Reinke Faces Life

http://www.emurse.com/about

About Emurse.com
Information about Emurse.com

***Begin Quote***

Emurse, an anagram for Resume, is a powerful online tool designed to help take control of your job hunt. Some features:

• Resume Builder
• Resume Website
• Resume Management
• Networking
• Personalized Job Postings
• Job Search
• Job Hunt Organizer

***End Quote***

I’m not so sure that I buy into that it does all of these things, but it does “do” resumes. As such, I’ve always thought that the universe needed an xml for resumes. Maybe this is it. I think it can save those “out” some time and effort. Those “in” can use it for the passive trolling everyone should be doing. If you think like I do that I’ll never have another job, please visit my turkey farm (http://tinyurl.com/lxu93) and check out the accommodations, you’ll be there soon. Every time I am sure of something, the Universe orders me up a whole big heaping dish of “humble pie” and sends me a lesson.

ymmv fwiw I like it,
fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

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UPDATE: Fixed typo. Argh!

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From: Robyn Greenspan
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 2:51 PM
Subject: participate in ExecuNet article?

Hi,

Your reputation as a master networker has qualified you for participation in an upcoming ExecuNet article. I’m trying to learn about your networking techniques, motivation, the goals, the successes and anything else you think would be insightful to our senior executive readership. Executives often complain that they don’t have the time to network. How do you maintain a strong – and high quality — network when you have a very busy life? Share both your common sense tips along with any interesting or unique ideas or stories that are related to your networking activities.

The article will be published as a cover story in CareerSmart Advisor – ExecuNet’s biweekly print publication with a senior-level executive readership of roughly 25,000 – and I have attached some recent copies so you can become more familiar with the format and content.

If this offer interests you and you would like to be quoted or used a source for this article, please jot down your best networking tips and stories and send to me by Friday, June 29. You supply the expert advice and we’ll take care of the punctuation, spelling and grammar.

If you have any questions or want to further discuss, call or email me. 800.637.3126

Thanks in advance for your time and attention, and have a great weekend!

Robyn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robyn Greenspan
Senior Editor
ExecuNet
The Center for Executive Careers
http://www.execunet.com
FREE subscription to Executive Insider:
http://www.execunet.com/e_resources_ei_signup.cfm

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Robyn:

Liar, liar, pants on fire. “reputation as a master networker” Indeed! Really “just a big old fat turkey that’s too dumb for his own good” would probably be more accurate.

But, here’s a thought for the readership. Hope this helps,

fjohn

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Here’s the full text of my submission.

***Begin Quote***

You’ll be unemployed too some day. Maybe even sooner than you think. “I’ll get you my pretty and your little dog too!” Oh, wrong movie. It’s not the wicked witch of the west; it’s the grim reaper of unemployment. It is the movie of YOUR life played out in slow motion. Today you’re on top of the world, making “big bux”, spending like Diamond Jim, underlings kowtow at the mention of your name, executive search firms call you, everyone takes your call, recruiters obsequiously ask if you have any needs. Tomorrow, the roof falls in.

Maybe it’s Katrina that delivers your industry a KO punch. Think of all the suppliers to the Biloxi casinos. Maybe it’s Google who decides that they want to be in the Word Processing space. Think of all the sites that are glorified word processing. Or maybe Google want to do email for eyeballs. Bye, bye Hotmail, Yahoo mail, and a hundred websites with their own branded webmail offering. I don’t know your industry, geography, or competitive landscape. But I do know “Change Happens”. Be assured that it’s happening to you.

And, it’s not just professionally. Grey hair catching up to you. Calendar turned over one to many times. Yup, in the big turkey’s patent copyrighted secret “how much cushion do I need” formula, for every half-decade over forty add one to your multiplier. If you’re a 40 year old exec making a 100k in a hot field, it’s 10 * 1 week * 1 for age = 10 weeks to replace your current paycheck. If you’re a 60 year old, make that 10 * 1 week (the field is still hot) * 4 (but you’re not) = 40 weeks. Wow! Do you have ten months money to “tide you over” till your next paycheck? Thought not. If you don’t plan your career, then why should we think you plan your money. In some fields the metric is in Quarters; in financial accounting it’s even more (i.e., there are a ton of CFOs around like beached whales). I was quoted more than a decade ago in Execunet saying “Time has not stood still. Age is not respected. Experience is not valued. And, Education is not revered.” More true today than a decade ago.

