If you were happy in your current job, completely and totally satisfied, you wouldn’t be reading this in the first place. The fact that you want to improve your current circumstances is the only reason that anyone considers a new gig.
John Sumser
San Francisco, CA
Guest Blogger John Sumser, a member of the Glassdoor Clearview Collection, is founder and CEO of Two Color Hat, a company that helps the vendors who serve HR and professional recruiters. In addition, John is currently a board director at Salary.com. Sumser believes the employment marketplace should be easy to understand. His experience includes 15 years of Electronics R&D, 15 years of online publishing, including work as an executive editor for Recruiting.com, non-profit management and start-up consulting.
Other ways to follow John: http://www.JohnSumser.com | @
Dream Your Job: Part 4 – Start With What You Hate
Posted by John Sumser • November 12th, 2009 • Comments
Dream Your Job: Part 3 – Being Infectious
Posted by John Sumser • November 5th, 2009 • Comments
Dreaming your job into existence is much more than simply knowing what you want.
There are three legs on the career management stool: understanding, promotion and attraction. Any effective job search, network conversation, cover letter, interview or development plan involves using all three. Understanding means all of the things you do to learn about what you ... - Read full post
Workplace Organization: Are You The Lackey, The Arguer or The Promotable?
Posted by John Sumser • October 29th, 2009 • Comments
Broken lines, broken strings, broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads, People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain’t no use jiving. Ain’t no use joking. Everything is broken.
Dream Your Job: Part 2 – Find or Fund?
Posted by John Sumser • October 22nd, 2009 • Comments
There are two primary ways to think about work. Your job is either a source of meaning or the source of funds for meaning you create elsewhere. One or the other.
Dream Your Job: Part 1 – The Checkbook Game
Posted by John Sumser • October 15th, 2009 • Comments
Most career resources assume that you know what you want when you’re looking for a job. The starting point for resume development is usually a short instruction about writing a career objective. Job boards and search engines require that you know what you’re looking for. There are scant tools for figuring out what you want.
Background Checking Your Next Boss
Posted by John Sumser • October 8th, 2009 • Comments
The first thing you need to know about your next boss is how badly she was hurt by the financial downturn. A boss who is deeply underwater is likely to behave differently than one who is not under the same financial pressure. Someone whose debts vastly exceed their ability to pay is likely to either ... - Read full post
Tenure: The Best Indicator of Company Fit
Posted by John Sumser • October 1st, 2009 • Comments
If you want a quick calibration of an organization’s culture, ask about tenure. Tenure is the amount of time a person has worked in a job. You can learn a good deal by trying to understand how tenure works at the company.
How to Interview the Company: Part II
Posted by John Sumser • September 24th, 2009 • Comments
There’s an old recruiting joke about the CEO who dies and is met at the pearly gates by Saint Peter. Saint Peter says, “You did a lot of bad and an equal amount of good. We can’t decide where to put you. So it’s your choice, heaven or hell.”
How to Interview The Company: Part 1
Posted by John Sumser • September 17th, 2009 • Comments
In the end, all that you have is the experience you get. When you go to work for a company, you are putting your career capital to work. You must understand how the company is going to increase the value of your investment.
Don’t Get a Job
Posted by John Sumser • September 10th, 2009 • Comments
Don’t get a job, get a dream. Write that on a yellow Post-It and stick it on your monitor. It’s the most important thing you can know about career navigation.
