One of the biggest lessons I learned from working for Dave wasn’t just what I learned from him, but that I came to understand the importance of timing because of him: there were so many things I learned from Dave only because I was at a point in my life where I was open to [ Read More ]
For the past four years, I’ve kept a sign over my desk that reads: “I don’t have time” = “I haven’t made it a priority.” I’ve written about this before, but never to explain the origins of this epiphany. The credit for this lesson goes to a sharp, good-humored, understatedly charismatic man named Robert. As [ Read More ]
WordPress’ database isn’t big enough for me to list off everything I’ve learned from John over the years: about business, about change, about leadership, about being a workaholic, about managing clients, about corporate politics, etc. You name a topic, and I can probably find at least a handful of lessons I learned from him. I [ Read More ]
Last week I wrote that we are rarely good about telling the people in our lives how grateful we are, and, realizing that applied to me as well, I figured that this was as good an opportunity as any for me to correct that when it came to three important influences in my life. As [ Read More ]
I have recently gone through a series of interviews/screenings where the net result was, “I’m sorry, but you are just over-qualified for this position.” In response to that highly frustrating designation, I propose the following: Being classified as “over-qualified” is usually less “You cost too much” and more “I’m afraid you’ll be bored and leave [ Read More ]
I recently got a phone call from a dear friend who found herself very conflicted about an unexpected career opportunity that hit her from out of the blue. After a few minutes of talking, I was a little confused why she seemed to be so conflicted, because — with one or two minor exceptions — [ Read More ]
I am a member of Generation X, otherwise known as “the Slacker Generation.” Anyone who knows me would laugh at that designation because I am, without exception, a ridiculously unapologetic workaholic. This week Forbes published an article by Dr. Steven Berglas asserting that a recent study suggests that Generation Y (otherwise known as “The Millennials”) [ Read More ]
A pet peeve has developed over the past couple of months, settling into life here in Austin and looking for a new job: employers who do not keep their job postings current. After a few weeks of consistent, aggressive online job hunting, it is pretty easy to spot the new job postings versus the old [ Read More ]
This week a dear friend and mentor commented to me that he had become “a poster-child for social networking fatigue” and that was why, while catching up by phone, he was giving me the last six months worth of updates on his life, many of which were pretty dramatic and a little surprising. I had [ Read More ]
There is something amusingly ironic about tech industry networking events: a group of people who are part of a subculture that is notorious for challenged people skills all in a room guzzling alcohol and trying to make small talk. I’ve been to too many to count — in the Bay Area, in New York, and [ Read More ]
The other keynote I attended at ProjectWorld was General Russel L. Honoré, (Ret), Commander of JOINT TASK FORCE KATRINA. This was another one that didn’t hold a particular appeal beforehand, but proved very interesting – and for reasons that I never would have expected. Here are two video clips of his talk. His central point [ Read More ]
At ProjectWorld, one of the keynote speakers was Sunil Chandra, Director HR Technology & Operations at Google. Ironically this wasn’t one of the keynotes I was most interested in attending, but I’m glad I did. Aside from his very engaging speaking style, Sunil had an exceptional point to make. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE5uPkbcLjc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1] Sunil pointed out that, for [ Read More ]