EDITORIALS

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...

Based on the resumes I see on a daily basis, I am not sure there is full appreciation for the amount of time any reviewer gives to your carefully crafted opus.The sad truth is that unless the information presented has a clarity greater than the other documents in that stack of 100-500, it ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...