Category: Hints & Tips

Nosce te ipsum, especially when interviewing

For those who read this regularly, you may know that when it comes to interviewing and hiring, I’m an advocate of knowing your strengths, not dwelling on what you cannot do. Questioning someone to tease out their weaknesses is often a waste, as a smart interviewer will reverse it to show a weakness as a…
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Check….. Your Move

When I speak to people about what they’re thinking of doing next, some appear to be steadily progressing, others in the midst of curves being thrown at them. We all grapple with future career plans, and how to transition to the next step: Should I stay and tough it out or just get the hell…
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The CV is alive and well, thank you

Last week was typical-I had 4 people ask for help with their CV. All senior, around 25 years work experience, all very smart and polished. None had done a CV in years, hesitant about where to start, length, format, content, buzzwords to put in or avoid. All had a crie de coeur of ‘Aaarrggh, I…
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The Song Is You..

Which, by the way, was written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein.. I’d written in my recent blog on “How to Find a Job” of the importance in being comfortable when looking for another position, in knowing how to talk about yourself with poise. It bears repetition. I find many executives tongue-tied when it comes…
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Pope Benedict’s management lesson..

I don’t follow the papacy very much, but as Benedict’s sudden resignation has been front page news everywhere, I just finished reading a front page in today’s (14 Feb) IHT/NYT, headlining that he had no choice but to step down, calling him a ‘weak manager.’ That piqued my curiosity. Not a weak leader, but a…
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Tortoise and Hare management lesson

I recently wrote ’8 pointers on how to get a job’, but neglected one important point. Do not martyr yourself and die on the job. I know plenty of people who have a distinct work modus operandi – I see it on CV’s and this is reinforced when I meet them. They take a new…
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The smart-ass syndrome, 5 ‘do not’s’

My one strong piece of advice to those entering the work force; don’t be a smart-ass. Here’s what smart-asses do at work: [list] Do not take instructions well. Work is about doing what you’re asked to do-the way the boss or the company wants it done. If you want to do it differently, build it…
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How to get a job–8 pointers

Do not rely on headhunters. This past week alone I had three coffees with people looking for opportunities, all telling me how many headhunters they were in touch with (never asked any of them what that made me..) but told them all to stop it. Headhunters won’t get them a job, it’s [mostly] a waste…
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