Reinke Faces Life

METHODOLOGY: STOP before you go

Tim Gallwey introduces the idea of taking a STOP in his book The Inner Game of Work. STOP stands for Step back, Think, Organize your thoughts, Proceed. There are short and long stops and we will be taking both of these on our Work / Life Balance Journey. Bob Tschannen-Moran reflected on Tim Gallwey’s STOP by saying, “It is the STOP before the journey that enables us to go with confidence”.

Sometimes ideas just make sense!

http://execunet.blogspot.com/2007/06/fear-induced-lethargy.html

Friday, June 01, 2007
Fear Induced Lethargy
Dave Opton

***Begin Quote***

John came up with the phrase “fear induced lethargy” in a communication he was sending to one of the many folks who come to him for free advice regarding their search. John, who, like many of us, has far more experience in looking for a job than he would like, has what some might consider a pretty cynical outlook on a number of things. Said differently, the advice he dispenses from what is clearly a very giving and compassionate heart is neither “warm” nor “fuzzy.” It falls much more into the Howard Cosell school of career management circa 2007. Hence the phrase “fear induced lethargy.”

***End Quote***

But, I don’t have the rug, chew a cigar, or have a Dandy Don Meridith as a foil.

You have to remember that I’m an injineer, and not into “warm” and “fuzzy” “soft people skills”. Want that building built? Great here’s the plan, that’s the schedule, where’s the “go ahead”? I don’t have time, money, attention, or the will to worry if someone’s feelings are a little bruised.

(Although I am much more gentle with students fresh out of school, they don’t pretend to be experienced.)

Humans have the stubbornness of a burro – camel – <insert favorite animal>, and the density of concrete when they want to do what they want to do.

Someone once quipped that “insanity was doing the same thing and expecting different results”. Turkeys can send out tons of paper with no response, and will happily order another ream of paper to send some more.

Turkeys can be like the drunk looking for the lost keys by the light; not where they lost them. “But I got my last job as a junior programmer from Monster” says the CIO with great self-assurance.

Out on my “turkey farm”, (http://tinyurl.com/lxu93) I see senior people, who claim to be all sorts of great things, stuck in the “slop”. Sometime, like that proverbial mule, you have to give a “stuck turkey” a good swift kick. Actual a lot of harsh words and ruffled feathers, there’s no kicking at the turkey farm.

I’m sorry, but I would hope to be seen as the cute and cuddly Lew Gossage Jr. in an Officer and a Gentlemen. I’d like to salute all my graduated turkeys (135 by my count — since I started counting — who never sent me my dollar!) that are off earning big bucks and don’t much care how mean they thought I was. Heck, they rarely look back. I’m the reminder of Bad Times Past. It’s OK I’m paying off all the people that helped me.

Now excuse me, I have to get back in the slop, and help an old network turkey understand that he has only 15 seconds to “hook” a sucker … err, I mean a hiring manager.

Sigh!

Thanks for the kind words, even if they are a little harsh. ;-)

fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

METHODOLOGY kick off
STRATEGY ***
TACTICS ***
TECHNOLOGY ***
=======================

Dear fellow turkey,

OK campers, campadres, and fellow turkeys,

I shot my mouth off and said things like … “we” need more focus on the methodology of job search, the strategy in a search, the tactics to use in a search, and the technology of the tools of job search.

And this is what you get for being a big mouth.

I’m going to try to “help” you understand what I am babblling about.

Lest you think that I am just your average horse’s petute, I have been through “transition” many times. Yup many! Two voluntarily, one semi-voluntary, and two involuntarily. Others can’t even remember or categorize!

I’ll try to help you understand what I have learned. And, some of the “beliefs” that I hold.

The is all offered with the spirit of a fellow seeker. While I am “in” right now, I could be “out” in a wink. See I am one of those strange oddballs who think that “transition” can be a source of earnings.

