EditorialsBy Matt Bud, Chairman, The FENG

I try to take a few minutes of your time every year at this holiday season to remind you what a gold mine this time of year is to your networking efforts. Whether you are working or not working. Whether you are looking for a job or very happy where you are, this is the time of year when you don’t need much of an excuse to call EVERYONE you know and reconnect with them. The last thing any professional networker wants to be viewed as is someone who only calls when they need a job. This is such a great time of year to call old friends and new friends. Those with whom you have a close personal relationship [ Read more… ]

The Wall Street Journal recently had an article about the steps people are taking these days at work to conceal their age. I understand where this comes from. Ageism, as with all forms of prejudice, comes from ignorance. Across all of the ways of earning a living, it is true that SOME workers who are older are just not cost effective in the work they can do. Paying a lot more for a ditch digger who is well experienced may not make a whole lot of sense. When you look at work content and how experience plays into that is key to deciding whether or not hiring a “well experienced” person makes sense. There is, of course, the mean spirited [ Read more… ]

I guess the desire to shorten just about everything is part of human nature. I once worked with a guy named Harry and the boss insisted on calling him Har. I suppose he could have called him H, but maybe that was TOO short. When I was in college, everyone was talking about the ATGSB. For those of you who don’t know, this stood for the Aptitude Test for Graduate Study in Business. Like slang expressions, folks use abbreviations to set themselves apart from others. If you don’t know what it means, you are probably not part of the “in crowd,” or at least MY in crowd. With this as an introduction, I’m not sure if I can articulate everything [ Read more… ]

For almost a decade I was Chief Financial Officer of an Advertising Agency. In addition to learning how to deal with a wild and crazy bunch of folks, I learned a lot not only about the advertising business, but also about advertising in general. One of the facts that I learned was that a good advertising campaign could get customers to try the product. (We were a very creative shop!) In some cases, we were so good at what we did that we almost put some of our clients out of business. Sounds odd, but oh so true. Promising 10 and delivering 5 is about one of the worst things you can do. In the context of job search, I [ Read more… ]

In 1991 when I was last out of work I was at a point in my life where I didn’t want to move. Although born in Chicago and raised in northern Indiana, I had lived in Connecticut for almost 20 years and I liked it here. My wife’s parents lived nearby and I had a daughter and son in high school. Moving really didn’t make sense in that it would have been very disruptive. And, much as I respect those who have taken jobs out of town and commuted for a period of time, it wasn’t something I was prepared to do. It seemed to me at the time that because I lived in the New York metropolitan area, there [ Read more… ]

I’m a pretty organized guy. If I weren’t, it would be impossible to get all the things done in a day that I try to accomplish. (Sometimes I have even gotten all my email up to date!) Still, a few times a day I get an email from someone with incomplete information. A few years ago I wrote to a new member applicant and asked him to send me a resume with his educational information. Not a smart thing to leave off your resume. But okay, these things happen. He was also lacking a sponsor as far as I knew, so I mentioned that as well. The note back read in part: “Attached is a revised resume and, oh by [ Read more… ]

Every once in a while The Wall Street Journal publishes a cartoon worthy of discussion. Several years ago, the “Pepper … And Salt” cartoon showed a job seeker, obviously older, explaining his credentials to the interviewer with the following words: “Don’t think of me as a 54-year-old job applicant. Think of it as getting two 27-year-olds for the price of one.” This is not quite as good as the Jos. A. Bank buy one, get two free sales, but close enough. I’ve been sent several articles recently about age discrimination. Great topic and one that I think we should spend a lot of time beating a dead horse about. I’m thinking in terms of a belief system where we can [ Read more… ]

There are some who would argue that in this day and age of email, texting and Tweeting, the world has become a more impersonal place than in those halcyon days of yesteryear. Please say it isn’t so. In this electronic age, it has become SO easy to be personal, that I can’t for the life of me fathom why anyone wouldn’t take the time to say thank you to anyone and everyone who sends them a message. I like to think that I have a society of 37,000+ friends. (I hope all of you feel the same way.) Although all of you need to be patient with me from time to time because I fall behind in my email, I [ Read more… ]

