SYP Says

Chris Kattan as Emily Dickinson?

I won a Kindle recently at a conference and have been having a blast with it. In the last month, I've read Dostoevsky's The Double, Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher novel, Robert Young Pelton's Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror, Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, and just started Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick.

The Kindle has a screensaver and while it no doubt has many images to display, mine seems to especially love this picture (supposedly) of Emily Dickinson. Tell me though--doesn't Emily Dickinson look suspiciously like Chris Kattan in ruffles??

 

What to consider when making a job switch.

A former employee of mine recently contacted me for advice about an opportunity he was considering. Some old contacts of his from a previous job were hiring at a company that isn't profitable. He trusted his former colleagues, but wasn't so sure about the company himself, so he wanted to know how to approach an opportunity where he knew the current overall picture was tough, but (supposedly) getting better, and whether I would leave the comforts of a stable environment to test the waters with a company like this one.

I've been getting this question quite a bit lately. The economy is starting to pick up a little and more people are hiring, so I thought it might be helpful to share the brief email advice I gave him. It's pretty basic stuff, but sometimes you need to hear what you already know from someone other than yourself. :) 

You can also check out My Top 10 Job Search Tips--they were featured in US World News Report Online!

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Here was my verbatim email response. Hope it helps those of you considering a job switch right now.

Hi: There are some key questions I would ask and they are basically in two "buckets"--personal and business:

Personal
* What do you gain by making the switch -- what more do you learn, how does it progress your skillset or get you closer to your career goals, does it improve your home/work balance, etc -- regardless of whether or not the company succeeds (meaning these are things you would be able to take with you or at least enjoy if it fails).

* Are you well-prepared (financially, emotionally) for if it fails or you get laid off soon after you are hired? 

* If it succeeds, what is enough upside for you that would balance the risk you are taking in making the move?

* What is really attracting you to this opportunity--is it the opportunity itself or is it just that it is different and you are bored where you are? If the latter, is there something you could do where you are that would make it worth sticking around? And if the answer is no, is this the right opp or just the one you happen to know about? Because if you are really ready to go, it may be in your best interest to look at all available options, not just this one.

* Setting aside the fact that you know some people there and have worked with them, does the company *feel* right to you otherwise in terms of a fit?  Would you be working with people you respect and can learn from or just people you happen to like and know?

Business
* Who is funding the business, for how long, and do the investors have a record of funding successful businesses?

* How old is the business, how often has the business needed funding (ie what is their burn rate) and does their growth rate in head count and in other overhead areas make sense with the revenue and profit increase they are expecting?

* Do you understand why the business isn't profitable and how they plan to get to profitability?

* Does their business strategy make sense to you and do you believe in it?

* Do they have a history of making good choices and of making the numbers and/or goals they have set? When they haven't, do you understand why not?

* How big a market is it and how crowded? What is the competitive space for their offerings and how are they differentiating? Are they gaining customers or losing them? Etc.

Two of the most important things I can recommend overall in making this choice is to:
a) Know yourself and what you are really good at and match that against what you think you are really looking for in your next move. How does this match up? Make sure you are making the switch for the right reasons.

b) Play out the most likely scenarios and at least a few of the least likely ones so that you feel confident you are making a well-informed choice. You can't predict the future, but you can imagine the different ways things might play out and how you might respond in those situations, and then decide how much of a risk you are willing to take.

You know me--I am always up for taking a (smart) risk--but it is a big decision to switch jobs, especially in this economy, and now you have a family to take care of. At the end of the day, you've got to do what I call the smell test, meaning does it smell right to you--another way of saying you need to gut-test it. My own personal smell test involves gauging how excited my brain gets about a business. This means does the business challenge inspire me and trigger my brain to come up with lots of new and different ideas that I want to go and get done? If not, I know that no matter how much someone pays me or how sexy the business is, I will not be at my best. I might still do a great job relatively speaking, but I won't be really engaged like I could...and should be. You've got to find your own equivalent of a smell test and check this against that. Hope this helps. xo SYP

Blue Moon New Year's Eve: 2010 To Begin With Extra Full Moon

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

LOS ANGELES — Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't expect it to be blue – the name has nothing to do with the color of our closest celestial neighbor.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Ukraine's Got Talent's Kseniya Simonova sand paints German invasion in WWII

Thanks to my mum for emailing it to me. Note: The video is 8 minutes long.

Marvy Le Pen and Twin Ring Notebooks: Good pens and paper

Twin Ring Notebooks and Marvy Le Pen are my most favorite notebooks and pens ever.

They are both from Japan.

