Food for Thought

I come across some really great material from other people’s blogs and want to point you in their direction so that you can perhaps find something helpful to you. But let’s set the tone right. This morning I woke up to an e-mail from a blog post (I subscribe to a few blogs via e-mail, as its what is easiest for me right now – you can subscribe to this blog via e-mail … see the upper right corner of your screen ;)) by Scot Herrick – check this out (I added the bolding):

So, I work for a (large) company. I have some pride in what the company does and the innovation they keep. But the pride is tempered with the fact that the management team could — and would — lay me off in a heartbeat if they thought that it would help with achieving goals and objectives for the corporation. (read the rest here)

Thank you Scott, for my wake-up call this morning. Too true – and anyone that thinks that all that pride, team spirit and “we care about you” and family environment talk will preclude you from getting a pink slip, well, your time will come. Mine did, right from the king of “we’re a family company.”

With that “goals and objectives for the corporation” line in mind, here are three other blog series that you should be following this month:

Dave Perry - Guerrilla Marketing for Job HuntersDave Perry – author of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters I’ve found Dave to be a very intelligent communicator. I’ve read through a free download that he has on his website, and since I signed up he sends me little snippets from his book regularly – these are meat-packed e-mails, part clever, part common-sense, always intriguing and applicable. The series you need to follow (we’re on day 3) is the 12 days of Xmas Job Hunting, and will cover the following (trust me – it is well worth the time to read each day, as lots of thought has gone into each of these):

Carl Chapman - Executive Restaurant RecruiterCarl Chapman – many of you know that Carl is a buddy of mine, and a fellow-blogger. But if you haven’t been reading Carl’s stuff you are missing out. He is a recruiter by trade, and a very intelligent guy. He has learned a lot about many things and through his blog shares information to help job seekers and recruiters alike. Carl has a series called 10 Ways to Make Recruiters Love You – trust me – this is a must-read for everyone (he’s only up to the 4th post as of right now).

  1. Confidentiality
  2. Credibility
  3. Accuracy
  4. Consideration
  5. Consistency
  6. Follow-Up
  7. Preparation
  8. Respect
  9. Communication
  10. Information

David Maister - Professional Business Professional LifeDavid Maister blogs on varied subjects for professionals – I find it to be fascinating reading. Yesterday I listened to a podcast, part of a series on Career Planning, and found it to be quite interesting. Its about 12+ minutes but he talks about stuff that I don’t – what to do if you don’t know what you want to do! Not sure why I don’t cover that stuff, I have always known what I want to do, but I continually hear others that don’t know where to start! Anyway, this is a great listen. Here are the others he has posted to his site:

  1. It’s Not How Good You Are, But How Much You Want It
  2. Real Professionalism
  3. Are You Having Fun Yet?
  4. David Maister interviews John Byrne, Executive Editor of BusinessWeek
  5. No Regrets

There you go – I hope it adds to your experience and helps you formulate your own career management strategy!

4 thoughts on “Food for Thought”

  1. These are good blogs, Jason. Thanks for sharing.

    It still surprises me the level of commitment to a company (not the work, but the company) people have in this age of a global economy. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I have to be the best person ON THE PLANET for my job, otherwise I could lose the job I have. What constitutes the “best on the planet?” How will we know?

    Or, do we just commit to the work and not worry about the rest? Skills and performance count towards opportunities and each of us can control our skills development and work performance. Maybe that’s enough.

    Thanks for sharing from my blog. This is a really nice site.

    Scot

  2. Jason,
    Great post and resources!
    I’m listening to David Maister’s podcast on what makes a professional.
    I was going to summarize the main points, but you just have to listen to it.
    I wish I’d understood what he teaches earlier.

    Since I’ve started to learn (by trial and error) and apply what he’s talking about
    my income has grown (even more than in the
    dot com dream days). As or more important, I’m working with other people who “get it” both in my
    career and in my network. Life is good even when, as the readers here know, there
    have been unexpected and sometimes difficult changes.
    Janet

  3. Scot, your question is great: “do we just commit to the work and not worry about the rest” – I think I do a bad job of answering this and a great job of some kind of “hate the employer” message. That’s not my position though – I think that you should do an excellent job, give at least 100% to the job, but NEVER NEGLECT your own career management.

    Janet, glad to have you stop by :p Like I said, I didn’t think I needed to listen to it but it really does address what lots of people need to hear – “what do I want to be when I grow up” – but this time, instead of saying “fireman”, he talks to you as a professional. Again, worth the time.

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