Reinke Faces Life

http://www.enewsbuilder.net/theayersgroup/e_article000541048.cfm?x=b7tg58F,b55f1D3v,w

Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Summer 2006
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 13 
The Age-Advantaged Workforce
by Terry Ebert
Managing Director
Tel: 212.889.7788
terry.ebert@ayers.com

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The fact is inescapable: our workforce is aging. The implications, for companies of all sizes, are unavoidable. As an IBM survey of HR directors concluded: "When the baby boomer generation retires, many companies will find out too late that a career's worth of experience has walked out the door, leaving insufficient talent to fill the void."

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One would guess that the gray workforce can't afford to "retire". You want some reasons?

Inflation will make everything more expensive. Pensions, especially generous ones, will be ditched via the bankruptcy courts. The PGC will pick up the obligations and pay them off at pennies on the dollar. The social security insurance ponzi scheme will go broke, but backed up by the full faith and credit of Washington politicians, it too will pay off pennies on the dollar (e.g., the full benefit age will "magically" go up ex post facto; the benefit amount will shrink; taxability will be tinkered with; all sorts of ifs, maybes, and gotchas will be invented). Oh, an the indexing to inflation, ha ha, just kidding. The COLA will be given based on the core rate of inflation that will only include stuff that doesn't go up and exclude anything that does. Taxes up. Deductions down. Sales taxes up. User fees galore and higher too (e.g., did you hear about the air use fee?).

Maybe it won't be so bad. Want some reasons?

This generation has sacrificed family for work. Hence they have no life or anything to retire for. This generation was raised by the greatest generation and still has some of the old American value of hard work. This generation has learned how to game the system and continued work allows the game to continue. This generation works; the next generation doesn't. So who's going to milk the cows and bake the bread? Yup, outsourced to India or China.

Seriously, what will we do?

Consult or contract. Stick it to them, all the traffic will bear, and we know the game!

Looking forward to my version of retirement some day! ;-)

I recently heard of a colleague being let go.

I'm not sure if he was stripped searched and marched out of the building. BUT, that was a common occurrence on Wall Street.

There they were always trying to prevent brokers from taking their "book" home. The book was their customer list with all the details. That book was essential to a broker getting a new job and bringing all his old clients with him. The Old Firm would believe that those customers were "theirs". It was entertaining to watch the squabble. The "rules" said that the departing broker couldn't tell "his" customers on the old firm's time or phone about the change. So the first thing the broker did, when they departed or were thrown out, was to contact all the old clients to get them to move their accounts to the new firm with the broker. Great fun.

I got to know some of these characters. One old coot had a large supply of carbon paper. If he wrote anything, he'd make a carbon copy and "file" it in his briefcase. Each night, home it would go. When they nuked him, as they eventually did to anyone who was too successful or too unsuccessful, I know that they lost EVERY single one of his clients. They were convinced he was hacked into their computer system. To lose every single one was extraordinary.

About a decade later, I ran into him and he laughed as he told me he had a room at home where he had carefully filed and indexed every page.

And, he said he was still doing it. If they ever stopped producing carbon paper, then he said he'd retire.

OK what's the point for all us turkeys?

Don't EVER use your employer's email for networking activities. You can be cut off. With free gmail accounts galore, there is no reason to do it.

This colleague, now departed, used his corporate email and now I can't reach him.

Don't make that mistake. If you have, fix it!

http://ripples.typepad.com/ripples/2006/06/networking_made.html

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Why bother networking if it doesn't extend your network of friends?
 
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On this chilly morning as I sit and reflectively blog, I'd pontificate that "networking" is very different than "friendship".

As an injineer that has to have a taxonomy for everything, one has: spouses (high value / low maintenance if you pick right),relatives (thankfully not a greatly expanding number requiring loans, gifts, and high maintenance / low return); in laws (enough said); friends (great joys); acquaintances (casual contact); fellow bloggers (who tell you that your full of soup as needed); coworkers (limited to the lifespan of your corporate life); and service  people (usually nice people you meet along the way who do stuff for you). There's a formula for everything. And, we take two parts of this and one part of that to make shazaam.

[Note the careful attention to the engineering rule of thumb five plus or minus two. (1) spouses; (2) relatives; (3) in laws; (4) friends; (5) acquaintances; (6) fellow bloggers; (7); coworkers; (8)service people. Oops! Ok combine relatives and in laws! And it now fits the rule. As I was saying: Note the careful attention to the engineering rule of thumb five plus or minus two. (1) spouses; (2) relatives and in laws; (3) friends; (4) acquaintances; (5) fellow bloggers; (6) coworkers; (7)service people. An injineer can always make the observed data fit the predetermined answer. Why do you think tuition is higher, the math is harder, and the wages better?]

