canadian headhunter

Multi-Generational Charity in Toronto

2008-11-29T09:33:00.002-05:00

The Toronto Star features a family that has depended on its Christmas charity boxes for three generations.

The grandfather, though earning only a security guard's wages, decided to have seven children.

So, his daughter, Ivy Chrysler, now 50, starting receiving the boxes since when she was five years old.

Her eldest daughter started receiving the boxes when she was two and now her children get them -- as do the grandchildren of Ivy's twin sister, Sydney Mead.

What has gone wrong in this family? Obviously Ivy's father and mother, either unaware of or unwilling to use birth control had more children than they could afford to provide for.

Ivy is now a widow without the income a husband would normally provide and she says that after she was married her husband went back to school so that they were short of funds during that time. But she still went ahead and had a child when she couldn't afford to do so. And now her children are are in the same boat.

Ivy and her sister are not immigrants nor are they members of a visible minority. So it would seem safe to say that their families' financial problems are clearly due to a problem of family culture. Also, perhaps, it is a problem of community culture since she grew up and still lives in a part of Toronto that is traditionally the home of poor people.

How to Learn New Skills

2008-11-27T09:52:00.004-05:00

Source: How To Be A Programmer (edited)

Learning new skills is the greatest fun. Most companies would have better morale if they understood how much this motivates people.

1. Books and classes are good but humans learn by doing.

2. A good mentor is better than a book.

What can you offer a potential mentor in exchange for their knowledge? At a minimum, you should offer to study hard so their time won't be wasted.

3. Formal training is good but usually not better than the same amount of time spent playing with the skill you want to learn.

But it is easier to ask for training than playtime.

4. You have to do a small project before you can do a large one.

If you lead people, assign them projects that are the right size and offer to exercise the skills they want to develop.

Predicting Performance From Personality

2008-10-27T13:08:00.003-04:00

Reference: New York Times

- Paul Wolfowitz doesn't seem like a zealot
- he is patient, logical, respectful and soft-spoken
- but he has a missionary's optimism about America's
  ability to build a better world

- has an activist bent
- he sees trouble coming before others do
- doesn't want to stand by while bad things happen
- and thinks about the cost of not acting

- Wolfowitz was sympathetic to the war in Vietnam
- later, he accepted that it was a case of overreaching
- for Colin Powell, Vietnam is the prime example of good
  intentions gone wrong

- Wolfy was an architect of the Iraq War.
- could we predict from his activist orientation and optimistic
  perspective the likelihood of over-reaching?

Selling Your Personality

2008-10-26T19:57:00.011-04:00

The Lessons of David Axelrod

- David Axelrod is Obama's campaign manager

- his campaigns don't focus on issues but on the candidate’s life
- he wants to portray the candidate as having a leader's personality

- a job hunter can do the same in an interview
- she should have clear ideas about how her job is done

- but she can also tell a story about her life and focus on moments
  in her history that define her as the person she wants to be

- while the image you project may be edited,
  to be convincing it has to be based in reality

- Axelrod's campaigns are upbeat
- they contain a message of idealism and optimism moderated by pragmatism

- he believes that the promise of the future, where you're going,
  trumps a focus on the past

- he also believes that a candidate should focus on strategic issues,
  not just the needs of the moment

- he fends off critics by stressing the flip side of Obama's alleged flaws.
- lack of a rigid ideological position is seen as independence
- a lack of combativenes becomes bipartisanship

Reference: New York Times.

Leaders Are Flexible

2008-10-24T10:53:00.001-04:00

Reference: George Jonas.

It’s definitely not for nothing that Obama -- who, in theory, stands against everything Powell has stood for, from party affiliation to policy -- responded to the endorsement of Bush’s former secretary of state by saying that he was feeling honoured and humbled.

Presidential? Pragmatic? Practical? Unprincipled?

All of the above, I’d say. The first adjective sounds like a compliment; the last one certainly doesn’t. Yet they’re not incompatible and may even be complementary.

Jonas says that politics make strange bedfellows and that leaders have to be willing to praise and partner with whomever they must to get to their goals.

But is Powell as opposed to Obama's positions as Jonas suggests? He was a dove in the Bush Administration. He is cautious about going to war and sees Iraq as an mistake.

Everyone also respects his commitment to his country and his personal character even if they do not agree with all of his political positions.

So there is reason to be impressed when a man like that crosses party lines to endorse you.

So, to prove a point, Jonas has exaggerated their opposition.

Recruiter, Toronto, Canada

Send Out Cards.com

2008-10-24T10:50:00.000-04:00

Matt Mancino, a construction industry recruiter in Phoenix called to tell me about Send Out Cards.com.

You can create your own thank you or greeting cards online - in your own handwriting, if you choose -- and they print them and snail mail them for you.

Because everything is electronic today, these snail mailed cards stand out and differentiate you from the pack.

Recruiter, Toronto, Canada

Free Online ATS

2008-10-24T10:49:00.001-04:00

SmartRecruiters.com is a free, online applicant tracking system.

Key Points: Launches Oct 28, 2008. Set up in 2 minutes. Easy to use. Personalize your own Career Site. Includes a "vibrant" recruiter community. Includes "integrated pay-per-use recruiting services" (sounds like they will do your recruiting for you).

Recruiter, Toronto, Canada

Immigrants Dislike Preference For Skilled People

2008-10-24T10:47:00.003-04:00

TheStar.com warns that:

1. Immigrants with skills do not get a chance to use them in Canada.

2. So the government's increased preference for immigrants with job skills discriminates against the unskilled people the country actually needs.

When Chakraborti joined her husband, Sailen, in Canada, it took her just two months to parlay a master's degree in philosophy into a job as a bank teller.

"Many immigrant communities are already being discriminated left, right and centre..."

His parents have a university education and worked for Ontario Hydro as clerks...

Recruiter, Toronto, Canada

Online Storage Offerings - Comparison Chart

2008-10-24T10:47:00.001-04:00

Lifehacker.

People Can Surprise You

2008-10-24T10:44:00.002-04:00

Source: Wall Street Journal. (edited)

Harry Truman was a small town man whose career had been sponsored by a corrupt political boss. Then he was carelessly elevated to a senior role by Frank Roosevelt. And, yet as the sponsor of the Marshall Plan and the policy of containment, he had done great things.

From this example, Peggy Noonan concludes that:

People can come from nowhere, with modest backgrounds and short résumés, and yet be individuals of real gifts... that are suddenly revealed

You have to give people time to show what they have. Because maybe they have magic too.

Recruiter, Canada, Toronto

Your Company Needs A Consistent Tone

2008-10-21T12:38:00.005-04:00

Reference: Commune Media via One Degree

A large company will usually have strict rules about the presentation of its image. For instance, it will only use specific colours, photos and fonts . The reason? Once these signals become familiar to the viewer, it becomes easy to relate to the firm as a known quantity.

The same restrictions and clear definition are required for any appearance of the company's voice. But this is where firms often err.

When they are trying to reel you in as a customer or an employee, they are very personable and friendly. But once you are sold, they become very task-oriented. You're no longer a pal. The only thing that matters is business.

People don't like that sudden about-face from caring about them to caring exclusively about yourself. It makes you seem untrustworthy and dishonest.

So, if you have a friendly voice in your marketing vehicles, including your recruiting communications (on your blog, for instance), you should maintain it in all of your ongoing communications as a basic element of your firm's culture.

Note: The same is true of individuals. Most of us don't feel comfortable around people who are really nice -- until they get angry. Then all concern about other people is thrown out the window.

The person who throws the tantrum might excuse it as his way of getting rid of an upset as quickly as possible. But those who are on the receiving end become wary of him.

Homepage: The Canadian Headhunter.com

Do Interviewers Disagree?

2008-10-20T11:55:00.003-04:00

Take a look at the judgements of the third presidential debate.

McCain looked and sounded like a man who is floundering and doesn't know what to do about it.

-- Editorial, The Age (Australia)

In my mind McCain won the last debate by some margin

-- Ron Liddle, TimesOnline (England)

Presumably both writers are well-informed, politically. Liddle, who supports Obama, was a speechwriter for the Labour party in England. And, yet, they disagree.

What could possibly account for it? And does this disagreement reflect something that might happen when a candidate meets a number of stakeholders within the same firm?

Homepage: The Canadian Headhunter.com

Do You Still Need a Resume? Yes

2008-10-16T16:17:00.001-04:00

According to Debbie Dib, the resume is losing its role as the primary tool in a job search.

But not really. You might have a blog or a website or a video profile but I'm a headhunter and when I call you about a job, you'd better have a resume.

How else am I going to get a quick overview of what you've done and, based on that, assess what you can do. I have to have something to pass on to my client, too. And to anyone else involved in the search.

And, if I don't have a resume, what am I going to use? A LinkedIn profile? That's just a resume online, nothing more, nothing less. And I love LinkedIn; every recruiter does. But it's got some strikes against it.

1. It's got the LinkedIn format which includes a lot of junk on the right side of the page.

2. At present, LinkedIn is still foreign to a lot of people. A hiring manager might not recognize it as a resume. Many people who register on LinkedIn don't recognize its potential value either so they don't put a lot of details or stable contact information into their profiles.

Home Page: TheCanadianHeahdunter.com

Success Lessons From Immigrants

2008-10-16T06:51:00.001-04:00

Reference: Ray de Souza, National Post. (edited)

A report from Statistics Canada's 2006 census has revealed the professional success rates of immigrants from various national and racial groupings.

The children of Chinese and Indian immigrants do best. Ray de Souza, the son of Indian immigrants, offers some possible reasons why.

Asian parents take it for granted that a university education is the path to advancement. They are also used very demanding schools of their homelands so when they make their kids live by their standards they do very well in Canada where the schools do not push students so hard.

Also, Asian parents are usually hard-working and their families are stable so the children grow up in a community of immigrants in which good values are modelled and none of the problems caused by family disintegration are present.

Finally, Chinese and Indian immigrants don't worry too much about prejudice. Where it exists, it's difficult to change -- and it has little influence on the opportunities that Canada holds out for them. So they ignore the problems and focus on the potentials.

Canadian Headhunter Homepage

The Toronto Blogger Bash: January 27, 2006

2006-01-29T11:40:00.000-05:00

Nobody Waved Goodbye

I went to the blogger bash on Friday night and all the "celebrities" showed. In fact, when I arrived at the pub, Let It Bleed was in the lobby arguing with the manager about a tear in the rug.

"I'm a lawyer," he said softly, "And there's a guy coming here who likes to sue people so if you're smart you're going to do something about that carpet."

They moved off into the other room and I settled into a conversation with Huge Seagull who was part of the large Newfie contingent. We were standing near the doorway when Zerb came in and, with her gaze set firmly forward, started marching upstairs.

"It's in here," I said.
She swung around. "Who the blank are you?"
I mumbled my blog's name.
"They said it was upstairs!"
"Well, it's down here now."

She tore her coat off and handed it to me. "Hold this," she ordered, then, turning to Huge, she said "Get me a Stella," and stomped into the main room. "Where's Kathy Shaidle?" she snarled, "I've got some scores to settle." Later, I saw them arm-wrestling.

Jason Cherniak walked by. "Hey," I said. "I saw you on Studio 2." "Did you like the show?" he asked. "Yeah, but you looked better on TV. Did they put makeup on you or something?"

My mother always tells me that I've got a fantastic sense of humour but, surprisingly, he didn't laugh. Or even smile. "See that girl over there?" he said. "She produced that segment. Maybe you'd like to speak to her." "Oh yeah?" I replied, excited as a puppy. "I love that show. I've got to talk to her."

Now, she was in conversation with The Ghost of a Flea but I barged right in. "Sorry to interrupt," I said, "but I just want to tell you how much I enjoy your show. It's so interesting. A stellar performance every night. I remember the time Paula interviewed the NDP leadership candidates. They were so [expletive] boring but she almost made them watchable.

"Hey, asshole." said the producer, "Can't you see I'm talkin' to someone? Buzz off."

Okay, I've got to admit, that wasn't the first time that happened to me. Whenever I meet someone from Studio 2, I just go crazy and, quite frankly, I know I'd do the exact same thing again.

So, I moseyed over to Free Advice. Apparently, he's got some kind of mental problem. He falls asleep while you're talking to him and starts seeing things but you don't know what's happening because his eyes are still open. He told me that he once chased his wife around the house because he thought she was a big doughnut. I tried to convince Kathy that this is how religions get started but she wasn't buying.

Andrew Coyne came in and a little woman who has a blog about garlic asked us who he was. "He's cute," she said. "I like his shoes". "He blogs about knitting," I told her, "Go and talk to him. I hear he likes cooking, too." We had a chuckle as he leaned down to listen to her with a pained, confused look on his face.

Just then, Ricky McGinnis appeared wearing that same red cowboy shirt he had on the last time I saw him. (He claims he's got a million of them).

"Hey," I said. "I saw a movie on Vision TV last week. Glen Ford was a train engineer who falls in love with Ida Lupino who wants him to murder her husband, Broadrick Crawford. What movie was that?"

"Double Indemnity?" he asked.
"Come on!"
"Postman Rings Twice?"
"Look everybody," I crowed, " This guy claims to be a film critic!"

The Meatriarchy winced because he's my friend and he felt embarrassed for me. But those Diet Cokes add up and by this time there was no holding me back.

I dove into a deep discussion with Rick about vulgarity on TV. If he's such a big social conservative, I said, how can he like South Park? He trotted out Pope and Swift and started pining for the 18th century and I decided it was time to leave.

On my way out I saw The Accordion Guy singing karaoke. Apparently, he likes Bob Marley. But Bob Marley doesn't like him.

And did I mention Nick Quotavicious? I love that guy. His goal in life is to memorize every nasty quip that's ever been said and find a way to use it in his everyday life. He mumbles something nasty every time he passes by me but I can't quite make it out so I don't care.

See you all at the next do when Damian comes in February.

The Job Market is Colour Blind.

2005-04-14T19:19:00.000-04:00

We received an email recently from someone who wants to move to Canada. I say we because he sent the email to both Michael and I.

This person had a concern, he had heard that skilled people who migrate to our country have trouble finding work and often end up driving cabs. Was that the case he wanted to know? In particular he seemed worried that a form of institutional racism was keeping skilled immigrants from finding work when they move to Canada.

He was basing this on some articles he had read.

It's too bad he didnt' read this article from Canadian Business. It would have presented him with a much different view. Consider some of the following quotes:

"On average, Canadian women are having only 1.5 children each, far below the 2.1 necessary for a population to sustain itself. The numbers mean the labour supply will slowly shrink as the nation ages. By 2011, Ottawa estimates that all new growth in the labour market will have to come from immigrants. In other words, the future of the Canadian marketplace will soon depend for its very survival on a steady supply of foreign-born workers."

"Stephen Plummer is president and chief operating officer of IMP Group International Inc. The company, owner of CanJet Airlines as well as Execaire corporate jet services, is one of the largest private employers in Nova Scotia and has an insatiable appetite for skilled workers in the aerospace field. "One of the things I worry about all the time is Canada's declining workforce," says Plummer. "I don't see things reversing themselves. Immigration has got to be part of the solution.

Plummer's company has hired an entire class of aerospace graduates from one Canadian college, but it's still not enough. To fill critical skill needs, such as engineering, tool design, avionics technology and computer applications, Plummer has also recruited in the United Kingdom, eastern Europe and China."

"Friesens Corp., a commercial printer based in Altona, Man., around 100 kilometres south of Winnipeg, has a standing offer of employment for trained press operators and is finding it increasingly necessary to bring new staff in from overseas, from such places as Germany and Uruguay."

"The situation is even more acute in the trucking industry. "The marketplace is incapable of supplying us with drivers," grumbles Norman Schultz, director of recruitment and retention at TransX, a major trucking firm based in Winnipeg. "We are looking in Romania, China, England, Italy and elsewhere for drivers. We want to grow as a company, but our customer demand exceeds the number of drivers we have." Schultz has found the most effective method of importing labour is to bring foreign workers in on temporary work permits and then use the provincial nominee program to convert them to permanent residents."

Ok one thing I should clarify for those of you who haven't figured it out yet. None of these companies is located in Toronto. And that was the crux of the article. Most immigrants want to move to Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver for a variety of reasons. However this isn't always where the jobs are.

So you should consider which is more important living in Nova Scotia with a job or living in Toronto with none. Incidentally Nova Scotia is a much cheaper place to live than Toronto (and more beautiful).

The second thing that should be obvious from the quotes above is that there is no discrimination against foreign workers. The job market is dependent on the available talent pool and if the pool is depleted the willingness to look elsewhere becomes magnified.

I remember in the late 80s when the demand for programmers was so acute that recruiting firms were actually traveling to Hong Kong to recruit IT professionals. They wanted to get them before they landed in Canada because they would be snapped up so quickly.

If you have a skill that is in demand you will have no problem finding work. If your there is a surplus of talent in your area of expertise you will have trouble. My advice to anyone who wants to move to any country is to evaluate your skill set and find out if it is in demand. If not you might want to select a country where your skills are needed.

2005-04-14T07:56:00.000-04:00

Podcast Alert

Jason at Recruiting.com has posted his first-ever podcast.

It's an interview of Joel Cheesman of the Online Recruitment HR blog.

You can listen online or download the mp3 file for later auditation.

2005-04-14T07:52:00.000-04:00

Do Canadians Lack Discipline?

Yesterday, a friend of mine who came to Canada when he was in his twenties, told me that Canadian workers are lazy goof-offs.

If it's true, not many newcomers would be surprised.

For, according to a recent article in The Toronto Star they think there's something wrong with the way Canadians raise their kids.

Yang Bin was surprised by what she saw when she walked her two-year-old granddaughter Sophia Jiang into a family drop-in program...

"Kids just run around and play," said the 65-year-old retired university professor... They are free to do whatever they want. Kids growing up in the West need more discipline.

Parenting is about teaching kids to respect their authorities, so they learn the traditional values and know how to behave properly."....

[Kenise Murphy Kilbride, an early childhood education professor at Ryerson University] said studies have shown that immigrant parents disapprove of their children questioning parental authority.

"They could not understand how `Canadian' parents can tolerate public tantrums of their children and think that the Canadian law prohibiting physical punishment restricts their ability to discipline their children," she added.

