plus 3, Job search: Twitter tips - Medford Mail Tribune |
- Job search: Twitter tips - Medford Mail Tribune
- Mark Duncan / AP - San Francisco Chronicle
- What It's Like Being A VC - The Business Insider
- Kurt Busch survives race full of crashes - Nashville Tennessean
| Job search: Twitter tips - Medford Mail Tribune Posted: 08 Mar 2010 01:52 AM PST Can you keep your resume under 140 characters? You may be able to tweet your way into a new career, according to Susan Britton Whitcomb, Deb Dib and Chandlee Bryan, co-authors of the recently published book "The Twitter Job Search Guide." The micro-blogging Web site is changing how people hunt for work, they said. "In the past, you had to go through a maze of gatekeepers to get to the cloistered person in charge of hiring decisions," Britton Whitcomb said. "Now you can have access to them with the click of a 'Follow' button. The ability to level the playing field — placing you nearly peer-to-peer with influencers, leaders and hiring authorities — is extremely powerful." The authors give these tips for your short and sweet, real-time job search:
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| Mark Duncan / AP - San Francisco Chronicle Posted: 08 Mar 2010 05:55 AM PST They're still talking about the ball Justin Upton hit in Mesa the other day. In one of the better moments of the Cactus League season, Arizona's five-tool outfielder put one off the top of the massive left-field scoreboard at Hohokam Stadium, about the best possible showcase of the young man's power. There are certain treasures in the National League West that the Giants simply won't be able to match: Colorado's speed, the Dodgers' top-to-bottom lineup, any player with prodigious power or exceptional defensive ability. But the Giants have pitching, star power, a highly capable manager and enough reasons to believe they can win this thing. Viewing it in the strictest light - what could stop the other teams from winning - we submit: Rockies: They're the consensus favorite for a lot of good reasons, detailed by The Green's John Shea on Sunday. The Giants can only hope the Rockies get caught between identities, as this long-intimidating offense makes a dramatic transition from ponderous sluggers to the run-manufacturing talents of Dexter Fowler, Carlos Gonzalez and (once he wins a job) Eric Young Jr. The team still has some punch, featuring the likes of Troy Tulowitzki, Brad Hawpe and Todd Helton, and as you recall Ryan Spilborghs' spirit-crushing homer against the Giants last year, you hear the sound of Duane Kuiper's classic call: "This isn't good, folks." The Rockies also brought back the imposing Jason Giambi, largely because his teammates insisted on it. Tulowitzki said he asked to have Giambi's locker be placed next to his, "because he put me in such a relaxed frame of mind," and Helton assured Giambi he'd get enough starts at first base to keep him happy. Still, at this point of his career, Giambi's influence can be fleeting, and the Rockies have other concerns. They're still trying to figure out why catcher Yorvit Torrealba bypassed a solid two-year deal to sign for less in San Diego. They have no guarantees that Jeff Francis, who hasn't pitched since September 2008 because of shoulder surgery, can come all the way back. And they weren't thrilled to learn that closer Huston Street had a balky arm as the exhibition season began. Dodgers: Let's get one thing straight: For all the negative publicity surrounding them lately, they won't be falling out of the race. Not with Joe Torre in charge of a lineup featuring Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, James Loney and Rafael Furcal, and not with a pitching staff that has its flaws but nevertheless led the big leagues in ERA (3.41) last year. It's just that a couple of storm clouds won't vanish - always a bummer in the sunny southland. There's the potential disintegration of the Manny Ramirez phenomenon, either from age, disinterest or his empty drug cabinet (you can make that joke when a player officially gets busted). And there's the gathering storm of the McCourts' divorce; the feuding owners having spent an absurd $19 million on attorneys' fees so far. The team's finances are not directly tied to Frank and Jamie's bank accounts, but the Dodgers have watched San Francisco take the division lead in payroll, at roughly $100 million. The Dodgers have a decent corps of starting pitchers, but they don't have an ace, nor will they unless 21-year-old Clayton Kershaw matures into a stud. The bullpen appears to be deep and solid, but there might be the slightest concern with closer Jonathan Broxton, haunted by the Phillies' Matt Stairs (big homer, then a crucial walk) during each of the last two postseasons. The Dodgers also got some bad news on catcher Russell Martin, who gained 25 pounds in the offseason to bolster his durability, only to pull a groin muscle during Sunday's exhibition game and be sidelined up to six weeks. Diamondbacks: Catch these guys on the right day - say, a Dan Haren shutout, backed by 450-foot homers off the bats of Upton, Chris Young and Mark Reynolds - and you step back in amazement. Bring on the World Series! The look is highly deceiving, though. This is a team with no discipline and, too often, no passion. As impressive as they are in a long-ball groove, the D'backs strike out way too much. They have a young and still-untested manager in A.J. Hinch, the former Stanford catcher. Their defense and relief pitching seem