One of the more interesting ideas floating around these days is giving up. I can’t say I am an expert on this topic, other than to say that I have heard about it at length from others. Not that they have actually bought into the idea; just that they were talking about it.As you all know, I...
Aug 31, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
Probably one of the hardest things to do in life is to define who you are. Are you really your resume?Because we tend to be at companies longer than the members of other discipline areas, the reality of what it is we REALLY do best is not always obvious to us.A very long time ago when one ...
Aug 30, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
I don’t know if any of you feel as I do, but when I have a cold or the flu, it is at once annoying and thoughtful that those who care about us are constantly checking up on us.Thank goodness I’m not sick very often, but when I am I prefer to be left alone during “the cure.” Human beings va...
Aug 29, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
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...
Aug 28, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
I have often been heard to say that your 90-second announcement is a STORY about you. It isn’t a history book. And, it doesn’t have to be detailed.In much the same way, your resume is a story about you. However, being in print, you need to keep in mind that you aren’t there to present it w...
Aug 25, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
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...
Aug 24, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
One of the biggest half-truths in this world is the idea of saving your business contacts. The truth is that unless you “work” your business contacts they don’t know you exist.Sure, you don’t want to “bother” them, but unless you call once in a while with something they actually can do for...
Aug 23, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
As our organization has gotten better known, each week we get several membership applications without a sponsor indicated. But as all of you know, a sponsor is required.Our first approach is to ask “Who sent you to our website?” Usually that brings up the name of a member. But failing that...
Aug 22, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
I think you will find as you are out and about interviewing, that there are always at least two difficult questions that an interviewer would like to ask you. And, not much will happen during an interview unless you get them out of the way.While the “elephant sitting in the room” varies by...
Aug 21, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
Several years ago I got a note from one of our new members that warmed my heart.He forwarded a note to me with a copy of his resume and as I scrolled through his message I smiled to myself in pride at what a remarkable organization we have created for ourselves.I didn’t actually need yet a...
Aug 18, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
Over the past few years I have had the great pleasure of reconnecting with three very old friends. Not only have I known them each for a long time, but like me, they are getting old.You would think that since all roads lead to Matt Bud, I would long ago have reconnected with everyone I eve...
Aug 17, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
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...
Aug 16, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
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...
Aug 15, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
When asked what I do, my gut reaction is just to say “I do the Matt Bud thing.” In a sense, I don’t know what I do anymore, I just do. You see, I have been at it a while and I don’t tend to spend a lot of time thinking about it. (Frankly, I don’t have a lot of time TO think about it.)To a ...
Aug 14, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
I don’t know if any of you remember the movie Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, but Raymond had a method for dealing with his pain. He kept a journal. Anytime someone hurt him, he wrote it down in his book.I don’t remember if he ever referred to his book or reread it for enterta...
Aug 11, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
Thus begins Moby Dick. Of course, I am more likely to say: “You can call me anything you like as long as it’s not late for dinner.”I have always believed that what YOU call yourself and what you want others to call you is one of the most important pieces of information you can know about s...
Aug 10, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
One of the hardest things to do during a job search or even during a difficult time at work is keeping yourself energized and positive. Here again is another example of how our basic honesty as financial folks gets in the way of our success.If you ask a financial guy how he is doing, you t...
Aug 09, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
People rarely ask or even want to know why the sky is blue or why the sun comes up in the east and not the west. And, when you are sitting in an interview, these are not questions you need to have answers for.The difficult thing to determine when the rubber finally meets the road is what n...
Aug 08, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
If there is anything those of you who have ever been engaged in a job search have learned is that NO ONE ever has enough friends.Although I count all 35,000 of you as friends of mine, I still continue every day to try to make a few new friends.It is almost sad in a way that networking beca...
Aug 07, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
I know it may sound strange coming from someone publishing hundreds of pages of job leads a month, but job leads are overrated.If you are over the age of 40 and all you are doing is answering job leads in our newsletter or from any of the well respected jobs sites, you may as well be writi...
Aug 04, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG
There is nothing harder than handling a negotiation that involves your own personal finances.We have all been through tough negotiations that stood to benefit the firms for which we have worked, but nothing can create more stress than when the negotiations involve our own salary or severan...
Aug 03, 2022
By Matt Bud, The FENG