August 2008 Archives

There are a lot of good IT employees out there, so this is not meant to scare you. But if you read on, and this sounds familiar, I hope this can help a bit.

2 types of challenging interviews I usually see:
    The introvert who forces you to draw the information from them
    The "Salesperson" who is trying to sell you on themselves

I've written before about how important it is to be testing everything you do, but I didn't write a whole book about it. No need to now, because bestselling author Bryan Eisenberg has (with John Quarto-vonTivadar and Lisa T. Davis), called Always Be Testing. There are lots of great books on Internet marketing, but every once in a while, one comes along that is so essential that everyone needs to read it. Here is one of those.

The first summer after my oldest daughter turned 15, it was time for her to get a job. Unfortunately, despite my threats of cutting off her allowance, she had not taken job hunting seriously. Several weeks before summer started I started talking with her about getting out there so she could possibly have a job lined up and start work by the time school got out. But, unfortunately, she never made that a priority. Until she realized that she has no money to pay for text messaging!

As I age, I am constantly struck by how many things have changed, and how many of us can change with the times. When we were babies, we learned at a breakneck pace, but the older we get, the more we rely on what we already know. For some of us, even good changes can feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Certainly as a businessman I can understand the necessity of maintaining a solid bottom line, but it never made sense to me that the company could not understand that the investment in its people, and not just its managers, would be the most important investment they make.