On November 5th, almost exactly 3 weeks ago, 253 people read my first blog post.  On November 25, 2 days ago, 4,730 people showed up.  While I am excited by the growth, I am still searching for better ways to harness the collective knowledge within this new community.    Despite more than 5,000 people reading the last post, only 8 decided to comment and continue the line of thinking.  Less than 2/10 of a percent participation is not very good.

Today, I want to experiment with a new concept.  I’d like to take a page from the open source software movement, and apply that spirit to the creation of a VP of Marketing Job Spec.  For those not familiar, the theory behind open source software development is that much of the coding effort required to carry out development of a project overlaps with the effort required to build other similar (or not so similar) products.  By openly sharing a body of code with everyone in a given community, all members within it are able to leverage what has already been accomplished/created, instead of reinventing the wheel from scratch.  So if I’m building an e-commerce site and I want to include a shopping cart function, I could spend hours developing my own from scratch, or I could just plug in an open source module that another developer wrote, knowing that his code will do the trick.  With the time I saved, maybe I will figure out how to build a feature on top of his code that reduces drop off, and then, if I’m cool, I’ll publish the code behind my enhancement back to the community (open source developers, if I butchered this, please chime in).

So now that I have all of you smart people reading this blog, I figured we could draw on some of your collective knowledge in an effort to create the ideal Job Spec.  Whatever we create here, will hopefully be the result of years of experience and lessons learned by those who have hired well (and not so well).  My hope is that the document we create will enhance our hiring at JumpPost, but also that it will serve as a template from which any startup recruiting a VP of Marketing can build.

I will start with a brief description of what JumpPost is, and then work into what I think we need:

JumpPost is somewhere between an online classifieds site and a low cost online real estate broker.  So, if Craigslist and Redfin had a baby, it might look something like JumpPost.  From a customer acquisition perspective, we are focused on general population consumers who are psyched about saving/making money during a change of residence.  We’re not interested in reaching home owners (at least for now), and folks who live in cities are more exciting than suburbanites and rural dwellers.  It’s a pretty wide net we can cast, and some of our value propositions are unique (read: won’t be competitive to acquire certain types of users), while others are highly competitive.  In a VP of Marketing, we are looking for someone who has a play book for building a liquid online community through a series of paid and non-paid customer acquisition strategies.

I’d like to collect contributions to three lenses through which we can identify a star VP of Marketing:

1) General Personality traits: What type of person makes a great online/consumer marketer? ideas that might be right or wrong include:

- data driven thinker

- addiction to analytics

- detail oriented

- quantitative bent

- understanding of relationship between product development and marketing efforts

- what else?  What personality traits do the best marketers you know exhibit?  Any surprising ones? Any huge red flags that your bad marketing hires displayed?

2) Specific marketing skills and experience requirements:

A) What unique skills should this person possess? ideas include:

- fluency in Google Analytics

- proficiency with SEM keyword tools/models (i.e. Clickable)

- what else? (I actually don’t know what are best in class skills here)

B) What experiences and backgrounds best prepare someone for this type of gig? Ideas include:

- comes from an analogous market acquiring similar demo of user (in our case: online travel, online classifieds, online real estate, online jobs, marketplaces, etc…)

- managed SEM campaign of $XX million budget with XX level of success (what are the metrics to judge success here? What’s a good baseline to measure outperformance vs. underperformance?)

- designed and executed successful referral program alla Gilt.com, Jetsetter.com, etc…(again, what’s a good baseline for measuring outperformance vs. underperformance?)

-  fluency acquiring customers from within larger platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc…

- took an online consumer facing site from xx users to yy users in xx months (what’s best in class here, and how do we separate out the candidate’s contribution to that growth from all other efforts that played a hand?)

3) General traits and skills necessary for an early stage startup team member: What are the must haves and red flags when determining if a hire for any early role will be able to hack it in the beginning stages of  a company’s development? Ideas include:

- previous experience growing a company from alpha product to exit

- effusive and clear communicator

- “roll up your sleeves” attitude, no job is too small (not going to try to hire service providers to do all the work)

- comfort with a lack of structure and ability to create and execute own initiatives

- what else?  what are the best predictors that an early hire will be a star team member?

So, my suggestions are in no way exhaustive.  Please, those who have successfully and unsuccessfully hired an online VP of Marketing, rip this apart and share your experience in the comments of this post.  Where am I right on? What is way off?  Let’s try to fill these three buckets and I’ll publish a composite spec for all to build off of going forward.

Most definitions of management share the viewpoint that good management is a process of reaching goals by working with and through people. That being the case, choosing your team is the first step to success. Make sure that you get the best people available.

Aim high when you hire. Recruitment and hiring are areas in which a company can substantially improve its performance with very little effort. Getting good people to work for you has the special benefit of becoming an annuity that regularly pays future dividends.

There is hardly a top manager around who does not profess that his or her employees are their business’s most important asset. In reality however, the importance of the human resource still has a long way to go. For example, given a choice between two pieces of equipment which perform the same work, one costing $5000.00 more than the other, most managers will hesitate and investigate the performance advantages of the higher priced machine. Given the same choice between two applicants for the same position, most employers will much more quickly choose the candidate with the lower price tag. Managers have generally learned their lessons about the value of their physical assets better than they have learned their lessons about their human resource assets.

Approach the hiring process from a position of strength. As a result of the great impact that small business has had on the economy in recent years and the instability of many larger firms, small business is recognized as a great place to work.

It is important to anticipate what your personnel needs will be. Too often the hiring process begins after a vacancy has been created. You then have to operate under the pressure of having an immediate need to fill. This inevitably leads to a process that is rushed, incomplete and has a low probability of yielding the best candidate. Regardless of the short term pressures, don’t rush a decision with long term consequences.

It is always a good practice to look within your organization for someone who is qualified. This person won’t always exist and if he or she does, it will create another opening that will eventually need to be filled from the outside.

If you currently have a good group of employees, referrals should be your single best source of qualified applicants. Don’t be passive above tapping this resource. Actively solicit your employees input. Let them know what you are looking for and let them know that you appreciate their input.

Newspaper ads and ex-employees are additional sources. Take the time to write your ads carefully. Ads that supply insufficient information attract inappropriate responses that only waste time. Don’t overlook ex-employees. While it generally was a common practice not to rehire anyone that left a company, that is now recognized to have been an overly restrictive policy with little benefit.

When it comes time to interview, be flexible in adjusting to the schedule of the job seekers. Remember that the best candidates may already be employed. As a prospective employer you should value the applicant who is reluctant to take time off from their current position.

For the purpose of comparing candidates, it is helpful to schedule a block of interviews at one time. Take the time necessary to meet with all the qualified applicants. You may find a good one early on, but a better one may lie ahead. Observe good interview techniques. Make the applicant comfortable, ask open ended questions, look for consistency and patterns of behavior and provide an opportunity for questions.

Reference checking usually begins at about the time that your mind is already made up. This is your last opportunity to get important information prior to making a major decision. Make sure you do it.

Don’t waste your time at the personnel department. Get in touch with the supervisors and co-workers that had direct contact with your leading candidate. Imagine buying a shining late model used car. After a satisfactory test drive and having negotiated a fair price, you are given an opportunity to speak to the people who have driven the car for the last two years. Can you imagine not bothering to call them? You would fully deserve any problems that developed.

If employees are a company’s most important asset, it is the responsibility of the boss to be actively involved in the hiring process. Make certain that you welcome each new employee to your company and personally tell them what you expect from them.

After the effort that you have put into the hiring process, don’t forget to follow-up with proper training and close supervision of the new employee. Regardless of how effective your selection process is, there will be some employees that are not appropriate for your business. For the benefit of those individuals and your business, recognize and remedy those situations promptly.

