I don't know if many places in Nebraska use a resume or not when screening new job applicants. During my working years, though I had a resume ready to hand out at a moments notice, I never did hand one out. When I got hired on at the phone company, I filled out a job application and was never asked about a resume. I was applying to be a worker bee, not a manager, so perhaps that's the major difference between a job and a career... you have to craft a resume for a career position, and fill out a job application to actually work?
A recent survey of hiring managers found that 57% of the time, applicants lied in their resume or job application, though only 5% of the employment seekers admitted to fudging about the facts of their life. The good news for the embellishers is that though 93% were not considered further, 7% still got hired. I suppose their fib was pretty mild, or the hiring manager had other motives...
If you Google resume embellishment, over 600,000 results are available, with the very first one saying "Embellish your resume without lying". The implication is that it's OK to stretch the truth as long as you don't go over the line... whatever that blurry line may actually be. Wordsmithing is obviously the bomb when it comes to resumes!
How are you doing on your life resume? Not the one about your career accomplishments, but the one where wordsmithing has no value and only your acts and accomplishments are considered. Your resume certainly contains the reputation you develop over a lifetime with family, friends, peers, and God for the believers among us. Why not make a conscious effort to embellish your resume this week by doing something out of the ordinary. Mow your elderly neighbors yard, make a donation to the food pantry, volunteer, try and do something that helps someone, anything.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Risky Business
Colleges have risk management courses listed right along with business ethics. Considering the way some business ventures operate, it seems like the risk management classes are well attended, but the business ethics classes are totally elective. It seems many business majors skipped the ethics classes or passed with a "D".
Goldman Sachs may turn out to be a good example of good risk management, but lousy business ethics. It appears they certainly hedged their bets with derivatives. How about BP in the Gulf of Mexico? Would Toyota with their massive recalls be included? You might think of including Massey Energy and the recent deadly coal mine explosion in West Virgina. Union Carbide and their Bhopal India disaster could likely be included, and of course the Challenger and the death of 7 Astronauts is blamed on poor risk management by allowing a launch in cold weather. Let's not forget Chernobal... billions of ruples down the drain and a dead zone for thousands of years.
There are thousands and thousands of examples available where man made problems have created a nightmare. I suppose the phrase high risk, high reward was ingrained into the business world long ago, but unfortunately it seems some business takes it beyond the limit. The reward of meeting a deadline or selling something new outweighes safely providing products in my opinion.
Considering the BP fiasco in the Gulf, you have to wonder how deep BP's pockets are. Though it seems unlikely, what if they go bankrupt over this deal and the problem persists? It's not unprecidented at all that a business goes bankrupt and you and me end up paying the bills. A while back I blogged about the Summitville Mine in Colorado and the Canadian company that went bankrupt leaving an environmental mess that you and me are paying for to this day.
If you look into engineering disasters over the years, there are several factors that go into these failures. A study of the cause of some 800 engineering failures shows...
Insufficient knowledge ............................... 36%
Underestimation of influence ......................... 16%
Ignorence, carelessness, negligence .................. 14%
Forgetfulness, error ................................. 13%
Relying upon others without sufficient control ....... 9%
Objectively unknown situation ........................ 7%
Unprecise definition of responsibilities ............. 1%
Choice of bad quality ................................ 1%
Other ................................................ 3%
Looking at the major causes, it's quickly obvious that human error one way or the other is the overwhelming cause. OK, so we all make mistakes right? But when your life gets thrown into turmoil because of the actions out of your control caused by someone else, lawyers, government, and who knows who all will get involved.
With the reporting of the BP gusher in Gulf, a story about a $500,000 piece of equipment that is required by other countries was not required by the US of A has emerged. Would this piece of half million dollar equipment prevented the current crisis? I'm sure only time will tell, but considering the risk if something goes wrong, wouldn't you think it would have been at least wise? If it was required by regulation, we wouldn't be guessing about it, but many folks are against regulations and think business should govern itself.
So... How's that drilley spilley thingey working out? It's easy to place blame and say that we should ban off shore drilling. It's true that it's a dangerous and risky business extracting oil, but until somebody comes up with a suitable replacement, we're going to be drilling someplace for more oil and offshore is as good a place as any to look.
