by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting
“Fired” by any other name sounds just as bad. Can you tell that I’ve been reading about the finesse of letting people go? Some consultants to firms forced to fire people insist that kinder words than “you’re fired” make it easier on discarded employees.
If you don’t have a real job or don’t do real work, I suppose you can’t understand how bad it feels to lose one.
People who get paid more than most of us actually spend time thinking up euphemisms such as “dynamic rightsizing” or “strategic displacement.” Get me a cheek swab. I’ll wager they have the same DNA as people who struggle to find kinder ways to describe disabilities. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: euphemism
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by Peter Lloyd for Health Care, Job Benefits
T. R. Reid has a pretty good creative job. And, working for the New York Times, his job benefits probably include adequate health care. But instead of taking his sore shoulder to his approved health care provider, he went around the world looking for more than a cure. He set out to compare health care systems. In my mind, his search was something like shopping for a hammer, a pair of shoes, or a toaster.
Imagine yourself in a big box store shopping for a toaster. So many alternatives! But if you’ve been toasting bread over the stove, you can be fairly confident that what’s on the shelf will work better than what you’re doing. It’s a good bet that the store shelf presents the best of toaster evolution. So why continue toasting over the stove? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: T. R. Reid
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by Peter Lloyd for Creative Experts, IT Experts, Job Hunting
On a job search for creative writing work, should one search “author” or “book seller”? The correct answer is “book seller.”
The NPR story “For Authors, Ghostwriting Offers Solvency, Stability” describes how successful writers have been driven to ghostwriting in order to survive. Publishers don’t want authors, they want book pushers.
One writer describes how as her work became better, more literary, she began to make less money. So she, like many of us, does less gratifying work in order to stay alive. The choice becomes either to make more money and give up credit for your work or get all the credit you want but a lot less money. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Ajay Bhatt, credit, garbage collectors, Intel, money, school bus
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by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting
I’ve been there. You’ve been there. Your job search has finally scored you a job interview. You’re in a cubicle with your interviewer. You’ve completed the formalities, you’re feeling confident, and then he asks you with a straight face, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
You want to snap back, “Are you kidding me? I can’t see myself this weekend, much less five years.”
“Well,” he snickers, “I guess we won’t be seeing you around here anymore.”
You’re better off. Get out of there. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: interviews, job interview questions
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by Peter Lloyd for Health Care, Job Benefits
In your next job search break, if you get the urge to take a few minutes to try and understand the current bank of health care proposals, you might want to look at “Confused about health care reform? Join the club” from the Baltimore Sun.
I don’t know about you, but I’m confused. No doubt our health care benefits are going to change. We may still have time to influence our representatives. But it’s difficult not to be cynical about that possibility. For one thing, in my effort to form my opinion, I’ve tried to find side-by-side comparisons of what’s out there, but it seems impossible. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Baucus Bill, Health Care
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by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting, book review
Like you’re going to read three, much less 25. Especially when you should be knocking on doors. You’re right. In the throes of a job search is no time to buy a book, start reading it, only to discover that it’s loaded with a useless rehash of the standard job search drivel.
For example, in the blog of one human resources consultant, I recently read, “Dust off that resume, start networking, and don’t forget those online social networks…” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: books
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by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting
The number-one crappy job, as determined by the whiners on askmen.com, is hiring and firing call-center staff. Give me a break! Number two goes to the people who manually stimulate pigs in order obtain their tissue for research and breeding purposes.
Come on! No matter how long the current job dearth continues, no matter what we have to do in order to hold body and soul together until it does, nothing will approach the kind of job Bruneseau offered. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bruneseau, Ed Norton, Jackie Gleason, job description, job search, lousey job, Naploeon, odd jobs, staffing, The Honeymooners
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