The National Tooling and Machining Association is using Robots to make engineering and manufacturing jobs look cool to kids and young adults.

A recent article by NPR called Robot Wars Prepare Kids For Manufacturing Jobs, reports that the NTMA runs…

Several of my recent blogs and articles have been about company culture, and how it is formed by policy, and by internal habits and behaviors.  So far, I have…

Do your employees step up and perform at the highest level?  If so, it is probably due in part to good leadership.  I’ve been writing a lot lately about corporate culture, and started thinking about whether your employees are inspired to work for you, or just have to work for you.

There are a lot of qualities…

I answered this question on LinkedIN today, and thought the response would be of interest to our readers:

At what point do startups need outside help to find the right people for their open positions?

Start-ups need outside help in recruiting under three circumstances:

1. The need for talent goes beyond the contact base of the founders and their acquaintances. This could be for greater technical skill, Sales execs who can establish…

CareerBuilder’s Q2 2011 Job Forecast reports that the hiring outlook is the strongest it has been in three years, according to its survey (jointly conducted with USA Today) of 2800 hiring managers and HR professionals.

Some key highlights:

• 28% of employers surveyed added full time permanent employees in Q1.
• 31% of workers say…

“If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.” – Bear Bryant

In  January, we blogged Take the Blame to Make a Name  in which we explore the idea of taking blame and giving credit as a way to advance your career.

This week I spotted an…

We recently conducted a Linked IN poll with the question:  What would motivate you the most (to make a job change)?  As of today, we have 440 responses, and the overwhelming choice is Increased opportunity / company quality (at 39%).  The strong second choice is Increased challenges and responsibility (28%).  So these two choices comprise 67% of the responses.  Trailing in the distance are increased compensation (with…

[Based on an answer I provided today on a LinkedIN Staffing/Hiring question:]

There is a moment near the end of job interviews when the interviewer finally is relaxed.  When the interviewer has been asking questions, and assessing your answers, they are working.  When you hear the magic question “What questions do you have for me?”, they are ready to relax.  This is a golden opportunity that most interviewees…

Your executives may not be show business celebrities, but how important are they to your business? And how would your customers react if you lost a key VP?  Conversely, if one of your executives were performing poorly, but left on bad…

In 1993, Jimmy Johnson, then the coach of the Dallas Cowboys, credited a book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, with helping him prepare for the Super Bowl win that year. 

“Flow”…

It is natural for a job seeker to be nervous in an interview.  We are at our most vulnerable when something is at stake personally (getting or not getting the job).  A key mistake made by many candidates is saying TOO MUCH when being concise would be better.  Candidates are good at starting stories and continuing stories, but not always so good at wrapping up stories and making a point.

A good business story told in an interview is like any good story:  It holds the listener’s…

One of the many tips I give to executive level candidates going on job interviews is to have a customer visit mindset. When people think to themselves “I’m going on an INTERVIEW,” they become more humble, modest, respectful, etc. They speak when spoken to, and accept the one-down hierarchical aspect of the interview setting. This is highly counterproductive.

On the other hand, executives who visit customers are proactive, engaging, and on an equal footing with the…

At what point do startups need outside help to find the right people for their open positions?

Start-ups need outside help in recruiting under three circumstances:

1. The need for talent goes beyond the contact base of the founders and their acquaintances. This could be for greater technical skill, Sales execs who can establish strategic…

I answered this question on LinkedIN today, and thought our readers would appreciate the response: