they don’t have to laugh, but they want something interesting, something different. So if you’re going to apply to a job creatively, think to yourself if you were to receive it, “Would it bore you? Does it make you laugh? Is it over the top like mine?”

For example, if you’re a programmer applying to Google, try developing the coolest program, the coolest script, maybe build on a Google app. Do something really creative and think to yourself, “If I were to receive this as a recruiter, would I open this? What would I think of it?” I think if people start gearing their applications toward human beings, instead of companies or thinking, “I’m just applying to some big machine who reviews my resume and spits it out,” I think they would have a much better chance at getting a job.

5) What is the true inspiration behind your mustache, and why don’t you wear pants?

A lot of it goes back to when I started my personal brand a few years ago, I was thinking to myself as I was on LinkedIn and Twitter, “Everyone who pops up in my feed kind of looks the same.” It isn’t a bad thing, they are all very professional and have headshots, but there was nothing that really stood out. So I was thinking to myself, “What would really capture someone’s attention?” I was thinking that if I’m not wearing pants and I’m wearing a mustache, some people have to look at that.

I remember showing it [no pants and mustache picture] at my agency and to my CMO, and he cracked up! So I figure if he thinks it’s funny, I’ll just roll with it. So it started a few years ago when I was branding myself.

6) What’s the craziest email you’ve received since going viral?

I like receiving the emails of people trash talking me, because a lot of them are actually really funny, and I respond to them saying, “Thank you, you made me laugh,” which probably actually annoys them because that’s not the response they we’re looking for. On a whole though, I didn’t expect:

1) This many people [to respond].

2) So many people to email me with a message. I still feel cheesy saying this, but hundreds and hundreds of people email me, even call me, all around the world saying that I inspired them either to land their dream job, to find a job that’s more challenging, to work on their resume, or to get their career stuff in order. That in itself is really humbling, I wasn’t expecting that. To me that was the craziest thing, that overall message of inspiration. I don’t think they’re inspired by me, I think they’re inspired by what I was trying to do.

The craziest thing was this morning someone told me that there is this company claiming that I agreed to work with them. They’ve been tweeting people that I got hired there. I was pretty annoyed, but it’s funny that people do that. That’s probably the craziest, strangest thing I’ve seen so far, people going way out of their way to monetize my brand.

7) We all want to know, have you received your dream job offer at Google, and what other options are you considering?

I have my phone interview Wednesday [with Google], which I’m really excited about. I have been talking with other companies like Amazon and Microsoft, as well as startups. Those are more just talking about opportunities; they aren’t as serious as Google. I think it would be stupid, and I think Google would agree, if Amazon and Microsoft called me and I said, “Nope, I don’t want to hear you out.” I don’t think they would knock me for that. But say Google didn’t work out, for whatever reason, there are a lot of other opportunities on my plate I’m really excited about, but not on the level of Google. However, I would definitely jump on board in a minute. To be honest, I’m not really too worried about getting a job now, in fact my problem used to be that I suffered from lack of choices, but now I suffer from too many choices. I would love to do or join a startup, but I don’t have an idea that I’m in love enough with yet, or I haven’t heard from a startup that appeals enough to me.

8) Any closing comments or advice?

Probably keep your pants on.

1) If you are going to apply creatively to a job, make sure that whatever you’re doing, it’s fun and it doesn’t feel like a job application. It should really feel more like a hobby. People who love playing basketball go out and play basketball for three hours; it should be something like that. Something that you’re proud of doing, something that you’re proud of making, something that once you’re done (whether you get hired or not) you’re happy with it. Whether you create an online campaign, a program to apply to Google, or you want to be a TV anchor and you do a video, the point being is make sure you love it and you’re having fun doing it.

2) Don’t listen to anyone, and just don’t think about it. The reason why is in both business and jobs people don’t get to where they want to be, for whatever reason, is because they just don’t go out there and get it done. Again, there could be a lot of reasons; it could be insecurity or it could be they think this idea isn’t going to work. Just don’t think about it too much. If you like it, just go out and do it. Honestly, and this probably is the most important advice I’d give, is whatever you do to creatively apply to a job, the worst that’s going to happen is you’re going to get rejected, and if you get rejected creatively, the odds are you’re probably going to get rejected in the traditional way. So there’s really nothing to be scared of.

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