Job Hacking

Need a good reason to vote?

True tests of leadership come but every so often.

For example:

• Your HR VP comes to you and tells you that your VP of Sales, who is married, has been having an affair with an admin and a Manager on his staff. Turns out the Manager was just a Jr. Account Manager 12 months ago, and has received 2 promotions in that time. What's your decision?
• Sales are down and you need to cut back. Where?
• You have a GREAT Software Architect, amazing Software Design skills, a founder of the company, but he bullies some members of the Software team who he thinks aren't top-of-the-heap developers, which amounts to a third of the team. What do you do?

Today, we witnessed several failures of Leadership with the U.S. Government. First, we watched President G.W. Bush as he was unable to rally the Republican Members of the House to his plan to save our financial system. Second, we also watched Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she was unable to rally the Democratic Members of the House to vote for the same plan. And finally, we watched as the members of the House failed to approve the plan to save our financial system.

It's all too easy to get distracted from thinking about what a leader will ultimately face as true tests of leadership. But, when we vote, we need to set those distractions aside and think clearly about who can best lead us in times of crisis.

Tough call to make, but that's our job.

re: The Art of Resisting Irrational Behavior

Just got done reading a nice interview Guy Kawasaki did with Ori Brafman, the author of "Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior".

There are two sections that are directly applicable to you, and they are both great. The first is for hiring managers and what they should focus on in interviews, and it starts with the question, "Knowing what you know about first impressions, how should companies conduct job interviews?" The second is a little more of a stretch, and it starts with the question, "How do you tell a Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, or Bill Gates that you think they’re making a mistake?"

This second question is great for job-hunters about to go into an interview with their prospective boss.

Why?

Because this is EXACTLY the behavior you should adopt ahead of an interview. That is, put yourself in the boss's shoes and ask what the problem is they need to solve by hiring someone like you. Then, go research the problem. Find out why they need you. Find out what their assumptions might be. Make a guess or two about how to solve it. Then, when the interview happens, you're ready to answer the big question in their head: What can this bozo do for me?

You can find the interview here. Go ahead, it's Friday, read something that challenges you!

re: Looking for a reason to hide

There are always reasons to NOT do something.

Seth has a great post about this today. Any post that mentions chicken entrails is a must-read in my book!

Aren't there about 3 things you've been sitting on that would really, truly make things better for your neighborhood, town, city, county, state, country, world, if you simply made them happen? If now is not a good time for you, when would be better?

It never hurts to ask

One of the key bits about recruiting is that you have to ask.

You have to know that the job and the company is great and attractive to a given audience of people. You have to know that the offer is a good one and in alignment with the goals and objectives of the candidate. You have to know that you know. Then, and this is most important, you have to ask.

Thing is, this is true in other aspects of life.

You have to ask her out. You have to ask for your Mocha. You have to ask for admission. You have to ask for permission. You have to ask for others to vote for you.

Today, you have to ask those you voted for to lead and to save our economy. You have to ask the members of Congress who are representing you to get off their partisan duffs and come together and make history.

Otherwise, history will make them. And us.

Here are links to the Congressional Delegation in Washington State, use them, add to them, send them far and wide:

Senator Patty Murray: http://murray.senate.gov/email/
Senator Maria Cantwell: http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/

Congressman Brian Baird: http://www.house.gov/baird/IMA/email.shtml
Congressman Doc Hastings: http://hastings.house.gov/ContactForm.aspx
Congressman Rick Larsen: http://www.house.gov/larsen/contact/
Congressman Cathy McMorris: http://mcmorris.house.gov/IMA/issue_subscribe.htm
Congressman Adam Smith: http://www.house.gov/adamsmith/
Congressman Norm Dicks: http://www.house.gov/dicks/email.shtml
Congressman Jay Inslee: http://www.house.gov/inslee/contact/email.html
Congressman Jim McDermot: http://www.house.gov/mcdermott/contact.shtml
Congressman Dave Reichart: http://reichert.house.gov/Contact/ (although something seems messed up w/his site's submission process - guess he doesn't do email???)

Additionally, here are the Senate and House Directories to our Representatives:

House Members: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#wa
Senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Risk Candy: Essay by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Ooh, I just dumbed into an essay by the author of The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

While I've written about this author before, and I highly recommend his two books, trying to describe them in a compelling way via elevator pitch is tough. Discussing risk and randomness in an off-hand manner is not to be taken lightly!

