9 posts tagged “jobs”

This month there was an article in The Wall Street Journal called 'From Attitude to Gratitude: This Is No Time for Complaints'

There were some positive outcomes from ":

"Job satisfaction is actually up, according to a December 2008 survey by Yahoo! HotJobs. Almost 38% of respondents said they were "very satisfied" with their jobs, compared with 28% in 2007, a likely sign that people are grateful they're still employed."

"Even if grumbling is only on hiatus, it's clear that in many quarters, we're seeing a return to Depression-era stoicism and an appreciation of simpler things."

Although the article does bring the positive out of this recession, which is always a good thing, maybe there are a few things we can all learn from this recession:

1. Appreciate what we have at all times [Over a billion people live on less than $1 a day]
   
2. Learn to value what we have independent of other's (worse-off) circumstances
   
3. "Its" really not about money
4. As Mommy and Daddy always used to say whenever relevant - "Please stop whining" for your own good. Maybe it time to shake off the "all-American inclination to complain"
5. Remember: There is no 'I' in Happyness
   

Imagine: Believing is Seeing

This is the first part of my 'I Know What I did the Last Time I was Unemployed' Series - it touches upon the Economics, 'my 2 cents' spent during that time.

My girl-friend then, wife now, had a job with the Oregon University System sending interns abroad. She worked for the state so she didn't make much but it helped pay for the bare necessities like rent for the one-bedroom apartment and utilities. Yes - it helps to have a sugar mama!

The following 'snapshots' are an intention to give you sneak peak into my life then. You will notice that it was all the intangibles... the unquantifiable that made the difference.

1) Focused on the 'smaller miracles of life'. Our Friday dates were sharing one cup of coffee at Borders but we focused on the company we had of each other and being lucky enough not to be worried about being bombed, lucky enough to be in America which was my dream in India.
We lived off the furniture given away by our friends and were never (and still do not) trying to catch up with the Joneses. We stopped to recognize that about 1B people in this world live off less than $1 per day   

2) For the first 10 or so months, we shared an apartment with my brother in-law and his girl-friend and slept on the floor. It might amaze many but it was 'normal' for us. We were looking at the forest, not the trees.

3) We genuinely thrived and lived the journey independent of the destination - every moment of the 'struggle'. We perceived it as an opportunity to build out and grow our life together from scratch and during tough times. We would have been very disappointed if we had it all then or now. We recognized that when we looked back on these days, we'd probably be nostalgic, and indeed, today - with two jobs and a shortage of time together, we do sometimes long for those times.

4) I took up a job for about 2 months to strings lights on the streets in downtown Portland. I worked for free all day for someone (in the tech space looking at startups for deal flow) and then went to string lights from 3 in the afternoon to 3am in the morning in cold rainy nights.

This was probably the hardest part (and my biggest wins) to do since In India, I was not raised to respect the dignity of labor - people from middle class families did not do blue-collared jobs. Over and above that, I had an engineering degree from one of the top 10 schools in India, about 5 years experience in one of the best corporations (Tata Group that bought Jaguar and LandRover) doing USD 2M-3M deals a year in India and very recently I had received an MBA degree. I looked on it as a cross-cultural experience. Most of the battles we fight are in our head - (dis)illusions. Unfortunately or fortunately, perspective is reality.

5) Finally and very very importantly, I got addicted - addicted to The Chase. The harder it got, the more exciting it became... the harder it got, the more valuable I perceived the goal. The harder it got, the more I rose to the challenge.... the harder it got, the more I saw an opportunity to push the envelope.

I would not be paying attention if I believed in coincidence so here I am - deeply in love with startups!

Today we take advantage of that "opportunity" and live the same way - I drive a used Camry with 130k miles on it, we do not own a flat panel TV, have no qualms buying at Ross or TJ Maxx and we have NO financial obligations. 

Hpr5052

Imagine: The vision beyond 

I embarked on a series of blog posts yesterday titled 'I Know What I did the Last Time I was Unemployed' but before I start off on that I need to recognize these 5 professionals.

I hope this would inspire many to respond or reach out to those seeking jobs. I assure you having been in that phase for 3 YEARS and where career sites like Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com or employer sites are like big black holes, a simple email or a few minutes on the phone giving job seekers feedback can bring hope. In times like this, believe me, Hope Can Be a Tactic and a Chase, The Adrenalin Rush!