Seriously, maybe networking contacts can become friends and acquaintances. Maybe that is what one needs to do. Convert the business of networking into "making friends and influencing people". I'm not so sure. But I'll take it under advisement. Till then, networking contacts don't fit into my paradigm cause it breaks the rule of five.

Maybe I need some new rules?
[FOOTNOTE: The rule of five says that people don't understand or remember things that are fewer than 3 (insufficient distinctions) and greater than 7 (too many choices). So engineers always try to ensure that stuff conforms to that rule. Next week's lesson: Why bridges don't usually fail or multiplying the right answer by ten just to be safe! That's why you don't have to worry about following a 9.5 ton truck on a one ton bridge … usually!]

http://ripples.typepad.com/ripples/2006/06/networking_made.html

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Networking is the process of extending your network of friends. It is not a matter of running around passing out business cards.
 
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Nah, I don't like that definition at all.

I do agree that it's not passing out business cards. It's also NOT collecting a lot of them either.

Any more than doing the LinkedIn version of the Vulcan mind meld with a grazillion people is networking.

I would define "networking" differently.

IMHO

Networking is an ongoing conversation between two people for the purpose of exchanging information about mutually agreed topics. It's characterized by the personal meetings or at least communications as needed.

There's an implied agreement that each participant is responsible for what they get out of it. There are no guarantees or warranties. It's a best effort.

There are certain unwritten rules. The initiator is not allowed to ask for a job, a loan, or an excessive amount of time. The receptor is obligated to give full attention, honest feedback, and follow through on anything promised.

When a face to face networking meeting occurs, I believe it is best when it is very scripted and short (less than 30 minutes). The initiator is expected to have familiarized themselves with the public persona of the receptor. The receptor is expected to have reviewed any documentation that the initiator has supplied in advance. After hello, the initiator asks the receptor to explain their current scope (5 minutes). The receptor then asks the initiator to describe what they are looking for and their unique value proposition. The initiator gives their long version of their elevator speech (5 minutes). The receptor then comments upon it (5 minutes). The initiator is then expected to ask two or three questions (5 minutes). Then the initiator concludes by asking for the names of two people who could help him, thanks the receptor for his time, and leaves. Thirty minutes tops UNLESS the receptor extend it.
 
There maybe a perceived disparity between the two people in organizational stature, education level, age, or experience (i.e., overall work history; industry focused; skills). Whether a greater or lesser, everyone wins in networking. At the very least, even if there is nothing that one person could possibly do (e.g., a new college accounting graduate networking with an old F500 cfo), there is the psychological benefit from helping. Or, perhaps the greater is "paying back ghosts" (i.e., releasing self-imposed obligations for past help received when there was a similar disparity). Those "ghosts" provided help to the now greater, who was the lesser then, and couldn't reciprocate. That kind of help comes with its own obligation that an individual carries in their soul. Like a karmic debt, it needs to be discharged. Also, the lesser can help the greater improve on their thinking, mental models, or coaching skills without recognizing it. The benefits to the greater are not always obvious even to the greater person. The lesser isn't imposing on the greater because there was mutual agreement to meet.

So if we think about the model of data, information (data in context), knowledge (actionable information), and wisdom (understanding the nuances of knowledge), the networking parties operate on any, or all, of the four levels. It can result in the exchanging, sharing, or developing new insights to their mutual or individual benefits.

Networking is that ongoing conversation inside a personal relationship between two individuals to their mutual benefit.

IMHO 

Reinke's Big Turkey Sales Funnel (aka 2GET2)

IT TAKES:
 10 Leads     to get to     one Qualifing lead (salary; geography; suitable)
 10 Qualified Leads     to get to     one Lead on Something Worth Submiting On (after research)
 10 Submittals     to get to     one First Phone Screen (Get passed the researcher)
 10 First Phone Screens     to get to     one Second Phone Screen (Get passed the headhunter)
 10 Second Phone Screens     to get to     one in-person Interview with the heahunter (if needed)
 10 Headhunter Interviews     to get to     one First Interview with the target's HR (for presentability)
 10 HR Interviews     to get to     one Second Interview with a peer (for tech qualifications)
 10 Peer Interviews     to get to     one Third Interview with the Hiring Manager (for rapport)
 10 Hiring Manager Interviews     to get to     one Fourth Interview with the Big Boss (for chemistry)
 10 Big Boss Interviews     to get to     one Offer (salary too low or too high)
 10 Offers     to get to     one Acceptable Offer (Perfect!)

 1 Acceptable Offer is all you really need     

Is it really a 1 in a 1,000,000,000,000 shot?

Nahh, who says 10 is the right number?
And that this is the right funnel for you?
Or that you have to touch every base?

(Believe it or not, I have had process with more steps. I've had one that went two steps. It’s all about managing YOUR expectation and getting thru all the “no”s to get to the one “yes” you want!)

