In the mid 1990s I took a job at a growing startup. The delineation of talent at the office was pretty clear: Four partners (President, VP/Technology, VP/Sales, VP/Marketing) and four employees (Video producer, Graphic Designer, and two Application Developers).Then there was Martin.Martin didn’t work at the home office in Boston, he worked somewhere near the mountains of Utah. For the first few months I only heard rumors of who he was and what he did. I heard he lived in an impossibly small apartment, slept on a small mattress on the floor, and owned only a handful of personal items. I heard h... view article details

The entire job interview process is a bit of a crapshoot. There. I said it.From the endless networking and formal application process to interviewing with multiple people and negotiating your salary, there are a lot of things we’re told we “should do.” The problem is, if you don’t end up getting the job, you usually have no idea why.Did I lack the proper experience?Was my outfit too formal or too casual?Did I confuse the third interviewer with my Google Android analogy?Did I have a rogue piece of salad stuck in my teeth from lunch?Did I just get beat out by a better candidate?It’s an environme... view article details

Job Hunting & Zombies? Maybe it's the zombies. When interviewing young professionals just out of college, one of my favorite questions to ask is “So, what other companies are you interviewing with?” At first glance, it’s a strange question. In many ways an interview is like a first date, as both parties try and see if there’s a mutual connection. So asking what other companies they are “seeing” is the equivalent of asking who else they’ve been dating.The real reason for the question is to see how focused their job search efforts are. In many cases, their approach to getting a job is l... view article details

Not Using Company Medical Benefits? Negotiate Other Perks Instead When it comes to the topic of negotiation, most people's main focus is on salary. As David Lee Roth reportedly once said, "Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it." However, an increasingly important factor in an overall compensation package is health benefits. According to a 2007 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, since 2001 premiums for family coverage have increased 78%, while wages have risen 19% and inflation has risen 17%. In 2010 the OECD ranked the US #1 in t... view article details

How Masks Can Protect You against the Coronavirus At this point in time, the novel Coronavirus epidemic has impacted the entire world. Despite the pandemic's seriousness, many new hires have started work during the outbreak, so maintaining your new employees' health should be your first priority. Governments around the world are taking precautions to prevent the disease from rapidly spreading through quarantines and temporary closings of businesses. One method of health maintenance that's proven to be cost-effective and easy-to-do during these trying times is wearing masks. ... view article details

A Great Way to Get Your Feet Wet You wake up in the morning on a gorgeous day, throw on a pair of shorts and sandals, and head out to the river in a national park. You hear whitewater rapids rumble in the background, as you lather on suntan lotion. You get ready to put a raft in the river for your trip under the summer sun through a scenic gorge. What a peaceful vacation. But wait - you are not on vacation. You just arrived for work. Such preparations are part of the normal routine for Tom Bashore, a river rafting guide for the Rolling Thunder River Co. in Eastern Tennessee. Bashore was work... view article details

It Starts with the CEO Chief executive officers (CEOs) get paid lots of money for being the top employees in the company. Why do they get paid so much? Like athletes and actors, CEOs provide a level of talent that is required to produce the desired product - in this case, a strongly performing company. The skills and responsibilities that come with the job of CEO are extreme and the number of people who can fill these roles is limited. That is why the market has determined that people with these skills are worth a lot of money to their companies. Only about 20 percent of a CEO's pay is base... view article details

It’s becoming common for job applicants to face questions about their salary expectations, whether when filling out a job application form or during the interview process. While it’s a straightforward question, providing an honest answer about your expectations for your next salary can prove difficult. Communicating a specific number that represents your salary expectations can also be daunting, especially if you’re not sure whether your asking price is going to be above or below what the company expected to pay the person who will fill the role you’ve applied for. If the salary expectation yo... view article details

Check, Please How many times have you stared at your bill at the end of a meal and wondered, "how much should I tip?" There are so many invisible factors that go into determining whether that server gets 10, 15 or 20%. Perhaps the waitress wasn't friendly enough, or the waiter was way too friendly. Maybe the food was late, or maybe you're not sure whether to tip on drinks, knowing most places inflate alcohol prices by 400% to outweigh the costs of a liquor license. For the less mathematically-inclined, this after-dinner math problem can also be exceedingly stressful – armed only with a phone c... view article details

Every day should be a holiday. Yet, at work, only certain days are. At the end of the year, many employees look forward to extra wages, or paid time off, around the holidays. Let’s discuss how employers calculate holiday pay accurately so they can compensate you fairly. Every Day Should Be a Holiday In the United States, employees are not required to be paid during holidays. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employers as a whole provide compensation to their employees for an average of 8 holidays per year: New Year’s Day Easter Memorial Day Independence Day Labor Day... view article details