I noticed the B.L. Ochman finally switched to a Mac, just like Shel did some time ago, though his experience was less than rosy.

Personally, I've been in the PowerBook for a year now and can't see going back to a PC. Sure, there are Mac quirks, but by and large the productivity of the Mac and the tools it provides are second to none.

A few things of note after a year:

Spotlight: Mac's search feature is quick - very quick. It finds almost everything and it saves me at least 1/2 hour each day searching for documents & other crap

Entourage: Microsoft's less than ideal mail program. Funny, the only stuff that's crap on this thing and that crashes weekly are the Microsoft programs. Entourage is likely one of the worst mail programs, but it offered more of the features that I wanted than the mail product that came w/ the Mac. It too crashes often, but I'd use it again if I had to do over again. For some reason, and maybe it's just my Mac, this thing can't forward and HTML email to save its life. The formatting gets messed up every time.

OmniOutliner: My life lives in OmniOutliner. Rolling to do lists, presentation outlines, checklists for projects...everything good starts in OmniOutliner.

PowerPoint: Compatibility breaks down often in PPT. If the receiving PC doesn't have the right fonts, everything goes to hell... No, I don't use keynote and no one else I know does either.

It's just faster: Everything I do on the mac seems to be faster, and once you get used to navigating, it's faster still!

How ironic that I'm posting about this from outside the Starbucks inside the Chicago Merchandise Mart in advance of some morning meetings....

Steve Rubel linked to an interesting article in USA today about the "third place" worker. While I have a home office that I spend a significant amount of hours in, I have to admit that I'm a member of the "third place work club", the few of us that there are in Green Bay, WI.

At first, I thought that this was just a guilty pleasure. I've been working from coffee shops since my first sales job in 1999. I spent almost every evening at one of the two Starbucks on Second Street in Long Beach, well before there was Wi-Fi in every coffee shop. I was just happy to get a change of scenery.

Now, it appears that there's a whole workforce that not only takes a break for a change of pace, but calls their office home by the name of Starbucks, Peets, or some other independent coffee house or eatery. My habits have changed a bit. Being a home office worker, it's tough to get away from the luxury of a printer and speaker phone. I rarely venture out during "business hours", but early mornings and late afternoons are usually fair game, and they also happen to be the times when the cafes I frequent are least busy...w/ most folks not out of bed yet in the AM, and the college students out for dinner in the afternoons. Trying to get a table anywhere at high-noon is usually a futile and frustrating exercise anyway.

Even Om Malik, the esteemed journalist/entrepreur, is a regular third place worker. "Working out of cafes in San Francisco, or roaming Silicon Valley is by now second nature", says Om. It's good to see that we're among such smart company!

If you're among the "Kinko's Generation" and new to the "Third-Place Club", have a look at the "Cafe Ettiquette" sidebar items in the article, or my adapted list below.

CAFE ETIQUETTE (via USA Today)

* Tip big and eat often. Think of those hourly lattes or scones as rent for your table, payment of which is critical for the survival of any business welcoming busy squatters.
* Make friends with the staff. Get to know them, and they'll get to know you, and watch out for you. This is especially helpful in busy times, when you want a clean table.
* Take your cell phone outside. Keep cellphones and PDAs on vibrate, and when they do buzz, head straight for the door.
* Don't be a hog. It's fine to keep your things piled on a table when you step out for a breath of fresh air, but not if you plan to be away a while.
* Bring a computer lock, or make 'cafe buddies' who you trust to watch your stuff, and you theirs. This has worked for years for me...knock on wood! Careful who you trust.

If you're looking to get on board with the most innovative and fast-paced marketing organization in the country, WOMMA (word of mouth marketing association) in Chicago has a couple of prime positions that just opened up. Check in at the WOMMA job board if you're interested

Writer/Reporter, WOMMA, Chicago, IL

We're looking for a mid-level, talented, inspired, high-energy writer to produce our newsletters and publications. We cover the latest innovations in marketing and advertising, with a focus on word of mouth, Internet, and blogs. Our current publications are already must-reads for marketing executives -- we want you to take it to the next level.

Vice President of Events, WOMMA, Chicago, IL

We're looking for an experienced executive to manage all events and conferences for our rapidly growing trade association. We have produced record-breaking events generating significant revenue, but our opportunity to expand event and event-related revenue to enhance member services is huge. We are looking for someone to take our events to the next level. A $5M events program is an attainable goal.

A recruiter friend sent this along today looking for a super-qualified web analytics guru. If that's you, or someone you know, drop me a line and I'll send it on.

Our client, a well-known publisher with several high-traffic news and entertainment websites, is seeking a Director of Web Analytics to lead a team responsible for all data collection and analysis efforts. The ideal candidate will have the experience needed to be a strategic partner of the publisher's management team. They'll also have the hands-on technical aptitude to lead a team of analysts in their day-to-day work.

Our client’s culture is fast paced and embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of a start-up while possessing the stability of a much larger company. They offer competitive salaries, a comprehensive benefits package, and excellent potential for professional growth. Additionally, relocation assistance is available for the successful candidate.

The affable and bright George Blomgren of MilwaukeeJobs.com wrote me today to point out a new blog he's writing for job seekers.

From George's blog:

Postmodern job hunting and career management techniques, glimpses of sunshine and occasional pointless digressions. Use the "employment kung fu" outlined herein responsibly, as it provides you with a truly unfair advantage!

Sounds good to me! George knows a thing or two about this sort of thing. He's the marketing director at MilwaukeeJobs.com, and a really smart guy to boot!

Luck him, he got the enviable URL: http://employment.typepad.com/

If you're in the market for a gig, make sure that Harry Joiner's blog is on your list of resources too.