A significant portion of what had to come together for me was these amazing people who responded to my outreach. I was relatively fresh off the boat from India, unemployed, with a name which spell checkers suggest 'urinal' as the alternative (Take that Barack!) and they were all very busy senior executives. They are:

• Sriram Peruvemba - then a Director of Marketing at Planar and now a VP of Marketing at E-Ink and my first employer ever in the US. I met him offline through a Professor at Portland State University 
• Shripriya Mahesh - then a VP at eBay for Products and now soon-to-become a famous film maker. I 'met' her through LinkedIn. We connected way back in the last downturn and are yet to meet in person - one day!
  
• Rahul Sachdev - then a GM at Siebel and now a VP of Marketing at Intelliden. I 'first' met him through LinkedIn in 2004
• Ajit Pendse - had just sold his last company, eFusion, for $250M and was most recently CEO of Trinity Convergence. I met him offline at a local Starbucks in Portland, Oregon. Ajit was figuring out what to do after selling his company and I was at the other end of the spectrum - figuring out what to do .
  
• Konstantin Guericke - then a co-founder and VP of Marketing at LinkedIn and most recently the CEO of Jaxtr. I met him through LinkedIn when I first 'bumped' into the service in 2003 when they had 40,000 users and I saw its potential. He did not offer me a job right away but fortunately humored my feedback as an early adopter of the service.

Imagine: You CAN make a big difference in someone's life - you just may not know it.

We are facing one of the most challenging financial times, which many compare to the Great Depression, and some growing unemployment pains. Here are some recent headlines that say that better than me:

Wall Street Journal, December 7th 2008 - "Job Losses Worst Since '74"
Reuters, Jan 09, 2009 - "Employers Cut 524,000 Jobs in December'
Wall Street Journal, Jan 09, 2009 - 'Worst Year Since 1945, With More Pain to Come'
No one is immune - Wall Street Journal, Jan 13, 2009 - CEO Firings on the Rise and Downturn Gains Steam

And a picture that says more than those headlines:

Picture 1

I thought I would share my days, actually years, from the last downturn when I was unemployed coming right of B-School. I came from B-School with a dream all the way from India in 1999, when everything was going great in the US. If you believe in God, then suddenly the saying 'Man Proposes, God Disposes' was very profound to me.

As a backgrounder, I came out of B School in 2001. Then I gained experience at being unemployed for almost 3 years. I finally got a 'real' job at Sprint as a sales guy (for 4 months) from where I joined LinkedIn in 2004 in its very early days when there was no 'social networking' category. From there I moved on to co-found my current company, CrossLoop. You can read my bio more on the CrossLoop site here or on my LinkedIn profile here. CrossLoop is funded by El Dorado and Venrock.
 
I had written a little about careers and jobs before but the current situation warrants a more detailed peak into my life during those times.
 
A lot of things had to come together for where I am today inspite of that - I intend to pen those down here in the following parts:

Part I - The Economics
Part II - The Untouchables
Part III - What I would do if I was unemployed again

Imagine: You never waste a crisis

The recent carnage in Mumbai (my family lives there) made me stop for a little bit and realize how important it is to be in the 'now' - living today as if there was no tomorrow.

So here are three videos that bring a lot of meaning in this new world we all live in, where ever we are:

I have written a few posts on the choices we make about our life, our jobs and then eventually tying them to "happyness". At the core of everything, I try to usually sell one thing - its all about people!

Here is an excellent post by Kristina Cowan on jobs, satisfaction and happiness. My favorite parts:

"Relationships trump money. Gilbert says the best predictor of happiness is the relationships people have with others and the amount of time they spend with family and friends. "We know that it's significantly more important than money and somewhat more important than health. That's what the data shows. The interesting thing is that people will sacrifice social relationships to get other things that won't make them as happy — money. That's what I mean when I say people should do 'wise shopping' for happiness," he explains."

Dan Gilbert, referred to and interviewed by Kristina, is a social psychologist at Harvard University and author of the book "Stumbling on Happiness".

