Tesar-Reynes

Tony forwarded an article to me the other day called “War of the Ages – how a host of new agency realities are pushing boomers out before their time.”

The article talks about how older (read 40-60 year old) executives are being pushed out of ad agencies because of their lack of digital experience.

Ageism, as the article states, is becoming a real problem. There are two sides to this argument, I suppose.

On the one hand, it’s the fault of executives who are not adapting to the times. As people of digital disciplines become more relevant, you can’t blame agencies for placing more value on that skill set.

On the other hand, while agencies are profiting from digital advertisers, they are losing the years of client management experience and long-term …

When I am interviewing a candidate that has been out of work for a while, or they have been consulting or in a family business, they may be unclear about their market worth.  I fully believe that this is one of the greatest services that I can give them as a recruiter.  I am in the unique position to assay what their comparable worth would be in today’s market.

Years of experience

Years of experience are a good approximate of comparable worth.  Unfortunately, it depends on the quality of the job and the environment in which it takes place.  One person and a small beverage company does not have the same value as someone who was in a company like Pepsi or …

One of the very best candidates I ever met on a very tough search happened to be a Hawaiian woman, who was six foot two and about 230 pounds.

The moment I met her, I knew I’d found the very right person for the wrong job.  It had nothing to do with her gender or origin.  It had everything to do with her size.  The hiring manager was five foot two with a minor Napoleon complex.

One of the toughest things I have to do as a person that is executing a search is to find people that will really fit.  Not just the job spec, but the boss.  I am constantly in awe of what I don’t know when I start a new search.  Some people want a higher clone of themselves, …

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I watched the show Mad Men a few times last year. I was struck by the fact there was such a high level of congruence to my memories in my early career. I went to my first ad agency in the late 60s. And it was everything that the client side people said it was… except they worked damn hard.

I remember the martini lunches, the funny-smelling smoke on the creative floor and the blatant sex that seemed to be a precursor to the next decade. I also got wise to the fact that it was pretty much a white Protestant men’s club. The other thing that struck me, after four years at Notre Dame and a couple years …

Image by Word Freak via Flickr
In today’s world it is important to keep your skills as sharp as possible.  One of the more painless ways that I found to do this was to subscribe to Lynda.com.  It is a site that I have used for over a year to sharpen my skills in Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop and in my conversion to Apple’s new OS, Leopard.

The neat thing about the site is you are allowed to sample.  The first couple of lessons are free in any of the software that they are teaching.  This gives a good flavor for the …

I came upon an article in AdAge last night discussing the four keys to digital branding. They were:

1) Represent and demonstrate comprehensiveness in your market.

2) Make some aspect of life easier for consumers.

3) Keep the brand experience fun, engaging and worth sharing.

4) Earn the trust of your consumers.

The writer, Allen Adamson, proceeds to give examples of different companies who exemplify each principle. He also mentions Facebook as an example of a company that does not, in one particular instance. He notes an application I’ve never heard of called Facebook Beacon.

As a college senior who eagerly checks his Facebook account at every free …

I have found that there seems to be an increasing amount of resumes that I receive that have at least some dates missing in them.  Typically, they fall into two areas.  The first is leaving out dates of graduation from college.  This second is the truncation of the career history, where the first item that appears is at the director or vice presidential level.

Some people are concerned about their age; others feel they have had too many jobs or a dodgy career track. When I ask for the additional information, many are combative.  What they don’t understand is the fact that I have to understand their entire career before I can present them to a client.  Invariably, I asked the most negative, “If the situation were reversed and I was working for you, would you accept any resumes from me with dates missing?”

It …