Raanan Avidor

Crisis management is a very interesting subject. I don’t think you can learn it, but what you can do is analyze how crisis were managed in the past.

Right now I follow two cases

• Shel Israel
• Google and HuddleChat

The stories are very different and are not important for this post.

I think most crisis can be prevented, but we are human. We make mistakes. Some mistakes leads to crisis. There are crisis that happens to us, they are not always reaction to our actions.

I think the main problem with crisis management is that they scare us, so we go with our instincts, and fear leads to the fight or flight response while we should take another path.

The question is what do you do when you know you have a crisis in your lap.

First of all, don’t create a crisis in the first place (unless you want to) (easier said then done). Invest some time in thinking like a paranoid. “How can this harm me?”. “How should I protect myself”. Evaluate the risks.
If you did create a crisis:

• Evaluate if you can delay your reaction for a few minutes
• sit down
• Inhale
• Exhale
• Inhale
• Exhale (crisis can be very stressing)
• calm down
• think with your brain and not your guts what do you want to do, what are your goals
• Any action taken from now on concerning this crisis should be viewed in the context your goals
• Evaluate your goals hourly/daily/weekly
• Be polite
• Be firm (sharks can smell blood and/or fear)

And remember, this too shall pass

There is a lot of effort invested in taking web applications offline.

• Mozilla is doing it with Prism
• Adobe with AIR
• Microsoft with Silverlight and
• Google with Google Gears.

I know that the offline feature is only one feature in an whole set, but they all emphasize this point and my point is that no application is an island.
Why do I need an offline application? Can I work offline? Can I write this post offline?
I need to find data, to check facts, to find URIs. I need to find from where the phrase “No man is an island” comes from and link back to it.
How will a single (or a set of) application(s) help me? Can I download the internet with the offline application? Can I download my social network?
When I work I need to be online. If I am offline the only application I need is NotePad. What happens if I am offline and not at home/office and  I want to work? I take a laptop and head to the nearest coffee shop with free wireless network and start to work. Because no application is an island and no man either.

Everybody has interests in the job hunting “game”.

Let’s simplify it, in the real world there are much more interests at play here:

• You want the best job with the as much money and other benefits as you can get.
• The companies wants the best workers at a minimum price (minimum is not the lowest; they don’t want to loss you quickly).
• The employment agency want to find as fast as possible workers for the companies to cash in as much as they can. They compete on both the workers and the companies with other employment agency. The employment agency interests are more connected to the companies’ interests, usually, each company has multiple open posts per year, and you, as a job seeker, are in the market once every few years.

The bright side of the story is the fact that it is not a zero sum game, if you get a job, every body wins.

Timing is always important, some will say timing is everything and they are probably right.
When you are looking for a new position your goal is to bring as many companies to the finish line simultaneously.  You want as many options available as possible. You don’t want to sign the first contract just because it is the first one, or only one on the table. On the other hand, you don’t want to dismiss a contract just because it’s the first and/or only on the table. How can you know if this is the last contract? And how can you know that the next one will be better? So it’s a question of balancing, speeding up one company, slowing down another. It is completely legit to tell a company that you are close to closing a deal with another company, or on the other hand say that you need a day or two to think about something. But remember, there might be prices to pay if you use those techniques, so you need to be very subtle. In the end never forget that there is a range of reasons why to choose one or another company (or in other words, it’s not all just about the money).

A few days go by, some more interviews, some more “it is us, not you” letters, more phones and e-mails and then you get the phone asking you to come and sign the contract.
Obviously you ask to see the contract before you sign it, so they send it to you by e-mail, you open the attachment, a heavy attachment, and it is a long contract.
This contract represents a lot of money. Your annual income multiplied by the number of years you are going to work there. A lot of money.
When you’ll ask questions you will usually be told that it is a standard contract. My usual answer is that I am not a standard guy. The same way that I will not buy a house without taking the contract to a lawyer because it is a standard contract, I will not sign an employment contract without taking it to a layer because it is a standard contract.

