Unofficial Bring My Kid to Work Day

It started yesterday, the cough, the nose blowing, the complaint of his chest hurting. Alas, we've been back to school for 3 weeks so we were due for our first sick day. And a sick day we had. My boy, now in the 4th grade, clearly needed a quiet day, but I didn't think that necessarily meant sitting on the couch watching Clone Wars (although that is awesome too). Instead I brought him along on a customer call in the morning after we dropped off his sister.

I prepped him on where we were going and what business we were visiting (no specifics but it was pretty bad ass for any 9 year old boy to visit). My challenge to him was he would run the meeting for the first 5 minutes so he needed to come up with some good questions about the business.

The client was a great sport at first, chuckling as the first few questions flew out "how many rooms are here", "what time do you open", but then something awesome happened, the business owner shifted in his seat and really started answering without the "this is cute' grin. The questions that grabbed him were "how many employees do you have", how many "widgets" are on the floor right now", "how else do you make money" and "why did you decide to do this"? Wow, seriously, the kid is a natural. The only guidance I gave him was to ask questions he generally wanted an answer to, and he totally nailed it!

Ultimately he excused himself so he could go check out the "widgets" but not before impressing his dear old dad and the business owner with his casual interest in the goings on there. I think that meeting more than made up for a missed day at school, after all the first and best skill (in my opinion) is the ability to engage people and be genuine, to that point the boy did very well.

I've mentioned before that we've done this in the past, but never with these results (do note that I never challenged him to ask questions before either). I'll do this with my daughter soon, on her next sick day, to see how the mind of a soon to be 7 year old does in a Q and A jam, that is definitely something to look forward to.

After the meeting I quizzed him on his Q and A to see if he retained what he learned and to my amazement and delight he retained every answer (and even had a few follow up questions that we may put out there at some point).

Anyway, what a great, albeit unofficial, bring your kid to work day today, I'll do this way more often, after all there are some things you just can't learn in school!

Nice post on Community Banks

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/one-world-with-deepak-chopra/josh-siegel-the-art-of-co_b_5133866.html 

To Interview or not to Interview?

We have all had that wonderfully flattering solicitation from headhunters, you know, the one where they call with a job opportunity in your market that is "just perfect for you". After the initial warm and fuzzy feeling subsides the real questions begin: Should I take the interview? Am I interested in a life changing work realignment? Am I really unhappy where I am?

I suggest that at least once every few years you take on one of these interviews. I received advice very early on in my career to try and interview at least every few years to keep your interviewing skills sharp. What I learned was that not only was this a good practice but there were other benefits as well.

First you have the benefit of seeing what the most up to date interviewers are looking for. Is your current compensation package comparable to what is currently being offered in the marketplace? Vacation time? Flex time? Are your skill sets desirable? Is there an area that you need to brush up on to make yourself even more marketable? If so then make a real effort to brush up on your existing skills or take some classes to learn something new. Information is power and getting out to see where you stack up in the marketplace is invaluable.

Second, you have the chance to revisit your resume and make any necessary updates. With the not so recent advent of sites like Linkedin this is becoming easier to do but frankly many of us don't have the time to troll that site and update our information as often as we would like to. Interviewing periodically forces us to make those updates and maybe even get a new picture in our profile that does not predate the Blackberry.

Finally, do not underestimate the power of the network. After all if you are sitting down to talk about a new job opportunity, chances are you will be sitting with your potential new boss. Leave a good impression and follow up with this new connection regardless of whether you take the job or not. Be forthright from the outset that you are not convinced that a job change is in the cards but that you are all ears about the opportunity. This level of honesty will be appreciated and the interviewers won't feel it was wasted time. What you will find is that you will develop a relationship with the folks you meet with and your name will perpetually be on top of the list as new opportunities arise. And lets face it, if you are in sales you know that to close a deal sometimes you simply need to catch your prospect (or in this case lender) on a bad day. Having an existing network of potential new homes never hurts, think of it as a work contingency plan.

So get out there and kick some tires every once in a while. Set a goal to interview in the coming year. Don't do it because you are necessarily unhappy where you are, do it for the reasons listed above.