Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
A guy I met at a client firm’s baseball outing had a singular statement:
“Silicon Valley software engineers rule the world!“
Do they?
His take was based on some simple facts: the world is run on software, the best of the best software engineers are in Silicon Valley, firms can never find enough good engineers to do work that is indispensable, the jobs pay well to do fun stuff so Silicon Valley engineers must rule the world.… Read the rest
The interviewer with a candidate at the Starbucks in Hong Kong Central seemed nice, bright and engaging.
She was, unfortunately, conducting a train wreck of an interview in front of me; when she asked early on, “You’re not a micromanager, are you?” I thought she was a goner.
When the candidate smiled, said “Of course not” and she smiled back, I knew she was dead on arrival,
She had just confirmed that the candidate had a pulse and an IQ (e.g.… Read the rest
It can be tough being a candidate, whether it be for a job or even one of those roles of a more public political variety.
Even if you’re seen as a slam dunk pick (think Hillary Clinton as the “inevitable choice” during the 2008 presidential campaign), things derail. The same is true of job candidates.
A client recently was being wooed by a firm until he thought they’d gone frosty on him; his hunch was that they’d decided he was really a “generalist” in background when they’d figured out they really wanted a “specialist.… Read the rest
The email from the prospective applicant family asked my thoughts regarding my son’s grade school.
It could have just as easily been about a place to work or somebody referencing an employee.
It brought to mind a simple question.
When do you shift from “highly recommend” to a more nuanced “recommend with reservations?”
Just as the most qualified candidate may not be the best candidate for a job (“He had lots of great skills and experiences.… Read the rest
If you live in a certain City by the bay, sooner or later little surprises you.
Annoy you? Yes. Delight you? Often. Alarm, disappoint, thrill, and endear? Always.
It’s those differences that make the place so special. Take away those difference and ultimately it leads to one destination; the land of boring, common, even mediocre.
Some workplaces are just like that City.… Read the rest
You’ve been promoted to a job on an interim basis and perhaps promised a strong shot at that role on a permanent basis.
Your company has just hired a search firm to handle the “permanent” placement.
Are you at risk?
Maybe.
Or maybe not.
That’s the situation that Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinshohn finds himself in with the news reported by Kara Swisher that blue chip executive search firm Spencer Stuart has been hired by the board to handle the firm’s CEO search.… Read the rest