Google’s Notebook is a winner imho when I’m doing web research

Friday, May 19, 2006

I "prospect" for my fellow alums for a number of different purposes. What started as doing an alumni ezine morph into agreat job networking tool. Google's Notebook makes the process even easier.

FOr example.

I'm mining Ziggs. I have Zigg search for "manhattan college". It pops ten or so links per page for pages and page. Arghh.  It was too hard to go line by line and not lose one's place. I do this when time permits.

Now, with GNoteBook, I bring up the page with the links. Open each link in a new window.  Highlight what I want name and email. Tap on the note icon and it's capture. Pretty swift.

You need a Google email to use GNoteBook. If you need and invite, yell. 

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Posted by reinkefj

The need for a “good” email address!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Permit me to offer some unsolicited advice?
I'd like to share something I wrote a while ago. I think it is even more true now. And easier to implement.

People sometime judge you by your email address.

I see that you have changed from Yahoo to Hotmail. IMHO I don’t think that’s a good change. People want to do business with people they can trust. Hotmail is associated with kids. Free services don’t engender confidence.For example, which would you trust more ReinkeFJ AT reinke DOT cc or ReinkeFJ AT hotmail dot com or supernerd @ gmail dot com?

I have two hosting companies I use at a very modest cost that I can recommend. If you’re interested?

Jasper Jottings is hosted by http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=9113251 and YAG is hosted by http://www.aplus.net/ (AP2297627204). I prefer 1and1 but either is good. And cheap. You can lock in a good deal for between 120 to 240 per YEAR! I think that is a minimal investment for a professional image.

FWIW

===

04/30/04

<snip> 

You should learn form the mistakes of others. You are not obligated to make EVERY mistake yourself into order to acquire wisdom.

IMHO the gold standard solution is to attach it to your own website with a hosting company. For example, me@mydomain dot com. When you buy your domain name mydomain dot com with a hosting company, they usually throw in email addresses with the deal. At least the good ones do. You MUST choose a good domain name for job search purposes. Use your name if you can get it. Mine was not available. Who ever heard of the Reinke Pivot Irrigator Company? But I did get reinke dot cc. But that is another story.

The silver standard is to buy your own email separately from a well-known financially sound company like Yahoo. AOL make you look like a kid. The bronze solution is to purchase or use a free redirector. Bigfoot has a pay service. For a while when email wasn't common and anyone would ask about the funny name, I used the lock in story in interviews to advance my value proposition. ("I minimize lockins personally and can do it for you"). Alumni associations and groups like IEEE all have free redirectors for their memberships. Anything is better than allowing an ISP to lock you into to "your" email address.
The bronze standard is use an ISP based account.

The lead standard is to use a free service like HotMail, or such. 

 <snip>

Your mileage can, and will, vary.

Good Luck,
fjohn

###

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Posted by reinkefj

When networking, write personalize emails.

Monday, May 15, 2006

I try to keep a large number of plates spinning in a whole variety of activities. I really would like to "network" with all 8k of people that I have in my rolodex. But, that ain't humanly possible. And, certainly not by a lazy guy like me.

I ty to give something to my networking contacts that they will find useful. Quick answers to questions. Leads. Sources of further information. Ideas. Everything but money. I need all I have for myself. And, my favorite charities.

So, from time to time, when I have something I think is useful, I send it to them. Like most people that have taken a marketing course at one time or another, I try to segment my effort. What portion of that 8k might find it more useful than others. A sample! 

Now how will I "do" it. Email. Has to be. It fast, cheap, and is "do-able". 

In the past, I'd send an email to myself and bcc my sample.  Last time, one of my "stuckees" called me and sounded slightly miffed at my approach. I was taken aback. I had never thought anyone would be insulted or hurt. So, I took the idea back to the drawing board.

This time, and probably from hence forth and ever more, I'll send each one a unique individual email.

It still will be a bunch. But it will appear one2one. It that cheating?

I don't have that many good ideas that that I could have 8k of them. I'm lucky if I have one a month. It'd would take me 8,000 months to get to every contact. Arggh! 

SO, I used Word to do an email merge. It produces a unique email customized to each recipient.

Yell if you want more details.

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Posted by reinkefj

What is a blog and why should I care?

