Ask A Recruiter: When To Jump Ship Or Hang On

Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart

The following question came up at a recent workshop that I led about career management during a down market:

“My company is downsizing in waves. People are telling me to grab a buyout if I can because future severance packages will probably be less generous. Should I try to hang on or leave as soon as possible?”

There is no one answer to this question. You might welcome a downsizing an opportunity to start fresh somewhere else. On the other hand, many jobseekers are flooding the market at the same time, so looking for a job now may be extra challenging. Early buyout offers may be better than future ones if you think the company might run out of money or be unable to turn this situation around. On the other hand, staying put could give you a chance to prove yourself in a difficult, turnaround situation and be one of the few who survived and thrived.

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Art of The Follow-up: How To Persist Without Pestering

Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart

When looking for a new job, timing is everything. For a hiring company, matching candidates to jobs is as much about finding the right candidate as it is finding her at the right time (i.e., when there is an appropriate job available). If there is a great candidate but no job, there is no match. Maybe the hiring manager/ recruiter will remember that great candidate when a job comes up, but maybe not. Maybe the recruiter will ask if she’s still available, but maybe she’ll just assume she’s not.

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Mentor Stories: My Personal Board of Directors

The best piece of advice I ever received on developing my own career came from one of my law school professors, Lani Guinier. In my third year of law school, I took her capstone course on Practicing Public Interest Law. However, by that point, it had become apparent to me that, due in part to financial constraints created by my student loans, I might not in fact be practicing public interest law upon graduation. Despite my goal of becoming a lawyer to further my commitment to social justice and serve the public good, it looked pretty likely that I would end up accepting a job offer an a law firm (a great firm that had many partners who were committed to pro bono work, to be sure, but it wasn’t exactly Legal Aid).

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Book Review: Samantha Power Talks (And Writes)

111515924_cd0b07f0c2_m.jpgA few years ago, I attended a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City to honor women in communications and the author Samantha Power introduced one of the honorees. Someone asked me who she was. I told her that Ms. Power was a professor at Harvard and an author who had won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for her first book, “A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide.” I also told her that while a book about genocide didn’t sound like an easy read, Ms. Power’s writing made it a fascinating topic. I urged all eight women at my lunch table to buy her book.

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Building A Reputation, Increasing Referrals and PR

How to make your reputation come before as well as after you. Whether you want to be a leading light in your field or understatedly reputable, this workshop will focus on how to build a reputation for all the right reasons, improve referrals and position yourself for positive PR.

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Investing in Women’s Economic Independence and How This Affects Communities and Creates Sustainable, Peaceful Environments

Join us on Wednesday, March 19th to hear Kavita Ramdas, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Fund for Women.

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Op-Ed: Spitzer (aka Client 9), His Wife and “Kristin”

Contributed by Pamela Capalad

2335411051_6ba1727f50_m.jpgSituation: Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, caught with a hooker.

Immediate Consequences: Scandal. Ruined political career. Resignation. Endless op-ed columns written in an effort to explain the psychology that motivated Spitzer.

Collateral Consequences: Headlines one week later read “‘Client 9’ call-girl now online music star.” Known as “Kristen” on the wiretaps, Ashley Alexandra Dupré already has two hit internet singles and her MySpace page was viewed 2 million times in under 24 hours and 6 million times to date. Hustler and Penthouse have offered her magazine spreads. A 20-photo pictorial of her, scantily clad, has already run in the New York Post.

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Hit Me with Your Best Shot: Performance Management Feedback

Connie is a co-founder of SixFigureStart, a success coaching firm for college students and professionals.

Most Fortune 500 companies agree that 360 degree feedback (feedback from your boss, your peers, and your team) is the best way to identify and then improve your performance on the job. These four basic principles form the logical underpinning of the 360 degree feedback theory:

  • Behavior can be observed and measured.
  • Behavior is a direct reflection of leadership.
  • Leadership is a direct reflection of performance.
  • Performance can be observed and measured.

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After the Bear Stearns Bailout – Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop?

Late Sunday night, in a conference room high up at the troubled investment bank’s Midtown headquarters, Bear Stearns allowed itself to be sold to JPMorgan at the fire sale price of $2 per share, in order to avoid impending bankruptcy. At $236 million for the extensive prime brokerage and clearing operations of the 85-year old investment bank, JP Morgan seems to have gotten a better deal on Bear Stearns than anyone can remember since the last Barney’s warehouse sale.

Indeed, some high flying hedge-fund managers have paid more for their vacation homes than Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase paid for the entire Bear Stearns operation, including the bank’s Madison Ave headquarters, said to be worth at least a billion on its own.

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Creative Business in the Digital Era

The Creative Business in the Digital Era seminar will help you understand the opportunities presented by open IP (intellectual property) and how being open should be a central part of your creative business model.

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