Self Improvement For Smart People
First of all, thank you to those of you who took the time to drop me emails, LinkedIn invites and a variety of other contacts since my little cult post. I appreciate the courage it takes to reach out and say hello to a total stranger. I’m trying to reply back to as many of you as I can but there’s only one me and there are a lot of you. So if you’re reached out in some semi anonymous way, why not take the next step? [Read more...]
A few days ago I talked about my “cult” and the kind of people I would like in it. Well, last week I met my first acolyte! 
Yes, I’m joking, I’m not really recruiting acolytes folks, please stop sending me your applications (except you Ruth, you keep sending!) but I will say that I’ve been very interested in the whole dating coach idea over the years and the chance to talk to Greg in person was priceless. The following are notes from our conversation along with some additional thoughts by me. If you’re interested in learning more about Greg, feel free to check out his site “GK Shares Game” [Read more...]
No, no, hear me out a second. I’m not suggesting some cult where we all wear robes, chant a lot and eventually kill ourselves. I’m talking about the kind of cult where we meet people like ourselves, enjoy hanging out with one another, help each other out and find ways to improve ourselves and the world around us. I guess this would be more of a secret society, but since this is a public blog post, it can’t be very secret.
Seriously though, aren’t you sick and tired of people who don’t get you? Aren’t you frustrated with having political or economic discussions with folks who don’t understand the issues and may not even care about them? This drives me insane by the way.
We have a huge and complex world around us, one with problems and issues that have a direct impact on us, but most people could care less about anything beyond their little world. Their attitude seems to be “as long as I get what I think is owed me, I don’t care about anything else.”
This bothers me because I want to help. I want this world to be a better place for me, my loved ones, my friends and for everyone else around me. So I get frustrated when I meet people who just don’t seem to care about anything other than themselves. They don’t understand that they are a part of this world, a part of this society, and that the best way to help themselves is to help the world around them.
That’s what I want to change. I want to create a network of people who help eachother. Call it a cult, call it a secret society or call it the grand conspiracy if you will. All I want is like minded people who care about themselves and the world around them. [Read more...]
![flickr 'relationships' [aka 'bullshit detector']](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4186203244_ac7dc909ce.jpg)
I have an acquaintance, we’ll call her “Sam”. Sam has been trying to get a job for three years now, ever since she was laid off from her accounting job at the start of this recession. Sam keeps complaining to me about why she can’t find a job. Sometimes she complains that the job postings companies put out there are not real. Sometimes she complains about how the only people who get the jobs are the ones who are friends of the hiring manager. Last week she complained to me about how all the good jobs are going overseas. At this point I offered to sit with her and go over what she was doing and see if there was room for improvement. She sent me her resume as a starting point and I spent about 30 seconds looking at this document before determining that Sam’s biggest problem was Sam.
Sam’s resume looked like something out of a resume nightmare. It was poorly formatted, full of spelling errors, filled with massive run on sentences and overflowing with useless information. It was 5 pages of utter nonsense which would make any would be hiring manager toss it into the garbage can as soon as they saw it. When I further asked Sam about her job search, I found out she had done no networking and no research into the various companies she was trying to get hired at. Think about that for a second. Here’s a woman who had been looking for a job for THREE YEARS and she was utterly clueless. [Read more...]
My first job out of college was with a company called Blue Pumpkin Software. Blue Pumpkin was a small software start up in the heady days before the dot com crash. I joined as employee number 6 and went along for the ride of my life. It was a wonderful seven years before I finally left Blue Pumpkin but I came out of that experience with friends that are still with me to this day.
Your friends are your most important resource. By that I include not just your good friends with whom you drank too much rum last weekend (thanks Dave!) but also those slightly weaker relationships like the people you used to work with at your last company, the folks you volunteered with at that Wetlands Restoration project or even the folks you went to school with all those years ago. These are the people who will help you find jobs, get home loans, find the right school for your kids, buy a good car or build that surfing website you’ve been thinking of. That is the very essence of a good network, a great bunch of people who help you when you need help. The only problem is that most people are absolutely clueless about managing a network like this.
I had a professor in school who taught me about what he called “the rule of 27” and I would like to pass this information on to you because I’ve found it to be amazingly useful. The rule of 27 is basically a way of remembering that informational interviews can be your best friend when looking for a job in a new field.
How Does This Work?
The whole point here is to make a lot of useful contacts and become an expert in the field. In the end, any expert with a lot of contacts is going to be offered a job.
By the way, the name “rule of 27” came to be because no one has gotten beyond 27 different informational interviews without being offered a job. Honestly, if you’re doing this right then by your 5th to 10th informational interview you’re going to be an expert on the field. For me, after a year of serving on the Sunnyvale housing commission, my fifth interviewee offered to help me run for city council. I had to turn it down at the time because I was finishing up school, but it was gratifying to hear that offer. Five informational interviews is all it took to get on the city commission and be offered help for an election run.
Limitations
Note that this only works if you have the right skills. For example, if you have no engineering skill, no one will hire you as an engineer no matter how many informational interviews you do. Well, I do know one person who used this method to go from bartender to investment analyst but that’s the exception, not the rule. However, this method does work when making changes like going from tax accountant to financial analyst or going from sales to marketing. That is, making the sort of career jump that doesn’t require a whole new skill set but does require some specific knowledge. I’ve also used something similar to get into grad school but that’s a whole other story.
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Radical Honesty is still going great! Will sum up my experience next week.
I’ve been neck deep in resumes for the past few week, all because I’m trying to hire one new person. So I thought I’d share a few tips based on what I’m seeing. These are basic things that you think everyone would know by now and yet…
Be Professional
I can’t emphasize this enough. I get A LOT of resumes and I’m just looking for reasons to eliminate yours! If you give me an easy one, I’ll take it. So:
Be Precise
I don’t care about anything that’s not related to the job I’m hiring for. So please, stop telling me about other stuff.
Customize
If you’re sending out twenty generic resumes per day, it’s no wonder you’re not getting any responses. Take the time and tailor your response to the specific job you’re applying to.
Network
Speaking of standing out, the best way to stand out is by networking. I am willing to overlook almost any of the above issues if you come with a personal recommendation from someone I know. Use your network, check LinkedIn to see who you know at the target company and talk to those people. Even if it’s a second or third degree connection, use it. Ask them to set up an informational interview with the hiring manager. That goes right back to the “interview me” comment I made before. When a friend tells me “Hey, I worked with this guy in a previous company and he’s a star! He wants to talk to you to make sure this job is right for him.” I’m going to pay attention. First of all because it’s coming from a friend I know and trust and also because I like people who do research before making a decision.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Network, network, network and then do your research. If you do that, your job search is going to be a lot more successful.
