EDITORIALS

I don’t know if you will agree, but I’m almost convinced that email is going to stick around for a while as a business tool.This being the case, I would like to make the bold suggestion to all of you who write emails (and hopefully that is everyone in The FENG) that you “get with the progr...

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 ...

As you know, each week I publish a list of our new members and I ask each member of our august body to call at least one person from the list. I sometimes spend close to a full day out of my personal schedule to review new member candidates. I only ask that each of you call one person -- a...

There is nothing worse in the world of job search than to have an obvious issue in your background that is difficult to explain.I have often suggested to members that on some topics we discuss there is no right answer. When there is no good answer to something in your background, what do y...

I don’t know if all of you have noticed, but our new member announcement has a field called “Greeting to use.” It is there because I think it is important in establishing networking connections to be able to call people by the name they find most “comfortable.”As I have often said, you can...

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...

For those of you with allergies, you know only too well that once you have a reaction to something, for some period of time even small amounts of that substance will set you off.As I understand it, what happens is that an allergic reaction triggers elevated histamine levels in your body. I...

Most of us CFO/Controller types find talking on the telephone one of the more difficult things we do. I believe one of the reasons is that most of our work is accomplished in written form. When we do present our work to the boss or to our peers, it is usually done face to face and to a ver...

Although the job market appears to be getting better, it is still a sad fact of life these days that most of our members face the prospect of a salary lower than they previously enjoyed.From our perspective as financial folks we struggle with the burden of our hard won escalations in salar...

I’m not sure why people go their own way, but the standard resume framework is very much the “gold” standard. If you accept the idea that most resumes only get 10 seconds, I think you can begin to appreciate why straying from the traditional structure can get you into trouble.Of course, yo...

There is nothing worse in this world than to finally get an interview and to blow the opportunity because someone asked you a question you weren’t prepared to answer.I don’t know why some very obvious questions can take a seasoned financial professional by surprise, but they do. Perhaps we...

Over the years I have been asked many times how large The FENG could get before “law and order” breaks down. By law and order breaking down I am talking about a point in time when we can no longer count on our members to treat each other with respect.Respect comes in many forms. We all tak...

If I had to put my finger on the one issue that confuses senior financial professionals it is the subject above. Who is the customer for your services, and what is your product?When I have chatted with or had email exchanges with members who were going through outplacement, the bad advice ...

Despite all the financial scandals that we have seen over the years, most of us financial types by our nature have a hard time lying. For the most part, it just isn’t part of our DNA.While we may be burdened with many secrets of the organization such as payroll, we get around the questions...

If there is one thing that is certain about us financial types, it is that we always know the answer.Ask us a question and it isn’t long before we are well into the “primarily due to’s and partially offset by’s.” Yet, this major strength of ours and important skill set is an impediment to ...

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...

I’m not sure if everyone understands the importance of our Good News Announcements, so I thought I would share with you tonight some of my thoughts as to why they are so important.Since the very beginning of our newsletter, the Good News Announcements have always appeared at the very begin...

Many years ago, my son and I were rowing out to our mooring to go sailing with my father-in-law. My son, who was probably 8 or 9 at the time, asked my father-in-law if he knew the EXACT difference between a rhinoceros and a piece of paper. After several totally wrong guesses, my son gave h...

I am sure you have heard it too, the at length explanations others give as to why they are looking for another job. Sometimes I forget to mention at the beginning of our meeting in Connecticut that I really don’t need to know and you don’t really need to tell anyone. No explanation is actu...

Perhaps because we fill in so many forms during the course of our careers, it seems that as financial types we are always looking for a fill in the blank approach to just about everything.Is there a formula for 90-second announcements, I am frequently asked? Well, there are some basic guid...

Job search is in many ways a unique experience.In contrast to the world of work where we have had folks reporting to us and have had folks that we reported to, the world of job search can tend to be a lonely place.Back in the day, outplacement facilities with their rabbit warren of cubicle...