Up until the age of 46 I didn’t spend a single day unemployed. From the time I got out of the Army in 1971 until 1991 I only changed jobs twice. It doesn’t give you a lot of time to think about your career or to consider that you might be doing other things. During the two years I was out of work I did a lot of thinking and I tried a lot of different things. I suppose if I had found a job immediately my life would not be what it is today. I would venture to say it is better than it might have otherwise been despite the “years from heck.” As you know, all jobs are [ Read more… ]

For those of you who have been there, I’m sure you recognize the Disney way of concluding a conversation. It is kind of cute, don’t you think? And, in the context of Disney, it sets you up for what you should be experiencing. The more common phrase in the United States, of course, is “Have a nice day” or for those given to extremes “Have a great day.” Perhaps I am a curmudgeon of sorts, but I have always considered such phrases to be somewhat of an over promise. The world I live in is to under promise and over deliver. If I say: Have a great day to someone, I always worry that I am setting them up for [ Read more… ]

Let’s face it, sooner or later you are bound to have a bad day. The odds of having 365 perfect days in a row just aren’t high. It’s sort of a reverse thing to the odds of your winning the lottery. Sure, someone wins it every day, but it never seems to be me. (I guess it would help if I bought a ticket, but I am a tightwad financial guy and I would never spend the money – but I digress.) By the way, if it turns out to be you, I hope you will make a generous contribution to The FENG or buy me a new car or something. Anyway, getting out of bed every morning, energized and [ Read more… ]

While confession may be good for the soul, it is deadly when it comes to job search. The dreaded question: What is your greatest weakness? This is one of those questions we could easily do without. And, they often catch us by surprise. Enron aside, the problem is that most senior financial folks are very honest. I’m sure there is something about each of us we believe to be our greatest weakness. However, this is not the time to tell ANYONE about your secret concerns. Okay, you do have to say something. To say you have no weaknesses comes off as conceited or worse arrogant. But what should you confess to? My suggestion is that you target those things that [ Read more… ]

“Must have industry experience” often appears on position descriptions in this newsletter as well as ones one might see in the newspaper or on the various job boards that exist in the nether world of the Internet. The question is whether to respond or not to respond when the requirement is so clear. The obvious answer is that it depends. Much as we would like to believe that we have transferable skills (and we do), each industry has its peculiarities that need to be learned. Is a little cross fertilization from another industry a good idea? I have always been of this opinion. Still, in any job market, there are always going to be candidates who fit the bill to [ Read more… ]

There are an awful lot of people in this world who lie from time to time, some more frequently than others. And, not all of them are politicians. Others may have a different definition, but having an accounting background, I believe that anything that is said that isn’t the WHOLE truth is sort of a lie. I’ll give you a little hint about where I am going with tonight’s editorial by telling you that some of the worst prevaricators in this world are on the other side of the desk interviewing you for jobs you would love to have. Of course, if your wife asks you if her new dress makes her look fat, I hope you will have the [ Read more… ]

One of the greatest disappointments you may discover during your job search is that old friends don’t call you back. When I began my job search back in 1991 and in the years since, I have often struggled to explain this syndrome to my many friends. My purpose is not to make excuses for anyone, but rather to explain the situation in a way that will lead us to be more forgiving. And, if we are lucky, perhaps to discover ways that in the end will cause us to benefit from these long established relationships. The syndrome you are experiencing I call “the death in the family thing.” People tend not to call or even to write because they are [ Read more… ]

It has been said that everything you really need to know, you learned in kindergarten. Several years ago, I had the great pleasure of going trick or treating with my grandson. It is one of those things you obviously can’t do at my age unless you have grandchildren living nearby, and I am so blessed. It was a little cold and windy here in Connecticut that night, but it was one of those opportunities you just can’t miss. As my son and I wandered around the immediate neighborhood where my grandson lives, it was obvious that although most of the houses were decorated in the spirit of Halloween, there were also quite a few houses that weren’t decorated and in [ Read more… ]

There is this great place right at the top of each resume that I find is not generally very well used. Right after your name, address, telephone numbers and email address, there is nothing more appropriate to appear than a summary. A summary, précis, or synopsis appearing in this location can save those reading your opus a lot of valuable time, and work to insure that you are included in that most desired pile of resumes to read later, as opposed to the pile that is positioned ever so close to the circular file. Look, I don’t know anything about you, so at this juncture you have a golden opportunity to give me a clear mental picture of what you [ Read more… ]