In his book “Free Agent Nation” (Warner Books, 2001), Daniel H. Pink focused on the more than 30 million Americans who, for a variety of reasons, have abandoned traditional employment and the idea of a job that lasts a lifetime. The free-agency movement promotes the notion that — because the loyalty contract between employers and
Dear Human Resources Manager: Hi! I’m writing to apply for a position on your board of directors. While I have only modest knowledge of polymer-based hollow-rod extrusion, stenciling and vapor recovery — and no actual office experience per se — I am eager to be well-paid for little or no work.
It seemed as though every Monday morning in my 20-year career as a lawyer I sat at a desk and dreamed of just not being there anymore. “If only I could retire,” I sighed. Then with a felicitous combination of savings, luck and daring, I did it at age 46 on Jan. 1, 2000. A
“Dad, I’ll pay you a dollar if you baby-sit me for an hour.” Coming from his five-year-old daughter, this offer got the attention of a middle-aged oil-company executive. “All the money in her piggy bank for an hour of my time,” he says. “I realized I’d let my life get pretty far out of whack.”
On Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2001, the magazine where I worked as a marketing manager for more than two years laid off 69 employees. I was one of them. The layoffs weren’t a surprise. We’d heard about them internally and on CNN and in the New York Post. In fact, for at least a week prior,
Americans value modesty. This is a fact. Whether you’re a Rockefeller, Rothschild or Kennedy, the expectation is that modesty will prevail, and you’ll present yourself as a humble person, never flaunting your fame and fortune. And whether or not it behooves us to be humble in any given situation, we nonetheless comply. In fact, in
In 1998 I found myself, for the first time in my career, a “free agent,” meaning that I was not a “regular” employee anywhere; in fact, I was untethered to any organization and loosened upon the world. Fortunately, my spouse works, so I wasn’t desperate to accept just anything. I had his health insurance and
Jolene Tornabeni, 50, started out as a nurse 25 years ago. Two grown children later, she is the chief operating officer of Inova Health System, a health-care provider with facilities in Northern Virginia. She attributes her rise in the ranks to being a mother. “People always ask me if children didn’t stop me in my
Some people believe that the New York Stock Exchange’s Richard Grasso and the New York Times’s Howell Raines were forced out because they didn’t bother to update how they conduct themselves in these troubled times. Could it be that professional arrogance, denial and self-aggrandizement are bad for business? If you read the business news, you
Today, new technology and process improvements can sharply truncate the length of time it takes for employers to hire employees. Through their online hiring systems, leading employers are compiling databases organized by candidates’ skills. This allows for automated matching of talent supply and demand. Once an employer identifies the skills and competencies it needs, it
As any stay-at-home mom can tell you, quitting work and staying home to raise a baby is a far cry from retirement. If you’re planning on it — or have already done it — you’ll find that this 24/7 on-call position provides many intangible benefits, but, unfortunately, no income.
In the current job market, many senior-level candidates are learning that great backgrounds, terrific interviewing ability and stellar references don’t guarantee success. So how can you break through the iron curtain that screens most job candidates from managers who can hire you? Instead of trying to circumvent the human-resources department, you must accommodate it in
As a captain in the Indiana Army National Guard, I’ve been on active duty since Jan. 2, 2003, and serving in Southwest Asia in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since Feb. 12, 2003. I’ll be returning to my job as a manager for a chemical company this month. It’s been a long year, but in
Just as it’s been the principal benchmark that financial markets have used to evaluate the economic recovery for the past three years, job creation has become the central economic focus of the U.S. presidential campaign. Benjamin Disraeli’s statement on the three types of lies is appropriate because the way in which the employment statistics are
When networking is mentioned as a job hunting or career-advancement tool, you probably think of industry or professional meetings with picked-over hors d’oeuvres and people wearing “Hello, I’m…” name tags. The mere specter of working a room this way can cause even the most practiced executive to break out in a sweat.
Confusion about how recruiters operate has put many a career at a disadvantage. Executives in transition can’t afford to let faulty assumptions foul up their prospects. Knowing how the search industry operates will make you a better, more successful candidate. To help you get the facts straight, here’s a guide to working with recruiters based
It isn’t uncommon for employers to receive more than 500 applications for a single job. Many companies have databases containing more than 1 million resumes. To manage these huge volumes, companies increasingly are using online staffing-assessment tools to screen and select candidates. These questionnaires and tests allow companies to sort through hundreds of applications rapidly
It’s no secret that many performance-management systems aren’t working. This goes from the top to the bottom of organizations, from boards who adjust executives’ performance goals so they can receive pay that appears to have no relationship to company results, to levels lower down, where large numbers of employees are indifferent or unmotivated by the
It’s said that if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same results. This is too true for job hunters. How many times have you applied for a job through a career site and didn’t get it? Now ask yourself, “How many others applied for that same position?” It isn’t a small
For much of the past seven years, I dished out career and job-search advice through a weekly newspaper column. “Network, network, network,” I said. “Keep your resume up to date, ready to post online and easy to adapt to a variety of jobs.” “Join professional organizations.” “Research alternative careers.” “Follow your bliss.”
