— Archive for August, 2010 —

• Relax

  ** From my weekly newsletter to TheLadders.com subscribers ** It’s the last Monday of August — “the dog days” of summer are coming to an end, and the new recruiting season will pick up after Labor Day. There’s a rhythm to recruiting over the course of the year, and the peaks of activity are “New Year” and “Back-to-School”. After summer vacations wind down, companies begin to gear up: executives are back in the office, it’s easier to schedule interviews, and the headcount required for 2011 is starting to loom on the “to do” lists of the HR department. So next week I’m going to tell you how to get ramped up for the new season. This week? I’m going to tell you to relax. Specifically, I’m going to ask you to take Friday off from your job hunt. It’s one of those truisms that looking for a job is a [...]

  Aug 30

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• George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” 1946

  Here is the complete text of Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language”, with web-friendly punctuation and paragraphs: Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language — so the argument runs — must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes. Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this [...]

  Aug 26

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• Can you guess the artist?

  Can you guess the artist behind this interesting painting?

  Aug 23

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• Seven years’ good luck

  ** From my weekly newsletter to TheLadders.com subscribers ** Today marks seven years that I’ve been writing this newsletter to you all. If I had to summarize my advice from all those years, it would be this: Everything’s going to be all right. Look, I know. I’ve read the anxiety in your e-mails; I’ve seen the worry in your faces; I’ve been through countless job searches with you, Readers. There’s no doubt about it, the job hunt is stressful, straining, and tedious. The lack of certainty over what’s going to happen to you, your family, and your career creates so much worry that it’s easy to fall prey to periods of despair. But I can also tell you that everything is going to be all right. We’ll make it through, together. We’ve helped literally millions of people through their job searches over these past seven years. It’s rarely easy, but [...]

  Aug 23

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• How not to embarrass yourself doing the elevator pitch

  ** From my weekly newsletter to TheLadders.com subscribers ** It’s embarrassing, isn’t it? Doing “the elevator pitch” feels so awkward, embarrassing and unnatural — like you’re hawking a product on a late night infomercial. Yet it’s such an important part of the job search that everybody has to have one. You know, when I speak around the country to groups of job-seekers, it’s one of the most common questions I get: “How do I do the elevator pitch without sounding goofy, or hucksterish, or like I’m babbling?” I totally understand. Trying to sum up your professional career in thirty seconds gives many people pause. How do you stuff all that information into such a short time? And how do you do it effectively? So how about this? Let’s create an elevator pitch for me, Marc Cenedella. First, I’ll show you the wrong way, and then the right way, to go [...]

  Aug 16

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• Hired!

  ** From my weekly newsletter to TheLadders.com subscribers ** Today is 8/9/10, so in keeping with the spirit of the day, let’s “count up” the latest successes for TheLadders.com subscribers! After all, that’s my favorite part of this job. So while I obviously can’t list every job that your peers have found through TheLadders, here’s a sample of fifty of the positions landed in the last couple of weeks alone! Title Salary Application Architect $123K Associate Director $150K Associate Director of Investor Education $130K Assistant Dean $140K Business Unit Manager $140K Controller $155K Director $140K Director $180K Director $170K Director $145K Director Business Development $130K Director Financial Reporting $150K Director Marketing Communications $175K Director of Digital Strategy $135K Director of Information Systems $180K Director of Information Technology $170K Director of Investments $175K Director of IT $125K Director of Marketing $135K Director of Operations $150K Director of Project Development $130K Director [...]

  Aug 9

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• I found the greatest tip on Twitter… from my colleagues!

  ** From my weekly newsletter to TheLadders.com subscribers ** I’ve been in the jobs business for over a decade now, and have been writing this weekly newsletter on career advice for seven years. I’ve also done TV, hundreds of speaking gigs, and have a book coming out this fall with my Editor-in-Chief entitled “You’re Better Than Your Job Search.” So, hey, I do this for a living and I figured I’d heard it all, by now, you know? All the tips, tricks, and hints about how to get ahead in the job search. So I was pleasantly surprised when I was reading through TheLaddersNews Twitter feed — it’s put together by some of my very inquisitive and very insightful colleagues — Lisa Odierno, Jessica Carroll and John Hazard — and found a wealth of good new stuff. Last Thursday, they tweeted this: “Count the dollar and percent signs on your [...]

  Aug 2

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