July 10, 2009- New Website:
www.NoShortageOfWork.com Look for German language post below.
I am an open networker. If you are too, let us connect. If you want to know more about me, please read below:
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Introduction I am a securities professional with more than 20 years experience in proprietary trading in the USA and Japan. We do not have outside investors and we do not give investment advice.
The only thing I have to offer relative to finance and the securities markets is that I do talk to college students and professional organizations.
Previous presentation topics:
- Job hunting and building a career
- Creative hiring practices
- International finance
- Securities market structure
- Behavioral economics
- Entrepreneurship
- Writing
Contact me if you think you'd like me to talk to your class or group.
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Finding Work and
Finding Workers I am very interested in creative and humane ways the employment markets can be improved.
Here are two articles I've written on the subject in Science Magazine:
Creative ways of finding work:http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/prev... Creative ways of hiring people:http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/prev... You might also enjoy a story I wrote about how I learned to land a job in a single interview.http://corcodilos.com/blog/18/if-you-dont-like-rejection The following was translated by Xing member: Winfried Brumma
Für meine deutschen Leser: Meine zwei Fachartikel sind in deutscher Sprache hier abrufbar: -
Auf der Suche nach Personal im disfunktionalen Arbeitsmarkt Ratschläge zur beruflichen Entwicklung - Vorschläge zum
Einstellungsverfahren:
http://www.wbrnet.info/seminar/suche-nach-mitarbeitern.html -
Suche nach Chancen im disfunktionalen Arbeitsmarkt Über die Verantwortung von Unternehmen und Organisationen bei der
Talentsuche und deren Unkreativität begabtes Personal zu finden:
http://www.wbrnet.info/seminar/berufliche-entwicklung.html So ziehen Sie einen Job an Landhttp://www.internationalfamilymag.com/articlesoct09/howtolan...(translated by: Melanie Dittchrist)
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On a lighter side...
I write the monthly "Father's stories" column at: http://www.internationalfamilymag.com/ On the right side is a link to the current column, and under "Generations" under the banner is a link to recent archived stories.
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Personal history: My wife and I married in 1986 and immediately set about making two boys. We lived in Japan for a few years and in London briefly but mostly we've been in New York City and now in suburban New Jersey.
I work as a quantitative securities trader (since 1995 with the same firm). Background: BA-Math, CS, MBA (finance). Interests: my family, travel, ham radio, writing. As a amateur radio operator I've been licensed as: N2BA (USA), 8P6IM (Barbados), V26BA (Antigua), 7J1AGE (Japan), 3D2HQ (Fiji), Vk2IWJ (Australia) and in portable operations in nearly 30 countries.
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F. A. Q. - - Over time, people have asked me various questions about my networking practices so I've decided to answer those questions here.
What are you selling? Nothing. I am not in marketing. Professionally, I run a proprietary trading desk for the US branch of a Canadian securities firm. As the word "proprietary" implies, we cannot talk about the nature of our trading for trade secret reasons. We do not accept outside investors and I do not raise capital in any way. I am only representing myself on business and social networking sites.
What are you buying? Occasionally, when I need to hire someone, I might notify people in my network of our needs. As a general rule, we do not invest in other people's businesses but we do have an interest in people with profitable trading strategies who may consider making a home at our firm.
What do you expect to get out of networking? First and foremost I am looking for new friends and acquaintances. As I write this (August, 2008), we are delivering our youngest son to college. My wife and I will have more free time to travel and meet new people. One thing I've noticed among people our age (50's) is that some people allow their worlds to shrink as they lose friends to geographical dispersion and old age. Other people find this time in life to be one of expansion as they have the time to devote to developing new relationships, interests and hobbies. I intend for us to be of the second type.
In what ways has networking helped you? In numerous ways - Some examples:
I once got it in my head to make a presentation on hiring practices in the form of a Play. The only problem is that I do not know any actors. A single posting on LinkedIn yielded fourteen actors with an interest in the topic. After reading the play, four professionals with stage and screen credits agreed to make the presentation.
My elder son wanted to spend the summer in Sweden studying and working. A few e-mails on ecademy yielded numerous suggestions of courses, work opportunities and places to stay.
I am working on a book on what should be taught at colleges (university) that is not. Numerous people on Xing, ecademy, LinkedIn and elsewhere have contributed wonderful suggestions.
Why are you so willing to connect with people you do not know personally? In 2007 a friend convinced me to become an "Open Networker" which simply means that I will be open to contact requests from nearly anyone and I am not shy about approaching interesting strangers. I used to prefer "quality over quantity" but changing my approach has led to many more high quality contacts from my many admittedly superficial connections. In many cases, nothing happens for many months after I first contact someone and then we discover a reason to correspond and that is always a pleasure, like receiving an unexpected gift in the mail from a stranger.
Of course, I will not be offended at all if you have no interest in connecting with me.
(BTW, One of the most influential concepts in sociology called the Strength of Weak Ties (SWT) theory which says that one's close contacts tend to know each other and think alike. There is greater strength in having a broader network of people with weak ties since they are most likely to send you new information or ideas. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Granovetter)
You have checked my profile a few times recently. Can I help you? Please accept my apology if I've checked your profile a number of times - I often check people who have logged in recently to see if they are someone I know, but can't keep track of everyone until their profile comes up and Xing tells me if we've connected already. I'll also check people who visit my profile, so we might go back an forth a few times! I am not stalking you! Perhaps it is just that I use Xing differently, and more actively, than most.
How can you be of help to others? I have helped people who are looking to make contact with other, find work, discuss their business ideas, develop an idea they are writing, or are planning a visit to our part of the world.
I especially like helping young people who are just starting a career and entrepreneurs looking to start new businesses.
If there is any way I can be of help to you, please don't hesitate to ask.
However, I hope you will understand if I don't respond immediately due to time pressures, or I decline to be of much because I am incapable or over-committed.
But there is no harm in asking.
