Here we go with the advice again. I can’t help it. I got a lot of good advice growing up and it stuck and helped me through a great many scrapes that my headstrong impulsiveness got me into. Anyway one of the trusted maxims that my Sabbath School Teacher always doled out besides that Jesus wanted me for a sunbeam was: “People are like fruit, you don’t know what they’re really like until they get squeezed“. Meaning that, an apple could look shiny and amazing (I’m looking right at you Red Delicious, oh temptress of apples) but when squeezed, the juice would tell how sweet it really was.
Now, this is true in personal life and very relevant. However, in business (some would say the line between personal and professional no longer exists but that’s niether here nor there) it’s doubly important, as it speaks to your personal character and your business prowess. What if you’re not sweet enough to survive this? Companies don’t reach irrelvancy in one day, it happens over time. And it takes tough times to really strain out the seeds (okay I am done with fruit, I promise).
For example, if you don’t provide actual VALUE and SERVE your clients, they will quickly cut you out of the budget. Not because you’re not a really nice person and great to work with but because they can’t afford you. It’s a simple business choice. Now if you are an essential service (and I believe with the right market share and the right level of service you can make any service/product essential to the client) then this should not happen. And if it does, you have a rock solid plan in place to generate new customers.
Currently, there are thousands of people looking for work. They are very nervous and seeking out any possible service or advice that can help them find a job, hold on to that job, make more money or start a business. And what are two of the biggest job boards doing? Sending them SPAM. That’s missing out on a huge opportunity at a time when they could be reinventing themselves and proving their value.
I will add my voice to all the others screaming it: Adding value and creating a niche and being successful are not about doing the same things that you dide before. This video, courtesy of Dennis Smith (another innovator) proves that. We’re training kids for jobs that do not yet exist. If your company is only repeating an old winning formula you will lose. Try these idea creation ideas.
Businesses doing things the NEW way:
GoGalavanting.com- Recently became the first travel site to livestream in real time from location in Colmar, France.
Jason Falls- Here he dicusses the sponsored post which could be relevant even more as magazines and likely online content providers, start shedding ads.
Get Lost- These women quit their jobs and are traveling the world, and making headlines.
Free Info- Chris Brogan uses his social media know how to explain how to find work.
Getting to Know You- Always popular, barcamps and podcamps are attracting those in niche areas who are finding that our marketing tactics are more alike than we thought. Also, they are usually free-ish.
Good idea much? Cool services , like @luckystartups that have given others a “leg up” will find they are even more valuable and sought after no
I recently received this email from an avid reader. I could be all fancy and pretend that she’s not my sister but I KNOW my readers are too smart for that. Anyway, here is her question:
Hey Mar,
Since you’re my advice/resume go-to sister I thought I would shoot you a quick question about my job. Obviously I could just call you up but I thought that other peeps might benefit from this Q&A, so I’m posting on your super cool blog. Here goes. As previously mentioned in a comment to your “I’m too texy for this post” a co-worker that I worked very closely with, got fired recently. I am now taking over all of her former responsiblities in addition to my own. I have always been happy with my pay here being sufficient for the job I do, until recently.
Recently, I was talking to my sister. She came over for dinner and we were hanging out and talking afterward. My sister’s son is autistic and has been in therapy for about a year, since he was close to three. As we spoke she mused that he might be ready to “graduate” from therapy. I know that she works full-time to pay for his therapy (both private and within the school system) so I asked if she would be able to cut down on hours. As we talked about the heavy costs associated with his therapy, I asked why she had never taken advantage of the aid offered in situations like hers.
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
I must admit. When I started reading “horror stories” about how Gen-Y just doesn’t get it, I was offended and appalled. After all, my own work ethic (and that of my similarly aged friends) is stellar and I have a (tenuous) claim to the millennial camp. However, lately I may have to eat my own words. In blog posts, chat rooms, and conversations over coffee, I am hearing more and more horror stories of my own. And they aren’t coming from geezers, they’re coming from my peers.
Necessary disclosures:
1) In 2009, I will turn 30. If I ever argued vehemently for the right to be called a millennial, after July, it will just seem silly. (Good time to start bashing them then!)
