by Peter Lloyd for Creative Experts, IT Experts
In the introduction to Six Sigma for Dummies, best-selling author Stephen Covey writes, “Studies show that the vast majority of employees possess far more talent, more intelligence, more capability, more creativity, and more ability than their jobs require or even allow.” What a shame! The most powerful, profit-making attribute a person can bring to an employer squandered by “the vast majority.”
Should you find yourself in this depressed economy choosing between two or more job offers in the creative, marketing, or information technology arena, you will choose, I have no doubt, the one that promises you the opportunity to make the most of your intelligence and creativity. Here are a few ways you can determine whether or not your target employer will live up to that promise. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: creativity, innovation, job description, Job Hunting
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by Peter Lloyd for Creative Experts, IT Experts, Job Hunting
Boy Scouts say, “Be prepared.” Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” I used to say, “Why should I go to class when I can always cram and pass?” Okay, forget the last one.
The point is, there’s a lot you can do, you should do, before you even have a bite from your next potential employer. Even though you’ll have weeks—three to eight or more—between the time you take your first shot and the day you hit or miss your target, now is the time to prepare at least some elements of what you will use before, during, and after your attack.
Landing a job in information technology as well as in the creative and marketing fields requires solid preparation. Having as much of what you need ready will enable you to respond proactively the instant you have a job prospect in sight. You’ll look better as a potential hire and feel better as a job hunter. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: preparation
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by Peter Lloyd for Creative Experts, IT Experts, Job Hunting
I’ve been reading about “design thinking” for a while now. The earliest citations I’ve found go back to about 2006. But like quality, intellectual capital, ideation, teamwork, empowerment, thinking outside the box, benchmarking, multitasking, solutioning—see Overused Words & Phrases—this new wave brings a lot of water from older waves back to the beach.
Of course, those of us looking for jobs in creative, marketing, and information technology fields need to be conversant in the latest lingo. Especially if it’s overused! We don’t want to be caught with our jaws slack if asked in an interview, “How do you feel about design thinking?” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: design thinking, interviewing, interviews, job search
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by Peter Lloyd for Creative Experts, IT Experts
A friend of mine may soon take a job as a phone-center, customer-service representative. My first question to him, “Will you be able to do this from home?” drew a disappointed, “No, I’m afraid not.”
As someone who has always advocated for the next edge of oncoming technology, I could not help but wonder out loud to my friend, “What in the world prevents such a company from allowing phone representatives to work from home or any other remote location?”
Globalization urges businesses to build robust and reliable networks as they spread their people and operations around the world. Companies depend more and more on their own networks as well as the connections they must maintain with their customers, partners, and employees. As they do, we all find ourselves busier. But I don’t think anybody involved in information technology doubts that Enterprise 2.0 means better work for everybody, not just more work for us. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
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by Peter Lloyd for Creative Experts, IT Experts
I live in Newport, Kentucky, right across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. Every weekend so many people mob my town heading for our Newport on the Levee entertainment district that some residents of Newport think of Cincinnati as one of our suburbs, rather than the other way around. That’s why, when my friend Shelly called to meet and do some job searching over coffee. I naturally thought of my home town first.
I was just about to suggest Mammoth Coffee on Monmouth Street, my favorite coffee-and-computing hang out, when she said she would check TechNewsWorld’s free wi-fi finder, so that we could choose a wi-fi friendly spot to job hunt. Shelly’s an information technology job searcher. I’m always looking for more creative work.
“This will be interesting,” I thought to myself. “Shelly consults TechNewsWorld all the time. They should know wi-fi hot spots. Let’s see what they come up with. Who knows, maybe I’ll find a better wi-fi haunt.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: hot spots, jiwire, TechNewsWorld, wi-fi
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by Peter Lloyd for IT Experts
Should information technology professionals cast their lot with new Google Chrome OS and all the attendant technologies? Here’s why I ask.
I’m all about Google. In the first place, Microsoft has treated me badly from the beginning, ever since the 3.0 debacle. I haven’t moved to Mac only because I’m in so deep and my clients are in just as deep. I use Open Office, iTunes, and as many non-Windows applications just to keep my distance. So when Google offered gmail, online note taking and document applications, and more, I went there instead of to the Microsoft versions. When along came Google Chrome, it was goodbye Explorer.
But lately Google has shown signs of wear at the edges. Chrome gave me too many glitches, so I found Firefox. Even used Safari for Windows for a while alongside Firefox. Firefox won out. Gmail slows to a crawl at times. Notebook hangs me up with all kinds of annoying kinks. Docs give me about a third of what I need from word processor and spreadsheet applications. I’m giving them time to improve but they stay where they’ve been. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Chrome OS, cloud computing, Google
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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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