Marketocracy seeks intern

[archerships]

The company I work for, Marketocracy.com, is searching for a part-time intern. Pasted below is the job description I just posted to Craigslist. Anyone know of someone who they think might be a good fit? If so, please let me know. The intern will report directly me (Mwuahahahaha!).

Marketocracy Data Services manages the website Marketocracy.com. Our goal is to find the best investors in the world, and then use their trading data to manage real money financial products ( mutual funds, hedge funds, etc).

To find the best investors in the world, we run a long-term stock-picking competition. To participate, would-be fund managers must create a free account on our site, then create at least one virtual mutual fund. For every fund they create, they are given one million dollars in play money as seed capital. With that money, they can buy and sell stock, just as a real fund manager would. Every month, Marketocracy then selects the top 100 fund managers (whom we call "the m100") from the 70,000 funds on the site. The holdings and trades of the m100 are then used to manage real money mutual funds, such as the Marketocracy Master's 100 mutual fund (symbol: MOFQX).

Within the next few weeks, Marketocracy plans to hire an intern for a 20 hour customer support position. The job would primarily involve answering customer support queries from our members, repairing data errors in member accounts, writing FAQ questions, and testing the web site. Prior computer experience, especially with Unix/Mac OS X, would be helpful, but is not required. The hours are flexible, and we expect to pay in the $10 - $12/hour range. Our office is located in North Raleigh, near the intersection of Six Forks and West Millbrook.

Ideally, we'd like to find someone who is cheerful, hard working, a skilled writer, and an enthusiastic fan of both markets and Marketocracy. We're still a growing company, so it could lead to a full-time position. It would be a good opportunity for an economics/finance/business major who thinks they would like to work in the financial services industry, or a computer programmer who wants to get experience working with a sophisticated, high volume website.

A large part of the customer support representative's job will be a) helping members navigate our site and b) answering their questions via email. Therefore, in order to help us assess your ability to a) navigate our site, and b) write clearly, we require that potential customer support interns:

1. Create an account at Marketocracy.
2. Create a fund.
3. Buy enough stock to make the fund compliant,
4. Write a 1 page essay (500 - 1000 words) on how you would improve the process.
5. Send a copy of your resume and your essay (both in text format -- no Word documents) to me at chris.rasch@marketocracy.com.

Note that creating an account and a fund is free -- you don't have to buy anything. The process of creating an account and fund should take about 5 minutes. Populating your fund with stocks should take about 5 - 10 minutes. Don't worry about making good stock picks (unless you want to) -- your stockpicking ability is not relevant for this job. We're mostly interested in your ability to follow directions, to write well, and your ability to put yourself in our member's shoes.

After we have collected a sufficient number of applications, and evaluated the essays, we will select the top 3-4 most promising candidates for a follow up interview. The job will start once we've found a suitable candidate. There is no scheduled end date for this position.

If you have any questions, please let us know and we will address them for you.

Comments

[kittles.livejournal.com]

Not really addressing the point of your post; I'd have a problem applying to a job that required me to buy company product in order to even be considered. That strikes me as a little odd, assuming I'm reading the ad correctly.

[perich.livejournal.com]

I had similar concerns, but apparently all the trading is virtual. It's play money, in other words.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, you're correct. I've edited the ad to note that it costs nothing (except time) to create an account and virtual fund.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

P.S. Any other suggestions are welcome.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the feedback!

Creating an account and a (virtual) fund is free, so you don't have to buy anything. I'm trying to weed out those who blindly spam everyone who places an ad, without taking the time to learn more about the company, and what the job will entail. I also want a writing sample, since that is what they will be doing most of the time. I added the following to the ad:

"Note that creating an account and a fund is free -- you don't have to buy anything. The process of creating an account and test fund should take about 5 minutes. Populating your fund with stocks should take about 5 - 10 minutes."

Does that make it more clear? Any other suggestions?

[kittles.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh. That makes more sense. The clarification makes a big difference. I do like the "test" idea, and you're bound to get some interesting candidates that way.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thanks for letting me know -- I didn't realize that it wasn't clear no payment was required.

[hippierage.livejournal.com]

Neat you guys run WebObjects. What's the back end DB?

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Frontbase.

[mary919.livejournal.com]

20 weekday 8am-5pm hours? Would evening/weekends be a possibility? A necessity?

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Some evening and weekend hours are possible, but most of the queries from members come during market hours (9:00 - 4:00), so that's when most of your hours should be. A 15/5 split would work (15 hours when market open, 5 hours on evenings weekends).