From perusing the morning ads I came across a company looking for a Quality Engineer. One of the requirements is to be a “Competent technical writer.”
Unfortunately, this plastic injection-molding company misspelled their name in the listing - XYZ Platics.
That, my friends, is a perfect example of irony.
Part 2 in our 3 part Proactive Sales Management series has been released. It is titled The Structure of a Selling System and continues the homebuilding analogy by comparing a selling system to the framing of a house.
Just to give you a taste:
It took me awhile to understand what was going on and why some of the things I was required to do were important. The key to the training was to understand and use a proven sales process. Tom assured me of success if I stayed within this structured approach. He also assured me I would fail if I didn€™t use the process and techniques that had been refined by those who preceded me in this role. Tom told me repeatedly, €œThis structure and approach works.€
As an example, here are some of the questions from Tom€™s structured system:
What lead them to consider our product or service?
Who are the people making the decision? Are their any hidden decision makers? What does the decision-making process look like?
How will the purchase be financed? Sale, lease? Any special terms & conditions?
When will delivery be required?
What other are products are being examined? What attracted the buyer to those products?
Does the ROI make sense? Has a cost justification been made? Is one required?
A funny thing happens to reps when they get asked these questions consistently €“ they go out and qualify the information from their prospects (as I learned to do). As Tom would say, €œEverything in this structure will have to happen at some point in the sales cycle. You might as well do it now, rather than later, or when it€™s too late. Spend your time on deals that will happen, don€™t waste your time on deals that won€™t, or on deals we don€™t want.€
As they say, read the whole thing.
This report just cuts against common sense in many ways. From Yahoo News’ Bad bosses get promoted, not punished?
In the study to be presented at a conference on management this weekend, almost two-thirds of the 240 participants in an online survey said the local workplace tyrant was either never censured or was promoted for domineering ways.
Whenever I see these types of surveys, I wonder about the wording. “Domineering ways” is definitely a fuzzy phrase. I would guess that the respondents may simply have had an issue with a High D style.
I’ve worked for quite a few bad bosses and I know the stress involved with them. Some of these items seems a bit much:
Despite their success in the office, spiteful supervisors can cause serious malaise for their subordinates, the study suggested, citing nightmares, insomnia, depression and exhaustion as symptoms of serving a brutal boss.
Color me skeptical on these results.
The Rock Star posted on fuzzy phrases just about a year ago. I believe I have uncovered a pristine example from an email I received this morning:
The deadline is mid September.
Talk about another bad business decision – from the Pioneer Planet’s Bloggers May Form Union:
A loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers is trying to form a labor union in hopes of helping them secure health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.
But wait, it gets better:
“Blogging is very intense – physically, mentally,” she said. “You’re constantly scanning for news. You’re constantly trying to … mobilize your readers.
I particularly enjoyed the first part of that quote – blogging is very intense physically. Physically? Insert your own Jay Leno joke about how fat we are becoming as a nation.
From Yahoo Finance comes this BusinessWeek article – When an Employer Just Is Not That Into You:
Here are some signs that they’re just not that into you, and you’d be better served pursuing other opportunities:
1. Silence After Initial Contact
2. Difficulty Scheduling a Phone Screen
3. Last-Minute Interview Changes
4. Delay in Post-Interview Contact
5. Too Many Changes in the Process
6. Slow Follow-Up After Second Interview
7. Delay in Extending the Offer
There are paragraphs written under each of these 7 topics and I strongly encourage you to read them. Do you notice any pattern to the 7 topics? A lack of structure and a lack of communication. The author is accurate in her topics in that these are the very items for which we struggle, at times, with our clients.
Unstructured, unsure hiring practices are a huge red flag for candidates. Silence is also a good way to derail a strong candidate. We consistently monitor the frequency of “touches” (email, phone call, meeting, etc.) we have with a candidate to keep the process moving.
Finally, a great point from the article:
With corporate rigmarole being what it is, it’s hard to get an offer letter approved these days. There may be a few days’ delay between the call that says, “We really like you! Let’s talk terms!” and the arrival of a written offer letter. A few days means three or four days, max. If you’ve been waiting a week-and-a-half and you haven’t heard an update, you’re being insulted. They don’t think it’s worth their time to pick up the phone and explain what obstacles they’re running into — or maybe they’ve lost interest.