Many a game is won or lost when the teams are chosen. Because it’s your business, make the effort and take the time to aim high when you hire.

Click here to visit Wanhan Consultants official website

How to succeed in the Interviews – Interview tips with few question & answers – - Wanhan Consultants

The extent of present economic difficulties have not been seen for a long time.

If you are a software executive with a responsibility to recruit, retain, and lead a team of dedicated people …

- Try to take a pause and ask whether your organization is at risk

- Chances are everyone has to work much harder because the team is smaller

- Some are quietly asking whether all this work is worth it but choose to stay because there are no other opportunities available

- Don’t wait; this is the time to reconnect with everyone again and learn what’s on their mind

The economy will recover.  When it does, the wave of great people (the one’s you want to keep) choosing to leave instead will be unprecedented.

Retention of great people starts with how one recruits.    Despite how memorable the last difficult day at work may be, the most memorable and lasting impression is created by the recruiting process.

Several years ago, I extended an offer to a brilliant software engineer who after 4 phone screens and 2 in-person interviews declined the offer.   I was shocked and called “N” at 8:00pm with an advance apology for disturbing the family dinner.

“N” told me that it was a very difficult decision to say no to a financially attractive offer.  ”N” wanted to work in my organization after meeting with me twice.

“So – what happened?”, I asked.

“N” told me that every person in my organization assigned to conduct phone screens did not call on time.   One phone screen, scheduled to start at 10:00am, did not begin until 10:30am.  Another phone screen, scheduled to start at 8:00pm, did not begin until 9:00pm.   The third person did not call on time because of a meeting that never seemed to end.    The fourth and final person was so distracted by e-mail traffic during the phone interview that the candidate was wondering whether this was a good use of everyone’s time.

I listened and thanked “N” for providing me with an honest feedback.

“N” was right in declining the offer.  The organization completely failed to:

- Show the candidate that “N” was 100% important to the organization even as a prospective employee

- Use the recruiting process to create a lasting impression, “This is how we recruit.  Imagine how we take care of our people once you join the team”.

Of course, what happened with candidate “N” never happened again – ever.

Fortunately, there were two other candidates being actively recruited.  Candidate “G” was hired.  Candidate “O” did not receive an offer.  Yet, “O”was so impressed with the recruiting process that – despite not getting an offer –  ”O” cheerfully recommended someone who was eventually hired.

The way one retains is the way one recruits.   In today’s economy, this could not be more relevant.

According to KPIX (CBS 5) in San Francisco, the Banana Republic stores in San Francisco are hiring foreigners at minimum wage and putting them up in hotels because they claim they can’t find qualified local workers.  So, KPIX had their staffers try to apply for jobs.  “Oh, we’re not hiring” they said.  When contacted, the Gap/Banana Republic operation said that the store was “mistaken” and that they really are hiring.

Donald Fisher, the now deceased founder of the Gap, was a lying sack of shit and always had been throughout his life.  His purchase of virgin redwoods which he claimed he would preserve (only to be logged when nobody was looking) was just one in a string of lies he laid during his life. 

So, now the legacy of Donald Fisher continues at the Gap and Banana Republic.

How about some honesty in business for a change.  Is that so hard?

Dan Kennedy’s Worst Nightmare

A two man show will never allow your company to break the billion dollar mark.

Hey you,

It’s #2.

Today, Thanksgiving here in the United States, I wanted to give you a gift of yet another one of the 18 modules that make up Yanik Silver’s latest “Underground Online Seminar.”

This actually has none of the super technical internet stuff in it.  It’s just 10 pages of  Tony Hsieh – of Zappos.com Fame, talking about what it takes to go From Zero, and Purely On The Backbone Of Customer Service, Break The Billion Dollar Mark Like He Did With His Company Last Year.

Tony Hsieh is ALL about optimizing the experience his customers get.  And because he’s got 9.9 million customers, he has a shit load of employees.  This is Dan Kennedy’s worst nightmare.

One employee is almost too many for Dan.  Tony’s got way more than that and if you want huge results like him, you’re really gonna love what he’s got to say…

1.1 Delivering Happiness

1.1.1 He’s re-framed “customer service department” as “Customer Loyalty Team”

1.1.2 He started his entrepreneurial path in college selling pizzas on the ground floor of his college dorm

His current COO/CFO Alfred, was there at the time also.  He was Tony’s #1 customer.  He would come by and buy one or two large pizza’s.  Several years later, Tony found out he was taking the pizzas upstairs and selling them off by the slice.

1.1.3 Background

1996-1998: He started LinkExchange (online ads) and sold it to Microsoft for $265 million

1999:  Started investment company called Venture Frogs.  Invested in Zappos.com and found just investing to be boring and so he ended up joining them full time within a year

Just in 2009:

#20 in Fast Company’s “50 Most Innovative Companies” list.

#7 in BusinessWeek’s Top 25 “Customer Service Champs” competition.

1400 employees, 23rd on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies To Work For” List

Powered by service – Their outcome is to provide the best online shopping experience possible with fast, free shipping, 365 day return policy, best selection, Over 1000 brands, over 200,000 styles, over 900,000 unique UPC’s.

Zappos is a service company that happens to sell shoes, clothing, handbags, eyewear, watches (and eventually a whole bunch of other stuff.

Looked to model themselves after Virgin.

They have 9.9 million purchasing customers, 4 million having bought in the last 12 months. On any given day 75% of purchases made are by returning customers

Their repeat customers have higher average order size – $143.22 vs new customers $111.98

Part of this has been made possible by spending less on advertising and pouring money that would have been spent there and putting into the customer experience.

They look at the costs of free shipping and other stuff like that as marketing costs, not fulfillment costs.

Likes the idea of customers doing the marketing for them.

1.1.4 What is Customer Service?

What Customers first see when they come to zappos.com…

On most sites it’s almost impossible to find a 1-800 number.  Most don’t even have one.

They take the opposite approach.  They put their number at the top of every single page of the site because they actually want to talk to their customers.

The phone is actually one of the marketer’s best tools if trying to cut through the clutter.  This is where you have the consumer’s undivided attention for 5-10 minutes.  And if you get this right they’ll remember it right for a very long time.

Free shipping:

People might buy 10 pairs of shoes, try them with 10 outfits and send the ones back that don’t fit back.  No problem.

Free return policy:

They did an internal study and found that customers that return the least, we’re NOT their best customers.  They actually make more money once customers figure out how easy it is to ship back and forth.  This helps them relax into impulse buys and try new stuff.

So they actually encourage people to order two different sizes of clothes or shoes to ensure they get it right on one try.

365-day return policy:

All the above are just policies.  Not customer service.

They actually pour a shit load of money into their warehouse operations and focus on fast, accurate fulfillment.

They stock & own everything themselves in warehouses as big as two football fields and only make available for sale what’s actually in their warehouse.  Doing this actually cut 25% of their revenue but they did it thinking long term in wanting to build their reputation in the mind of their customer.

They actually run the warehouse 24 hours a day which isn’t the most efficient way.  Most efficient way is to let the orders pile up and then when the picker goes through the warehouse they have higher picking density.  But they’re more interested in getting the order to you as quickly as possible.

Because one of their locations is 15 minutes away from the UPS hub in Kentucky they can create a wow experience with highly valuable customers by giving them free overnight upgrades and getting their package there in 8 hours.

Renegade Call Center:

The people who work the phones are instructed to go to competitors sites to find shoes they don’t have and then they direct you to their site.  They lose that sale but they don’t lose the memory in the customer’s mind that says these guys have my best interest in mind.

