Wall Street Journal: Asia is Hot Destination for European M.B.A's

According to an article in today's Wall Street Journal, with Western economies sagging, many European business schools say they are seeing a jump in the number of M.B.A.s and other students looking East for opportunities.

As the hiring picture has turned gloomy in more traditional M.B.A. destinations like London and New York, many B-school administrators and students say more students than ever are looking this year to job markets in places like China and Singapore. The difficulties of getting U.S. work visas are also prompting students who might have sought to go to the U.S. to try Asia instead.

To view entire article before 06 June 08, click here.

Susan Ireland on How Online Resumes are Processed at One Large Corporation

As part of her research about how online resume are processed by large corporations, Susan Ireland, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume, and Ready-Made Resumes software, interviewed Corrine Weldon, a Regional Recruiter for one of the largest media organizations in the U.S. Corrine uses her organization’s online recruitment system to find applicants for specific job openings she represents. To view Susan's post about what she found out, visit her blog at http://joblounge.blogspot.com/2008/05/resume-through-eyes-of-online-recruiter.html.

Art of Pursuasion Becomes Key

An article in the 19 May 2008 issue of the Wall Street Journal ("Art of Persuasion Becomes Key," by Erin White) talks about the need for managers to sharpen their skills as lines of authority blur. Increasingly, professionals are called on to persuade peers - sometimes located thousands of miles away - over whom they have no direct authority.

In response, some companies are helping managers bolster their influencing skills.

The article goes on to give seveal short case studies of managers who have been able to accomplish important goals through influence and persuasion without direct authority.

The article also reports 5 persuasive pointers that IBM offers its employees for improving influencing skills:

• Build a shared vision
• Negotiate collaboratively
• Make tradeoffs
• Know who can help you achieve your goal
• Build and maintain your network

Four books I've read recently that provide helpful pointers in or related to this domain include:

• The Elements of Persuasion - by Richard Maxell & Robert Dickman
• Peruasion - the art of getting what you want - by Dave Lakhani
• Crucial Conversations - by Patterson, Grenny, et.al.
• Difficult Conversations - by Stone, Patton & Heen

Job Growth Stats for Silicon Valley

Published: May 16, 2008 in the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal

Employment in the Silicon Valley grew by 11,700 jobs -- or 1.3 percent -- in April compared to a year earlier, according to a report released Friday.

For more information, go to: http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/05/12/daily96.html?b=1210910400%5e1637447&surround=etf

Scientist or Engineer?

If you're a scientist or engineer, your employment prosepects are, on average, looking bright.

According to the April 2008 Report from the National Science Foundation, "the overall unemployment rate of scientists and engineers in the United States dropped from 3.2% in 2003 to 2.5% in 2006, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). This is the lowest unemployment rate measured by SESTAT since the early 1990s. It continues a trend of lower unemployment rates for scientists and engineers compared with unemployment rates in the rest of the U.S. economy. Comparable unemployment rates for the entire U.S. labor force in 2003 and 2006 were 6.0% and 4.7%, respectively."

Other report highlights include:

• Overall unemployment rate of scientists and engineers in the United States dropped from 3.2% in 2003 to 2.5% in 2006


• Total number of scientists and engineers in the U.S. grew by almost 1 million between 2003 and 2006


• Rates dropped for most S&E occupations and for individuals at all degree levels and varied by occupation


• Unemployment rates dropped for all degree levels


• Scientists and engineers in the U.S. totaled 22.6 million in 2006, almost half of them women (45%)


• Most scientists and engineers were married or lived in a marriage-like relationship


• The vast majority of scientists and engineers in the United States were U.S. citizens


• The business/industry sector employed the largest share of scientists and engineers (69.4%), followed by educational institutions (18.8%) and government (11.8%)

Interview Accomplishment Stories & Closing Questions

Thought for the day:

Every interview story must answer the "Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How" of the candidate's major accomplishments.

Possible closing questions at the end of a first interview (according to Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters) include:

• Who will I meet in the second interview?
• When would you like to schedule our next meeting?
• Is there any reason you wouldn't consider inviting me back for a second interview?

Another article on employers tapping executives for temporary jobs

I came across another article today in the Wall Street Journal about the increasing tendency of corporations to fill temporary needs at the executive level with executive temps.

As demand has grown, a number of companies have sprung up or stepped in to fill the need. Cited in the article are Epoch, a Boston-based firm that recruits interim executives; Nielsen Healthcare Group (based in St. Louis, placed 150 interim executives at healt-care organizations last year); CMF Associates LLC (a financial services consulting company in Philadelphia); and Business Talent Group, an 18-month old company with 35 corporate and non-profit clients and about 500 executives on tap for temporary assignments.