Scared yet? Don’t have time to network yet! Can’t happen to you, right? Call me when it does.

Ever since my first transition, I have run a free “turkey farm” for those unfortunates who get the ax. In the last decade, I have only been empty one for about a month. My wait list is currently 4 for what I call “CPR for your job search”. Do I do it for them? Heck no. I do it for myself. It reminds me every day that I could just as easily be on that side of the glass looking to get “in”. I have five picture frames on my office wall at home and at work. The five active turkeys’ networking profiles are there for me to see every time I look up. It’s rare that frames are empty long. Feel like someone’s gaining on you. It’s the Grim Reaper of Unemployment. So to, I’m reminded to help them and in doing so help myself. Mrs. Reinke didn’t raise no fool. I learn them rules real good! It says “help before being helped”.

Scared yet? Good!

But it’s not all bad. Believe it or not Fat Old White Guys (And there are women and minorities in that pejorative as well. It’s a genre. A mindset.) do have an advantage if they recognize it. We know what didn’t work. You can peddle that to other FOWGs who have to make their numbers, deliver a working product, or meet a schedule. They are up to their navels in undisciplined talent. What they need are “leaders”. Not CEOs, but working leaders who can do while teaching and mentoring. You have to become entrepreneurial. You are the CEO of “Me, myself and I INK”. Even if you are in a big company as an employee, you have to be selling and delivering value. You have to always express your Unique Value Proposition, deliver your Unique Sales Proposition, and have your extensive staff of imaginary experts just working effectively and efficiently on the things that will keep the value pouring into your checkbook.

Does it end? Yes, when you’re planted in your final position, the lid’s closed, and they shovel some dirt on you.

So what should you do first? Take Execunet seriously when they say do: x, y, and z. Your five year old resume (Seems like 5 years plus or minus two is the average tenure for a “job”) claims that you are “an innovative problem solver” (have yet to see one that doesn’t somewhere claim that), so here a problem to solve. It’s “yours”. Where’s your next paycheck coming from?

For those into activity lists, here are some suggestions:

· Renew Execunet for five years. Read it every day for 15 minutes every week day.

· Buy lifetime subscription to Jibber Jobber. Put all your networking contacts in. Call – Email – IM one every day and ask if they need help with something. (Give help before you have to ask for it.) Spend 15 minutes daily every week day.

· Sign up for LinkedIn. Find all your networking contacts. Write one endorsement every week day for 15 minutes.

· Find five people who are out of work and help them with their process Spend 15 minutes on a different one every week day.

· Do a McKay66 on every decision maker you came in contact with last week. 60 minutes on Saturday.

· Do a imaginary Board of Directors meeting. 60 minutes on Sunday.

Get started. When the axe does fall, as it always does, you’ll have bought yourself time, help, goodwill, and possibly some wisdom. I’ll probably have landed in my final spot before I hear from you. But be advised, I’ll be rooting for you from upstairs or down, where ever I’m sent.

***End Quote***

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From: Robyn Greenspan
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 11:58 AM
Subject: RE: participate in ExecuNet article?

Fjohn,

Thanks for your contribution to CareerSmart Advisor – our biweekly print publication with a senior executive readership of roughly 25,000. Your time and expertise enables us to maintain our 19-year history of providing the highest quality career management information to our membership so they can set their professional strategies for success.

The electronic version of the issue that was mailed to our membership this week is attached, and it will be permanently archived on our site as well. Feel free to post it on your website or distribute among your network.

Robyn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robyn Greenspan
Senior Editor
ExecuNet
The Center for Executive Careers
http://www.execunet.com
FREE subscription to Executive Insider:
http://www.execunet.com/e_resources_ei_signup.cfm

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I send out a lot of Plaxo Birthday greetings. I don’t know if it makes a lot of difference, but it “feels” like a meaningful connecting type activity. As always YMMV!

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From a email with a fellow turkey

***Begin Quote***

Here’s my feedback. A picture is worth a thousand words. Most of my turkeys don’t get the idea of a compacting the header. It’s the most important space on the resume. Your resume is two pages. I think you should either “fill up” two or make it one. I don’t have a ruler handy but I bet more that than 50% is wasted. It’s critical that the first half page be the most well used. It might be all that gets read before it gets tossed. It could save the game. I always say if your the right person, the reader will get out a magnifying glass to read your name. Name, phone, and email on one small header line in 8 point font is all that needed. Do that an I bet you get back 2″x7″ or fourteen square inches of prime resume landscape.

