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Job Advice on an Airplane Flight
Tweet Share on Facebook June 19, 2008 Comment (1)I don't generally enjoy talking to the people with whom I'm forced to share intimate and recycled airplane air. The problem is that once you start—you're stuck. But yesterday I was in the mood to chat for reasons not altogether clear, perhaps a desire to think of something other than work. So I struck up a conversation with the woman sharing my row.
We began, like most, by discussing our jobs. She has worked a fascinating array of jobs in her career so far—each interesting and socially beneficial, if not overwhelmingly lucrative (by her own admission). She was smart and highly educated, and—despite the turbulence in the air—I mentally recorded her choice bits of wisdom.
Here are a few:
1. College is for training your mind. The goal is to learn to think critically and analytically.
2. Learn what you like at school—but take a statistics class. It's helpful to understand what that pie chart really means.
3. You don't need to have a life plan if each decision you make is a good one. The bigger picture will take care of itself.
4. Know the difference between competition and ambition. Wanting to do something great is different than wanting to be great by comparison.
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How to Get Ahead at the 'New York Times'
Tweet Share on Facebook June 18, 2008 CommentJust when you thought that everything about careers and the workplace in our parents' generation had been obliterated and made obsolete by a trillion job board postings and a mountain of M.B.A.'s, here comes Campbell Robertson.
The New York Times reporter has covered the theater beat—from cast changes to courtroom dramas—and now he's going to Iraq.
I don't even need to spell out the lesson here. From the New York Observer:
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A Shaved Head, a Layoff, and Charity
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2008 CommentThere are two ways to look at the story of Nathaniel's Restaurant—a subject of particularly heated discussion in the Canadian and U.S. media right now.
It's pretty simple: One way is to see it as the story of a business in Owen Sound, Ontario, and the other is to see it as the story of waitress Stacey Fearnall.
The owner of Nathaniel's told Fearnall to take the summer off after she showed up at work with a shaved head and reportedly refused to don a wig.
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Would You Quit Your Job For $1,000?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 16, 2008 Comment (2)What would you have said if your current employer had offered you a $1,000 bonus to quit after your first week on the job?
Online shoe-seller Zappos offers the unusual deal to its call center employees, reports Bill Taylor, author of the Game Changer Blog at HarvardBusiness.org. (Hat Tip to Calcanis.)
Zappos treats its new customer service hires to a four-week "deep immersion," in which they learn various aspects of the business—including exposure to the company's high-energy culture and values.
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Should You Play the Sympathy Card at Work?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 13, 2008 Comment (2)If you're like many Americans, you're making a solid income that now seems smaller in the face of food- and gas-price inflation and education costs and mortgage payments.
Should you play the sympathy card? Should you ask your boss for a raise, because, say, your son "needs new shoes"? Should you ask for a four-day workweek because gas is really pushing you over the edge and "the commute is killing the family budget"?
How do confession and hopes for sympathy play out professionally?
A reader recently wrote to the Financial Times's "Dear Lucy" column to ask about the best way to hang on to a job at a company that's been making cuts: "Losing my job now would be bad timing, to put it mildly—I have a young child, a pregnant wife, and an eye-watering mortgage. How can I make sure the axe does not fall on me? Should I attempt to play the sympathy vote with my boss?"
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Why We'd Hire Stephanie Izard
Tweet Share on Facebook June 12, 2008 CommentThere's an easy careers lesson to be culled from the drama of last night's Top Chef finale. Also—a not-so-easy lesson about frank humility and self-effacement at work.
Stephanie Izard, a chef from Chicago, won the crown after months of high-stress kitchen competition. For Izard, it was competition, rather than combat. For some of the others, it was combat. That's the easy lesson—fellow finale contestant Lisa Fernandes was argumentative and abrasive, and her conceit was onerous. She may have skated through to the final show, but there was no way that she would win.
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You're Too Hot for This Job
Tweet Share on Facebook June 12, 2008 Comment (12)Today's question for J.T. & Dale Talk Jobs (a top spot for career advice):
Dear J.T. & Dale: I have been actively searching for a job for five months now, and can't figure out why I get interviews but no offers. I have even contemplated the idea that I can't get hired because I happen to be a very attractive, younger-looking 32-year-old. Am I crazy for even thinking that? — Jade
It's probably not a question that dogs most of us.
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How to Become Indispensable to Steven Spielberg
Tweet Share on Facebook June 11, 2008 Comment (3)In the news: Steven Spielberg is looking to raise a cool $1 billion to "reinvent DreamWorks as a separate company that once again owns the movies it makes," according to the Hollywood Reporter.
More interesting (to me), however, is the fact that as Spielberg looks for a new roost for the DreamWorks brand, he'll reportedly also be looking to hang on to his chief, Stacey Snider.
From the Hollywood Reporter:
"Stacey is the next generation, and Steven is very committed to her," said one participant in DreamWorks strategy meetings.
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The Worst Boss on TV
Tweet Share on Facebook June 11, 2008 Comment (6)Who is the worst boss on TV?
Newsday has a terrific gallery of bad bosses to choose from.
Is it Seinfeld's roving and rather bizarre J. Peterman? Is it food hurler Gordon Ramsay? Antic-riddled manager Michael Scott?
I'm going with Tony Soprano.
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Job Loss Advice for Hillary Clinton
Tweet Share on Facebook June 9, 2008 Comment (4)Corrected on 06/09/08:An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the date of Hillary Clinton's resignation. Clinton conceded on Saturday, June 7.
Hillary Clinton lost her job this weekend. Sure, she gets to stay in the Senate, but her full-time job has really been Democratic presidential candidate and campaigner—and it definitely came to an end Saturday afternoon. Just in time, the folks at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling passed along some tips on surviving a job loss. Some of the advice is quite apt:
Resist the urge to tell your boss what you truly think of him or her. Remember, you may need him or her as a reference for a future job.
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