When You Have the Right People, There Are No Rules for Structure

When You Have the Right People, There Are No Rules for StructureWhen You Have the Right People, There Are No Rules for StructureWhen You Have the Right People, There Are No Rules for Structure Belsky, from his book, THE MESSY MIDDLE Finding yur way through the hardest and most crucial part of any bold venture, published by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random HouseSome of the most frequent questions I get from start-up founders and new managers in large companies are about how best to structure a team.Should I allow remote workers, or should I insist on the whole team working in the office?Should absatzwirtschaft be a separate team or an extension of an existing team?Can my co-founder and I both be CEO?Should designers report to product managers or be the product managers?Should we keep things non-hierarchical or start hiring and appointing managers?When structuring our teams, we tend to seek best practices and aspire to put our playbooks on par with those companies around us. We look for so-called rules, like every team should have a single leader, designers and engineers should be on different teams, and there should only be one CEO.While there is merit in each of these norms and I enjoy studying the structures of others, I have always found these questions difficult to answer without the context of the people and circumstances at play.Just as teams must challenge conventional wisdom to build extraordinary products, the saatkorn goes for building extraordinary organizations.Breaking the Sole CEO RuleThe greatest teams I have worked with over the years were all structured with a few remarkable exceptions to the rules. During my years serving on the board of sweetgreen, a chain of locally sourced seasonal-food kitchens, I was struck by how well the companys three co-founders, Jonathan, Nic, and Nate, functioned as tri-CEOs.When I first joined the board, many of my peers told me Good luckthat is nuts But the three of th em had transformed the traditional CEO role to uniquely serve the company. They divided and conquered most functions in the geschftliches miteinander but shared the same core values and intuitively knew which decisions could be made by any of them, only one of them, or required all of them.I feel like were pretty lucky because we can share the responsibility of taking action. Its not just one persons job to figure something out. Its not just one person that has all of the weight on their shoulders, Jonathan told me when I asked him about the arrangement.Nic added, We can have a CEOin three times the number of places and moments . . . we cover three times the surface area of a normal CEO. For a period of time, this was an advantage.There are many horror stories about co-heads of teams and companies, but there are also so many examples of such arrangements being a strength. Why should there be any rules either way?Be Flexible with LeadershipIn the early years of Behance, we had five l eaders of our engineering team rather than a single CTO managing them all. There was a comfortable tension I was optimizing for having a leadershipteam that had to work together to build out our various engineering functions, such as front-end development, back end, systems architecture, and mobile.The personalities of each leader, and their varied level of management experience, also factored into my approach to structuring the leadership team.Another norm I broke was having our senior designers report directly to me. While designers dont normally report to the CEO, I knew that our business was different. We were serving the design community and were very design driven as a company. Being close to designers helped me ensure that design was, in fact, at the heart of our priorities.When I first joined Adobe after Behances acquisition, I continued to step out of bounds when it came to structuring the organization, which ultimately grew to almost five hundred employees.I had some desig ners report to me rather than work in the companys central design unit, just as I did at Behance I created very small teams to explore the largest strategy shifts first rather than include every stakeholder at the onset and I developed a marketing role within some of the product teams to ensure the copy and campaigns were aligned with the product vision.Of course, breaking norms in big companies causes the occasional fire I had to explain myself quite often. But I tried to mold structure to the kind of work we were doing rather than the other way around.Just as it is remarkably hard to innovate using the same code or materials as your competitors, it is hard to build something new within the confines of a structure built for the past, or later stage products.When you have the right people, there are no rules for how the team must be structured. When your A players are playing their A game, you can be creative with how they work. In fact, you need to be. The extremely talented people you love and trust know how good they are, and they thrive working on their own terms.As the leader, you need to carefully balance the need for structure with the need to accommodate the autonomy and idiosyncrasies of your team. Optimizing how you work requires unconventional experimentation while letting go of norms.Be Comfortable with RiskAs I think about the nature of the advice I give to start-ups and the number of times I defy my own advice, I am struck by how frequently rules should be broken. For example, while I feel strongly that you should never outsource your competitive advantage, sometimes the perfect designeror other domain expertinsists on working on her own as a freelancer. Sometimes the circumstances necessitate defying your own beliefs.The willingness to break your own rules and keep structure permeable to circumstances is as important as the rules themselves. Exceptions shouldnt happen too often, but when they do, they could be differentiating and critical to you r success.As long as you have the right people aligned around the right objectives, be flexible. If superstars insist on working remotely, let them. If two people with complementary skill sets make great candidates for the same leadership role, experiment with co-heads. Observe, learn, and then adjust. Despite all the conventional wisdom out there, youre allowed to change the rules.These tweaks could help you or hurt you, but youve got to take some risk to achieve an irregular outcome. Embrace best practices until you need to change them. Then break them.From THE MESSY MIDDLEby Scott Belsky, published by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright 2018 by Scott Belsky.Scott Belsky has spent more than a decade leading in the worlds of technology, design and start-ups. Now chief product officer of Adobe, he is the founder of Behance, the worlds leading creative network used by more than 12 million professionals. He serves as a n adviser and early-stage investor in fast-growing companies such as Pinterest, Uber and Periscope.