Yang...agrees. "In China, we tend to be more restrictive to our children and grandchildren. We spank them when they misbehave... You don't give them choices. You tell them what to do."

In an unrelated article Emal Bariali is quoted as saying:

The Afghani way of life is very different from the Canadian way of life. Out of respect, there is always a distance between children and their parents. There's no emotional support, no display of emotions, because parents are afraid that'd lessen their authority over their children.

This isn't a new story. Earlier immigrants from Europe had similar complaints. And, in fact, older people who were Canadian-born have also been known to complain that young people "today" are getting away with "murder".

But, I wonder about the relationship between child-rearing and productivity. Is there a relationship between them?

Martin Seligman claims that the power to make and follow through on one's own decisions from an early age is a great boon to a healthy personality. In The Optimistic Child, he writes:

The more we make decisions (good or bad) the more we feel in control, the more competent we feel, the more self-esteem we have.

This implies that a child who has control of his own life will embrace productive activity more easily. But it doesn't indicate a complete lack of parental control.

So, again, what is the relation between child-rearing and economic productivity? A search on Google provided no quick answers. Perhaps because there are none.

George Jonas wrote an interesting column about saying "No" to children. It doesn't address productivity directly but it does imply that the issue is not a simple one. Here is an excerpt:

About 15 years ago, a friend made a pedagogical observation:
"Why should I say no to my daughter when she keeps kicking the table?" he said. "Should I stop her just because it annoys me?"

My friend had a whole zoo of kids... They... interrupted everyone, demanded centre stage, and went into hysterics when -- all too rarely -- their desires were frustrated... My friend's kids may have wanted a very firm hand indeed, but as he gave them none, they became little monsters...

He implied that adults who impose limits on children do it just for their own convenience. He tried to suggest that restrictions were senseless, and served merely to stifle a child.

In making this suggestion my friend echoed a school of pedagogical thought that achieved near-domination among North America's middle-class parents.

The thesis held that... any moulding would suppress a child's spontaneity, creativity and self-confidence. It would risk turning him into a mindless conformist or an inhibited bundle of neuroses.

Saying no to a child who does something annoying serves at least three purposes beneficial both to the child and to society.

First, it habituates the child to obey the parent. Parents, on the whole, have more life experience than their children...

Second,.... shedding infantile selfishness is the basis of any social life, and it's doubtful if children can shed it without some training...

Third, a "no"... accustoms him to the idea that things don't accrue to him by right, and that in order to get something (say, approval) he'll have to give something in return....

Fifteen years have passed...and the table-kicking little monsters...have grown into young men and women. First question: How did they turn out?

Answer: Splendid, I'm happy to report, as well (if not better) than kids of stricter upbringing.

Second question: Has this caused me to change my mind about raising children? Answer: Not a bit.

Jonas, by the way, was born in Hungary. And back to my friend, when his kids were young he tried to teach them that it was bad to challenge anything adults said. But, here in Canada, he found this rule unenforceable.

Its Who You Know

2005-04-12T19:44:00.000-04:00

Much is written about networking as the primary job search tool. Personally I think it is overrated and prevents people from doing any sort of cold calling on their own. But that's ok. If candidates really learned how to conduct a job search recruiters would be obsolete pretty quickly.

A lot of companies do hire via internal referrals however so it is wise to keep track of where your friends are.

One example is an outfit called Corporate Executive Board which recruits aggressively for MBA's from some of the finest B schools in the US.

Wendy Person who is the Senior Director of Talent Management tells Businessweek that those who want a job with their company had better work their network:

More than 40% of all hires come from internal referrals. If candidates aren't networking with alumni here at CEB, they are missing out on a wonderful opportunity.

Of course that's assuming they want to work at a place with a lame name like "Corporate Executive Board". Was "Company Limited Incorporated" already taken?

2005-04-12T07:50:00.000-04:00

An Unemployed Woman
CIBC # 3 Takes Kassie Highway

Every Canadian knows that 20 top bankers (and Marie Cordero) recently left the CIBC to join their ex-boss, Wonderboy David Kassie, at Genuity Capital Markets.

Now the CIBC has axed it's No.3 executive, Jumpin' Jill Denham, Vice Charwoman and Head of Consumer Banking.

CIBC spokesman, Bobby Waite, struggled to hide the truth but, by now, everyone knows the (Soviet-style) code. Like Dave, Jill has left the bank to "pursue other interests".

After some run-ins with the law a few years back, CEO, Handsome John Hunkin, decided to shift his interests from corporate to consumer lending.

And, in order to boost earnings from consumer banking, Jumpin' Jill had to go. But don't feel too bad; she earned $2.1 million Cdn last year in salary and bonus. (That's $1.7 mill US funds).

Sonia "Baxie" Baxendale, age 42, will replace Jill. Her new title is Sr EVP Retail Markets. Vic Dodig, age 39, was hired from UBS Global Asset Management to take her place as head of the asset-management division. Both report to Dave Kassie's old friend and replacement, COO, Gerry McCaughey.

As for Jill's next step? Only, time, will tell.

Based on a story in: Bloomberg.com: David Scanlan reporting in Toronto; Erik Schatzker is his editor in New York

Technorati Tag: Genuity

See Also: GenuityGang Strikes Back -- CIBC Recruiting Scandal -- David Kassie, Kingpin -- David Kassie's Dream -- Dan Daviau -- Earl Rotman -- Kassie Defiant -- Phil Evershed -- Hirst, Morrison, Eggertson -- Marie Cordero -- Bad 4 Recruiters -- Sweet Marie -- The Kassie Cult -- Kassie Honoured -- Hunkin's Millions -- BlackBerry Got 'Em -- Kassie Family Hunted -- Blackberry Mystery Solved -- The Genuity Revolution

2005-04-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

Grade A Meat

Brad Smart's TOPGRADING system ranks employees as
A's, B's and C's.

A' and B's are assets.
C's will kill your company.

The employee pool is a pyramid with A's on top.
Here's it's composition:
A's - 10%, B's - 25%, C's - 65%.

The definition of an A, B or C depends to some extent on the requirements of the job. Theoretically, a C-player in one job could be an A-player in another.

All, A-Players, however, (unlike most C's) are quick studies in any role. They also have a lot of integrity and a great track record. (But not every one is a team leader or long-term visionary).

What are "A" players looking for? They want:
1. a challenge and to have fun coming to work.
2. the resources and opportunity to make things happen.
3. an informal culture with little bureaucracy.
4. compensation that's tied to performance.

B-Players aren't Grade-A because they fall short in 2 or 3 areas.

Here's a problem. B-players hire ~~losers~~ B or C players. That's why, if you hire A-players, you can start a favorable chain reaction.

Here's some good news: some B's can be upgraded to A's through coaching and training. Others can become A's if their jobs are fine-tuned to suit them.

C's have to be moved to other jobs or fired. And since most can't cope with new or complex situations, their likely destination is dog food.

Get a Brad Smart DVD. Only $995. USD. Or buy the books: Topgrading and
The Smart Interviewer (Amazon gives you both for $36.27 USD)

Source: Fortune Small Business, via Derby Management site

2005-04-12T05:33:00.000-04:00

File Under: Self-Management
The Zen of Patience

Spurgeon On Patience

Patience is better than wisdom.
An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains.

It is a medicine which is good for all diseases.

It is as natural for us to murmur as for a horse to shake his head when the flies tease him. But nature should not be the rule.

Grin and bear it is the old-fashioned advice,
but sing and bear it is a great deal better.

Pain past is pleasure; experience comes by it. We ought not to be afraid of going down into Egypt when we know we shall come out of it with jewels of silver and gold.

Sorrows are visitors that come without invitation, but complaining minds send a wagon to bring their troubles home in.

They chew the bitter pill which they would not even know to be bitter if they had the sense to swallow it whole.

What cannot be cured must be endured.
"Must" is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.

Poverty is no shame, but being discontented with it is.

In some things, the poor are better off than the rich.
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy.
A poor man's table is soon spread.
And hunger finds no fault with the cook.

2005-04-12T04:36:00.000-04:00

Hilarious Blog Title
The Learning Xanax Get it? Xanax, Annex.

Happy where you are, or willfully ignorant?

2005-04-11T07:44:00.000-04:00

Do you work for crooks? Is your company about to explode (or imploded) in an Enron/Worldcom like scandal? "Gee how the heck should I know?" You are probably asking.

Well Boston Consulting Group has come up with a study that points to some warning signs that could help you decide whether your company is in danger:

Corporate scandals often happen at the most successful firms or at least at firms where the appearance of success breeds a megalomaniac CEO, reams of stock options, overoptimistic goals, and gaga recommendations from Wall Street equity analysts.

This is the conclusion of a Boston Consulting Group study that analyzes the companies responsible for twenty-five of the largest corporate frauds since 1996.

Compared with their clean competitors, "fraud firms" offered their CEOs eight times as much stock-based pay and set corporate performance targets 250 percent higher. Other factors associated with executive malfeasance were inflated stock prices and attention from the press (before their downfalls, fraud-firm CEOs were three times as likely to be quoted in the media as their competitors).

Moreover, two interesting insights emerged. First, good corporate governance - of the sort mandated by post-bubble regulations - may have done little to prevent fraud. Enron's board, for instance, was rated among the nation's five best-governed in 2000. Second, while crooked execs may have fooled analysts, the media, and the public, the market sniffed them out.

The median fraud firm lost 40 percent of its value in the year before its actions came to light. (One wonders who was selling ....)

Source:The Atlantic Online

2005-04-10T12:45:00.000-04:00

Sometimes innocent, sometimes not
US Hero Canadian born

I couldn't resist posting a few lines from the NYT obit for Saul Bellow.

I am an American, Chicago born... and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent." -- Augie March

He was a wonderful talker... a champion detractor. To be loused up by Humboldt was really a kind of privilege. It was like being the subject of a two-nosed portrait by Picasso, or an eviscerated chicken by Soutine.
-- Humboldt's Gift

In contrast with some other winners, who were wary of the albatross of the Nobel [Prize], Mr. Bellow accepted it matter-of-factly. "The child in me is delighted," he said. "The adult in me is skeptical." He took the award, he said, "on an even keel," aware of "the secret humiliation" that "some of the very great writers of the century didn't get it."

In 1994, while on a Caribbean vacation with his wife in St. Martin, Mr. Bellow became sick after eating a toxic fish, and almost died...

NYT April 6, 2005
Saul Bellow, Who Breathed Life Into American Novel, Dies at 89
By Mel Gussow and Chuck McGrath

2005-04-08T08:53:00.000-04:00

US Bank Reveals Key To Success

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express. -- Francis Bacon

I have a friend who calls me every day to tell me, "Life is rough, Michael, it really is".

I usually disagree but after reading this report, well... it's bad enough to be short and unattractive but when they go and dock your pay for it! That's really depressing.

But, tall, lean and handsome versus short, stout and unappealing. That's the Rat Race in 2005 according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

These distinguished scientists have discovered that if you're vertically and horizontally unchallenged and have a nice face, you'll make more money.

And, scientists, I believe you. Why, I can't count the number of times a manager has told me, "Mike, there's a bonus in it for you if the candidates are good looking." Right, Anthony?

Now, what is the St Louis Fed? It's one of 12 banks that make up the U.S. Federal Reserve system. And it published this revelation in the April edition of The Regional Economist, a favourite journal of the economic elite.

But, wait, little people, before you jump,
there is some good news. Listen to this:

It is not possible to staff a company without short people.
There simply aren't enough tall people to go around.

Here's the full scoop in water-cooler format.
Pretty Premium: good looking people earn 5% more.
Plainess Penalty: unattractive people earn 9% less.
Boopsey Factor: overly-attractive women are seen as airheads.

Attractive people are more confident and communicate better.
58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are over 6 feet. 30% are over 6, 2.

We believe good looking people perform better.
College kids give good looking profs better evaluations.

Pretty people get special breaks.
White women lose more than white men for being overweight.

Women with an obese body mass index earn 17%
less than women with an average BMI.

Short People, Arise!

Now, apparently, no one sues for appearance discrimination
because only race, gender, creed, origin and age are protected.

But women and minority groups have attacked height requirements in the police force and fire department as tools of gender and ethnic bias.

So, if you've been denied a promotion and you're short, you
could claim that it's a diversity issue. It's worth a shot.

Don't let it get to you

Let's say this report leads you to believe that the odds are stacked against you through no fault of your own. What should you do?

Nothing. Because if you worry about it, that will affect your personality. And personality is a much bigger factor than appearance in making a good impression.

Source: Sharda Prashad, Toronto Star (Apr 6/05)

2005-04-06T21:28:00.000-04:00

Career Opportunities....

We just can't write ads like that any more.......

Of course the fact that the Pony Express hasn't existed for well over 100 years has something to do with it as well.

However you have admire the refreshing candour. Most job ads aren't near as truthful these days.

2005-04-05T17:53:00.000-04:00

Headhunter...Recruiter...Resume Reader???

Caldwell Partners is a publicly traded headhunting firm here in Canada. They typically work at the highest level (CEO's and such).

Latest numbers for the big bodysnatching outfit are good:
- Second quarter operating revenue up 39%;
net income up 19.5%
- Fourth successive quarter of improved operating results;
first-half operating revenue up 34%
- Board declares quarterly cash dividend of $0.02 per share

Good for Caldwell but I don't think we are allowed to call them Headhunters or even Executive Search Consultants any more. Nope Caldwell proudly states in its press release that they are: Canada's first, largest, and only truly national human capital services firm,

Got it? Human Capital Services.

Doesn't really roll off the tongue like "headhunter" does it? Used to be that anything related to employment was given the term "manpower" until women's liberation forced a change in that admittedly sexist term. Then it became Human Resources. Now all of a sudden the mot-du-jour is "Human Capital"

So from now on I no longer wish to be called a "headhunter"
I am a "Human Capital Talent Scout"

Now I have to go update my business cards.

Source Canada News Wire

2005-04-04T22:18:00.000-04:00

Interviews of the Future

In the future candidates will probably be plugged into a hot seat before the interview conversation starts.

Then machines will monitor their brains for lies and their speech muscles for unspoken thoughts.

Right now, scientists know that different parts of the brain are activated by lies and honest statements.

And these differences can be measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans.

Also, NASA is developing a system that uses two sensors, one on the neck and one under the chin, to monitor electrical signals sent to the speech muscles.

This allows it to work out what people are saying - even if they do not speak out loud.

Sources: here and here.

2005-04-04T21:53:00.000-04:00

Personality Assessment Quiz

Merrill-Reid Social Styles

I think this analysis works.
Tho I don't know how useful it is.

According to Merrill and Reid there are 4 types of people.

You can determine anyone's type fairly easily and take it into
account when you communicate with him. So --

Each row below (A,B,C,D,E) contains four adjectives.
Each adjective describes a different one of the four types.

Therefore, if you rank the adjectives in each row as to how well each one describes you, you will find out which type is most like you.

Here's how you do it.

Assign a:
7 to the adjective that best describes you,
5 for the next closest adjective,
3 for the next,
1 for the least descriptive.

Each row should have a 7,5,3,1. No ties within rows are allowed.

A. Stubborn, Persuasive, Gentle, Humble
B. Competitive, Obliging, Playful, Obedient
C. Adventurous, Life of the Party, Moderate, Precise
D. Determined, Convincing, Good Natured, Cautious
E. Assertive, Optimistic, Lenient, Accurate

Now reorganize each graded "column" of adjectives above into rows, as below. (You can see it in chart form here.)

1. Stubborn, Competitive, Adventurous, Determined, Assertive
2. Persuasive, Obliging, Life of the Party, Convincing, Optimistic
3. Gentle, Playful, Moderate, Good natured, Lenient
4. Humble, Obedient, Precise, Cautious, Accurate

Each row contains all of the adjectives from above that are representative of the same type of person.

Add up the grades in each row. And the row with the highest number reflects your personality type.

Interpretation
Row 1: Sherman tanks: the bosses
Row 2: Socializers: always having happy hour.
Row 3: Mother hens: nurturing, stable
Row 4: Analyticals: cautious, careful, picky

Alternate Descriptions

Row 1 - DIRECTORS: Firm, forceful, confident, competitive, decisive, determined, impatient, risk-takers.

Row 2 - SOCIALIZERS: Outgoing, optimistic, enthusiastic. Like to be in the center of things. Have lots of ideas. Love to talk, especially about themselves.

Row 3 - RELATERS: Genial team players. Prefer stability to risk. Care greatly about the feelings and needs of others. Likeable but timid.

Row 4 - THINKERS: Self-controlled and considerate. Prefer analysis to emotion. Love clarity and order. Stiff personality.

Source and Source

2005-04-03T23:37:00.000-04:00

A Job For The Future

Dan Pink has struck a chord with his new book, A Whole New Mind: Moving From The Information Age To The Conceptual Age.

He says that to get ahead today, you have to do something:

1. Foreigners can't do cheaper.
2. Computers can't do faster.
3. That serves people who have everything.

His conclusion: it can't be too "left-brained".

2005-04-03T22:59:00.000-04:00

Multi-Tasking: Use At Your Own Risk

This position would be suitable for an accomplished
multi-tasker with an eye for detail, and accuracy.

Everybody wants a multi-tasker. But, let me ask you this. Why is most juggling done by clowns? Answer? Because, multi-tasking is a fool's game.

Toggling between tasks is done by "the mental CEO", the executive controllers found in the brain's prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex.

These bosses prioritize tasks and assign the mind's resources to them.

The executive control mechanisms work in two stages:

1) Goal shifting :"I want to do this now instead of that."

2) Rule activation : "I'm turning off the rules for that and turning on the rules for this."

Rule activation takes several tenths of a second -- which can add up when people switch back and forth repeatedly between tasks.

When test subjects were plugged into a brain scanner and told to switch quickly between two simple tasks they worked slowly.

The scanner showed that the part of the brain that prioritizes tasks and does higher-order thinking was taking a rest while switching.

Like an clunky, old computer, the frontal lobes "went blank, waiting for instructions for the next task to upload".

And in terms of quality of work, when the brain has to do more than one thing at once, it simply pays less attention to each.

Psychology Today quotes a study published in NeuroImage which claims that when people were asked to listen to sentences while comparing two rotating objects, Visual Input dropped 29% and Listening Success fell 53%.

And, apparently, good multi-taskers often appear rude because they cannot afford to pay any attention to courteous communication.