Seth posts about the problematic nature of making decisions under the 'guidance' of your marketing heroes. Point taken. You see this every day. I guess I think it's more an issue with sales than it is with Marketing. If you follow Mintzberg or Kotler or Guy Kawasaki or Jagdish Sheth, I don't know that it matters too much.

However, when it comes to sales strategy, many a disagreement can arise, especially at startups who are just defining their sales & marketing strategies, when you follow one sales type, such as Zig Ziglar, or a similarly slick figure vs. someone like Neil Rackham, who advocates a question/consultative strategic approach to selling.

Personally, my marketing heroes are:

1. Raj Devasagayam, my college marketing professor who told me that everything I needed to know about marketing I really learned in marketing 101. I prove him right every week.
2. Neil Rackham. SPIN selling & Major Account Selling Strategies changed the way I sell
3. Everyone who's featured in: "Marketing Classics: A Selection of Influential Articles" (Ben M. Enis, Keith K. Cox, Michael P. Mokwa)

Who are YOUR sales/marketing heroes?

Caught this little snippet of wisdom on David Maister's blog this week.

Always volunteer to take the minutes of meetings, and to do the first drafts of proposed initiatives or reports. Not only will you get credit for volunteering to do things on behalf of others, but you get control of what's recorded. You are now part of the decision-making process. He or she who writes the history gets to make history.

I've been doing this for years, basically as a mechanism to curb my introvertedness in new settings (and familiar ones). Introverts typically like things to do to keep them engaged when they'd rather turn inward. Turns out, there are added benefits, like being part of writing history.

Paul Graham has another brilliant and lucid essay on the genius of startups and business ideas at the margin.

...great new things often come from the margins, and yet the people who discover them are looked down on by everyone, including themselves.

It's an old idea that new things come from the margins. I want to examine its internal structure. Why do great ideas come from the margins? What kind of ideas? And is there anything we can do to encourage the process?

I really can't say that I ever created a great or long-lasting business, but the most fun I've ever had in business (including now) has been in the businesses at the margins. My first and only 'startup' was my bicycle shop in the 'margin' of the garage of my parents' business. It was actually a highly profitable enterprise that was actually the only bicycle shop to serve rural Kewaunee county, WI, including service contracts with the high schools and it's own charity ride and junior mountain bike team. Not bad for something that was built in a marginal space, with marginal funds serving a marginal market offering marginal services and selling marginal brands.

Read more of Paul's essay. It's worth a few minutes out of your day. (via Fred Wilson)

The candidate selection and interview process for hiring great people has always confounded me, as it does many others.

I've heard the concept of "structured interviewing" (these guys should add their guide to Wikipedia - the article is only a stub) bantered around in previous lives, but never really dug into it much. However, it appears that Will Price and Mark Tsimelzon, founder and President of Coral8, have really put some thought into this structured interviewing thing with their post "A Practical Guide to Structured Interviewing."

Like any complex process, the interviewing process is best structured and analyzed as a sequence of phases. At Coral8, we have four phases: email interview, phone interview, the first in-person interview (with 1-2 person), the second in-person interview (3-4 others). Whether you have the same stages or not is not important. What's important is having a clear understanding of a) why you are having each phase b) what you are trying to accomplish, and c) how you are going to evaluate the results. It helps if all the interviewers share this understanding, and keep the process as consistent across candidates as possible.

I'm sold on the concept.! Ok, who do we hire next?

Technorati Tags: structured interviewing

Want to work for one of the best search engine marketing companies in the business?

Now's your chance!!! NetConcepts is growing their Madison, WI office, and are actively seeking talented search strategists/consultants, as well as search account management folks. Who is NetConcepts, you ask? Well, you can learn more about them from their founder, Stephan Spencer.

Please circulate if you know anyone looking or qualified. Here are the posts on their website.

Lead Search Strategist (U.S.)
Description:
Netconcepts is seeking a Search Strategist to lead our natural search optimization initiatives with US-based retail clients. As Lead Strategist, you live search and online marketing – you’re in “your element” discussing (or blogging on) search engines, web design, optimization tactics, and creative new approaches, based on your practical experience. You play a central team role in diagnosing search business opportunities, as well as managing and presenting strategic and tactical optimization deliverables to key clients.

Search Account Manager (U.S.)
Description:
Netconcepts is seeking a Search Account Manager to nurture our growing natural search marketing clientele. Search Account Managers work closely with our largest clients to ensure they receive the best possible level of service, manage the workflow with our delivery team, and ensure each client increases the amount of business conducted with the company.

I've been doing a lot of speaking in the past 3 years. Blogging has opened a lot of doors and for that, I'm very thankful.

I talk to college kids, Rotary clubs, marketing groups, you name it. I'm always asked to sum up blogging & online community and am forever asked the question "how do I get people to read my blog?" I say, it all comes back to altruism, which is at the heart of volunteering.

This is not an essay on altruism, though one more on the subject wouldn't hurt, this is a discussion of the values and virtues of volunteering.

I preach, no, I EVANGELIZE volunteering in all its forms. Help others, help your school, help your political affiliations, just help people. "Extending your hand is extending yourself," said Rod McKuen. It's true. The more hands you extend, the more you grow, help others grow, and extend yourself.

I was reading an article in the Green Bay Press Gazette this morning. We have a brilliant organization called The Volunteer Center of Brown County which currently has more than 3,000 volunteer opportunities from which to choose. Are you kidding me? 3000 - in a county of less than 240,000 people, there are over 3,000 opportunities to make a difference. WOW!

I'm not sure how much of the population volunteers their time each month. Perhaps someone could put that in the comments, but I venture that many of us do. Whether it's at our kid's school or for our scout troop or a neighborhood or professional association, we're all involved in some way. However, with over 3000 opportunities in our small county alone, I have to imagine that there are many, many more of us that could lend a hand.

