Marketing Me! Are you entitled?

About ten years ago, while managing an IT workforce, I welcomed a new technician to the company. After giving him a tour of our office and outlining our processes, I asked if he had any questions.

His first, "How do I park in the covered parking garage? Do I need a pass?".

"There is limited covered parking and is shared by all the tenants", I replied. "Because of the demand, the cost is prohibitive and we only have a few parking passes included with our rent. Such as it is, most of us park in the open lot out front or around back".

The look on the technician's face suggested that I had suggested he eat dog food for lunch. "You mean I don't get to park in the covered garage?", he responded.

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A year or so later, another technician interviewed with our company. Upon viewing his workspace, he requested that the lights above his desk be removed, that he be given a floor lamp, a pad under his rolling chair, a new rolling chair of a certain make and model, an ergonomic keyboard and mouse of a certain model and after hours pay outside of his generous salary.

I showed the prospect the door with the standard, "We will let you know what we have decided".

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During the post 2001 dot-com meltdown, an prospect was scheduled for a customary phone interview. After the job description and standard questioning, the prospect informed me that she was interested in the position and would be happy to start the next week. Naturally, she would be working from her home and wanted to know how the arrangements would be made to accommodate her.

I informed the candidate, that the person we were hiring would be required to relocate to our city and would work in the office with the rest of the development team.

The candidate informed me that was unacceptable and was sure the situation could be altered for her specific requirements and that relocation was out of the question; she loved where she lived and would never think about living where our company was headquartered.

I thanked her for her time and ended the call.

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Was my reaction appropriate with each situation? Should I have been more flexible and understood the requests of the employee or job candidate? Should I have asked more questions and worked with their specific requests?

The right answer(s):

I should have hired the best person for the job and based their employment upon the need of the position and my desire to have that certain person be part of my company. Superstars are not entitled; they earn their "perks" because they are worth the price paid.

The superstar candidates or employee should have had the power to make certain demands and be ready to back them up with proven results and incredible potential. Superstars make superstar requests because they not only talk the talk, they walk it.

Work has changed. But not in all cases. Some positions are such that working from home or in special surroundings is necessary for the RESULTS desired. Results is the keyword. If the candidate can produce the necessary results in the right surroundings than they are worth the price. If they are self entitled or high maintenance, rightfully screen them out.

Where do you stand? Are you entitled? Do you feel so? Does your employer think so? Have you earned it? Could you earn more? Or are you on dangerous ground?

We live in a society which is moving in two directions.

The first sees the writing on the wall - move fast, provide value and set your asking price.

The other sees work as the environment which is obligated to reward tenure and loyalty with the same measure as results and profitability.

Which one is right? More important, which one is right for you?

Happy hunting.

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Marketing Me! How to Win-Win at Work

You cannot afford to sit back, like our fathers did, punch a card 9–5 and expect to bring home enough bacon to buy a house, a car, and support a wife with three kids. It’s almost the year 2008; get into the eighties, will you?

- Mike Rogers



Ran across this wonderful article somewhere on the Internet today and read twice. Although I have never heard of Lew Rockwell before, this contribution came from a gentleman named Mike Rogers and is worth a read.

If you are looking for work, or have an unhappy job or maybe are about to graduate from college, read this article. Better yet, read it two or three times. Even better, print it out, stick it on your mirror and read it every day!

This article basically sums up what I have been trying to do at Marketing Me for the past two years.

Summary:

Nobody owes you a successful life.
No job or company is going to take care of you.
Success is based solely upon how well you market yourself and market your successes - not necessarily how hard you work or how productive you are.
You are responsible for branding and promoting yourself both through your work - nobody else can or will do this.

Maybe I am preaching to the choir, maybe I sound like a broken record, maybe it gets tiring hearing the same old song at Marketing Me.. but this stuff works!

Get busy marketing and promoting yourself for REAL job security.

P.S. I dropped Mike an email to see if he has a website or blog and to let him know about this post.

Marketing Me! Questions

A random sample of inbound questions..

I hate my current job, what should I do?