Leadership & Multi-Tasking

According to Steve Sailer, nerds are not multi-taskers. They tend to have a narrow and deep focus on one thing at a time.

He sees typical leaders as lively, assertive, dominance-seeking,
"hunter-warrior-jock" types.

They are more people-oriented (whereas nerds are object-oriented). And they are better at multi-tasking as they have a broad but shallow focus.

Nerds [for instance] lack the "situational awareness" that the Air Force prizes in fighter pilots [lively and assertive jocks], but their ability to concentrate obsessively makes them good at designing the planes that pilots fly.

Sailer alludes to Bill Gates mentioning that the richest man in the world is a nerd. But, I've read that Gates is very good at switching from one task to another with no time required for adjustment at all.

If that's true, maybe Gates just looks like a nerd but isn't. Or, maybe it means that this nerd vs man-of-action typology isn't as clear cut as he says.

Psychology Today, Multi-Tasking: What's The Cost (PDF), Is Multi-Tasking More Efficient, Effect of Stress On The Brain. Mad Chad.

2005-03-31T20:26:00.000-05:00

She Needs Your Help

Heather, the popular marketing recruiter, is in a tizzy.

She has to find a name for her baseball team so she
is asking the universe for suggestions.

Me and Dino have a few.

Number one name: The Wrecking Crew!

Get it? Wreck as in RECruit. Crew as in reCRUIter.?

Backups: The Recrewcuts, The Recuties, The Crewballs,
The 925ers and The Stafflocaucus.

I also have a name for the janitorial team: The Drecking Crew.

If you want to help, you can find her here.

2005-03-31T19:57:00.000-05:00

Visibility - Again.

There was an article in the Globe and Mail today about a new trend called "bearhugging" in which:
organizations and leaders of teams identify the members of their teams who are critical to their success and acknowledge their value with perks such as stock plans, promotions, special projects and training.

Supposedly this is a good way to keep people. I don't know why this should be news - it seems like common sense that you should try to find wasy to hang on to your best talent. Even your average talent is worth hanging onto since they know the company better than an average performer from outside.

What caught my eye was a bit at the end that listed some ways that you can leverage your career by increasing your visibility. Here are some of them:

Stay aware of changes in your profession. Executives can expect to move through six or more jobs on their way to the top.

Make sure you are active in your professional organization.

Raise your visibility outside your own organization both professionally and in the community.

Get published or be interviewed in professional journals.

Do public speaking at industry functions.

Make sure you are known by recruiters.

This all sounds very familiar to me and if you have been a long time reader to our blog it will be to you too because I did two posts on the subject last year. They were called What Kind of Candidate are You Part II - Visibile or Invisible? and Increasing Your Visibility II

Here's some of my advice from those posts

"... firstly start attending conferences and seminars. Sometimes attendees lists are found on the Internet by enterprising recruiters and we are typically more interested in the attendees than the high flying speakers.

Secondly and most important: to what professional associations do you belong? No matter what field you are in there is some type of professional association (sometimes several). Just joining one gets you on the membership directory and headhunters love membership directories!!

But don't just stop at joining an association - get involved. Get on committees help out in events. If you are on the association executive or a committee you will probably be listed on a the website and thus you will be more visible!"

I think maybe the Globe secretly reads our blog. I have some more to say on this subject but in the interest of brevity I will leave it for another post next week.

In case I forget though remind me to write about how the new privacy laws are killing your career.

Trust me it is that serious.

2005-03-30T20:17:00.000-05:00

Hurdy Gurdy Man

The resounding question that seemed to be on everyone’s mind yesterday was: “Who is Mark Hurd”? Well for those who were following the search by HP to replace Carly Fiorina it was.
That’s because Mr. Hurd came out of nowhere to take the top job. He wasn’t even on the radar screen for most people (including us).

Hurd was most recently CEO of NCR (where he has worked for 25 years) a 6 billion dollar operation compared to HP’s 80 billion.

That’s some jump but a lot of people are saying he is the right man for the job.

Motley Fool gushed:

It's a brilliant move for HP, giving the company the freshest breath of optimism that it has been able to inhale in years

and others chimed in:
"This is the right guy at the right time," said Mark Stahlman, an analyst with Caris & Co. "He is a high tech guy and a high growth guy who is very operations oriented."

Patricia Dunn said that Hurd was the board's top choice and indicated that NCR's revival was one of the key factors behind their decision to hire him.

"Mark came to our attention because of his strong execution skills, his proven ability to lead top performing teams and his track record in driving shareholder value. He demonstrated these skills by turning around NCR, which, while smaller than HP, is a complex organization with multiple business segments," she said.

One fund manager who owns shares of NCR said that Hurd is one of the best executives he's ever met.

What makes him so good? Well apart from being very personable with staff and not given to the “rock star CEO” mentality he is apparently very operations oriented and according to one person “he executes like mad”.

Don’t worry though that doesn’t mean he cuts peoples heads off with great passion.

Not everyone is 100% sure that Hurd is the right person for the job however.

Barry Randall, manager of the First American Technology fund, which owns NCR but not HP, thinks the euphoria about a new HP CEO could soon fade. He said many investors had been buying HP because they believed the sum of the parts argument, i.e. that it would be worth more in pieces.

Randall thinks once investors realize that a break up is no more likely under Hurd than it was under Fiorina, shares could fall. "The punch line to me is that shares of HP jumped when Carly got the boot because they felt she was a roadblock to splitting the company up. And now they've hired a guy who clearly will not split the company up," he said.

"NCR has fallen so far off the radar. They have essentially been level, at best, for over a decade" in the general-purpose server market," said Jonathan Eunice, an analyst at Illuminata. HP instead should have tried to recruit one of the many lifers out of IBM, Eunice said.

Calls made to headhunters and other executives brought intense skepticism that Hurd -- or any young CEO -- could make the jump from a $6 billion company to an $80 billion tech giant with thousands of different product lines. "Mark is a very decent guy, but I can't believe he would be remotely qualified," says one headhunter.

As I see it Hurd’s biggest problem might be the fact that some of those who run the different divisions might not feel they can learn anything from him. After all some of them have been responsible for businesses that are larger than NCR itself.

Hurd will have to establish credibility with these execs quickly or he will face real problems. He may even have to move some people out.

Although you can bet that some are dusting their resumes off already.

He will also have to demonstrate his affinity for technology. Although it didn’t help his cause when he avoided questions from reporters at a press conference by pretending to take a call on his imaginary cell phone.

BTW now that NCR has an opening maybe Canadian Headhunter will get the call?

2005-03-30T07:54:00.000-05:00

Carly Fiorina Fired! Replaced by Mark Hurd

The news is here. Anthony will bring you pictorial comments soon.

Hat Tip Peter Dawson

2005-03-30T07:35:00.000-05:00

Anti-Woman Bias Infects Liberal Bosses

From: Raise Your Hand If You're A Woman in Science,
Virginia Valian, Washington Post, January 30, 2005 (edited)

Researchers asked people to rate men and women
VPs in an aircraft company as to:
a) competence
b) likeability

The raters were told that:
a) half the VP's were great performers.
b) the other half had not had a performance
review yet so their competence was unknown.

MEN MORE COMPETENT

When the raters received no information about a person's performance they rated the man as more competent than the woman, and rated them as equally likeable.

When told that the person was very competent, they rated men and women as equally competent.

SUCCESSFUL WOMEN LESS LIKEABLE

But both men and women raters saw the successful women as less likeable than the men.

There's a lot of research like this but it is not well-known so it has not had much effect.

Genius blogger, Businesspundit, offers a different explanation
as to why research on bias has no effect.

The results of the research on bias are well-known.
But everyone assumes that it pertains to someone else.

Inotherwords, research on bias is beaten by
the very bias it researches.

2005-03-30T07:30:00.000-05:00

Hiring Biased Against Short Men & Women

M. Gladwell, author of Blink, believes your decision-making skills can be easily "hijacked" without you knowing it.

Here's some evidence.

1. The percentage of women in professional orchestras rose from 5% to 50% after musicians unions forced them to put up screens to make auditions anonymous.

When evaluators didn't know the sex of the performers,
they found that women were among best.

2. Less than 4% of the general population is over 6 feet tall - but a majority of CEOs are. Gladwell suspects that there is a bias (perhaps innate) to see height as a proper attribute of power.

(Doesn't this suggest that short men, like Napoleon and Lenin, who are shut out by this bias, will be more inclined than others to lead opposition movements? And who would follow them except other short men? I see a doctoral thesis here: "The Short Man's Army: Height Disadvantage and Revolution".)

GROUPS ARE STUPID

Gladwell also believes that groups are more likely to make stupid decisions. Because when other people agree with your hasty, incorrect judgements, you are more inclined to think them valid.

(The next time someone tells you to get a "reality check" by seeing if other people agree with you -- well, now you can tell them to buzz off.)

via Liz of Corante Tech News. Previously posted on Recruiting.com

2005-03-29T20:03:00.000-05:00

Laff With Say La Vee

Here and here.

I found her via Manolo
who has his version here.

2005-03-29T17:31:00.000-05:00

Canadian Headhunter: Model for Excellence?

It looks like a class at the Management School of Lyon in France is using Canadian Headhunter as a model for its own blogs.

The link isn't public but if you could follow it you'd see us listed there along with a number of student blogs.

Right under our name it says "C'est un blog tres fou."

That must mean we're pretty good, eh?

I think the course is about the impact of IT on Human Resource
management in the Swiss Cheese industry.

The prof is a blog-savvy American named Lee Schlenker.
His resume is ici.

Bon chance mes amis.

2005-03-27T21:18:00.000-05:00

Layer-Cake Design Is Loathsome

Space-Guzzling Addresses Out!

90% Of Resumes Are Structurally Unsound

I've seen a few versions of this story.

An outsider asks the student of a guru why he studies with his teacher. The student replies. "I came here to see how he ties his shoes."

But not the way he writes his resume.

Because when it comes to resumes, even smart guys
have not experienced enlightenment.

In fact, according to the Canadian Resume Society 90% of all
smart people don't know how to write their addresses properly.

Here's what they mean.

Do you remember the definition of a resume?
A small space in which you have to write your life story.

Small space, long story. No room for space-guzzlers, obviously.
So, why use the layer-cake address (LCA) structure?

I mean, why this:

Joan Jones
10 Castlview Court, Suite 1704,
Toronto, Ontario, M5P 2G8
Home: 416 XXX XXXX
Work: 416 XXX XXXX
Email: rex_rule@hotmail.com

When you could have this:

Joan Jones
10 Castlview Court, Suite 1704, Toronto, Ontario, M5P 2G8
Home: 416 xxx xxxx; Work: 416 xxx xxxx; Email: rex@hotmail.com

Meditate on that and I'm sure you'll see that with just a little common sense even you can find your resume on two well-designed pages. Or, maybe even one.

2005-03-27T17:56:00.000-05:00

Take this job and.....

How's this for life as a recruiter:

Searing back pains, nervous breakdowns, high turnover, suicide.

Gee is life that tough for us in the executive search business? Well not quite. We do have the stress and turnover but the US Army recruiters are really having it tough right now.

Why?

People are less likely to sign up now that there is an acutal war going on. Recruiters are facing hostility on campuses and their quotas have been increased.

The Army is seeking 101,200 new active-duty Army and Reserve soldiers this year alone to replenish the ranks in Iraq and Afghanistan, elsewhere around the world and at home.

That means each of the Army's 7,500 recruiters faces the grind of an unyielding human math, a quota of two new recruits a month, at a time of extended war without a draft.

For the first time in nearly five years, the Army missed its active-duty recruiting goal in February.

The Reserve has missed its monthly quota since October. Army officials said the goals would most likely be missed the next two months as well.

Of course part of the problem could be that the army isn't selecting good recruiters properly:

Some soldiers are better suited to the task than others. Staff Sgt. Jose E. Zayas, 42, is outgoing, bilingual and embraces his mission. Recently, canvassing in the Bronx, he had little trouble persuading a couple from Massachusetts to accept a few pamphlets.

But for every Sergeant Zayas, there is a recruiter like Sgt. Joshua Harris, 29, a former personnel administrator in a New Jersey recruiting station, who struggles when talking to strangers. Seven weeks of instruction in approaching prospects helped him, he said. But many recruiters said few soldiers possess the skills they need.

See there's the problem. Recruiting is at its essence selling. If you don't have even a modicum of selling skills you will not be successful. Being a recruiter of any sort means you have to be willing to talk to strangers and to talk to lots of them before you make a "sale".

But there's more:

Recruiters are paid about $30,000 a year, plus housing and other allowances, including $450 a month in special-duty pay for recruiting. They live where they recruit, often hundreds of miles from a base.

Anyone see a problem here?

Low paying job combined with people who aren't suited for it. That spells trouble. The Army and any company faced with turnover and recruitment issues has to face reality: if you are having retention problems you have something that needs fixing internally. If you are having recruiting problems you are not selling your company well.

Many clients I deal with have trouble recruiting people and yet refuse to accept the fact that their company has a poor image in the market place. Even if the public image is incorrect you have to take that into account when you are recruiting.

You have to be willing to sell to the negative and not avoid it.

Example: The Army used to recruit on things like travel and college education. Things have changed now and they are fighting a war. Used to be young men actually volunteered BECAUSE they wanted to fight not because they wanted a diploma.

Ya' think you might want to try to focus on finding those types?

And perhaps you need to be bringing in some real headhunters to help train and coach you recruiters.

Oh and a little pay raise or linking comp to performance wouldn't hurt either.

It's not rocket science guys.

Source: New York Times (sub required but it's free so sign up already).

2005-03-25T06:55:00.000-05:00

Non-Confrontational Argument

Carlo Rogers was a psychotherapist.

He couldn't change his clients' dopey ideas by rational argument.

When he tried to prove them wrong, they just became defensive.

So he simply avoided argument --
and the statement of any point of view.

Instead, he merely restated the client's ideas.

He was more than a stenographer in that he tried
to articulate the feelings in their words.

But he did not draw conclusions that went far beyond what was actually said. Because, then the client would resist.

Rogers' approach has been used to help communication
in any emotional situation, including tough negotiations.

A Rogerian Argument has 4 elements.

1. State the opposing view before your own
-- without overt or hidden evaluations.

2. Don't just articulate ideas.
Imagine the context that makes them seem valid.

3. State your own view
including the circumstances and feelings that make it seem valid.

4. Don't show how your opponent is wrong.
Show how his position would benefit by
adopting elements of your position.

Don't Highlight Errors

When you feed back the other person's views, don't
highlight their lack of logic. That's confrontational.

(eg. "So, you want us to pay you more than we can afford.")

Don't Debate, Cooperate

Rogers intended his method to assist in the
cooperative exploration of a problem issue.

In fact, he said that using his technique to win an argument
or change another's mind is a perversion of his thinking.

He was trying to be solution-oriented
but not in the least combative.

So, the restating process, for instance, is not
meant to simply soften up your opponent.

It's supposed to put you in touch with the
complexities of his point of view.

Feminists Find It Gutless

Feminists complain, however, that the Rogerian approach is feminine rather than feminist because it is not assertive enough and too emotionally neutral (unemotional).

Can It Be Irritating?

Sometimes, when I call a company for information, it seems as if the people I speak to have been trained never to say anything oppositional.

I finally have to ask them "Does that mean No?".
To which they refuse to answer "Yes".

It's like interviewing a politician who's been trained to never acknowledge disagreement but merely to state and restate her policy no matter what question is asked.

They seem to have absorbed some of Rogers' technique but perverted it into a verbal judo that allows them to roll with the punches until the other guy gets tired and gives up.

And if you are a bit dull and don't recognize that their code words mean "no", their begrudged tone lets you know that you are pissing them off.

Actually, this might not be Rogerian at all, but it leads one to recognize a resemblance between Rogers and that style of etiquette which considers bringing something unpleasant into the open a matter of bad taste, assuming, rather, that with all decent people it will be simply understood.

Source: Doug Brent Rogerian Rhetoric. See also: Deborah Tannen, "The
Feminine Technique" (which was condensed into this posting.)

2005-03-23T22:06:00.000-05:00

No News Is....

No word from HP yet on which candiate from our short list has been put forward by Russell Reynolds to succeed Carly Fiorina. This seems to be bugging some people:

HP's interim management frustrated any shareholder attempts to find out how its CEO search is really going at its annual meeting Wednesday.

The company's non-executive chairman Patricia Dunn said she wouldn't answer any question about the search.

People had to be content with her assurance that "We are pleased with out progress and we are where we expected to be and want to be at this juncture."

Of course, BusinessWeek has claimed that the slot could be filled by the end of the month. Meanwhile, if Carly had her heart set on being the next head of the World Bank, a balloon that was floated two weeks ago, her hopes have been dashed. The White House is putting up Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Senior level searches, and especially ones of this magnitude, tend to take a fairly long time. Part of the problem is that CEO level candidates tend to travel quite a bit and the process of even meeting them for an interview becomes quite time consuming.

But why certain shareholders feel they should be kept abreast of the search is beyond me. One of the complicating factors of any search is confidentiality. Candidates are employed with other firms and don’t want their intentions bandied about at shareholder meetings.

This search is a critical one for HP, it is not one to be taken lightly. Even if the search wasn’t going well should Patricia Dunn have said “OMG we are so screwed we don’t know what to do we have NO candidates!!!!”

Of course that would be a lie since we have already done half the search for Russell Reynolds when we outlined a short list some time ago.

Holders of HP stock should relax. If Russell Reynolds doesn’t get the job done Canadian Headhunter will be there for the easy slam-dunk.

Now as for finding Carly a job……

2005-03-22T22:11:00.000-05:00

New Postings on I Hate Recruiters
This is the link. And, don't forget to send us your horror stories. Here.

2005-03-22T16:54:00.000-05:00

Traditional Job Culture Alienates Women

Natural Born Fighters

According to Professor Deborah Tannen, women aren't sissies.

They just don't like fighting.

And, men do.

As boys, they love play-fights. They show affection
by mock-punching or playfully trading insults.

And, as men, they explore ideas by playing
devil's advocate and challenging eachother.

Western Civ is Boyish

Tannen claims that girls fight when they have to, but not for fun.
And, they love science and political journalism.