I've been a volunteer since I knew what the word meant. Before I could drive I was organizing charity bike rides along Lake Michigan for the American Cancer Society. Mind you, I had no idea what the hell I was doing, but through the help of some ofther gracious volunteers, we got the job done and had an awesome time to boot!

I know, we all have a lot of commmitments already, but as I found myself tonight watching "Deal or No Deal", a waste of time to be sure, I was reminded that I have things on may volunteer plate that need to be done, so I'm back in the office. But what about those millions of people watching tonight that have nothing on their volunteer plate? Perhaps even those of us in Green Bay could pick up the slack here alone, say nothing for the impact we could make around the country.

Why should we volunteer? Well, if you're looking for reasons, here are a few (courtesy of United Way):

1# Free Food
Sometimes you get hungry.

2# Meet New People
Make friends-get a different view of things.

3# Help People Around You
Feel like you did something to help your community.

4# It's Fun Once You Get Used To It
It's healthy to have fun.

5# You Get to Go Outside and See The City.
It's good to have an adventure.

6# Personal Growth
It's always good to learn more about yourself.

7# You Make the World a Better Place
That's good cause we have to live in it.

8# Gain Job Experience
You have to get a job eventually, your parents will kick you out.

9# Gain Entrance into College
You need a good education to get a quality job these days.

10# Something to Keep You Busy
In case you get bored.

So, where do you start in your local area? Well, locate your nearest volunteer center or try VolunteerMatch.org for starters.

I've been a fan of Getting Things Done for some time, but I always struggle to follow...I guess that's the same with any cult or religion...we're always straying off the path.

I caught this post today by Mark Frauenfelder on what he feels is the real essence of GTD - I concur, and it's changed my outlook - simplified things, if you will.

...from page 19:

"The real issue is how to make appropriate choices about what to do at any point in time. The real issue is how we manage actions."

According to Mark, that's the GTD process in a nutshell. It's about setting up a system that allows you to quickly review every single thing you want to do -- large (writing a book) and small (changing the wiper blades on your car) -- so you can decide on the best next physical action you can take to elicit the changes in your life that you desire.

Technorati Tags: Productivity, Getting Things Done, GTD

My friend Elaine is looking for some talented people with Siebel in their blood. There are a number of really great positions. Know anyone?

If you or anyone you know is interested, please contact Elaine Motyl at elaine dot motyl at whiteboard-partners.net.

The positions:

1. Siebel Business Analyst
2. Sr Siebel Business Analyst
3. Technical Analyst
4. Siebel Application Interface Consultant(2 positions)
5. Siebel Configurator
6. Siebel Interface Consultant
7. Business Objects Project Manager
8. Business Objects Administrator
9. Strong Business Intelligence Analyst

I've written about Franklin Covey here before. I love their planning and organizing products. (yes, I'm still doing planning w/ paper...) It helps me with Getting Things Done.

Anyway, each page (day) of my planner has sort of quasi-motivational quote on it, which I really look forward to every day. Today's quote converges nicely with my reading of Vital Friends and The Virtual Handshake. The quote says that certain qualities are essential for success, but I think that these are the things that make one a superb networker. Perhaps, if networking is essential to success, then this all makes even more sense!

AtomicPark.com is currently looking for a talented and creative Email Marketing Professional to join their team. The ideal candidate will have proven expertise in email marketing, relationship based marketing, and customer loyalty strategies.

The major responsibilities of the Email Marketing Specialist are:

* The development, setup and deployment of all marketing email messages including Creative Set-up, Creative Testing, Launch, and Reporting.
* To continually learn and research best practices, guidelines, spam filtering, and deliverability issues to continually improve performance.
* Landing page design and-or micro-site development.
* Develop/Maintain production schedules.
* Message Creation and deployment including both content and graphical elements.
* Maintaining brand strategies and user engagement.
* List Management, verification, and list growth.
* Reporting, Measurement, and ROI.
* Segmentation, personalization, and persona development.
* Testing, Testing, Improving over and over again.

In addition, the individual must also be able to think creatively and write professionally. The ability to multi-task and prioritize and meet deadlines will be key. The individual must also love the Internet, relate well with people, and have good customer service skills.

AtomicPark offers an excellent compensation package including health, dental, vision, life insurance, 401K, flexible spending accounts, holiday, and personal time off days.

If this is an opportunity you would like to explore further please send your resume to caitlain [at] atomicpark.com. Please also include a cover letter that details your email marketing experience.

Steve Jobs' commencement address at Stanford is a pretty moving piece. Great stories!

His first story about connecting the dots underscores and area that I've been working through in the past month. Trust vs. Paranoia.

Trust something - your co-workers, your gut, the process, God, whatever...trust that you've done what you can, things happen for a reason, and that things work out when everyone's trying to make good stuff happen. (Granted, preparation is the mother of luck, and luck happens to those who trust, so you can't go through it all just trusting and not preparing...)

On the other hand, you have paranoia. "If we're not owning it, we can't contol it and it won't get done right" is the previaling line of thought here. I agree with it sometimes, but frankly, we don't all have the bandwidth to be as paranoid about something (everything) as we'd like some times. It drives us nuts that we can't control the outcome of everything...so we have to trust...that we've set our expecations that that things will turn out well.

Me, I'm all about trust with verification. Set expecations, trust that things will work out, plan for when they don't and check the work. That requires so much less bandwidth and frees us for productivity sans paranoia.

Mark Cuban on what it's like to have 'the edge' in the sport of business.

Heard about the new ".Jobs" domain yet?(can you see the superbowl commercial already...) The new suffix has been approved to make it 'easier' for employers to put all of their career related sourcing info in one place...or so they say.

I love the idea, really, it makes sense, and it's a revenue generator for the holding company behind .Jobs, however, I can see that the road to adoption will be a long one...not as long as it took most every company to get a website, but not people will have to get used to a new suffix when doing an already challenging task - searching for a job.

