MARYLAND CAREERS
A HANDFUL OF CLASSIC BOOKS AND OTHER RESOURCES
SELECTING AN EMPLOYER.
When you're changing careers, your first employer should emphasize training
and development. How do you locate these great places to work?
Your first employer should emphasize training and development,
but how about later ones? Of course, they should emphasize it, too, but
at some point after you become well-established in your new career, you
may have an opportunity to help revive an organization that hasn't given
training and development enough attention. If you have been active in the
ASTD, you'll be better prepared to exploit such an opportunity. Of course,
you should also be active in at least one association in your industry
or profession.
The lists from all the sources above are incomplete! Use the information on how the employers got on the lists as a guide to spotting other great employers that haven't been discovered yet. And, a great employer for most people might not be great for you. Finally, there are more important things than pay and benefits. Compensation must be adequate, of course, but fair treatment and opportunity are (for most people) more important.
SMALL BUSINESS OWNERSHIP is a worthwhile career option, and "How To Buy A Great Business With No Cash Down" by Arnold S. Goldstein (292 p., 1989, Wiley) describes many techniques that can be adapted by key employees seeking to gradually take over a business so the owner can retire on schedule. In one example (p. 200), the buyer arranged to purchase (at a preset price) five percent of the stock each year for ten years, paying for it out of salary and dividends. At the end of this period, the buyer had enough equity to secure the loan needed to buy the remaining half of the business, and the seller benefited in many ways as well. Goldstein is an attorney with extensive experience structuring the purchase of small businesses. He emphasizes the need to evaluate your employer's business in the same hard-nosed way you would evaluate any other potential purchase.
"In Business for Yourself," by Bruce Williams (262 p., Scarborough House, 1991) delves into the nuts and bolts of owning a small business. The author has owned several businesses hmself and has also been a small-town mayor. This is the same Bruce Williams who advises small business owners on talk radio. The style is conversational; in the book Williams sounds like he does on the radio. The advice is practical. Willliams exposes some popular fallacies: starting part-time (the competition will be full-time); buying a job (your capital could earn more elsewhere); and many others. He devotes a full chapter to matching your skills to the type of business. A valuable book, but not the only one you should read on this topic.
"Marketing Without Advertising," by Michael Phillips and Salli Rasberry (6th ed., Nolo Press, 2008) reminds us that although advertising is pervasive and conspicuous, it cannot be your primary means of getting and keeping customers. In the foreword to an earlier edition, the publisher said, "The best way to succeed in business is to run such a wonderful operation that your loyal and satisfied customers will brag about your goods and services far and wide." Read this book before you write the marketing section of your business plan.
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HIRING. One of the evergreen truisms taught to every jobseeker is “The person who gets hired isn’t the one who’s best at doing the job--it’s the one who’s best at seeking a job.”
In the third edition of "Hire With your Head," (334p., Wiley, 2007) Lou Adler,
a recruiter of many years experience, says regretfully that it’s still true, but it shouldn’t be. (He said the same thing in the first edition.) Too many hires don’t work out, a loss for both the employer and the job seeker. Job seekers should read his book in case they encounter an employer who has read it. Some of the ideas here also appear on this website in the article Resumes and Interviews. Employers should read Adler's book in order to improve their dismal accuracy--Adler says "There is nothing more important to your success than hiring great people. Nothing." If you disagree with that, you won’t like the book.
Adler recommends a five step system, which he calls the POWER Staffing System:
If you agree with Adler about the importance of hiring great people, you may wonder about the attention the subject gets in management books. True to form, Peter Drucker was a pioneer, with an excellent chapter on selection in “The Effective Executive” (1967). In "Good to Great" (2001), Jim Collins says, "First build a superior executive team. Once you have the right people in place, figure out the best path to greatness." Later on Collins elaborates on this and lays out practical principles, this one first: "When in doubt, don’t hire—keep looking." Caution is essential, because, “The single most harmful step you can take on the journey from good to great is to put the wrong people in key positions."
Management professors who agree with Adler, Drucker and Collins about the importance of hiring great people should consider creating a module on the subject, perhaps using Adler's book. The preceding paragraphs are based on this site's review of Adler's first edition. It's even better, now.
The book is filed with detailed guidance on how to accomplish these steps, including record-keeping forms.