There’s definitely value in finding the right person – we’d all love to find the perfect mentor who jumpstarts our career first time out. Meeting the right mentor is like other kinds of relationships though – you have to kiss the frogs before you find the prince. Instead of finding the right person, just start meeting people. Use any introduction you can get.

I’ve noticed in the US, people are much more likely to speak to strangers than I’m used to. That’s how I found out how delicious black raspberry icecream is – a guy recommended it to me, when I was just stood in the supermarket. It never hurts though, even though I find it odd. So reach out – you never know what the positive result might be.

80% of those surveyed though, said that the problem was the actual number of graduates, but the quality. They ‘faced difficulties recruiting graduates due to a lack of skills, knowledge or the attitudes of the candidates’. According to the article, this is the second survey in as many weeks to have this finding.

What strikes me about this statistic is that two of the three, graduates can easily change, themselves, without any cost. Changing your attitude is as easy as deciding to. Getting more knowledge is as easy as going to the library (and most graduates have access to their college library for several years after they leave). Skills is harder, but there’s nothing to stop you practicing your excel skills at home. If the problem for graduates getting jobs really is just skills, knowledge and attitude, it’s an easy problem to solve.

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2012/02/01/58316/too-few-applican…

When I was a recruiter, one of my jobs on a Thursday was to get the local paper and call all the other agencies trying to find out which clients of theirs were hiring. You’d be amazed what people will tell you, without you having to tell any lies, just by using a pleasant voice. I called a business locally recently and asked for someone, only to be told he was in rehab. I didn’t even give my name.

There’s two lessons to this. One, if you need to know something, just ask. You’ll probably get the answer. And two, if you get random calls from people with pleasant voices, find out who they are and what they need to know before you give away confidential information.

Some people, we’ve noticed, need to ask a lot of questions about a concept. Once they’ve asked about all their concerns, they can accept the concept as valid and are often the strongest supporters of the idea. It’s easy to assume that the reason they are asking questions is because they are distrustful of the person with the idea, rather than understanding that it’s just their way of understanding the concept.

If your’e the one presenting and you’re feeling defensive about the questions you’re being asked, try to let it go. It’s not you, or your idea. Work through it with the questioner. And, make sure you build in time for questions. If you don’t get any, and your meeting finishes on time, all to the good.

The problem with this is that’s there’s two or three examples which the WSJ encourages you, by their headline, to think is a long-term, wide-spread change. It isn’t. There are always companies experimenting with different ways of finding and assessing candidates. They are exceptions. They make good headlines.

But resumes haven’t really changed in the last 50 years. When it comes down to it, hiring managers want to know what you’ve done and how well you’ve done it: issues the Manager Tools resume addresses head on. Don’t be fooled by ‘newsworthy’ changes. Consider what YOU’RE being asked for the in the roles YOU’RE applying for. We’ll bet 99.99% of the time, it’s still a resume.

http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020375040457717303199…

I have two tricks, one which lightens the load and one which means the pages don’t hang around forever. First, as we get to the gate, I rip the whole magazine vertically along the spine at the page I’m at, and leave the front part which I’ve read for trash. That way I’m only carrying the half I haven’t read yet.

Second, whenever I stop, I make it a habit of working through the pile from top to bottom. I wishlist on Amazon any books I want to read or products I want to look at later as potential purchases. I look up any websites I’ve got interested in. I write blog posts which are inspired by the pages, and store them in an email for later. I end up with a few pages for filing later, and a big pile of ripped in half pages for the trash. I’ve been known to do this in airport lounges on layovers – the secret is to do it quickly, before you forget what the inspiration was.

But it’s more than that. We’ve also made the Interviewing Series better, for those of you who already have it as well:

Video: Many of the core podcasts in the series now have video in addition to the audio casts. Mark explains the concepts (again!) with the slides in support of the presentation.

Improved Shownotes: Some of the early Interviewing Series shownotes were in transcript form, which can be hard to read. Now all IS Shownotes are in our most modern form making them easier to use.

Outline Overview: We’ve taken all the slides, in order of the shows, and made a single Word (in pdf form) document so you can find the specific topic you’re looking for even more easily.

Every day we get emails letting us know of listeners who have been promoted and got pay rises despite the economy. We’re thrilled with others’ successes, and we want you to have your best chance at interviewing success too.

If you already have the Interview Series, you can find the updated shows and the video here: http://www.manager-tools.com/category/interviewing-series. You don’t have do anything – we’re offering this upgrade to you as a loyal subscriber.

The rest of the story is sad though. Despite his apparently having invented a way of replacing parts of a running shoe to allow runners to use less energy to run, the shoes are still not on the market. It’s not that companies aren’t interested. He’s been in contract negotiations with Under Armor, New Balance and Adidas. Every time, the negotiations broke down.

The negotiations with New Balance didn’t even get started. He set a high-price intending it as an initial starting point, and the company closed the discussions. A colleague says: “He would be way better off with an agent to represent him,” says Hartner. “He’s the inventor-scientist guy, you know it from movies. But in real life they sometimes end up shooting themselves in the foot, and it’s hard to watch. They’re not as good at the people thing.”

Most of us rarely negotiate for anything. New jobs and salary increases are at most once a year. They fall under Horstman’s Christmas Rule: you do it infrequently, it’s important to you, therefore you’re not any good at it. Most of us would be better off taking the first offer we’re given. Hann proves this by following the accepted wisdom: start high, and the negotiation falls apart. Good negotiators know that negotiations are FAR FAR more complex than this.

We’re not saying don’t negotiate if you want to. But weigh up the potential gains against the potential loses and also consider the goodwill you’re burning. Still worth it?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-greatest-running-shoe-never-sol…

Two, if you thought the job you were hiring for was hard, consider what Walmart is trying to find: “six senior-level e-commerce pros in six weeks”. Oh, and “you were in Hong Kong, the hiring executive is in San Francisco, the job is in China, and the req asks for Chinese-speaking, retail-savvy, online experienced, e-commerce marketers?”. That’s a challenge. Keep the bar high and keep looking.

Finally, Simon Heaton, Walmart’s managing director in Asia, has a pretty cool job himself: “Not even a year ago Heaton was working in Bentonville, Arkansas. Today, he’s building Walmart’s executive team in India, China, Japan, and wherever next in Asia the company grows.” How did he get it? “I’ve always wanted to do a global role,” he says. To prepare, he would volunteer for projects that had a global component, and take on searches for overseas candidates or jobs.” He recommends volunteering for the kinds of roles you want, and building your network. So do we.

http://www.ere.net/2012/01/11/walmarts-asia-team-goes-from-zero-to-onboa…

The red hand would be there, and we’d be waiting and talking and getting distracted by the shop windows, and then someone would notice we could cross. Each one of us said at one time or another ‘it’s green!’. The symbol for go in England is a green colored walking man. We KNEW the man we were looking at was a white light, and yet the rut in our brains that the man is green is so deep, that we couldn’t overcome it. (For the same reason, I persist in calling Main Street, the high street).

It’s hard to make the changes we know we should – not to check our phones every 20 seconds, to always do the important but not urgent work first, to do our filing once a week – because the ruts are so deep. Knowing that gives you the advantage though. You’re smarter than your brain. You know it’s a rut and it can be broken out of. It just takes a little effort. The man is not green, and it’s Main Street!