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Salary Questions?
Quick reminder: Jim Hopkinson’s Hired Guns Academy class on becoming a salary negotiation rockstar is next Wednesday, March 21 — and he’s taking your salary questions via email in the meantime.
Here’s a sample of Jim’s often counterintuitive advice on getting the salary you want and deserve:
Why Your Employees Want Partnership, Not Ownership
The interwebs lit up yesterday when the now-famous Greg Smith blasted his soon-to-be-former employer, Goldman Sachs, for losing its culture and turning into something “toxic and destructive.”
Most of the chatter has been about the negative state of the financial securities industry and whether or not the guy will ever work in this town again. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan, felt so bad for Goldman that he issued a memo telling his bankers not to attack Goldman while it was taking it on the chin.
But under this news lies a bigger story. And it may not be one that many calcified American companies are ready for…your employees have a voice. And if provoked, they will use it. Read More →
Why I Went Out on My Own
There seems to be a series of confessionals going on — one from an ex-employee of Goldman Sachs and another from Google and likely more to come — so I thought it might be the right time for me to join in. This is not a rant. I hope it might be an inspiration. Read More →
Bullet Points: Where the Recruiters Are
- For a recent study, the social-recruiting company Bullhorn Reach analyzed the way the 35,000 recruiters on its network use the “big three” of social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook). It’s probably no surprise that LinkedIn is the runaway favorite, used by 98% of the recruiters who have connected their Bullhorn account with any social-media account at all. Twitter and Facebook are used by only 42% and 33% of the recruiters, respectively. Whether or not this means that recruiters are hunting in the wrong place remains to be seen, but we bet that you’ll see more and more recruiters at least trying to prospect more on Facebook and Twitter in the future.
- The Daily Herald of Everett, WA, considers a job interview on Skype a real downer: “Because of the awkward nature of the on-screen interaction and lack of flow in the conversation, Skype is a good tool for employers who want a cost-saving way to rule out candidates. However, the job candidate is almost always at a disadvantage.”
- “There is only one thing you need to measure when it comes to being a perm or search recruiter… How many of your candidates are sitting opposite your clients.” [Greg Savage]
- Ex-Goldman man Greg Smith may have made “muppets” famous, but the New York Times points out that lots of businesses have less-than-kind terms for their customers.
When Is It OK to Talk Down Your Former Employer in Public?
As you’ve probably read, Greg Smith, an executive director at Goldman Sachs, brought a lightning bolt of bad publicity down on his employer this morning via a high-minded letter in the New York Times. Here’s a sample: “It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success…. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years.” As quitting methods go, it may not have been as splashy as bringing in your own brass band, but it definitely had an enormous impact. And everyone loved it, or at least loved talking about it. Read More →
Salary Negotiation Questions? Jim Hopkinson, The Hired Guns Negotiation Coach, Has Answers!
The Hired Guns blogger and coach Jim Hopkinson debuts his new Academy class, Become a Salary Negotiation Rockstar, next Wednesday, March 21st.
Over the next few days, Jim will be answering the burning questions you might have about how to get all the Benjamins you deserve — things like the prep work you should do to position yourself for a raise, the best time to ask for a bump in pay, how to negotiate extra perks like vacation days and signing bonuses when you switch jobs, and even tips for freelancers. So fire away.
Jim isn’t only a negotiation pro, but he’s also worked in digital for nearly his whole career, at companies that include Wired and ESPN. So he really has a good handle on our space.
Leave your questions in the comments or fire away on our Facebook page. If you’d rather be anonymous, then email us — your secrets are safe with us.
Why Tech Won’t Talk—and How You Can Get Them to Open Up
In my last post, I listed nine questions to ask the digital team to help you understand what they do, and why and how they do it. And the first question we got back was, “What if the techs aren’t talking?” Well, hmmm, I thought. I guess that does happen — and I rashly promised a follow-up post, completely breaking my rule about not making a promise for delivery before fully clarifying the specs, by the way.
A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a Hired Guns event to preview and critique various Guns’ SXSW presentations. I was overwhelmed by the positive energy in the room and the level of truly supportive and constructive criticism. These Guns were flat-out awesome stars in the digital field, and there was tons of feedback. I thought, “Wait a second — we techies share plenty!” So what gives? Why were these folks sharing so freely, while there’s still lots of non-digital people out there complaining that their digital teams don’t do the same? Read More →
Your Website Is Not a Swiss Army Knife
Today we’d like to welcome to the blog Jonathan Hills, a product developer and strategist who will be blogging about ways that traditional companies, particularly media brands, can reinvent themselves in the digital age.
For army rangers, casual campers, and budding serial killers, the Swiss Army knife is an attractive tool. Knowing that you have a single product at your disposal that can do a variety of tasks averagely well is quite comforting. It represents a highly portable way to get by in an emergency — which clearly has value. But given the option, it’s unlikely that a three-inch nail file would be your number-one tool of choice if you needed to skin an otter — or whatever people do when they’re surviving in the wild.
One of the biggest mistakes traditional media companies make when working on their digital product strategy is to fall into a Swiss Army knife mindset. It usually goes something like this: Read More →
THG @SXSW: Using Content Marketing to Put Brands and Companies on Top
An analyst at Altimeter Group, Rebecca Lieb covers digital advertising and media. For a list of all the Hired Guns presenting this year, check out our SXSW-prep post.
Book Signing for Content Marketing
Saturday, March 10, 1:30
Author: Rebecca Lieb
Why did you want to speak at SXSW?
Content marketing is a concept as old as the hills, but it’s just beginning to appear on digital-marketing radar screens (thanks, social media!). It’s also my passion: I not only wrote a book on it, but also just published a research report about how enterprises are adapting to its challenges. Contrary to popular believe, it’s NOT free! Read More →
THG @SXSW: Keep Your Best Talent on Your Side
In the Q+A below, Allison Hemming explains why it’s a mistake for companies to manage as if their top talent is going to be working directly for them forever, or that the relationship must end once they take a new job. Check out our SXSW-prep post for a list of all Hired Guns presenters and events, along with links to more profiles.
Manage With Care: Employees Are Your New Clients
Saturday, March 10, 11:00
Book signing
Saturday, March 10, 11:45
Presenter: Allison Hemming
Your Twesume
(your resume in 140 characters or less):
Top Gun at The Hired Guns, the best darn digital talent agency in NYC. Still trying to still change the world, one career at a time.
Why did you want to speak at SXSW?
I’ve gone to a bunch of conferences this year on building startups, and everyone from VCs to CEOs complains about the same thing: finding great talent. I have a POV on how to fix this, and it’s not the obvious choice. Read More →
