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

What Do You Do When a Board Seat Beckons?

It may simply be that time of year but I’m being “soft vetted” for board of director / board of trustee seats.

And whether the board seat is for an organization that is for-profit or for non-profit, there are things some things that anyone – you, me, or anybody else – should do.

Soft vetting is remeniscient of grade school (“If you did have a crush on someone in class who would it be?Read the rest

[Your Career] Hiring Time?

There is  seasonality –  cyclic variations based on the time of year or season – to any number of things. Just as it helps to know that back-to-school hits in July/August (so you avoid ending up with the dregs of what’s left for your kids), it advantages you to know the times of year when firms are hiring, and times when they’re likely not.… Read the rest

[Tips for Entrepreneurs] The Secret(s) to Your Start-Up

Things are bubbling in the technology start-up world: not 1998 frothy, but clearly bubbling nonetheless.

And even while there is sobering reality – for example Tom Abate’s piece yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle Why Silicon Valley Faces Fresh Threatsthere are telltale signals that things may be changing.

Signs of a cautious optimism can be found from the uptick in the amount of venture capital investment – noted courtesy Chubby Brain here in the highest number of deals occurring in the US in Q4 2009 at US$5.5 B with an aggregate of US$20B for the year – to articles such as Dharmesh Shah’s in OnStartups.com… Read the rest