But they don't like confrontational debater's style of exploring ideas favoured by our culture. So they don't pursue careers in these fields.

Tannen notes, however, that women who do not drop out find
that a non-combative approach can also bring success.

For instance, female lawyers who don't force themselves to be aggressive but take a quiet, sympathetic approach to witnesses get the information they need.

They are willing to be critical and offend when necessary,
but not as a matter of principle.

Eastern Civ is Feminine

Not all men like being attacked in debate either.
They find it discouraging rather than bracing.

In fact, says Tannen, Chinese and Japanese intellectual cultures are not adversarial. They try to relate ideas to eachother rather than match them with contradictions.

Tannen points out that Japanese talk shows rarely feature only two guests and suggests that this is a reflection of their desire to avoid the point-counterpoint style. (Steve Kempton disagrees. See his remarks on this in our comments section.)

Source Deborah Tannen, LA Times

Update: NYT columnist, Maureen Dowd wrote recently that men 'enjoy verbal duelling,' and that as a woman, she has wanted 'to be liked — not attacked'. In reply, Antonia Zerbisias says, please, "...there's no shortage of women out there with opinions." Dowd's view is also undermined by the attack that started the journalistic controversy: Susan Estrich suggested that Michael Kinsley was publishing few women because his Parkinsons disease was impairing his judgement.

(See posting on Non-Confrontational Argument.
Also, check out Amy, Lauren and Martha at Snarkywood)

2005-03-22T16:30:00.000-05:00

A Suggestion For Manolo

A blog for the glasses of the eye!

2005-03-22T16:11:00.000-05:00

The Future Of Newspapers

An article on the relationship of blogs to newspapers by Antonia Zerbisias was an eye-opener for me.

She says that young people will spend lots of

money on technology, like cellphones,
but they won't pay for content.

And this puts newspapers that charge for content in trouble.

Because bloggers won't link to papers that require subscriptions. And the fewer links a paper gets, the less hits it gets on Google.

Her conclusion:

That's why it's not only good to give away the content; it's also wise to have blogs...

amortize

The NYT has another take on the same topic.

2005-03-22T07:10:00.000-05:00

We're #4.... Right??

Korn/Ferry said Monday it has regained its position as the No. 1 executive search firm in the United States and the world, according to recently released rankings from two trade organizations.

Korn/Ferry, which ranked third in the United States and second internationally a year ago, edged out Chicago-based Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. (NASDAQ:HSII), which took the top spot globally last year, and Chicago-based Spencer Stuart, which was No. 1 in the United States last year.

Congrats to Korn Ferry. But that is not all. Apparently the search business is booming:

A broad and sustained increase in executive recruiting activity in the United States and worldwide helped retained executive search consulting firms snap a three-year slump and fueled double-digit increases in professional fee revenue for the largest of them in 2004.

The 20 largest global retained executive search consulting practices posted a 25% gain in professional fee revenue in 2004, while the 40 largest retained executive search firms in the United States registered a 21% gain in revenue, according to the just-released annual search firm rankings issue of Executive Recruiter News (ERN), whose publisher, Kennedy Information, Inc., has tracked the global business of executive search since 1970.

"Corporate management is shifting its focus from cost-containment to business growth, and it's investing in executive talent to seize new opportunities, differentiate from the competition, and build and align workforces to meet the demands of the global economy," says Joseph Daniel McCool, editor in chief of Executive Recruiter News. "The broad and sustained increase in executive recruiting activity we witnessed in 2004 signals that employers around the world are beginning to rebuild the people side of their businesses, and that should bolster the jobs market at all levels in 2005."

2005-03-20T20:03:00.000-05:00

I Hate Recruiters Too!

Dear Readers, I am announcing the creation of yet another blog.

It's called I Hate Recruiters and it's full of postings from my family and friends.

OK, it isn't. It's not about me. It's about a much graver issue:
job hunting gone bad.

I'm going to start it off with postings I've found on other blogs.

But in order to continue, I'll need stories from you,
the job-hopping public.

So, think about sending us a note about your experience.

And, in the meantime, you can find the first entries here.

2005-03-20T19:42:00.000-05:00

Contemp Culture Stinks of Finks

Publishing legend, Tina Brown is full of surprises as she rebels against a straight-laced age.

From Tina Brown, Washington Post:

Sex at the office used to be one of the things that made going to work worthwhile...

...but not anymore since a Boeing e-mail snoop caused the board to can the highly successful, 68-year-old CEO Harry Stonecipher for his lapse with a company executive who wasn't even in the same town.

We are in the Eggshell Era, in which everyone has to tiptoe around because there's a world of busybodies out there who are being paid to catch you out -- and a public that is slowly being trained to accept a culture of finks.

We're always under surveillance...paparazzi make small fortunes snapping glamour goddesses picking their noses....

No matter who you are, someone is ready and willing to rat you out. Even the rats themselves have to look over their shoulders... [and] Bloggers are the new Stasi.

via Damian Penny. (I don't think Dame got the humour in this one. At least, I think it's supposed to be outrageous. (And for the sake of her husband, I hope so!)

2005-03-20T19:41:00.000-05:00

Job Sob Give and Take

I liked this question and answer session about career problems.

Q: I was an event planner but I got severe psoriasis and they let me go.

A: Become an event planner for a skin disease society.
They'll be more sympathetic.

Q: My job as help-desk manager was shipped to New Zealand.
What should I do?

A: Get the same job in a government agency.
They won't offshore.

Read the rest.

2005-03-17T21:57:00.000-05:00

Searching for Jeremy Wright

Some of you might have heard via the blogosphere that Jeremy over at Ensight had an adventure of sorts when he tried to cross the border from Canada to the US recently. Jeremy had landed a Blogging related job in New York and was off to start his job.

However he was stopped at the border and after a rather long ordeal not allowed to enter the US. Jeremy has removed some posts he did on the subject but his border adventure is not what interested me.

Mike had a cup of coffee with Jeremy today and he told him that he was approached by a consulting firm about this job. They were desperate. The client a large publishing company had been looking for someone to help them start a blog (or something like that) and wanted someone with blogging expertise (both content and technical). Not only that but this was the second firm they had tried another “consulting firm” had come up empty.

Now I don’t know if these consulting firms were actual recruiters or some other type of consultants but I am flabbergasted that someone would find it difficult to find someone to fill this position.

Remember there are about a billion bloggers (well not that much but close) out there and the technical blogs were the originators of the phenom in many respects.

Could it be that these people knew absolutely nothing about blogging??

But even if that was the case that shouldn’t have stopped them from finding someone qualified in a short period of time.

Incidentally I am not saying Jeremy is not qualified. I just think that the search should have been very easy.

If I were given this search and knew nothing about blogs the first thing I would do is learn about blogs.

I would hope that if these people are not Internet savvy then they would have at least noticed that Time and Fortune have both done cover stories about blogs and blogging recently?? Heck every local newspaper in every town has had some form of article about blogs in the past year.

Just Tuesday while driving to a meeting in Toronto I heard a local talk radio station talking about the woman who was fired for writing something negative about her employer on her own blog.

It’s not like these things are unknown at this point (although lots of people still don’t have a clue about them).

The first thing I would do is a Google search on blogs. Let me clarify I would first do a Google News search on them.

Why? If I don’t know squat about an industry I would like to see if there are any articles written that would give me a quick overview of the field.

I type in “blogging” into the Google News engine and come up with tons of hits. On the first page I find an article about “making money from blogging” this peaks my interest because it sounds like it might contain information about the people who are involved in blogging for a living – those are people I would like to target as candidates or referrals.

The link takes me to a blog called “Inside the Beltway” assuming I am new to blogging this person is my first potential target. So I click on the “about” link and find not one but 6 people listed. This is a jackpot for a recruiter. In one click I have found 6 names including the editor James Joyner.

Going back to the main page I read the article and discover that it is linking to another site with an interview done by a blogger with a guy from a company called “Blogads” that does advertising on blogs.

Pretty soon I have two more names:

John Hawkins who runs a blog called Right Wing News
And Henry Copeland from Blogads – the advertising company.

Now I want to check out Blogads. There is a link to the company provided. I click through. Ok Blogads at first doesn’t seem to have much but then I notice something on the right hand of the screen: testimonials!!

For example :

"Blogads makes it a snap to create and customize our campaigns, and the traffic they send to our book and author sites is significant. But the best part is being able to share space (mind-space, virtual-space, screen-space) with the bloggers who -- if they embrace our books and authors -- make all the difference."
- Farah Miller
Manager of New Media
The Knopf Publishing Group

WOW! The name of the manager of New Media for a Publishing group! Ya think she might be able to provide some referrals? Maybe she would be a candidate herself??

There are also 7 more names on the testimonials all from Bloggers.

From Google link I already have 16 names and I am just getting warmed up. I go back to Google News and after a couple of false starts with articles buried under subscription walls I find another article of interest. This one seems to be about by a journalist talking about blogs as some form of new media (remember I am trying to conduct this as if I don’t know anything about blogs).

He mentions some guy. A pioneer named Matt Drudge I make a note of it.

More importantly he mentions a company called “blogger” which apparently allows people to set up their own blogs. I check it out. Apparently it was founded by three people in San Francisco and they sold it to Google (lucky bastards). A link in their about section takes me to an article about the purchase. It gives the name of Evan Williams as one of the founders of blogger with a link to his sight which provides me with his email.

Additionally it mentions two other Blogging companies: Movable Type and Userland Radio

I am up to 18 names. Plust the names of some of the key companies who are playing in the blog space I have been barely searching for a half hour.

I could go on but you get my drift.

My next step would be to continue to build that list. Then when I had about 100 or so names I would begin contacting these people via email (since they all seem so willing to put their emails on their sites) and telling them about the search. I would ask them if they were interested and if not could they recommend someone.

Now let me ask you this. Do you think that I would generate some interest? Do you think that maybe this would start to percolate through the blogosphere and eventually turn up even more people that I never heard of.

I don’t know. Maybe the people who were conducting the search did this. The second company managed to find Jeremy. But they were desperate at this point.

Maybe this company in question should have hired real recruiters.

2005-03-16T21:40:00.000-05:00

Why Men Earn More

Wendy McElroy reviewed Warren Farrell's Why Men Earn More.

This is an abbreviated version.

No Discrimination

On average, women earn 80 cents for every dollar paid to men.
This isn't due to discrimination
against women.

Women Earn More

Farrell compared starting salaries for women and men with Bachelor's Degrees in 26 categories of employment.

When women compete directly with men, they are paid equally in one category; in every other category, they earn more.

Women Work Less

However, women often prefer jobs with shorter and more flexible hours to accommodate the demands of family.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics say men work 45 hours a week and women only 42.

Men are more than twice as likely as women to work at least 50 hours a week.

Women Avoid Hardship Posts

And, women favor jobs that involve little danger, no travel and good social skills. And, these jobs pay less.

Men represent 92 %of all occupational deaths.

Because the most hazardous occupations -- fire fighting, truck driving, construction, and mining -- have 96-98 % male employees.

A Strategy For Women

Women can take dangerous jobs but will not be put into danger for two reasons.

a) Male protectiveness
b) Fear of legal repercussions

10% of the soldiers deployed in Iraq are women. Yet women are 2.6% of soldiers killed. Because a woman is more likely to choose and be chosen for the safer jobs.

And, private industry favours the safety of women over men out of fear of lawsuits for harms such as exposure to chemicals or other stress during pregnancy.

Source article.

2005-03-15T20:05:00.000-05:00

The War for Character

Hey are you still fighting the "War For Talent"? Dude that is soooo 1990's. At least according to Heidrick and Struggles.

"In the thriving '90s," he says, "we corporate recruiters engaged in what management consultants at McKinsey called 'The War for Talent,' but in the wake of Enron and the era of corporate greed, we now have a 'War for Character.'"

The "he" quoted above is Les Csorba a partner in the firm.

He continues:

Talent has become overrated, Csorba says, as so many companies have learned to their misfortune when talent wasn't accompanied by depth of character. Genuine integrity and compassion are the new watchwords. Machiavellian pragmatism and results-at-any-cost are out.

Well then...... Hurrah!!!

I feel a little badly for all the untalented yet ethical people that I neglected to present to clients over the years. I mean if talent is overrated....

Seriously how do you interview for ethics? Do you flat out ask the guy - hey have you ever cheated? Have you ever cooked the books?

I have interviewed people before where ethics were an issue. One client of mine was very sensitive about the ethics of its sales force so they wanted to make sure that no one was hired who might be more interested in closing deals than doing ethical business.

There is nothing wrong with this as theory. In practice however it is not always so clear cut. Most sales people (and all successful senior executives are sales people) are adept at selling themselves and even those who might have committed transgressions (major or minor) are often convinced they did nothing wrong. Or they are able to convince themselves that it wasn't wrong.

So by what scale are we judging ethics? Certainly the recent conviction of Bernie Ebbers of Worldcom qualifies as an ethical violation, of that very few would argue. However what about recently fired Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher? Would he pass the "ethics" test at Heidrick Struggles??

Maybe not, however plenty of companies would be happy to have a CEO who could create the type of results that Stonecipher did during his tenure. Hey some of them might not admit it but you and I know there are some boards out there that are thinking "look as long as he isn't committing accouting fraud we don't care who he is boinking".

I once did a search for a senior tax professional for a large consulting firm. Whilst checking references one of the people I spoke to ( a former boss ) said that this person wasn't a great fit because of his "risk profile". I took this as a code for "he wasn't willing push the envelope" certainly this was an ethics issue that placed the candidate in a positive light and in the end it helped him get the job.

But do we need to have such an emphasis on "ethics" from executive search firms? I don't want to speak ill of my betters - and lets face it Heidrick Struggles wouldn't hire me on a bet. But this sounds like a quick marketing ploy to capitalize on the sudden bout of morality afflicting publicly traded companies.

At the end of the day however there are already strict ethical controls in place. They are called laws. And since the Enron/Worldcom/ fiascoes the laws have been tightened (via Sarbanes Oxely) to make CEO's criminally liable for accounting frauds that occur on their watch whether they were directly involved or not.

So now most CEO's are in a state of paranoia about this. The huge demand for qualified internal auditors is a pretty fair indication that publicly traded companies are taking this very very seriously.

Even executives that might have been willing to play very close to line before are now well aware that they wont be given a fat bonus and a slap on the wrist for this type of behavior anymore.

So how would you determine if your candidates live up to whatever ethical standards your client is demanding? Only two solutions come to mind. The first is references however this area is fraught with some peril. If someone is willing to say on a reference that person A is unethical they might open themselves up to lawsuits. And if you are looking for a past track record that might not be an indication of future behavior. I don't think the Enron and Worldcom boys would have shown a record of fraud in their previous companies. At least no one is coming forward that I am aware of to say "hey these guys have been doing this all their lives". So references might or might not provide the information that you seek.

The other option you have is psychological testing. Psychological testing wont tell you definitively that someone is going to break the law. However they can in some cases point to a personality type that MIGHT be more disposed to shady behavior. However these aren't iron clad.

I do not believe that this type of personality can be evaluated in an interview. But a good interview combined with references and personality profiling might give you a better than average chance of doing so.

But it does beg the question. Why weren't search firms doing this all along?? At any rate I predict a return to a “War for Talent” in the not to distant future. How soon? Well when shareholders start making it clear that as long as the law is being obeyed they aren't interested in hiring CEO's whose only redeeming quality is being able to do a good Jimmy Carter impression.

Read more here including a list of questions that any good sociopath will knock out of park.

2005-03-14T20:47:00.000-05:00

The Dirty Old ~~Male~~ Mail

New revelations have come forth over the firing of Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher.

You remember him? He was fired over an affair with another executive but according to the company he wasn't fired because of the affair. Got that? Well most of us didn't but new details have emerged:

And yet, Boeing chairman Lew Platt was quoted in a corporate release saying the "facts" reflected badly on Stonecipher's judgment and would "impair his ability to lead the company." The facts meaning having an affair? No. In one interview, Platt made it clear that having an affair was not a violation of the company's code of conduct.

So, what's the deal? According to The Wall Street Journal, an informant tipped off Platt in a letter to which was allegedly attached a "very graphic" email written by Stonecipher to his lover. Suddenly, the sky clears. In this era of email inquisition, it is less what Stonecipher did, and more what he wrote. Brokers, investment bankers and accountants have all been shot dead in their corporate beds for either leaving a trail of incriminating emails or ordering the erasure of incriminating emails.

What could be worse for a company than having its leader's lurid, lascivious thoughts reported merrily throughout the media?

So there you have it. Shooting the messenger is starting to take on a whole new meeting.

Canadian Headhunter has yet to receive a call from Boeing asking for our help in filling the vacant position. But you if you want to read more about the current adventures of Harry Stonecipher and his not so secret chamber go here and don't forget our own local scandal involving Genuity has it's own twist on the email thing. You can read Mike's diligent coverage here.

2005-03-14T19:48:00.000-05:00

Carnavale!

Carnival of the Capitalists, is up over at RFID Weblog (and you thought our blog was specialized)

Not only does it have links to all sorts of great business blogs but it also includes a link to a posting from Canadian Headhunter.

Yahoo!!!

2005-03-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

Leviathan

Business Pundit points us to a very interesting piece over at knowledge@wharton about the browser war between Microsoft (IE) and Mozilla (Firefox) .

I haven't used any of the rebel browsers and in fact I haven't even heard of the one that Business Pundit says he uses all the time. Something called Avant

However if you read the whole article at Wharton you can't help but feeling that the Firefox trend is just that: a trend.

Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader, for one, is skeptical of Firefox's success. To him, the big question is whether Firefox can maintain its market share when Microsoft updates Internet Explorer this summer. "Mozilla has passed some threshold, but it's not clear whether Firefox users are early adopters who are just delighted to have an alternative," he says, adding that "IE will get better. It's the usual dance. Microsoft will steal Mozilla's ideas and become competitive."

WebSideStory CEO Jeff Lunsford reports that usage of Firefox has slowed slightly since a big surge in November. "This is probably to be expected as we move beyond the early adopter segment," says Lunsford in an analysis accompanying WebSideStory's market share statistics. "Back in December 2004, it seemed Firefox was a lock to reach 10% by mid-2005, ahead of the reported year end goal of the Mozilla Foundation. Given the latest growth rates, the year end target still appears attainable, but a mid-year achievement is unlikely unless we see increased marketing activity from the Mozilla Foundation."

