by Peter Lloyd for On the Job
As buyers of creative, marketing, and information technology services, today’s managers have been known to seek and find the cheapest, least-qualified suppliers willing to work for the lowest fees. Eventually they, and sometimes the companies they work for, fail. But not fast enough to stem the tide of lowering standards.
As workers and suppliers of these services, we feel the pressures of a poor economy and respond by taking jobs we really don’t want or accepting rates we know are too low for the value we deliver. We are forced to encourage this fall of working standards by lowering our own. It will be difficult to bring either of them back up again. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: quality, standards
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by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting
An old German woman summed it up for me many years ago. She said, “One man has the money, the other has the bag.” It took me a while to understand the subtle truth of this adage.
In most negotiations each party has something the other wants. In most cases, it’s a matter of money on one side and value on the other. In the case of landing a job, the potential employer has the ability to pay the other a lot of money over time. These days the party with the money has most of the leverage, because the value in your bag is diluted by the great number of people available to bring the same.
I ran across Five Rules for Pitching the Very Rich and sent it to a friend who is raising money for an online enterprise. It struck me as I scanned the article that these rules might apply to my job search. In particular, the job interview. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: interviewing, interviews
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by Peter Lloyd for Creative Experts, IT Experts, On the Job
The way it should be: All managers understand that creative people are different. And because we’re different, they don’t expect us to behave like accountants. Creative accounting, after all, is a crime. They appreciate the fact that creative people have trouble organizing their desks, paying attention at meetings, and showing up on time.
That’s why all managers happily bend over backwards to accommodate their creative writers, their savvy marketers, and their information technology stars. Work is fun. Life is good. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Beethoven, Einstein, Emily Dickinson, Imagination Deficit Disorder, Isaac Newton, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Richard Feynman, Ultimate Management Enlightenment, Vincent van Gogh
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by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting
Let’s say you get the job. Now there’s about a 46% chance you’ll be gone in a year and a half. Not because you weren’t qualified. Not because you didn’t work hard and do you a good job. You can lose your new job because some companies make a mess of on-boarding.
It takes time to get new employees up to speed and not all companies are willing to do it right nor do some of them know how to do it right. But you can take some steps to make sure your creative talent is not wasted and eventually lost in the mismanagement of bringing you on board. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Add new tag, on-boarding
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by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting
I should have known when I attempted to list—comprehensively, I foolishly thought—some semblance the world’s most noteworthy working songs in Working Songs, a Musical Interlude that I would miss some. But not so many and, among them, so many classics!
L. C. Sterling, in Certified Professional Writers, quickly reminded me of maybe the most direct, no-holds-barred of them all “Take This Job and Shove It” by Johnny Paycheck. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: work songs
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by Peter Lloyd for Creative Experts, IT Experts, Job Hunting
Lately when I go to see some clients, I’m not always sure how to dress. One of my colleagues insists that I not wear jeans when we visit P&G. He dresses up. So I go business casual to make him feel better.
But another creative colleague dresses in Converse sneakers, T-shirt, and shorts when it’s warm. He rides a motorbike and carries his helmet and beat-up backpack in with him. He’s an illustrator. Have you noticed that musicians, who have to play music in time, are never on time? I think the have the same gene that makes illustrators, who create beautiful images, seem to care very little about their own.
Note this: The illustrator in sneakers does a whole heck of a lot more business than either I or my well dressed collaborator. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: dress, dress codes, interviewing, interviews
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by Peter Lloyd for Creative Experts, IT Experts, Job Hunting
If your job search has brought you nothing so far or if your options remain on hold, consider holiday work. Not all seasonal work comes to a dead end. Some employers look into their temporary pools for workers they can hire full time.
My very first job came through seasonal work. Happy to have work, I eagerly sorted and prepared a bulk mailing for a Cincinnati retailer. Much of the team working around me showed a lot less enthusiasm. My industry and initiative must have stood out from the crowd, because as soon as we completed the mailing project, the boss offered me my first, full-time job.
So if you do get temporary, seasonal work, consider it a paid job interview. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: holiday jobs
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