Archive for August, 2007

Archives for Biggest Employers

Most of us don’t like being put on the spot in a job interview. But if you’re applying for work at Google, Amazon or other dot-com leaders be prepared to tackle some unusual questions. Like, why aren’t manhole covers square?

I’ll let you ponder that universal mystery while I move on to my next item. Wait, you seem a bit puzzled. Maybe you’re thinking the real mystery is why Google uses that type of question to screen candidates?

And Google recruiters are thinking: if they wonder why then they’re too linear thinking for us.

The nearly-departed Business 2.0 offers an amusing quiz to test how much you know about working at Google. The number of gourmet cafés there is a stumper.

Archives for Employment

The exodus of job listings from print to online highlights an inexorable trend that bodes well for job seekers and employers but is moving newspapers to the endangered species list. Searching for jobs, rather than browsing them, is the way of things in 2007.

Within a few years, however, job seekers will mostly become the hunted rather than the hunters.

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Archives for Branding You

In the coming Conceptual Age, contends author Dan Pink, creative “right-brain” thinkers gain leverage with corporations while linear “left-brain” thinkers, dominant in the Information Age, become more of a commodity.

In A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Pink asserts that right-brained “R-directed thinkers … exemplified by creators and caregivers, [though] shortchanged by organizations, and neglected in schools, deliver right-brain results.” The ability to see out of the box, to synthesize or invent new ideas, products, solutions or services will be more prized in the Conceptual Age than it was until now.

Some companies, such as Google, GE, and Procter & Gamble are looking to hire R-directed thinkers, says Pink. But how does a job candidate position himself as an R-directed job candidate? “You do it with results,” says Pink. “You do it by showing performance and results in previous jobs. Once you have done that then you can talk about how you have done it.”

In other words: show, not tell.

“I wouldn’t go into a job interview saying you’re a right-brain person good at empathy and sympathy – that would be a disaster,” says Pink. “Anybody who says I’m really funny is not.”

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Archives for Branding You

Did you hear about the New York multinational company that sought to dispatch a few dozen employees overseas only to discover that none of them had passports?

When it comes to carrying passports most Americans have been ambivalent at best. But in the post 9/11 world – the globalization of work is more prevalent – increasing numbers of Americans plan to travel abroad.  

The Passport office is overwhelmed – producing a half million passports a week. In 2008 the number of applicants could rise by 50 percent according to the Passport office.

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Archives for Perfect Job

You know Labor Day is coming when the media publishes more careers stories than you can stuff into a Transformers lunch pail.

Earlier this week we spotlighted BusinessWeek’s cover package on “The Future of Work“. Fast Company also weighs in with some cool thoughts about pursuing “Dream Jobs“.

The piece that I’m commending to you now is MSNBC.com’s “Where Will the Jobs Be in 2012?” a feature story by Jenny Lynn Zappala. We spoke a few times about the topic and I was eager to see how it would turn out.

In the future, I suggested, jobs opportunities will be a lot more compelling if governments address immigration, citizenship and tax issues so workers can travel and collaborate freely. I believe these changes would do wonders for the global economy if managed equitably.

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Archives for Research

In 2017, we may look back and laugh at the primitive nature of today’s work. Women will shatter the glass ceiling. Racial and ethnic minorities will get further ahead and working conditions will improve for the ‘average’ person. These are among the key findings from a BusinessWeek “Future of Work” survey of 2,000 optimistic managers.

Meanwhile, technology will bring profound changes, pledges BusinessWeek. The Apple iPhone we lust after today will shrink “down to the size of a credit card,” says one writer. Offices will be healthier, greener and safer.

And in the coming decade American workers will become more global savvy. One proxy for this knowledge suggests BusinessWeek is first-name knowledge of foreign workers. Are American managers on a first name basis with someone who works in India? According to BusinessWeek’s survey, eight percent said yes, they are; in a decade expectations rise to 30 percent.

No one speculated on how these American managers would start relationships with Indians, or why, but I take it as a positive sign that so many people view it as inevitable.

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Archives for Biggest Employers

The escalating cost of hiring world-class talent is taking its toll on Google – and it could impact high-tech job seekers elsewhere too. At last week’s earnings announcement Google management indicated a new willingness to reconsider its hiring approach.

Known for lavish spending on recruiting top talent, Google may reconsider its torrid pace of hires and aggressive bonus structures to reward strong contributors. In Google’s second quarter, just ended, the company hired 1,548 employees, boosting its total number of employees to 13,786.

The search engine leader apparently has solidified its recruitment operations. “We finally have a staffing division that can deliver at a rate that we need,” said Sergey Brin, a co-founder, at the company’s recent earnings conference, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

At stake is much more than three meals a day and laundry services among other perks for employees. If going out and recruiting world-class talent becomes too expensive for Google, then it will be forced to slow its hiring cycles to more manageable levels.

A change in Google’s hiring strategy could have a ripple effect in Silicon Valley and beyond.

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