“Here I am a recruiter, and I can’t even get a job at Burning Man,” laughs Jeanmarie Boben, hours before she heads to the annual desert blowout for the ninth year. “My welding skills were subpar, my plasma cutting skills were subpar. One thing after another—rejection. It was quite a table turn for me.” The San Francisco-based member, who has been specializing in recruiting services for Bay Area and Silicon Valley startups the past 15 years, plans to turn these series of rejections into a humorous video for her business Spring Search Group. (Spring is her favorite season, though “I originally named the company ‘Olive Search Group’ because I like martinis,” she admits.)
Everybody’s asked me why I don’t build a bigger empire. I’m not necessarily interested in managing a large business, but rather I’m interested in being a recruiter, being connected to the tech sector, being that person who really has a great sense of what’s going on.
“It’s a gift to be sitting in an area in the world where we’re so advanced technology-wise,” says 44-year-old Boben, a breast cancer survivor who was once told she had two years to live. “I have a chance to remain young if I choose to.” Which she does. Forget that 11-year-old who told her recently that “Snapchat is for old people.” Boben is well aware of “apps that most people don’t even know exist yet,” she says. “I control my life from my phone. I have to know every single technology coming out, just so I stay hip with what’s going on in the tech sector.”