You’ll just have to cool your heels and wonder about that. That’s a terrible sign, and a big signal to find a more communicative employer.
I can’t begin to tell you the enormity of the 35W collapse up here in Minneapolis. That is the main artery through Minneapolis and that bridge is one that almost all Twin Cities’ residents have traveled across – probably within the last 6 months. I cannot count how many times I have been over it.
All of our people are accounted for this morning. As strange as it sounds, things could have been worse if the bridge wasn’t under construction. Traffic was crawling along through the construction zone during rush hour so there weren’t the normal number of cars racing over the bridge.
The latest information is that 9 people have died and 20 are still missing. Our prayers go out to the people affected by this tragedy.
If you would like to help, please consider a donation to the American Red Cross – Twin Cities.
Inc.com’s Job Applicants Fear Impact of Online Behavior offers this (my emphasis):
Job Hunting in the Digital Age, a poll of about 600 current employees conducted by Harris Interactive for Adecco USA, found that 66 percent of workers in Generation Y (ages 18 to 29) are oblivious to the online background checks employers do to research potential employees. In comparison, only 40 percent of baby boomers (ages 43 to 61) are unaware of such searches.
How can this be? Gen Y is oblivious to online background checks? Later in the article:
Therefore, more baby boomers make the effort to keep up with the latest hiring trends, as opposed to those in Generation Y just entering the workforce, according to Kenny.
Interesting, but I think we are actually observing a sea change in the work force. Gen Y is composed of young people who take electronic networking to a new level. Whether it be myspace.com or text messaging, they are focused on connecting with others on a personal level.
Gen Y’s approach is a bit disarming to us Xer’s and Boomers. I think Gen Y actually values their online information and won’t remove it from the public. They want to share that information with their friends to the point they value their network over a new career opportunity.
So the question becomes What do you do with this information? Should it be left out of a hiring decision since it is personal? Or should it be part of the background verification in regards to an offer?
I haven’t come to my own conclusion yet.
It seems these articles about the worst commutes come out every month. This month Forbes.com offers up The Most Unhealthy Commutes in America. First, the top 5 (with 2 California cities – no surprise):
The Top 5 Most Unhealthy Commutes
1. Riverside, Calif.
2. Atlanta, GA
3. Los Angeles, CA
4. (tie) Houston, TX
4. (tie) Washington, D.C.
Then you get this interesting piece of data (emphasis mine):
Not only do commuters in Southern California inhale the worst year-round particle pollution levels, but Riverside drivers also face the highest rate of fatal auto accidents per capita, and Los Angeles drivers spend the most time sitting in traffic. In 2003, the annual delay per traveler there was 93 hours.
Yeah, that seems crazy to me sitting up here in Minneapolis where I thought we had bad commutes. But here is an author explaining the SoCal mentality:
“It’s a lifestyle choice,” says David Rizzo, author of Survive the Drive! How to Beat Freeway Traffic in Southern California. “We put our health second. To have a big house, we’re willing to put up with smog and a big drive. We sacrifice our longevity for short-term gains.”
Is it any wonder that telecommuting is such a hot topic in hiring today?
I’m a big fan of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel and have the Tivo set to record it every week. If you haven’t seen it, essentially the host goes around each week and works with people who have a dirty job. Well, not just dirty, usually disgusting to the nth degree.
So I’m intrigued when I see this CareerJournal.com article – Putting the Spotlight
On the Grimiest Gigs. It’s a fun read and the host, Mike Rowe, is an interesting guy.
Read the article and you will find this great point (my emphasis):
Wall Street Journal: Why do the workers highlighted on your show often appear happy in their jobs, despite the dirty and smelly environments.
Mr. Rowe: Essentially it’s because their lives have balance. They have visual cues to tell them when they’re done and they get constant feedback throughout the day. If you have a dirty job, you always know how you’re doing from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, and that’s missing in a lot of big corporate jobs. That’s important to have in your life.
Over the last few decades, the whole notion of the old Puritan work ethic has really changed. In fact, it’s come under attack. The notion of working smart instead of working hard is a platitude that a lot of college graduates have embraced without really thinking about it. It’s dangerous, because hard work and smart work aren’t opposites. They’re two sides of the same coin, and people with dirty jobs know that. A lot of people in corporate America don’t.
Great point and I must confess I have used that platitude on many occasions.
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