This is from a sales ad for a large U.S. company: Qualifications To be considered for this role, candidates must meet the following criteria: Bachelor Perhaps that is a truncating problem, but I am feeling left out as a married man.
Continue ReadingCustomer Service Hall Of Shame
Here is a list you do not want your company to be on. From MSN Money: That reality is borne out in the results of MSN Money’s second annual Customer Service Hall of Shame, a ranking of companies with the worst customer service, based on a nationwide survey commissioned by MSN Money and conducted by Zogby International. The winner, or is it loser? Whatever, it is no surprise: AOL Time Warner A remarkable 47% of people who had an opinion of AOL’s customer service said it was “poor.” Analysts said that rating may have something to do with its effort to transition from an Internet service provider — where it… Read More
Continue ReadingTrophy Hires
Some companies focus on hiring from their competition almost exclusively and I am not exactly sure why. I realize they believe they are bolstering their sales department while depleting their competition’s. But taken too far, this approach becomes a detriment to a successful hiring campaign. I’ve seen it with one of our customers who has become infatuated with hiring someone away from a certain competitor. His desire to do so is driven by the fact that a third competitor recently hired someone from the second competitor. It doesn’t matter if you tracked that last sentence, the fact of the matter is still the same. I now refer to this approach… Read More
Continue ReadingAs The Job Market Churns
Quick-hitter article here from HotJobs.com – Good-Paying Jobs Are Ample, But Training Is Critical. The article is a fast read and worth your time, but here is what caught my attention: The job market is always churning. About 7 million workers lose or leave jobs each quarter and, when the economy is growing, more than 7 million are added to payrolls. Companies hiring right now include makers of aircraft and medical equipment, shipbuilders and refiners of petroleum and sugar. At the same time, losses continue to sock the textile, apparel, auto and other industries. 7 million jobs churn each quarter. That is a staggering number and helps to define what… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Hardest Working Country
South Korea. At least according to some survey mentioned in this Forbes.com article. This may make your job look better: If you thought you worked long hours, consider 39-year-old Lee from South Korea. A civil servant at the ministry of agriculture and fisheries, Lee gets up at 5:30 a.m. every day, gets dressed and makes a two-hour commute into Seoul to start work at 8:30 a.m. After sitting at a computer for most of the day, Lee typically gets out the door at 9 p.m., or even later. By the time he gets home, it’s just a matter of jumping in the shower and collapsing into bed, before starting the… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat’s Your Bar Personality?
The Memorial Day weekend is here so why not kick off the unofficial start of summer with an “assessment.” You can take the short assessment at SalesHQ. Here is my result: Friendly Regular You’re at home in the bar…but dancing is not so much your thing. Casual conversation, light flirting, or live music is your ideal night. You enjoy a nice beer and a good glass of wine, occasionally a cocktail. This is a great lifestyle for a hard worker like you! Yeah, we won’t be using this assessment in our hiring process.
Continue ReadingTalkin’ About My Generation
From BusinessWeek.com’s Ten Reasons Gen Xers Are Unhappy at Work (my editing): Corporations really need Gen X—folks in their 30’s to early 40’s, who should begin to serve as our primary corporate leaders over the next couple years. But I fear many current corporate executives are taking this small and therefore precious group for granted. Why are many X’ers uncomfortable in corporate life? 1. X’ers’ corporate careers got off to a slow start and many are still feeling the pain. You graduated when the economy was slow and the huge bulge of Boomers had already grabbed most of the key jobs. As an article in the May, 1985 issue of… Read More
Continue ReadingDefining Leadership
Inc.com’s Boss School blog discusses a topic that seems like it might be a distinction without a difference – leadership vs. management. However, I think the author hits a perfect chord right at the start: Leadership isn’t the same thing as management. Leadership is about providing vision as to where the company is going. It’s about inspiring and motivating. It’s about instilling a certain amount of comfort that someone wiser than you is going to figure a way out of a mess. I often think of managing as being somewhat akin to being a zookeeper. You keep things in order and provide needed resources. That’s not the greatest metaphor, but… Read More
Continue ReadingRecruiting Buzzwords Exposed
Well, this is only fair – ERE offers up an article with the real definition of common recruiting buzzwords/phrases. Some of the buzzwords from the rather extensive list: Ad-hoc (adj.) Usage: “There will also be some ad-hoc projects required.” Definition: A catch-all phrase used by corporations to describe the countless hours of manpower invested in activities unrelated to one’s job function, generally evoked at the whim of departmental heads. DOE (acr.) see also depending on experience.Usage: “I am unable to provide a salary range for the position as it is DOE.” Definition: Whereby a company unable to pay market rate for a position compensates by placing the blame on candidate… Read More
Continue ReadingMarketing Buzzwords Exposed
LOVE this article from SalesHQ – Marketing Buzzword Bingo. The author shares my disdain for marketing buzzwords. The article is simply a list of buzzwords with his definition for each one. Some examples: Reputation management – controlling information flow to that which I want known Lifelong value – guess at how much money we would make out of a fictitious customer who stays with us for life, however long that is. Lifetime value – same guess Out-sourcing – stuff we have given up doing because we thought it was too hard In-sourcing – stuff we outsourced that we lost control over and had to do ourselves again to save costs… Read More
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