Book Review: Office Superman

March 11, 2007 · Filed Under For the love of HR · Comment 

076241971701_aa240_sclzzzzzzz_.jpgYou’ll have to bear with me here for a few weeks. Not only is college basketball in full swing but I have been going through each of the eight books I have on my bedside as partially read and finally finishing them. Some of them are not related to business but I will try to write reviews for each one that makes sense for this blog.

So this book I read recently is called Office Superman: Make Yourself Indispensable in the Workplace.

So this book definitely has some good points to it. In fact, all of the points he makes throughout are really good in and of themselves. Especially for all of those people who are looking at moving up or being superstars in their industry.

The only problem is that this book is so full of Superman analogies, it drove me insane. Maybe if I were more into comic books, I would be a little more entertained by the whole premise of comparing Superman to being a great worker over and over again. I think this book goes overboard on the whole thing to the point of distraction.

Which I think is unfortunate since, as I said, it has a lot of great points buried beneath Superman analogies.


Recruiting is marketing. Try jobcasting.

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Job seeking likely to be more difficult this year

March 8, 2007 · Filed Under Finding Your Job · 2 Comments 

Or so says CNN.

Which, if you’re a corporate recruiter, is probably good news. A tighter labor market means more selection in the labor market. It can mean tighter salaries too. If you’re a third-party recruiter, this can still be good news but not necessarily. After all, less jobs can mean less work but I am guessing that even the best third-party guys aren’t having to be coaxed off the ledge quite yet. And people in corporate recruiting certainly cannot rest easy tonight either.

Recruiting is a fluid science and is certainly industry and regionally dynamic though. And the government has admitted that it still hasn’t found a great way of counting employment gains. People recruiting in Nebraska have different situations than those recruiting in Pittsburgh. Not to mention that it doesn’t take into account job movement (which can be spurned by job growth) which can be dictated by regional availability and unemployment rates. A peak over at bls.gov also shows that unemployment ranges state to state from 2% to over 7%. And that number may be more important to job seekers than any national figures.

Even if you do end up in a tight labor market, there are certainly things you can do to stand out. Here are three things to do right now in a tight market:

  1. Carry out a focused search. Focus on your particular area of expertise and do not go outside of it. Even if there are only a few job openings in six months in that area, focusing on it makes you spend time on researching and playing a good job candidate. Having the time to follow up and write compelling cover letters and resumes is worthwhile enough.
  2. Use all available resources. If you are serious about job seeking, use all of your available resources. From placement agencies, to free resources available online and at the library, there are a lot of resources that are simply ignored.
  3. Network today. Don’t wait until the alarms go off before you start networking with professionals in your field. Join an industry association, LinkedIn and even MySpace. Start with people you know, then people they know and branch out.

This list might even be worthwhile for recruiters in tight markets. Not that I think a tight market is inevitable. I just think that it is worthwhile to do these things anyway. :-)


Get the latest Internet recruiting scoop at Cheezhead.

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How Would You Move Mount Fuji?

March 5, 2007 · Filed Under Finding Your Job, Recruiting in the 21st Century · 3 Comments 

I read the book How Would You Move Mount Fuji? and I thought it was pretty interesting. It mainly focuses on how Microsoft interviews and why they ask the questions they do. It also gives you reasoning and logic behind some of the questions with right answers (or more correct answers).

I am always a fan of books about interviewing because they are usually so wrong. As I have never been interviewed (or interviewed for) Microsoft, I can’t tell you whether this book is good preparation for a Microsoft interview, I can tell you that it attempts to make a case for puzzle based questions.

Obviously puzzle based questions don’t work for everyone. Some positions do not require out of the box thinking. But for those in the company that do require that out of the box thinking, I could see it being useful (at least at a company the size of Microsoft). As the book points out though, this interview technique can leave people on the outside who can perform the job up to standards or even better than the person hired. And while leaving people on the table that could be hired might work for some positions at Microsoft, it might not work everywhere. As labor shortages increase, I wonder if this will change that technique some?

Bill Gates is going to be testifying in front of a Congressional committee this week on the need for more visas for highly skilled workers. One might wonder if the labor shortage could be averted by a simple change in interviewing technique?

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How to Break into the HR field?

March 4, 2007 · Filed Under Finding Your Job, For the love of HR · 3 Comments 

Many people who read this blog show an interest into breaking into the HR field. While I may question their sanity for this, I only know this is a popular topic because I get e-mails about it all of the time from all types of people. I realize that I keep repeating myself over and over again.  So now I am going to put this out as kind of a catch all for those questions so this may be edited from its original version.

First of all, it is not very difficult to break into the HR field. I did it, and I don’t think I am that smart. That being said, it can appear to be very difficult to break into it from the outside because it is very difficult to do it from the outside. Most people want experience if they are hiring from the outside and don’t want a fresh face from college to get them into legal trouble because they mess up application. So here are the ways to get in with no experience:

  1. Work from the inside. College education: not required, additional educated needed though. Depending on your company’s size and culture, you may be able to break into HR from the inside. Good companies love internal HR hires because they understand the culture already. You will probably be required to get an HR certificate (PHR is a nice one that is recognized pretty well). Again, depending on your company, you might get this paid for (at least partially). The bad? Not a sure thing and totally cultural dependent. May mean you get crappy pay for a while.
  2. Start as a recruiter. College education: likely to be required. At many large companies, the easiest way to break into the HR department is through the internal recruiting team. Recruiting is relatively easy to understand and companies seem to be comfortable hiring directly for these positions plus they typically pay really well. The bad? Likely long hours, traveling, tons of time on the phone and … well, some of the stuff I complain about recruiting in this blog. Of course, I don’t think that stuff is that bad so.
  3. Start at an outsourcing firm. College education: likely to be required. HR outsourcing is big business these days and as such, outsourcers may be more willing to train entry level people because of increased demand and repetitiveness of tasks. Everything from payroll processing, to third-party recruiting, to full on HR department outsourcing is covered here. The bad? Third-party recruiting can be good money if you have the skills but almost everything else is going to pay you…well, entry level wages.
  4. Start at a smaller business. College education: probably. With the economy still doing relatively well, starting at a smaller business can be a good start to getting in with experience at other firms. Smaller businesses usually go after people with strong entrepreneurial drive who are willing to learn quickly and do a lot of other things inside the business. Targeting businesses between 25-50 employees (depending on industry) can be key to this.  The bad? You might get pushed into doing payroll or other things at a smaller business and you may not be able to have an appropriate mentor like you would at a larger company.

These are the four places I would start if I had to do it again. Me personally? I did a combination of 2 & 4.

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