More on .Jobs from:

WSJ CareerJournal - Web-Site Suffix .Jobs Is Added To Make It Easier to Find One

Society for Human Resource Management - New dot-jobs Internet domain to debut in 2005

Monica Higgins of Harvard has developed an interesting theory called "Career Imprints" that she expounds on in a forthcoming book called Career Imprints: Creating Leaders Across an Industry. The power in her theory is in it's simplicity.

From an article today in HBR's Working Knowledge:

The strength of career imprinting depends upon both the people a firm hires as well as an organization's environment (factors having to do with people and place). Regarding place, for example, organizations with a strong corporate culture that hire in cohorts are more likely to have strong organizational career imprints. These two factors socially reinforce the kinds of capabilities, connections, confidence, and cognition that people pick up; they enhance the commonality among peoples' experiences and so, strengthen an organization's career imprint.

While the article covers it, I think that it's critical for college aged, first career move bound students to consider the options before then as they choose a first employer. Consider what you want to be known for, your personal brand, if you will. The imprints that your first employers make on you are critical to your career trajectory.

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

~ Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)
American statesman (30th US president: 1923-9)

Are You a Workaholic? Today's CareerJournal has a quick quiz for you!
A commitment to your job that borders on obsession may not help your career. Learn whether your dedication to work is healthy or harmful.

Gerry Crispin provides some insight on how innefective the passive career hunt strategy really is. For those of you waiting patiently for contacts from your resume post on the job boards, read this.

• Put your resume on 5-10 job board sites that best represent your locale, profession, industry and level. Then forget them for a month. After a month go back in and change at least one word. Why? Most recruiters will not look at resumes more than 30 days old.
• Make a list of 50 firms where you want to work. Make sure you can answer why you want to work there. Go to their websites every week (yes, each and every company) and review the new positions they are hiring for.
• Create a file for every company and in that file keep urls for articles about their business and financial strengths as well as good works they may be responsible for. Track down the names of every person who works in those 50 firms who went to the same schools you went to, worked previously in company’s you worked in, attended conferences you attended, joined professional associations you joined, etc. Put their contact information in those files. (a great use for social networking on the web)
• When you find a job on a website that matches your skills and interests, begin calling the names in the files. Tell the people who answer the phone how you are connected and why you have targeted their company.
• DO NOT (Repeat) Do not apply for another job ever again without tracking down an employee in the firm to ‘refer’ you.

Heather at Microsoft is taking resume submissions via Trackbacks.

Tom Peters, stating the obvious about an observation he made on a recent trip.

• She or he who works the hardest has one hell of an advantage.
  
• She or he who is best prepared has one hell of an advantage.
  
• She or he who is always "overprepared" has one hell of an advantage.
  
• He or she who does the most research has one hell of an advantage.

I gave a little talk to prospective members of SIFE last night at St. Norbert College. Great fun. I love having the continued privilege to connect with college students on a regular basis.

The talk centered around a few points, which, I think are valid for almost anyone looking for a career, or a career upgrade. I basically covered some of the finer points of what I’m looking for in a resume, from the perspective of a hiring manager. I also discussed a bit about differentiation, and how joining SIFE, or any other community-centric organization can provide you with ample opportunity for differentiation. I’ve put the notes and a short slide deck here for download.

Resume readers are not rational readers.doc | Download file

Slide Deck.ppt | Download file

On a related tangent, there’s a whitepaper that came out yesterday from Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. that talks about the meaningful differences that companies need to make in their products to really constitute differentiation. If you replace product with “Job Seeker� and customer with “Company/Hiring Manager�, you’ve got an article on what how one might better differentiate oneself in today’s job market.

There is one interesting point in the whitepaper that states how critical it is to know what your customers really care about before embarking on differentiation initiatives. I look at this from the Job Seeker’s perspective and think “man, we’ve really got it easy.� Why? Well, for one, every job description out there has exactly the things that the hiring company cares about, which can help you in crafting the perfect marketing document (resume) to submit to that customer (hiring company). Secondly, we’ve got networks. We’re trying to build the same thing using social networks to market products to customers, but that’s not really gotten off the ground yet. Job seekers have a network of peers, friends, and loose ties that can help guide them in the right direction.

According to a Wall Street Journal report yesterday, some career experts now predict that blogs could become the next wave in electronic recruiting, following job boards and corporate career sites.

In short, blogs could become a new way for recruiters to identify candidates and for job seekers to gain a clearer picture of a company's culture on a day-to-day basis.

Moreover, blogs are a great way for job seekers to express themselves in the new world of work where personal branding actually does matter!

Wall Street Journal | Blogs Catch On as Online Tool For Job Seekers and Recruiters

(Via Heather's Marketing at Microsoft & NevOn)

"Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future."

~ Brian Tracy, sales trainer
[via Zaadz]

Gerry McGovern posits sound rationale for striving to be effective and productive, not just busy.

Being busy is often an excuse for not doing something you should be doing. For me it has often been an excuse for not thinking, managing, and planning properly. Working hard is no longer the route to success it once was perceived to be. In an era of outsourcing and offshoring, success definitely does require hard work, but what is way more important is smart work. Basically, all the hard work will be outsourced, with just the smart work remaining.

If you find that productivity exercise fun but want to get to the root of your productivity drivers, I recommend seriously considering doing something like a CTQ flow-down to get to some root metrics to determine the leading indicators that each contributing member of your team has accountability for.

Debra Feldman, proprietor of www.JobWhiz.com, wrote a nice article for MarketingProfs on her recommended 5 steps to a new job.

1. Brace yourself for the project. Understand that there is work to do and no easy way out.
   
2. Don't overextend yourself, because you are likely to be ineffective if you do. The key to success is to focus your job search on a limited number of specific target companies that you determine need your talents.
   