My whole point is really about rethinking government regulations, or coming up with smart ones at least. If the half mil device were required and staved off this mess, the regulation would be smart. When a business wants to perform dangerous or risky ventures, it would seem wise to me that public safety be considered way above the companies desire to make a buck.
Engineering disasters causing great human sufferage have been and will continue to be a problem. Regulations often can help mitigate the problems. An example is that every oil storage facility in the country has to have a containment wall around it. It's not a matter of if we'll have major engineering disasters, but when the next one will occur.
I must have been asleep in 1986 as I don't recall hearing about this at all. Oil exploration has and will continue to cause some big problmes. I hope you will watch this short Youtube video all the way to the end as the final words ring so true...
Goldman Sachs may turn out to be a good example of good risk management, but lousy business ethics. It appears they certainly hedged their bets with derivatives. How about BP in the Gulf of Mexico? Would Toyota with their massive recalls be included? You might think of including Massey Energy and the recent deadly coal mine explosion in West Virgina. Union Carbide and their Bhopal India disaster could likely be included, and of course the Challenger and the death of 7 Astronauts is blamed on poor risk management by allowing a launch in cold weather. Let's not forget Chernobal... billions of ruples down the drain and a dead zone for thousands of years.
There are thousands and thousands of examples available where man made problems have created a nightmare. I suppose the phrase high risk, high reward was ingrained into the business world long ago, but unfortunately it seems some business takes it beyond the limit. The reward of meeting a deadline or selling something new outweighes safely providing products in my opinion.
Considering the BP fiasco in the Gulf, you have to wonder how deep BP's pockets are. Though it seems unlikely, what if they go bankrupt over this deal and the problem persists? It's not unprecidented at all that a business goes bankrupt and you and me end up paying the bills. A while back I blogged about the Summitville Mine in Colorado and the Canadian company that went bankrupt leaving an environmental mess that you and me are paying for to this day.
If you look into engineering disasters over the years, there are several factors that go into these failures. A study of the cause of some 800 engineering failures shows...
Insufficient knowledge ............................... 36%
Underestimation of influence ......................... 16%
Ignorence, carelessness, negligence .................. 14%
Forgetfulness, error ................................. 13%
Relying upon others without sufficient control ....... 9%
Objectively unknown situation ........................ 7%
Unprecise definition of responsibilities ............. 1%
Choice of bad quality ................................ 1%
Other ................................................ 3%
Looking at the major causes, it's quickly obvious that human error one way or the other is the overwhelming cause. OK, so we all make mistakes right? But when your life gets thrown into turmoil because of the actions out of your control caused by someone else, lawyers, government, and who knows who all will get involved.
With the reporting of the BP gusher in Gulf, a story about a $500,000 piece of equipment that is required by other countries was not required by the US of A has emerged. Would this piece of half million dollar equipment prevented the current crisis? I'm sure only time will tell, but considering the risk if something goes wrong, wouldn't you think it would have been at least wise? If it was required by regulation, we wouldn't be guessing about it, but many folks are against regulations and think business should govern itself.
So... How's that drilley spilley thingey working out? It's easy to place blame and say that we should ban off shore drilling. It's true that it's a dangerous and risky business extracting oil, but until somebody comes up with a suitable replacement, we're going to be drilling someplace for more oil and offshore is as good a place as any to look.
My whole point is really about rethinking government regulations, or coming up with smart ones at least. If the half mil device were required and staved off this mess, the regulation would be smart. When a business wants to perform dangerous or risky ventures, it would seem wise to me that public safety be considered way above the companies desire to make a buck.
Engineering disasters causing great human sufferage have been and will continue to be a problem. Regulations often can help mitigate the problems. An example is that every oil storage facility in the country has to have a containment wall around it. It's not a matter of if we'll have major engineering disasters, but when the next one will occur.
I must have been asleep in 1986 as I don't recall hearing about this at all. Oil exploration has and will continue to cause some big problmes. I hope you will watch this short Youtube video all the way to the end as the final words ring so true...
Monday, May 3, 2010
Just One Word...