Twin Rings have perfect perforation, are slim and lightweight, come in cute colors, the paper is smooth, and the rings are tightly coiled and don't snag or get all bent out of shape. 

Marvy Le Pens have a micro fine 0.3mm tip and pocket clip. They come in countless lovely and unique colors from brown and burgundy to oriental blue and periwinkle to teal and olive and I just adore the way they look and write.

They are a perfect combination. The pen clip just fits in the ring and the pair are light enough to carry in my purse.

You'd think that with most of my work being online, I wouldn't have much use for writing longhand, but I do.

I take notes in meetings, and doodle or diagram to get my brain working on an idea. Honestly, sometimes I just think better when I write on a real piece of paper with real ink.

I care enough about writing that I'm picky and Twin Rings and Marvy Le Pens are my weapons of choice.

I first got hooked on these thanks to the adorable store, Prize, in Ashland, Oregon.

Now I've found the notebooks online at the also adorable Tokyo Pen Shop which has free shipping on orders over $25 or more. A month or so ago, I realized that I was on my last Twin Ring (horrors!!) and Kimberly and Frank Broz, the co-founders of Tokyo Pen Shop, shipped me several post-haste. They don't sell Marvy Le Pens yet, but are considering it. I hope they do, so I can just buy both from the same place. Fingers crossed! Until then, I'll buy mine from ArtStuff.net.

All that said, one of the main reasons I love Twin Rings so much is the inspirational message that's embossed on the front of every notebook. It says,

Most Advanced Quality
Gives Best Writing Features
& Gives Satisfaction to You

I couldn't have written it better myself! :)

 

Happy Independence Day

*** Cheers! ***

My Top 10 Job Search Tips: Advice from a Recent Online Marketing and E-Commerce Job Seeker

Several months ago, I decided I wanted to move back to civilization (i.e. leave rural Southern Oregon). This meant I had to leave my job and find a new one. I had the luxury (especially in this economy) of being able to look while I was still working.

I thought I'd move back to NYC, but it just wasn't in the cards. The majority of the jobs I found were not at the level I wanted, nor in any fields I was really excited to be in, and the few that were interesting didn't seem to be on the same hiring timetable as I was.

I have a large network, an excellent education and very marketable skills, and was open to living in different cities or even abroad. I don't own a house or have kids (my boyfriend and cats are used to going where I go :)), so I'm not really tied down. Still, in my 15 years of working professionally, although I've interviewed hundreds of job candidates, I have had to interview very little. And given the relatively tough market, even for online marketing and e-commerce experts, I was prepared to have a harder than usual time of it.

My own job quest turned out really great--I got several offers and made the right choice--but I know not everyone is so lucky. Nowadays, even the best people are having trouble finding jobs, so I thought sharing some of the tactics that worked for me, might work for you.

My Top 10 Job Search Tips (in no particular order):

1. Work your network and if you don't have one, start building one. This includes utilizing industry organizations and popular tools like LinkedIn.com. It does not, however, include spamming everyone you know. Be strategic (and respectful) about who you contact and why.

In total, I applied for 30 positions. I got at least a phone interview with approx 70% of them, all ones that I found through either my network or recruiters. The other 30% were ones where I didn't have any connection to the company and was basically anonymous. For these, I either submitted my resume through a job board or emailed whatever address was on the posting. I didn't get a single response from these. Zero. Nada. And I have a very good resume that matched the job descriptions.

If you are expecting to get a job purely through resumes sent to [email protected], get ready for a very long wait.

2. Do your homework. There is really no excuse for not being well-prepared for an interview. As someone who has hired many people over the years, there is nothing more annoying than interviewing candidates who didn't even have enough common sense to go to the company's website. 

The more senior the position you're interviewing for, the more research you should do. Read annual reports and press releases and try connecting with current and prior employees and even other job candidates if they're no longer in the running. To prep for in-person interviews, I did a variety of things to make sure I had the background I needed, including creating sample marketing plans and doing SWOT analyses.

Because I'm in the online marketing and e-commerce industry, I wanted to understand what real customers thought of the websites I'd be managing, so I even paid for inexpensive online user testing (I used usertesting.com).

3. Don't post your resume on every job board. Not only does it make you look desperate, but you may undervalue yourself if potential employers and recruiters start seeing your resume everywhere they turn. If you're going to do it, I'd recommend sticking with niche job boards like TheLadders.com or ones for industry organizations like Shop.org or very specific categories within the uber-job sites, so at least if you're there, you don't get overexposed.