3. Be generous. In today's market, giving samples seems to be the most effective way to establish solid credibility and gain trust-an element critical to hiring decisions.
   
4. Be pound wise, not penny foolish. This admonishment extends to both salary negotiations and which offers you take into serious consideration.
   
5. Since few candidates are fortunate enough to find volunteers lining up to assist with job search tasks, think whether you might hire professional help to defray some of the time-intensive tasks.

As always, I concur with Hugh's point of view on this.

[via gapingvoid - Just read it. Every day.]

Halley Suitt highlighted an interesting article from the AP Wire the other day on the abysmal state of the average corporate citizen's writing skills. At the end of the day, the report underscores the importance of writing for today's striving knowledge workers, and scolds our public school and college & university systems, claiming that writing is "the neglected 'R' in school reform".

IMHO, this is this perfect reason to start a weblog and just write. Yeah, I know, some would argue that most people don't have much to say, but I don't necessarily believe that. I think that there's a lot of knowledge that people could contribute if, well, they could only write!

Another solution is what St. Norbert Colllege does with their Writing Across the Curriculum initiative. I remember it being a real pain when I went there, having to write papers in calculus and all, but I can say with confidence and conviction that it's benefitted me manifold since then.
Here's an idea of what St. Norbert says about writing.

Writing is integral to the liberal arts curriculum at St. Norbert College. To write is to think, to learn, to discover, to create, to express. To write is to participate in the world- locally and globally.

St. Norbert College's writing-across-the-curriculum program is grounded in the following beliefs:

• Writing facilitates effective learning.
  
• Writing is a complex process involving creating, shaping, drafting, revising, and editing.
  
• Writing encompasses a variety of written forms and an awareness of diverse audiences.
  
• Writing is most effectively taught in content-specific courses.
  
• Since writing is essential to learning in the classroom and to communicating

The Wall Street Career Journal has an interesting feature in the resumes section of their site where they disect an ailing resume, usually from a senior job seeker, and overhaul it for effectiveness.

I have had the pleasure of speaking with a number of job-seeking friends over the past couple of months, and if any of you are in that boat, or know others with a similar situation, I recommend reading these features on the Career Journal site.

Monster Management has a couple of great articles today that are good quick reads for up-and-coming younger managers:

Get Yourself Noticed
To create a truly effective integrated job search campaign, you must include indirect marketing and job search activities that will:

• Strengthen your credibility.
  
• Increase your professional visibility.
  
• Expand your market reach and recognition.
  
• Provide you with a distinct advantage over your competition.

Lead Among Elders
Many technically savvy younger workers are moving into well-paid, senior positions earlier in their careers. Nearly 12 percent of younger workers (ages 20 to 34) are already managers, according to the US Department of Labor.

You will gain points with older workers simply by talking with them. Get to know them and avoid making derogatory remarks about their age group. Ask for advice and listen carefully. Act maturely and respectfully around your elders, even when their attitudes make you crazy.

Having experienced a rocky road in the behemoth to small company transition (and back to behemoth) this year, I find this article from Monster Management particularly intriguing.

[Monster Management] Big-Company Execs Make the Move to Small Firms

Here's a few things to consider:

• Prepare for culture shock
  
• Do more with less
  
• Be more interactive
  
• Learn to handle any crisis
  
• Say good-bye to fringe benefits
  
• Learn from past mistakes of others

Career Journal has a great article today on a little-discussed topic, self-esteem. Or as I like to paraphrase "Confidence - Competence - Conviction"

In a person with self-esteem, you usually find four basic qualities: self-confidence, faith in oneself, a positive self-image and freedom from fears of success and failure. Individuals with secure self-esteem take responsibility for their actions, insist on living up to their own standards and seek the stimulation of demanding goals.

Confidence grows from solid feelings of self-acceptance. Self-assured people like Bob are content to be themselves. They feel they can master challenges and overcome obstacles. Their morale stays high, their ultimate goal is always in sight and their work to achieve it is fulfilling.

You can pin down a dozen factors for success in careers, but when I look at the various positions of my college peers, their 'altitude' is certainly in sync with their attitude toward themselves, or their 'self-esteem.'

Curt, the Passion Catalyst, is compiling insights that people have on what they did to successfully land a job. The aggregated answers could be of some assistance to those who are still out there seeking. If you have answers to the questions below, email them to Curt at curt@passioncatalyst.com.

Here are some questions to get the juices flowing...

* How did you find your job?

* What was most the most useful/productive activity in your job search?

* What was most the least useful/productive activity in your job search?

* What would you have done differently?

* What do you wish you had known when you started your search that you know now?

* Any miscellaneous tips, insights, or ideas you would like to share?

Feel free to add anything you think would be relevant that isn't covered here.

We were discussing the topic of sales force turnover the other day. I argue that if you're turnover is too low (single digits) in your sales force, that you're doing something wrong. I don't pretend to know the ideal ratios, but there must be something that makes your sales team think that your company is some sort of safe harbor if you have a sizeable (20+) sales team and very low turnover. I've been obsessed, as a switcher of companies, to redefine my commitment to my career, goals, and the company that I'm with, instilling enough confidence in my potential employer to hire me, without writing me off as a flight-risk, due to my low rate of tenure in my multiple positions over the past few years.

It is very refreshing to see some research on this topic coming to the fore. In this week's HBR Working Knowledge, Mallory Stark takes a closer look at an article, Knowledge Nomads: Organizational Commitment and Worker Mobility in Positive Perspective from the February issue of HBR, by interviewing the authors Todd L. Pittinsky and Margaret J. Shih. Todd and Margaret posit "...focus instead on lead indicators that measure employee commitment. In our work, we measure commitment as the degree of an employee's psychological attachment to a company and the intensity (quality and quantity) of physical and mental effort the employee expends on behalf of the company. The second important innovation in how we measure commitment is our use of commitment patterns. We measure commitment to company alongside commitment to career, commitment to coworkers and commitment to personal goals. This allows us to see how commitments are compatible or in conflict for employees. And this very quickly identifies the critical opportunities for intervention for managers to elicit commitment."