Write a Winning Customer Service Resume

Write a Winning Customer Service ResumeWrite a Winning Customer Service ResumeThriving businesses owe a large part of their success to being able to provide excellent customer tafelgeschirr, which we know begins with how you interact with your colleagues. As you update your customer service resume consider this A customer service representative is the companys opening act, a vorschau of what a business has to offer. Potential clients and customers are more likely to become loyal clients and customers if they are favorably impressed at this stage of the game.Highlight your interpersonal skillsAs a result, employers seek individuals whose qualifications indicate they possess the people skills needed to give top-notch customer service. Craft your customer service resume in a way that tells the story (albeit on one page) of your excellent customer service career history. In preparing your resume, keep in mind your strengths for working with a variety of personalities and temperaments. Em phasize how, as a customer service representative, you possess a knack for working with both pleasant and unpleasant people, along with an ability for keeping your cool when dealing with challenging situations.So how do you convey these attributes on a resume? If youre in the market for a job as a customer service representative, youll need to know how to prepare a resume that lets a hiring manager know you have what it takes and then some. Here are four tips for writing a winning customer service resumeShow the right stuff for the jobThink about the qualities you possess that make you suited to work as a customer service representative.Are you empathetic to customer concerns?Can you accept criticism without taking it personally?Do you take a hands-on approach to resolving issues?Edit your customer service resume down to the essentialsNo service industry employment - even a part-time job or college internship - should be considered too small to include on your customer service res ume if you want to be a serious contender for an open position. Employers look for people who have experience dealing with the public. Working as a food server, receptionist, bank teller or any job requiring frequent and direct contact with people is a big plus in the minds of hiring managers seeking customer service representatives.Emphasize accomplishmentsLend credibility to the skills you list on your customer service resume by giving examples of how you use them on the job. Employers arent likely to be bowled over by your claim of being a problem solver if you leave it at that. Cite instances of how your problem-solving skills yielded a positive outcome by helping a client resolve an urgent matter or satisfying a difficult customer.Populate your resume with verbs, illustrating your initiativeInclude action verbs indicative of service experience which may be picked up by a computer scanning resumes for keywords. Words to use in your resume include assisted, supported, solved and improved. These are buzzwords that can help your customer service resume make it through the first stage of the evaluation process.belastung but not least, its important to follow an employers guidelines for submitting a customer service resume. Ignoring this step and doing it your own way could be interpreted by a hiring manager to mean youre careless or dont like taking direction. Either way, it can be seen as a red flag that you may not have the right mindset for a service position. Pay careful attention to any specific instructions for resume submission, like format preference or not sending it as an email attachment. Having the courtesy to respect an employers preference in this regard is the first indicator that you have what he or she is looking for in a customer service representative.Ready to find your next customer service job? We can helpSEARCH CUSTOMER SERVICE JOBS

