Crash Course: Navigating the Hiring Process

Tags: Entrepreneurship

Hiring is one of the most important things you’ll ever do. And yet most people get it wrong. Tom Fischaber of Woot Math will help you get it right. Tom has hired both technical and non-technical positions at Fortune 500 companies and startups. He knows first-hand the consequence of making a bad hire and the rewards of making a great one. From his own experience, Tom realized that to hire consistently well, he needed to deeply understand the process and master it.

While resume reading and writing and phone screening are useful skills to master, this Crash Course will focus on examining hiring as a goal-driven process. Tom will cover the entire process, but the heart of his course is the place most people get wrong – the interview. He will describe an approach to interviewing that is not only fun, but will enable you to deeply understand if this is the right person for the job and for your team. As a student seeking to be hired, you will get a front-row seat on the challenges and goals from the manager’s point of view. From this perspective, you’ll not only be able to better prepare for interviewing, but have a much deeper understanding of what it means to find a job where you can succeed and thrive. This workshop will be useful for both businesses of all sizes and talent looking to refine their approach to interviewing.

Tom Fischaber, Woot Math
Tom Fischaber is VP Operations & Co-Founder of Woot Math, an award winning Ed-Tech company focused on helping all students become algebra ready. Prior to Woot Math, Tom was an Executive Producer at Disney. He came to Disney through its 2008 acquisition of Kerpoof where he was COO and Co-Founder. The tools created at Disney and Kerpoof have allowed millions of children to create, save and share artwork in safe online environments. Throughout his career Tom has helped build teams, and resulting products, that are award winning and best in class. To achieve this, he has hired both technical and non-technical individuals, for startups as well as Fortune 100 companies. He received a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from CU, and a bachelors in Engineering (Electrical Specialty) from the Colorado School of Mines. He has been issued eleven U.S. patents, has numerous publications, and serves on the Advisory Board for the Colorado School of Mines Electrical and Computer Science Department.

After Tom presents, a response panel will be moderated by Jenn Rosenthal of Kendall Koenig & Oelsner featuring Tom, Krista Marks of WootMath, and Josh Scott of Craftsy.

Jennifer Rosenthal, Kendall Koenig & Oelsner PC
Jennifer Rosenthal is an attorney in the Boulder office of Kendall, Koenig & Oelsner, a corporate boutique law firm with offices in Boulder and Denver. Jenn’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity investments and securities law compliance. Jenn works with clients ranging from startups to public companies. Prior to joining KKO, Jennifer practiced in the Denver, Colorado office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international law firm based in Los Angeles, California. Jenn is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado Law School where she teaches Venture Capital Drafting, a member of the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board for the Silicon Flatirons Center and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the University of Colorado Law School.

Krista Marks, Woot Math
Krista is a serial entrepreneur with twenty years of experience at the forefront of technology. She has built and led highly effective software and hardware teams for startups, consulting firms and Fortune 100 companies, and recently delivered the highly acclaimed solutions for creativity and community on Disney.com. She was honored with the Kids at Play Interactive (KAPi) award for “Emerging Pioneer” at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show. Krista is currently CEO & Co-Founder of Woot Math, a new Boulder ed-tech startup. Previously, she was a Vice President at Disney. Krista came to Disney through its 2008 acquisition of Kerpoof where she was also CEO and co-founder. The tools created at Disney and Kerpoof have allowed millions of children to create, save and share artwork in safe online environments. Krista’s career has spanned many technology fields where she has worked as an engineer, manager, and executive, and she has won a broad range of awards. In addition to the KAPi award, she was a 2005 finalist for Xilinx’s highest technical achievement award for her work in networking electronics. In 1999, she won Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s highest achievement award for her contributions to high energy physics instrumentation. She holds multiple U.S. patents and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Carolina.

Josh Scott, Craftsy
Josh Scott is the COO of Craftsy – an online education business he founded in 2010 with three colleagues. At Craftsy, Josh has led the Product, Marketing, Business Development and Customer Support teams through a period of rapid growth from launch to over 200 employees and a $50MM revenue run-rate in four years. Prior to Craftsy, Josh led Product and Marketing teams at ServiceMagic and a number of venture-funded start-ups. Earlier in his career, Josh was a Category Manager at eBay and an Associate Consultant at Bain & Co. Josh has an undergraduate degree in business from University of Michigan and an MBA from University of California-Berkeley.


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