29 Jul

Posted at 10:46h in Resumes and Cover Letters
I wish that Donald Trump would go on national TV and tell everyone how much he loves resumes so everyone would finally start hating them publicly.If I had a choice between spending the day with Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian, or a pile of resumes, I would ask for double the time with Trump and Kimmie over spending a minute with the resumes.That's HOW MUCH I hate resumes.Now let me tell you why.The original purpose of a resume was to create a single document that outlines your experience & skill-set for future employers. It was a fantastic tool.The problem is that things have changed. A lot.

28 Jul

Posted at 04:29h in Interviewing
The eye contact. Oh my God, the eye contact.He stared me down. His face didn’t move. He never blinked. His eyeballs followed my every millimeter of movement. It was perfect.He was the Michael Jordan of eye contact. If there was an eye contact competition he would win 10 years straight.He was interviewing me for an entry-level job out of college.He asked me a stupid, simple question. A question that was directly related to my major and experience. I had spent 4 years waiting for this exact question.I had an answer prepared. Right before I was about to blurt out my canned answer, I made a huge mistake.I looked directly into his pupils.It was the equivalent of looking directly at the solar eclipse without glasses. My brain immediately told me, “Don’t use your perfectly prepared answer. Say something else. Anything else. Just don’t use that answer.”

15 Apr

Posted at 06:09h in Linkedin
This post was originally published on the LinkedIn Official Blog. In the second post of a three-part series, LinkedIn asks members to share why they publish on LinkedIn. Robbie Abed is the Director of Marketing at Y Media Labs--a mobile interactive agency for some of the most leading brands and emerging startups.Why do you feel it’s important to share your professional perspectives with the world?Career advice always sounds the same: meet the right people, don’t play office politics, work hard, and do good work. It all means nothing in the end unless you can relate it to your specific situation. Telling someone to always negotiate their salary is different than someone telling a story about how they managed to negotiate their salary when the company wasn’t offering raises as an option.

16 Feb

Posted at 09:59h in Uncategorized

My dad had two rules:

  1. Don’t sit on his couch
  2. Don’t touch the remote

My dad looked like he belonged to the Italian Mafia. It was always great when a friend of mine would meet my dad for the first time. They didn’t know if they should laugh at his jokes out of fear or because he was genuinely funny.

My dad passed away following a battle with lung cancer. A few days before he died, the remote control wasn’t working properly. He asked me to get batteries from the cabinet. When I asked why he needed them, he looked up at me with a dumbfounded look on his face and said, “To put up my ass! Why else do people need batteries?”

I laughed, shrugged my shoulders and said, “Well… Looks like I’m going to get the batteries!”