How Twitter Got Desperate Enough To Hire Two Part-Timers To Lead Product

Twitter's new executive chairman and product leader, Jack Dorsey, is also the fulltime CEO of another startup, Square.

Twitter's new director of product management, Satya Patel, will also be splitting his professional time with another concern – Battery Ventures, where he'll continue working as an advisor to portfolio companies.

Is Twitter really in such desperate shape that it's willing to hire product leaders who want to maintain other jobs?

In a word: Yes.

Here's an anecdote to illustrate how badly things are messed up over there right now.

Remember that whole "#Dickbar" controversy, where Twitter updated its iPhone app so that a "QuickBar" showing Twitter trends and ads would show up in every users Twitter stream?

People hated it.

They hated it for two reasons – one less fair than the other.

The unfair reason: the QuickBar put ads in the Twitter stream. That's unfair because you had to know ads were coming.

The fair reason: the QuickBar put Twitter's useless, crass, and irrelevant "trends" in every user's face. 

Instapaper creator and UI genius Marco Arment hit this complaint hard, writing, "It’s a news ticker limited to one-word items, lacking any context, broadcasting mostly topics that I don’t understand, recognize, or care about. It’s nonsensical. At worst, it can offend. At best, it will confuse."

Anyway, the #DickBar was not good. But that's not the point. Even companies with good product teams launch sucky products sometimes.

The fact that indicates Twitter's whole product process is in bad shape is this: A source briefed on the ordeal tells us that the QuickBar was launched, essentially out of the blue, by a junior product manager – without any review from the company's senior leadership. Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO and #DickBar namesake, is said to have been livid after the ensuing controversy.

Whoops.

How did #DickBar happen?

Apparently, Twitter has a very horizontal org-structure. The reason Twitter has such a structure, say observers, is because "that's the way Facebook does it."

Of course, what Facebook has and Twitter does not, is Mark Zuckerberg – a senior executive and product visionary who is comfortable getting elbow deep in product development. In fact, after Ev Williams stepped down as Twitter CEO last fall – and his top product lieutenant, Jason Goldman, followed suit – Twitter had almost zero product leadership at all.

The good news is that, in Jack Dorsey and Satya Patel, Twitter now has that kind of leadership.

The bad news is that it has it on a part-time basis.

We reached out to Twitter to discuss this story but we never heard back.

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See Also:

• Twitter In Negotiations To Bring Jack Dorsey Back As Chief Product Officer
• HERE IT IS: Jack Dorsey's Three-Part Plan To Fix Twitter
• LOOMING DISASTER: Jack Dorsey's Return To Twitter -- The SAIcast

How Twitter Got Desperate Enough To Hire Two Part-Timers To Lead Product

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MILLION DOLLAR IDEA: Pay Desperate College Students To Do Anything For You

The idea: Agent Anything is a service that benefits both busy people and poor college students. Swamped at work and need to pick up your dry cleaning? Just post the errand on the site and let one of its many minions—who are all confirmed students—do it for you.

Whose idea: Harry Schiff and Oliver Green.

Why it's brilliant: Why wait in line for the iPad 2 when you can pay someone to do it for you? Agent Anything is reliable, easy to use and, if you're in college, a great way to make some extra cash. Plus, there's not much of a limit to what you can ask. Recent requests included a bottle of Patron, a washing machine and a deep tissue massage. 

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MILLION DOLLAR IDEA: Pay Desperate College Students To Do Anything For You

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Feds Desperate to Hire Information Security Pros

by Mathew Schwartz

You've probably heard the government is facing a shortage of information security - or as the Feds always say, "cybersecurity" - talent, leaving the nation vulnerable to online attacks. Here's some details.

"There are about 1,000 security people in the U.S. who have the specialized security skills to operate effectively in cyberspace. We need 10,000 to 30,000," says Jim Gosler, a fellow at Sandia National Laboratories who was the founding director of the CIA's clandestine information technology office. 

Part of the problem is the dearth of truly technical security certifications. For example, a cybersecurity study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that "the current professional certification regime is not merely inadequate; It creates a dangerously false sense of security" because many certifications emphasize complying with checklists, rather than directly safeguarding networks or knowing how to rip apart malware and build better defenses. 

Hence the clear and present government job opportunity: To be one of these in-demand technical security experts. But whether you're mid-career or just starting out, how do you get the advanced technical skills required while navigating the "black hole" of government hiring, to land one of these cybersecurity positions?

Hobnob with a TLA 

Provided you're a U.S. citizen, perhaps the most direct route to landing a cybersecurity job, especially at a TLA (three-letter acronym) agency - CIA, DHS, NSA - is to get either an undergraduate or graduate-level information security degree. Consider attending a program at a university on the National Science Foundation's federally funded research and development center list, since out of the gate, they've got government ties and will regularly draw government recruiters. 

Trade a Free Ride for Two Years' Work 

Likewise, 29 institutions - some also on the FFRDC list - participate in the NSF's Scholarship For Service grant program.

First, you work in security for the federal, state or local government, or at Lincoln Laboratory (part of MIT), MITRE Corp. or Sandia - all of which offer private-sector-level pay - for two years. Then you complete a one-month (paid) government summer internship after your first year of graduate school. SFS provides full tuition reimbursement, a generous monthly stipend and a fast-track to government employment. 

Furthermore, most SFS participants have a job offer in hand by the fall of their second year, which means that if they ace their background check - getting a "top secret" clearance, required for most Pentagon cybersecurity work, which can take six to nine months - they start work upon graduation. 

"Those students, obviously, don't have a very difficult time getting a federal job, because one, they have to, and two, there are a lot of mechanisms in place, such as job fairs," says Jennifer Burkett, director of career services and external relations at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, which offers a master's degree in information security and is part of the SFS grant program. 

Degree programs aside, what else can give you an edge? Burkett recommends networking as much as possible, perhaps with college alumni, so you're not just firing resumes into the ether. Government internships help, too. 

Jobs with Benefits 

Must government cybersecurity job holders swap higher pay for prestige, personal satisfaction or patriotism? In fact, the pay can be relatively good - generally within $5,000 to $10,000 of what private-sector companies pay, reports Burkett.

The benefits are also good, including the workday. "I guarantee that if you work for the government, you're not working as many hours as on Wall Street, or professional services," says Lee Kushner, president of LJ Kushner & Associates, an information security recruitment firm in Freehold, N.J., that conducts an annual salary survey. 

Cracking the Government Code

But landing a government cybersecurity job can be a daunting process. "There are a lot of young people or people with these (required) skills who would like to work with the government, but their resumes go into a black hole," says Kushner. Aside from a form e-mail, they may never hear back. 

But with the current cybersecurity worker shortfall, expect to see changes, and soon. 

"Everyone knows their machines are being attacked constantly at the federal and commercial level, and they realize they need to bump up the resources, and they realize that's going to take real money, not happy talk," says Phil Lieberman, CEO of Lieberman Software in Los Angles. He's been participating in the current congressional efforts to craft a new cybersecurity bill, which may pass as soon as September. 

Interestingly, "the evolving cybersecurity bills have language to provide more flexible incentives to recruit more people to this field," says Lieberman. That's because when it come to what the government must do next to improve national cybersecurity, there's no mystery.

"Hiring smart and adaptable people will always be the best cybersecurity defense," he says.

Mathew Schwartz is a freelance writer based in Pennsylvania.

Feds Desperate to Hire Information Security Pros

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