If you are organized and prepared, then think of it as being paid not to work!

I will explain in future messages.

Please feel free to tell me I’m nuts. You won’t be the first and you won’t be the last. I promise to not be insulted. ;-)

AS ALWAYS, take everything offered with a large grain of NaCl. Your mileage can, and will vary!

And, as Frau Reinke reminds me often:

— when “OUT”, “if you’re so smart, then why are you UNEMPLOYED”!

— when “IN”, “if you’re so smart, then why aren’t you RICH”!

;-)

FWIW, all free advice is just that,
Fjohn
yet another fellow turkey
just bigger and dumber

METHODOLOGY all things smart
STRATEGY ***
TACTICS ***
TECHNOLOGY ***
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Dear fellow turkey,

A SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Time-bound.

You do have goals. Don’t you?

I was taught eons ago SPIRO Specific, Personal, Intrinsically rewarding, Realizable, and Objective.

Whatever mnemonic you use, (and I’d like to hear them), use one!

You need to have things like this, lest you go off spinning your wheels on activities that are exemplars of the The Peter Principle’s activity trap. You know, when you’re doing lots of STUFF but making no progress. I would assert that for seekers the activity trap is deadly. Unless you can be like Edison (“I haven’t failed. I now know 1500 ways not to make a light bulb.”), “no progress” is worse than it sounds. You’re losing time. All the while your burn rate is depleting your store of cash reserves. If you’re not earnin, you’re burnin.

In the IT world, where I grew up, projects and activities and processes and all sorts of stuff take on a life of their own. Searching internet job sites is wonderful BUT only as it pertains to your overall METHODOLODY, STRATEGIES, TACTICS, and TOOLS. Otherwise I’d rather you just played FREECELL (I have gone 292 games without a loss), at least you wouldn’t be fooling yourself about what you are accomplishing.

FWIW, your mileage may vary, all free advice is just that,
Fjohn
yet another fellow turkey
just bigger and dumber

http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx?
docid=262442&tag=nl.e138

http://tinyurl.com/2uaxau

10 fatal flaws of a doomed employee
John McKee

***Begin Quote***

Overview: You’re fired! This succinct phrase strikes more fear into the heart of the working man or woman than any other. Why is it, then, that many well-intentioned and reasonably astute professionals hear these words throughout their career despite all best efforts? Business coach John McKee shares this list of 10 self-destructive workplace habits sure to endanger your longevity on the job–things like failing to deliver results, confusing efficiency with effectiveness, and believing that you’re irreplaceable.

***End Quote***

#1 Failure to have a life plan.

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Your unique sales proposition

I was recently asked by a seeker’s husband to “look over” his wife’s resume since he “knows I am good at that sort of stuff”. Arghh. (Note to self: Learn to keep your big mouth shut.) Trying to live up to my own self image as a good soul, I said “sure”. Mistake #1 is saying yes to an intermediary. So I looked over the resume.

It wasn’t “so bad”. No typos that I could see. Decent format. Two page length OK. So, I didn’t go berserk, as I am won’t to do. I compared it to the resumes of the seven turkeys I am trying to help. (Easy enough to do since I have them pinned to my wall next to my desktop. As a reminder to me as to what happens if I get “lazy”.)

All of a sudden it struck me. There difference between theirs and hers was the USP!

Each one of the seven. Probably as a result on my nagging, whining, and ceaseless groaning, all had an immediately identifiable Unique Sales Proposition.

I could tell in a few seconds what of my problems would this turkey would solve for me. Now I may not have that specific problem. In which case, that seeker won’t get an interview from me. But if I do have that problem, the resume impels me to get that person in front of me. That is after all the only purpose of a resume is to get someone to talk to the seeker.

