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.
Circuit City has announced that they are cutting an additional 850 jobs, on top of the previously announced 3,400 jobs that they cut earlier this year. Now they are targetting store executives, cutting some stores down to 3 managers from the 5 that all stores had. They are also cutting 200 jobs at Circuit City corporate.
It is a shame to see any company cut jobs like this. I wonder if Circuit City has taken a look at the root of the problem – what caused the company to get to the point where they need to make this decision? Have they thought about their customer service policies? Their training? Their merchandise assortment?
When I talk to my tech-inclined friends about Circuit City, they all say the same thing: they don’t enjoy shopping there. Prices aren’t good and sales people are undertrained and unknowledgable. This isn’t a problem at one location; this is a problem across the chain. People don’t enjoy shopping there.
The retailer has also announced plans to open 165 new stores, after closing 60 earlier this year. The new stores will be a smaller, redesigned layout that is more customer-focused. Good, but is that too little too late?
No doubt that Circuit City can prove the layoffs as being a financial necessity right now. However, with some better forethough, some revamping, and some twaking of policies over the past few years, Circuit City could have remained competitive in the marketplace. Their underperfomance is nothing new. By constantly evaluating what is working and what isn’t over time, 4,000 people wouldn’t be out of a job today.
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.
Wal-Mart faces more legal problems ahead. Today, the New Jersey supreme court has certified a class action lawsuit against the retailer for claims that the retailer denied workers’ meal breaks, forced them to work off the clock, and forced them to work on the breaks.
More from Forbes (NJ Court Certifies Wal-Mart Class-Action) and the Asbury Park Press (Wal-Mart to face New Jersey class-action pay suit).
This is probably not a good thing for Wal-Mart, as they have previously lost similar class action lawsuits in Pennsylvania and California (I talked about the PA verdict last year). These kinds of cases are a reminder to all other retailers that they have to stay on top of labor practices, and more importantly, they are responsible for what their store-level management is doing. I’m sure Wal-Mart is not the retailer that is at fault, but these high profile cases send ripples through the industry.
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.
