When Did SM – Social Media – Turn into Slimy Media?

Caveat Emptor – something Stephen Colbert translates as tuff tittie – should be the motto for any buyer.

Looks like it should be the same for any job hunter using social media to find their next gig.

While many a job hunter has seen the Craiglist Scam Alert  (“affiliate scammers are posting bogus ads promising (nonexistent!) employment, paid research trials, or other compensation, but then notifying repliers that they’ll need to jump through a hoop first.Read the rest

Are the “Best Places to Work” Really the Best Places to Work?

The San Francisco Business Times announced its Best Places to Work in the Bay Area for 2011. This year’s ranking brought nominations from 301 companies representing employees in 12 counties around the greater Bay Area. The eighth annual Best Places to Work awards recognized the top employers in five categories based on company size.

Are the “Best Place to Work” the best places to work?Read the rest

When is the Best Time to Build Your Professional Network?

My colleague John Rehm – fresh from a tour of duty in Asia with IDEO leading innovation projects – flagged a post at HBR.com by Campbell Soup Company CEO and President Doug Conant titled Five Steps to Building Your Network.

If you’ve read Conant’s book with Nette Norgaard,  Touchpoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments, you know that his candor and personal openness is unusual (unfortunately) for most senior executives.… Read the rest

When Conflict Conflicts

Standard question mark

We’re living in an interesting time; information that appears material or conflicting by the optics test for companies goes unmentioned.

At one hand we have the purchase by a senior Berkshire Hathaway exec of stock of a company that was subsequently bought by the firm (see this WSJ piece ) or the flap regarding whether Apple was legally required to provide information on CEO Steve Jobs health (see this article from the NY Times on the release of material information).… Read the rest

Bad Sign for a Startup: When the Founder Bails

The last big tech boom – eleven years ago – had collars and handcuffs wrapped around founders and early hires.

Apart from the joy, challenge and excitement in creating something from nothing (btw – something not to be ignored or underestimated) the big financial upside was in stock. Stock which in many cases couldn’t be cashed out until the startup went public or got bought.… Read the rest