I definitely have mixed feelings about LinkedIn. It’s helped me get several jobs, but it can also have the same pitfalls of any social network. Plus some that are unique to LinkedIn. If Linkedin is annoying you, here are some things I did to make LinkedIn less annoying and more helpful.
What is a right to hire? What does it mean? I have taken right to hire jobs before, and interviewed candidates for right to hire positions. But do I recommend them? Let’s take a look at the meaning of right to hire, and the pros and cons of taking a right to hire position.
Where do you see yourself in five years? What’s your five year plan? These are variations of a common job interview question. I don’t like that question. Here’s some advice for interviewees on how to answer that question. And some advice for interviewers on why that’s a bad question and what you might ask instead.
Read More »How to answer where you see yourself in five years
One question I get a lot, as a former Amazon bookseller, is why some books are so cheap on Amazon. Namely, how can books sell for a penny? And why do they sell that cheap? I can tell you nobody wants to make a living selling books for a penny, but it is possible to do so and turn a profit, if a seller is careful and the market conditions are right. Here’s how they do it.
I didn’t talk about it much, but I sold books on Amazon for extra money for a little over a decade. There’s a lot of hyperbole out there about selling on Amazon and online in general. Here’s some straight talk about selling books on Amazon from someone who did it.
The topic of the dreaded job offer acceptance deadline came up in my circles this week. Unfortunately I expect these to become more common in the near future. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a red flag. Let’s look at why businesses put deadlines on offers, and what they reveal in doing so.
Job offer acceptance deadlines are a power move, intended to force an individual’s hand. But they are also a sign that the company is insecure.
Read More »Job offer acceptance deadline? Proceed with caution.
I once worked for a company that used the stack rank system. It’s a method that Jack Welch pioneered at General Electric decades ago and it caught on elsewhere, but many companies, including famously Microsoft, moved away from it.
I’ve experienced firsthand what it does to people and what it does to teams. I’ll share my experience in hopes it drives progressive-thinking companies to seek alternatives.
An interesting question came up on Twitter the other day. Do you accept Linkedin connection requests from strangers? I used to. Today I generally do not. Here’s why I used to, and why I changed my mind.
Whether you accepted connection requests from strangers really depends on what you’re trying to get out of Linkedin. If those connections don’t further your goals, simply don’t accept them.
I was comparing notes on Twitter with some peers in the UK and Australia. The idea of benefits confused them. They asked what a typical benefits package for employees in the United States looked like, and if it explained the difference in pay between our countries. So let’s take a look.
A typical benefits package for employees in the United States includes health insurance coverage, paid vacation days, paid holidays, and some retirement. But the details can vary a bit.
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, I’ve heard some business consultants speak of something called an “infinite game” or “infinite mindset.” This, they say, is the key to surviving setbacks or even thriving in the midst of them. What is an infinite game, and what’s special about it?
The infinite mindset, or infinite game, simply means not caring about winning or losing in the short term. An opponent who is just playing to stay in the game is hard to defeat.