According to Fader, increased marketing of Firefox is unlikely. After all, Mozilla doesn't have the marketing budget to do a sustained campaign. Meanwhile, Microsoft has one asset that is almost unbeatable: Inertia. Microsoft's browser is packaged when you buy a PC. Other software such as Outlook and Office is included. Are people going to go out of their way to download a Firefox browser or some open source alternative to Microsoft products? "Sure you could argue that some of Microsoft's products are bloated and suboptimal, but they do get the job done reasonably well," says Fader.

The real test for Firefox and other open source alternatives will be how they gain share when Microsoft users are no longer annoyed by security. And what happens when Firefox itself becomes a target for hackers? Says Fader: "It's really a question of whether Firefox has just attracted dissatisfied Microsoft users or has gained a foothold so it can offer real competition."

Read the whole thing here.

2005-03-13T21:26:00.000-05:00

Your Career After You Die

It often seems that whenever a young criminal gets gunned down by police his family tells the newpapers that he wanted to be a doctor.

Of course, he'd dropped out of high school already but, in grief, that's beside the point.

I thought of this when I saw that
Bill Cameron had died.

He was a long-time news announcer on the government-sponsored Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). And he always seemed to be a very nice guy.

Anthony and I used to call him The Helmet. Because that was the nickname Frank Magazine gave him for the way he wore his hair.

The Strange Course of The Helmet's Career

The Helmet quit CBC suddenly, when his career seemed to be going well -- and then he promptly disappeared from public view.

Apparently, government cut-backs would have forced him to take a cut in pay.

Here's what he said when he quit the CBC.

Inevitably, you find that what you're doing for a major part of your day is extremely silly," he said. "I've got enough silliness in the rest of my life. I don't need it at work." So, what did he do next?

Cameron...announced that he was taking a job as vice-president of communications at the Toronto-based American Gem Corp., a sapphire marketer, which then changed its name to Digital Gem Corp. That sounds strange doesn't it?

A successful journalist says his work life is sillier than his personal life and goes to an online gem marketer.

Bill's Obituary

The Toronto Star published two obituaries.
But you won't find these issues explored there.

As you would expect, they are filled with praise, most of it, apparently, well-deserved (though a lot of it sounds hackneyed all the same).

The Story Behind The Story

However, a very good article by Mary Murtha describes the Helmet's career without pulling any punches.

And it seems to have had its fair share drama.
Here are some excerpts.

Read the rest of this posting here
(on Canadian Headhunter Long Play)

2005-03-13T20:27:00.000-05:00

Animated Resume (With Music)

Here. via Asim Jalis

2005-03-13T20:19:00.000-05:00

How To Make Adobe Work Faster

Get Acrobat Reader to open up faster.

Go to your Acrobat\Reader folder and take everything from the
"plug_ins" folder and move it into the "Optional" folder.

Except for the following: Search.api, Search5.api,
IA32.api, EWH32.api, EScript.api.

Printing and search will still work,

And it will load 75% faster. This is on Reader 6.0.

Source via Asim Jalis

2005-03-12T20:09:00.000-05:00

Confronting Your Fears And Taking Control

Canadian Headhunter got mentioned. Halleluyah!

In an article about a brave woman who goes to a party to confront her enemies and finds them to be a bunch of wonderful guys.

It was very nice. But I have a complaint. (I mean, what am I blogging for if I can't complain?)

Antonia wrote:

But, like so many of us in this lonely world, they [the bloggers] crave recognition. Many of the young men I met - for they were mostly men - truly deserve it.

Now, you gotta love a backhanded compliment. They're always very funny. This doesn't say "these guys are losers who can't get girlfriends" - but that's the impression you get, isn't it?

Of course, even if you're subtle, you've got to watch who you're tangling with. Because The Relaxed Catholic don't take no guff.

And in her version of the evening Antonia lurches in slurring, "Where'sh all the guysh? Gimme a f**n beer!" (OK. That's my version of her version. You can read the real thing here.)

And then there's The Meatriarchy. He's a black belt, you know. And he shows it off in his rejoinder called "It's Official: I'm Mental". Gotta read that.

And, back to my complaint? Well, Damian might have been there looking for a little woman, but most of the people I spoke to were Married with Children.

And, by the way, ladies, if you want to live in Newfoundland, Damian's a good catch. He's no loser. And, he says that he was only joking about 51 being "old". (Though I must admit, he had me fooled).

You can find my take on the evening here.
(Now, everyone's saying it isn't true!).

Updates! The American Spy comes out swingin' here. The Small Dead Animal sticks a knife in your guts here. And The Staple Singer is more gentle, here.

And now The Ambler offers his ideas. (He seems to be taking on all of the women in the room.) And, oh yeah, apparently, some people think Tarantino is god.

2005-03-10T20:46:00.000-05:00

Speed Reading

Fortune Magazine has published a list of 75 books of something called “The Smartest Books We Know” which is supposedly “a perfect reading list” on all sorts of subjects.

Being casually interested in Economics I was more than curious to see what their list included.

Especially since Fortune claimed, “This isn't some dusty business-book Hall of Fame.” Well, ok if that is the case why are books like

John Maynard Keynes “General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” and Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” on that list?

Now before you start getting on me for “dissing” Adam Smith relax. I like Adam and I find his book interesting (if somewhat difficult to read). But I don’t pretend (and neither should Fortune Magazine) that reading Adam Smith will give you some great insight into today’s economics. Neither will it make you a great businessman.

In fact Smith’s book is exactly the type of book that should be placed in the “business book Hall of Fame”.

If you have studied or are studying economics, as a career chances are you already know all about Adam Smith and his theories. If you are not and are interested in furthering your knowledge of economics in order to better help you in today’s business world there are much better books for you to read.

For example:
ECONOMIC LITERACY: WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT MONEY AND MARKETS. By Jacob DeRooy is an excellent book for people who want to have a good introduction to economics but don’t want to read some dry economic text.

But if you really want to know about Adam Smith and why he is so important to modern business then let me summarize it for you:

Adam Smith was one of the first people to write about business and finance and their interaction with the world at large.

He coined the term “invisible hand” to explain how markets act to people’s benefit in ways that aren’t obvious to us on the surface. His famous line in the book states that business people don’t produce the things we need because they are altruistic but because they want to make money (that’s my paraphrasing).

You don’t have to read very far into the book to get that information. But if you insist on reading the whole thing you will be swept up in the problems of ‘mercantilism” which in those days was the tendency of business and governments to believe that export surpluses were the only way to keep a nation's economy healthy. Those export surpluses were then to be used to purchase bullion. At the same time heavy tariffs were imposed on imports. This was an early form of anti-globalization.

Smith was against this and believed that trade should be fair and open. So in a way he was arguing for globalization almost 300 years ago.

As for John Maynard Keynes let me first start by quoting a review of his book posted on Amazon.com

A typical sentence/paragraph from the book:

'The fact that two incommensurable collections of miscellaneous objects cannot in themselves provide the material for a quantitative analysis need not, of course, prevent us from making approximate statistical comparisons, depending on some broad element of judgment rather than strict calculation, which may posses significance and validity within certain limits.

Sure.
This is the first book in years I gave up reading in the middle.
Until someone rewrites the book for humans - avoid!"

Exactly.

Even if you haven’t heard of Keynes your life has been affected by his theories. He was one of the first economists to suggest that governments could actively affect economies in more efficient ways than the private sector.

It is because of him that governments do crazy things like deficit spending in order to stimulate economic growth during recessions. Also when the government raises or lowers interest rates in order to control or stimulate growth. That is our friend Keynes in action.

Keynes theories though are controversial in some circles and have been discredited to some degree. In fact most people point to the “stagflation” period of the 70’s as a repudiation of Keynesian thought. You see Keynes didn’t think stagflation was possible.

That’s pretty much all you need to know about these two books. As Peter from Family Guy would say, “There, I saved you 10 long boobless hours”.

Besides the basic economics introduction I mentioned earlier I find it somewhat disturbing that a business magazine like Fortune wouldn’t include works by Milton Friedman who has won the Nobel Prize for Economics. Friedman is a noted critic of Keynes.

Also Ludwig von Mises /a contemporary of Keynes and one of the founders of the “Austrian School” of economics should be included here. Von Mises a fierce critic of socialism and government intervention in general is one of the staunchest defenders of laissez-faire capitalism you will find. And as a bonus there are plenty of easy books out there for those who want to learn about the “Austrian school” without having to immerse yourself in the core works which might be beyond the average person like:

Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School by Gene Callahan

Or

Economics in one Lesson by Henry Hazlitt

I would have also added a category to Fortune’s list: Philosophy in which the works of Karl Popper, Ayn Rand and others would have been included.

One more thing, if you are looking for an easy to read book that covers the basic philosophies of all the major economists from Smith to Marx to Keynes you should pick up: New Ideas from Dead Economists: An Introduction to Modern Economic Thought by Todd G. Buchholz. It is a real fun read and you will learn a lot.

But then again some of you might prefer a good mystery novel.

2005-03-09T22:13:00.002-05:00

Kassie, Evershed, Daviau

Three Who Made A Revolution

Sometimes an institution is weak.

It might be large and long-standing and do business as usual, but, really, it has little strong support from the people within.

And all it takes is a visionary leader who is willing to break the rules to take it down.

Most people are not aware that there were two Russian revolutions in 1917.

The first was in February. Some women workers started demonstrating for bread and, soon, everyone was in the streets.

To everyone's surprise, the Tsar abdicated and governmental power was divided between the Duma, which was the existing popular assembly, and the new parliament of left-wing parties, the Soviet.

No one planned on a second revolution, not even the Bolsheviks. The next step was to be a constituent assembly which would write a constitution.

But, then, Lenin returned from exile determined to take all power for the Soviets. And he did.

The Lenin of Bay Street

Likewise, Dave Kassie. The CIBC is a huge institution. He is just one man. But he knew that the giant was a house of cards and that if he set up a competing business, he could draw its best and brightest to his team. And he did.

But, why were people so willing to leave?
Andy Willis asked the same question:

Anyone else wondering just what Genuity Capital Markets
has got that makes it simply irresistible?

His answer is "OD". Organizational Design.

Kassie believes in the magic of a company
owned by the workers themselves.

Here's how Andy describes it.

Genuity is a cake built in two layers.

There's a parent called Genuity Financial Group,
where the investment banking types hold their stakes.

There's also an operating subsidiary,
Genuity Capital Markets, where only the trading,
sales and research staff hold shares in addition
to their stake in the parent.

Such a structure gives these employees a more direct-drive
compensation system than is commonly seen...

If they capture a great deal of institutional trading,
they'll prosper, no matter what the rest of the firm is doing.

Eric Reguly has also analyzed the issue
and sums it up in three points.

1. Bank-owned dealers can't offer partnerships
whereas Kassie can.

2. Genuity has an attractive, positive atmosphere.

Banks don't like their investment firms' wholesale operations.

The profits are erratic whereas bank CEOs are "obsessed with presenting predictable and steadily rising earnings to shareholders."

3. Kassie's timing was exquisite.

Bank mergers are invevitable. If the Royal Bank with its RBC Capital buys Bank of Montreal, BMO Nesbitt Burns will become redundant.

And "Genuity could bag a Big Five
wholesale operation on the cheap".

All this from the actions of one bold man and his able lieutenants.

Source articles
Eric Reguly: Globe & Mail Dec 24/04
Andy Willis: Globe & Mail Jan 11/05

See Also: GenuityGang Strikes Back -- CIBC Recruiting Scandal -- David Kassie, Kingpin -- David Kassie's Dream -- Dan Daviau -- Earl Rotman -- Kassie Defiant -- Phil Evershed -- Hirst, Morrison, Eggertson -- Marie Cordero -- Bad 4 Recruiters -- Sweet Marie -- The Kassie Cult -- Kassie Honoured -- Hunkin's Millions -- BlackBerry Got 'Em -- Kassie Family Hunted -- Blackberry Mystery Solved -- The Genuity Revolution -- Technorati Tag: Genuity

2005-03-09T08:50:00.000-05:00

Blogs: There's Nothing New Under The Sun

Bloggers crow that they are on the front line of a revolution. So, Jonah Goldberg wants to splash a little cold water in their faces.

According to him, the typical blogger is no shining star.

Technorati says 23,000 new blogs are created every day. And a 2003 survey says the average blogger is a teenage girl.

That means - every day - there are 22,990 new blogs that nobody will ever read.

Because, as we all know, most people you speak to in everyday life don't know what a blog is.

Blogging is like any other hobby: hotrods, ham radios, stereophonic sound. When I was a kid you would often see one of these enthusiasts in a sitcom or cartoon. Just like a beatnik. What they did was of no major concern to ordinary people and never would be.

Even blogs by professionals are not much different from columns in magazines. Andrew Sullivan for politics, Monty's Bluff for investors, etc.

Also, says Joney, bloggers forget that they stand on the shoulders of many other forms of alternative media.

He claims that Rush Limbaugh used the abandoned AM radio band as the vehicle of a populist backlash against established institutions.

Then, supposedly, there was cable TV. Shows like Wayne's World led a fans' revolt against the nasty dudes who populate music's big bad corporations.

(That must have missed Toronto because I've never seen any "alt" cable access - even though Mike Meyers comes from here.)

And, according to Theodore Roszak, the story begins in 1952 with the start of Mad Magazine's attack on stuffed shirts and phonies.

So, now you've got corporate bloggers, who are the new fifth column of business, telling their audiences not to listen to the girls up in head office.

OK, that's great. But, really, "You've come a long way baby", to get where you've always been.

2005-03-09T07:50:00.000-05:00

How To Become A Millionaire

Ellen Roseman at The Toronto Star
reviewed a few how-to authors.

This information doesn't sound very
valuable to me. Any opinions?

Tom Stanley
- most millionaires are self-employed business owners
- they are frugal
- they make detailed lists before grocery shopping
- they switch long-distance providers to save money
- they have furniture refurbished before buying new
- they donate more money to charity than average
- they support more family members than average

Robert Kiyosaki
- create passive income from investments
or from a business that runs on its own
- a business that requires constant devotion can make you poor
- it must be something you can set in motion and
ignore for months at a time.
- real estate is ideal

David Bach
- self denial is the key
- don't buy lattes

2005-03-09T07:30:00.000-05:00

Government Contractors Hire Iraq Vets

About 11,000 US military personnel have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some are being sought out by business. Why?

Some vets and executives make it sound like character and leadership skills are the most signficant factors.

But, there are more clearly valuable reasons as well.

1. Soldiers have security clearances which are hard to get.
2. They know the equipment being sold.
3. They know the culture of the buyers.

Apparently, Vietnam Vets who are now hiring managers,
feel a personal desire to help as well.

Washington Post via Virginia Postrel

2005-03-07T20:17:00.000-05:00

Tailwind.

A couple of years ago Boeing had a problem. Their CEO Philip M. Condit, was involved in a scandal involving a fuel-tanker contract with the Pentagon. So in December 2003 he stepped down and Harry Stonechipher was lured out of retirement to take on the role of CEO.

Stonechipher made a concerted effort paint Boeing as an ethical organization (especially in the wake of the scandal) However, many people saw Stonechipher as a caretaker CEO and it looks like he was taking care of business - but just the wrong kind.

Stonecipher has been shoved out the side exit (not sure if he was given a parachute) because of an affair with a female executive.

But according to a spokesman it wasn't the fact that he was having an affair:

It's not the fact that he was having an affair," said Boeing's chairman, Lewis E. Platt, in a conference call with analysts and investors. "That is not a violation of our code of conduct. But as we explored the circumstances surrounding the affair, we just thought there were some issues of poor judgment that as I said earlier impaired his ability to lead going forward."

Got that? It's ok to fly the friendly skies but make sure that you use proper judgment. I would hope that the company's policy is clear on that or otherwise lawsuits might be imminent.

And what of his partner who is reported as an "executive" is she being fired? It's not as if she was a low level employee. An executive implies that there is a certain level of intelligence and judgment.

One has to wonder what exactly they did if the actual act of the affair wasn't the cause of the firing of Mr. Stonecipher.

Perhaps they joined the mile high club? Perhaps they used the wrong boardroom?

As a side note a former Account Executive for a large furniture manufacturer once told me that all boardroom tables were given what he called the "two person test" before leaving the factory. That is to say they were tested to make sure they could support the weight of two people.

But Stonecipher's firing apparently points to a sea change of sorts in the corporate world. Used to be that office romance was looked upon as an inevitability even though everyone said don't do it.

Now it seems that everyone can hook up except the CEO:

"U.S. companies are more sensitized to concerns about abuse of corporate power and the growing gap between average CEO pay and that of rank-and-file workers, making many of them tougher on a host of ethical issues, said William Guth, professor emeritus of management and strategy at New York University.

'At the average CEO compensation levels, these guys should be walking on water and be squeaky clean in addition to being very competent,' he said. 'If you paid them more realistically, then I'd think you'd have to tolerate more variance in behavior.'
Corporate chiefs likely won't get much sympathy if they're discovered to be having affairs, Guth said. 'The examinations will go up and the tolerance for error will go down.'

In other words get paid or get laid. But you can't have both.

BTW Boeing has a blog, which has no mention of the firing.

2005-03-06T11:02:00.000-05:00

All Backed Up
How The Genuity Case Was Broken

CIBC cracked the Genuity case by going through its enemies' Blackberry messages for evidence.

But how did they get access to them?

The Heroic Techie did some research and here's what he found.

Preliminary Info

The Blackberry is a handheld wireless computing device known best for its ability to receive and send email. It's made by Research in Motion (RIM).

A Blackberry sends email using a regular email address. But it can also send messages to another Blackberry by using the Personal Identification Number of the receiving BlackBerry as an address.

PIN-to-PIN messages are not logged on the company's main computer system like regular email.

The only full record of P2P message content is maintained on the sending and receiving devices.

When the Genuity case broke, CIBC went to RIM for help.
And the RIMmers gave them the key information.

The Key Facts

If the end-user uses the backup feature in the BlackBerry Desktop Manager, all databases on the BlackBerry (including contacts, calendar, to-do lists, memos, mail and P2P messages) are backed up to the end-user's desktop.

And, many corporate IT departments routinely set up scheduled backups in the BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

So, the desktop computers of the ex-employees would contain records of their BlackBerry messages.

