Posted Sun, 08/08/2010 - 09:46 by Mike Baumgartner
Times are bad now. Ignore what you are reading in the news because, regardless of the unemployment numbers and the spin, the fact remains that it is an ugly job market. As I am always saying on my show, this is not about politics and I am not going to get into that slime pool (today) but I am continuing to hear that we have turned the corner and the recovery is happening. If that is true, which every fiber of my being says it is not, then we are in for a very ugly time.
Posted Sun, 06/20/2010 - 14:29 by Mike Baumgartner
There is a spot in our town where merchants gather to display their wares. Tools and equipment to solve every need, clothing to cover even the most challenging figure, and curios to adorn every wall are openly displayed for all to see. Within each merchant lies the hope that each person who passes by their carefully planned display will be tempted to purchase some item ostensibly filling a need or gap in their brief existence. In short, I was at the mall.
Posted Sat, 06/05/2010 - 19:39 by Mike Baumgartner
My grandfather was a milkman. From what my mother tells me, it was a tough job. Maybe not the kind of job you would see as a promising Discovery Channel series, but it had all the qualities of a good old fashion “working man’s” profession. He would wake up literally before the cows did, travel to the dairy, load up his refrigerated milk truck, and drive his route. It didn’t matter if it was raining or snowing.
Posted Sun, 04/18/2010 - 22:20 by Mike Baumgartner
Last week I highlighted the tricks that companies use to find out who you really are. Secret tools that companies know so that they can get around the formality of the interview are critical to the “do we hire this person” decision. In the same vein, there are tricks, observations, and tests that you should use to understand a company’s culture, your future bosses quirks, and the secrets they don’t want you to know about.
Posted Sun, 04/11/2010 - 21:16 by Mike Baumgartner
You answered the questions flawlessly. Your suit was picture perfect. Everyone seemed to like you. You didn’t get the job.
Your friend in the company said that you were not organized enough to fit their culture and you are figuring out how on earth they came to that conclusion.
“Dude” your friend says “They went into the parking lot and looked in your car!”
Posted Tue, 03/23/2010 - 10:25 by Mike Baumgartner
For a year now I have spoken on my radio show about how things are only going to get worse before they begin to turn around. I prayed I was wrong only to find that being right is sometimes not the outcome you really wanted.
Posted Sat, 02/13/2010 - 23:40 by Mike Baumgartner
Several years ago, while not yet a recovering HR executive, I found myself, like many who read my articles, out of a job. It was a particularly harsh experience. Not because I had never been laid off before. Of course I had. Any HR person who claims they’ve never been laid off is either lying, intuitive enough to quit before it happens, or so tactically locked in they have no hope of advancement.
Posted Tue, 01/05/2010 - 16:20 by Mike Baumgartner
Ok, so its 2010. We all have our resolutions for the year and, as Mark Twain so eloquently put it, “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
Posted Tue, 12/01/2009 - 14:33 by Mike Baumgartner
Now is the time…
We have all heard the statistics. One in ten Americans are out of work. Others, myself included, believe that number to be much higher. Yes, companies are starting to hire, but they are adjusting from over cutting their workforce or just shifting the deck chairs around a bit. The sense is there is no real job growth out there.
Times are bad now. Ignore what you are reading in the news because, regardless of the unemployment numbers and the spin, the fact remains that it is an ugly job market. As I am always saying on my show, this is not about politics and I am not going to get into that slime pool (today) but I am continuing to hear that we have turned the corner and the recovery is happening. If that is true, which every fiber of my being says it is not, then we are in for a very ugly time.
There is a spot in our town where merchants gather to display their wares. Tools and equipment to solve every need, clothing to cover even the most challenging figure, and curios to adorn every wall are openly displayed for all to see. Within each merchant lies the hope that each person who passes by their carefully planned display will be tempted to purchase some item ostensibly filling a need or gap in their brief existence. In short, I was at the mall.