Quit. Better yet, find a new job and then quit.

I just gave notice where I work. My company requires an exit interview, should I tell them the real reason why I am leaving (co-worker) or should I give the standard answers?

Unless there is the possibility of legal action on your behalf (harassment, wrongful termination, etc) I would keep my thoughts to myself or at the very least, present them as positive as possible. Remember to thank your old employer for the opportunity and the meeting.

As I am job hunting, I am considering a resume service. Which one do you recommend?

None of them unless you are really struggling with your resume. A resume service charges several hundreds of dollars to do something you could do yourself with a good resume guide.

College degree or technical certification?


Degree. A college degree in English Literature awarded in 1973 is more valuable than a Microsoft Certified Professional certification from 1999 any day.

I am thinking about starting my own consulting firm but my wife thinks I should stay with my secure 9-5 job. What do you think?

Too many things to consider here, but my first gut reaction is do both for six months if possible. If going alone is bringing in the change, make the jump. Support your family first!

Which part of the country has the best job opportunities?


It depends upon what you do. There are people working out of Bozeman, Montana almost exclusively online who are making six figures a year. Geography is quickly becoming irrelevant.

Should lawmakers prevent jobs from going overseas?


Not much they can do about it. More and more jobs are nearly virtual anyway.. think telephone customer service, insurance, IT.. so many jobs can be done with Skype and the Internet they can be done from anywhere. Rather think about how this can benefit you. You might be able to do your current job from somewhere far more fun than where you live now.

I am thinking about learning a new language to increase my job skills. What do you think?

Depends upon what language and what you do. Twenty years ago, everyone wanted to learn Japanese. I guess that would be fun now, but Chinese might be far more valuable today. Concentrate on what you are saying and the value it brings than in how you say it.

My company is shutting down operations in our city. Should I take the severance package or relocate with the company? (The package is quite a bit of money).


First and only question: Do you like your job? If so, move with it. If you are considering the money I bet you hate your job enough to take money to leave it. Take the money and do something you love.

How important is networking?


Let's put it this way, if you are down and out, you can always turn to your family. Think of your network as your professional family. They will be there when you are in need.

Is your name really Jack?

Nope - and that is not my picture either!

Marketing Me! Business vs. Utopian Dreams

All businesses should:

Be environmentally friendly.
Encourage diversity in their hiring.
Provide excellent health care coverage and other benefits.
Encourage education through training and tuition reimbursement.
"Give back" the local community.
Provide a safe, clean and caring work environment.
Create regular philanthropic opportunities for the employees.
Insist the company be run based upon input from all employees.
Provide goods and services without obscene profits.
Make lead into gold.
Bring world peace, cheap gasoline and free beer.
And give it all away in the name of global harmony.
Blah blah blah...


All this and somehow not go bankrupt.


I had a friend who ran her small company along these lines.

Rather than make the core business the top priority, she put employees needs first. She ran her business like a democracy where every decision was the result of employee discussion and consensus. That included client relations, accounts payable and hiring/firing.

After a year and a half of missed deadlines, lackluster performance and lost sales, her business folded. Along the way to bankruptcy, her employees had plenty of meetings and gripe sessions all with catered lunches, chair massages and foosball breaks.

Is it impossible to have a caring business and still be successful?

Sure it is. There are many companies which provide wonderful work environments and have wonderful, happy employees and long work application lines.

Take the Container Store for instance.

Consistently rated as one of the best places to work, The Container Store is successful not because of tuition reimbursement or health care coverage, but because The Container Store sells neat profitable stuff that customers want to buy. To make the experience easy, The Container Store hires helpful people and places their store locations in easy to find, high trafficked areas. It works.

Also, my hunch is the employees of The Container Store love their work not only because of the benefits, but because of the vision and commitment of the business. It makes work fun, interesting, challenging and worth doing.

If you own or run a business, don't try to create a workers utopia - you will fail as you try and put the cart in front of the horse.

First, be identify and be successful at your core business.
Figure out how to delight and amaze your customers - be it with good value, innovation or excellent service.
If you succeed, your business will grow, you will make good money and can use that money to hire and retain talented motivated employees.

And if you have a true vision and are able to clearly share it, your employees will love working with you and serving your customers.

Focus on being a successful business and good employees will come willingly.

Marketing open positions and separating work from life

Seth Godin points out (from an older post) how to market open job positions with your company.

It's tough filling jobs with "good" people. We all want them, but how to go best about it?

One trend mentioned is the Internet based video for the job position. I checked Monster and Dice and did not see a "Video Resume" or "Video Job Opening" on either site. That does not mean such a feature is not buried somewhere on their site.

Seth suggests a video not about the job, but about the workplace. An interesting suggestion which would probably be useful in the hip, dot-com workplace (complete with game tables, dog beds, earth friendly coffee service and a huge poster of Obama for Pres), but not useful in most places I visit.

I see many successful companies with white walls, institutional furniture, temp receptionsists, and business park locations.

What makes these companies successful are highly targeted niches, enthusiastic, low maitenance employees, a clear business plan, financial stability and a defined separation between work and leisure.

These companies and their employees know work is work.

Google can build kitchens and dorms and hold hockey games, but most employees want to work and then leave. People need a clear deliniation between work and offtime.

Many companies don't think that line should exist and do everything to make work part of life. I see burn out as a real problem in this type of environment.

Hire great people who want to do great things and then leave them alone.

The Web is (us) ing us

Quite possibly one of the better reasons for visiting YouTube.

Several years ago, I worked in television. I wrote and edited the news for an ABC affiliate in a major market.

At that time, we shot stories with "mini cams" (old analog video tape technology - later replaced with "beta cams"), took the finished product back to the television studio and edited in sound and voice overs to create a "package" - a one to two minute news story.

Watch this video. This is what "news" will/is look like (perhaps sans the music, but quite possibly not).

This video will also explain the Internet if you just joined us.

Relevance to Marketing Me? Obvious. But take the last few frames of this video and add..

.. we will have to rethink work....

... and finding work...

.. and defining work...

... and the workplace...

... and ourselves...

Watch it.

Social Networks and Society

Read Mashable everyday (like you should) and find out about the dozen or so social networks open for subscription daily and you understand what is happening.

Social Networking is hot and big business. And although MySpace will get all the attention, the hot, hot, hot area will be in targeted niche social networks. Think social networks for seniors (hot!), veterans, doctors, and so on.

Work 2.0

My concentration on Marketing Me is using Web 2.0 applications, like social networks, to better market yourself for potential revenue generating opportunities - jobs, contract, consulting, speaking, writing and marketing.

So far, I am still looking for a Web 2.0 application which will help make "job" searches and trusted resume submissions, better. In my world it works for both the job seeker and job finder.
I truly believe we are about to see the end (in the next decade) of several "jobs" as described currently - Full time employment, employer funded benefits, deductions for government programs, etc. Rather, we are going to see a world of part-time, contracted projects with less supervision in exchange for non-traditional work environments.

Charity 2.0

Seth Godin is running a Squidoo Lens on NPO's using Web 2.0 effectively. I think in the very near future, (like tomorrow) this will have the same novelty affect an email address had on a business card in 1994 or seeing a URL on a movie billboard in 1995 - minimal and short lived.

I am not surprised by non-profits using blogs, podcasts or social networks to build "awareness". These people have used mailing lists and phone banks for years. Using scalable Internet applications for the same results is expected.

I will be surprised, however, when politicians actually come down from their ivory towers and join social networks, answer their email and allow their constituents to "digg" legislation. As if...

Society 2.0

Social networks have evolved from "chat rooms" and curiosities and become necessary applications like email and instant messaging. We have take the application from the desktop and brought it truly online.

Will it evolve further into banded, trusted communities which "follow me" through my day and activities? Most surely.

Will social networks suffer and stumble? Of course. But email suffered from spam yet continues as does instant messaging and open websites (remember the concept of websites as channels one would subscribe too?).

Does this cover the world? No, but all of these bolded keywords came up this week and shouted at me. More will come.