***End Quote***

He made what I call the “classic letter” mistake. You know when you were in grammar school and you wrote a letter, it looked like:

dd mmmmm, yyyy

xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx

Dear xxxxx,

So to, he put his name, address, phone, and email in that left column sort of format. 6 lines that took a quarter of the width and made a huge barren area. So I used MS-Paint to color some stuff in there.

:-)

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http://www.ere.net/articles/db/3D129B2B49624023B18453BAFF93EF41.asp

Blow The Sucker Up?
Challenging our assumptions on finding, enticing, and hiring talent
Thursday, July 12, 2007 | by Kevin Wheeler

***Begin Quote***

Assumption #4: Each candidate has to be interviewed in person. Interviews are very poor predictors of success or performance. A good behavioral interview may improve the prediction by a bit but still not raise it much above chance. While it is in human nature to want to meet and like a person we are going to work with, this meeting should not be equated with skill or ability assessment. There are hundreds of excellent, legal, affordable tests available for more accurately screening candidates. These tools, combined with a website also designed as a screening tool, can greatly improve your ability to select candidates who have the capability, the motivation, and the skills to perform. It is possible to entirely skip the interview and get better-quality candidates than you do today.

***End Quote***

That’s a stunning concept. Get a job without an interview. That could be web-able!

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http://www.net-temps.com/adcgi/banner.cgi?ref=crnews&ch=2520&id=crs_2520

Here’s a Powerful Little Job Search Secret
© Written By Jimmy Sweeney
President of CareerJimmy and Author of the new, www.Amazing-Cover-Letters.com

***Begin Quote***

There are two magical words that can transform your job search. Two words that can land you more job interviews. Two words that can bring you more job offers…

Those two magical words are, “Follow up.”

***End Quote***

My added wisdom to this tip is that you just don’t just “follow up”.

You have to have the paradigm of “follow up” well integrated into your Standard Operating Procedure. When I was “out”, I used Lucht and his workbook as ONE of my tools. (Best 100$ I ever spent.) But, it was changes to my SOP that made it easy to “follow up”. And a log book.

I feel that I have a terrible memory. (It’s probably too crowded with Jeopardy answers from my own good. Name the four states who capital begins with the same first letter as the state? Done!) SO I try to compensate. I was always logging in my “job search book”. Quick what’s the name of the receptionist at the job interview at XXXXXXX on July 17, 1996. Ms. Mary Stein. (I cheated I had that factoid ready.) But, I have decades of that kind of stuff from when I’ve been “out”.

Now I have everything in text files on my notebook, backed up offline. It’s search able and usable.

My SOP is to log everything.

I grabbed business cards and anything that was being handed out. See the trick was to do it contemporaneously. Even waiting until you were out of the building was too late. I used McKay’s 66 to put as much context around the people. Ms Stein was partial to blue flowers having one on her desk and was pictured with one in a photo on her desk.

Does it matter in the grand scheme of things? I don’t know.

Another SOP of mine was to have several pre-stamped thank yous in my attache case. After meeting with any one, I’d “debrief” at a local coffee shop and write those notes. I felt I was especially tricky in that I had different looking ones for multiple interview days. (I actually had five different stock styles.) And, I would compose a “unique” note to each target. I had “stock text” printing in my bag that I copied from generics with things like <insert question form interview here>. But each target would get a customized thank you. In at least one instance, I know that the three targets compared their notes. I didn’t get the job, but did get the feed back that they were impressed. Not impressed enough though to hire me. Argh!

It’s all about having an SOP to follow. Makes it easy.

Another SOP was to send a thank you to the receptionist with something non-generic. On a repeat appearance at XXXXXXXX, the nice Ms. Stein introduced me to the interviewer, as that “thoughtful fellow I told you about”. Didn’t get the job! Argh! But maybe she was the reason I got the call back, and I was just a bad interview. Who knows!?!

Bottom line: Use SOPs that make it “brain dead” simple to follow up.