So, when I found this article, I just had to share it. Give yourself some time, close the door, put on your thinking cap, and then read through this article. Very, very timely, and useful to boot.

Respecting your art - Respecting yourself

My wife is a storyteller. She's been an actor, a play-write, and she's soon to be an author.

Recently, she has re-connected with a number of her thespian classmates (Facebook is amazing!), and they've been sharing the stories of their lives. There have also been some interesting revelations.

One is that discipline & diligence pays off. More important than raw talent.

Another is that those who continue no matter what achieve the dream of using their talents. Having thick skin, and the ability to properly assess and utilize highly critical, negative feedback is important.

A third is that your comrades are excited and supportive about your achievements.

Fourth, expand your horizon. We tend to think about the future in much shorter chunks of time than a lifetime. Even in the short period of time these people have been out of college, relatively to a lifetime, they have done a broad number of things. And, they've become better artists as a result.

These are key lessons for anyone, and they are easily adopted by both leaders, those who need people to help them achieve their objectives, and those who are looking to join those teams.

For leaders, have a clear vision, and be disciplined in your work. Provide your team members the expectation that discipline is expected from them as well. Accept feedback from your customers, and utilize it all in a methodical way. You may decide to ignore it, but make the decision consciously. Be gracious.

For job hunters, you are in charge of your career, so keep checking your position v. your long-term goal. Each role you take should help you get there, even if it's just a day job. Once you've accomplished that which you want in a given role, time to start thinking about the next move. Don't stop learning, don't stop sharpening your edge, and most of all, don't take to heart the comments from those who don't have a clear view of the path you're on.

For everyone, it's vitally important to have a great, supportive network. Pay attention to the people you were with during those formative experiences - there's nothing that seems to bond people together better than having covered the same difficult, challenging ground at the same time.

Thinking Bigger: The Hiring Manager

Seth, as usual, has a great post today regarding thinking bigger. Great piece, focused very much on marketing.

Ever think about how recruiting is like marketing?

We really do live in some interesting times right now. The national economy is going into the tank, people are losing their jobs left & right, and we're still fighting not one, but two wars. You might be thinking to yourself, "Hey, I get a pass for the next 12 months from all my employees. Nobody in their right mind is going to leave now. I just need to worry about adding one or two more to the team..."

Not thinking bigger.

A different tack might be to create a contest that solves a problem you're working on in which you ask Developers outside the company to help you solve it. Send a small hard-copy letter to all the Web Developers you'd like to see apply for your team and challenge them to solve the problem.

Or maybe, you set up an 'outsourced' team in a depressed city in the U.S. to do a bunch of coding for your team. Maybe part of the deal is that you help them get trained up on some new Dev technology, they work for you for a reduced rate until their skills are up to par w/your current team, and at the end, you now have a completely new outsourced dev team to sell.

There are more. You're creative. Come up with some. Then go make it happen!

The FAQs of Lehman & AIG

The NYT (free sign-up) has a great read today on the how & why of the Lehman Bros & AIG bail-outs. It's a quick read, interesting, and enlightening.

For those of you heavily invested in your political brand, these events have to be shaking everyone to their core. Government intervention into the markets? By a Republican Administration? I think that we need to re-frame our understanding of the two main parties in different ways than the past.

There probably isn't enough time in this election cycle to sort these re-frames out, but it's pretty much guaranteed that in the coming 4 years the new seeds will start to germinate.

Prediction: Obama & Biden win the Presidential election in November (absent massive vote fraud). And, the Democrats take control of both houses, and with 60+ seats in the Senate. The #1 issue in this election just became pocket-book economics.

Who has the best analysis of the Wall Street crisis?

Tom Peters has a great post here today regarding the financial services crisis.

No more to add to this other than it's high time you read Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan.

Douglas Adams said it best

Today, while reading the NYT, I came across the following article, "A Sense That Wall St.’s Boom Times Are Over". In the article, Kenneth Lewis, CEO of Bank of America was quoted as saying, "It’s going to be tougher,” Mr. Lewis said. “There are going to be fewer companies, and we are going to have to be better at what we do.”

Better. What could be better?

"To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity." - Douglas Adams