I’m not a lawyer (thanks god), but I’m not completely stupid, and yet, when reading a contract I understand most of the words and some of the content. I think I know why lawyers can not write a contract in a simple language, if it will be in a simple language you will understand that there is no reason to pay them so much money.

There is one a advantage I can think of to a standard contract: you can almost always only benefit from the changes.

Now it is Ping Pong time, while the contract does the round trips it is time to haste other contracts with other companies. It is also the time to use your bargaining skills; it is not for nothing that it is called the labor market.

And in the end all is done, there is a finished contract. Like in every new beginning there are hopes and worries, butterflies in your stomach,  as you go to the office you will soon call yours.
You sign on a copy, you sign on another copy, your new boss sign them both. One signed contract for you. One signed contract for the company. This is your receipt, this is my receipt, and this is a receipt that you got your receipt. This is it, you are a new employee. Everyone is smiling at everyone. It was not easy. Closing the last details, like starting date. It is tame to celebrate.

One day you get a phone call from the Human Resources representative and you try to schedule a meeting with the director/VP/CEO/Whoever (depending on the size of the company and/or the position you are looking for), you open your diary, and make the appointment.
The day of the appointment arrives. What did I wear the last time? Who cares?
You are on your way, arriving five minutes ahead of time. You wait for half an hour (some one at the reception tells you that your interviewer is very busy). You enter the room and after a short small talk you, again, half automatically, spill the story of your life, only this time the other side is less interested in the technical side and more on the personal side, who you are. Obviously you have very intelligent questions about the company; you did not waste your time last night studying it for two hours (again). After an hour the meeting ends, your interviewer would have loved to continue this meeting but he is late for his next appointment. And again, you crawl into your car, looking for a place with drinkable coffee.
I have promised an idea for a start-up; actually a micro start-up. A Job Hunt Management Application (JoHuMa). An application where I could manage all the information about my job hunt activity. I can’t do it with a dairy and I hate Excel. I need a place where I can access

• (yet another) resume generator (in hResume format please) that I can send as a link with a download as Word document and a printable version (for the stupid people who need to chop trees)
• A list of people/companies I’ve sent my resume too with an option to write a follow up
• A calendar for meetings
• A list of companies I’ve interviewed at with address with a link to a map + normal coffee shop nearby , contact person name + phone + image, referral to the company, a summary of every interview (data, place, with whom, what did I wear, summary)
• Email reminders
• The usual entourage – blog, forum
• Money you will get from ads/cooperation with one of many services that exists around job hunting

A very simple design + PHP + mySQL + JavaScript. I’m more then willing to be your developer, but I will do it for money, lots of money + a cut in the business

It has been a few days since the interview at (enter company name here), and you have almost forgot about them. Since the interview you had a few other interviews with other companies.

Now one of a few things will happen:

1^st scenario: The company vanishes. You do not hear from them. They do not call/email/text you. And you do not really care, you went to the interview only to brush your interview skills, it has been a while since your last interview. But still, should you call them? How does it look if you will call them? How does it look if you will not call them? Should you care? No.

2^nd Scenario: You get the letter. You do not really need to open it to know what is inside. If they want you they will call you and invite you for another interview (and another and another and another). I think they all copied the letter from the same place (did they Google it and clicked the “I feel lucky button”?). It is always something along the line of “It is not you it is us.” kind of letter. O.K. it is you. No, I do not believe it you, it is me. But why? Why? Give me a reason? Did I flanked the exam? Am I over qualified? Under qualified? Did I sweat like a pig at the talk with the Human Resources representative? Was I dressed inappropriately? Was I over dressed? Did I asked for too much money? Reason, give me a reason!

I know the companies have no reason to give me a reason. I know it is in the companies interests to hide the reason (they do not want to be sued) . But do a dude a favor, give him a bone, a hint, something.

The 3^rd Scenario is another interview or the 2^nd date where you get to meet the parents. I’ll write about it on the next post, plus I have an idea for a start up (who does not have one?), I will pitch it to you, bu first I have to think about it.

