Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #95
Should Jobseekers Show Up with the Company's Resume and Review their "Gaps"?
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. I write this weekly newsletter so subscribers can see some of the things I’m writing and sharing without depending on social media algorithms to show them to you. Each week I’ll share information about careers and workplace culture, mental health in the workplace, talent development, and important information about privacy, security, and legal tech.
You can find out all about me here - Mike McBride Online.
One of the links below talks about employees hiring the place they choose to work. It’s a very different way to consider the job search, one I’ve been trying to implement a bit more while I have the privilege to be that picky.
Here’s the thing I would love to consider though. 12 years ago I took a job at a firm where I lasted only 11 months. Six months after I started it became clear that the firm was going to make changes to their eDiscovery team. Within three months it became clear that they were looking to outsource a lot of the work and were just figuring out who to keep and who to let go. During that process, I got offered another opportunity and took it. I spent the next 7+ years explaining that to every person I was interviewed by, and potentially not being offered an interview because I looked like a risk.
What would interviewers do if an applicant showed up and asked them the same questions?
“I see in 2021 you added a bunch of people, but then in late 2022 and early 2023, you laid off 15,000 people just to bump up your stock price, are you interested in a long-term career or just hopping between market fluctuations?”
OK, asking the question this way is probably not going to get you hired. But there are questions you should be asking:
“Why is this role open?” (Seriously, what happened to the person who was in it before?)
“How will success in this role be measured?”
“Where do you see this role, this team, this company, in five years?”
You should expect clear answers to these questions. Failure to provide them should be a giant red flag.
What questions would you ask?
Careers and the Workplace
The “Three C’s” To Building A Strong Remote Work Team - Laurel Donnellan reviews and provides an overview of “The Long Distance Team” by Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel.
Linked - Reimagining The Employee-Employer Deal
This is the power that more and more employees realize they have. To hire you as an employer and to fire you when you no longer fit their needs. If that bothers you, if that offends your sense of loyalty to the workplace, do me a favor. Go to Google News and search for "layoff". Do a little light browsing and tell me what loyalty has to do with anything.
Unlocking the Power of Connections: Embracing a New Networking Mindset For Career Success - instead of “have” to network for my career and business, how about I “get” to network - share ideas, and learn from so many intelligent people?
Training and Development
Do You Wait to Offer Leadership Training to People in Leadership Positions?
In the first case, most organizations I've seen only offer some leadership or management training after someone becomes a manager. This is wrong. This is gatekeeping for no reason. There are people on your teams right now who are not managers, but would like to be, and you're doing nothing to prepare them for that. Someone gets promoted and then you start them on a training program on how to be a manager. That doesn't make sense. What are they supposed to do on day one with the team that now reports to them?
Let’s stop calling them “soft skills” — and call them “real skills” instead - Seth Godin on the reality that those things we call soft skills are required too. I shared this on LinkedIn with this comment -
I would add that being a good trainer requires what we usually think of as soft skills but are, indeed, quite real. I've watched many brilliant technologists try to teach what they know and fail. I've watched great trainers who lacked the tech chops with the tools they were teaching likewise fail. There's no "soft" versus "hard" skill here, they are both necessary skills.
RSS Readers Are Better Than Ever, Thanks to Twitter & Reddit - Many of us have depended on Twitter, Reddit, and the like to keep up with our knowledge, but we may have to go back to 2005 and RSS readers as we witness social media’s death spiral.
Mental Health in the Workplace
Employers need to focus on workplace burnout: Here’s why - one reason stated in the article is that it’s not just about the worker. It’s also about the workplace.
Stressed at work? Feeling like there’s not enough time to get things done? Keep this in mind - Time Management Won’t Save You. To quote:
In a world of potentially infinite demands, freeing up an hour on your calendar is akin to setting off a signal flare announcing your capacity to jump on another project or take on an additional role.
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
Some interesting reading - ILTA and Conversant Group Release First Cybersecurity Benchmarking Survey of the Legal Industry
Litigation Holds Causing Corporate Heartburn? Ease the Pain with this eDiscovery Antacid - a look at ROT data and why you should get rid of it.
That’s all folks. If you found something interesting in this week’s newsletter, please share it with your friends. It’s the best way to help support the effort I put in each week to share this with you.