Most call centers focus on efficiency and driving down average handle time, time it takes to get person off the phone.  They don’t have call times.  They don’t up-sell.  They don’t have scripts and they ask the reps to use their best judgment as to what’s best for the customer.

1.1.5 Their #1 Priority is Company Culture

They believe that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff falls into place.

They hire and fire based on culture.

They do two sets of interviews.  One is standard, fit within the team, technical experience ability and so on.  Then HR does a separate set of interviews purely for culture fit.

Employees have to pass both in order to be hired.  They’ve passed on highly qualified people based on them not being right for their culture.

The reverse is true as well.  If someone’s performing well at their job they’ll fire their ass if they’re bad for the culture.

50% of Performance reviews are based on whether you live the culture or not.

They have a 500 page book detailing their culture that is built by the employees, the  definition of what the zappos culture means to them.  New edition comes out every year.

This is unedited so it reads as customer reviews like you might see on a website.

This is part of their culture that encourages people to be open and honest.

Everyone that’s hired, no matter what position you’re in whether it be accountant, attorney, warehouse guy, you go through the same training as the call center reps.

This is 4 weeks in Vegas covering company history, culture, philosophy about customer service, and they actually put your ass on the phone for two weeks taking orders from customers.

After this, they send you to Kentucky for a week where they show you all the warehouse functions that go with shipping, packing, receiving and so on.

The reason they make everyone go through this is because, first, it gets everyone on the same page.  And more importantly, if their brand is gonna be about customer service, then customer service shouldn’t just be a department.  It should be the entire company.

After the first week of the four week training they offer everyone in the class the chance to quit.  They’ll pay you for the time you’ve already spent and in addition they’ll give you a $2,000 bonus to quit and leave the company.

If you’re a $10 and hour employee, that’s a pretty nice chunk of change.  This is actually a standing offer throughout the rest of the 4 weeks of training.

They do this to discourage people from coming on board just for a paycheck.  They want people who are sold on the vision and the culture of the company.

1.1.6 Tony believes Brand and Culture are just two sides of the same coin.

Your brand may lag behind the culture but eventually it’s gonna catch up.

He uses the metaphor of the brand of Air Travel being “Horrible”.  No one set out for that but there it is.

He talks about how it’s almost impossible to for see all the problems that can come up with employees but that if you pour a shit load of money into making sure you’ve got the right people you save al lot of money in the end and reinforce a harmonious culture.

1.1.7 Owning the 3 C’s in the consumer’s mind

Clothing:

First, job is to make people aware they sell clothing and shoes.

Customer Service:

Next, they want them to feel safe buying stuff from them because they have nurturing customer service.  This comes not so much from telling them but from their first hand experience.

Culture:

They actually want people to know about their company culture.  That’s the reason they do tours of their facilities, put video’s on their blog site, gives you glimpse behind the scenes.

1.1.8 Zappo’s is really just about delivering happiness (customers and employees).

“People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”

1.1.9 What is Zappos Culture?

They narrowed their definition down to 10 Committable Core Values

1. Deliver WOW Through Service

2. Embrace and Drive Change

3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness:

They embrace the idea that everyone’s a little weird in some way and encourage people’s personality to come out.

The question they ask to reveal this in an interviewee is “On a scale of 1-10 how weird are you?”

If you answer 1, you’re probably a little to straight laced for the Zappos culture where they have random things like parades going through the office and people dressing up in costumes because they can.

A 10 is little too psycho.

They’re mostly looking at how candidates re-act to that question.  This really throws the professional interviewee for a loop.  They can sniff out people who are trying to feel out the interviewer.

4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded

One of the interview question for this is “On a scale of 1-10 how lucky are you in life?”

1, is “I don’t know why but bad things always seem to happen to me and the opposite is “I don’t know why good things always seem to happen to me.”

They have a similar philosophy to Bob Parsons.  They don’t want to hire unlucky people because that brings a bad vibe into the culture.

Being lucky more a state of mind than a classification of person.   A person who feels lucky is open to opportunity and radiates joy.  People who feel like they always get screwed and brood bring the energy of the room down.

5. Pursue Growth and Learning

6. Build Open and Honest Relationships Through Communication

7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

8. Do More With Less

9. Be Passionate and Determined

10. Be Humble

The interview question asked here gets people to fail the test more than any other. They’ve had pretty senior positions open for years that they couldn’t fill because people keep giving unsavory answers here.

When you hire one person who’s super capable but abrasive and annoying, that won’t tear the culture down but if you keep making exceptions, that will.  For them it’s purely a question of whether the guy is egotistical or is he humble.

His employees actually came up with this list.  They asked them to define their culture and what should it be.

When HR interviews people they have questions that reveal how much people match these values.

Lots of companies have something similar to this but they always sound like a press release or lofty/fake.  It’s something that after orientation no one pays attention to ever again.

They key word here is “Committable”.  Think for yourself what core values you want to have for your company.

Response he gets when he talks about this is “Yeah, I’m sure that works for Zappo’s but my business is different.”

He tells people not to adopt Zappos’s core values but to determine their own and let them drive their company.  Doesn’t matter what they are.  All that matters is that you have them and that they’re committable and making sure they align with your outcome as a company.

There’s a special effect that happens when everyone is on the same page.

And you’ve got to commit to them and hire and fire by them.

7 Steps For Getting To A Billion Dollars In Sales

Step 1: Decide if you’re out to build a $1 Billion Dollar company.

This requires more patience with revenues & profits in order to lay a proper foundation.

The path to do this varies from building a $100 million dollar company.

You can avoid a lot to the stuff he’s talking about if you’re only out to build a $10 million dollar company.

There’s no shortcut and no quick recipe.  You’ve got to be willing to sacrifice growth and revenue.  Part of that was expressed when they gave up 25% of their revenue to inventory product.

You want to decide this sooner, than later.

Step 2: Figure out your values and your culture.

Figure out your personal core values.  You can make these the same as the companies in the beginning.

Company’s core values:

Start early.

He started on this late and thinks they’d have gotten to a billion sooner had they gotten this wrangled.  Should be started before you start the company.  It doesn’t matter what the values are… ALIGNMENT is vital.

LIVE the brand

What do you want your personal rant to be?

Step 3:  Commit to Transparency – Be real, and you have nothing to fear.  Your culture is your brand.  Don’t try to be someone you’re not.

Their culture book is one way they’re transparent to the world.

They have a newsletter titled “Ask Anything” where people can ask about the company’s financials, ask about what brands they’re gonna carry, about pretty much anything.

They work with 1,500 brands and all of them actually have the log in password to their extranet and have access to the same info that their own merchandisers and buyers do.

They can view on hand inventory, profitability, mark downs, turn ins, and so on.

When a “Normal” business does interviews or reporters come, you’re ushered by HR or a PR Person and you only get to talk to three people or whatever.

At Zappos they give you a basic tour and then say, “You basically know where everything is, go find out what you want to know and come back and find us here in the office.”

They believe in their culture so they have nothing to hide.

Step 4: Vision:  “Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger.”  Does the vision have meaning?  Chase the vision, not the money.  Or as Puff Daddy would say, “Don’t chase the paper, chase the dream.”

They finally asked themselves a vital question, “What do we want to be when we grow up?”

They decided they wanted to be about the very best customer service.

The unexpected benefit that came was that employees’ became more engaged because they were working for something beyond profit.

It also flipped vendors who didn’t want to take them on because they were an internet account.

He get’s asked at marketing conferences “What’s a good market to go into?’  He feels like it’s the wrong approach.  He encourages people to figure out what they’re truly passionate about and go after that passion and figure out a vision that about more than making money.

Cited Craigslist as an example of a guy who didn’t set out to become rich and he did.

His challenge to you would be “What would you be passionate about doing for 10 years even if you never made a dime?”