And if they were deleted on the desktop, they would probably have been stored in the company's backups.

How can you protect yourself?
See Taylor & Company for the rest.

See Also: GenuityGang Strikes Back -- CIBC Recruiting Scandal -- David Kassie, Kingpin -- David Kassie's Dream -- Dan Daviau -- Earl Rotman -- Kassie Defiant -- Phil Evershed -- Hirst, Morrison, Eggertson -- Marie Cordero -- Bad 4 Recruiters -- Sweet Marie -- The Kassie Cult -- Kassie Honoured -- Hunkin's Millions -- BlackBerry Got 'Em -- Kassie Family Hunted -- Blackberry Mystery Solved -- The Genuity Revolution -- Technorati Tag: Genuity

2005-03-06T07:30:00.000-05:00

Are CEOs Overpaid?

Monty says yes.

Walter Williams says No!
Here are his main points.

1. Many attacks on CEO's are irrational.
Some are driven by envy and others are based on over-generalizations as people use the Enron and WorldCom scandals to smear all CEOs.

2. Jack Welch made GE a lot of money.
When he became General Electric's CEO in 1981, the stock market judged the company to be worth $14 billion. Today, GE is worth $500 billion

If Welch was paid one-half of a percent of the increase in value, his comp would have been $2.5 billion instead of the few hundred million he received.

3. Jim Kilts made Gillette a lot of money.
Gillette was near death when Kilts took over in 2001. It's stock had lost half its value in two years and sales volume and market shares of its major brands had plummeted.

By January 2005 Gillette's market value increased by $11.3 billion, a 34% improvement. And since the PG-Gillette merger announcement, Gillette's value has risen another $5.7 billion.

Kilts' comp package over the past four years totals $17.5 million. And he's going to make $153 million from the merger.

That's a lot of money but it's only 1.5% of his contribution to Gillette's value.

4. The numbers say they're worth it.
If you were the owner of GE, and a CEO could turn your $14 billion corporation into a $500 billion one, how much would you be willing to pay?

How much to turn Gillette from a corporation in steep decline into one Procter & Gamble was willing to buy for $57 billion?

If a corporation could buy a $300 computer that could do what a CEO could do, would it pay CEOs millions of dollars?

5. If you don't pay them, the competition will.
If a company has a good CEO, others will want him too. So, to keep him, you've got to pay them more than anyone else will.

MONTY STRIKES BACK

Williams makes two odd assumptions .

1. That criticism is aimed at successful CEOs
Most critics of exec pay focus on pay of CEOs at mediocre or poor performing companies.

Having said that, it is still hard to fathom why either of these men needed that many nickels in the end...which makes them natural lightning rods for the issue.

2. The CEO is the primary driver of company performance.
The question is not how much did Jack Welch make for GE shareholders but rather how much more than a simply competent CEO did he make for shareholders.

Empirical evidence suggests that we
over attribute success to CEO skills.

2005-03-04T07:08:00.000-05:00

Tie One On

Hey it’s Friday again so it must mean it’s time for another posting on clothes. Last time I told you about suits and how to select a suit.

We went with classic navy. Remember?

Now we come to another perilous area. The necktie.

I know most guys hate to wear neckties. Why? Because they can be uncomfortable but your tie feels too tight it may actually be your shirt that’s the problem. Have you gained a little weight lately? Most men don’t know their neck size (again this is something your tailor can help you with.)

Hey maybe I should have done a posting on shirts before ties?

Well maybe next time. Suffice to say that you need a white shirt to go with your suit. Don’t try anything fancy – this is your interview suit remember?

So on to neckties. This is a very very simple process.

You have a navy suit, you have a white shirt, go and buy a striped tie.

There are many many many different types of ties. Too many in fact; especially for the first time buyer. However like a good navy suit certain tie patterns remain classic and timeless.

The striped tie is one of those. So if you want to make this particularly painless just go and buy a tie like the one pictured.

The basic rule for a tie is this: repeating pattern. As a matter of fact I would like to repeat that: repeating pattern.

Basically a repeating pattern tie has stripes, dots, diamonds or similar small designes which repeat through the length of the tie.

Again they are classic and timeless and will look good no matter what the style is.

Stay away from novelty ties for an interview. What are novelty ties? Well a Daffy Duck tie for example or any tie with a picture or funny design. That includes those stupid ties with piano keys running the length of them, ties with golf balls or clubs on them (unless they are in a teeny tiny repeating pattern) or any other crap that you see on a cheap tie you get for Christmas.

Rule of thumb: ties you get as gifts are not appropriate for interview wear 99% of the time.

Also don’t wear those awful flowery ties that have no discernable pattern and just look like the cat puked on it. Let some other schmuck wear that crap. And I know what you are thinking – that sounds pretty boring but ask your self this: Would a sophisticated gentleman like James Bond sully his navy suit with a cheap novelty tie?

Nope, not a chance and neither should you.

By the way not all striped ties are good looking.

People often worry about what colour tie goes with what suit. Well luckily a navy suit is a versatile palette that you can spice up with a variety of different colours.

The easiest colour to match with a navy suit is maroon. A maroon tie (or one with maroon as it’s main colour) is the classic colour match for a navy suit. Note that maroon is not bright red it is more muted.

Also you can use a blue tie (surprise) but be careful that it isn’t a real light blue or it will look washed out. A blue and white striped tie looks (like the one shown here) phenomenal with a navy suit.

Additionally a tie with a deep gold (like the one above) as it’s main color works well also.

BTW there is a trend to solid color ties lately with no pattern. These don’t work well with a white shirt. There’s nothing wrong with them and they look very sharp with the right combination of shirt but don’t wear it for the interview.

Now, buying a tie. First of all it has to be one that you tie yourself not a clip on tie.

Also it has to be 100% silk. No polyester or all the fancy words for polyester. I once paid over 100.00 for a tie that had some weird combination of materials other than silk. Boy, did I feel ripped off.

Luckily the same place you buy your suit will generally have a good selection of ties.

Tell your sales clerk that you want a conservative tie (you have to use the word conservative with these guys or trust me they will try to sell you all kinds of weird shit). And if you say I’d like a nice classic striped tie they will pretty much give you a perfect one for your navy suit.

Of course you have to learn how to tie a proper knot as well (he half Windsor knot is the most versatile)
. There are all kinds of good sites on line that show this. But you should learn how to tie your own tie.
Like this one.

And your tie should hang so that the end of it just covers the buckle of your belt. Not just above, it will emphasize your gut.

Oh yeah and get a tie clip.

Previous posts on this subject: The Interview Suit The Interview Shoe (endorsed by the Manolo!) and Casual Fridays

2005-03-02T20:06:00.000-05:00

Hiring Junior Staff

Why when I was your age...my pappy would have....
we walked...I had to...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The following comes from Leadership Now
(with some modest input by me).

Melvin Levine says:

Baby boomer parents cater to their kids.
So the kids have fantasies about life being fun.
This makes them unwilling to work.

So, when you hire a young kid, tell her
the facts of life, right off the bat.
(The angry edge makes it very "zen".)

1. First jobs aren't dream jobs.
That's tough. But you can learn a lot here so you
can get your dream job later on.

2. Work isn’t a party.
So what? We aren't paying you to have fun. And you know what? We all feel that way. Why? Because that's life. And if you aren't willing to tough it out you're going to be the loser.

3. Do a good job, not an OK job.
Or, before you know it, you'll be gone.
And I'll give you bad references.

4. Take your lumps like a grown woman.
I’m going to tell you what you do wrong.
Learn from it. Don't whine about it.

5. Your fantasies don't determine your salary.
The market does. Think about it.

6. We know you're a genius.
But, here, you do what I say. We'll set up a time for your feedback. But don't be a smart ass or I'll hate your guts.
And consider this: your ideas might be wrong.

7. I might be an ass.
But you're stuck with me for now. So make the best of it.
And you know what else? You might be one too.

8. There are three ways to deal with problems.
a) You can whine.
b) You can do something destructive
c) You can do something productive.
You choose.

Interviewing Junior Staff

These ideas can be built into interviews to find out junior candidates think and to let them know how your values.

Here are some possible questions.

1. Some people believe that your dream job will come later in life.
And that your early jobs are not always fun but are great opportunites to learn. What are your thoughts about that.

2. Do you know what factors determine your salary?

3. Have you ever been in a situation in which your boss tells you to do something and you know a better way to do it? Tell me about it.

4. Have you ever had a boss who gave you feedback on your performance? Did she focus on your weaknesses or your strengths? How did you respond?

5. Let's say someone needs a job so she accepts work that isn't exciting. Then she doesn't bring a total commitment to doing a great job but only does enough to get by. What do you think is going to happen?

6. Have you ever had a boss who was a jerk?
How did you handle it? Or, how would you handle it?

7. Do you think that work is always going to be fun?
If it's not fun, do you think that's unfair?

Guilt-Tripping Baby Boomers

Targetting Baby Boomer parents is just a scam to sell books.

The "I Deserve-To-Enjoy-Life Syndrome" was present in the Baby Boomers themselves, not just their kids. It's the product of education and prosperity.

Before that came the Depression when desperate people were happy to get any job they could.

And, before that, well even when there wasn't a Depression money was scarce so you couldn't take a job lightly if you wanted to stay alive let alone prosper.

2005-03-01T22:38:00.000-05:00

Question Me an Answer

Phila Lawyer is tired of the same old spiel from headhunters:

But hey, what can be expected? You've got the marketing-impaired pitching some of the most stale inventory available. They might try an honest approach:

"I have a bag of shit to offer you which might smell a tad better than the one you're presently holding..."

"Go on..."

Its a good read for all in the business but more importantly for those who retain recruiters. Our pitch is only as good as the information you give us. Read her post and see the type of questions she asks candidates. You have to give your recruiter all this type of information or the best candidates are going to chew them up on the phone.

In Scotland they would say "I have a bag of shite to offer you which might smell a tad better than the one you're presently holding..."

2005-03-01T07:20:00.000-05:00

Bizarre Firing

Workers Refuse to Go Ape

Two ex-employees of the Gorilla Foundation have filed a lawsuit contending that they were ordered to bond with Koko the talking ape by displaying their breasts.

According to claims which are hotly debated by scientists, Koko has a vocabulary of more than 1,000 words in American Sign Language.

Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller claim that Francine "Penny" Patterson, president of the non-profit org, interpreted hand movements by Koko as a demand to see nipples -- and warned Alperin and Keller that their employment status would suffer if they did not honour Koko's requests.

Keller claims that on at least two incidents, Patterson pressured her to expose herself to Koko while they were working outside where other employees could see her.

On one such occasion, Patterson said, 'Koko, you see my nipples all the time. You are probably bored with my nipples. You need to see new nipples. I will turn my back so Kendra can show you her nipples.' Lawyers for the gorilla group deny "the factual allegations and characterizations in the complaint".

Read the whole thing? It's right here.

2005-03-01T06:49:00.000-05:00

Germany Makes Prostitution An Obligation

Ties Acceptance of Job To Insurance

NOTE BIEN: Readers, I know this headline is shocking. And it does seem unbelievable, doesn't it? Well, there's a reason for that. We've just been informed that IT ISN'T TRUE.

Prostitution is now legal in Germany.

Therefore, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take any available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefits.

The government considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars.

As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as any other company.

And job centres that refuse to cut the benefits of people who turn down a job face legal action from the brothel.

Unemployed women who had worked in call centres have been offered jobs on telephone sex lines.

And an unemployed information technology professional received a letter from her job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile'' and that she should call him. On doing so, she found that she was calling a brothel.

She turned down a job providing sexual services in Berlin and now faces cuts to her unemployment benefits.

Full story here.

2005-02-27T15:13:00.000-05:00

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Oh to be the lucky headhunters at Russell Reynolds. They have landed the big search to replace Carly Fiorina at Hewlett Packard and all the prestige, pr and big fat retainer fees that go with it.

Not only that but the candidates long list has already been developed for them. So they don’t even have to burn their research budget.

Business journalists at Fortune, Forbes, as well as assorted industry watchers have been working overtime speculating as to who would be the best to replace Carly.

So in the interests of helping out our fellow recruiting brethren here is a list of the candidates most frequently mentioned by those who are watching.

Michael Capellas MCI; Capellas currently works at MCI however there is talk that MCI might be on the market and should it be acquired Capellas would be available

Capellas is so well liked in some circles that Merrill Lynch has publicly stated that he is their preferred candidate. Others aren’t so sure. You see Capellas is the former CEO of Compaq and was Fiorina’s partner in architecting the big merger. For some this suggests that HP’s board might not be too keen on Capellas since the merger has been such a collossal bust. BTW doesn't he look a little like Tony Sorpano?

John Joyce IBM; Joyce is Senior Vice President and Group Executive of IBM Global Services (IGS), the world's largest information technology services and consulting provider. An approximately $46.5 billion division of IBM Corporation, IGS has some 190,000 employees in over 160 countries..

Why is this good? Well HP considers itself as a computer services company like IBM and not just a printer company. One of the big albatrosses around HP’s neck right now is the underperformance of the services and enterprise groups (well actually only the Printer division is doing well). So what better way to fix it than to pluck someone out of the most successful company in the world in that area?

Sounds like a sensible choice to me. Also he looks like a real ass kicker.

And speaking of the printer division...

Vyomesh Joshi HP; Joshi runs HP's printer and PC divisions (now called the Imaging and Personal Systems Group,) and is generally held in high regard by employees and analysts. Selecting an in-house candidate would also allow HP to demonstrate consistency.

At the same time some feel that the Printer division could be successful no matter who was running it and may look for someone whith some proven turn around skills and who has run a global service operation (like Joyce).

On the other hand India Times practically has him in the job already.

W. James McNerney. GE; When you are looking for talent at the very top you have to find someone who is ready to move and if someone has been passed over for the top job at a company they are usually ripe for the plucking. McNerney “who lost out to Jeff Immelt at GE and has since 2001 been running tech-heavy 3M. An executive recruiter says McNerney fits the "best athlete" category—headhunter jargon for an executive capable of running almost anything because his innate abilities set him above the crowd.”

Sean Maloney Intel; If you can’t find someone who has been passed over looking for someone who is blocked is also a good choice. Mahoney is considered to be a rising star at Intel however he is second in line for the CEO role behind Paul Otellini so Maloney might be an ideal target. On the other hand Otellini will only serve as CEO for five years because of age so maybe Maloney will elect to stay put. He certainly looks happy. In fact a little too happy. I think he needs to project more toughness. I think a tattoo would help.

Ed Zander Motorola; Zander formerly was the head of Sun Microsystems and is well liked but he may not be interested in leaving Motorola where he has just begun to peak to go to HP where it would be a tough slog. And besides didn't he used to have mad crush on Buffy? No wait, that was another Zander.

Kevin Rollins Dell Computer; Everyone wants this guy but the feeling is nothing can pull him out of Dell. Besides he has already said he doesn’t want the job. And he would probably want you to hire his brother Henry Rollins and that guy is nutty.

I don't know that there is a recipe that can turn it around," Rollins said in November. "I wouldn't go there first off. I wouldn't go run that one."

Yikes! How would you like to have a candidate who has already said on record that he doesn’t know that “there is a recipe that can turn it around”.

So there is your immediate short list. However there are more potentials beyond those "big" names. If you can't convince enough of these heavy hitters to take a sniff you could also try:

Steve Mills, SVP SW IBM;
Abby Kohnstamm, SVP Marketing IBM
Nick Donofrio, SVP Technology IBM
Doug Elix SVP Sales and Dist IBM

And when you get tired of calling through the IBM phone directory...

Ray Lane, former Oracle president,and Texas Instruments chairman Tom Engibous.

And if that doesn't work Forbes magazine suggests you try your luck at companies known for producing leaders. These talent factories include companies like IBM and GE but also include:

Dell
Johnson & Johnson
Weyerhaeuser
Procter and Gamble
PepsiCo
UBS
Cisco Systems

So now that we have done all the work for you. Can we have half the fee??

Read more: Fortune; Forbes; ZDNet and previously on Canadian Headhunter: here and here

2005-02-26T09:52:00.000-05:00

Danielle In The Lion's Den

It was snowing last night but I felt like going out for a walk and when the snow got too heavy, I stepped into a pub called The Drunken Barfer for a warm drink.

Some kind of party was going on. I saw a sign that read "Welcome, Right Whingers!" and a young fellow in a calico shirt and blue jeans was holding forth to a small group of attentive listeners.

He was saying things like: "George Bush is the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln." and "Signing on to Confederation was the worst thing Newfoundland ever did. We should have joined the United States."

Suddenly, a small woman appeared in front of him dressed in a full burka. "You must be Damian Penny," she said. "I am," he replied, "And who are you?" "I'm your worst nightmare," she announced and, immediately, there was a lot of screaming and commotion as everyone in the room dropped to the floor.

When no explosion took place we saw that she wasn't wearing a burka after all, just a parka and a balaclava for protection from the storm. Startled, she pulled off her hood and said, "Hey, everybody, it's me, Antonia Zerbisias."

"Let's get her!" someone shouted. "No!" said a brush-cut young man. "We believe in freedom! That's the difference between us and The Toronto Star. Come on, Antonia. Help us understand the lunatic view of the world today."

I soon found out what was going on. This was a meeting of Canada's right wing bloggers. They had assembled to celebrate the visit of one of their shining stars. He'd come to Toronto from the tiny village of Mount Pearl in Newfoundland and was staying with his Uncle Jed as he tried to find a wife in the big city.

"Tell us, Antonia", Damian asked, "Do you finally concede that 911 was carried out by bin Laden?"

"Hey, I'm no conspirazoid," Antonia declared. "But, tell me this. Where's the black box? They can find everything else, how come they can't find the black box? No, I can't get over that black box!" Actually, she said "black box" a few more times than that but I don't want to give you the impression that she was unreasonable - or anything like that.

The talk turned to a variety of bloggers. Damian said he was shocked to learn that Little Green Footballs was not only an old hippie, but that he was just plain old. He's 51. Antonia took this as personal insult and some catty banter ensued but no serious argument.

Eventually, she had to go. She had an appointment with
Barry Zwicker.