I couldn't agree more. Commitments to greater goals, such as career, project success, skill building, and continuous learning are far more important to some than who they work for. I know, this is unsettling in some circles. It doesn't mean that the corporate culture is lost on 'knowledge nomads', but rather, it is part and parcel of their overall commitment to themselves and their co-workers.

The real kicker in this article is their view on turnover. As they state, turnover is NOT a problem, but rather a symptom of something greater. Hence, low or high turnover can simply be viewed as indicators or good, bad or indifferent practices or processes, depending on your frame of reference and what side of the corporate fence you're on.

When I was at a former employer, one of the counter-offers they used to try to keep me on board was a plan to "reward me for innovative ideas" contributed to the organization, based on a "scale." This was interesting I thought, how the hell can they "measure" the ideas? Yes, I'm sure that you can in some way, shape, or form, but I wasn't willing to stake a portion of my salary on it.

Shortly after that, a book called Ideas Are Free, covering the very subject of "the value of an idea", came onto the market. I'm glad I made the decision that I did. Here are some of the pitfalls of rewarding for ideas, via the Innovation Weblog.

• The problem of accurate measurement.
  
• Rewards cause idea myopia
  
• The problem of fairness & equitable reward for all idea contributors
  
• Reward programs may tempt managers to behave badly
  
• Reward programs can create unnecessary overhead

For best results, the authors recommend that if an organization must offer rewards, the program should have three attributes:

1. It should base the rewards on simple aggregate measurements: For example, all employees who contribute at least two ideas in the last calendar quarter will receive a bonus based on a gain-sharing program. If employees’ ideas improve the company’s performance, everyone benefits.
   
2. It should distribute the rewards equitably to all employees using a fair and transparent method.
   
3. It should be integrated as much as possible into how the company already works – into its existing culture and values.
   

I had a conversation recently with a friend who was having a tough time getting a new gig, despite his many, many years of varied experience in sales, marketing and media. It turns out that this is not such an acute problem, but rather a major issue with career professionals who don't see themselves fitting into a specific box, likely because of their rich and varied careers, and their lack of familiarity with the concepts of personal branding and marketing yourself.

Here are a few ideas from a recent WSJ (sub) article on how to highlight your unique skills based on the career move you're angling for.

Chris Shipley wrote a piece in WTN on DEMOLetter's reading list for the summer of 2004. I agree with the list, but also have a list of my own, and am curious what you are all reading. Admittedly, most of my reading focuses around new work initiatives, and since my company is a huge Michael Hammer fan, I'm catching up on all of the reengineering stuff I never read.

"Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution," by Michael Hammer

"The Reengineering Revolution," by Michael Hammer

"The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade," by Michael Hammer

Here's DEMO's list of summer reading material. Now, what are YOU reading?

Recently, I had occasion to ask a number of tech executives what they were reading. I've gathered up their responses - both classic business texts and insightful new offerings - in this DEMOletter Summer Reading List:

"A Short History of Nearly Everything," by Bill Bryson

"Managing," by Harold Geneen

"Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game," by Michael Lewis

"Beyond the Core: Expand Your Market Without Abandoning Your Roots," by Chris Zook

"Getting to Great: Principles of Health Care Organization Governance," by Dennis Pointer and James Orlikoff

"Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done," by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Burck

"Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies," by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras

"Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap. . . and Others Don't," by Jim Collins

The Globe & Mail had an insightful article today on what it really takes for college graduates to establish themselves in the workplace, and details some of the challenges they are facing. This is a great read not only for college students, but for anyone who's moving around in the work world. The resume is no longer enough. You need much more. You need a PERSONAL BRAND. I've been preaching this same stuff since I graduated in '99. You have to differentiate, be a Free Prize, a Purple Cow, or something...

• To find work, today's graduates must be much more entrepreneurial and sales-oriented than grads in the past.
  
• College administrators and career counsellors at colleges and universities need to gain experience in the current volatile, challenging workplace so they can better advise students.
  
• The traditional résumé is seen as a sacred cow when in fact it is more like a dinosaur.
  
• Instead of a résumé, grads need to be shown how to create a complete personal marketing portfolio: including letters, brochures, a personal website websites and PDF files that focus on the needs of the firms they're targeting.
  
• Understand "Why would this company want to talk to me?"
  
• Professional sales people are put through months of intensive training before going in front of a customer. Grads need to go through the same process.
  
• Also helpful is Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), an international non-profit organization with connections to ACE. It is represented in more than 1,500 universities in 37 countries.
  
• Every student, regardless of faculty, should get involved with these organizations to help develop their entrepreneurial skills and outlook.
  

[via The Globe and Mail]

Strategy + Business has a great short article on how managers can become more aware, keen to how they enlist the support of employees, and generally more effective through volunteer experience.

Yet, the sentiments of most employees about volunteering are contrarian to this data because they feel they have no time, or more to the point, that their organizations do not value the time they spend in volunteer mode. Some companies even have restrictive policies about their employees utilizing corporate equipment while doing non profit work, which, I can understand, but what kind of message are you sending.

If employees are made to feel like they can bring their "constructive passions," such as working with non-profits in their quasi spare time, to work with them (so to speak...) I firmly believe that it enhances quality of life and reduces worker and "identity" anxiety as they are more comfortable knowing that the difference they make in the community also makes a difference with the company. This improves worker loyalty and reduces stress. (in some way, shape, or form...)