How Music Genre Is Used to Categorize Music

How Music Genre Is Used to Categorize MusicHow Music Genre Is Used to Categorize MusicMusic literaturform - or simply genre - refers to styles of music. Rock is a music genre, as our country, reggae, classical, jazz among others. When talking about genre in the music industry, it is helpful to think in terms of top-level genres and sub-genres. Various Levels of Genre in Music Take, for instance, the genre of rock. Rock is a very broad term that encompasses many different types of music, some of which are actually pretty divergent from one abedrngnisher. Punk, indie, shoegaze, AOR, metal and many, many, more all fall under the top level genre category of rock but can each be considered individual sub-genres. This sub-genre category is usually more useful in terms of describing music to another person. For instance, telling someone that a band is a rock band is not as helpful in describing the sound as saying the band is a punk band (the description of punk is more useful in tell ing someone what an artistsounds like). Why Their Use Is Important If you want to work in the music industry, understanding genres are pretty important for a number of different reasons, including For Descriptive PurposesThe ability to be as descriptive as possible about someones music is a great tool for a number of different musical careers. Whether youre a manager trying to convince someone to listen to your artists music, a PR person trying to sell a magazine on a review, a radio plugger trying to land some plays for an artists or a booking agent trying to get a band a show, being able to give some musical points of reference in the form of a genre description is critical.Understanding the AudienceUnderstanding genre is also key to understanding audiences. Genres - or more specifically, sub-genres - tend to have a culture all their own. Fans of a particular sub-genre of music may tend to flock to the same kinds of venues and same kinds of shops, listen to the same radio st ations, watch the same movies and use the same websites. This kind of information is invaluable when it comes to promoting and marketing music and putting together live shows. If youre in or representing, say, a punk band (which is a sub-genre with a very clearly defined culture of its own), then you can increase your chances of success by understanding where punks fans go for their music in any given area. It will help you reach the right listeners every time, increasing your chances of success. In fact, understanding the identity of a sub-genre can even help direct the design of your titelseite art and merchandise- or dictate whether you need these things at all. Affects Decision MakingIdentifying genre will also help musicians and their representatives choose the right labels to approach with their music and can even help them decide if they need a label at all. Whereas music in the pop genre benefits from having a major label behind it, indie rock can thrive on an indie imprint - and can be self-released much easier than a record by an unknown pop artist. A genre is a key to unlocking lost avenues for music industry success, so resist the urge to shrug it off as a meaningless label - it really is an important part of communicating your music to the masses.

Coping with Pipe Fatigue

Coping with Pipe Fatigue Coping with Pipe Fatigue Coping with Pipe FatigueRay Kelm, mechanical engineer and owner of Kelm Engineering, based inFriendswood, TX,says pipe fatigue solutions have come a long way, with the field offering more opportunities than ever before. In years past, there was a simplistic screening process, he says. Pretty much when you would start up a plant, particularly new ones, you would screen the vibration on all the piping and when you saw it over a preset threshold you would try to reduce it. It was a very conservative standard. He says whats happened lately is the more accurate calculation of pipe dynamics. What we do with a lot of our business is measure the vibration and build numerical models simulating the field, and when we calibrate the model in the field, we can have accurate reading of stresses, he says. Fire explosions shake pipes and break oil lines.There are finite bestandteil programs and pipe programs to calculate pipe stress but the important issue is field measurement, Kelm adds. Pipes are often overlooked and improperly assessed and the resulting losses can be devastating, Kelm says. Pipe fatigue can create major leaks and you have other challenges. Fatigue isnt just due to vibration but sometimes huge contributors are stressed erosion or corrosion issues, he offers. It can be some other external issues that influence it as well. By the time you are going through calculating you need reasonable, believable stress concentration factors to make sure of accuracy in predicting stresses. Kelm highlights another area that many in the business overlooknow that oversight has led to 40% of his business. Weve seen a tremendous increase in projects on reciprocating pumps, he says. Traditionally, they were just bought and would occasionally have some modeling work done for amplitudes and forced vibrations but with big pump manufacturers always offering a free pipe fatigue study, thats opened up whole new areas. We werent doing an y of that five years ago. Kelm believes a reason there are fewer workers in the field is also because its very technical work that you need to be gutsy to do. If things go wrong, they go really bad from the risk of litigation, he says.But if youre cautious youll be fine. The most common big losses are from fire explosions from damaged mechanical equipment. That shakes a pipe in an unusual condition and breaks oil lines. It often starts fires on machinery they know is sick but dont want to shut down immediately. If youre running a refinery and can run it an extra three weeks before you shut it down then its that much more money. The other way, then its that much more money lost. Eric Butterman is an independent writer. Pipes are often overlooked and improperly assessed and the resulting losses can be devastating.