4. Speaking of recruiters, use one. There are no doubt hundreds of recruiters that specialize in whatever industry you're in. Their goal is to get the best possible match for the company and for the employee (kind of like a dating service for jobs), so they will have contacts and insights about the prospective opportunity (and about yourself and the other candidates vying for the job) that you most likely will not.

5. Get resume advice and edit, edit, edit. I still think my own resume is too long and I wish I'd spent the money to have it rewritten by a pro.

6. Do the basics. Remember back when you were looking for your first real job? You probably got one of those books on how to interview well and how to write a resume. Well, go back to those days and you'll stand out. Somewhere along the way, sending cover letters, Thank You notes (emails are OK), being on time for interviews (even phoners), and following up, went by the wayside. Don't let this be you. This is not merely politeness for politeness' sake. Every contact is another opportunity to market yourself and remind the employer why s/he should hire you.

7. Be prepared for anything. Not only is the market tough right now, but the companies that are hiring are more nervous than ever of selecting the wrong person. This means that you may have to jump through more hoops than you've had to in the past. You may experience this in the sheer number of internal stakeholders a company asks you to meet with or the number of times they speak with you. I had one hiring company send me to an all-day, private session with a psychiatrist (4-5 hours of tests!) and in total, I had three companies ask me to talk with their corporate psychiatrist and/or leadership evaluator.

8. Know what you want. If you don't know *specifically* what kind of opportunity you want, no one will be able to help you find a job and you won't know how to evaluate when a job is *not* right for you.

9. Ask yourself: Can I provide real value for this organization and how will I do it? If you can't answer this question with real enthusiasm, consider whether it's the right job for you. Getting the job is just the start. You have to live with the work and presumably you want to be excited about it and the mark you'll be able to leave there.

10.  Google yourself. Presume that recruiters, potential employers, and others will look you up on Google to find out more about you. Make sure that you are managing your own online brand presence. If you can, start creating positive press that you control (e.g. start Tweeting or writing your own blog--these are good because they are SEO-friendly).

Hope this helps. :)  Good luck, be patient, and stay positive!

N.B. My Top 10 Job Tips made it into U.S. News & World Report in the article The Hard Truth About Getting Hired.

Want more job tips? Check out my advice on What to Consider When Making a Job Switch.

 

SYP Leaving Ashland, Oregon

After three years, the time has come for me to leave Ashland, Oregon. For those of you who have been tracking my time away from NYC and remember when I first came upon these shores (...er, mountains) and why I decided to make the move out West, you know this has been quite a journey! I have loved it here and especially the beauty of the area, but for a variety of reasons, I've decided to leave my job at Musician's Friend and move to LA to take a new job I'm really excited about. 

I've got some final musings about the big move and what I'll miss, but will save those for future posts.

Hope you'll stick with me once I become a SoCal girl. I think LA will end up feeling just as foreign to this New Yorker in some ways as Ashland did when I first arrived (and, in many ways, still does!). I'm really psyched about it though and going back to a city makes me happy. Plus, I'll be just a half hour to the beach and, probably more importantly, will have a 5-minute commute. Not too many people in LA can claim that!

Anyway, this note is just to thank you for your support and to let you know that after this week, I'll be in LA. I've decided to change my blog name to Displaced New Yorker living in the Southland. What do you think?

*** Update as of 4/20: Sorry for the hiatus. The moving, unpacking, etc. took longer than expected and then I was in NYC for a week. I'm back now and will begin regular posting later this week! Cheers, SYP

Happy 200th Birthday, Darwin: The Aftermath

*** Newsflash: We are continuing our successful work with Darwin as part of The Darwin 150 Project. Science superstars Sean Carroll, E.O. Wilson, Everett Mendelsohn, and Jonathan Weiner are all participating in our free lecture series. Don't miss it! ***

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What started as an innocuous social experiment to get 200 people on Facebook to join in wishing Charles Darwin a Happy 200th Birthday turned into a 2-week sprint to get 200,000 members and as much press and interest as humanly possible.

It ended on Thursday, 2.12.09, Charles Darwin's 200th Birthday, with an amazing, hour-long conference call put together so hundreds of fans could listen live to some of the most brilliant scientists alive today speak about Darwin, his legacy, and his impact on their work.

Here's the mp3 recording (skip forward the first 5 minutes) and the powerpoint presentation from the call! Download DarwinFacebook-2-12-09-PhonePres-1

I am still amazed we pulled it all off. :)

Not only did we hit 200,000 members just in time (11:49pmPT on Wednesday, 2.11.09), but we got a ton of press coverage and support, especially given the short period of time we ran this campaign, including:

* Scientific American's sponsorship and promotion of the group throughout their site and Facebook messages and magazine group. Here's their Darwin material on the site.

