We asked you to share the weirdest/funniest/most unusual places you’ve met hires. Here were our five favorites:
- Jeff Hainline: “When my son was about 5, I took him fishing about 60 miles out of town. On the way back, the vehicle broke down and had to be towed 30 miles home. While chatting with the tow truck driver, he told me he was an AS-400 programmer and was only working part time and drove tow trucks to make end meets. I told him we were looking for an AS-400 programmer. I made some calls and checked him out when I got home, and we ended up hiring him about a week later.
- Kevin Cook: “A few companies ago, we had a luxury box [at] the new Boston Garden. Our waitress was so outgoing, friendly and personable, I hired her for a sales position. She turned out to be a superstar. She went from schlepping pizza and hot dogs to closing multimillion dollar medical office deals.”
- David Graziano: “I was in the water getting ready for the swim leg of a Triathlon and I met a Unix System Admin that we ended up hiring.”
- Carol White Llewellyn: “When I was publishing a travel magazine, I was looking for a good designer to work on the ads. I attended a child’s birthday party at the local YMCA and got talking to the Mom next to me. It turned out she had been assistant creative director at a well-known ad agency and was looking to pick up design work she could do from home. She was fantastic to work with and while we had our design meetings, our daughters enjoyed playing together.”
- Joanna M. Pineda: “A random person sent in a comment on our Web site guestbook, not about a job, but about the technologies we use. There was something about the e-mail that piqued my interest. I had someone call her to meet with me. I ended up hiring her.”