2)I have oodles and oodles of children, which is why I skew “more responsible” than some in my generation.
Okay, so the first situation is this:
Employee calls in sick, notifying the receptionist, who neglects to tell the employee’s direct supervisor. Employee is told to always call-in to a direct supervisor. Two weeks later, employee texts her direct supervisor at 11 pm the night before she is planning to call in sick. The employer, being a gentleman slightly more advanced in his years, never receives the text. This employee was surprised when she was “written up”and placed responsibility for the original absence on the receptionist. Age:26
Second situation:
Assistant tells virtually everyone on her team that she will be taking days off in the coming weeks but is unsure which days these might be. When she discovers that she needs the days off, she texts her immediate supervisor (who knew nothing of this, although the remainder of the team DID) the night before, dispensing with the normal office protocol of filling out a time off request. She does not come in for a week. Age: 23
What do you think of these situations? Is this responsible behavior? Can it be chalked up to age, inexperience?
Would it change your answer if you knew that a VP of the company frequently texts his requests when out of the office? Why? Why not?
This thread posits that attendance policies are becoming a moot point. Yeah, we all know ROWE would rule but how to make that happen overnight?
Discuss amongst yourselves. Seriously, I need answers!
(Just so you know I expect to get a fair bit of vehemence in linking irresponsible texting to Gen Y. It’s cool. Just remember, I am practically Gen Y myself.)
Sometimes a spoonful of sugar really CAN help the medicine go down. This post will be short and (ahem) sweet. In this time, when recruiters and HR Pros that I know, respect and love are finding themselves out of work, I am heartened by recruiters, HR Pros and Social Media peeps who are going out of their way to give a little back. Maybe it’s hosting a free webinar, providing practical tips on how to help, giving your friend a shout out or doing some good in the community, I am seeing a lot of people go the extra mile.
A few years ago, a friend of mine was going through a severe case of on-again, off-again-itis. I (like any good friend) was stressing because no amount of “he’s no good, you deserve better” was getting through her thick, love-fogged skull. She was so far gone she was turning down adorable, nice and employed fellows. Finally, I got her a book that was pretty new at the time, He’s Just not That into You. Together, we downed entire bags of Riesen’s chocolate candies and explored all the common excuses of men and slowly, she got over the toadie.
Even though I’ve been through similar cases of “wanting what you can’t have”, the whole phenomenon never ceases to amaze me. Chalk it up to the human heart. Well then you explain to me, how this disease, once the domain of teenagers and future Oprah guests, has spread to corporate America. You know what I’m talking about, the “passive candidate”. It’s the only kind of candidate to have apparently. And this perpetuates our precious talent war, since in a recession (see this article from when our economy didn’t suck on adjusting your tactics to the current fiscal state) there are far fewer passive candidates than before.
Lots of qualified, interested and competent candidates line up at the doors of HR Departments all over the country and are rejected or ignored for the “road less traveled” the “dark horse” . I’m not judging (well, I kind of AM) as I have heard a lot of folks I respect talk about how they only work with passive candidates who already have a job. What I am doing is wondering. . .why?
If someone can supply me with a great reason why candidates who don’t like you, never heard of you and have no interest in moving because they are a super diva rock star are actualy (measurably) better employees than the sweet lady who has always wanted to work at your company and has applied every year since she hearf your marketing VP speak at a regional conference four years ago but you always ignore her because if she was any good she wouldn’t be coming through the very expensive ATS you purchased, then please show me.
Otherwise, I’ll have to tell you like I did my friend: “They’re just not that into you“.
Also, as a postscript: Continuing to stalk passive candidates as a business mandate during a recession is the dating equivalent of Molly Ringwald bagging that guy in her odd homemade pink dress in the 80s. It might make sense when the pros suggest it, but it will never happen in real life.
So someone finally came out and said it, we’re in a recession. Well whoopty frickin do, I am so glad you put a name to this funky feeling in my wallet. The truth is, we’ve all known it, we all saw it and with tools like twitter and our big fat BRAINS, decided we didn’t need mainstream media or some bald dude in a suit telling us it was so.
