I have four weeks of vacation days each year. I use all of my vacation days every year. But, I feel I haven’t taken any vacation for the past three years. Okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit. But, honestly, I feel that I haven’t taken a vacation for a very long time. The […]
Entries from July 2009
The zero vacation day dilemma
July 22nd, 2009 · 8 Comments
Tags: Work/Life Balance
The dirty secrets of performance review
July 20th, 2009 · 20 Comments
Have you wondered how performance reviews are conducted behind-the-scene? When I was an individual contributor, I bought into what management told me — setting SMART goals in the beginning of the year. Work hard throughout the year. Write thorough and insightful self-reviews and peer reviews. Get 360-degree feedback from colleagues. And I’ll get a review […]
Tags: Corporate Ladder · Frustration@Work · Management
I grew up in the hood
July 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments
People laughs when I tell them I grew up in the hood. I guess I don’t look, sound, or act like someone who grew up in the hood. But, I really did. For one year. Probably the most important year in my life. It was almost twenty years ago. My family just immigrated to the […]
Tags: Learning and Growing · News
How my friend got a high-power finance job by walking his dog
July 15th, 2009 · 4 Comments
The job market was very bad in 2003 while I was in business school. It was a few days before the end of the school year. My friend Jacob was still without an internship. The recruiting process had been particular hard for Jacob because he came from an unconventional background and he was trying to […]
Tags: Learning and Growing · Recruiting & Job Hunting
The brutal negotiator
July 14th, 2009 · No Comments
Ninety-five percent off. That’s the steep discount big-time CEO and entrepreneur Ken was able to get from negotiating with a large enterprise software company. I used to work for Ken’s company. I once talked to the business development guy in the other company who negotiated with Ken. He told me Ken was so brutal in […]
Tags: Learning and Growing · Management
Are you nice to yourself?
July 13th, 2009 · No Comments
I used to get really frustrated by office politics. I would bring the negative emotions home and feel bad for a long time. Once I complained to a aunt, and she told me a story. She attended a Catholic kindergarten when she was a kid. She wasn’t very popular among her peers. She would feel […]
Tags: Frustration@Work · Learning and Growing
How to prepare for Amazon.com Second Life Job Fair
July 11th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Amazon.com is doing something very interesting in the hiring front – it’s holding its first-ever virtual job fair in Second Life. According to the announcement from Amazon Web Service blog, job applicants will have access to amazon hiring managers and recruiters around the world. Also, they’ll be conducting first-round interviews virtually. Amazon has many job […]
Tags: Recruiting & Job Hunting
The first time I cried at work
July 6th, 2009 · 11 Comments
I’m usually a reserved and calm person. But, I cried really hard once at work a little bit over a decade ago. I still remember it vividly. At that time, I just started working as Associates Product Manager at a medium-sized enterprise software company. My job was to manage the Application Programming Interface (API) product. […]
Tags: Frustration@Work · Leadership · Learning and Growing · Management