From one of Matts posts I recently got the impression that he might be getting a little sour taste in his mouth from the Google Kool-Aid and possibly looking for a change from Google.
My wife, being from the same home town as Matt’s wife, feels some connection to Matt and always reads his blog. She never comments but loves it whenever he mentions Omaha. She read the same post and asked me if I thought we should make Matt Cutts an offer to come work for ShoeMoney Media Group because maybe he would like to come to Omaha so his wife can be closer to her family. (sidenote: keep in mind my wife is a Anesthesiologist and she always thinks she needs to save everyone when she thinks they are in pain without knowing them or anything about what they do).
Anyway after laughing a bit and explaining to her not only would Matt not be interested in coming to work for me I doubt I would have a position for him nor could I pay him enough. I mainly build content or service oriented sites for users not for search engines so the whole SEO value really is not that important to me. Personally I think Matt should be or work for a political candidate. I have never seen anyone better at deflecting crap coming at there company. Jeremy Zawodny on the other hand I would hire in a minute and pay him 250-500k per year. He is probably one of the best mysql developers walking this planet and that is someone I could really use. I have seen and heard his rates for private consulting are as much as $1,000.00 per hour. I have no doubt he is worth that. (that is another post for another day though).
Obviously I am not one to really answer her questions so I thought I would send out a email to some industry friends who ARE in a position to offer Matt a job.
My question was this: Would you hire Matt Cutts? If you had to come up with a dollar figure to offer him what would it be? What would his job title and job description be?
Kris Jones – CEO Pepperjamsearch (Worlds Largest Full Service SEM Company)
Pepperjam would hire Matt Cutts in a fraction of a second.
TITLE: President of Software Development – Search Division
JOB DESCRIPTION: Matt would manage the day-to-day operations and direction of Pepperjam’s internet software development – search division. As President, Matt would direct the overall strategy of the division and would be provided with the flexibility and resources to build a team around his vision for the future of search.
SALARY: $250K Base + Profit Sharing + StockAs one of the fastest growing privately-held companies in the United States (Inc. Magazine, 2006), why wouldn’t Matt want to work for Pepperjam? He’d be crazy not too. Matt clearly wouldn’t go where the money is – he’s got more than he will ever need. Matt wants the flexibility and upside that a company like Pepperjam will give him. At Pepperjam he would be given free reign to build projects around his vision for the future of search. Aside from that, I just know Matt would fall in love with Roxy, Pepperjam’s English Bulldog mascot.
Patrick Gavin – CEO text link ads and other companies
We would hire Matt Cutts immediately after him signing a non disclosure 😉 As unrealistic as this scenario is of course we would want to hire Matt. I would have to imagine he would be worth $500k+ a year. Job title would be “Strategistâ€? and job description would be
“Guide our publisher network and advertising strategies in a direction that gives our publishers and advertisers the best chance at success. Success measured from a monetization perspective for our Publishers and from a traffic and search engine rankings perspective for our Advertisers.�
Greg Hartnett – Best Of The Web
ure, I’d hire him. His knowledge and contacts would make him an ideal addition to Best of the Web. In order to get him aboard, I’d probably offer him somewhere north of $200k annually, plus an equity kicker to keep his interests aligned with those of the company.
I’d probably make him Head of Search Quality, and have him be responsible for implementing plans to grow the BOTW offerings in a manner that would provide the most value to the user. Ultimately though, his job would be to get BOTW to replace DMOZ as the Google Directory.
Christine Kim
Yes I would hire Matt Cutts. i would offer him $150K a year. his job title would be head of natural search.