Last night, after I spent the day laying off a good portion of our workforce, I settled in by the fire to read “Horton Hatches an Egg” to my three boys. The oldest one rolled his eyes but I needed something easy and rhyming to ease the pain of my day, since it’s bad form to drink heavily in front of your kids, Dr. Seuss was the next best medicine.
As I read the story of Horton and lazy Maizy, I was reminded of a friend’s re-telling of his story from the last “dust-up” in recruiting. Did he throw his arms up and settle into an easy (but far less lucrative) corporate job? Nope, like Horton, he stayed on that egg through the terrible times, through people telling him it was a dumb idea, through jokes about his profession and lean, cold (economic) winters. (BTW, he emerged as a leader in his field, has resumes when no one else did and made a killing when people were desperate for the talent they had abandoned after the bubble burst).
Of course, since my brain is incapable of doing just one thing at a time, the whole time I am reading this clever little book to my kids, I am thinking. Yes! Here’s a solution! We can use this time (this sucky time, this mess we’ve been left with, that frankly we are leaving to our children but I digress) to shape and mold the industry into what we want it to be!
Yeah, maybe we’ve been doing that (kinda) but in times of great duress comes great opportunity. Beyond the industry of recruiting, this recession could shape the entire workforce. As gas shot up this summer, we saw entire states change their workforce policies. So why wouldn’t a global recession help to shape the workforce of the next few decades?
Well, it will. And as I finished the story and faithful Horton sees a creature emerge that (against all odds) looks just like him but even COOLER (wings are involved) and is able to finally get some accolades for his hard, faithful and determined work, I realized that I want to have a part in shaping the new workforce, in shaping the new human economy.
As old pillars of the workforce fall by the wayside and folks stuck in the past desperately try to revive them, I have a feeling that it’s no use. Something new will be born during this time and it will be different, and odd, and we might get ridiculed a little. That’s okay. Cuz,
“An elephant is faithful. One hundred percent.”
Plastic Crown, Cheap Strawberry Shortcake. I don
I am writing this post from the perspective of the job seeker/holder/employee; from the perspective of a mom, a wife, a professional. As I write this, I am sitting by a fire, deep conditioning my hair and watching my two year old double fist cheerios and raisins into his mouth. I LOVE it.
I’m the type of person who likes to have an end goal in mind whenever I do anything. Sometimes, I catch myself doing things just for fun, but I can usually find a way to work it into my life based on some sort of commonality.
Yesterday, I led a discussion on Talent Talk Cafe about personal branding. It was the second of a series that will likely continue until I get a few points across. I had an outline of sorts to lead the discussion along. It looked like this:
As our country gets nearer and nearer to some financial black hole that no one is even daring to name ( we name storms and cars, why can’t we name financial crises?) I am noticing a pattern in friends and family. Since I work in a financial firm, there is no lack of professionals whose minds I can pick around in, trying to discover root causes, kicking therories about the future about and generally trying to decide what the heck to DO.
People (and employers) are faling into three camps:
Making your way in the world today takes everything you got. .
Okay maybe I am showing my age with that one. But I wanted to sort of highlight the awkward but beautiful position I find myself in almost daily. As someone with a good deal of experience in ONE area (marketing and communications) making inroads into an entirely new field (recruiting), I am often humbled, frequently wrong, seldom comfortable and always unsure.
Hey all, I have been so busy impersonating Jason Davis at the Kennedy Conference that I completely neglected to do my six random things about myself tag post. Ms. Sharyn Lauby tagged me and I must say I am honored (read more about bartending goodness here).
So the deal is, I have to say six things about me, tag six people and link this back to the person who tagged me. Le sigh. As you all know, I just HATE talking about myself (insert evil grin):
Sweet Spot
So I’ve found my sweet spot, my place in the sun. But as some observers pointed out, how do I stay there? Would I want to stay there? Is it reasonable for me to expect to stay there given:
So, fourscore and (well two). . .carry the one. . .okay so TWO years ago when I started being interested in recruiting as a profession, most of the pro recruiters I contacted for advice or assistance didn’t say a word about social media. None of these smart, successful, third party recruiters even knew what a blog was or cared, had a twitter account or even a faint idea of what lifestreaming might be.