As for me, I found the company pleasant and had conversations of varying length with No Advice, The Heroic Techie, Babbling Brooke, The Staple Singer, The Tightly Wound Watch, Quotavicious, Canada Freak Press, Let Me Bleed, Meektriarchy, The Green Barren, American Spy in Paris, Relaxed Catholic and The Flea.
I know that a David and Jane were there, as well, and others I didn't meet.

We had an interesting waitress, too. She's an aspiring young songstress The Flea is promoting as the next big thing for teenaged girls.

Her video is on his site and, if you're wondering what's wrong with the world today, or right, maybe you'll find an answer here. (I really dig it, daddyo. And, perhaps, I should take impromptu walks more often).

Note: Nick Quotavicious (he really is) threatened to beat me up if I didn't
give him credit for his lovely photo of Antonia. So here it is, tough guy.

Update here.

2005-02-25T06:06:00.000-05:00

The Heroic Techie

A Worker's Testimony

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by
the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.

Quentin Tarantino

Chris Taylor has created a document containing all of the career wisdom he has accumulated so far.

This is something he might want to pass on to his children if, God forbid, he has to leave them when they are young (and he thinks they'll go into IT).

I found it stark and impressive so I've produced an abbreviated, paraphrased version below. He's got a little of the old Rambo in him, don't you think?

Professionalism

We all work with people we don't like. So what?

I may want to knock you on your ass if I see you in the parking lot, but if I see you in the office, I will laugh, joke and share a coffee with you.

This is what duty demands.

Gender Relations

There are very few women in IT. Why? Ask Lawrence Summers.

Just don't expect an IT job to be good for your love life unless you're looking forward to a same sex marriage.

Actually, don't go out with anyone from your company under any circumstances.

Because when you split up, it's going to get ugly.

Moral Fibre of The Rulers

My credo is simple:

Serve those above.
Rule those below.

Move heaven and earth

to see mission accomplished. But, I can't work for some idiot I do not respect.

I want my bosses (all the way to the top) to demonstrate honesty, integrity, courage, competence, humility and loyalty to the troops they command.

If they don't have those qualities, I will leave the job.

This is the single most important factor in determining the length of my stay.

The Interview

The problem with an interview is you can't tell a good leader from a bad one until you work alongside him.

And you won't really know him until a crisis comes and you see if he helps you or leaves you holding the bag. For,

There are no interview questions that let us
peer that deeply into the heart of a man.

Every potential boss will promise to support you to the hilt when crunch time comes. But not everyone will.

And being able to work with those who do is more important than any perks or pay.

The Story of A Crunch

I once had a CEO who was an ex-IBM senior exec.

When one project was seriously behind schedule he came down to the shop floor and yelled at the manager, calling her several variants of the F-word in front of the entire technical staff.

I wrote to the CIO about it. He dodged the issue, sending back an insipid "Very interesting." as a reply.

It was sickening.

The Future of IT

The IT sector is OK now but as ~~Karl Marx~~ George Harrison said , "All things must pass."

When computers get so simple the average ~~bozo~~ user can handle them, people like me will be cast aside.

There is nothing sad in this. That's how life is. But just remember, friend, if you're in IT, you must look ahead.

Source: Taylor, TextAmerica

2005-02-23T11:21:00.000-05:00

The Crowds Come Out For

Recruiting Blogs On Parade

On the avenue, Fifth Avenue,
The photographers will snap us,
And you'll find that you're
In the Rotogravure.

Thought Leader, John Sumser at The Electronic Recruiting Exchange has posted a list of fantastic Recruiting blogs with words of praise for their deep insights and great accomplishments.

What does he say about Canadian Headhunter?

Profoundly disturbing blog. Two highschool students pretending to be recruiters.

Nope, sorry, that's [name deleted]. Here it is:

First post-modern recruiting blog! An absolute must!

Hey, that's more like it!

Don't believe me? You can find it right here.

2005-02-23T09:12:00.000-05:00

Break Time!

Snowy via The Flea
Happy Music via The Irish Eagle.
More Happy Music via The Flea (Click on the first "Numa")

2005-02-22T17:43:00.000-05:00

Bull-Roar!

Non-Verbal Communication Isn't All That!

The Non-Verbal Hogwash

I've got a bone to pick with Annie, Fortune Magazine's job-hunting advisor. Speaking of phone interviews she says:

Right, Annie! Haven't you ever used the phone?. A phone conversation is not a neutral transfer of ideas. You get a real sense of what someone is like from the way he speaks.

Verbal Presentation Is Powerful

Unless a person is visually striking - in a positive or negative way - or has a peculiar smell, her verbal manner of presentation is going to be a very powerful factor in creating your impression of her.

And, unless you're looking for a romantic partner, once the person opens her mouth and you can see how well-informed and articulate she is and get a sense of her personality, other things fade into the background.

I work on the phone and although I can't see the people I sure get the feeling that I know them almost as well as if I actually met them.

Maybe even better because there are no concerns about all of the issues involved in physical presentations. I don't have to look a stranger in the eye. Or worry that my shoes aren't shined or that my zipper's undone.

And now I see that ol' Dave Teten agrees with me on this. Because according to him:

Face-to-face communication is not essential

Origin of The Face-to-Face Myth

How did the face-to-face myth get started? In 1967, Albert Mehrabian, a UCLA professor, published research showing the significance of non-verbal cues in communications. His conclusion:

(Albert Mehrabian and Susan R. Ferris, "Inference of attitudes from nonverbal communication in two channels. Journal of Consulting Psychology 31 (1967): 248-252. )

This implies that in face-to-face conversation:
- 38% of communication is inflection and tone of voice
- 55% is facial expression
- 7% is based on what you actually say.

The Inventor Said It Isn't So

But Mehrabian himself said, explicitly, that these statistics are not relevant except in the very narrow confines of a similar situation.

His study only addressed the very narrow situation in which a listener is analyzing a speaker's general attitude (positive, negative, or neutral) when there is no prior acquaintance and no prior context for their discussion.

The Job Interview Is Pregnant With Context

I think that last point is important in relation to job interviews. Because then the situation comes full of context.

You often know quite a bit about the person beforehand and even when you don't the context provides many doors that allow you to dive right in to a personal conversation.

The Phony Experts

Of course the Hustlers don't care about that. All they want to do is tell you that you're missing something so they can supply it. And if they can find scientific data to support their views, so much the better.

So, next time you hear some communication or image consultant barking about the importance of non-verbal communication, take a step back.

Yeah, you want to have your shoes shined and your shirt tucked in but unless you go to modelling school you're rarely going to seem more poised than you normally are.

Just look at the politicians when they make speeches on TV. Most of them look like robots or marionettes clumsily trying to move this way and that in order to do as they were told.

You can just imagine someone offstage signalling madly "Hands up! Turn to the left! Look sincere!."

Yes, yes, very impressive. I feel better now. I can trust him. Not.

2005-02-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

Not A Chance

We weren't even called by HP to submit proposals for the search to find a replacement for Carly Fiorina.

I guess we should have called or sent an email or something.
But heck we're just too busy writing posts about shoes and Genuity and stuff. Priorities don't you know.

Anyway Russell Reynolds was given the search and they have put their top guys on it. Well a guy and girl actually.

OK that wasn't politically correct. A man and a woman.

More specifically.

This Man (Charles Tribett):

and this Woman (Andrea Redmond) :

Good luck in your search dudes. I'm sure that there will be no shortage of candidates.

But in case the Russell Reynolds crew doesn't find anyone Canadian Headhunter will be there to pick up the pieces.

Hat tip: Peter Dawson

2005-02-21T18:57:00.000-05:00

Rubber Soul

Wear these shoes, and be like me
Wear these shoes, and you'll free
Wear the shoes, I'm thinking of
They have soles you'll really love.
They're so fine, light as sunshine
Buy these shoes, Love.

Sometimes, coincidences do occur. For instance, I was planning to post an entry about a shoe called the Holy Sole and Lord Almighty if the great Manolo doesn't go and post one a day or two before me.

But, Land o' Goshen, he doesn't call them Holy Soles. He calls them Crocs. And his "Crocs" cost $35 USD, whereas mine cost considerably less in Canadian money.

And, finally I intended to praise the shoe and highly recommend it, whereas the Manolo, he consigned it to his Gallery of Horrors!

And, since I respect the Manolo greatly, I fear for what this means about me. But, before you start throwing your bagels at the screen, please, please, let me explain.

The Holy Sole is a plastic clog. It's made out of some sturdy kind of foam so it is unbelievably lightweight.

And, there are two versions. The one Manolo shows has an attractive "band" and is a little roomier than the basic.

The basic one, which is cheaper, has a spongier bottom which makes it incredibly comfortable if you are standing on your feet.
(I have both).

I bought these shoes from a friend of mine named Steven Dennis. We call him "Shorts", because he has an addiction to casual wear.

(Really, he'll wear shorts to an expensive dining room for dinner unless you tell him not to.)

He'll sell you these shoes (in larger volumes) at a very good price. And, he's a nice guy you can trust. If you're interested you can reach him at Dominion Smallwares in Toronto at 416-665-9256.

I bought Anthony a pair but he refuses to wear them. However, I got my brother a pair too and although he's a rough and tough guy like Tony Soprano, he called me the next day to tell me they were great.

So, I do recommend them, in spite of our friend, even if you work in an office.

As long as you don't have to meet strangers, you can leave your regular shoes in the drawer and wear these during the day.

If you're wearing a suit and you buy the black ones, I'll bet few people will even notice.

One more thing, the sizing is funny. I usually wear size 11. But in these I chose an XXL because I prefer them roomy.

And, the only thing I don't like about them is that plastic is not especially cool even when it's full of holes. But if it's cool enough to wear socks where you are sitting, you won't find them hot at all.

Shorts' brother-in-law is a surgeon in Chicago and he, apparently, bought 70 pair for the people in the hospital. And, a friend of mine thought they would be quite popular in prisons.

Hmmm. Now, I get it. The Manolo isn't writing for the people in the unpleasant institutions. (That's why he doesn't like Cuba.) But read his post anyway. Itsa very funny, as usual!

2005-02-20T17:39:00.000-05:00

Overfed & Undernourished

Resume Verbiage Out!

More than half of all resumes are morbidly obese

So says the Canadian Resume Society.

It's a tragedy, I know. But we can help.

Listen, friends, answer this question.
Do you know what a resume is?
Here, I'll help you.

A resume is a small space in which you
have to write your life story.

Now, answer this question.
Do you know what verbiage is?
That's OK. I'll help you again.

Verbiage is the use of TOO MANY WORDS! Get it?

Now, if you know the answers to those two questions,
why are you writing like this?

Efficiently communicated project changes.
Successfully completed projects.

"I efficiently did this and I successfully did that".

Listen here, you adverbaholics!

If you put something in your resume, I assume it was successful and efficient. You don't have to tell me every two seconds!

And no matter what you write, you know I'm going to ask you for proof! (Which you probably won't be prepared to give).

So don't fill up your precious space with this braggadacio.
It's not efficient. And it's not successful.
It's excessive. And it's dumb.

Think about it. Now, don't you agree?
Come on, friends, cut the fat!
You'll be helping everyone.
But especially yourselves.

2005-02-18T06:54:00.000-05:00

The Interview Suit.

Continuing with our now wildly successful theme of clothes to wear for a job interview this week let’s talk about the big one: the suit.

I could write for days on this topic. It is fraught with pitfalls, preferences and petty little details that drive a lot of guys over the deep end.

I know guys hate shopping (at least for certain things) so I will make this one easy for you. Well, as easy as possible.

If you don’t have a suit (or don’t have to wear one every day) you still need at least one in your closet. If you wear suits regularly you need at least three. If you are in a profession that demands you look business like at all times you should have 8-10 suits.

However I will approach this from the perspective of someone who doesn’t have a suit only needs one for special occasions or for those who don’t know squat about buying a suit (and trust me there are a lot those out there).

First the easy bit: If you only need one suit all you have to do is go buy a good navy suit.
The navy suit is considered a “classic” this means that it doesn’t go out of style and that as long as it is in good shape it can be worn on many different occasions and still make you look sharp.

The navy suit can be combined with a variety of shirt and tie combinations to produce looks that range from sober and businesslike to casual or debonair.

Plus every suit store will carry them.

Your biggest obstacle typically will be to decide how many buttons it will have and how much it should cost.

Lets start with cost.

How much should you pay for a suit? Well as much as you can afford (and then perhaps a little bit more). With suits as with many things in life you get what you pay for and you should strive to buy quality. When you walk by those stores that have 3 for 1 sales on suits? Just keep walking. The material is usually a mix of wool and manmade fibers like polyester, Teflon etc. You should only buy a suit that is made from wool and the cheapest suits aren’t 100% wool. Thus they will have that shiny “cheap salesman” look.

At the other end of the spectrum you have the big name brands like Armani, Canali, Boss, Versace etc. These suits are typically very well made but also you pay a premium for the brand name. In fact some of the designer label suits cost more than it would for you to go to a local tailor and have a suit custom made!

If you are only buying your suit for special occasions you don’t need to break the bank. Strive for a good mid price suit and you should be fine. What price is mid price? Well in Canadian dollars between 400-800 is a good range. However if you are a savvy shopper you should be able to pick one up on sale or at a warehouse outlet.

A final note about the high-end brands – they typically tend to be less conservative or and have more fashionable detailing. This is fine but remember these companies depend on their looks going “out of style” so that you have to buy their latest products.

The main thing to remember when buying a suit is that a classic look or “cut” will look good for years and years and years. I have some suits that are 10 years old and still look good.

Lets talk about “cut”. This refers to how the suit drapes on your body and how the material fits around your waist. European cuts tend to taper so that they hug your waist more, which is fine for slimmer men with broad shoulders. Full cuts as the name implies would suit a fuller figured man (i.e. beer gut). In between you have what is called the American cut. This is the cut that fits the majority of the population. And typically it is what you should go with.

But just because you have selected the correct “cut” doesn’t mean your suit will look good. Most people you see wearing suits that look poor on them have not necessarily bought a cheap suit (although it might look like it) most of them have just not bothered to get proper alterations done. The worst offenders in this area are college guys who wear their dad’s suits to interviews. It just looks wrong.

As a rule I don’t like to shop at a store where I can’t get alterations done on site. When I walk into a store and they tell me they don’t do alterations I am usually already out the door before they get to finish their sentence.

Why? Because with a suit the devil is in the details. Little adjustments in things like the length of the sleeve or the waist of the pants can make a cheap suit look expensive and an expensive suit look cheap. Now a lot of stores will say “don’t worry there is a place in the mall that does good alterations you can go there”. The problem with that is that usually it is a place that does far more women’s apparel than men’s and you want someone who is working with suits 24-7. In most places the tailor will be about 80 years old and about four feet tall. Don’t worry this is normal.

When you decide on a suit you like the tailor will come and make marks on it with a piece of white chalk. He will then perform alterations on the suit. This usually takes about a week or so. Then you can come to get your suit.

Now the most important thing to do is to try the suit on again and be prepared to have a second round of alterations done if it doesn’t look or feel right. I sometimes have had to argue with my tailor or the sales person about the length of the pants. I feel that the trend is to have them waaaay too long. The crease should break when it hits the shoes but it shouldn’t look like you are a kid wearing your father’s suit. I am not going to go into big detail on things like crease break here because that kind of thing is really boring.

In fact I am starting to get bored myself. But I know there are a couple of other things I forgot to mention. Hmm while I think of them here are some other pointers:

When you get your suit it typically (if you shopped in a decent store) be given to you in a nice suit bag with a good hanger. You can’t hang your suit on a cheap wire hanger. It will not support the weight of the suit and someday you will come in to your closet and you suit will be in a rumpled mess on the floor.

Also only have your suit professionally dry-cleaned DON’T try to wash it in your washer. You will ruin it. If it is a little wrinkled when you take it out of the closet run a warm iron over it.

Oh yeah now I remember what I wanted to talk about. Buttons. Suits come in a few varieties. Double breasted, Single breasted and then two or three button (shown at right).

Stick with the single breasted if it is your only suit. The look is more classic whereas double breasted tends to come in and out of fashion. And buy a two button single breasted. There are a lot of three button suits out there right now but this is a relatively new trend in the suit world (less than 10 years). The three-button suit might go out of style soon and you will look hopelessly dated.

Single button (seen here) however will always look good.

Next week: Interview underwear. Boxers? Briefs? Commando?

See Also: The Interview Shoe (endorsed by the Manolo!) and Casual Fridays

2005-02-17T17:31:00.001-05:00

Kassie Defends Family From CIBC

As Toronto Judge Turns Up The Heat

This just in! Judge Jimmy Farley has ordered The Genuity Gang to hand over the personal computers of their wives and children!

The forensic boys over at Zwaig Consulting have already taken data off of 84 Genuity computers, 2 servers and 29 BlackBerries. And CIBC's pit bulls still want more.

But, gang leaders David Kassie and Dan Daviau, have refused to give up the goods.

Thank You Daddy!

Can you imagine the relief their kids must be feeling?

Especially if they have been downloading material of a "personal" nature from the internet. Or keeping a tell-all diary.

Alan Lenczner, a lawyer hired by the ~~conspirators~~ respectable businessmen, said the request was a blatant attempt to insult Mrs Kassie by pandering to ~~Canadian Headhunter's~~, ~~The Globe & Mail's~~, the business media's appetite for gossip.

The KGBC

But, wait, there's more. "This is sort of a nasty dog fight." Judge Jimmy quipped, as he ordered the defendants' personal email providers - including Microsoft Hotmail - to preserve any relevant material for future copying.

(Holy cow! I didn't know we were living in Russia!)

Let me ask you, friends, 'What's next?' Deportation to Syria for a little conference with some "auditors"? Judge Jimmy, please!

Also, Now it's The Genuity Ten!

As of last Friday, the CIBC wants to add another shadowy figure to the list of defendants.

CIBC alleges that Charles "Chuckie" Lindner, a senior exec in its US brokerage, sent two months of trading records for CIBC's Boston clients to an email address on Jan. 5, 2005 -- and resigned from the bank later that day! He now works for Genuity. (Heh, heh.)

(Note: the CIBC World Markets division of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is suing (now) ten ex-employees for stealing people and information when they went to Genuity Capital Markets).

A Little On Lenczner

I love Alan Lenczner's web site. His picture's at the top of the page. And underneath it is written:

A tour de force in both civil and administrative litigation, Mr. Lenczner's insights and skills are virtually unparalleled in the profession.

