EDITORIALS

The resume format is sure constraining. If only the world was willing to listen to us rattle on.Unfortunately, they aren’t.The “standard” acceptable resume format is either two or three pages. Anything more tells the reader that you don’t know how to communicate. Perhaps I should also ment...

A very long time ago, President John F. Kennedy was holding a news conference. After he concluded his prepared remarks, he opened himself up to questions from the assembled reporters. The first question was: What had he and his administration done to further the equality of women in this c...

The urban legend out in the world is that the most recent 10 years of your career are all that anyone is interested in. True, but I think this idea is more correctly stated as “really” interested in.The primary rationale I hear for leaving off your early work history is to appear younger. ...

A few weeks ago I was doing a pretty good job of keeping up with my email. This past week or so, not so good. I must admit that from time to time I have fallen very far behind. (My personal record is 600 or 800 unanswered after one of my vacations, but that was a long time ago.)Sure, I kno...

One of my favorite “sayings from the Chairman” is: I try to make things so easy that anyone can do it. That way if I try hard, I can too!KISS or “keep it simple stupid” is one of the most often violated principles of job search and part of the reason that we fail to communicate our true va...

If getting up in front of a large group and doing your elevator pitch isn’t bad enough, giving it over the phone is worse. At least in front of a group, large or small, you have some visual feedback as to whether or not it is going over well.Add to this that many folks call you from cell p...

One of the problems with being a senior financial executive is that we have all the answers.We have, for good or bad, “been there and done that.” Frankly, it is hard to conceal that knowledge and experience in an interview.Call it “overqualified” or whatever name you like, but it is diffic...

I do tend to rattle on. Some night I will tell you the FULL story about how I removed my own home heating oil tank from my property. (It is a long story with many fascinating twists and turns.)The problem is that most folks really don’t want to hear about it. And even those who have intere...

The changes that have taken place in the past 25 years in our ability to communicate are truly remarkable.What with personal computers, email, cell phones, texting, voice mail, iPads and iPhones you can use just about from anywhere and now Zoom, you would think that those of us engaged in ...

Many years ago in the movie “A beautiful mind” about John Nash, the mathematical genius, one of the things that made him brilliant was that he could see patterns in numbers and words that no one else could see.Detecting hidden patterns or reading between the lines is one of the skills that...

One of the themes that I like to present from time to time is the idea that each of us can make a difference.For those of us who live in these United States, it is all very easy to fall into the accepted American concept that everything in this world is actually someone else’s fault. Hence...

One of the many concepts I learned when I worked for a large corporation (that will go nameless) was “just in time budgeting.” When I worked for this firm I thought it was a bad idea, but as life has gone by, I have come to appreciate some of its finer qualities and applicability.You see, ...

One of the very important issues facing us as an organization is the “care and feeding” of our many friends in the search community.While studies have shown that only about 15% of the jobs in this country are handled by recruiters, to me they are still an important audience for us to treat...

If there is any one thing that is consistent among senior executives who are in the job market for the first time in many years, it is their inability to distinguish between good and bad advice.The simple story is that if you hear it from me, Marty Latman or Bruce Lynn it is good advice. I...

During every recession, there are typically specific industries that experience more declines than others. One of the truths about the job market is that in any piece of time, one or more industries are usually singled out “for punishment” and lots of folks in those industries lose their j...

My wife and I go cruising on our sailboat every summer for about two weeks. During that time it is near certainty that there will be at least two full days where we won’t be able to get off the boat most of the day because it is raining too hard. Of course, I always have email to do. Somet...

One of the most annoying things about us financial types (at least to non-financial types) is the long-winded and seemingly endless explanations we provide when discussing complicated situations.Although we are mistakenly thought to always “cut to the chase” or go right to “the bottom line...

For my birthday one year, my daughter bought me a book: “A Voyage for Madmen” by Peter Nichols. The book is about the first Golden Globe race from Falmouth, England which began on April 22, 1969. Nine men set off on a race around the world. Ten months later, only one of them made it back. ...

With just about everyone in the ENTIRE world running around like their hair was on fire, I personally wouldn’t fault you if you too were feeling that way. Whether we are watching the news or reading the newspaper, it is impossible at the moment to find any escape from what is going on WORL...

A long time ago I received an email from one of our members comparing and contrasting the job leads he was getting from various sources.The quick story is that he was a subscriber to two paid services in addition to our newsletter. What I found disappointing was his closing comment which b...

As many of you know, in 1991 and 1992, I was unemployed. (Yes, two long years!)Hard to say exactly why it took so long to find another job, but suffice to say that it was a recession and after 9 years in the Advertising business (which was in the dumper) and no recent experience in Publish...