I would hire Matt, absolutely. Not just for his knowledge of Google, but because I believe he’s someone who’s become exceptionally good at managing a team in the same way that I like to do it – rewarding rather than punishing, creating an environment of fun, learning and possibilities, and inspiring people to give their best. He’s also a remarkable social networker and interface person. I’d consider hiring him as something akin to VP-level. I think in our organization (SEOmoz), he’d be great at talking to clients, organizing programmers and researchers and helping to set strategy. When your company’s as small as SEOmoz is, Matt’s role would be like everyone else’s here – do-it-all 🙂
Salary range – well… since we released our earnings, I think it would be fair to say that even if we had no expenses and gave him everything we earned, it probably wouldn’t be adequate to other offers. The only real answer would be to give him a financial stake in the company (and a high one at that).
The insanity of the question, and my answer, is that Matt would be more likely to hire all of my staff than I would be to hire him.
Jason Calacanis Former CEO Weblogs INC & AOL Exec
Note: I’m not making an offer here, but just an observation. Matt Cutts is similar to Robert Scoble in that he’s built a brand around his name and his approach. When Scoble went to PodTech he brought instant credibility, an audience, and a bridge to any blogger out there. Cutts has a similar cache, as well as domain expertise in search, and he would bring a lot of value with him to any company.
Neil Patel – CEO ACS Web Consulting
Yes I would hire Matt. I would see him best fit in the role of Chief Evangelist or Search Strategist. He would either be a good front man for the company who could bring in a lot of business or he would obviously be great at figuring out strategies for clients.
I would offer Matt $200k plus bonuses and equity. I don’t think that is enough though, he is worth much more than that. I would imagine that the amount of business that he could bring in would be in the several million dollar range.
I’d totally hire him. But c’mon, Jeremy. No one’s going to be hiring Matt. The real question is who would be going to work for him (which I’d totally do as well).
I think his marketing and public relations instincts and fundamental understanding of the web are likely worth more than his search knowledge. With his knowledge of those fields I would love to see him working as a web based version of a Noam Chomsky.
I would love to hire someone like Matt, but am certain I couldn’t afford to pay him anywhere near what he is worth.
So there you have it. BTW Matt if you were to take a job with any of these people I want a fee k thx 😉
-Shoemoney Ace Recruiter
500K … Go matt go go go 😀
I’ll see all those offers and raise it another quarter mill in compensation and equity in a fast-growing venture backed biz. If he came to work for us, he wouldn’t have to move either!
Terrific post Jeremy!
$500K plus bonuses PLUS you can bring the cats to the office.
Of course i’d hire him. In an instant. I’m sure he could help me earn way more than I’d have to pay him to come on board too! Why, with his knowledge of spam, I could DOMINATE the industry!!!
Come work for Purple Duck Software, Inc. Matt! I mean, how cool would it be to say I work for the PURPLE DUCK! 🙂
G-Man
I wonder what Matt values himself at.
Personally I don’t think money is a big motivating factor with Matt. I am sure he owns enough GooG he could live very comfortably for a long time 😉
Matt Cutts must with all his stock options be a millionaire and I assume that he has never to work again.
You are all talking about his next adventure, but Matt talked about him and his wife. So their next adventure could be “baby matt”. 😉
I just made post earlier today. I was actually estimating he would land a 7 figure contract. Your numbers are a little low Shoe 🙂
http://www.xuru.com/blog/matt-cuts-the-ultimate-blackhat/
Interesting that you talk about how he should be working for a political candidate, then Jason Calacanis mentions Robert Scoble (who is on the campaign trail with John Edwards).
Wow I did not know that Simon… Interesting
Needless to say, Matt’s at the point in his career where he can probably write his own ticket depending on what he wants to do.
I think Matt would be nuts to take a job working for someone else after his stint at Google.
He’s got such clout he could probably get just about anything he wanted to do VC funded at the drop of the hat. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some VC didn’t try to recruit Matt into their ranks to help them evaluate new potential investments.
Of course I would hire him. His salary would be a 6-pack a day, description would be “Man who sits in chair, pets cats and while drunk, tells secrets of Google.” His title, Cat Man.
Interesting thoughts… but like Danny says – it would be interesting to work for him.