about average, and there are serious questions about the rotation. Arizona picked up workhorse Edwin Jackson from Detroit in a three-team deal, but it cost them Max Scherzer, who has exceptional stuff. And there's a much larger issue in Brandon Webb, the masterful sinkerballer who had shoulder surgery in August, showed up feeling "stagnant" on the mound, and might have to start the season on the disabled list. Padres: Things can't be good when you're identified with (a) collecting Hairstons and (b) timetables on an Adrian Gonzalez trade. The only sure thing about the Padres is that they'll finish in last. Scott Hairston arrived from Oakland in the Kevin Kouzmanoff deal, and Jerry Hairston, a valuable utility player with the Yankees last year, is in camp as well. They're both solid players, but in this division, the Padres are overmatched - and a little bit depressed. Team president Jeff Moorad has admitted that it's unlikely the Padres can re-sign Gonzalez, a two-time Gold Glove first baseman who hit 40 homers last year, when his deal expires in two years. As such, it's all about Gonzalez' next stop, with a number of big-money teams ready to pounce at the trading deadline. Gonzalez is a local kid who grew up in San Diego and spent 12 years of his youth in Mexico, but his patience only runs so far. Basically dismissing the notion of an extension, Gonzalez recently told reporters that "at some point of your career, you look for what you deserve." Hardly cause for enthusiasm. E-mail Bruce Jenkins at bjenkins@sfchronicle.com. This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| What It's Like Being A VC - The Business Insider Posted: 08 Mar 2010 06:09 AM PST One of the questions I'm most often asked is, "what's it like being a VC?" I've been a VC for nearly 3 years now. Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. I always start my answer to this question with, "you'd have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC." That's true. Here's why: 1. I get paid (well) for interesting people to come in and tell me how they want to change the world – Being an entrepreneur is like having blinders on. At least for the best entrepreneurs. Some people do the conference circuit too much, get involved in lots of side projects and attend every entrepreneur dinner. For me that's always a bad sign. When I was running startups I felt like a horse with blinders on because I was super focused on the content management market and ignored many other markets. One of the things that I'm loving about this side of the people is that it really satisfies my intellectual curiosity. People come into my office several times per week and tell my about their plans for changing the world. They outline the problems that exist in markets, their approach to the solutions, they update me on competitors and they show me their economic models. We have debates about how the industries will change / evolve. It is the equivalent of going to a coffee shop every day and having intellectual debates. In fact, I often take meetings in coffee shops. I LOVE this part of my job. 2. If I'm interested I get to spend more time with them, if I'm not I don't have to – A few companies per month come in that have fascinating business ideas that warrant my spending more time trying to understand their people, company, technology and market. I get to do a deep dive on their business model, product roadmap and competitive positioning. If I meet a company that I don't find very interesting I don't have to spend any more time with them. I'm not saying I don't spend time trying to help entrepreneurs that I am not planning to invest it – anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I do. But let's face it, as a VC you spend time with whichever companies you want. As a CEO I had to spend tons of time with clients who ran business operations that were uninteresting to me. It was my job to be interested. No more. You'd have to be a big baby to complain about being a VC. 3. I have no quarterly sales targets for the first time in a decade – For anybody who's ever been in a company with sales targets you can attest to what a fire drill the ends of March, June, September and December can be. Not any more for me. It's liberating. I will obviously be judged on my performance. But it's measured in years and not quarters. Don't get me wrong – I still feel the pressure to ensure that the companies I've invested in perform well. So I spend much time with them and trying to help. But there's a big difference. 4. I get paid to network – I love meeting people. When I go to conferences I never sit in the meeting section – I always cruise the halls meeting people. That's where I meet interesting people who tell me the truth. On stage you hear people giving you the marketing version of their company. I get to politely ask the questions you'd like to ask like, "what were your revenues, how much money have you raised, what are your plans going forward?" I only do this when I'm interested in the company and when they're interested in me. But in these circumstances these are all fair (necessary) questions. Also, my job doesn't involve the daily grind of customer complaints, product outages, business partner / channel problems, hiring / firing, etc. I work hard, don't get me wrong – more than you might think. No "golf Wednesdays" for me! And the VC job has plenty of admin and minutiae. But I'm a people person and I get paid to spend lots of time with people. I get to network