If you have employees, “What’s the larger vision and greater purpose in their work beyond money or profit for you?”

People perform better if they believe there’s more to their work than making you rich.

His belief is that there’s a big difference between inspiration and motivation.

Motivation can get you to a certain point… Inspiration can accomplish so much more and what inspires is contributing to something larger than themselves.

Hard times will come and passion inside you and your employee’s is what will get you through it.

Step 5: Build Relationships (Not Networking)  Be interested instead of trying to be interesting.

He associates networking events as a bunch of people just horse trading, what can you do for me?

He finds that when you go to an event without an agenda and just seek to bond and become friends with people of interest to you, that this is when the magic happens, somewhere down the line an opportunity comes up where you can serve each other, that you couldn’t foresee happening at the time you met.

He embraces the idea of talking to strangers, not trying to get anything out of it.

Step 6: Build Your Team “If you want to go quickly, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.”  African proverb  Hire slowly.  Fire Quickly

You can’t build this big of a company on your own.  You need to be able to build a team who intertwine with your values.

Hiring slower and firing quickly is one of the things Tony wishes he could go back and change about Zappos

Step 7: Think Long Term -  Repeat customers, customer service, no ‘get rich quick’ formula.  Overnight successes are years in the making both personally and in business)

If maximizing profit in 2009 was Tony’s outcome, the thing to do would be to fire the 400 people in his call center, don’t answer the phone, don’t answer emails and he bets that his customers for 2009 would not go down.  They’ll have a lot of unhappy customers but they’ll be a shit load more profit.

But they’re looking at long term to make sure the business is sustainable.

What is Your Goal In Life?

For a lot of people, it’s happiness.

What is the science behind happiness?

Research shows people are very bad at predicting what will give them sustained happiness.  “When I get _______, I’ll be happy.” or “When I achieve _______, I’ll be happy.”

Research has shown that the “Is this all there is?” factor arrives and we adapt and become desensitized to outcome they achieved.

There’s a science behind marketing.  You’re gonna spend all kinds of time studying this stuff.  What if you spent just 10% of your time studying and learning the science of happiness.  How much happier could you be?

Tony has found that happiness comes down to 4 things…

Perceived Control

In traditional call centers you work the year, and then you get a bump in pay.  At Zappos they lay out the option of acquiring 15-20 other skill sets as a rep that each come with a small bump in pay.

Basically they show them the path and say “It’s up to you how high you go.”

Perceived Progress

They don’t care if you come in with no skills.  They focus mostly on culture.  For the merchandisers they broke down the steps to becoming a buyer into 3-4 month stages over 3 years.  People feel they’re moving forward and can see a clear outcome.

Relatedness

They try to get their people with related values to reframe their view of what they do not as a job but as a calling.

Vision/Meaning for your life/Being a part of something bigger than yourself

3 levels of happiness

1. Rockstar happiness – You’re always chasing the next high.  Works but very hard to sustain.   Once the high goes away, happiness does also.

2. Flow.  This is where you get so engaged doing what you’re doing that time flies by.

3. Meaning.  Contributing to something larger than yourself.  Research has shown this is where happiness can be sustained the longest.

Recommended Reading:

by Chip Conley

Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-Wright

4 – Hour Workweek – Tim Ferriss

Happiness Hypothesis – Jonathan Haidt

There you go, the counter intuitive approach to getting more customers.  What do you think?  Does this approach make sense to you?  For me it does.

I remember years and years ago hearing Tony Robbins talk about how they axed the number of complaints they received, ultra significantly when they finally started figuring out who the wrong people for their service culture was.

If you want to go big, you’re gonna need lots of help.  And this means hiring employees.

Dan Kennedy is anti-employee and loses money because of it.  He knows it and built his business to suit his life style preferences.  What do you want?

If you want to do it huge or just optimize your company’s culture start by checking out Zappo’s training on this here… http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/inside-zappos/2008/12/06/culture-class

Thank You So Much For Supporting Us Here.  Talk to you soon.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Note Taking Nerd #2 & The Chief

Welcome to West Coast Careers’ official blog! It’s been a long time coming, but we’re now officially up and running and could not be more excited about it.  Now is an especially important time for us to reach out to our clients and any visitors to offer up any advice, statistics or serve as an industry resource for those seeking information regarding positions, industry trends, etc.  This is designed to be an open forum to improve the customer experience and provide assistance as best we can, so please let us know how we can make this work for you.

by Guest Contributer  [Source:  http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-6045887.html?tag=content;leftCol]

These suggestions are based on the article “Choose your words carefully when crafting a resume,” by Molly Joss.

It’s hard to believe that a few words could irritate someone enough to make them stop reading your resume, but it’s true. Some hiring managers and recruiters admit that they have their own mental lists of words that annoy them. Resume how-to books may recommend that you pack your resume full of as many verbs, adjectives, and adverbs as you can. But if you aren’t careful, you could turn off more prospective employers than you entice. Effective word choice is what really appeals to hiring managers–not action verbs and glittery modifiers. Here’s a rundown of some words that hiring managers say detract from the persuasiveness of resumes they see.

Assist, assisted

• Reasons to avoid: Hiring managers want to know what you did, not how you helped. If you’re familiar enough with a task to put it on your resume, you can choose a better word than assist.
• Example: Assisted marketing director by researching PDAs.
• Possible rephrasing: Researched PDAs for marketing department.

Experiment

• Reasons to avoid: No one wants to hear about what you tried to do–only what you have accomplished.
• Example: Experimented with new LAN management software.
• Possible rephrasing: Tested and evaluated new LAN management software.

Skillfully, effectively, carefully, quickly, expert, mastered

• Reasons to avoid: Hiring managers often object to words that describe how well you do a particular task. In many cases, it comes across as boastful–and it’s unnecessary. “If you aren’t good at it, why are you putting it on your resume?” one recruiter said.
• Example: Skillfully managed transition from Windows NT to Windows Server 2003.
• Possible rephrasing: Migrated organization from Windows NT to Windows Server 2003 with no downtime during business hours.

Cutting-edge, detail-oriented; coordinate, facilitate, transform; proven ability, synergy, and liaison

• Reasons to avoid: Hiring managers say such words take up space without communicating much. They’ve seen them so often that the words have lost their original energy.
• Example: Detail-oriented manager with proven ability to oversee day-to-day network operations and to implement major technology initiatives.
• Possible rephrasing: Supervised an eight-member IS staff; completed two full-scale platform migrations; consolidated equipment and resources following facilities move.

Responsible for…

• Reasons to avoid: You’re a manager, so of course you’re responsible for something. Specify exactly what your responsibilities are and work in a few numbers to convey the scope of what you do.
• Example: Responsible for managing inventory, overseeing network operations, making new equipment purchases, troubleshooting workstation issues.
• Possible rephrasing: Supervised the support of 70 users running Windows XP and two servers running Windows Server 2003; implemented asset management plan for inventorying equipment; built a network operations team responsible for the internal infrastructure.

Looking for a way to earn some extra cash from your home? Avon has been an amazing opportunity for me to make money from the comfort of my own recliner. When I first started I didn’t expect to be as successful with Avon as I have become. I’m a  mother with four young children, and a full-time job. I thought I’d never have the time to run a business on the side of my busy lifestyle. It’s easy, at your own pace, and it’s fun!

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released that unemployment rose by 558,000 people to 10.2% in October. The 0.4% fluctuation from September’s (.8% unemployment rate brought into question the relapse of the economy and what the forecast for the future might be. However history has shown us that the last thing to decrease after a recession, especially one as severe as 2007’s, is unemployment (See Figure 1). As a result, it’s time to realize that soon, the economy will begin expanding again.

