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.

Archives for Coaching

Ask anyone who has sourced or managed a globally distributed project. Collaborating with a customer, supplier, or co-worker located in another country typically brings more than you bargained for - a multicultural learning experience.

You can muddle through on your own or get help. Specialized trainers can heighten your cultural awareness and teach you about the tendencies and work styles of one culture compared to another. But there’s a catch: Fostering multicultural awareness usually involves perpetuating generalizations.

Let’s face it, cultural stereotypes often have more than grain of truth to them, but they also tend to rub people the wrong way. Is it possible to educate globally-collaborative workers about different cultures without making generalizations?

“People don’t like to be generalized about,” concedes Craig Storti, one of the leading cultural consultants. “And they especially don’t like somebody from another culture doing it. What I say in my book and in my workshops is I’m describing how Indians come across to westerners - it’s not how Indians see themselves.”

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.”

Archives for Social Media

One of the joys of social networking is reconnecting with people you barely knew 20 years ago but would like to know better now.

Like most people in my age bracket, I have held lots of positions. In my case, in publishing, I survived stints at CMP, Ziff-Davis, IDG and McGraw-Hill.

I’m occasionally invited to real-world reunions for one defunct magazine or another. These are strange gatherings because while there is often a friendly exchange of business cards, what happens down the road is usually nothing whatsoever.  

Enter Web 2.0 and social networking. These days you can quickly form or join a social network made up of other former employees. Think of these cyber-gatherings as another form of an alumni network, even if your corporate exit may have been involuntary - without so much as a farewell lunch at T.G.I. Friday’s.

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.

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.