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License
Copyright 1994 Ferdinand John Reinke All Other Rights Reserved 

http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/2006/05/how_do_you_intr.html

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The most important outcome of introducing yourself as an entrepreneur first is that you will start to believe it yourself. There is power in language. A Buddhist friend once told me that the words that you say form a force field of attraction around you. So don't be shy. Next time someone asks you what you do for a living, don't chicken out – position yourself as an entrepreneur! If you want to practice, introduce yourself here.

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OK!

I AM a big fat turkey. Moonlighting as a blogging technology executive.

Seriously!

OK, here's my real introduction.

I'm really a businessman's technologist, or a technologist's businessman, as the need arises, specializing in translating between the two communities. I unlock hidden values by using Business Process Reengineering and IT Architecture. In my spare time, I play sometimes with technology but sometimes with out. I write about my experiences, and learn from the responses of others on the road of life.

http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8313

Empire of One Defined
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An Empire of One business is a one-person (sometimes married couple) business with far reaching spheres of influence.  Typically the business out-sources everything – information products marketed and sold online, or products manufactured in China or India, sent to a distribution center in the US, with customers in the UK and Brazil.  Manufacturing, marketing, bookkeeping, accounting, legal, and operations are all out-sourced to other businesses around the world. 

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Interesting that today I was corresponding with an exec search fellow who has gone on his own. I suggested that he'd have to be ready to burn the candle on five ends? I wrote about my experience here at: http://tinyurl.com/j873h; not that it contains any great words of wisdom.

Wish I could have thought of cuff links. The only think that I've come up with is my unfufilled desire to buy high quality underwear on the web like I used to get at Sears! 

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Feel free to steer any of your clients to our website (http://www.beyourbestinc.com) to peruse our job openings; we have hundreds of perm positions with IBM. Tell them to mention that they were sent by you and we will gladly pay you a referral fee if they land a job.
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Of course, I always try to avoid any hint of conflict of interest. Should I earn a fee, I'll happily send it to the Salvation Army. Not trying to be disrespectful of the offer. I just don't want anyone to think I have conflicted loyalties when I "help". ;-)

[L=http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BF7C9C985%2D4275%2D48AC%2D8B0B%2D14896B169724%7D&siteid=mktw&dist=nwhpf]http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BF7C9C985%2D4275%2D48AC%2D8B0B%2D14896B169724%7D&siteid=mktw&dist=nwhpf[/L]

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Do you have financial security for soft spells?

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Having done it twice, first time was much more successful (i.e., lucrative) than the second, I KNOW that you don't go into it with a thin bank account. I had my original severance from AT&T that I had kept aside intact growing that I intended for retirement which was more than TWO years of my run rate. So, I didn't have to sweat selling, delivering, and COLLECTING on my invoices. I had a GREAT lady who was shilling for me. So, it really was never in doubt that I'd be OK. The Frau never sweated. She did the books for me so that was one less thing I had to do. Unpaid staff is great!

My take away was that you wind up with FIVE equally important "tasks":

(1) selling engagements (no sales; no paychecks);

(2) delivering results (no results; no paychecks);

(3) collecting on invoices (no dunning; no paychecks);

(4) creating new offerings (nothing new; declining markets to sell into);

(5) figuring out trends to get / keep out in front (don't have wisdom; no mindshare)

Try burning any candle at FIVE ends!

Area #5 was the most stressful for me. I had a lot of offerings and still felt the pressure to innovate. Eventually I burnt out. As a one man band, I was under incredible pressure by your Customers to have more bandwidth. That means expansion and then the problems really begin.

IMHO you have to start down this path when you are young and dumb. Once you've gotten used to the corporate regular check, it is TOO hard to transition. You're addicted to Ebeneezer's "security".

FWIW YMMV
FjohnR
The Big Turkey

http://tutorials.lockergnome.com/library/20060521_personal_branding_for_technology_professionals.phtml 

Click to access PBTP.pdf

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Author Rajesh Setty examines the idea of building a peronal brand through his latest ebook, Personal Branding for Technology Professionals, including strategies for making yourself an invaluable part of the workplace no matter what high tech field has your focus. 
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He has some interesting ideas.

Isn't "branding" for cerial, muscle cars, and soap?

How can I brand a human being? I like Heinlein's quote:

 “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, pitch manure, solve equations, analyze a new problem, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

I think that branding works to imply value among alternatives. It's good when the choice has to be made without in-depth knowledge. I pick a Ford over a Chevy because I'm convinced that Fords are better than Chevys. I'm not sure that this is the case in "personal branding". There aren't the Big Turkeys, the Old Turkeys, and Svelete Turkeys for a hiring manager to choose from. 

I'd be interested in others' thinking.