Tesar-Reynes

Yesterday Tony gave a guest lecture at Columbia. The class, called Marketing Yourself, teaches students how to do exactly that – market themselves to future employers. Teachers focus on helping students build their own personal brand, with the end goal of placing us in rewarding internships and entry-level jobs.

Tony’s first piece of advice, that we had the distinct pleasure of “entering the worst job market in the past twenty years,” was the exact kind of refreshing no B.S. assessment you can come to expect from Tony.

I think the class appreciated him being honest with us. We read the headlines. We know the economy is in shambles. We are, a little bit, scared.

But Tony tempered his advice with this – One, it’s better to be realistic. As employees just …

About every two months I get asked by one of my candidates whether it’s better to write an e-mail or a handwritten thank you note to someone after an interview. The people who ask this question tend to fall into one of three groups: they are over 40, they’re very concerned about relationships, or they came out of public relations.

I can argue the cause from either side. I personally feel that e-mail is the currency of communications today. I do think any form of IM or twitter is far too informal. On the other side of the coin, a handwritten note shows an extra sense of caring and work to produce the document.

In the final analysis, I always try and listen to the …

I was talking to a friend of mine who was interviewing for a senior vice president position in corporate communications.

He was steaming mad. The company had flown him into their town the night before the interview and put him up in a nice hotel. The next morning he took a cab to their location. When he tried to check in, security did not have him on their list so he had to wait in the lobby 20 minutes.

Eventually he was escorted by a junior HR person to the first appointment. He then had to wait 15 minutes for his person to finish a meeting. The interview went fine. He was then told to wait in a chair in the hall for someone to pick him up for the next interview. And so it went.

At lunch, …