EDITORIALS

Although it is certainly true that it isn’t possible to sell from an empty wagon, the difficulty of selling from one that is full is greatly under rated. As senior financial professionals, and as individuals not seriously trained in sales, we frequently find ourselves in the position of...

Okay sports fans, the new year has begun. It is now January 18th and time is slipping away. At the moment this year promises to be filled with as many challenges as last year, but don’t allow that stop you. (Sadly, the light at the end of the tunnel may indeed be a speeding locomotive.)Alt...

One of our very most important audiences are members of the search community who are registered as Friends of The FENG. When you communicate with these folks, briefly, you are expected to behave yourself. Members of The FENG are expected to only respond when reasonably qualified. Wha...

I always find it interesting during 90-second announcements how nearly identical are the descriptions of “ideal jobs” when compared to the one a member has most recently left. Since we are all financial folks, I guess it shouldn’t surprise me. As history based individuals, it is hard to...

Any more than someone would write “Please Broadcast Widely” at the top of their resume, putting “Confidential” is just as silly in many ways. I’m sure that this is written up somewhere as the appropriate thing to do, so I am not faulting anyone who does it, but it really is unnecessary....

The development of a resume can be a long and involved process. There are so many ideas that others have to share with you, and each person with whom you speak has their own perspective about what is right and what is wrong. Your resume is also in part an historical document charged wit...

I don’t know if you remember “Rain Man” with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, but there was one scene where Tom Cruise either hit or yelled at Dustin Hoffman and Dustin proceeded to write it down in a notebook he carried. He was very meticulous in noting the “offense” and the date and time.I...

There was a time, I suppose, when it was really hard to get back to people. Let’s say someone sent you a smoke signal. I guess you would first have to build a fire, and a smoky one at that. If they sent you a message towards the end of the day, would you really have enough time to respo...

When asked how your job search is going or your job, the best answer is “unbelievable.”Unbelievable can of course mean in reality good or bad. If things are really really bad, they are certainly unbelievable. And if you are pinching yourself to make sure you are awake, they could also be u...

One of the core values of being a member of The FENG is that we share job leads.There are a lot of reasons why we do this, and it isn’t just because it is a nice thing to do. It is actually a very smart thing to do. The only problem is that it is apparently a counter-intuitive idea. So, fo...

I am more often than not surprised by the amount of time it can take for a company to develop a position description and yet at the end of the day not really be able to capture the essential elements for a particular opportunity.I suppose in part this is because senior level position descr...

It is a sad fact that most men don’t appreciate getting unsolicited advice. That said, there are even those among us who reject advice they have asked for out of hand and in a dismissive way.The giving and receiving of advice is always a delicate balance. Even though probably 75% of my mai...

For those of you who are sailing fans and/or history buffs and saw the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of The World, there was a scene where Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany were having a heated argument about the merits of flogging. The comment made by the captain was that the good...

In late December, there as an article in The Wall Street Journal titled “How Kindness Echoes Around Our Worlds.” My initial reaction was they had found out about us. But, no, we weren’t mentioned.As I hope you know, The FENG is an unusual organization. We are a society of friends, not a “f...

During the upcoming New Years Day holiday weekend, a great opportunity will be presenting itself to you in the form of gatherings of those who know you (and presumably love you).In order to enjoy the greatest benefit, you need to paint on a smile. I don’t care if you have been out of work ...

In a sense, a sailboat isn’t a complicated machine. Compared with other means of transportation such as cars or planes, there really isn’t much to a sailboat. Sails are pretty simple, and if you are like me, you don’t use the motor if you can avoid it. (We only burned 50 gallons of diesel ...

I have been known to get seriously silly at times. (I know this will come as a great shock to all of you.)Back in the old days when I was able to stay up late, Saturday Night Live had an ongoing skit about an individual named Pat. Over the course of the seasons or season it was on (as I in...

One of the very nicest parts of the holiday season is getting greeting cards, both email and physical, from the many people that I know.The good ones are filled with newsy information about what the sender has been doing for the past 12 months and perhaps what their plans are for the year ...

I don’t know if all of you are old enough to remember the CB Radio craze, but it was a fun period in America. I assume no one still uses this technology, but for most of us it is a fond memory. I remember how all of us used to talk about our “handles,” and putting the antenna on the top of...

Since much of what we do in The FENG is about job search, I thought it might be appropriate to make a few suggestions to everyone about what to do when you do actually find a new job.I’ll be blunt. Job search is primarily filled with uncertainty, highs and lows and activities like making n...

From time to time, someone tells me that networking as an approach is falling into disfavor. (If it does, we will have to change the name of our networking group, and I am at a loss as to how to come up with another name!)When people talk about networking in this way, the networking that t...