Everything on my turkeys’ resumes support their USP. The intro, whether they have labeled it “profile”, or “objective”, or unlabeled, states the problem that they are going to solve for me. The job history, whether they call it “Experience”, “Professional Experience”, “Chronology”, or “Selected Accomplishments”, in every item sings why I should believe that they can solve my problem. Education ditto. Ditto ditto ditto. On the turkey resumes, there is nothing that doesn’t advance the USP. Nothing that distracts from the USP.

You may need several different resumes. One size doesn’t fit all.

You see that is what was wrong with this co-worker’s wife’s resume. When I read it, I thought of five different jobs she might be applying for. So that is what is “wrong” with her resume. Now she may get interviews off of it. But, I comparing one turkey, who is similar to her, I know which one I’d chose to talk to first.

So does your resume advance your USP?

Gobble, gobble, good luck to you,
fjohn
Just A Big Turkey

===
Your value proposition is a series of statements defining your worth. It is the value you bring to the table – the skills, strengths, core competencies, marketable assets and accomplishments you can declare as your own. Your value proposition describes your uniqueness – your unique gifts. It is what differentiates you from the crowd.

Think about some of the statements you can make about yourself that reflect the skills, strengths and competencies you possess. What makes you uniquely you? What is your value, your worth? Begin to jot down some ideas. You might want to ask someone who knows you well what values they see in you. You may be surprised by what they say. Then begin to formulate the best way of stating this.

Your value proposition is the cornerstone for all self-introductory communication. It sets the tone. It’s how you make your mark. It is how you describe yourself when you are networking, when you are conducting an exploratory meeting with senior management, and when you are interviewing.

Your value proposition should be used as your primary response whenever you are asked these types of questions:

So tell me about yourself?
How are you different from every other candidate?
Why should I consider you for this position?
How do you know you can do the job?
Why do I want to get to know you better?
Your value proposition also becomes an integral part of your resume. It is placed at the top, so it sets the tone. It holds tremendous weight as a differentiating tool, swiftly setting you, and your resume, apart from the rest.

There is a fundamental difference between your value proposition and your areas of expertise. Your areas of expertise pertain to what you have done, the experiences you have gained over the years. Your value proposition reflects who you are, the unique gifts you possess. It is who you are which best describes to an employer how you would accomplish the specific responsibilities of the position offered.

As an example, let’s say you gained experience in a cash flow / cash management, or Treasury, type of function. As part of this position, you also gained experience working with bank executives, establishing important relationships with key personnel. These would be areas of expertise. Let’s say that as part of your uniqueness, or worth, you have great macro-vision, which is the ability to see the big picture. You also have an unusual ability to communicate which allows you to quickly initiate critical relationships with high- level executives. These abilities are part of your value proposition. It is your macro-vision and unusual ability to communicate that describe how you would fulfill a position as Treasurer.

Incorporating your value proposition in every aspect of your job search will set you apart and significantly improve your competitive stance in the job market.You will find your next job faster and be in position to receive a much stronger compensation package.It is critical to your success.

– David Richter

Paper Hats

The Story

When I was first “nuked”, I was very very lucky. I was given outplacement services. That, in and of itself, was slightly less than useful. Although I very quickly came to some personal and situtational realizations. How based in reality they were I am still not sure. Personally, I knew it couldn’t be me. I had recognized that slowly, over time, as more nukings were occurring, I was “losing” allies, “giving up organizational ground”, and momentum. But, I “knew” in my gut that there was nothing “wrong” with me. Well maybe a little in that I could not figure out how to fix the situation. Perhaps it wasn’t even fixable? Or smart enough to jump ship before it happened? Or, perhaps, going down with the ship was the best result that I could achieve under the circumstances. To this day, when I think about these questions it gives me a headache. So realization #1 is that it wasn’t me. Shortly after that, I figured out on my own, that I was given “outplacement services” not for my benefit but for theirs. So realization #2 is that extract what I can from outplacement and move along.