Saturday, May 13, 2006

What the {expletive deleted} is a “BLOG”?

A blog is an easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, ramblings, rantings, and just about anything else you can tap out with your fingers. Akin to writing on the stall in a public bathroom, and some of them are that crude, it has evolved into a Jay Leno-esque medium. A monologue with some interaction with readers. It’s like Anne Frank's 1944 diary, Samuel Pepys’ in 1660, or George Washington’s. Well ok nothing that great but it is collective knowledge of the great unwashed. As a noun, it’s the diary. As a verb, it’s the act of writing. As an adjective, adverb, or other part of speech: egotistical mental mas … … let’s just say self satisfying waste of time … and let it go at that. Bear in mind that like webpages, blogs tend to be forgotten.

You should care for two reasons: (1) The inet has the memory of an elephant. Once you cast the electrons out into cyberspace, they can never be recalled, canceled, edited, modified, or deleted. So if you says something on the net, be prepared to have it come back and smack you upside the head when you least expect it and at the most inopportune time (i.e., job interview; legal proceeding; unauthorized biography; Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary; Retirement Party; Funeral Eulogy). (2) It can be useful for establish your expertise or brand in the market place. You can use it to advance you Unique Value Proposition or your Unique Selling Proposition.

If you want to read a blog, you can just go to their webpage. Blogs can be annoying to read from a web browser. You have to remember to check them regularly check for new content and find nothing. Most blogs offer RSS feeds that can be read with an RSS reader. You can avoid the “I forgot” or “visit for nothing” problems by using a webpage such as MYYAHOO, or install free software like RSSBANDIT.

If you are interested in starting to BLOG, you can your own one FREE at http://wordpress.com/ or http://www.blogger.com/start.

I have always thought that many of my efforts would be best done as a series of BLOGS based on topical areas so that the readers ship could subscribe based on “channels” of interest. But, I have never put the effort in to make that happen. Too much heavy thinking, planning, and lifting. Any volunteers?

Yell if you need help.

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Posted by reinkefj

TRKY: Met a “turkey” and boy is he unprepared!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

I ran in for some ice cream and happened to overhear a newly laid off fellow, (a fellow turkey but he just doesn't know it yet), telling an older gent, who turned out to be his dadinlaw, about how he took his hobbies off his resume. AND, how much money someone wanted him to spend to write his resume.

I couldn't resist. In a sec, I turned into "super Turkey"! I puked job search ideas all over him.

Anybody who asks for money has to be suspect. Play ProblemAnalysisResult resume; givem them P and R and make'm pay for the A. AND, a resume's only purpose is to get you an interview.

I gave him my email / web site and suggested he drop me a line.

Will he?

Or will he be afraid. be very afraid!

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Posted by reinkefj

TRKY: Assess the culture … “our employees are our most valuable asset” … … yeah right! … and I have a bridge

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Assess the culture … "our employees are our most valuable asset" … … yeah right! … and I have a bridge

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

First, you have to like anything that starts with "escape from cubicle nation".

Didchaknow that the cubicle is an unintended consequence of the government tax policy on depreciation? Cubicles can be expense over a few years; an office 39!

I really like this "Don't ask for your employees' input if you are not going to listen to it."

Wish I had a dollar for everytime that happened. And, when they did listen, they stole my idea and used it without  attribution. I made sure never to do that.

Assignment for those "OUT": Create a tactic – method – questionnaire – something to follow that will tell you how you are going to assess the kult-ure at each target. Don't be so desperate for a job that you close your eye to the salt mine!

Assignment for those "IN" (they just don't know yet when they will be "out" again): Assess the culture where your boots are now. Is it a salt mine, face time, or play time?

YMMV FAIWWYPFI FWIW
fjohn
the big turkey

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Posted by reinkefj

TURKEY: Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) confirmation

Monday, May 8, 2006

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/04/moving_up_the_w.html 

***Begin Quote***

Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy

***End Quote***

Interesting that the author feels we spend way to much time down at the data level and little if any time up at the wisdom level.

I agree. BUT, how does an organization or an individual move up that tree?

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Posted by reinkefj

TURKEY: Be aware the “rules” have changed. Be very aware. And the change isn’t good for you!

