EDITORIALS

Many years ago, a college professor of mine related a story about one of his students who wrote a research paper about an experiment she conducted with an elderly stroke victim at a convalescent home near the campus.The basic premise of the experiment was that whenever the patient in quest...

I’m not sure if any of us really want to adapt to changing world conditions in true Darwinian fashion. That would require that only those of us with appropriate features survive to create the next generation.As human beings, we have the unique ability to adapt who we are and what we are to...

We can all get a lot of help writing resumes. There are even lots and lots of very good books and articles on this topic.Still, the first thing most recipients read or at least glance at is your cover letter. As bad as most of the resumes I see are, the cover letters are often worse.We are...

Since The FENG has been built by friends introducing friends, I imagine that as an organization we are probably more sensitive to networking abuses than most people. Still, I thought it might be helpful if I took a little time tonight and suggested a few ways to go about this delicate proc...

Unless you buy your mustard in 55-gallon drums, and have some very sharp knives, eating an entire elephant can be a formidable task, not unlike the task facing you at the beginning of a job search.There are so many things to do and all of them appear to be urgent. In addition, they all app...

There is an extended joke I heard quite some time ago about a “gentleman” who was standing in line at an airline ticket counter trying to get on an over booked flight. In a demanding voice he uttered the above words at which point the ticket agent got on the PA system and announced that th...

One of the most challenging aspects of looking for a new “work opportunity” is having enough introspection to know what your special value is to a potential employer. I’m afraid that in most cases, we’re the last ones to know.When I listened to 90-second announcements at chapter meetings, ...

o reads the headline from Saturday's Wall Street Journal.Honestly, not a big surprise. I have been tracking the daily number of job leads posted to our Job Board and I could have told them things were slow. I have also had many conversations with "Friends of The FENG" (members of the searc...

The current job market continues to throw a large fog bank over the senior executive job market.Not just us financial types, but all college educated, well experienced executives are struggling with defining who they are and what they do to somehow match what they believe to be the opportu...

Based on the resumes I see on a daily basis, I am not sure there is full appreciation for the amount of time any reviewer gives to your carefully crafted opus.The sad truth is that unless the information presented has a clarity greater than the other documents in that stack of 100-500, it ...

One of the many fine traditions we have in The FENG is the sharing of job hunting tips.I have to tell you that recently I haven’t been hearing as many job hunting tips as I used to hear. No, it isn’t that I have heard it all. New things are certainly happening. The problem I fear is primar...

One of the more interesting ideas floating around these days is giving up. I can’t say I am an expert on this topic, other than to say that I have heard about it at length from others. Not that they have actually bought into the idea; just that they were talking about it.As you all know, I...

Probably one of the hardest things to do in life is to define who you are. Are you really your resume?Because we tend to be at companies longer than the members of other discipline areas, the reality of what it is we REALLY do best is not always obvious to us.A very long time ago when one ...

I don’t know if any of you feel as I do, but when I have a cold or the flu, it is at once annoying and thoughtful that those who care about us are constantly checking up on us.Thank goodness I’m not sick very often, but when I am I prefer to be left alone during “the cure.” Human beings va...

It is of course true that our own self-interest at times quite naturally overrides our concern for others. If I am drowning, I can’t very well be expected to save someone else. It’s a kind of a “Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs” thing. For example, I find that members are frequently more helpfu...

I have often been heard to say that your 90-second announcement is a STORY about you. It isn’t a history book. And, it doesn’t have to be detailed.In much the same way, your resume is a story about you. However, being in print, you need to keep in mind that you aren’t there to present it w...

Career decisionsMaking career decisions is never easy. And unfortunately, being a senior financial executive doesn’t make it any easier.In fact, because you are at a point in your career where you have probably held almost all of the appropriate titles for your skills, it is actually harde...

One of the biggest half-truths in this world is the idea of saving your business contacts. The truth is that unless you “work” your business contacts they don’t know you exist.Sure, you don’t want to “bother” them, but unless you call once in a while with something they actually can do for...

As our organization has gotten better known, each week we get several membership applications without a sponsor indicated. But as all of you know, a sponsor is required.Our first approach is to ask, “Who sent you to our website?” Usually that brings up the name of a member. But failing tha...

I think you will find as you are out and about interviewing, that there are always at least two difficult questions that an interviewer would like to ask you. And, not much will happen during an interview unless you get them out of the way.While the “elephant sitting in the room” varies by...

Several years ago I got a note from one of our new members that warmed my heart.He forwarded a note to me with a copy of his resume and as I scrolled through his message I smiled to myself in pride at what a remarkable organization we have created for ourselves.I didn’t actually need yet a...