I've always encouraged my employees to get involved outside of work. Here we have a few of those things going on that we're really proud of:
- We do a lot of work for the Red Cross. It's a great cause, and they help a lot of people.
- One of our employees teaches at a local tech college in the evenings. He brings students in for tours and it's a great source of potential employees/interns for us.
- One of us volunteers heavily at a local private college on various advisory boards trying to help students make good decisions before they enter the work world.

We don't sponsor a lot of events of get involved like that, we try to do it on a more personal nature. I figure that it's because it's better to get involved at the employee level. If they make good decisions in their volunteer organizations in the "leadership by permission" realm, they're bound to make more informed and insightful decisions here too.

One of the biggest challenges in creating a stronger business is to make employees feel there's a larger purpose to their work lives than making money. That's one reason more companies are encouraging employees to work for nonprofit organizations in their communities. But volunteer work isn't just an outlet for employees in search of meaning; it's a way for experienced executives to hone their leadership skills, and for aspiring leaders to learn in a challenging management environment.

Damnit, why don't all college students just start their own companies? OK, so that's not realistic, but here's a great article on a few students who are doing it!

John Thompson, a University of Iowa business major, and a group of five other UI students have joined forces to create a multi-service Web site company called Hollithomp (I have no idea what the hell that means, but at least they found a URL to match it!). The group isn't just a bunch of code monkeys either, they focus on how to make Web sites work more efficiently for small businesses. They are working with a variety of local companies, from flower shops to real estate developers, to help solve business problems through Web sites, like allowing apartment dwellers to pay their rent online.

"I talk to a lot of small business owners who say their Web site isn't doing anything for them, it's a waste. No one knows it's out there and no one can find it," Thompson said. "People doing Web sites don't understand business. They might be good at design or programming but they don't understand how to bring it to the business side."

While I respect that they're doing, I think he's full of shit. How do you think web design/marketing firms got into business doing that work if they don't understand business? One of the greatest strengths that our clients tell us we have is that Balance Studios does understand business, and take the time to really understand theirs. And yes, that goes beyond the pitch.

Nevertheless, the students who run Hollithomp on concentrating on bringing several facets of business together, from financing to marketing, and bring it to the Internet for companies. Which is where the beauty of this arrangement lies, and why I think more college students w/out corporate gigs should just go it on their own (throw tomatoes...OK, are you finished? let me get on with my point). I know how little resources it takes to freelance, and with as many small businesses as there are in towns all across the US that could use some help from energetic, passionate and knowledgeable college students, I can't see any reason not to hang your shingle out when you've nothing to lose!

My friend Toby Bloomberg sent me a transcript of a recent online conversation about advice to college grads. I thought this point was particularly important. I started my career with a field sales job for this same reason, and it's opened doors like you wouldn't believe.

Are you a recent college grad? If so, my advice is to start with a sales position. You can never underestimate the value of working directly with clients and customers to better understand the purchase decision-making process. As you move up the marketing ladder within organizations, you oftentimes get further and further away from the customer. Starting in sales can help ground you in being customer-focused.

I have to speak to a group of students this Friday at a "Student Business Conference" at St. Norbert College and will be there on behalf of SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise). More to the point, my "mission" there is to be a SIFE evangelist, but a great goal is to encourage underclassmen to get involved in the collegiate business community to enhance their opportunities when they graduate.

I have my reasons for hiring students right out of school have have "been involved" (students business orgs, community, internship, etc) but am looking for some additional insight, and was wondering if any of you have a moment to consider the following:

1. Do recruiters care if a student has been involved in "constructive organizations" (I.e. math group, programmer's guild, student business network, etc - vs. - a frat/sorority)
- If so, why? What diff does it make? Why should students strive to acquire these experiences.

2. What impact, if any, do positions of school leadership (i.e. president of an aforementioned club) have on one's personal brand coming out of college?

3. Are there any axioms that you have/have seen on the level of involvement that a student has in the aforementioned orgs. and their propensity for success in a career at your organization?

4. I am always asked advice from students that I work with, and I tell them, among other things, to "Do Something Different" - like start a weblog, website, do a personal press release, develop your brand (at least, what brand you have through college) and things of that nature. Do any of these make a difference in how a student/potential candidate comes across to you, or am I full of crap?

Any other thoughts? Please comment. I'd appreciate it!

Seth Godin just penned a great article for Fast Company on the rapid rise of your public life on the Internet. It's interesting, not being anonymous anymore, being able to start over, move on or what have you. I type any one of your names into Google, and I've got most of what I want. I make a phone call to someone who does a bit more legwork, and I've got more information than we both need.

As Seth say, four words that appear on almost every résumé--and that are now irrelevant: "References available upon request."

Consider the implications for you, and your company. Bloggers and online "personal journalists" have immense power, and it's only growing, which is more than we can say for these folks:

...they bounced three checks. After trying to call them, write them, and work with them, I finally had to hire a lawyer. They never paid. In the old days, that would be that. But today, there's a record online. A quick Google search of the company name would lead you to my blog, which would make you think twice about doing any sort of business with them.

One thing is becoming crystal clear: You are your references. If a friend tells me a play is no good, I don't go. A friend's recommendation will also determine my choice of lawn-care service or an island to vacation on. My publisher just sent me an email asking about a potential author--and if I don't back up the author's version of our relationship, he won't get the contract.

No person or company can escape their past. You can no longer change your prices with impunity, because the old price lists may be cached at The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (www.archive.org ), which regularly takes snapshots of Web sites and stores them forever. With a little care, you won't hire a manager with a history of abusing his employees, because the lawsuits are all in the public record.