Many of us somewhat older folks remember the 1967 movie "The Graduate". For those that have not seen this flick, it's the story of Benjamin Braddock, a recent college grad and the events that take place after his graduation. Young Ben is the son of a wealthy family, and his graduation party finds Braddock family associates and friends offering valuable information and tips for his future. I'll never forget one of the bits of advice one of the party attendees gave young Ben. The man said "I want to say just one word Ben, just one... Plastics".
Well the movie writers got it right about plastics. What a wonderful invention that has ingrained itself into the very fabric of our lives. Almost everything you can think of uses plastic one way or another. Packaging is one use for plastics. Go into a big box retailer and you won't find much that isn't made of, covered, or coated with plastics. You can't even get your stuff from the store to your car unless you use a plastic bag to haul it out, unless you are one of those folks that uses a reusable shopping bag, which by the way are very often made out of recycled plastic.
Yep, plastic is some really great stuff. Modern medicine wouldn't be very modern without plastics. Your car would weigh a lot more and get a lot less MPG if it wasn't for plastic. Product prices would be higher because plastic is cheap to manufacture and is used to package just about everything... just look at how much of it we throw away.
Plastics durability is something else too. Do you know how long it takes a plastic bag to decompose? I've read it takes 1000 years. Now I don't know if that is really true or not, but we all know that plastic is pretty tough stuff. Recycling of plastic isn't very cost effective compared to most other consumer products like aluminum, and though a lot of plastic gets recycled, it's a drop in the proverbial bucket when compared to the amount manufactured.
Here are a few plastic facts...
Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles EVERY HOUR! Approximately 3 out of 4 get tossed. Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups every year. Over 5 trillion plastic bags are manufactured worldwide each year. Just in the US of A, 380 billion plastic bags are used each year. That's about 1200 plastic bags for every man, woman, and child in the country. Of that 380 billion bags, at best only 2% get recycled. The rest end up in a landfill or somewhere else.
Speaking of somewhere else, have you heard of the Pacific Trash Vortex? It's a huge area larger than the state of Texas full of plastic and other crud that has found it's way into the ocean. You can read about it here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
So today my point is that I hope you will consider what you buy and how you use plastics. While I know we can't get along without plastics, I also know that we could get along with a lot less of the stuff. Try and find products that don't require the single use of plastic. Try and find ways to reuse plastic containers. Do anything you can do to reduce your plastic use and you help us all in the long run.
Well the movie writers got it right about plastics. What a wonderful invention that has ingrained itself into the very fabric of our lives. Almost everything you can think of uses plastic one way or another. Packaging is one use for plastics. Go into a big box retailer and you won't find much that isn't made of, covered, or coated with plastics. You can't even get your stuff from the store to your car unless you use a plastic bag to haul it out, unless you are one of those folks that uses a reusable shopping bag, which by the way are very often made out of recycled plastic.
Yep, plastic is some really great stuff. Modern medicine wouldn't be very modern without plastics. Your car would weigh a lot more and get a lot less MPG if it wasn't for plastic. Product prices would be higher because plastic is cheap to manufacture and is used to package just about everything... just look at how much of it we throw away.
Plastics durability is something else too. Do you know how long it takes a plastic bag to decompose? I've read it takes 1000 years. Now I don't know if that is really true or not, but we all know that plastic is pretty tough stuff. Recycling of plastic isn't very cost effective compared to most other consumer products like aluminum, and though a lot of plastic gets recycled, it's a drop in the proverbial bucket when compared to the amount manufactured.
Here are a few plastic facts...
Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles EVERY HOUR! Approximately 3 out of 4 get tossed. Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups every year. Over 5 trillion plastic bags are manufactured worldwide each year. Just in the US of A, 380 billion plastic bags are used each year. That's about 1200 plastic bags for every man, woman, and child in the country. Of that 380 billion bags, at best only 2% get recycled. The rest end up in a landfill or somewhere else.
Speaking of somewhere else, have you heard of the Pacific Trash Vortex? It's a huge area larger than the state of Texas full of plastic and other crud that has found it's way into the ocean. You can read about it here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
So today my point is that I hope you will consider what you buy and how you use plastics. While I know we can't get along without plastics, I also know that we could get along with a lot less of the stuff. Try and find products that don't require the single use of plastic. Try and find ways to reuse plastic containers. Do anything you can do to reduce your plastic use and you help us all in the long run.
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