Seth's Blog: The end of the job interview Let’s assert that there are two kinds of jobs you need to fill: The first kind of job is a cog job. A job where you need someone to perform a measurable task and to follow instructions. The second kind of job requires insight and creativity. If you’re hiring for the first kind of job, exactly why are you sitting a nervous candidate down in your office and asking her to put on some sort of demonstration in her ability to interact with strangers under pressure? Years ago, in order to keep the ethnic balance at Harvard the way some trustees felt was correct, the school created interviews and essays as a not-so-subtle way to weed out the undesirables. And if you’re hiring for the second kind of job, the question becomes even more interesting. I’ve been to thousands of job interviews (thankfully as an interviewer mostly) and I have come to the conclusion that the entire effort is a waste of time. So, what should you do instead? Glad you asked! Every applicant gets a guided tour of your story.
Bootstrapper » 52 Creative Ideas for Finding New Clients 52 Creative Ideas for Finding New Clients Sunday, June 19, 2011 at 2:13am by Site Administrator As a bootstrapper, you know that clients equal business. Without them, you’d just be another one-man (or woman) shop with an office trying not to go into debt. Fighting for and retaining clients against your competition can be a struggle, just like recruiting new employees or searching for a job yourself is a frustrating battle. With this list, we want to help you take a step back from the front lines and get a little creative. Online Tools and Resources Utilize the Internet to connect you to clever tools and resources that will help you find new clients. Make sure your website is in working order: If you hand someone a business card, they probably won’t call you right away, but they will check out your website. For Freelancers Marketing Strategies Without a solid marketing strategy, you’ll never be able to reach out to quality clients. Networking Ideas Guides Get Involved
How to Run a Meeting Like Google Meetings get a bad rap in business today and for good reason—very little gets accomplished in them. I can recall a Dilbert cartoon in which several people sat around a table while the meeting organizer said, "There is no specific agenda for this meeting. As usual, we'll just make unrelated emotional statements about things which bother us…" That pretty much sums it up. The majority of meetings are unstructured, uninspiring, and unproductive. But they don't have to be that way. When I decided to write a column about running effective meetings, I turned to a leader who holds more than anyone I know and who actually credits her meeting structure for leading to some of the most innovative advances in technology today: Marissa Mayer, Google's vice-president of search products (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/19/06, "Marissa Mayer: The Talent Scout"). 1. Mayer requests a meeting agenda ahead of time that outlines what the participants want to discuss and the best way of using the allotted time. 2. 3.
The top 20 IT mistakes to avoid | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2004-11-19 | By Chad Dickerson We all like to think we learn from mistakes, whether our own or others’. So in theory, the more serious bloopers you know about, the less likely you are to be under the bright light of interrogation, explaining how you managed to screw up big-time. That’s why we put out an all-points bulletin to IT managers and vendors everywhere: For the good of humanity, tell us about the gotchas that have gotten you, so others can avoid them. As it turns out, our many contributors to this article had a lot to say -- but precious little to say on record. Names may be withheld, but the lessons are still potent. We’ve distilled this glut of information down to the top 20 mistakes -- instances in which wrong decisions can lead to costly project overruns, business disasters, and in the worst cases, lost jobs. 1. Mistakes relating to outsourcing could easily fill our top 20 list on their own. 2. On the one hand, the most conservative IT shops dismiss open source solutions as a matter of policy. 3.
20 Great Project Management Tools Project Management is often defined as the science of organizing, planning and managing the available resources of a particular organization to successfully complete a project, which aims to meet the organization’s goals and objectives. This type of system will be useful in ensuring the timely and effective output of a project. Furthermore, the implementation of such a system will give you greater productivity in every project. To guide you in the proper implementation of this system, we give you 20 project management tools that you can use either for personal or commercial purposes. 1. Huddle.net provides all the collaboration, sharing and project tools you need to get your team, partners and clients working together. 2. A user-friendly tool, that keeps track of your projects, create blogs & reports, you can even manage yout tasks and share documents and files. 3. 5pm This is used to track how far you are with your projects. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
Do It Now by Steve Pavlina When going to college many years ago, I decided to challenge myself by setting a goal to see if I could graduate in only three semesters, taking the same classes that people would normally take over a four-year period. This article explains in detail all the time management techniques I used to successfully pull this off. In order to accomplish this goal, I determined I'd have to take 30-40 units per semester, when the average student took 12-15 units. It became immediately obvious that I'd have to manage my time extremely well if I wanted to pull this off. I began reading everything I could find on time management and putting what I learned into practice. I wasn't considered a gifted child, and this was the first time I had ever done anything like this. I didn't tell you this story to impress you but rather to make you curious as to how I did it. Clarity is key. The first step is to know exactly what you want. If you aren't yet at the point of clarity, then make that your first goal.
Ten Rules for Web Startups #1: Be NarrowFocus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. #2: Be DifferentIdeas are in the air. #3: Be CasualWe're moving into what I call the era of the "Casual Web" (and casual content creation). #4: Be PickyAnother perennial business rule, and it applies to everything you do: features, employees, investors, partners, press opportunities. #5: Be User-CentricUser experience is everything. #6: Be Self-CenteredGreat products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch. #7: Be GreedyIt's always good to have options. #9: Be AgileYou know that old saw about a plane flying from California to Hawaii being off course 99% of the time—but constantly correcting? #11 (bonus!)
Reading List: Fog Creek Software Management Training Program by Joel Spolsky Tuesday, November 22, 2005 The management training program we're starting up here at Fog Creek will take about three years and will be relatively intensive. Among other things, there will be a required reading list consisting of about 75 books (we're working on the theory here of one book every two weeks). the best business books of all timethe best software management books of all timeand every worthwhile history of a software/computer company that we can find. This is my very first-draft list. Have you been wondering about Distributed Version Control? Want to know more? You’re reading Joel on Software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies. About the author. I’m Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Fog Creek Software, a New York company that proves that you can treat programmers well and still be highly profitable.
Esquire Magazine: My Outsourced Life Subvert from Within: a user-focused employee guide « In Seattle this week | Main | "Dignity is deadly." - Paul Graham » Subvert from Within: a user-focused employee guide It's one thing to talk about--and execute--a user-focused approach when you're a small company or an independent contractor. I spent yesterday at Microsoft. It's so tempting to say that anyone who really cares that much about users ought to get the hell out of the big company. And these folks have a chance to make a Difference (capital "D") on a scale that most of us will never touch. But let's say you're not a Ward Cunningham or any other famous, visible, already influential industry player. Here's my little unofficial guide to creating passionate users for those working in Big Companies. In no particular order, here's a collection of tools used by our formerly underground User Liberation Army: Language matters. In meetings, phrase everything in terms of the user's personal experience rather than the product. Be annoyingly persistent. Capture user stories. Blog about it
Josh Kaufman: Inside My Bald Head: The Josh Kaufman "Personal MBA" Program How to Start a Startup March 2005 (This essay is derived from a talk at the Harvard Computer Society.) You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. Most startups that fail do it because they fail at one of these. And that's kind of exciting, when you think about it, because all three are doable. If there is one message I'd like to get across about startups, that's it. The Idea In particular, you don't need a brilliant idea to start a startup around. Google's plan, for example, was simply to create a search site that didn't suck. There are plenty of other areas that are just as backward as search was before Google. For example, dating sites currently suck far worse than search did before Google. An idea for a startup, however, is only a beginning. Another sign of how little the initial idea is worth is the number of startups that change their plan en route. People What Customers Want Should You?