There was an article I read a long time ago about the value of experience versus the energy of youth. The premise and conclusion were no surprise to me. Experience has a tendency to win out.While I would gladly concede that Americans have always worshiped youth and that there is inherent p...

Many years ago I had the pleasure of speaking at a quarterly meeting of the Association of International Bank Auditors on the subject of Networking Strategies. As you might expect in any gathering of financial folks, several of those in attendance were members of The FENG.One of the topics...

The story goes that if a frog is thrown into a pot of boiling water he will have the good sense to jump out. On the other hand, if you put a frog in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, he will boil to death. (Please don’t try this at home. I like frogs. I am sure you can verify the ver...

As they say, old habits die hard. Because we believe they work, we do the same things over and over again that we have learned over the course of our careers. Not to say we can’t be retrained, but it is hard.Us financial types find it particularly hard. Part of the reason is that we genera...

It is a sad state of affairs when your presumed skills become obsolete, but like the buggy whip manufacturer of old, your only choice unless you want to become extinct is to adapt.Let’s see, buggy whips are made out of leather, so a good first step would be to define yourself as a leather ...

Looking back on my visualization of middle age when I was in my youth, I must confess the picture currently is a lot different.At the ripe old age of 75, I thought I would share a few thoughts tonight in the hopes that others would be willing to share theirs. Any editorial/notes from membe...

There was an article in The Wall Street Journal in 2013 titled: “Didn’t Get the Job? You’ll Never Know Why” by Lauren Weber. The direct link is: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324423904578523683173841190.html and it is still available!I hope that all of you will take the tim...

Sharing job leads is only one of many counter-intuitive ideas that those of us who have been involved in The FENG for a period of time simply accept as the truth.As I often say, some of the ideas we have developed in The FENG take a little living with before you come to understand how they...

As a season, summer is sure hard to beat.The days are warmer here in the Northeast. The days are also longer. No more getting up when it is pitch black and coming home when it is pitch black. (Winter is so depressing!) And, outdoor activities like sailing, tennis, and golf sure can’t be be...

It has been my observation for many years that most of our members who are in their 40’s and 50’s move from large corporations to middle market ones. The reason, as I have often pointed out is that large corporations don’t hire senior executives except rarely. For good and valid reasons, t...

In my distant past I remember seeing a commercial in which an Abraham Lincoln look alike was sitting in an employment agency office. As the recruiter was flipping through his Rolodex he was telling old Abe that without “that sheepskin” he really wasn’t going anywhere. I guess the same thin...

I was shooting the breeze with a few of my fellow sailors several times this summer and got to thinking about the fact that for most of us, our worst misadventures happened early in our careers as sailors.When I got into sailing in my mid-30’s I started out by taking a course with the Coas...

Making career decisions is never easy. And unfortunately, being a senior financial executive doesn’t make it any easier.In fact, because you are at a point in your career where you have probably held almost all of the appropriate titles for your skills, it is actually harder to be selected...

It is of course true that our own self-interest at times quite naturally overrides our concern for others. If I am drowning, I can’t very well be expected to save someone else. It’s a kind of a “Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs” thing. For example, I find that members are frequently more helpfu...

One of the many fine traditions we have in The FENG is the sharing of job hunting tips.I have to tell you that recently I haven’t been hearing as many job hunting tips as I used to hear. No, it isn’t that I have heard it all. New things are certainly happening. The problem I fear is primar...

The current job market continues to throw a large fog bank over the senior executive job market.Not just us financial types, but all college educated, well experienced executives are struggling with defining who they are and what they do to somehow match what they believe to be the opportu...

It is not unusual, and is perhaps typical, that members of The FENG would like to change industries. I wish I could tell you that this is easy. Unfortunately, I think the phrase “easier said than done” is applicable here.Of course, someone telling me that a project is impossible is always ...

Rising tidesIn chatting with members over the many years I have Chaired The FENG, one hope frequently voiced has been a wish that as the economy improves there would be more jobs. The basic theory is that a rising tide floats all boats. If I wait long enough, it won’t be all that difficult...

I would like to see if we can increase the number of Good News Announcements and job leads that come our way.The two most important things that I hope that all of you are making every effort to share are Good News Announcements and job leads.Good News Announcements let your fellow members ...

Anyone who wants to jump in here and correct me is more than welcome to do so, but I have come to the conclusion that there are a lot of misconceptions about the value of social media in your job search.Let me be clear that I strongly recommend you have as complete a LinkedIn profile as yo...

The published job market isn’t ever as strong as we would like it to be. That said, with 34,000+ members, I would hope we could generate more job leads for our newsletter. A few suggestions follow below.If I may paraphrase Yogi Berra, our politicians have messed up right field so bad I don...