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FROM ERN

Strategic Recruiting

***Begin Quote***

The problem with the term “Human Capital” is that it perpetuates the notion that human beings are interchangeable anonymous widgets. People who are treated as if they were capital, start to behave like capital. They move to the source of the highest return as quickly as possible without regard to loyalty.

***End Quote***

Loyalty? You have to be kidding me. This goes back to the paradigm of “managing things; leading people”. There’s no loyalty today in any industry. It’s not about being crass materialists. It IS about “reciprocity”. Treat me like that “human capital” and I’ll treat you similarly.

Forewarned is forearmed!

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I think you can definitely apply one of my other ideas (i.e., one full time job can equal 10 half day part time jobs in your own business).

If you have your own business, then you could section that ~40 hours in whatever form works. Pile on part-time gooferment positions, teaching, mowing lawns, whatever, and you’ve got it.

One of my old friends is NY real estate lawyer and he has four part-time jobs to supplement his practice. One is as a ref. He treats it all as a biz and keeps careful track of his expenses, earnings, and time. He been doing it happily for a decade. You could too.

>if I should apply for a half-time job in spite of the money,
>possibly while starting a web design consultancy

Well certainly, apply. Assume that it’s morning five days a week. That gives you afternoons to develop other opportunities. If you’re “out” and burning that cash, then at least it slows the crash into broke-ness. I think you have to be flexible.

How about teaching? Are there opportunities for tutoring “students” (i.e., children; elementary schoolers; high schoolers; college students; business people; senior citizens)?

Have your heard of LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project)? It puts Linux local area networks into schools and other places to avoid the Microsoft tax and upgrade treadmill. How about installing and supporting open source packages like Moodle (a quiz type package)? For example, for a teacher, in school or business, who needs to educate and test on the cheap, put up Moodle and load the content for the teacher and support.

I think if you’re going to go the 10 part-time jobs route, then you’re going to have to be on the bleeding edge in terms of identifying, learning, deploying, and implementing “stuff”. I’d be super ALERT for “fall out”, “reuse”, and “spin offs”.

Fall out are ideas that come out of something you do and you capture it and exploit it. Reuse is figuring something out once “at cost” and then “mark it up and profit from it”. Spin off is identifying the pre-cursor, thinning streamline, fattening offering more, or follow on activities for profit.

To pull this off, you’re going to have to be aggressively sensitive measured disciplinarian. Aggressive in seeking any earning opportunity. Sensitive in “feeling” any hint of a paying gig. Measured in all the metrics that you think move cash into your checkbook. And, finally disciplined in not giving away for free what you should be charging for, project overruns or scope creep, or “lazy”.

Some Eastern & Western philosophies believe that it’s the Id that give the great ideas that the SuperEgo scares you into believing that they can’t work. Your fears and decisions got you to where you are now. Satisfied with that? Yes, keep doing what you are doing. No, try something different. “Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”

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FROM A SEEKER’S QUESTION

***Begin Quote***

Welcome. The networking process is whatever you make it. Unlike first grade math, there is NO right answer. There’s NO one way to network. And NO one has the Lone Ranger’s silver bullets, Wonder Woman’s golden rope, or a “get out of unemployment free” card. Each of us probably has their own take on it. I’d call your attention to all the resources here, You have a lot of experienced people here, who can share their take on it.

If you’re a reader, I am particular fan of Lucht. He has a very stylized view of what networking is. I’ve used it and it worked for me. I’d extract it as: get in front of people face2face, listen to them, give elevator speech, and ask for two names. In his model, one never asks a networking contact for job because it’s embarrassing to both. His key is to keep taking networking meetings to learn “stuff”. In my mind it’s a the other leg of “finding a job” — one leg is getting interviews and the other leg is networking.

My twist is that I like folks to have a Unique Value Equation and a Unique Sales Proposition before going off networking and interviewing. But that what I “teach”. If you read the old posts here, you find out that I’m a “fat old turkey” who’s been in transition more times than I care to count. SO that is my credential for having the temerity to give anyone advice.

Feel free to ask lots of questions, (I did!), visit my “turkey farm” http://tinyurl.com/lxu93, read my blog, or just ignore me. :-) I’m the pushy type with no feelings to hurt. Remember the only “dumb” question is the one you DON’T ask because guaranteed some one else is thinking the exact SAME question but is too … (let’s say) timid … to ask.

Good luck,
fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

***End Quote***

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