The article offfers 4 general pieces of advice for aspiring temporary executives:

• Contact recruiters at executive search firms - both those that specialize in temp work and those with a more traditional focus
• Spread the word within your network and beyond
• Revamp your resume to show specific examples of work executed - don't over-focus on strategic thinking - hands-on execution is important!
• Prepare references as you would for a full-time job search.

Selling and "Mismatching"

According to Thomas Freese in his book Secrets of Question Based Selling: How the Most Powerful Tool in Business Can Double Your Sales Results, interviews are adversarial due to a defense mechanism called "mismatching," or "the instincitve and emotional behavior that causes people t respond or push back in a contrarian manner."

He proposes 4 strategies to reduce the risk of mismatching when trying to score an interview:

1. Ask more questions and make fewer statements.
2. Establish your credibility with the prospective employer from the get-go.
3. Pique the prospective employer's curiosity to neutralize mismatching.
4. Build momentum to quell the mismatching instinct.

And to that I would add a piece of advice with respect to seeking informational and job interviews from Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters: "Stay away from the human resources department because they are paid to mismatch! HR people akin their role to that of your body's natural immune system - essentially keeping out germs (bad employees) that could make the company sick. By nature, they are risk-adverse, err on the side of caution, and mismatch out of habit." In addition, hiring decisions for jobs - with the exception of those in the HR department itself - are made elsewhere.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Why it's so hard to change

Heard an interesting speach at Toastmasters tonight on a new theory of "total leadership" created by a Wharton professor. Focuses on becoming an effective leader by achieving alignment with one's personal values in the areas of work, home, community, and self.

During the presentation, the speaker talked about why it is so difficult for people to change. He spoke about the power of habit and about findings in neurophysiology about how "programming" works in the brain. Essentially, in order to change a habit, we have to repeat the new, desirable behavior over and over again until it becomes a habit in its own right - replacing the old, undesirable one.

Good food for thought for those areas in life where change would be desirable!

Builiding a Positive On-Line Presence for Job or Client Search

Several possibilities come to mind:

1. Participate in relevant listservs and discussion forums - or start one of your own
2. Start a blog relevant to your field or area of expertise (being careful to avoid any conflict of interest vis. your current employer)
3. Create a profile on professional networking platforms, such as Linked-In; seek professional testimonials for that profile.
4. Post a profile of your crendentials in your professional association's online resume database, IF you are able to assure confidentiality and control who has access
5. Participate in chats and on-line discussions of key topics in your field.
6. Write articles for on-line publications of your professional association or the professional association(s) of your target market
7. Participate in chats and online discussions regarding key topics in your field
8. Keep your information up to date in the directory of your undergraduate and graduate alma mater
9. If your trade association has a membership directory - especially one with member profiles, make sure that your information is included and up-to-date
10. If you have something relevant to say regarding an article or editorial you read in an on-line publication for your area of expertise - and assuming the web site has a facility for you to do so, write a comment or response.

Memorable Ideas for Today

Things I've read or heard today that I find useful (both from Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters):

" The 3 R's of Job Interviewing: Research, Relevancy, and Resiliency"

• Research: Figure out what you are selling (and what you have to sell), to whom and where
  
• Relevancy: How can you make money, save money, increase efficiencies for a given employer?
  
• Resiliency: How able are you to spring back from disappointment and keep moving forward?
  

"The Five Skills Employers Buy"

• Leadership - communicating personal commitment and drive through words and actions
• Communication - ability to articulate a clear vision aloud and in writing
• Bias toward Action - ability to ask hard quesitions and make tough decisions with limited or imperfect information
• Passion: "fire in the belly," spark
• Cultural compatibility: willingess to trust and share information

Does Being Happy Make You Smarter?

I read today that "for years, cognitive psychologies have known that being happy actually makes you smarter."

If this is true, then it goes to follow that finding at career and job in which we are happy maximizes the likelihood of our being "smart in our work."

I also read what seems to me to be some very good advice from the 10th Century Kashmiri philosopher Tilopa:

* Let go of what has passed
* Let go of what may come
* Let go of what is happening now
* Don't try and figure anything out
* Don't try to make anything happen
* Relax, right now, and rest

Seems like good advice for calming the mind so that new ideas and stories can manifest. I'm definitely going to give it a try in the week to come!

Breaking through the noise

I'm reading a book at the moment titled "The Elements of Persuasion." In it, the authors make a statement that I find both true and impactful in its simplicity, namely that "STORIES ARE FACTS WRAPPED IN EMOTIONS, and the key to remembering a fact is to anchor it in an emotion. That is why Jerome Bruner estimates that afact is twenty times more likely to be remembered if it is part of a story."

The typical middle-level corporate exec gets an average of 250 e-mails a day. People are literally bombarded with information. Given this overload, facts that are not connected to a story are likely to slip our mind.

This strikes me as one more compelling argument for liberally using stories to get key messages across in a memorable way in job interviews, sales pitches, and other conversations and presentations where one is seeking to persuade.