So what should we do? Should we fret and live in fear of our past actions and words coming back to haunt us? I don't think so. There's a bright new opportunity just sitting here, waiting for organizations and individuals to take advantage of it: Spend your future creating your past, starting right now. Live your life out loud, well aware that everything you say can (and will) be used against you (or for you). Treat every customer as though he could turn into a testimonial. Treat every vendor as if she could give you a recommendation. And then, when the time comes, the seeds you've sown will pay off.

Blogs, newsgroups, professional organizations, and all the rest are perfect for someone who wants to leave a vivid, positive trail. You can choose to use the new tools or to become a victim of them.

A recent study by Euro RSCG Worldwide and AdWeek confirms that a high proportion of graduating students want to join the "creative industry", while industry insiders are quite content to stay here. Nice. Come on in everyone, the water's fine! I just read a study over the weekending about some of the highest hourly wage occupations, of which Anethesiologists and Surgeons rank near the top of the heap. Ad industry execs where no where in sight. Nevertheless, it's a damn fun, but stressful industry. I hope everyone enjoys the ride

When asked in which three of a group of 19 industries they'd most like to work, respondents put "advertising agency/marketing firm" head and shoulders above the other venues, with 38% of students and 79% of ad industry professionals including it among their three choices. No other industry came even close to advertising in the professionals' responses, and students' second choice, "educational institution," earned 10 percentage points less than advertising.

When asked in which area of the industry they'd most like to work, the student respondents were most likely to choose "creative" (38 percent). The next most popular choices were "media" (27 percent) and "creative services" (23 percent). At the bottom of the ladder: "human resources," the goal for just 9% of the sample.

[via Media Post]

Well, not really, but I recently saw him on one of those evening news shows and was wholesale impressed with his passion, drive, personal level of productivity, and tenacity. He seems like a 'truly amazing man' insofar as his accomplishments and work ethic are concerned.

In that spirit, I'm really glad that I found this post on Signal -vs- Noise today, which led me to a 2001 article called "Rumsfeld's Rules." Enjoy!

Some great business tips from Rumsfeld's Rules
* Don’t automatically fill vacant jobs. Leave some positions unfilled for six to eight months to see what happens. You will find you won’t need to fill some of them.
* When you initiate new activities, find things you are currently doing that you can discontinue — whether reports, activities, etc. It works, but you must force yourself to do it.
* That which you require be reported on to you will improve, if you are selective. How you fashion your reporting system announces your priorities and sets the institution’s priorities.
* Prune — prune businesses, products, activities, people. Do it annually.
* “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” — Old military axiom

WSJ [sub req] has a series of articles in the personal journal section on how to keep afloat in a turbulent job market. One of the more interesting one's I've read recently is an interview with Richard Lampman, director of H-P Labs and senior vice president of research, about the outlook for information technology.

The article itself it interesting, and focuses on some of the needs that H-P has and what it's looking for in employees, but the following point struck me, because this is something that I preach as well. Think not only of what you can do for your company with your skills and talents, but rather, what can you also do for your industry, region, town, and the world. Many employers (most) DO NOT afford their employees the means to make an impact on the world around them via the corporation, nor do they encourage it as a personal development tool. According to Richard, perhaps we should do more of both!

WSJ: What qualities are you looking for in new hires at H-P Labs?

Mr. Lampman: I'd give them two bits of advice. One is to be ambitious, and by that I don't mean in a reality-show sense. But be ambitious in your thinking about what's possible. Think about the bigger change you could make through your work. Second, keep your eye on the world. Understand what's going on in the environment… There's always the hazard of getting too internally focused … and that's a dangerous thing.

Seems like we should all brush up on some of the more creative ways to keep employees, or to attract key employees on their own terms. While there are still some jobs that need to be done in house, no questions asked, there are many jobs that are increasingly being done in some sort of non-traditional fashion or off-location.

[via Communications Update]

As more employers are warming up to hiring again, workers are finding that telecommuting is very much an option. However, unless you've some experience with working from home, it's not always an easy road

Do you have what it takes to telecommute?

Many job seekers make the same mistakes over and over on their cover letters and résumés as they travel the job search highway. It's not rocket science, but here's a few guidelines from Laura Gassner Otting to get you through.

1. "Insert Job Here": At least reference a few key points from the position requirements in the cover letter. Seriously, did you even read the job description before you put your cover letter together?

2. Read and Follow Directions: How many people still send emails & letters & faxes to companies who explicitly tell you to submit via a web form. Trust them, that really is the only way that accept resumes. The rest of the stuff goes in the trash.

3. Think About the Message You Send: Be serious (or not) depending on the job. This is your livelihood hear. Make good impression (voicemail, paper, formatting of resume, use fonts they can read, etc...)

4. Poor Résumés: Results, results, results - write about results and value add, not your hobbies.

5. Spell Check: Nine out of ten résumés claiming that the applicant is "detail oriented" have a typo on it somewhere. Nice.

6. Dream, Within Reason: Know your limits. Apply for jobs within them.

7. Know Your Weaknesses: If you are missing a key skill or some years of experience, own the weakness, but then describe how your other skills and experiences will help you compensate or catch up quickly.

8. Curiosity is Key: Take AT LEAST as much interest in the organization you're submitting to as you'd like them to take in you!

9. Thank You Notes: Thank you letters are the perfect opportunity to remind your interviewer why you should be hired, or for you to insert into the equation a key fact that you forgot to mention when you met.

10. Get a Second Opinion: Send your résumé to a friend, a colleague, a mentor or a résumé consultant.

Related Resources: Keep yourself educated and stay on top of your field

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ResumeRead.html "I've been going through a big pile of applications for the summer internship positions at Fog Creek Software, and, I don't know how to say this, some of them are really, really bad. This is not to say that the applicants are stupid or unqualified, although they might be. I'm never going to find out, because when I have lots of excellent applications for only two open positions, there's really no need to waste time interviewing people that can't be bothered to spell the name of my company right. So here are a few hints to review, if you're sending out resumes."