Targeted Cover Letters Lead to Interviews & Job Offers

Targeted Cover Letters Lead to Interviews & Job OffersTargeted Cover Letters Lead to Interviews & Job OffersTargeted Cover Letters Lead to Interviews & Job OffersIf you believe that using the same generic titelseite letter for each job you apply to will land you a job, you need a reality check. Targeted cover letters are the only way to successfully get an employers attention and get your foot in the door for an interview. A targeted cover letter speaks directly to the job youre interested in, using words and phrases that match the job description. Thus, no two targeted cover letters should ever be exactly the same.Its a pain in the butt to tweak your letter for every new job application, but its also one of the best ways to show you put in the extra effort to do it right.You dont have to rewrite your entire cover letter every time just rearrange and restructure it to fit the specific details of the job opportunity. And please dont forget to change the title of the position, the name of the company, and the name and title of the contact person for each jobSo, how do you actually write a targeted cover letter?Take your cue from the job description and the companys web site. See what keywords and descriptors they use, which qualifications they emphasize, and in which order they list their desired skills. Then mimic those in your letter.For example, below is an actual job posting for a Personal Banking Representative. Highlighted (in bold type) are the words or concepts we would include if we were writing a targeted cover letter for this positionThe Job AdPersonal Banking RepresentativeProvides world-class customer tafelgeschirr which meets and exceeds the customers expectations.Actively sells banks products and services.Analyzes and determines the financial needs of each customer, matches this need to the appropriate product or service grows profitable customer relationships based on customer satisfaction.Meets and exceeds personal sales goals and actively partic ipates in all branch sales and marketing activities.Opens new accounts, processes loan applications, and closes loans according to guidelines.Demonstrates an in-depth knowledge of all consumer product and services.Takes personal responsibility for developing and maintaining knowledge required to fulfill job functions.Performs other duties as requested.May be asked to help out at a neighboring branch.May be asked to travel to meetings.Heres the sample cover letter using those highlighted keywords and phrases to target this employers specific needsThe Targeted Cover LetterDear Ms. BankerThe Personal Banking Representative position strikes meas an outstanding opportunity to contribute my four years of banking and customer service experience to an organization that shares my commitment to relationship-building, professional development, and continuous growth.As an Assistant Banking Representative at XYZ Bank, I have gained an in-depth understanding of how to sell the many products, serv ices, and financing options available to branch banking customers, along with the associated regulations and guidelines. I take pride in providing service that matches the individuals needs, helping ensure customer retention and satisfaction.I am eager to build upon my sales and marketing skills to enhance your organizations profitability. I have earned an Associates Degree in finance, and I make it a priority to pursue continued training and professional development, not only to fulfill job functions but to maintain and develop my knowledge of this industry.I am confident that I can fulfill the role of Personal Banking Representative, excelling at both the official duties and those that arise unexpectedly, to become a valuable member of your team.Best regards,Job SeekerBy using the same terminology the company presents in its job ad, and explicitly pointing out your qualifications and the employers business needs, the employer can easily see that youre a good candidate for the job. Add a targeted cover letter to your well-written resume, and your skills and accomplishments will convince the employer youre worth interviewing.

