Innovative Employment

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Shifting gears is designed to help corporate professionals overcome three challenges they will face as employees in small businesses: (1) The need to play soup-to-nuts roles because there is not much staff depth; (2) The scarcity of resources inside most small businesses; (3) The ambivalent business environment faced by most small businesses.

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Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Diana Wong | Getting Hired | Innovative Employment | Shifting Gears

Shifting Gears is a program for retooling corporate professionals' skilsets to better meet the needs of small and medium businesses. Diana Wong, Shifting Gears' creator and Professor at Eastern Michigan University, lays out the rationale and benefits of the program:

• Small, growing businesses need the skillsets corporate professionals have to offer, but cultural issues prevent matches being made.
• In this buyers' job market, it's up to corporate professionals to sell themselves if they want to transition into a small business.
• In order to do so, corporate professionals need to retool their skill sets in the following ways:
  • First, they need to get a firm grip on the skills they possess and the value those skils can bring.
  • Second, they need to understand that they are no longer just a role player on a larger team but often a one-person band.
  • Third, they need to adapt to the scarcity of financial and other resources often prevalent in small businesses.
  • Fourth, they need to be able to deal with the less well-defined business environment that most small businesses face.

In future installments, we'll cover how the Shifting Gears program helps corporate professionals meet the challenge of retooling their skills.

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Since age 16, Adrian Pittman, Founder of Module, has tasked himself with learning one new skill per year. We discuss the impact of that strategy on growing his company.

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Filed under: Adrian Pittman | Ann Arbor, MI | Innovative Employment | Module

Adrian Pittman, founder of Module, started working for himself at age 16. In this conversation, Adrian and I discuss the advice he would give to his sixteen year old self wishing to enter his field of endeavor today. He cited two:

• Expect the rules as you know them today to change.
• As a result, you need to constantly consider yourself a student.

When I asked him how he learned himself, the answer was quite revelatory:

• Each year after starting work, he set himself a goal of learning one new skill a year.
• He chose the skills based on demand from his clients, thereby ensuring he stayed in touch with the marketplace.
• As his business grew beyond a one-man show, he began to incorporate course work on managing people.

In conclusion, Adrian states that he was lucky to be put in a situation where he was forced to learn. But, the truth of the matter is that he himself made the decision to be in a situation where learning was essential. This strategy might be described as a blueprint for how to succeed in the knowledge-based economy.

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Bill Wagner is looking for a salesperson, only the second non-software developer his firm has hired.

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Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Bill Wagner | Doing the Hiring | Innovative Employment | SRT Solutions

In this segment with Bill Wagner, we discuss SRT Solutions' search for a new salesperson. This person will be only the second non-software developer the firm has hired. As we filmed this segment, and as I write this, times are hard in Michigan with unemployment over 11%. Many workers are faced with the prospect of moving from positions they have held for many years with larger companies to smaller companies where job demands are different.

Bill lays out what he thinks the differences are. These dovetail well with remarks by Jeannette Gutierrez, a job seeker we recently interviewed. Here are the differences as Bill sees them:

• The salesperson will be the whole sales department, not just one of many or one overseeing many.
• As a result, SRT is looking for an individual contributor who has experience growing sales and meeting quotas.
• As a firm that serves a number of industries, SRT is looking for a person that has experience selling to a variety of businesses.

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How experienced professionals can reinvent themselves and get interviews in their target firms.

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Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Getting Hired | Innovative Employment | Jeannette Gutierrez

 For over more than 20 years as an advertising art director, Jeannette Gutierrez has overseen the visual aspect of corporate identity. Like many in advertising, Jeannette was recently laid off from her job and is looking for a position in online marketing.

Jeannette has had success obtaining interviews with her target firms, something that may be hard for experienced employees trying to redefine themselves. In this interview, she shares some of her tips for getting the interview:

•  Avoid becoming trapped by HR screening. Use LinkedIn to determine who the hiring manager might be and target them directly.
• Indicate that you are negotiable in the cover letter and give a reason why you would be so that is specific to that company.
• Indicate in the interview that you do not have a fixed idea of your role and are willing to adapt to the company.
• Interview the interviewer to understand how they perceive the current crop of job candidates.