with angels, VCs, entrepreneurs, lawyers, etc. I love it. 5. I go where I want, when I want – I can't overstate the importance of this in my life. I worked nearly a decade as a consultant – first building large scale IT systems and then doing strategy consulting. Then I spent many years as a startup CEO. I was always in a "service" industry. That means you're always operating on the client's schedule. You get on a plane at a moment's notice because a senior customer agreed to meet you. You call in from your vacation because you've had a service outage. I went to Ibiza in Spain with my wife and in-laws before we were married. They couldn't believe how much I was on the phone. We were in the final phases of acquiring a business and I couldn't just say, "I'll call you in 7 days when I'm back on the grid." There are still time pressures on VCs, so that hasn't changed completely. But I do go where I want and when I want a lot more than I used to. 6. I have a T&E account - Enough said. 7. I love spending time with entrepreneurs in the "romantic phase" – I love the startup phase of a business where we're still romantic about our dreams to change the world. The problems are much more manageable. Once my company got to more than 100 employees I felt like I became "chief psychologist." That was fine but I prefer the earlier days. As a VC I spend tons of time with companies at an early stage in their business. And in stead of one set of issues to deal with I get the variety of discussing issues with many teams. That's fun. 8. We have very small teams – When you're in your twenties you aspire to manage teams. I think it's seen as a sign of making progress in your career. The idea that people "report to you" must validate some primal need. In your thirties you realize that managing people means you have less time to work on the things that you want to do. You have hours sucked up in one-on-one feedback sessions, annual or semi-annual performance reviews and you end up spending a lot of time resolving conflicts across your team members. I still like spending time with our teams – at GRP Partners we have a great team – but I don't have large numbers of people to be responsible for. If I decide to take a last-minute trip to spend 2 days on a company due diligence session nobody is wondering where I am. You'd have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC. Still, the truth is that I miss being an entrepreneur all the time. Here's what VCs don't get fulfilled now: 1. We sit on the sidelines – The down side of VC is that exact same as I remember in consulting. Too many VCs see their entrepreneurs almost like pawns. They speak of "my CEO's." They talk about how this company failed because the management team didn't listen to my advice and that one succeeded because we helped point them in the right direction. I think realistic VCs know that we only have an impact at the margin. Maybe 10-15%. That's why picking great teams is so important. And I think that too many VC's don't realize that the entrepreneurs are our customers – but that's a separate topic. I hate not getting to own results. We have a great board chat and talk about our strategic direction but then you go out and execute. You get the good and the bad. Those high highs and low lows are your own. You live them, breathe them. We live vicariously through you. It's like the manager of a basketball team. We secretly wish it were us that got to take that 3-pointer with the clock running out. And we'd love the rush of the teammates holding us in the air if we sank it. 2. There is less team camaraderie – I really get along with my partners well. I knew them for 8 years before I joined GRP. We end up out a lot at events: dinners, cocktail parties, conferences. We travel together. We spend the entire day together on Mondays in our partners' meetings and seeing companies present. Still, it's different in a startup. When you're preparing to launch your company at TechCrunch50 and everyone pulls all nighters for the days leading into it you're building much deeper camaraderie than exists inside of VCs. When your site crashes and you get slammed by customers and in the press – you're all in the sh*tter together. There is something about the relationships you build in those times. About 1 year in I asked many VCs about this and the feeling was nearly universal. They said, "yeah, but we get that through our board interactions. We build camaraderie there through the shared experience. That's true. But it's not the same. 3. I have to say "no" all the time – As an entrepreneur you're used to hearing that what you're doing won't work and you turn up in the office every day to prove them wrong. My first company was a SaaS business in 1999. Everybody said that companies would never put their documents "in the cloud." I was sure they were wrong and had the debate weekly. As an entrepreneur you're always focused on the "how can we find a way to make the impossible happen?" People said that Google was going to dominate this market – we know we can do a better job. You know, the Apollo 13 moment. As a VC I'm required to say "no" ALL THE TIME. I don't enjoy it. We get thousands of business plans per year. I meet hundreds of companies. We can only do a few deals per year. Definitionally we say "no" many times per week. I was with a very prominent VC on Sand Hill Road this week. I always ask other VCs there thoughts. He said the biggest disappointment since he moved over to VC was Tuesday