With projected growth in several industries topping over half a million in new jobs over the next seven years, its important to understand that the economy is  in the process of bouncing back. Hospital Healthcare is projected to add almost 700,00 jobs by 2016, and the tech industry is expected to add almost 500,000. Thus, the current set-back, is nothing more than a set-back. With GDP growing, companies will soon be in search of new employees to relieve current workers of the stress that comes along with their increasingly heavy workloads.

Figure 1

Berchem, Steven. Annual Economic Analysis Puzzles Through the Data and Explains the Trends. N. pag. American Staffing Association, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. <http://www.americanstaffing.net/statistics/economic2009.cfm>.

I recently joined a startup thinking that maybe i will eventually like doing what i have been doing for the last 5 years(in terms of work) due to a change in environment and a completely different atmosphere to the one that i have been exposed to. But to nobody else’s surprise but mine it didnt happen….i am still as unsatisfied as ever, still dont know if this is the right way to build a career, or to even stay afloat in such a tough market where skilled resource is freely available.

Introspecting on the reasons why i am forced to conclude this, the biggest glitch that comes to my mind is lack of planning. In a company with a total strength of maybe 50 people hiring even one more employee should be a collective decision of the management, clients and maybe even the project team(if the person is being hired for a particular project, as in my case). Let me elaborate on why i think these people should be a party in the selection process, management  will obviously identify the need based on client requirements and then try to fill it, the responsibility to provide clarity about the profile can be best provided by the client as they produce the requirement. Its is managements role to identify somebody who best suits the client requirements, the team plays a critical role too as they are the ones who will include this new person in their team and make him/her feel comfortable and optimistic about his/her career growth. Even if one of these fail at doing their part right the complete hiring process can go wrong.

Providing the right level of motivation to a new hire (especially a lateral hire) is as important as retaining an old timer and hence commands considerable investment of time and money. Its is important to have clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the new hire before bringing him/her on board, its important to see an alignment between the individuals goals and the goals of the company on the whole, unless these factors are considered it is hard to retain a person who is still fickle minded and has once risked being in the open market…that too not long back!!!

A majority of human resources professionals (54%) make their final decision to hire a person based on “chemistry,” according to a poll released Tuesday by the Society for Human Resource Management.

It found that 15% of human resources professionals said chemistry accounts for 75% of the final decision to hire, and 39% said chemistry amounts to 50% of the final decision to hire.

The survey also found that 30% of human resources professionals made a decision not to hire within 15 minutes of meeting the job candidate. And 28% made a decision not to hire within five minutes.

Respondents to the survey included 498 randomly selected members of the Society for Human Resource Management who are recruiting professionals.

Thank you to all of you faithful followers of the Stroller Reviews blog, and welcome to those of you who are visiting for the first time. But, no matter how many times you’ve logged onto the blog I hope that you have enjoyed reading all of the fabulous articles submitted by the writers!

Now comes the real question…have you ever thought of turning your love of writing into an opportunity to get some cash? Stroller Reviews is ready to add a few more writers to the staff, so here is all you have to do:

Step #1: Send and email to sarah.henderson@onlinestores.com
Step #2: In that email explain your writing and/or blogging experience AND why you would like to write for Stroller Reviews.
Step #3: You’ll receive a reply from yours truly with more information!

So its as simple as that!

Hope to hear from you soon

Looking for not just a job, but a career? Want the flexibility to build your own business and control your own schedule with the possibility of unlimited income potential? Consider the CENTURY 21 System®. As a CENTURY 21 sale associate, you become a member of the largest residential real estate sales organization in the world.

Our network is your edge- 61 countries, 8,000 offices and over 143,000 sales associates!

The CENTURY 21 System helps real estate professionals achieve lasting success by providing brand marketing and sales tools that are among the finest in the industry. The CENTURY 21® Career Development System combines skill-set development, business planning, coaching, mentoring, and continuing education.

About Century 21 (Nationally):

Century 21 Real Estate LLC is the franchisor of the world’s largest residential real estate sales organization, with more than 8,000 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices in over 60 countries and territories worldwide. We are dedicated to providing buyers and sellers of real estate with the highest quality services possible.

About Century 21 Jeff Keller Realty: Since 1984, CENTURY 21 Jeff Keller Realty has been serving the real estate needs of buyers, sellers, investors, and financial institutions in the Augusta, Georgia and surrounding areas.  With over 45 knowledgeable and well-trained licensed REALTORS®, we’re committed to providing you with the world-class service you need and deserve.  It’s no wonder we’re #1 in our market according to statistics – CENTURY 21 Jeff Keller Realty – The Gold Standard™.

Requirements to sell real estate:

In every State and the District of Columbia, real estate brokers and sales agents must be licensed. Prospective agents must be high school graduates, be at least 18 years old, and pass a written test. The examination—more comprehensive for brokers than for agents—includes questions on basic real estate transactions and laws affecting the sale of property.

Next Steps:

Contact Century 21 Jeff Keller Realty www.century21jk.com or (706) 796-0106 to discuss possible career opportunities and to find out how to get started on your way to your own business.  Century 21 will guide you through the licensing process and see to it that you get all the support you need.

Contact: Amy at (706) 796-0106 today for more information on our Earn While You Learn Training program for a fast and successful transition into real estate.

Free Seminar on Tuesday Dec 8th, 2009 at 7:00pm

2448 Lumpkin Rd.

Augusta, GA 30906

(Near the Back Entrance to Augusta Technical College)

Seating is limited. Call ahead or register online.

custserv@century21jk.com

www.century21jk.com

Looking for not just a job, but a career? Want the flexibility to build your own business and control your own schedule with the possibility of unlimited income potential? Consider the CENTURY 21 System®. As a CENTURY 21 sale associate, you become a member of the largest residential real estate sales organization in the world.

Our network is your edge- 61 countries, 8,000 offices and over 143,000 sales associates!

The CENTURY 21 System helps real estate professionals achieve lasting success by providing brand marketing and sales tools that are among the finest in the industry. The CENTURY 21® Career Development System combines skill-set development, business planning, coaching, mentoring, and continuing education.

About Century 21 (Nationally):

Century 21 Real Estate LLC is the franchisor of the world’s largest residential real estate sales organization, with more than 8,000 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices in over 60 countries and territories worldwide. We are dedicated to providing buyers and sellers of real estate with the highest quality services possible.

About Century 21 Jeff Keller Realty: Since 1984, CENTURY 21 Jeff Keller Realty has been serving the real estate needs of buyers, sellers, investors, and financial institutions in the Augusta, Georgia and surrounding areas.  With over 45 knowledgeable and well-trained licensed REALTORS®, we’re committed to providing you with the world-class service you need and deserve.  It’s no wonder we’re #1 in our market according to statistics – CENTURY 21 Jeff Keller Realty – The Gold Standard™.

Requirements to sell real estate:

In every State and the District of Columbia, real estate brokers and sales agents must be licensed. Prospective agents must be high school graduates, be at least 18 years old, and pass a written test. The examination—more comprehensive for brokers than for agents—includes questions on basic real estate transactions and laws affecting the sale of property.

Next Steps:

Contact Century 21 Jeff Keller Realty www.century21jk.com or (706) 796-0106 to discuss possible career opportunities and to find out how to get started on your way to your own business.  Century 21 will guide you through the licensing process and see to it that you get all the support you need.

Contact: Amy at (706) 796-0106 today for more information on our Earn While You Learn Training program for a fast and successful transition into real estate.