However, as I sorted through some information online (as my generation is prone to do), I got sucked in to the endless amounts of information out there on blogs, pounded out microposts, gave myself blackberry thumb from scrolling resumes on my phone and started a vlog (very hard to maintain when one doesn’t always look the way one would wish to look). I found the value of my “social capital” rising very quickly. Woo hoo! I got a twittergrade of 99. Yes! I was featured on ABC show! Rock on, I am a writer at thus n such! Awesome! But when the dust settled, I realized that social capital is not actually, so much, capital.
Now I’m no money hungry woman but my little brain started to wonder why it was that so few successful recruiters (particularly in my town) were using this social media. Why hadn’t they heard of the people I was so excited to meet? I was distraught. I felt used, abused and overworked. Being a social butterfly isn’t easy you know! Had I traded a year of my life for chatting, linking, blogging and networking?
I was ready to give up. While there seemed to be some out there who could do the social networking thing AND be great recruiters, I obviously was not one of them. I didn’t NEED the tutorials on how to brand yourself, I NEEDED the tutorial about how not to laugh like a donkey and say inappropriate things on the phone with a client. (Don’t look for it, it’s not there.)
Human Capital was a field I had grown to love. I enjoyed the people, writing about the subject, grabbing every morsel I could find regarding recruiting and diving into deep conversations with leaders in the field. People were even asking me to speak. Only thing was, I was a really bad recruiter.
Was this sort of non-expert expertise base I was building even sustainable? NOPE. But then a funny thing happened. I made a (actually two) placements via Twitter. I snagged a contract from my blog. Someone told me I was changing the face of recruiting. A woman called and asked for coaching help and someone offered me a great gig. Whoa! Where did that come from?
Then I started meeting people in the industry that were plenty smart and engaged but not pounding it out on the phones. Maybe they were in UI and employer branding or part of a vendor team or supervising a team of recruiters. I’m not the only freak in town!
It was then that I realized (and this is the point of the entire blog post so please read it carefully) that I had located my sweet spot. That critical juncture between what you want to do and who you want to do it with and where you want to be while doing it ALL come together. Some people never find that place. I used to market for a railroad. It never revved me up the way talking about recruiting does. I love this industry and I love marketing and strategy within it. What’s wrong with that?
Nothing.
Today I hosted Talent Talk Cafe on Recruitingblogs.com. It was an amazing experience and one I was grateful to have. The topic I chose was “get your brand on“. It was kind of intimidating, to say the least. After all, I have been pretty open about the fact that I am a new recruiter (newbie + recruiter= recrewbie) and that most of my decade long career (really??) has been spent in the communications arena, meaning marketing, PR, journalism and the like.
Deal with Dignity
Performance reviews and promotional interviews are difficult. No one likes to to be graded, have boxes checked that cannot begin to account for all of their work, feel rejected and worst of all be passed over for a promotion or refused a position.
Hey all. I thought that I should let you know that my new blog home is www.marenated.com or you can visit me at www.marenhogan.wordpress.com. I hope you like the new format (although I still am not so much of a wordpress genius). Change your RSS feeds and get ready for me to talk about some cool stuff!
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A bit of a local flavor to tonight’s entry. Wanted to mention the great things that Jeff Slobotski and Dusty Davidson (and various assorted mad genius crew) are doing with Silicon Prairie News. As soon as I get my blogroll up and, well, rolling, I will for sure have this excellent site as one of the top picks. Want to know what’s happening in Omaha’s entrepreneurial and tech communities? Go to SPN! Also, I like that @jjsnyc calls the SPN facebook fans, SPN’rs.
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Young Professionals Training Series
Get Connected, Get Ahead - Thursday, Oct. 16
This seminar explores the amazing power of relationships and provides practical tools and approaches that will enable individuals to unlock the power of relationships in their personal and professional lives.
Reservations are due by Tuesday, Oct. 14.
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