The lucky part was that at outplacement, I fell in with a bunch of interesting talent souls in the same boat from various other firms. It was a bunch of kindred spirits sitting around the “kitchen” in the midst of doom and gloom, the flotsam of the jobsearch process (i.e., want ad sections of past papers) and the jettison (i.e., the outplacement firm’s “suggestion” papers), that someone came up with the label of the “Turkey Farm”. And, that each individual was a “turkey” of sorts. We were there after getting the metaphorical axe and didn’t have enough sense to die. Some objected that they in particular weren’t “turkeys”, but misunderstood, betrayed, misappraised, or such. We eventually started writing these objections on index cards and posting them on the bulleting board. The rump group would eventually shout down the objectors with the essential fact that since they were at the the “turkey farm”, they were by definition “turkeys”. Eventually, all protestations were either shouted and hooted down. Most realized the truth of the matter.

Starting as the gallows humor of a bunch of condemned prisoners, inmates of the turkey farm, it eventually morphed into a team. Just because they were in the turkey farm, there were a lot of talented individuals. Give them some time and an inescapable realization, and as you would expect good things started flowing out. A fraternity emerged. The turkey farm was run by Drake Beam Morin. Their shorthand label was DBM. We recognized that the was an essential difference between the counselors and the turkeys. The counselors were being paid; the turkeys weren’t. We created a label Delta Beta Mu for the group of us turkeys.

A long about the same time, small groups of like souls began cooperating. I don’t know how it started. Initially it was twos and three of diverse souls working as teams. I was drawn into a team with a marketing guy and a financial guy. Since we were looking for different things it wasn’t competitive but cooperative.

I know that when I “found” leads for which I was overqualified, unqualified, outside my geographic comfort zone, or outside my financial comfort zone, I would create a “finding”. I’d pass it around my group, and if they weren’t interested I’d stick it on the bulleting board in the kitchen. Eventually lots of people were doing the same things.

From those meager beginnings, evolved a job finding machine. Teams formed, reformed, ideas flowed, and a great amount of energy was released. Eventual among the many ideas and insights that came out, was the idea of roles. You see what makes it so very very hard for the average job seeker is that they have to fulfill many roles at the same time. If they don’t realize it, then they don’t recognize the things that need to be done. They are then sucked into the legendary activity trap. Not realizing that they are wasting themselves by not working on the correct problem.

There was one “poor” soul who stands out in my mind. I write this to call your attention to the concept of “roles”. This individual was a CFO of F1000 who was great except for one blind spot. He was unable, unwilling, or just being dense, but he couldn’t get the concept that he had to look at the problem from different points of view. While he eventually landed, he made it much tougher on himself than it had to be. At one Friday session, (Friday being an especially dead day in the job search world.), the rump group who was being the Board Of Directors for any who wanted it. (The Board Of Directors would play act and people would report to them on progress and get helpful suggestions.) This fellow was badgered into “reporting” how he was doing. They used the ultimate punishment to try and help him. Scorn. They challenged him, if he was so smart, to present how he was doing so they could learn from him. That and they threatened to withhold coffee. Any way, in his presentation, they found him to be unorganized, unfocused, and unable to understand what was now to them the rudiments of how to organize a job search. It was very contentious. At one point very sarcastically one BoD guy made a bunch of little paper hats with labels like “VP Marketing” and insisted that he wear it. Then he was FORCED to be focused on Marketing. They would not permit him to wander to any other topic. He couldn’t confuse the issue or interject other items.

Bottom line, he eventually landed. But, I am not sure he ever really understood. I on the other had too my paper hats and have always used the concept.

The Principle

Job search is hard because the candidate is, at once and at all times, the product and everything else rolled up into one. Without recognizing the roles, the candidate gets into a hamster wheel of activities that have no strategy. They use tactics that have no alignment with their strategy. They don’t evaluate their results. And, worst, they don’t adjust – strategies, tactics, processes, procedures, or activities – based on what they learn. They are just befuddled.