Free Seminar on Tuesday Dec 8th, 2009 at 7:00pm

2448 Lumpkin Rd.

Augusta, GA 30906

(Near the Back Entrance to Augusta Technical College)

Seating is limited. Call ahead or register online.

www.century21jk.com

Last week I had an epiphany that I don’t want to work somewhere that requires me to disguise my personality.  This sounds like a simple statement–maybe easier said than done.  Fortunately, the twenty-or-so presentations I’ve heard this month about various agencies and companies have shown me that companies do exist out there that seek employees who are comfortable with their individual quirks.  Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Pixar, Google, and Crispin, Porter & Bogusky are just a few of the big names that accept, and even cherish, eccentricity. 

While applying to colleges as a High School student, everyone was overly concerned with meeting expected requirements: 2000+ SAT scores, 200+ community service hours, numerous extracurricular activities, and a GPA as close to 4.0 as possible.  We were all desperately trying to fit the recipe for success in the eyes of college recruiters.  The need to fit this mold of perfection confused me about who I was, and everyone seemed to turn into clones.  Life, inside and outside of academics, became a contest to please authority.  At the age of eighteen we had unknowingly conformed to society’s standards to continuously pursue the modern version of the 1950s nuclear dream.

I found myself in college, stepping outside of my comfort zone and attending a school that was not my first choice.  Rejection is the hardest feeling to endure, something that I learned when a handful of respected universities decided I was not the epitome of perfection.  I questioned myself when I chose my major, Creative Writing, because I didn’t think it would be practical enough to make a respectable living; however, I chased my childhood dream to nourish my inner artist and have not regretted it once.  Emerson College recognized the value of a creative education and allowed me into a program full of students who were already very familiar with Marketing and Advertising.  They took a chance on me and showed me that not everyone prefers the cookie-cutter resume.

In the past people fought to stand out by fitting in to the maximum.  It sounds confusing, but think about it.  Harvard may have accepted someone for being an all-star athlete, or for being the ultimate humanitarian with 500 hours of community service.  To increase the likelihood of acceptance, kids began enrolling in every club possible, sweating over practice SATs, and volunteering at 8am every weekend.  It became necessity to be “well-rounded” but this backfired when everyone became carbon-copies of one another.  How can employers and admissions officers distinguish the truly intriguing student/employee from a pack of sheep?

Here’s where my theory comes in.  Everyone tries to cut through the noise, much like the overflow of advertisements, but this eventually creates an endless buzz of everyone screaming to be heard.  It’s a competition to be the loudest, to be the best, and those people who don’t want to follow the pack in this regard have probably been overlooked.  I think this is changing.  Companies like those previously mentioned (Pixar, etc) actively seek individuals with unique characteristics.  Even the executives of these companies publicly embrace their quirks, some wearing tennis shoes to conferences and swearing in formal settings.  I used to think you had to work your way to the top before you could show your true colors without losing a job or the respect of your colleagues.  Now, I think (or hope) that employers are adopting to accept their employees’ humanness.  Employers will not come find you and you still need to figure out how to break through the noise, but subtlety may be the key.  Rather than pretending to be knowledgeable or interested in the boring shit that I think they want to see, I’m going to be myself and look for a company who appreciates that.

What are my quirks?  In a nutshell:

I’m 21, I’m a gamer nerd, I’m a sorority girl, my favorite food is mashed potatoes, I love going to movies alone, I’m obsessed with pugs, I can’t cook, I live in a constant state of controlled chaos (there is a method to my madness, but you wouldn’t know it if you saw my bedroom), my first job was as a birthday party clown, my favorite animals are hippos, I sleep on a mattress on the floor, if you show me any piece of Godiva chocolate I can tell you what’s inside it, I was born in Texas but I’ve lived in 6 states, relationships with others are everything to me, I have a sweet tattoo, and I love to write.

Searching for a job requires you to do a lot of things the right way, avoiding missteps that can doom your efforts despite your strong qualifications and experience.  Here are a few simple things to watch out for when your job-hunting campaign is underway.

by Calvin Sun

#1: Relying on human resources office

You’ve heard it before, certainly, but the advice still remains valid:  Don’t send your resume to human resources, or the hiring department, or the hiring manager.  In most cases, these departments serve only screen people out.  You’re much better off finding the name of a specific person, namely your prospective boss.  If that person likes your qualifications, he or she might be able to push you through the human resources bureaucracy.  Is it possible that that person may simply forward or refer you to human resources?  Sure.  But you’ve lost nothing in the attempt.

For details on finding and contacting people within a prospective company, see “Breaking through the wall.”

#2: Using an unprofessional e-mail address

You and your friends might think cutiepie@aol.com or drinkstoomuch@gmail.com are funny or clever addresses.  Think, however, how a hiring manager might view them.  That person might lack your sense of humor, and his or her reaction might hurt your chances.  You’re better off with simply your name plus, if necessary, a numerical suffix.

#3: Having an unprofessional telephone greeting

The same logic applies to your voicemail greeting.  All you need say is that you’re unavailable — not that you’re out clubbing or playing Wii.  Why give a potential hiring manager a reason to pass you by?

#4: Overlooking misspellings in your cover letter

Back in college, a classmate of mine told me that he was applying for a job with what was then known as Morgan Guaranty.  The trouble was, throughout the entire cover letter, he referred to them as “Morgan Guarantee.”  Not surprisingly, he didn’t get the job.

Misspellings are never good, but they hurt you the worst if they involve the name of the company or the names of people.  Check them out thoroughly before sending a letter.  Names can be spelled in different ways, e.g. “Anne/Ann,” “Michelle/Michele,” “Scott/Scot.”  Furthermore, as companies merge or become acquired, their names often change accordingly.  If in doubt, check the company Web site or simply call the receptionist and explain that you want to confirm a spelling.

Remember that while Word has a spell-checker, it doesn’t have a “what you meant to write-checker.”  If you wrote “they’re chances” or “there chances” when you meant to say “their chances,” Word won’t flag your phrase (at least it didn’t for me just now).  Make sure of your sentences even if Word says the spelling is okay.

#5: Failing to write a post-interview thank you letter

Contrary to what others may say, writing such a note is not signaling desperation on your part, nor does it constitute groveling.  When you travel to a company to interview, you are a guest.  The person who invited you had to do many things to prepare, such as reserving a conference room and coordinating peoples’ schedules.  Your note shows your appreciation for those efforts and gives you an additional chance to reinforce your strong points.  Failing to write a note deprives you of that chance and may mark you as being unprofessional.

#6: Dressing inappropriately for the interview

If you’re interviewing at a bank, dress like a bank person.  Forget the t-shirt, shorts, and sandals.  Forget the too-high or too-tight skirts and too-low blouses.  They’re out of place and will hurt your chances.  When in doubt, dress more conservatively.  Even better, research how people dress and do likewise.

#7: Omitting accomplishments from your resume

Don’t just list responsibilities on your resume.  Talk about your accomplishments, and if you can, quantify them.  For example, don’t just say, “Wrote programs in [name of language].”  Instead, say “Developed system that reduced order entry processing time by x%.”

#8: Arriving late for an interview without letting someone know

If you’re running way behind, call or text ahead to let the interviewer know you’ll be late.  Sure, it’s better to be on time.  But if you can’t be, at least the people you’re meeting with can continue with other work while waiting for you.  The worst alternative of all is to simply show up late.  It smacks of rudeness and unprofessionalism and may hurt your chances.

#9: Bad-mouthing a former employer

Much as you might be tempted, and even if the interviewer asks you, avoid bad-mouthing your former company, co-workers, or boss.  All you need say is that while you learned a great deal (a true statement, even if your boss and co-workers were horrible), you felt a need to move on and gain more challenge.  Bad-mouthing the old company may mark you as a troublemaker by your prospective employer.

