28 Jan

Posted at 09:27h in Career Inspiration
"Fake it till you make it" is a great motto to live by because it gives you confidence that you can do something even if you aren't sure if you are really capable. If you live by that saying long enough, there is a chance that it will actually stick.In a new business / startup, these are several situations where you can apply fake it till you make it:
  • That first enterprise client that is asking you how many other big companies you have signed up already - Fake it till you make it.
  • That investor that is asking what other investors are interested in your product - Fake it till you make it.
  • That banner advertiser that is asking you how many page views you get on your site - Fake it till you make it.

05 Aug

Posted at 06:24h in Resumes and Cover Letters
I, Robbie Abed now declare the Cover Letter dead. It is a useless waste of a word document. For every time someone uses a cover letter, a kitten will die.There are two problems with cover letters:
  1. They are usually in a separate word document. Are you just looking for ways to make the recruiters job harder for them? Ever hear of mobile devices? Believe it or not recruiters use them too, and they hate attachments.
  2. They are usually boring as hell & the most repetitive document I have ever seen in my life. Please refer to Shit Every Resume Says post for more details on why I hate them so much.

01 Aug

Posted at 06:39h in Quitting Your Job
Exit Interviews are worthless. Yes, I said it. They are absolutely worthless. Exit interviews are your one last chance to burn your bridge within the company. You know all those nasty things you always wanted to say to people while you worked there, well now is your chance to really let it all out. And you get to do it through a confidential processor AKA Human Resources.HR will make it seem like everything you say is confidential, and no one will ever know you said it except him / her. It's true, they don't tell other people *exactly* what you said, but trust me when I tell you that everyone will find out.Everyone thinks that this exit interview is your last chance for you to let management know that things need to change. Everyone thinks that they are going to be the change catalyst on the *way out* of the company. You're going to be the hero! The hero that changed the company for every other employee that decided to stay working at their horribly managed corporate job.

29 Jul

Posted at 14:06h in Career Inspiration
I'm an idea machine. I come up with ideas all the time. I sometimes constrain myself when I think about ideas, so I can force creativity. I'll say things like "It has to be something that a user can do with a click of a button", and come up with 3-5 ideas about that.Occasionally, I'll come up with a really great idea for a business. I spend the next few days mulling over all the options, researching competition, and draw out in my head what it's going to take to get it started. I put it on paper & sketch out what it will look like. I then ask other people what they think about the idea. I get obsessed with the idea and what it can become.