Black In Business

Last night’s Vice Presidential debate reminded me of a method I used successfully to help develop a team concept. In my first management gig, I was 30 years old and managed a team of 12 people. There was a wide degree of different back grounds to this team. We had a couple of retired military offiicers, some sales veterans and a couple of young guys wearing a suit for the first time.One of my favorite guys was a gentleman named Bill McCarthy.

Bill was one of the leaders in my district and a man of enormous judgement. When I had to interview for openings, often times i would ask Bill to screen the interviewees.Bill would interview and draw up a list of finalist.

This helped to cement Bill as a leader in the district and motivate other to want the same recognition.We also had team leaders for certain products. During our team meetings, I would have team members present in an area of skill for the presenter. This way we all had a stake in the success of the team, and key members had earned respect from the other team members.

OK, back to last night’s debate. Bill McCarthy was a guy that loved everybody. One day he and I did a joint interview of a lady. The lady was pretty good, so after the interview when I asked Bill his opinion. He stated thumbs down. He was not impressed, I asked why because Bill and I were often on the same page.

Here is why Bill convinced me this lady was wrong for our company. He felt the lady was a BSer, her first answer was something that no matter what our question would have been, she was going to regurgitate her answer, that upon closer review said nothing. The thing that really turned Bill off, was the lady keep winking at us.

Bill could not believe this lady thought we were that dumb that a few winks would win us over.

Last night Sarah Palin winked and BSed her way through a debate. America do not be sucked in by this pathetic game Palin is playing. Who do you think won?

I came across a interesting article in the New York Times today that speaks to the challenge of job hunting.

In my early days of job hunting, my father was my adviser. His advice which worked then was to get up early and knock on doors all day. He said sometimes a site would put you to work right away.

I passed on the same advice to my son. In today’s low end jobs this method of job hunting is not nearly as effective as in days passed. My son found his job in a warehouse, from a job board site.

The point of the Times article is that you need a mix of technology; sites like, Career builder, monster.com, Ladders, etc, with the old fashion way of meeting people that may be the hiring manager.

Given the uncertainty of today’s job market, many people will be job hunting, some for the first time in many years. Read this article on job hunting and then come back and let us hear your comments.