No source is attributed so you have to wonder if he wrote it himself. It goes on:

He is one of Canada’s leading litigators... well-known for his expertise... His skills as an advocate have set precedents in almost every area of civil litigation. With his extraordinary experience in large and complex litigation matters, he regularly appears before courts and tribunals across the country.

I get a few resumes that are written like this. And...(hahahahaha!) - you know how Joni Mitchell laughs at the end of "Big Yellow Taxi"?

Sources: Joey Schneider @ bloomberg.net and
Sinc Stewart, Globe & Mail

See Also: GenuityGang Strikes Back -- CIBC Recruiting Scandal -- David Kassie, Kingpin -- David Kassie's Dream -- Dan Daviau -- Earl Rotman -- Kassie Defiant -- Phil Evershed -- Hirst, Morrison, Eggertson -- Marie Cordero -- Bad 4 Recruiters -- Sweet Marie -- The Kassie Cult -- Kassie Honoured -- Hunkin's Millions -- BlackBerry Got 'Em -- Kassie Family Hunted -- Blackberry Mystery Solved -- The Genuity Revolution -- Technorati Tag: Genuity

2005-02-17T07:40:00.000-05:00

Why Not Take A Manolo Break?

The Michael laughed his head off at this one. And this one. And this one too.. -- And so will you.

2005-02-17T06:50:00.000-05:00

What Do Layoffs Mean?

Should you go to a company that has had major layoffs?
Here's Monty's take:

Layoffs create more negative than positive results. The reasons?

1. Layoff expenses are hard to estimate.
Restructuring charges are often higher than planned and require increased investment of execs time managing the layoffs.

2. Companies lay off the wrong people.

It's hard to figure out who is really expendable.

Managers often guess wrong and then have to figure out how to recreate lost expertise.

3. Layoffs make good staff recruitable.

Worried about the future, they are highly recruitable by predatory competitors.

Unless you increase their comp to get them to stay. And that costs you some of the projected savings from restructuring.

Layoffs are a bad sign.

They mean:
1. Management made bad decisions in the past
2. Demand for the company's products and services are declining
3. Revenues will be dropping
4. The company will lose some key personnel in the near future.

(OK, cut the girls some slack if layoffs are industry-wide, seasonal, or if a tornado wipes out customer demand).

From a very interesting business blog called Monty's Bluff.

2005-02-15T22:48:00.000-05:00

Headhunters = Hearthunters?

The Globe and Mail discovers a new type of headhunter:

Hmmm...... I have never worked in firm that employed matching agents to attend functions of any sort. Mostly we just sit with a big-ass directory of names and dial 7 digits until we find someone. Although I wouldn't mind doing a little matching on the side.

2005-02-14T19:00:00.000-05:00

Poison Berry

What is a Blackberry?

A Blackberry is a wireless hand-held device which gives you access to email.

Standard Blackberry email goes through your company's computer system.

And it can be stored by the system just like any other email messages.

But every Blackberry has a personal identification number (PIN).

And, everyone thought that messages sent from one Blackberry to another using PIN numbers - instead of normal e-mail addresses - would bypass the company computers.

This would make these communications completely private.

But now we learn that if your Blackberry is on your company's network, there is software available that can capture all of its PIN-to-PIN communications.

What's all the fuss?

The Canadian Bank of Commerce (CIBC) is suing nine ex-employees for stealing people and data from the CIBC.

The case was cracked by probing the conspirators' email for evidence. And, these emails were sent between Blackberrys using PIN numbers.

So, now, Blackberry users everywhere are in a panic as they visualize John Hunkin prying into their email.

How to solve the problem

Don't be cheap. Buy your own Blackberry.

Or disconnect your company Blackberry from the company's computer. And link it to your personal e-mail account with your own Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Laying Blame

Some glib and nasty folk are trying to lay the blame for the Genuity fiasco on some of our old friends.

Because, they say, it should have been obvious that no message sent or received through a company-issued BlackBerry is safe.

Look at this:

And this:

"You would have to be a fool to assume that kind of thing.” said Brian Sharwood, a telecommunications consultant in Toronto. But Zipper, and Marie, don't you pay them any mind.
(And whatever you've been drinking, please, give it up!)

Sources:
The Globe & Mail here and here. And Computerworld here.

See Also: GenuityGang Strikes Back -- CIBC Recruiting Scandal -- David Kassie, Kingpin -- David Kassie's Dream -- Dan Daviau -- Earl Rotman -- Kassie Defiant -- Phil Evershed -- Hirst, Morrison, Eggertson -- Marie Cordero -- Bad 4 Recruiters -- Sweet Marie -- The Kassie Cult -- Kassie Honoured -- Hunkin's Millions -- BlackBerry Got 'Em -- Kassie Family Hunted -- Blackberry Mystery Solved -- The Genuity Revolution -- Technorati Tag: Genuity

2005-02-13T15:18:00.000-05:00

Treason

A Wisconsin man has been fired from his job for fraternizing with the enemy. The crime? Drinking a Budweiser or more specifically being photographed drinking a Budweiser. Why is that a fireable offense? Well at the time he was working at rival brewery Miller .

"This is what happens when you drink a great beer," former C.J.W. employee Isac Aguero (seen at right in the photo that supposedly led to his dismissal) said.

Sounds like a ringing endorsement for Budweiser. So is Isac going to be working at Bud any time soon??

"I was actually thinking I was going to go apply at Anheuser-Busch," Aguero said.

Thinking about it? Your resume should be there already. And not just in HR I would be talking to their advertising firm. I mean if Bud doesn't turn this into a major pr campaign they are really really really stupid.

2005-02-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

Canuck Bosses Not Blogalicious

Canadian execs aren't following US counterparts
into setting up corporate blogs.

Mark Cuban, Corporate Blogger

David Schatsky, SVP at Jupiter Research, recently asked a room of 50 people how many wrote blogs.

No one did. A couple read blogs. A third knew what they were.

They were at a Web Content Management conference in Quebec.

(This fits our image perfectly! Pushy Americans: always rushing into things. Getting their noses in everywhere. Canadians: so much more ~~sleepy~~ polite and loveable. But still on the leading edge. Hey! Am I missing something here?)

See article

UPDATE: Here are some Canadian CEO bloggers.
Stu Butterfield, Ludicorp / Flickr (Looks kind of girlie)
Rob Hopper, iUpload
Mike O'Connor, Mansfield Communications
Elliot Noss, Tucows

2005-02-11T08:51:00.000-05:00

Handsome John Hits It Big!

"He's Rollin' In It!"

Handsome John Hunkin has taken a beating in the press recently playing a crusty John Wayne to David Kassie's Monty Cliff.

But, if the proof is in the pudding, when it comes to pudding, this guy still knows how hoover it in.
Congratulations, John. Mind you, this salary is pre-Genuity. Wishing you well for next year too!

As celebrated headhunter, Ma'tin Yate, once said, "Knock 'Em Dead!"

Title: CEO, CIBC

Base salary 2004: $1-million
- including a 100K increase; first since '99

Performance bonus 2004: $3-mill+

Restricted share awards 2004: $4.2-mill
Stock Options: 50,560

The Bank's Earnings 2004: $2.2-billion

Most Altrustic Action:
- In 2002, the bank suffered a 61% drop in profits
- Handsome Johnny turned down performance bonuses
  & stock options!
- (So did Academy Award Nominee, David Kassie)

Other Prize Winners!

Dickie Waugh, Prez-CEO Bank of Nova Scotia
Base 2004: $1-mill
Restricted stock units: $3-mill

Performance Bonus: $1.6-mill deferred shares
Stock Options: 230,768 stock options.

Most Admirable Action
- led bank's best year: earnings of $2.9-bill, up 18% 2003.

Gordie Nixon: CEO Royal Bank
- $3.2-mill in salary and bonuses in 2004

- Watch out Gordie! Royal's full-year profit   declined for the first time since 1999
  (from $3.01-bill. to $2.83)

See The Globe and Mail

See Also: GenuityGang Strikes Back -- CIBC Recruiting Scandal -- David Kassie, Kingpin -- David Kassie's Dream -- Dan Daviau -- Earl Rotman -- Kassie Defiant -- Phil Evershed -- Hirst, Morrison, Eggertson -- Marie Cordero -- Bad 4 Recruiters -- Sweet Marie -- The Kassie Cult -- Kassie Honoured -- Hunkin's Millions -- BlackBerry Got 'Em -- Kassie Family Hunted -- Blackberry Mystery Solved -- The Genuity Revolution -- Technorati Tag: Genuity

2005-02-09T15:11:00.000-05:00

Carly Fiorina out at
Hewlett Packard.

Carly Fiorina is on the job market although her resume hasn’t shown up in our inbox yet but that could be because we keep our hotmail junk filter set at high and it puts all emails from people that are not already on our list in the junk mail folder.

Which of course means that we have to start checking the box every day to make sure it doesn’t get deleted automatically.

Carly was derided in Slate magazine as a “rock star” CEO. Which surprised us because we never heard any of her songs. A quick check of Kazaa revealed no Carly mp3s being traded by geeks. Although they could be on some bit-torrent site somewhere.

Perhaps Slate was confusing her with Carly Simon?

Now that such a high profile female CEO has been ousted the questions will begin as to whether gender played a role in Carly’s fall. Carly however denies that her breast size had anything to do with it.

Those who remember her tenure at HP say they will miss her inability to work gadgets.

And her belief that holding IPOD’s to the sky helped her communicate with aliens.

Mostly though they will miss her skills in pointing.

She was a really good pointer.

Now that the CEO job is vacant the folks here at Canadian Headhunter would like to throw our hat into the ring and declare our interest in taking on the assignment for a small fee. HP can contact us via the hotmail address on the right.

We’ll set the junk mail filter to medium for a few days. And just so we don’t miss it make sure the subject line says something like: Big Fat Retainer Check for You!!!

2005-02-08T21:43:00.000-05:00

SCIENCE PROVES IT:
COO, A Ridiculous Role

If you're going to a company with a COO, watch out!
Chief Operating Officers make companies worse.

Researchers studied 404 firms
over a 10 year period.

Results: Companies with COOs have lower returns on assets (ROA) and market to book (MTB).

Conclusion: The CEO-COO structure stinks.
Alternate conclusion: The COO's studied all stink.

via Monty's Bluff

2005-02-08T21:17:00.000-05:00

The Honours Pour In

Kassie Nominated!

The Canadian Auto Workers have nominated David Kassie for an Academy Award of Business.

Specifically...

The Maltese Falcon Award for
Back-Stabbing & Double-Crossing

Boy Wonder, David Kassie, sets up Genuity Capital with just a few former colleagues from CIBC - who jump ship the day after receiving huge year-end bonuses from their former boss. One to watch. (90 min, Canada)
Find it here

2005-02-07T19:09:00.000-05:00

Why They Leave

Do you lie in bed each night wondering if your people are thinking of leaving?

Of course not. You are more concerned with the production quotas, or the quarterly shareholders meeting or the new office space that you are hoping to lease. Right

I got to thinking about this because there was an article on line about keeping tech employees happy that I was going to post here but I didn’t like the article that much because it was too geared towards techies and I though it would be easier to write my own than go through the other one and criticize it.

If you are worried about what would make people leave your company then you are probably better positioned to keep turnover low than companies that don’t worry about it. And trust me a lot of companies don’t. However here is a list of some of the most common reasons that managers give me on a daily basis as to why they are looking. I am not going to present them in any particular order.

Money

Location

Family Owned Companies.

Large Corporations.

Ceilings (glass and otherwise)

I could go on and on with a variety of other reasons but I would like to turn it over to the readers and ask you: What has caused you to leave your company ?

One of the reason’s listed above or have I missed some glaringly obvious ones??

I look forward to reading your comments.

2005-02-06T19:33:00.000-05:00

It's Hilarious

Here's a smile via The Meatriarchy via Ghost of A Flea.

But WATCH OUT.
a) THE VIDEO IS OFFICE-SAFE.
b) But you need sound to enjoy it.
c) THE SITE IS covered with ads
which are NOT OFFICE-FRIENDLY.

2005-02-06T10:59:00.000-05:00

The Kassie Cult

Though he may fail as he vies for fame and glory
He tries so hard in each and every story.
That's Tennessee Tuxedo in his tales.
That's Tennessee Tuxedo and his tales

In every era there is always an emblematic figure whom the public chooses to represent some sector of human achievement.

In the American business world, Rockefeller was once the man who captured the popular imagination. More recently, Ted Turner was the business icon. And, now of course, it's Donald Trump.

In Canada, the best known businessman has, for some time, been newspaper baron, Conrad Black.

But Lord Black has fallen on hard times of late and we believe that renegade banker, David Kassie, is well-positioned to take his place.

Once a person becomes the object of a cult, people begin to sift through his childhood looking for indicators of his future accomplishments.

This must be a very important activity because when they can't find any indicators, people invent them.

Dan'l Boone killed a bar when he was three years old. George Washington chopped down the cherry tree. You know the routine.

We must assume, therefore, that the incipient power of David Kassie's symbolic image was revealed this week when the Globe & Mail started reporting on his childhood antics .

Apparently, young Davey was obsessed by an old cartoon show.

Tennessee Tuxedo was a Communist penguin who was always agitating to get better conditions in the zoo.

He would regularly announce that "Tennessee Tuxedo will not fail!" But his schemes always did fail whereupon he would turn to Phineas J. Whoopie who would teach him some simple scientific principles on his 3-D blackboard.

Tennessee would declare, "Phineas J. Whoopee, you're the greatest!" And, then he would fail again.

Young Kassie used to claim that Mr Whoopie, like he himself, was actually from the constellation Pleiades. And he would complain that it was an incredible strain to act like an ordinary human being on a regular basis.

As if in proof of this complaint, young Davey could often be found rocking back and forth repeating tag lines from the show with an incredible intensity.

He was also known to chant, "Who's milking the cow?" and "Malabar, Malabar, Malabar!"

Actually, we've also heard that Kassie was equally impressed by another fictional character and that the original name for Genuity Capital Markets was, in fact, Dudley Kane Enterprises after a business in a famous Canadian novel set in Kassie's hometown of Montreal.

Whatever their level of authenticity, Canadian Headhunter appreciates such stories and welcomes others about the secondary Genuity players, as well.

Not for any vulgar reasons, of course, but as part of the commonplace study of what makes great men tick.

So, if Dan Daviau liked Quick Draw McGraw, we want to know. And if Dr Phil Evershed never practiced medicine, we want to know that too.

As for Kassie's iconic status, we suspect that all he has to do to to assure it now is to buy a basketball team (obviously The Raptors) and marry a model.

And, as for the latter, we suggest that he could do no better than the stunning Mitsou Gelinas the former pop tart who was recently appointed Quebec's ambassador to the mainland by the CBC.

And, finally, a prediction: in two years time, Andy Willis of the Globe & Mail will publish a book on the Genuity-CIBC battle.

Canadian Headhunter will appear in the footnotes as the only blog that took a rabid interest in its every turn and that will be our only claim to fame before we, ourselves, fade into glory.

See Also: GenuityGang Strikes Back -- CIBC Recruiting Scandal -- David Kassie, Kingpin -- David Kassie's Dream -- Dan Daviau -- Earl Rotman -- Kassie Defiant -- Phil Evershed -- Hirst, Morrison, Eggertson -- Marie Cordero -- Bad 4 Recruiters -- Sweet Marie -- The Kassie Cult -- Kassie Honoured -- Hunkin's Millions -- BlackBerry Got 'Em -- Kassie Family Hunted -- Blackberry Mystery Solved -- The Genuity Revolution -- Technorati Tag: Genuity

2005-02-03T19:31:00.000-05:00

The Shoe Fits

Last week I talked about casual Fridays and menswear for interviews. The post seemed to spark some interest (both in the comments and via google) so I thought I would do another posting on clothing.

We all know that you generally wear a suit to an interview and for the most part people actually get that. However one area that men tend to really fall down is in the footwear department.

Often it seems that guys go out and buy a suit and completely forget about the shoes.

Gentlemen, take heed. Just because you are wearing black shoes does not mean you are dressed appropriately. Certain types of shoes are meant to be worn with a dress suit and all the rest just don't cut it.

The biggest mistake that most guys make is to wear loafers with a suit. Loafers are casual shoes. They are ok to wear on casual Fridays and can be worn with a sport coat and casual slacks. But under no circumstances should they be worn with a suit.

Personally I don't own a pair of loafers, I find them loathsome - as far as I'm concerned no one needs to see that much of my instep. And quite frankly I don't need to see that much of yours. Here's an easy way to keep from getting confused: If it doesn't have laces it doesn't go with a suit (well there is one exception).

Next big mistake I see is wearing a black "shoe" that is more like a black sneaker than a shoe.

You know those things that look like Reeboks or something? I know they are nice and soft and are very comfortable but they don't shine well and really detract from your overall look. The idea of a suit is to look sharp and these definitely don't look sharp.

Your shoes also shouldn't overwhelm your suit. I used to interview a lot of kids off campus and they often were guilty of wearing these black things with huge thick soles and big silver buckles. Guys, all of us tend to have big feet. Why do you need to make them look huge??

Finally your shoes shouldn't look dirty, scuffed or dull. Get them shined before your interview and carry a small piece of soft cloth in your overcoat pocket. Just before you walk into the office give your shoes a quick buff. They will look fantastic. You can also get one of those quick shine things but the shine tends to lose it's luster quite quickly and leaves a film on your shoes.

So what shoes should you wear with a suit. Here are the big three via Mens Health:

Wing-tip oxford.

Cap-toe oxford

Plain-toe oxford.

And buy a good pair of shoes. At full price they should cost minimum 150.00 (CDN) however you don't need to go higher than $300.00 . I personally have never paid full price for shoes. I look for sales and I also frequent factory outlet stores. I have a beautiful pair of capped oxfords that were regular $325.00 - I got them for 70% off at an outlet store.

Always buy cedar shoe trees for your shoes as well. Shoe trees suck the moisture out of the shoes after a long day covering your sweaty feet. This helps prolong the life of the shoes and as a bonus virtually eliminates odour. Shoe trees will run you about $30.00 .

Finally if you do buy a good pair of shoes don't wear them every day. Rotate your shoes so they don't wear out too quickly.