As you will read, Dan goes on to say that "Part of why we chase money, Gilbert says, is because society perpetuates the belief that money brings happiness."

StripeII

Some of us will figure it out later.

Imagine: Its your job to be happy

I came across this really well written post on "Why Not To Do A Startup" by Matt and Yes - I had some thoughts that are tied to some basic beliefs I have about life and people.

I think his observations were on the money with respect to startups but it is applicable only to people who are doing with the sole focus of making a lot of money overnight. They are inspired by the phenomenal exit for the Founders of YouTube or the buzz of Facebook and its potential large exit. Another parallel was this article on Max Levchin, the Founder and CEO of Slide.com in New York Times - I dont know him and nor can I speak to the accuracy of the article.

I started with a small step by joining LinkedIn very early in 2004 when social networking was not a category and then after 2 years there went on to start CrossLoop with a very neat team. I am definitely not as experienced as many others out there but there is a common question that needs an answer - whether it is startups or your supposedly-secure job in a large company:

"What Drives You?"

If you choose to have a cause that transcends the need for making money, becoming popular, paying bills, need for validation from others - you will NOT experience what Matt suggests and will have one of the most fulfilling purposes of your life. Some hardships maybe but I guarantee no regrets and and a very possible outcome could be that house in Hawaii. Think collateral success - the L-Letter should sum it all up.

Otherwise, I couldn't agree more with Matt - I have known and seen a few people living EXACTLY what Matt describes.

Imagine: A FUNomenal "ride" (and it is short)

As we all continue to hear the 'R' word (Recession) across all media outlets through stories like that of Bear Stearns and other financial collapses, I thought I would pen down the fundamental hard-to-measure factors that made me thrive during the dot-com bust days and hope it helps. It was almost 3 years for me before I found a full-time job, even though I had just finished B-School.

So if you happen to find yourself with a new job of 'CEO, Vocationally Challenged, Inc', you may not see it this way but it might one of the best opportunities that will come your way to thrive and come out stronger. Very briefly, here is what made that time one of the best in my professional life (in fact, on my LinkedIn profile, that is the only experience I highlight and detail under all experiences):

• Positive attitude and humor: I started enjoying the hunt, the chase and gave myself the title of CEO, Vocationally Challenged, Inc. Another one to consider is its acronymed version - VC ... just at the other end of the spectrum
  
• Its about People. Build and sustain long term relationships - I made friends and mentors, independent of titles, that I still stay in touch with regularly since 2001.
  
• Continuous unlearning and learning: I read voraciously and listened to anyone who could tell me something new. This is also how I discovered and started using LinkedIn when it had 40k users in 2003 (today they have 20M). And absolutely dont forget to ask people you meet two questions:

        "What do you do and How do you do it?"
        They were pivotal to Chris Gardner's Pursuit of Happyness

• Laser Focus on goals: I never compromised and knew very clearly what I wanted. I joined LinkedIn and transitioned into the consumer Internet space, specifically social networking/media after having spent my prior life in enterprise software
  
• Habits 'Built to Last' (that would be hard to break after employment). Some examples: I dont start the day before I have read The Wall Street Journal cover to cover, I workout and pay attention to my physical health

And yes - very importantly, it helps to have a supportive sugar mama!

For those who want to read more about what others are doing that is measurable and easier to execute - here are a few stories and posts that caught my eye:

• Getting Hired by William Bland
• How To Job Hunt as Time Drags On - The Wall Street Journal
• In Silicon Valley, a Flight to Safety - The Wall Street Journal
  

Imagine: "Adversity is a fact of life. It can't be controlled. What we can control is how we react to (and leverage) it."

There was this really long time (2001-2004) in my life - also one of the best time for me in terms of growth - during the economic downturn following the dot com boom when I was the CEO of "Vocationally Challenged, Inc.' - my first foray into [a] social networking company (pun intended)

Here is is a glimpse into it through this little article I wrote when I was at it - it was of course all offline (at a local Starbucks in Portland, OR) and real face to face long-term relationships. They are all still friends including one of the baristas referred to in the article - in fact she is right in the neighborhood here on Vox! I still thrive on that - a post on its relevance and why it is relevant next.

Imagine: Make (not 'Add') Friend