#10: Failing to leverage existing contacts

If you’re looking for a job, you don’t have to do it alone.  Think of other people who can help, such as former co-workers, vendors, and especially fellow alumni from high school or college.  If you fail to do so, you simply make your own search more difficult and frustrating.

This point illustrates the old saying that  “One hand washes the other.”  Before you need to leverage your existing contacts, think about how you can help others in their own job searches.  When you do, you will feel tremendous satisfaction at having done good for someone.  And you’ll make it more likely that those persons will later help you in the same way.  [Source:  http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=390205&promo=58&tag=nl.e058]

Given the current economy, maintaining contacts with other companies can be critical.  Knowing the right people can help you land a better job, one with more pay or perhaps the chance of advancement.  Getting that next job, of course, often involves an interview.  Here are some tips to help you excel.

by Calvin Sun

#1: Be on time

Give yourself enough time to reach your destination, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the area.  You will have enough stress with respect to the actual interview.  Don’t add to it by complicating your travel to there.  Consider a dry run prior to interview day, especially if you’re driving.  Remember that mapping and navigational services could take you (as they did me) through an empty field or the wrong way on a one-way street.

Don’t get there too early, either.  Doing so makes you look as though you have no other job and could hurt you later during salary negotiations.  Plan to arrive between 10 to 20 minutes before your time.  If you really do get there on the early side, consider joking with the receptionist or your interviewer about your surprise or “anger” over the lack of traffic.  Then get serious and say that all you need is a place to sit down, because you have work you can do while you wait.

#2: Occupy yourself while waiting

Do bring work with you, so you can do it.  There’s always another e-mail or memo to write, or a chance to review your to-do list or project plan.  You even could start on the thank-you note to your interviewer(s). (See below.)

Whatever you do, don’t look up every time someone passes by.  Doing so makes you look weak and anxious.

#3: Research the company

Don’t worry if people call you a creeper or a stalker because you’re researching the company.  My daughters call me that all the time, but I don’t let it stop me.  Take time to find out about challenges and problems that company is facing.  The simplest method is simply to do a Google search.  If the company is publicly traded, you can get additional information from financial sites, such as finance.yahoo.com or money.com.

#4: Dress the part

When in doubt, dress more conservatively than less.  However, don’t go too far, even on the “up” side, because your interviewer might think you are out of touch.  The best approach is to find out how people (in particular, the people one level above you) dress, and to follow accordingly.

If dressing that way is noticeably different from how you and your current co-workers dress, you might have a problem.  Dressing differently the day of your interview might telegraph your intentions to others, something you may or may not want.  If it’s the latter, consider leaving your interview clothing in your car or some other area.  If you’re a male, maybe you can appear at your current job without a tie, then put one on, along with a sport jacket, when you go for your interview.

#5: Tie your answers to issues the company/interviewer is facing

Once you have background information on the company and any problems it’s facing, try to tie that information to work you’ve done.  If you can come up with solutions based on work you’ve already done, you may make a great impression.  You will have shown resourcefulness and initiative in doing research, then demonstrated the value you can bring to the company.

Whenever you can, quantify your accomplishments.  Don’t just say, “I wrote a program that streamlined our inventory process.” Say, if you can, “My program increased inventory turnover by 15%.”

#6: Be courteous to support staff

A measure of a person’s character, it is said, is the way that person treats those who have no effect on the person’s future.  It’s easy to be courteous and respectful to the interviewer or the interviewer’s boss.  What about that receptionist, or assistant, or server (if your interview occurs at a restaurant)?  Treating them with equal courtesy speaks well of you, and in fact could be something the company is observing.  Disagree with me if you want, but acting like a boor to support staff could hurt your chances.

#7: Be energetic but not desperate

There’s a fine line between being energetic and being desperate.  Show that you’re interested in the job, but don’t be so interested that the interviewer thinks that this interview is your only one — even if it is.  On the other hand, being “coy” can be a good approach, because if the interviewer likes you, he or she might do more to attract you to that company.  However, being too coy might come across as aloofness and turn off the interviewer.

The best approach is to have a restrained enthusiasm.  Even better, take your cues from the interviewer.  If that person is quiet and reserved, you might want to adopt if you can that demeanor.  If he or she is more outgoing, you could consider emulating that manner.

#8: Don’t badmouth current/former employer

Speaking ill of a former employer, no matter how bad your relationship, could come back to haunt you.  Even if the interviewer asks you what you disliked about your former boss, refuse to take the bait.  You can speak about things you learned, even if the context is different from what the interviewer might be thinking.

Let’s say your former boss publicly humiliated subordinates, and that his doing so damaged morale.  You could say, for example, “I learned a lot from my former boss about how to motivate people.” Did your boss often fail to keep commitments?  You could say, “I learned from my boss about the importance of keeping commitments, because breaking them hurts a project and damages one’s reputation.”

#9: Be clear on the next step(s)

Before you leave, get a sense of what will happen next.  Will they make a decision?  If so, when?  Will they ask you to return for more interviews?  Who should call whom?  By knowing this information, you can get an idea of what to expect and can prepare accordingly.

#10: Send a thank-you note afterward

After the interview, take the time and send a “real” (not electronic) note to your interviewer.  I know it’s means more time, expense and trouble than an e-mail, but sending a note can make you stand out from any competition you might have.  In that note, re-emphasize the points you made, plus any others that might have occurred since that time.  [Source: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=363&tag=content;leftCol ]

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my first boss, Tom Poole, who died a year ago.  A quiet, unassuming Down Maine’r, as a young man Tom left the Pine Tree State first to fight for our country and then to make his mark on the business world.  In his retirement, he returned each summer to his cottage in northern Maine.

Tom taught me four lessons — about hiring, making unpopular decisions, buying a cottage (in Maine!), and taking vacations — that have had an immeasurable impact on my life and, by association, the lives of many around me.  Each lesson has its own story which, this Thanksgiving, I share.

Cottage First, House Second

We own a cottage on a lake in Maine.  This summer will be out 25^th there.  It is really more ‘home’ to us than our house in Lexington.  When we lived in Ireland for four years, the cottage in Maine kept us grounded to the States.

We own the cottage because of Tom.  Often when we are there, friends ask, “How did you come to buy this place so long ago?” I answer by telling them about Tom, by telling them about the day I told Tom I was contemplating buying a house and he said, “Des, buying a house is important, but before you do, buy yourself a cottage on a lake.  There is a limited supply of lakefront property.  And if you buy a cottage first, you’ll still figure out a way to afford a house later.  But if you buy your house first, you’ll not likely ever get the cottage.”

Tom was right.  Though my boys have heard my telling the story too many times, they never seem to tire of it; rather they smile slightly as they hear, once again, about this guy they never met named Tom and how his advice resulted in their having a cottage that they enjoy so much.

Decisions That Are Right, Not Popular

I was lucky to become a manager at Burroughs at a very young age.  The company was growing like crazy in the early computer days and there were plenty of opportunities for young people like me that Burroughs hired right out college.

A key lesson from that time was when Tom told me of some decsion he was going to announce, which, though clearly right, was sure to be unpopular.  (I’ve long since forgotten what the decsion was even about.)  Sitting in his tiny windowless office in Manchester, New Hampshire I said, “But Tom, people will not like you if you make that decision.”  To which Tom replied, “Des, my goal as a manager is not to make decisions because they will make me popular; my goal is to make decisions because they will be considered best for all of us.”

Again, Tom was right.  To this day, whenever some young manager – or one of my boys – questions a decsion I’ve made with, “But people will not like you” I tell them about Tom.  I tell them about how the people who I thought would not like Tom’s decsion are the ones who came to realize that Tom’s decision was right; the ones who came to respect Tom for making that tough decision; the ones who, over the years, stayed in touch with Tom and who are, I’m sure, thankful for what Tom taught them.