mornings. That's when the calls go out every week to say, "I'm sorry but we've decided to pass." It's much nicer to say "yes." [thank you to Tereza for reminding me I left section this out] 4. We are in a "get rich slowly" business - OK, I'm not complaining. But I think many entrepreneurs have a misconception about this. True, we're paid better than many startup executives on an annual basis. But I know many young partners in this business who have never gotten a "carry" check. The upside for entrepreneurs is the equity in their business. The upside for VCs is this carry. If you have a $100 million fund you don't get paid your carry until you return the initial money to your investors and then you typically get 20% of the profits above this threshold. Well, since the industry hasn't performed well in the past 10 years you have many younger partners who are still waiting for those checks. That is in stark contrast to the late 90's goldrush where VC partners made millions overnight as their companies IPO'd for crazy valuations. On the positive side, we have a portfolio and therefore more diverse chances of success. But there is no "sell early" option for VCs where a $20 million exit could change our lives. But we obviously choose this side of the table. You'd have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC. Overall, I'm very happy on this side of the table. I try to get my entrepreneurial fix in other ways: 1. Running a local community / mentorship program – I run a group called LaunchPad LA. We're gearing up to make big announcements about our second year program. I'll write about that in a couple of weeks. I get to help control direction, make decisions and own results. 2. Writing this blog – This blog is a huge creative outlet for me. I get to choose what I write about. I might be controversial some times and get flack. Other times I might get great results and approbation. I can publish daily for weeks or not publish at all for a month. I own the results. I'm enjoying the chaotic creativity that comes with blogging. Mark Suster is a former entrepreneur and currently a partner at GRP Partners. This post was originally published on Mark's blog, Both Sides of the Table. It is republished here with permission. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Kurt Busch survives race full of crashes - Nashville Tennessean Posted: 08 Mar 2010 05:41 AM PST HAMPTON, Ga. — Kurt Busch made it through a couple of restarts and 16 extra laps to win again Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a race marred by accusations of an intentional crash that sent a car hurtling toward the main stands upside down. Busch won the spring race at the 1.54-mile trioval for the second year in a row, beating Matt Kenseth to the line by nearly half a second. Juan Pablo Montoya was third, followed by Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard. The race went 341 laps instead of its scheduled 325 because of two big crashes. The first one drew the most attention. Carl Edwards, running 156 laps behind, clipped Brad Keselowski and caused his car to spin, then lift into the air at 190 mph. It smashed into the barrier in front of the stands roof-first, then flipped back onto the track. Keselowski was OK, but NASCAR ordered Edwards to park his car and summoned him to its trailer for a tongue-lashing. "To come back and just intentionally wreck someone, that's not cool," Kese-lowski said. "He could have killed someone in the grandstands." On the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, another crash took out seven cars coming through turns three and four. Finally, they got in two clean laps, and it was Busch all the way. "You have to adjust to whatever circumstances there are to win these races," said Busch, who claimed his 21st career victory and snapped Jimmie Johnson's two-race winning streak. "I felt we won the race outright today. There's no doubt we did the job on pit road. We did the job on long runs. We hit it right on the restarts. That's what I'm most proud of." Keselowski nicked Edwards early in the race, which sent him crashing into Joey Logano. Edwards spent much of the day in the garage, but returned to take out his frustration in what appeared to be an intentional tap on Keselowski coming across the start-finish line. After Edwards was ordered off the track, he drove defiantly around the track and went backward down the pit lane. Once he climbed from the car, he didn't bother with a denial. "Brad knows the deal between him and I," Edwards said. "The scary part was his car went airborne, which was not what I expected at all. At the end of the day, we're out here to race and people have to have respect for one another and I have a lot of respect for people's safety." Johnson was coming off wins at California and Las Vegas. He climbed as high as third, but a bad pit stop and a scrape with Ryan Newman relegated him to 12th. Pole winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost the lead on the very first lap but was running near the front when a tire problem sent him to the pits on lap 114 under a green flag. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the problem, though the No. 88 team was able to rule out another problem with the axle. The timing cost Earnhardt dearly; he slipped a lap down and never got back in the mix, though all the trouble at the end boosted him to 15th. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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