Published on: Wednesday, March 27, 2013

How I Got Here: Bryan Mattimore

Posted By: Joseph Daniel McCool
Filed Under: leadership, innovation, interview, inspiration, creativity, entrepreneur, ideas, bryan mattimore, career journey

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Recently, I had a conversation with Bryan Mattimore, one of America's top experts in applied creativity, ideation facilitation and innovation management. Mattimore is the inventor of the creativity training game, Bright Ideas and bestselling author of 99% Inspiration. I was particularly curious to know what led him to explore the power of creativity and why organizations need to be open to them. Here is an excerpt of what he had to say on that topic:

"There were two pivotal moments in my life. The first was when I grew up with my father. He was an entrepreneur with Time Inc., and he started a company called SAMI. That environment really encouraged me and made me wonder how he got his ideas. That really set me on a lifetime search and a passion for understanding the creative process."

Published on: Wednesday, February 13, 2013

How I Got Here: Nancy Di Dia’s Career Journey

Posted By: Nancy Di Dia
Filed Under: leadership, joseph daniel mccool, culture, interview, human resources, diversity, risk taking, nancy di dia

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I was actually not born into being a diversity practitioner. At the time when I was going to school, they didn't have this as an area of study, nor was it anything when I was growing up as a Baby Boomer that corporations looked at. I spent the majority of my career at a major financial services organization in a variety of business management positions on the retail side of the house. In that time, I lived through some really remarkable managers and some pretty unremarkable leaders and managers. The unremarkable ones are primarily the reason why I'm doing this work.

What I mean by that is I began to see, early in my career, a lot of marginalization, unconscious bias occurring, micro-inequities. Although we didn't know what that term was until the mid 90s.

Published on: Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Should You Ask for a Step Back?

Posted By: Dave Opton
Filed Under: execunet, executive employment, dave opton, six-figure hotline, interview

 

As part of ExecuNet membership, I conduct a weekly teleconference called Six-Figure Hotline where members call in to ask the questions keeping them up at night, and to gain market and trend insight from the career experts who join me in talking about issues that are important to executives today.

In a recent teleconference a caller asked, "Once you've progressed far enough in the interview process, how aggressive do you really need to be as far as asking for the job offer? How do you respond to the question, 'Is this job enough for you?' How do you counter the fact that a position may be a step back, but you really want the role for a variety of reasons, (e.g. great company, advancement opportunity, industry, etc)?"

Here's what I told him:

Published on: Friday, April 01, 2011

Reading Between the Lines

Posted By: Robyn Greenspan
Filed Under: robyn greenspan, hiring, interview, opportunity, candidate, job, offer, april fool

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Did you get any good pranks played on you today? Or perhaps you were the prankster?

On April Fool's Day, things are not always as they seem, and the same can sometimes be true on job interviews. (See our blog post When Bad Interviews Happen to Good Candidates and the dozens of comments for proof.) My colleague Laura Magnuson, who works closely with our recruiter members, and I were recently talking about the typical phrases said at job interviews and what might have been heard. Hope you find a few laughs ahead and nothing that hits too close to home.

Published on: Monday, February 14, 2011

Courtship and the Job Search

Posted By: Robyn Greenspan
Filed Under: robyn greenspan, executive job search, interview, candidate, bradley richardson

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In a response to an ExecuNet member's question about not being bothersome to the hiring decision-makers, yet continue to show interest executive recruiter Bradley Richardson likened working with recruiters to dating.

Richardson says there is a very fine balance candidates should maintain: eager, but not desperate; "in-demand" but hard to get, particularly when it comes to follow-up. How much is too much? How long should I wait?

"What's the difference between persistent and obnoxious? — and believe me there is a difference!" says Richardson. "In relationships it is easy. Think somewhere between the three-day rule as the norm and a 'restraining order' as the outer limit. Interviews are tougher to judge, even though many hiring managers feel they are being stalked like some jilted high school crush."

Here are Richardson's general rules of thumb for following up and staying on a recruiter's mind, without driving him out of his mind.

Published on: Friday, September 17, 2010

When it Comes to Resume Writing, You Know More than You Think You Know

Posted By: David Topus
Filed Under: executive recruiters, david topus, interview, human resources, personal marketing, résumé writing, résumé

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It is always interesting when executives ask me how to make their résumés more compelling. Now, I recognize that most executives aren't expected to be experts in résumé writing, but what occurs to me is that most of them are experts of a sort in résumé READING.

Most executives have been on the hiring side for years, having reviewed and evaluated hundreds, if not thousands, of résumé. They've sat across the desk from candidates with résumés in hand, and they've stared at résumés on a computer screen with the candidate on the other end of the phone. As a résumé reader, surely they know what they did, and did not, like. They know what got their attention. They know what made them want to get the candidate in for an interview right away. They know what made them click and drag the document into the recycle bin.

Published on: Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Follow the Leader: Marshall Goldsmith

Posted By: Robyn Greenspan
Filed Under: robyn greenspan, leadership, talent management, expert insight, success, interview, executive recruiting, marshall goldsmith, mojo, q&a

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"Mojo" is not among the words executives and recruiters use when we survey them about the specific attributes of leadership, yet executive coach and management expert Dr. Marshall Goldmsith claimed it for his latest book, MOJO: How to Get It, How to Keep It and How to Get It Back When You Lose It.

Goldsmith defines Mojo as "that positive spirit — toward what you are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside," and he associates identity, achievement, reputation and acceptance as the four key factors that impact personal and professional Mojo.

Broad-Based Increase in Jobs Not Expected

Job Creation Remains Constant