Monday, May 8, 2006

http://execunet.blogspot.com/2006/05/talent-management-vs-career-management.html

Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Talent Management vs. Career Management
Dave Opton
Norwalk, Connecticut, United States

http://www.blogger.com/profile/10891844

***Begin Quote***

What lots of us wanted to think of as company sponsored career management was really company sponsored talent management, and there's a significant difference as I am guessing anyone who has read this far already knows. Talent management is the WIFM for the employer. Career management is the WIFM for the employee. If they happen to match up from time to time, that's great, but make no mistake about where the interests lie for each.

***End Quote***

This sparks the thought that we have been fooled into thinking that things haven't changed.

The gold watch era, where the Greatest Generation stayed with an employer for a lifetime, ended silently. It started as we shifted from an agrarian society to a manufacturing one. It ended imho when the aircraft industry was caught firing older engineers to defraud them out of their pensions. That led to the government getting involved (always a bad idea) with the ERISA laws which dictated 5 year pension vesting.

This led to the era of what I call the "Five Year Employee". That lasted until the dot com boom, the entrepreneurial age,when working for yourself became the rage.

The government's tax structure had a hand in that too. As a consultant, I could deduct my commutation expense. As an employee, I couldn't. My employer can give employees qualifying health care tax deductible. As a consultant, I can deduct my own health care premiums. As an employee, I can't.

So, we have now recently emerged into the era where because of the entrepreneurial bust, people have gone back to working for companies. The standing joke is "they pretend to pay me and I pretend to work".

Defined benefit pension plans are being converted to cash value as quick as possible by companies who want to unload the liability. Litigation follows because people are being weenied. Pensions are now unknown outside of the government.  Existing pensioners and future beneficiaries are hung with an unfunded liability by companies that can go bankrupt to weenie them. Those with big fat pension funds are a target for rogue management or corporate raiders. It's not just social security that's a scam. The whole "retirement" metaphor is a risky scheme.

First rule: What you have is yours; what's promised is exactly that … … a promise. It has to be discounted by a number of factors. It all revolves around "collectability".

Second rule: You have to deduce what the new "rules" are for yourself.

WIFM (What's in It For Me)

I have to create a rule book that works for me. Everyone has to recognize that their "rules", as well as their mileage, will vary.

My thinking is that if one is "lucky" enough to collect on a promise, like a pension or social sedulity, you should thank your lucky stars because that is not everyone's experience.

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Posted by reinkefj

TURKEY: Turkeys need to conduct their monthly self-assessment. Even if they are employed!

Saturday, May 6, 2006

Schedule of activities

(1) CEO report

– How did last month, last quarter, last year go?

– How will this month, last quarter, last year go?

(2) CFO report

– Cash reserves (How many months can we go without a paycheck?)

– Expense trend good or bad

– Look ahead?

(3) Chief Marketing Officer

– How is the employment market?

– How are my particular type of peanuts selling?

– Any discontinuities in sight?

– How are you testing the market for your skills?

(4) Chief Networking Officer

– How many contacts, calls, meetings last month?

– How many contacts were lost?

– How many new contacts made?

– What is your average days since last contact?

(5) Chief Product Officer

– What is your value equation?

– How are you delivering more value while retaining less?

– What new values are you offering?
YMMV FWIW,
fjohn
the big turkey

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Posted by reinkefj

The CEO, the COO, and the CFO conspire to weenie the employees of a start up!

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/security/investigator/archives/008976.asp

***Begin Quote***

In several emails he outlined a plan where the company assets (intellectual property, equipment, etc) would be sold and transferred to the buying company. The employees "are not a transferable asset, nor are they essential to a successful IP transition. We are prepared to 'trickle' them out in groups during the transition period". In other emails to C-level executives at our company, he repeatedly fought off the CEO and COO desire for compensation packages for employees that had been around for at least one year of employment. The CFO spewed financial nonsense and bull$hit, however he was accurate to the penny on what each executive would receive as compensation. These guys were going to make millions. In a few of the last emails, the CEO and COO caved under the pressure and greed.

***End Quote***

For anyone who has NOT yet realized that the "rules of engagement" for employment, here is you wake up call.

While I personally deplore the actions that were supposedly taken, I have to admire when justice is served. There is no way, no how, that seekers should be deceived into working like a dog WITHOUT a just reward.

###

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Posted by reinkefj

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