By the way, the Patrick Gavin link is “broken” ( http://http//www.text-link-ads.com/ )
Hey, Jason Calacanis knows who I am? Neat. 🙂
This is a very creative piece of linkbait, Jeremy. 🙂
[…] Shoemoney has a posted Would You Hire Matt Cutts? […]
thanks got it 😉
I’d hire Matt to use his engineering skills to keep the fridge cool and stocked with Sprite and Monster Sugar Free’s.
And if I had a Dave & Busters, I’d hire Matt once a year as Special Guest Bartender.
[…] My previous must-read post was about Shmuly Tennenhaus – an industry friend of mine who has become a YouTube reality star. Not to be outdone by Shmuly (Shmuly’s recent YouTube video about his “Bubby” aka, grandmother has gotten over 250K visitors within the last 4-days and has been getting international press), Jeremy Schoemaker (Shoemoney) blogged today further adding fire to the speculation about Matt Cutts leaving Google. Not sure if this story will gain the same traction that “Bubby” has for Shmuly, but I got a funny feeling that Shoemoney’s post has some serious buzz potential. […]
Title: GM Spammer – 1 mill a year + health and vacation !
Description : to PWN and use all knowledge schemes he has! lol !
Maybe if you get Matt a job he’ll fix your Supp Results Jeremy 😛
Lots of interesting (and funny) thoughts in this thread.
I think my supplemental results are from my bad SEO and not really googles fault. I have implemented some changes tho so we will see how it goes.
This post is why blogging so great! Asking the long shot “what if” question that gets everyones attention.
Edit by Shoemoney: your the kind of retard that makes me moderate comments
With his knowledge google algo, he can easily game google to earn many X times the average offer here.. About the offers being discussed here, I thought Googlers earn more than MBAs…
I would not hire matt …
because this would affect the quality of googles spam defense and this would help spammers to drive out the clean pages of the SERPs, thus lowering the income of me, my friends, my customers and all the other guys trying to make a honest job in the world wide web 😉
think altruistic – save google, save the web – don’t hire matt cutts 🙂
If Matt worked with me (www.homeless.org.au), it would be for free. His job would be fundraising and consigliere.
The main re-training he would require would be how to speak Australian. I already know the immunity to iocane powder thing won’t be a problem. I sent some to Shoemoney so he could try and get Matt to talk, but it didn’t work.
Matt has been very helpful for the bloggers. It has to be mentioned.
MediaVidea has a story on types pf bloggers and the dangers bloggers face.
http://mediavidea.blogspot.com/2007/01/two-basic-types-of-bloggers.html
Yes I would.
I’d hire Matt. I’d offer no pay, but free back-rubs and all the spam he could eat.
There wouldn’t be much to do though, because I don’t have a company.
Excellent post. At first I thought it was link baity, but then after seeing you enlisted actual, real follow-ups from real people… nice work. Me am impressed.
Interesting that he seems to have edited the blog to remove that bit.
Mega linkbait though.
Problem is he might get tied up by lawyers if he moved – i’me faily sure that non compeat clauses in contracts differ on a state by state basis.
But the VC’s would make him shave (see the current alex strip in the Daily telegraph – santa gets taken over by megga bank)
Very nice link bait! Great way to pull your resources to make a killer post!
I think Danny is the one who got it right. And then who would go and work for him 😉
[…] * ShoeMoney has an interesting post on hiring Matt Cutts with responses from some of the big players. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t hire Matt, even outside of the search sector. But does Matt really need to work for someone else? […]
[…] Google “star” blogger and search guru Matt Cutts was just provided with some great negotiating leverage for a raise or for job offers as ShoeMoney created a post with companies in the search field evaluating Matt and listing salaries they’d pay him. His boss must be happy he’s so wanted, but cringing at the piece of leverage. Related Posts: […]
What do we figure Matt Cutts is worth? Any ideas? How much did he make of google options? how much does he make a year? Guesses?
