Employers: it’s your turn to be fabulous
July 08, 2008 By: almostgotit Category: Management, Uncategorized, balance, blogging, employment, interviewing, parenting, rules for employers Creative Commons image by Luna Park |
Except for a few very good friends, I am currently ignoring online career advice columnists. It’s not that their advice is bad. The real problem with such advice, or any advice for that matter, is that it so often fails in the particulars.
If I had parented my children strictly according to other people’s advice, they would be sociopaths and I would be institutionalized by now. Human relationships just don’t work that way.
It’s not that I don’t seek advice. I have read lots of parenting books, and with one child entering her teens and another becoming a young adult, I’ve just gone out and bought several more; nevertheless, I don’t ever assume there is anyone out there with more expertise about my particular child than I have myself. And the same goes with my current job search.
Bloggers, and advice-giving bloggers, walk an especially dangerous road. We can pontificate for as long as we like without interuption, without editors, and more often than not without even getting much feedback.
We can get a little weird.
And every so often, I also get a tiny bit cranky, and find myself reminding HR bloggers, much to their great misfortune, that the employer is only one half of the job search equation, even though the employer’s perspective is virtually always presented as if it were the only one with any legitimacy. Though employers are, of course, the people with the power to hire, I submit that the actual power ratio of the employer/employee equation is considerably more complicated than that. Employment is, by definition, a two-party system. While it’s fine to keep harping on the one hundred and forty seven rules employees must follow in order to be fabulous, the quality of a company depends just as much on the fabulousness of the employERS.
Management guru Peter Drucker insists that personnel decisions are the most important ones a company can make. A clumsy recruiter’s own failure to be fabulous will be reflected in the quality of candidate he hires, either because he may not make the best choices, or because he may not attract the best candidates in the first place. And that sort of failure is far from minor. It is, instead, a systemic failure that shall effect (or infect) the quality of the entire company.
————-
Related posts:
Un-Fabulous Employers: Asking for Too Much Upfront (Next post in this series)
Blind Box Ads: Bad-Ass, or just Bad? (final post in this series)
July 8th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Almost got it –
I like your thinking to be very selective about the online advice you are “accepting” – we live in a society of continual informational overload and a lot of what is out there simply isn’t relavant to our needs, hopes, and goals. So it’s a crucial career (and survival) strategy to be able to cut through the noise and select what you know will work for you.
Years and years ago when I was going through a rough patch, my doctor wrote me a prescription to “Stay away from people who discourage you.” It seemed like such a strange thing for a doctor to do, but I really wanted to feel better so I thought “Why not?” and put his advice to work. I began paying much less attention to a couple of family members and co-workers and family members who had made it their past time to catalogue my faults and shortcomings regularly, and focused on being around the people who encouraged my “nutty” dreams and ambitions. The net result was that my mood improved considerably and I achieved some fun goals. The people who were discouraging to me never really changed their tune – they still find fault with me today only they don’t seem to bother me as much. The people who were encouraging to me, are the very ones now encouraging me to go for my new goals.
Good luck with your goals and I look forward to reading Part II!
Peggy
July 8th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Hi Almost Got It!
Great post. I found it through the comment you left at http://www.usnews.com/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2008/7/7/management-is-not-a-popularity-contest.html?msg=1 and I responded to you over there!
July 8th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Thanks to both Peggy and Alison for very gracious responses to oft-prickly me. It was wonderfully serendipitous for the latter’s column to appear today, after I’d written this post. Don’t miss it, all!
July 9th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Fascinating. Thoughtful. Deep. I can’t wait for Part II!
July 9th, 2008 at 5:50 am
[...] ~The first part of this post can be found here.~ [...]
July 17th, 2008 at 5:58 am
[...] And another thing. [...]