Randy’s Career Tips

Back in the day, IBM had a policy to never lay-off any employees. If you were loyal to the company then you had a job for life. Thus, the loyalty went both ways. If you talk to employees that worked for Silicon Valley’s IBM campus back then, they will confirm all this.

They will also tell you during the Dot Com days that startup companies were busy trying to recruit the top IBM employees. However, if you quit IBM and went to work for one of these startups and it failed, IBM would never hire you back. You were literally blacklisted.

But, on the other hand if you were loyal to IBM, you could retire a wealthy individual, yes you had to work hard during your working years, but you’d be set up for life. That was the IBM way. If this topic interests you, or that level of corporate commitment to the employees is something that fascinates you, then I’d like to recommend a very good book to you. It is a book that I’ve read myself, and it maintains a space in my personal library at home. The name of the book is;

“The IBM Lesson; The Profitable Art of Full Employment,” by D. Quinn Mills, Crown Publishers, New York, NY, 1988, (216 pp), ISBN: 978-081291-690-4.

There were no layoffs and IBM that was a guarantee during the time this book was written. And in this book the author explains the brilliance behind the way IBM operated and there are several case studies in the book about how it went about making sure it took care of its employees, including one in Boulder Colorado where IBM was upgrading its plant. You see, at the time floppy disks were in season, and IBM owned that market. When it went to upgrade the plant, it did not lay off the employees, it reassigned them.

Some employees were given a substantial package to retire, others were temporarily re-assigned until the factory was re-commissioned and upgraded. Read the rest of this entry »

What we weren’t taught in school is the skills to get a job after you leave them. This is the most crucial and life survival skill that you need to get a job but it wasn’t taught! Strange isn’t it!? Therefore, in this post, we will provide a dummies guide for fresh graduates when they are applying for a new job and know what to expect in their application and interview process. This does not apply just only to fresh graduates. Even professionals will find it useful when they need to apply for a new job!

1. Look at all the sources for recruitment. They can be internet, recruitment firms, job agencies, newspaper classifieds, university job postings, individual company websites and even friends!
2. Next, beef up your resume and CV. Without taking this very first step, you won’t be able to talk about the interview or what you should wear on the interview day. Not even the possibility of discussion about the compensation package that is installed for you by your prospective employer.
3. Send your resume and CV out to all the sources. If you get rejected, ask to find out what you are lacking. Fine-tune it.
4. If you get into an interview, the first thing you want to do is to impress the interviewer. Don’t talk about the compensation package. That will leave him a negative impression on you. Leave it for the HR personnel to go through the compensation package when the time comes.
5. If you are really lucky, you get the job on the 1st interview. But on a cautious note, understand the reason that you are being offered a position. Recap from your 1st interview if there were anything mentioned about filling the position urgently or if someone is leaving the organisation. They maybe offering you the position because they want to fill it urgently (desperately) and you will most likely be working like a mad dog when you j Read the rest of this entry »