Over at Lightheavyweight, Finn has posted some excellent advice for recent college graduates who are seeking their first job. While geared towards recent college graduates in the design field, I think the advice is worth re-reading for anyone who is going through the job hunt at any stage of their career.
Two of his pieces of advice, “Be prolofic” and “Show your passion” are two things that I think are often forgotten by people as the grind of a job wears them down. During the first tech bubble in the 90′s, I remember looking around at some of the other people in my field who were just getting into technology for a quick buck. In 1998, a comp-sci degree became the new business degree and the industry was flooded with people who had no passion for development or the technologies they were creating.
I think Finn’s dished out some good advice, worth reading no matter what stage of your career you are in. Sometimes we need to look back and rekindle the passion that got you to love what you love, no matter what it is, in the first place. Whether it is design, development, marketing, customer relations, or any of the million other things people do every day, be passionate about what you do and never forget that.
Consumerist has a detailed report about a worker, who was fired from his job at Wal-Mart, based on a comment he left on MySpace:
The exact quote said “Drop a bomb on all the Walmarts, trailer parks, ghettos, monster truck shows, and retarded fake “pro wrestling” events, and the average I.Q. score would probably double.” This was a silly statement, but in no way was a threat as Walmart said and used as reason for my termination and denying my unemployment benefits. On my “Exit Interview” they checked Gross Misconduct – Integrity Issue (which they describe as: Theft, Violent Act, Dishonesty, or Misappropriation of Company Assets) as the reason I was fired. They wrote on the exit interview that it was a threat posted on website; which it clearly is not.
Consumerist provides a more more detailed account from the fired employee. The comments on the story provide an interesting debate and look at employee vs. employer rights, and how far the line extends outside of the workplace.
We live in a digital age and we have to be careful what trace of our lives we leave online.
Transworld has an in-depth article about the state of women’s skate footwear: Is Womens Skate Footwear Still A Viable Category For Independent Retailers? I like this article because it talks about the state of an industry in relation to one single category. How can an entire segment of retailers (independent skate shops) better compete with an entirely different segment of retailers (everyone else). Good analysis, good article.
Walgreen has announced that they are buying in-store health clinic, Take Care Health Systems. They look to expand their in-store health clinics to 400 by the end of 2008. Like I said when Wal-Mart made a similar commitment last month, I think that this move is good for the company and good for consumers.
Finally, troubled VOIP company, Vonage, is having problems hiring and retaining talent. Who would have thought all of the bad press that they have been getting is having an impact on HR?
Position opens up at a store and hypothetical person A expresses interest in it.
It is asked, “Why do you think you deserve the position?”
“Because I’ve been here two years.”
Wrong answer.
Time and time again I’ve watched people flounder in their career when they are approached about a possible promotion, and when asked the important question of why they deserve it, they answer with a reason why they are entitled to the promotion – not what they’ve done to earn it.
Instead of answering, “Because I’ve been here two years”, follow that up with what you’ve done in that time to earn it. “Because I’ve been here two years, and in that time I’ve overseen a sales growth of 10% per year, I’ve had two years of inventory numbers that have beat expectations, and I’ve trained every new employee to maintain a high level of excellence in their position.”
Employers don’t care about how long you’ve been there, they want to know what you’ve done in that time to WOW them. Two years doesn’t mean anything if the person who has been there six months has better results than you.
If your only answer as to why you deserve a promotion is “Because I’ve been here two years”, and you can’t solidify your results during that time, then you are going to be giving the same answer as to why you deserve a promotion at three years, four years, and five years.
Two different blogs, two different sides of the HR ball:
Guy Kawasaki made an excellent post, detailing 15 things you need to know before you step foot into an interview. The post is called Everything You Wanted to Know About Getting a Job in Silicon Valley But Didn’t Know Who to Ask. Although it is geared towards the Silicon Valley tech types, there is very valuable information there for anyone who is interviewing for a new job or a new position.
To me, most of this stuff seems like it would be common knowledge – but I know that, unfortunately, some people just don’t get it. I know two people who recently went into job interviews with all of the right experience that the companies were looking for, but wound up bombing the interview and losing the job.
Could I just add one point to Guy’s post? Be confident. If you’re the interview, have confidence in yourself and your answers. Realize that you are in that spot for a reason, because someone thinks that you may a good fit for the position that they are interviewing for. The people I know that recently bombed their interviews, bombed them because they weren’t confident or didn’t believe in their ability – even though they were both seemingly ready and capable for the new jobs. Confidence, or the lack there of, killed them.
On the other side of the ball is retention. NFIB has a post called Keeping Your Best Employees: Seven Tips for Retaining Talent. Again, this is geared towards small businesses and not necessarily the retail industry, but there are tips there that are valuable and should be taken away by every manager. [via Bizinformer]