The truth? I have no idea, never been on a blind date. I am lucky and I have married Orly, my high school sweetheart. But I have good imagination, and besides, everybody say it is an atrocity.

So you have sent your resume to your family/friends/high school chums/college mates/facebook friends/linkedin contacts/neighbors/everybody and the answers are starting to trickle in.
Some of them, unfortunately, say something like: “thank you for inquiry, we regret, but right now there is no position suitable for your talents, but we have kept your resume and we will gladly get back to you if such a position will be available.”, will not happen , or in other words, “We are not looking, your resume is in the trash, do not bother to send it again in the future.”

There are two other kinds of answers, one from employment services companies and one from companies seeking employees; both want to have an interview.

We will start with the easy one. The interviews with an employment services companies representative.
You set the date and time. You arrive, trying to get there exactly five minutes ahead of time.
You arrive to the reception area, “Do you want to drink something?” “No.” you get a pen and a questioner, once again you need to spill all the information. Name, address, telephone, email. Sometimes I wish for an RFID and a little machine that will do a CTRL + C CTRL + V from it.
You finish filling the paper. You give it to the receptionist and you are asked “You are sure you don’t want to drink something?” “No.” “O.K. Sit here, someone will be with you shortly.”
This is it, now starts the part that is a lot like a blind date.
Enters a nice girl (is it always a girl?).
“Hi, I’m Bar.” smile, handshake “Do you want to drink something? Hot? Cold?” “Yes, a glass of water will be great.”
Some more small talk, you enter her room, she sits behind her desk with lots of printed paper in her hands, you try to see what she has there (the curiosity has killed the cat, but he has nine souls) and you see among other things a pint of the data you’ve entered in their site, the questioner you’ve just filled and some empty pages.
Bar starts to talk about their company, the system, their method, etc. for about five minutes and then she gets to the question you learn so much to hate. “So tell me about yourself…” And you need to talk and talk and talk. And it is not that I hate to talk, on the contrary, I love to talk (and to write), even (especially?) about myself. But again and again and again. Bar starts to write in those papers she has, and the curiosity is killing you, you want to peep, but you know you should not. The conversation flows and so are you, sweating like a pig. At the end Bar promise you to send your resume to some promising companies and you promise to stay in touch. Bar walks you to the door. You are out of the building, squeezed like a lemon, trying to guess what impression you’ve left and what is Bar thinking of you. All you have the energy to do right now is finding a decent cup of coffee.

After some blood, toil, tears, and sweat you have your polished resume at hand and you think that you are ready for the next step.
No, you have not yet arrived to the job interviews step, there are a few more things to do.

First of all you needs to send your resume to the whole world, but in the discreet way.
You need to send it to your family, friends, high school chums, college mates, facebook friends, linkedin contacts, neighbors, everybody.
And you need to do it with discretion.

You know that there is a chance that you will not find your dream work through friends, because when all is said and done there are more companies then companions. The solution - employment services.
You remember that you once received an e-mail, a huge list of employment service companies, and you know you have saved it somewhere. It is time to search for it.
Wow! What a long list!
You know that 90% of those companies are not worth the price of their domain name, and that the 20/80 law works here as well. 20% of the companies holds 80% of the positions. Now all you have to do is find those 20%.
So now from that huge list you need to find the top 3-4 companies, that hold your dream position.
You invest some time (a lot actually) and find those 3-4 companies.
Then you add 2-3 companies, because somebody told you that employment service company is the best there is, and they found their current dream position through them.

O.K. Prepare yourself to enjoy an evening (and night?) in those companies sites before you will see a single position.
In every site there is a form to fill, and next to this form your IRS form looks like a piece of cake.
They all ask for the same information, but each one of them asks for it in a slightly different way.
You know, you know, it’s for your benefit, to get only relevant positions, but it is still a nightmare.

I have a small suggestion to those employment service companies. There is a open microformat standard for resumes, it is called hResume. You can all use this standard and I (the end user) will be able to import a single resume from site to site. If making my life easier is not one of your goals, maybe the companies who uses (multiple) employment service companies to find workers will see the benefit of using a single resume format.