The Secret to Accounting Internships Resume

The Secret to Accounting Internships Resume Top Accounting Internships Resume Secrets Employers are searching for candidates Interns work on a range of sustainability focused projects to the other side of the Earth Institute. Internships provide you experience and skills to improve your resume. Students want to reviewing postings on CareerLink on a normal basis. Even in the event the internship position wont start for a number of months, dont delay over a week. They are given the chance to show leadership and demonstrate responsibility. The projects given to every intern give them the capability to shine by going above and beyond what theyre requested to do for a particular project. Consequently, Discovery Interns will be in a position to showcase and leverage their talents, cultivate and hone their abilities and most significantly, have a wonderful time when doing it. Top Choices of Accounting Internships Resume Accounting internships are excellent for current foreign stu dents seeking to obtain some experience in the states. An internship is a huge method to get to understand what it is like to work in accounting and to work for a certain company. It offers experience in the job role and what to expect in an accounting job. Accounting internships can offer a fantastic doorway to an entry-level job. When theres one particular field that provides you with the experience to be successful at just about anything in the industry world, its an accounting degree. At precisely the same time, students can find out a bit about the internship and what exactly their role would be within the organization. Resume building If you work an internship during school, when you get out, acquiring an internship on your resume will supply you a competitive advantage while searching for a company in which you need to begin your career. Do your homework on a few of the huge foreign organizations in your field, and odds are you are going to realize that many have a glob al internship or trainee opportunities. Our job is to prepare our students to join the accounting profession in the general public, industry, and not-for-profit sectors through excellent teaching and pedagogy and through the invention of a sound learning atmosphere. Once you get your internship, you might decide this is where to begin your career. Internship opportunities are offered for students of all degrees of study. You will know, at the conclusion of your internship, whether you take pleasure in the profession. Whether youre a recent accounting graduate or youve been in the area for at least a decade, crafting the ideal accountant resume objective could help make sure your resume stands out from the remainder of the stack. Whether youre on the lookout for a tax internship or one in public accounting or a different area, be ready to be helpful, trustworthy, and eager to learn the ropes and follow instructions. One good way to limit your accounting graduate program options is to identify your specific objectives, specifically the sort of accounting youre most interested in. Actually, your best choice in scoring a sweet paid internship along with all the bells and whistles is to apply directly through a worldwide company with an international internship program. The War Against Accounting Internships Resume Most large accounting businesses offer you many opportunities. There are two fundamental models. You could observe international small business theories put into practice. There are lots of accounting internships throughout the nation which provide great promotional potential and educational growth. Before you begin Plan for a prosperous experience Do your research. More info about graduate programs in accounting are available here. You have to be enrolled in a graduate program, and in the majority of scenarios, you will want to know another language. Students have the chance to talk directly to employees from various businesses and determin e if it would be a fantastic fit.

Top 4 Reasons to Consider Working with a Recruiting Agency - Spark Hire

Top 4 Reasons to Consider Working with a Recruiting Agency - Spark HireIf you have been reluctant to partner with a recruiting agency because of cost, it is time to reconsider your thoughts. Recruiting agencies will not only save you time and money, but they can offer you access to hidden talent as well as various solutions tailored to your business needs.1. Saves TimeUtilizing a recruiting agency will save you hours, days, weeks, and even months of time. Think about the amount of time it takes to weed through resumes from job applicants, contact and pre-screen selected candidates, and then decide on the best talent to bring in for an in-person interview. When its up to you as the hiring manager to find and hire a new employee, it makes it very difficult for you to focus on finding the best talent AND giving your day to day job tasks the attention needed.When you outsource your recruiting needs, you no longer need to spend time looking through hundreds of resumes and arranging pre-sc reens with candidates who may not be a fit. Your recruiter will handle this part of the process, which is quite often the most time consuming piece of the candidate search. This allows you to continue focusing on doing your best on the day to day business which requires your attention.2. Saves CostWhen you are able to spend time on your actual job duties and entrust the candidate search and pre-screening to a recruiter, you are saving money. Whether the candidate search is solely left to you or if you are utilizing a helper within your business, you are using up valuable time that should be spent focusing on the day to day work within your business. This will cost you valuable production needed to operate and andrang your business successfully.Having a good recruiting agency to rely on will allow you to continue giving your business the focus it needs. In the long run, this saves you money.3. Uncover Hidden TalentIts important to understand that a recruiting agency specializes in id entifying top talent. This top talent is not often applying to job postings or showing their resume on job boards. Finding those passive candidates can be difficult when you do not have the right search tools or connections.When you partner with a recruiting agency, you are gaining access to a whole market of hidden talent that you would not have access to otherwise.4. Flexible Solutions OfferedMany recruiting agencies offer various flexible hiring solutions based around your companys needs.For example, if you simply need talent for seasonal work, a recruiting agency could offer a temporary hiring solution. This type of cost saving solution is excellent for your temporary needs because most agencies will handle payroll, benefits, in plus-rechnen to all other HR needs for the temporary employee.Another example of a flexible solution is what we refer to as a temp-to-perm solution. This option allows you to try before you buy. In this situation, you would temporarily hire an employee t hrough the recruiting agency and after a certain period of time you would be able to hire the employee on a permanent basis.On the other hand, if you prefer to immediately hire an employee permanently, recruiting agencies typically offer a permanent hiring solution. The recruiter would simply conduct the search, screening, and play the middle man during offer negotiations to ensure that your offer is agreeable to both you and the candidate.Of course, each of these flexible options come with a recruiting fee. However, when factoring in the time savings, cost savings, and quality of talent provided, you will see the value in the recruiting fee.Whats keeping you from working with a recruiting agency to fill your hiring needs?Image Jakub Jirsak/BigStock.com