A Businessman's View

I wanted to entitle this Think Outside of the Box but that expression is so overused that I realized no one would read this if I did. Yet, just like Apple did with the brilliant marketing campaign that upset every English teacher in America, that is exactly what I am condoning here. "Yes, yes," you say, "I've heard this a million times before. And I do try to look for new approaches to common problems that I encounter." It's great that you do, but I offer that you need to do it as your modus operand i , i.e. your current way of doing things should be the "outside of the box" in the future. As a simple example, let me describe a situation that happened to my wife's business . My wife, a professionally trained makeup artist (shameless plug: with experience in film, TV and special effects ) that provides hair and makeup services on location to brides and their bridal parties, is receiving more requests for weddings that will occur on Long Is...

"First impressions last a lifetime," it is said. When a potential employer reads your resume, what impression does your Summary section leave behind?* * I'm assuming that you aren't seeking your first job, which would mean that your Summary section would instead be entitled Objective and would describe what you're looking for. Everyone else should omit the Objective section and instead summarize what they have accomplished professionally. Here's my 30 minute resume makeover. In 30 seconds , choose as many one word nouns that describe yourself. Don't try to overthink this: the first words that pop into your head will be the ones that you feel most comfortable describing yourself as. (Example: strategist ) In 1 minute , choose a single one word adjectives for each of the top 5 nouns. Do not use the same adjective twice. (Example: excellent strategist ) In 5 minutes for each pair of words , write a single sentence that justifies the adjective-noun pai...

"Job titles don't mean shit," he said. (Okay, so maybe I took some "creative liberties" there. Sue me.) I was a young kid with only a few years' of experience trying to claw my way up the corporate ladder by taking new jobs with more responsibilities. At that moment, I was arguing about wanting to pursue jobs that had specific titles with Ryan Abbott , a "wet behind the ears," junior recruiter at some no-name agency. (He is now, by the way, the Director of Recruiting at Tuttle and is one of only two recruiters that I trust completely). Ryan's argument was that job titles vary from company to company but job responsibilities will always tell the true story. (A running joke from when I worked on Wall Street was that even the janitorial staff had the title AVP. Does this sound familiar in your company or industry?) During the interview process, the person asking the questions will be able to tell if you are a director level person in title ...

It was once told to me that when someone says "to summarize" (or something to that effect) you typically get 30 seconds of absolute focus. I honestly hope it's not because my presentation or discussion was so boring that they started mentally composing a list of items to get from the grocery store on the way home. But I digress... Someone recently asked on LinkedIn how one can effectively negotiate a job offer, so I immediately responded that you need to communicate your value to the company as a basis for any negotiation. My answer started the gears in my head that perhaps a summary of some of the points that I've made so far in previous blog entries would be useful. @You: don't think the following is a 30 second read, but "in summary" here are some things to consider when establishing a baseline of your value to a company. Stay relevant. I used the "@" sign not because I have a Twitter account (my wife says I will be the last person on Ea...

Last week, I wrote about the necessity of having a clear message . Because this topic is so important I decided to follow-up with another entry on this general subject. This week we will approach it from another angle. (For the curious, the title says " Do you speak the same language? " in pinyin, which is a transliterated Mandarin Chinese.) Recently, a good friend of mine (who is Chinese, ironically) and I were playing pool. He had to bank the 8-ball in the pocket to win the game, and since it was an informal game and bank shots are my area of expertise, he asked me for advice. I told him, "you just need to strike the cue ball with medium speed so that it hits the 8-ball right in the middle." He didn't believe me so we marked the positions of the balls, and then he took his shot only to watch the 8-ball sail past the pocket. "A-ha!" he exclaimed. "I told you it wasn't that easy." But when we reset the positions and I made an attemp...