[…] ShoeMoney had a post about who would hire Matt Cutts if he were looking for a job. The post itself was interesting, but there was one little nugget of information buried in the post that I thought was very interesting: I mainly build content or service oriented sites for users not for search engines so the whole SEO value really is not that important to me. […]
John Furrier Podtech CEO made Matt a job offer on his blog.
“Matt: as the CEO of PodTech there is a job here for you 🙂 – Just drop me an email. The Cutts Show would be a winner!
Hey Shoemoney what’s your headhunter fee?
Not sure if someone has already mentioned this but I would confidently guess that matt could make more than most of those offers from his blog alone–assuming it’s not owned or under a legal restriction by Google. Throw up some AdSense and affiliate links and he could make a ton :).
Plus, we all know where Matt would really go for a job: seoblackhat.com 🙂
Come on guys Matt could just put his money into Tbills or Bonds and make enough to live a Very comfortable life. I would think if he does bail he will start something on his own or help some non profits out. And ofcourse do the world tour in his plane. Very good linkbait Shoe, how much would you cost?
I’m sure Bill Gates will be in touch….
[…] Here’s the link: Would You Hire Matt Cutts? […]
Well It will be a great bonus to hire Matt Cutts but I haven’t thought of this and won’t even think of it.
I agree with Danny S, it would be great to work with him instead.
Well… We hired him! He is going to start next month – at 550K. Naaa…. We sure would if only his Danish were a bit more fluent 🙂
Danny’s right on with Matt starting his own thing. How about with Jeremy Z? I’d chip in cash and work for those guys for nothing but a small equity stake.
You cannot put a price on the tripple-threat of talent, contacts and credibility. A powerful personal brand such as Matt’s would be worth multiples of whatever comp plan put forth. However the reality is that money is rarely the motivating factor behind executive transitions…It’s the challenge and the upside that attracts the pros…
Cheers,
Mike
[…] This was brought out quite well recently when Jeremy Shoemaker simply asked if anyone would hire the infamous Matt Cutts of Google, offers are being publicly made now for Matt (who never even asked for this to happen) that include one from Pepper Jam for " SALARY: $250K Base + Profit Sharing + Stock". […]
[…] Look for it here. Google, Matt CuttsPopularity: unranked [?] […]
Matt must be getting use to the “rock star” lifestyle so what job could ever compete with Google. It will be hard to take a step up at any income. It would be interesting to see how many people would sign up for an elite retreat with Matt. I would do it.
[…] bringing mobile search’s possible future into perspective. Shoemoney pondered the idea, Would You Hire Matt Cutts? Google adds visual data analysis to Reader. Feedburner adds site statistics. SE Journal reports […]
Matt Cutt as a SEO?? how much 😀
I could pay him 20 to 50 bucks a week to work for Gecko Tales. Maybe he would like the challenge:)
To the poster who said she’d pay Matt Cutts $150K/year, I have news for you: He’s worth a hell of a lot more than that!
Matt would be our CEO of SEO, without a doubt.
Who the hell is Matt Cutts?
Great Post! If you follow Matt Cutts tips & Ideas you can perform miracles easily.
In regards to this topic, it is often hard to locate reliable suggestions on the Web. Thanks for sharing your opinions on natural health and related topics. By the way, do you have any honest opinions on where I can get more useful ideas on the Internet? Keep up the excellent work!
Pretty interesting article I have to say. I guess the reality is that Matt will never have to work for anyone if he doesn’t want to. Can you imagine the kind of rankings he can get for just about any site or multiple sites he owns.
With havin so much written content do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright infringement? My website has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either written myself or outsourced but it seems a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my agreement. Do you know any techniques to help reduce content from being stolen? I’d really appreciate it.
[…] Look for it here. This entry was posted in Uncategorized by Mike Murray. Bookmark the permalink. […]
I think if he was to leave google, he would want to work on something that he started or a start up that he really thinks is going to be huge. If he was just to take an ordinary job to pay the bills, I would assume he would be getting 7 figures. Who knows internet search better then him? but maybe if he left google, he wouldn’t be able to work in search for years and years anyway because of contracts.