Are they kidding?

The Taleo blog reports on a report from Money Magazine on the best jobs in America for people looking for change in their careers. They present 4 meta categories that resemble daytime television programming: Young & Restless, Returning Parent (they really mean “Mom” but that wouldn’t be very PC), From the Military to the private sector, and my favorite – Over 50. I have thoughts about the selections, especially (ahem) the Over 50 category but the real issue for me is the coarse-grained categorization. Given the tensions of the journalistic format I can understand the desire to make this snappy.

What really surprises me is that this same broad brush is picked up by Taleo:

“For recruiters, this is a nice piece of research to help target a specific candidate pool. Looking for Sales Reps? Find moms looking to return to the workplace. Need a Field Service Engineer? Identify someone retiring from the military, and so on.”

“Proactive, targeted candidate sourcing and the use of automated solutions can go a long way towards filling open positions with talented employees who will stay with your organization.” Link.

That’s targeting? This is the opposite of what Enterprise 2.0 promises. We shouldn’t use our tools for incredibly broad generalizations that slot candidates based on generalized demographics. These are important categorizations but by themselves they have no more depth than a sound bite. Being in the over 50 category and coming off my fresh experience in the market I’m offended when I’m contacted for positions that have no bearing on my experience or career trajectory but are the result of some sloppy match based on a single data point about me. At least no one suggested (yet) that I should consider teaching, pension administration or medical records coding – all great choices for an Old Guy, apparently.

Thomas should send Taleo his copy of the Cluetrain Manifesto.

Lack of Signal

It’s a bit of irony that the day RIM’s service interruption caused angst across North America was the same day my former employer turned off my Blackberry service. It gave me a chance to reflect on just how life-changing pervasive connectivity was for me. I was an early adopter of both email and Blackberries, and I’m one for whom the ability to work away from the desk was in liberating. My work-life balance improved greatly by being able to communicate remotely. During 9/11 and the eastern seaboard blackout my Berry was the device that remained functional and allowed me to stay in touch with the people and things that needed me.

My initial discomfort at being untethered has resolved itself. I’ve stopped considering upgrading my personal service to cover it – it’s not too costly, but I’m not convinced that I need it as a mere mortal. Most of my family and friends are nowhere near as wired as I. It does have me thinking about how to best wrangle my multiple personal email accounts – I had everything forwarded to my Berry and I miss the convenience, I need to re-jigger that setup.

After next week my notice period ends and I begin collecting severance. Over the last month my days have established a new rhythm that I’m happy with. It begins early with the flurry of getting the kids up and out for school. I follow by reading the physical news while I eat and then I’m able to move to the online world for emails and feeds. Research follows and after that the day is mine.

When my daughter was born I took a three-month leave to stay with her after my wife returned to work. It was the first extended absence from my job I’d had in 15 years and it looked like an incredibly long time but it was over in an apparent instant. While I’m entertaining a certain low-level anxiety about my next career phase, I am aware of that reality and trying to savor this time. Maybe the lack of signal will help.

Espionage? Intrigue?

Oracle sues SAP for “corporate theft on a grand scale”, according to Reuters.

Give the man a hand

Double Dubs reaches the 2-year mark with systematicHR! If you’re reading this you probably know about this leading HR blog. If not, do yourself a favor and go.

Underwhelming

I use Google’s personalized home page. This week Google enabled ‘themes’, an interesting break in their graphical standards. I find myself wondering why they went forward with this – notwithstanding a few playful tricks they’re little more than window dressing. The selections are limited and lean towards the cartoonish. I’m not critiquing the designs; my point is that if Google is going to allow us to tweak the UI I’d like to see more substantial controls like allowing modules to span multiple columns for better readability or changing font sizes, backgrounds or colors on a per-module basis.

Persona grata

Kathy Sierra creates personas for applications. Not only amusing as hell, but insightful as always.

Maybe a little too well?

Google liked me enough to ask me if I’d move to California instead of working in New York. They claim the NY office just isn’t ready for my skills yet. Tempting, yes…but it just isn’t in the cards.

On to the next round!

It appears I did well in my first interview with Google. While the NY recruiting committee hasn’t met yet, I’m assured that it’s a green light and the next round is likely to be be a trip to Mountain View to meet the home office people. Although their process can be pretty lengthy and I’m just at the beginning, that’s very exciting.

Unsafe at any speed

Two weeks ago I picked up Audi’s new Q7 SUV. It’s my third Audi, having had an A6 sedan for the last few years and the A6 Avant (wagon) prior to that, along with various euro-SUVs. I love Audis and the Q7 seems to be a great vehicle on all counts except for one glaring problem. German automakers like Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have adopted a master controller for many functions in the car. Audi has MMI, BMW has iDrive and Mercedes calls it COMAND. The thinking is to provide access to controls and settings while reducing the ‘confusing’ array of dashboard controls.

Changing a radio station or CD track requires multiple steps. At worst the driver needs to select a function via one of eight buttons surrounding a knob, turn the knob to select a menu item and press the knob to select the function. If you are already in that function, you eliminate the intial button push but still have the turn and click. I have to take my eyes off the road frequently to check my selections. No matter how close to my line of sight the display is I’m no longer aware of what’s happening around me.

I acknowledge that these systems are known to require either long or steep learning curves. I want to give it a chance, but I hate it. Controls for vehicles need to be direct and avoid visual diversion beyond feedback for aiming at a control. I acknowledge that these systems are known to require either long or steep learning curves. I want to give it a chance, but I hate it. A system that complicates simple actions and requires learning to perform the same functions I perform simply and directly in my other vehicles is flawed and is exposing me to risk. My wife is completely intimidated by it.

Welcome to the job market, Systematic

It’s interesting to be on the consumer side of an industry or service that one has experienced as a provider. I’ve had that experience in the medical/dental/veterinary space, I always end up talking shop with my doctors and now I can’t talk to recruiters without wanting to stick my nose into their process.

I heard today that I’ll be interviewing with Google. Their hiring practices are well documented, NDAs notwithstanding, so that should be an interesting process. I’m talking with a group in my current company (or is it former? I’m still on payroll so current is appropriate) about a strategic sector-level role involving our customer-facing online experience. I’m looking into something at SAP, and have a few other targets to follow up on. And I have no excuse to not paint my kid’s bedrooms now.