Blog

Category Archives: Hiring In The News

Recent stories of hiring in the news, both good and bad.

A Radical Solution For SiriusXM To Fix Their Howard Stern Problem

Hiring great people is important, we all know that. In fact, if you have to overpay for anything in business, it should be on the absolute best people, as they will have more of an effect on a company’s success than anything else. But, like anything in life, it can go too far. Too much dependence, too much financial commitment to a single person – particularly without the right agreement in place – can essentially allow a single employee to hold the rest of the company hostage. And that’s exactly what’s happening at SiriusXM Radio. And it’s causing them major …Read more »

18 Quotes By Netflix’s Talent Guru That Will Make You Rethink HR

Netflix’s philosophy on human resources pretty much flies in the face of everything we’ve come to expect from Silicon Valley tech giants. Instead of costume parties and unlimited foie gras, Netflix gives out big stacks of cash – and little other else – to people who get the job done. If they don’t get the job done? Well, I believe this quote from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sums it all up: At most companies, average performers get an average raise. At Netflix, they get a generous severance package. Where did this philosophy come from? Obviously, Hastings, as co-founder, set the tone. …Read more »

Netflix’s Anti-Establishment, Pro-Cash, Live-And-Let-Die Culture

In a world of ping pong tables, “Chief Happiness Officers,” moustache Mondays and Thursday recess, one tech giant stands apart, shakes its fist at company-wide yoga retreats and indoor rock climbing walls, and instead offers the oldest perk in the book: cold, hard cash – and lots of it. What do they expect in return? Performance. Major league, game-changing performance. And they don’t care how you do it or where you do it from, but if you make it happen, you’ll be rewarded with even more cold hard cash. And if you don’t? Well, you’ll also get a big pile of cash, on your …Read more »

Why Many Successful Entrepreneurs Come Across Like Jerks

Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are among the most successful entrepreneurs of the modern age, men who created products and services that changed the fabric of American society. They are inspirations who proved that one person can change the world, if they put their mind to it. But here’s a dirty little secret about those three, and dozens of others who fall into the same category: they are kind of jerks. Or, they at least come across that way to their employees. For example, Gates, a great man in real life, was incredibly hard on his employees, with Microsoft …Read more »

How To Get Hired By Elon Musk

While taking a shower in college in the early 90s, Elon Musk determined the three things that would “most affect the future in a positive way” were the Internet, renewable energy and “making life multi-planetary.” Since his revelation, he’s dedicated his life to those three goals. He’s already created and sold two companies that improved the way the Internet works – PayPal and Zip2 – to build his fortune. Since, he’s been working on renewable energy, through his electric car company Tesla and his work at Solar City, and colonizing planets, through his aerospace company SpaceX. Pretty ambitious stuff. All told, he’s …Read more »

Job Hopping Is NOT On The Rise (And That’s A Bad Thing)

If you do an Internet search, you might think that job hopping is on the rise, particularly among self-obsessed, entitled millennials who spend more time taking selfies at bars with their friends than figuring out what they want to do with their lives. Yet, when you look at the cold, hard facts, the exact opposite is true. In fact, millennials – and workers across the board – are more loyal than they have been in some time. And that’s not necessarily a good thing, at least for workers. Don’t believe me? Look at this chart published in The Washington Post, which shows that millennials …Read more »

Why Walmart Giving Their Workers Raises Is Smart Business

This month, the Associated Press reported that Walmart will spend $1 billion on raises and training for its lowest-paid employees. Workers will now earn, at the very minimum, $9-an-hour, and then get $10-an-hour if they stick around for six-months. The decision comes after a wave of protests about the wages Walmart and other retail giants pay their employees and the benefits – or, perhaps more accurately, the lack thereof – they offer. So the move will unquestionably give them some good PR, at the very least. But is it a good business move? Does paying employees more for jobs that require no experience and are easily …Read more »

Would You Pay $248 For This Sweatshirt Designed by Kanye?

Would you pay $248 for this sweatshirt: Or a mere $222 for this short-sleeved one (apparently, there’s $26 of fabric in the extra six inches or so of sleeves): Now I know what some of you are saying – no way, I could get that stuff at Walmart for $14.99. But let me ask you a question: what if I told you that a famous rapper, who is married to a woman with the most celebrated curve since the Gateway Arch, designed them? Well, the answer is yes, at least for enough people. In 2013, Kanye West collaborated with APC on a fashion …Read more »

What It Was Like To Witness The Worst Firing Ever

On Aug, 9, 2013, I was an employee at AOL’s Patch, a job I’d held for the past three years, working primarily as the editor of the Waterford, Connecticut Patch site. It was a great job, a job where you felt like you were really making a difference in the community, but it seemed like it was all coming to an end. In May of that year, there were some layoffs within the company, including a beloved manager in our region. And, earlier that week, there were news reports surfacing that Patch – although popular with readers – was losing …Read more »

No Work Experience? A Big Company Might Be Your Best Bet

If you have no experience in a given industry, it’s logical to assume that a smaller, less prestigious company would be more willing to give you a job than a larger, more prestigious company, right? Well, that assumption would be completely wrong. According to a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, larger, more prestigious companies are actually twice more likely to hire candidates without experience in the field than smaller, less prestigious companies. Why? According to the study’s researchers, UNC Professor Camelia Kuhnen and Stanford Professor Paul Oyer, larger companies are more able to take bigger risks …Read more »

Connect With Us

Scroll To Top
close