You as the CEO of a floundering enterprise, and everything else

Congratulations. By virtue of being fired, laid off, downsized, or whatever it was called, you are now the CEO of You, Inc.
From that simple fact, you need to recognize that it’s all you. There is no one coming to help. There is no one who can “help”. It’s you and you alone. “Your mileage may vary!” That’s the phrase you should remember. There’s no ex-boss, rabbi, mentor, headhunter, friend, or spouse who make “this cup pass away”. You are now totally and completely responsible for the results you achieve. You don’t have a group, division, or others to cover for you, to blame failures on, or share the rewards with. It’s all you. So what’s next? Even before we get to you roles, you have to get a Board of Directors to assist you “the Leadership Team” to focus, evaluate the assumptions, see / suggest alternatives, eliminate your blind spots, prevent disasters, critique the plans, and review results.

You as “The CFO”

As the CFO of “YOUINK”, you must quickly have an accurate assessment of where you are, an accurate assessment of what you face, and a
realistic appraisal of how long it will take. No sugar coating. If you need a formula, I can give you one: divide age by ten throw away the remainder, divide salary by 10k throw away the remainder, ask ten networking contacts how long they estimate, take the average multiply the age number and multiply by the salary number. It might be wrong, but use that as you worst case. Next the YOUINK CFO has to assess all the resources available. Do you have the staying power to last? Cut the burn rate like a venture capitalists. Project the financial metric for all the activities that you need to be successful.

You as “The VP of Marketing”

As the Marketing “go-to” person, you have to create one or more Unique Value Propositions that can be sold and delivered. Much harder than it sounds because you have to sort out the emotional “I want to be a basket weaver” from the fact that there’s not much demand for highly compensated basket weavers. Sometimes, an extinct skill is good for a paycheck. You might even be able to craft it into a a career. (I know one fellow who has a “full dance card” doing CICS COBOL maintenance.) You have to pick out the dead ends, unprofitable paths, and those that look good but can’t be sold. You translate the UVPs into and determine the Unique Selling Propositions. You have to assess the market and what will “sell”. What is our product or products? What price? How will we promote the product?

You as “The Product Manager”

As the “Product Manager”, you have to create a “product” based on the USP and identify the differentiators in “our” product. Add, change, and delete features as needed. Repackage skills and achievements into offerings and values.

You as “The Product”

Put your offering in a nice container. Be well presented. You want the “New and Improved” but not used. You should be a lifelong learner capable of satisfying the buyer’s needs. Consistent with the Unique Selling proposition. Expose the “Hidden benefits”. Be a good value; but not “cheap”. Adaptive and flexible. “Re-fill-able”, coach-able, lead-able. A “winner” even when he loses.

You as “The Sales Manager”

You get the USP from the Marketing VP and the product form the Product Manager. Then design a sales process and program that “funnels” from 10k possibles to 1k probably to 100 listeners to 10 try-ers to 1 buyer. (I don’t know what your :”funnel” will look like. I have a few.) Whatever the sections of the funnel are and what the multiplier is, you have to mange the sales funnel, sets quotas, fills the funnel, reports on the funnel.

You as “The Salesman”

You have to meets quotas. (That’s more than “one job”!) We all know that sales is always a numbers game. You have to hear the requisite number of “no”s to get to the “yes”. You presents the product to potential buyers, qualifies the buyers, and gets them to try their “product”. Report activities against targets.

I also think that some one who is “in” will also have additional roles:

• The VP of Operations
• The VP of R&D
• The VP of Accounting
• The VP of IT, IS, and everything techie
• Secretary
• Writer

But, the seeker will have all their work time absorbed by the other roles.

You have to have a very segmented mindset to prevent confusion, hubris, and the “activity trap”. Some seekers never get the concept. it’s a fiction. Maybe you don’t need it. But, I find that most seekers do. They all want to rush their “product” to the marketplace before they’ve done ANY of the ground work. It’s sad. When it doesn’t work, then they get all upset. It’s much more effective and efficient to do it “right” imho.

