Have you ever stopped to think that maybe technology is pushing our hiring process too fast? We all have a natural cadence to how we do things.  Imagine going out on a date with a nice young man.  You go and get coffee. Coffee is easy, and you can get out of it quickly if […]

What’s next at Zappos?  Commune?  Nude Commune? The Washington Post reported on Friday that 14% of Zappos’ employees took a severance package rather than work in a Holocracy – which is an organizational structure without managers.  More from the Post: In March, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh issued an ultimatum of sorts to his employees. If they didn’t feel […]

When I was a kid, my favorite athletes were always the small, less-athletic guys who got by on hustle. Why? Because I was a small, less-athletic guy whose very limited athletic success was only do to hustle. When everyone else outgrew me and my hustle wasn’t enough to make the team, I started playing music. […]

This short, but fascinating recent piece from the Washington Post is the source for today’s installment of CHART OF THE DAY – a quick snapshot of how the US population is expected to change by 2050 in three key areas – religious affiliation, age, and race/ethnicity. As always, I will drop in the chart, then […]

I absolutely love this time of year. The days are warmer, longer, and my work attire is once again accented with wedges instead of tights. This time of the year also marks the return of some of my favorite HBO programming, including Mike Judge’s Silicon Valley,—a comedy partially inspired by Judge’s own experiences in engineering […]

A few years ago, I retired my blog because I wanted to write under my name. More importantly, I wanted to see if I could branch out beyond human resources and write about something fresh. In January, a friend of mine reached out and said that he “ceased reading my work” because it lacked passion […]

You know what’s a difficult thing to do? Leaving a good job is a difficult thing to do. When you’re fortunate enough to work for an employer that treats you fairly, offers competitive compensation, and provides job security, that’s usually the trifecta. Usually. That’s not to imply that these are “negative” qualities in a company, […]

To be taken seriously, looked at as credible, to feel valued, to be your CEO/COO/CFO’s confidant, of course, having a seat the table. HR, you really want it? Quit putzing around. Quit sabotaging yourself. Quit whining. Most importantly have a little self-respect. How? Quit being everybody’s “Wingman.” Remember Top Gun (“I feel the need, the […]

It all started with a great premise: Let’s teach kids an easier way to understand math so they won’t end up hating it. We can all buy into that, right!? What came out was a classic organizational nightmare of project-gone-wrong, in a way only HR can truly understand—the Common Core was born. Now, there you […]

Last summer, my oldest daughter worked in a daycare. Forty hours a week, sometimes split shifts, and a lot of times… the poop work. Literally. She had a great time with the kiddos (except for that poop part!), learned a lot about holding down a real job, split shifts, commuting, taxes, office politics.  And she […]

It’s May. Getting near halfway through the year. Might be time for you to actually give some feedback to the people who work for you. Or, if you’re an HR pro, to encourage managers of people to give that feedback to the masses. But we wait.  Because the people who most need the feedback don’t always […]

I think about the various things that motivate me and most are internally vs. externally driven.  For example, getting up at 5am five days a week to workout isn’t because I want to be first at the gym. It’s because I relieve stress and increase my happiness breaking a good sweat… and, secondarily, I don’t […]

The first thing a recruiter does is scan your resume. Those first 6 seconds are the most important. Will your resume catch their eye? This article shares some tips about optimizing your resume for eye-tracking.

Somewhere over the last few years there has been this crazy advice for jobseekers to have catch phrases, some witty little one liner to describe what they do. Ugh. And on top of that, we ask you to load your information with keywords. But those two ideas might not always get you to the top […]