Vacation Time is Sacred Time

One year (long before email and cell phones) Tom was heading off for his annual two-week family vacation at his lakefront home in Greenville, Maine and he put me in charge of the office.  I said, “Tom, things are so busy right now, you’d better give me your cottage phone number in case there is something important enough for me to call.”  I was flabbergasted when Tom said, “Des you’ll just have to get by on your own without calling me.  We have no phone at the cottage.”

When I protested, “But suppose I need to call you for something really important?” Tom said, “Well the only way I can be reached is for the Maine State Police to hike into my cottage from the main road.  So you, Des, will have to decide that the situation is important enough that you are willing to call the Maine State Police.  Then the Maine State Police will have to decide that the situation is important enough to send a trooper to hike in and get me.”  At that moment I thought Tom incredibly irresponsible.

But, once again, Tom was right; and it wasn’t too many years before I matured enough to realize this.  To this day, I consider vacation time sacred time.  However important my job might be, I am simply not that important; while I might be president of a company, I’m not the president of the United States!  While I’m away for a long weekend or for a couple of weeks the people back at the office can make the important decisions without me.  So whenever someone – whether a subordinate or a Board member – says, “How can we reach you over your vacation?”  I tell them, “You can’t.”  And when they protest, I then tell them the story about Tom and the Maine State troopers.

Hire The Very Best

Tom taught me that, if you surround yourself with great people, you’ll succeed.  Because Burroughs was the only computer company hiring right out of college, we were able to interview the “cream of the crop” at local universities.  My first year as manager, we interviewed dozens of candidates for one opening.  When I told Tom that my choice was a kid named Steve Lilly, he said, “Fill out the paperwork and bring it to my office.”  Later, as he was about to sign he hesitated and, without looking up, quietly asked, “Is he better than you?”

I was surprised by the question and didn’t immediately answer.  He looked up and repeated it a bit louder, “Des, is Steve better than you?”  When I said, “Yes” Tom smiled slightly, looked down, and signed the papers.  As he handed them to me Tom said, “Good.  If the first person you hire is better than you – and if every person you hire after that is better than the last – you’ll succeed.  Some people are threatened by surrounding themselves with great people.  Don’t be threatened.  The great people you surround yourself with are not a threat; rather they are the means by which you will excel.”

Steve turned out to be a star, as did so many of the people we hired right out of college.  Many of them eventually ran significant companies.  It was enjoyable to read the comments of so many of these guys on Tom’s memorial site.

One man.  Four lessons.  An immeasurable impact.  If only I could be so good.

Doug Finke was supposed to be podcasting from Microsoft PDC, this was what we heard.

Lots of discussion about ORM and Entity Framework vs. nHibernate with this conclusion.

Folks are happy that MS has open sourced  the “.NET Micro Framework”.  I met the announcement with “What the *!?*&^%# is the .Net Micro Framework”.  Read the link and you’ll find out.

.Net Meetup – I went and really enjoyed it.

NYFLEX Meetup.

There was a bit of interest in this story of Madoff’s programmers being arrested.  The consensus is that programming for financial companies is rarely illegal, so don’t worry friends.

As always, the biggest buzz in my section of the office is hiring.  As usual, we’re looking for UX, C#/.Net, WPF, Silverlight & Flex, and Java.  I heard talk of OLAP too. Some standard position info is here.  You can email jobs@lab49.com if you’re interested and you qualify.  The bar is pretty high, but they let me in so you might get lucky too.

Friday came pretty quickly and just when I was thinking it seemed a little subdued this week and was wondering when the next Friday Seminar will be, surprise pizza showed up and made my day (thanks James).  The whole office (not too many in attendance this Friday) ate happily, though perceptions of quality did vary.

Probably will be pretty slow again next week with the holiday.

Heard @Lab

One guy is hard core because he uses the command line in SVN (don’t laugh, he fixed my project in 2 minutes).  Another guy blows him away, he uses Chrome and doesn’t even use bookmarks.

More

World Bank data now indexed by Google

The World Bank also released an API earlier this year.

Forgot to mention LispNYC last week.  I’m going to try to attend these in future.

How to Earn $25 per hour

Why don’t you have a job yet?

Are Walmart and Netflix hiring?

Who is Hiring?

They are hiring!

McDonalds at Gitmo is hiring

Dr Doom is hiring.

Post Recession Jobs

Imaginary Stimulus  Jobs

Who gets the blame?

Where are the jobs?

We hear about it in the news every so often out here in Silicon Valley: a big player at Google has left for Facebook.  Or a Yahoo executive has been seduced by Microsoft.  Or some perky young startup has snatched a head developer from a venerable software giant.

Silicon Valley’s human resources arena, ripe with star engineers and executives, is  like a day time soap opera, full of unexpected surprises and shocking betrayals.  Every time a transfer of talent occurs, juicy questions immediately begin to pop up surrounding the jump.  Were they abused at the first company?  Were they offered a huge salary?  Who got screwed?

I’d like to take an overview of several high profile transfers of talent that have occurred in Silicon Valley over the past decade.  Each one is a soap opera in its own right and has in some way affected the fertility of the Valley’s technological breeding grounds.  If I leave any big ones out, be sure to contribute your own top Silicon Valley talent transfers.

Tim Armstrong, Google to AOL:  This shocking transfer occurred in March, 2009, when AOL abruptly fired two head executives and hired Google’s sales boss, Tim Armstrong.  Armstrong had joined Google back in 2000, when the company’s ad sales were minimal and it was still in stiff competition with competitors like Yahoo and MSN. Flash forward eight years and Google is bringing in nearly $21 billion in Ad revenue per year and dominates a majority percentage of the internet search market.

The acquisition of Armstrong signifies a change in branding and corporate goals for AOL, as it continues to move away from its past as a ISP towards a future in digital media and advertising.

Sheryl Sandberg, Google to Facebook:  Sheryl Sandberg served as Google’s VP of Global Online Sales before being snatched away by a hungry startup called Facebook in March of 2008.  Sandberg’s departure marked the end of Google’s ’super growth spurt’, which was capped with a $747 share price a few months prior.

It was rumored that Facebook’s young CEO Mark Zuckerburg first met Sandberg at a Christmas party, and was impressed.  Soon after she left to become Facebook’s COO, which at the time was still a refreshingly new start up (and had a $15 billion dollar valuation).

Josh Elman, Facebook to Twitter:  Although Facebook’s former platform manager isn’t as a huge name, his new home at Twitter speaks volumes to the current ‘Twitter-mania’ that Silicon Valley is going through.  Facebook and Twitter are currently in a war (with Twitter having the upper hand) for the ‘real-time’ web.  Elman’s savvy on how people connect and communicate in real time is surely a gain for Twitter’s growing empire.

Vic Gundotra, Microsoft to Google: Microsoft’s 15 year platform evangelist, Vic Gundotra, broke the breach and went to Google in June, 2006.  This was at the height of Microsoft’s Silicon Valley envy, particularly the Redmond giant’s jealousy of Google’s growing search engine dominance.  Ever since, Microsoft has been hot on Google’s tail – most recently launching it’s ‘Bing’ search engine, which surprisingly has the beginnings to usurp Google’s hot streak.

So what does the future hold for Silicon Valley?  While some big players in talent acquisition have emerged, there is always a hotbed of hungry start ups that have proved time and again that they compete with the big boys.  Although many of these start ups don’t yet have the hiring resources and clout of the Googles and Facebooks, they are fast moving, ambitious, and have products that are set to change the world.   Armed with the right tools, such as cost effective Applicant Tracking software, many of these small companies may soon make an apperance on the soap opera that is, Silicon Valley Hiring.