But, what do I know, I’m just the big fat old turkey hisself.

METHODOLOGY ***
STRATEGY having a skill and
TACTICS ***
TECHNOLOGY ***
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Dear fellow turkey,

http://www.lewrockwell.com/featherstone/featherstone38.html

*** begin quote ***

A skill, on the other hand, is something you can take with you wherever you go. A few tools, maybe, and you’re in business. (When it comes to being an editor, all I need is a pencil. When it comes to being a bike mechanic, the few wrenches I keep in a kit bag on my bike and I’m off!) It is not dependent on the enterprise, or on the goodwill of anyone but paying customers. And not even that, if they are willing to pay for what you can do regardless of how cranky you are.

*** end quote ***

# # # # #

FROM AN EMAIL EXCHANGE WITH A FELLOW TURKEY

>”Misery” just about sums it up.

Nothing is as miserable as being pecked to death by a big fat old turkey!

> I’m getting out of the house to do the introspection/analysis/writing and whatever else it takes.

Unnecessary imho, you can create your UVP in the can with the door locked. Since it’s unlikely to be right on the first shot, it’s an iterative attempt to define an objective.

>Nothing like low-grade panic to focus the attention.

Doesn’t sound like panic. It sounds like fear induced lethargy. What have you been doing between 5/5 and 5/27? What is your Number 1 priority? I’m interested if it’s not creating your UVP?

>Later on today I’ll start professional-izing my website. I’ve only used it for experimentation and such.Again, nice, but who cares. You can have the best web site in the world and no UVP, no one is going to put coins in your cash register.

>My marketing collateral, such as it is, is at .

“Marketing collateral” assumes you have a USellingP. Can’t have that without a UVP. How can you sell a product that you haven’t defined? How can you define a product, if it’s not something you can deliver? It all starts with UVP. (In My not so Humble Opinion)

>The website is the first part of that address. None of it is really public, just my remote file cache.

Again, nice, but …

Also, anything you put out on the internet there is public. I got it. If I did, Google did. If Google did, then any recruiter, HR, or hiring manager did.

If you got no interest or no call backs, that might be why?

>

Focusing on what you DO have. Let me see what you’re UVP might look like.

*** begin quote ***

{Privacy; redacting to prevent identification}

*** end quote ***

OK, you might be able to:

* “Market innovative school networks seeking to leave the high TCO Microsoft environment and move to the low cost LTSP solutions”

* “Make networks happen and do it while bringing Customers, Colleagues, Suppliers, and Consumers to a common level of understanding”

* “Market new network capabilities to solve old business problems”

* “Enable better productivity in Government, NGO, private sector, and real people by using networks innovatively”

* “Save schools money while improving communications by better networking”

How’s that for five UVPs that you MIGHT have (and make big bucks from) but haven’t expressed. They are all drastically different. Which one are you? If not, what are you?

Lunch time is over. Enough fun working on real problems. Back to my employer’s paying ones!

P.S.: I’m adding two more people (in a BCC, so they can decline without offending anyone) to this message.

P.P.S: I am inviting you to help “resuscitate” an old XXXXXXXXX  turkey! I would appreciate any thoughts as we go along in how to get XXXXXXX back into the ranks of the high earners. He’s been deflated for a while, (died of “old age” I think), and we’re trying to give him “jobsearch CPR” and breath some new vigor into him. There’s no greater test of a Turkey Master’s power than to bring “dead” turkeys back to life (with apologies in advance to any religious metaphors). Seriously, my toughest case to date was the fellow who was out of the workforce for 3 years tending to his dying wife. That was essentially really easy. I continue to hone my Turkey Master powers by seeking out the tough old birds to “help”. Maybe some day, I’ll learn humility. So, I’m trying to help ABCABC get back into Information Technology Networking and the big bucks. Being not absolutely confident in my prowess as a Turkey Master, I will of course seek to spread the blame around by involving as many as I can in a successful out come. So, if you of a mind to “help”, please introduce yourself to the “crowd” (i.e., XXXX, YYYY, ZZZZ, and of course me). We are real early in the process and I am trying to get ABCABC to pop with his UVP to start. (Amazing how everyone wants to write resumes to start! Or web sites! Even before deciding what they want to be when they grow up.) Respectfully submitted for your consideration, the biggest fattest oldest turkey hisself

