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Books by Martha
"Can you really find a career to satisfy your soul while it meets your career dreams? Yes! Click on the cover of this inspiring ebook to learn more!"
"This book touches not only the heart, but also the mind and soul of the HR profession. It's full of ideas with impact, tools and tips...and wonderful stories."
Dave Ulrich
Professor, University of Michigan Business School
co-author, The Why of Work
"A fun and easy-to-read blueprint on understanding and creating engagement within a team. No high falootin' business jargon here -- Martha Finney tells it like it is."
Kirsten Clark
Director Global Workforce Learning & Development
Save the Children
Career management
Turn Your Passion Into Your Job Hunt Advantage
I love my job. Why? I interview people who love their work for a living. I interview all sorts of people (CIA spy, hair stylist, bank chairman, nurse, accountant, airport director, animal shelter worker, secretary, beekeeper, you name it, I love it). I especially love talking with HR leaders. There’s something very cool about getting these folks to open up and talk from their hearts! (Don’t believe me? Click here and watch all the video clips you have time for. Then come back and watch the rest.)
Anyway, at the end of each interview I give HR folks a little thank-you present, which is an interview question that they can use while talking to job candidates. Their eyes light up, they smile at all the possibilities that question holds for them, and they always write it down. I’ve never shared … Continue Reading
How to Be Enchanting* on a Job Interview
I don’t tell this story often: While interviewing for a job once, I made the hiring manager cry. By the time I was done, we were both weepy. And I got the job.
Here’s what happened: My interviewer was a Lou Grant type, a gruff former newspaper editor looking for a staff writer. During the interview I noticed a sci fi book on his desk and asked him about it. He proudly told me that his wife had written it – her first published book. I copped to the fact I wasn’t a sci fi fan normally but just the night before I’d seen a sci fi tv show that was really moving on a human level. “Tell me about it,” he said. So I did. The whole sad story. And so the interview, as they say, ended in tears.… Continue Reading
Posted in Blog, Career management, Job interviewing
Tagged Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki, interviews, job interviews, job search
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Doesn’t HR Deserve to be Engaged Too?
If you have been following my work for the last 20 years or so, you know that I’m probably the planet’s biggest HR groupie/geek out there. Maybe you’ve read my book HR From the Heart, which I co-authored with Libby Sartain. Or you saw my article, “Why I Love HR,” which I wrote in response to Fast Company’s nasty gram a few summers ago. Or I’ve interviewed you. Or you’ve attended one of my speeches celebrating HR. I love HR. So, you’ll know that I say this with deep respect and abiding affection: HR deserves more respect than it gets!
I just have to ask: Don’t you deserve to be engaged too?
After all, engagement initiatives usually come out of your budget. You work hard to measure and then improve your employees’ experience on the job … Continue Reading
Are You Too Shy to Network?
My friend Patricia is probably the only person I would call a natural networker. Her worldly possessions have been in storage for most of the last 10 years as she goes where her heart tells her to (always beautiful places: Hawaii; Aspen; Naples, FL; San Diego; hey! Why not?). Jobs and projects fall into her lap no matter where she goes (and right now she’s in Austria after having spent a couple of weeks in Spain). She always has friends to stay with or a house to borrow. I would say she’s female version of Tim Ferris. But she’s her own self. And she makes her way in the world through relationships she builds along the way.
You ever have one of those right-words-at-the-right-time moments that blasts all your illusions away? Patricia gave me the right words at the … Continue Reading
Posted in Blog, Career management, Job interviewing
Tagged HR, human resources, job search, Martha Finney, networking, recession
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If You’re Worried About Acing the Job Interview, You’re Barking Up the Wrong Tree
It’s hard to be choosy these days, isn’t it? The news is filled with stories like the public school that received more than 700 resumes in response to an advertisement for a janitor’s position (did you hear the emphasized detail that the resumes had to be put into a safe? What’s the deal with that? I truly don’t understand what that signifies. I’m thinking that’s just media hype, designed to get you all in a dither about something that’s neither here nor there.). It’s hard to hold onto hope and high standards for what kind of job you’d like to ultimately land when you’re surrounded by messages that the job market world is coming to an end.
Buy into the terrible headlines that people are losing jobs right and left (and, make no mistake, they are), and you’ll be tempted … Continue Reading
Posted in Blog, Career management, Job interviewing
Tagged acing job interview, interviewing, job interviews, job search, Martha Finney
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How to Handle Stupid Interview Questions
Want to learn how to handle tough job interviews – especially for a job you want very badly? Watch the political candidates in action. They’re job candidates too. Just like you! And each one of the media interviews they’ll be doing between now and Election Day is a great master course in handling the job interview hot seat. Between now and November 2012 I’ll be watching these interviews (with both parties) for lessons that you can apply to your own interview process (you’ll land your next job well before then, of course). Here’s the first lesson: Welcome Stupid Questions! Continue reading