* The New York Times Science Blog write-up

* The Wall Street Journal technology blog, Digits write-up

* BBC Science podcast mention and interview with Phil

* Popular techie geek blog Reddit.com write-up (and special Chuck graphic!)

* Indie liberal paper, IrregularTimes.com, gave us a write-up and changed their Darwin Shop to link to our Facebook group

* ThinkGeek.com's sponsorship--they not only gave our members an exclusive discount, but emailed their entire customer file about the group

* Citrix Online who donated the phone lines for the conference call also put out a consumer press release about the group

And support from the scientific community was awesome in part perhaps because this was a chance for them to connect with regular folk and teens--not scientists, not even necessarily science fans who had heard of them before--but people who were just inspired by Darwin in some way and wanted to get involved with this crazy effort. Here's the final lineup of scientists who joined us for our hour-long call on Darwin's Birthday. These are real heavy-hitters. Each spoke for about 5 minutes. It was amazing that we got them all on the phone at the same time! See below for full list.

So what's next? Well, membership is continuing to grow--we're at over 222,000 members now and over 3,500 wall posts, and 70 discussion threads.

The volunteers have decided to keep going throughout the bicentennial year.

Visit http://www.darwin150.com for more info.

Activities:
* Monthly lectures with prominent scientists (Sean Carroll has already agreed as have several others)
* New goal: *1 million* members by November 24, 2009, the 150th Anniversary of Darwin's On the Origin of Species

Do you want to help?

* We need help promoting the group and the lectures
* We need more help monitoring the Facebook page
* We need volunteers to help run local meetups
E-mail Phil if you want to help at [email protected]

Thanks so much to my close friend, Phil Terry, for starting and leading the group. It was a blast to meet and work with such smart people on a common goal for a wonderful cause (long live science!)--many of whom I did not know until this project: Chris Farnet, James Falvo, Colin Purrington, Kurt Koller, Gerardo Camilo, Melea Seward, Jen Frazier, Joe Ranft, Beth-Ellen Keyes, April Posavetz, and 300 others.

FINAL LIST OF SCIENTISTS ON THE CALL

Sean Carroll is Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin, and award-winning author of the new book Remarkable Creatures : Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), The Making of the Fittest (2006, W.W. Norton) and of Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo (2005, W.W. Norton).  

Professor Hidde Ploegh is member of the Whitehead Institute and Professor of Biology at MIT.
One of the world’s leading researchers in immune system behavior, 

John Rennie, appointed editor in chief of Scientific American, is only the seventh editor in chief in the nearly 164-year history of the magazine.

Professor Paul E. Olsen is the Storke Memorial Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University.

Professors Andrew Baker and Peter Glynn, both at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. T

John Dowling is the Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University and the director of the Dowling Lab. Dr. Dowling's current research focuses on the vertebrate retina. 

John Durant is Professor and Director of the MIT Museum.

George Amato is the Director Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History.

Rodolfo Dirzo is Professor of Biology at Stanford University and director of the Dirzo Lab.

Peter Raven is the George Engelmann Professor of Botany, Washington University - St. Louis and President of the Missouri Botanical Garden.    

Pulizer-prize winning Professor Jonathan Weiner spent twenty years as an independent writer, and joined the Columbia School of Journalism in 2005.

Darwin 2009 Facebook Birthday Group Progress

Believe it or not, our Facebook Group dedicated to finding 200,000 people by 2.12.09 to wish Darwin a Happy 200th Birthday is growing by 7.5 members per minute! 

We just passed the 8,000 mark in members!! I think we're going to meet our goal of getting 10,000 members by the end of the day. Wow.

Join the Darwinian fun at http://tinyurl.com/darwin200

You can also find out more at http://www.happybirthdaycharlesdarwin.com

This Facebook Group was only launched a few days ago. Pretty crazy, I know. Here's a fun little chart that Phil put together to show our growth rate. It's the new member per minute growth from 2am to 2pm New York time today, 2.1.09, for the Darwin Birthday group. 

The volunteers for our group--Team 200,000--had our first conference call today to discuss logistics and more ideas to get the word out, as well as thoughts about what we'll actually be able to do for our event on Darwin's Birthday. We're using and sharing Google Docs to keep up with it all. We'll see how that goes.

This is a fun social experiment that has really taken off! Join here: http://tinyurl.com/darwin200

P.S. Did you know Darwin and Lincoln were born on the same day in the same year? February 12, 1809

http://www.happybirthdaycharlesdarwin.com