# # # # #

SEEKERS NEED TO HAVE LEGENDS READY TO GO

Here’s some samples.

***Begin Quote***

Significant accomplishments past job, career, and personally

* I created the first formal mentoring program for minority non-college graduate employees to become programmers for AT&T of the initial class of 30, 29 were offered full time jobs and five years later 28 were still there. In an organization that lost 75% of each class in two years, this was a huge success. The program was turned over to HR and in two years results were worse than expected. Management just wouldn’t listen why it was successful. By using “busy programmers” as mentors, the company sacrificed some productivity (maybe theoretical imho) for developing a cadre with spirit de corps. It started with existing non-management employees working in “computer-related” positions with good performance and recommendations, who volunteered for the program, conducted on their own time, working with working programmers, and taking “freshman classes”, maintaining their positions. It was an easy chance for AT&T to develop scarce as hen’s teeth programmers, at a fraction of the cost they were spending. Thirty years later, I ran into one who was a Division Manage in AT&T, who thanked me profusely, for what I did. What a payoff. He was still trying to get the program restarted along the lines he had experienced.

* Being a “skunkswork” type of guy, when I heard from friends at DOD about the Windows NT domain problems, and when my warnings went on deaf ears to MER management, I took one old desktop, and three old IBM Thinkpads and installed NT on them, wrote some code and scripts, and demonstrated the “Monday morning” problem. An NT3.5 domain pdc can only do 2 password changes at a time every 60 seconds (due to a hard limit in the MSFT code) not counting network delay time. The “Monday morning” problem is that, with 70,000 workstations with a 90 day password rotation policy, about a 3,000 users will be forced to change their password on a Monday morning. So the last one completes about Tuesday afternoon. When demonstrated, a redesign was begun on the same day.

* At CSFB, disaster recovery was part of my job. When I met with end users (what a novel idea), I began to get a sense of the “timing” of their business day. Basically they came in on Monday, did some trades, cleared them over the next few days. Each day’s work relied on the prior day’s. So in considering “datacenter disaster recovery”, the metaphor that the datacenter was using said that they were ready in 12 hours. When the business was brought into the plan, recovery was accomplished on the following Monday, regardless of when during the week the disaster occurred. This was a shock to everyone. Recovery planning then began in earnest. The result of that effort was used in the first WTC disaster. I have been told that my wall chart was used in their recovery from the second one as well.

***End Quote***

Every seeker, at some time or another, will be asked to give and example of something or other. They need to be prepared with “epic poems” of great stories. It is certainly possible to have only one or two. But the well-prepared seeker has a virtual stable of these stories. I call them “legends” because they have to be true, easily rolled out when needed, and demonstrate the values that you wish to portray. During my last search, I had 82 when I landed.

A good legend starts as a written document of a true story. It’s at most three paragraphs. I like the PAAR strategy (Problem, Analysis & Actions, and Results). You are selling the A&A. When they hire you then they get the A&A. A legend tells the P and the R. With enough detail to whet the listeners appetite to hear more and ask “how’d you do that”.

A great legend matches the interviewers need. A fantastic one anticipates the problems they expect to have in the future. A rotten one gives away the A&A or generates a “who cares” reaction.

You have to have your legends well rehearsed, but not rote. You have to be able to recall them at the drop a hat with an indicator trigger.

Homer had his stories. Do you?

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