Are we not all Olympians?

So the Olympics is underway. Six years of preparation and somewhere in the region of £11billion later, and London is finally hosting the biggest sporting event in the world. I'm not going, and I must admit that I haven't been watching it, but I hear it's been pretty popular. Obviously, Team GB haven't done as well as we'd hoped (4 medals at the time of writing, none gold as yet), but there's time. Unfortunately, there's also competition. That's what it's all about though.

We can all act as armchair experts, sitting and yelling at the screen when our guys n gals come on, encouraging and criticising, but none of us have any idea of what it's really like to compete. It's sad, but when Tom Daley failed to bring home the goods, he was subjected to a nasty tirade on Twitter. The Tweeter eventually apologised, just saying he was disappointed. HE was disappointed? Poor Tom, who is still just a teenager, has worked his backside off for years in order to compete. We mere mortals can't imagine what it feels like to train for hours every day, week after week, month after month, year after year... But then again, we have to go to work and perform day after day, week after week etc - and failure isn't an option for most of us. Whereas an athlete can shrug, apologise and explain they weren't at their best, or tried their hardest and still failed, the rest of us can't get away with that. We can't repeatedly turn up at client meetings, completely mess up and then tell the boss we're sorry, we weren't at our best. We'd be fired, eventually. And rightly so. But then, we're British, so we almost expect our athletes to fail, as much as we would wish otherwise.

Yes, the Olympics is exciting, and nail-biting, and disappointing, and amazing. But it happens once every 4 years. This year is different, obviously, because we're competing on home territory. Yet, it's not that different. Our athletes have still spent the past 4 years training, and competing, and suffering, and striving - for the chance to achieve bronze, silver or gold. We are grateful to them for trying to claim glory for Britain, yet at the same time we have little patience for their weaknesses, or if they lose. I admire them all. For the early rising, hours of training and physical endurance, watching their diet, sacrificing a social life, and so on. But then again, they are not doing this for "us" - they are doing this for their own glory as well as for Britain, like everyone else, pushing to do their best in their chosen career for their own sense of achievement and fulfilment. There's nothing wrong with that. Heck, we all want to be someone, to achieve something. Perhaps they just get more praise, press coverage, and admiration for it. And sometimes, more sympathy from the public when they fail to achieve, because we all buy in to the idea of the Olympian athletes running, jumping and swimming for "us"... when the reality might well be, that they are doing it for themselves and their own ego - all along. That doesn't detract from their achievements, but perhaps we should consider that they are only human, and this is their job. Unlike most of us though, they also suffer from adverse publicity from the press should they not achieve what is expected, and who would choose that over a quick tongue lashing from the boss?

Are we not all Olympians, then? No, but we all try our best year after year, we all polish our craft in order to be the best at what we do, and we all want to make somebody proud. This year, I think that Team GB will make us proud. They may not be the best, but they try their best. For the rest of us, we can find fulfilment in making ourselves proud, by doing our best in our chosen careers. And if we don't win Gold, then nobody's going to splash it across the front of the Daily Mail. For small mercies, we should all be grateful...

To hire or not to hire - should you go for personality or experience?

Interviews are tricky beasts. And I don't just mean for the person being interviewed, but equally so for the interviewer. After all, you're trying to choose the perfect person for your team, from a shortlist of several potential employees, after spending weeks or even months sifting through CVs and selecting the strongest candidates. Whilst it can be nerve wracking for the interviewee, its you who has to do the most work in terms of preparation, both for the interview itself as well as the initial drawing up of the job spec - and sometimes the creation of a brand new role. And then you have to find time in your busy schedule to see people, and then hopefully find the right person in that limited time because you need someone - as of yesterday.

Most interviewers have a pretty good idea of the sort of person they need to take on, bearing in mind the mix of technical and soft skills, the background, and the right cultural fit. But how DO you make that final choice, especially between two close-running candidates with not much between them. Perhaps one has a slightly higher level of technical ability, but the other has a better sense of humour and might get on with the team better. At what point do you make the decision and choose the "right" man, or woman, for the job? Just because you like someone, does that mean everyone else on the team will? Or do you have a gut instinct borne from years of working with your colleagues, and just "know" that they will love Candidate A too? Or perhaps Candidate B isn't as personable, but has a slightly more sophisticated technical awareness, and could be better on Project X than their competitor. On the other hand, Candidate A is slightly more easy going and definitely has more in common with other members of the team. But then Candidate B won't need training on Software Y... and so on.

What if we replace experience with aptitude? Let's say Candidate B has 5 years' experience in their specialism, and Candidate A only 2, but the latter has previously shown the aptitude to pick up new skills quickly, perhaps already having shifted industries and made a success of the change. Yet why wait for a candidate to learn new skills, when Candidate B is already qualified and ready to start applying these skills straightaway? But then again, Candidate A does seem to be, at this stage, a better bet for someone who can manage the entire role - including working within the team well - and Candidate B might get stuck within the technicalities. In competency based interviews, personality is not at the forefront of the questioning. I have been to interviews where not ONE personal question was asked, not even "Why are you looking to change jobs?". In less formal interviews, it is very easy for hiring managers to gauge personality, and their interview style will usually reflect their own personality, making mirroring easier on both sides. This can be both a good and bad thing. Good if the personalities are a genuine match, and misleading if the candidate pretends to be someone he or she isn't in order to mirror, or impress, their potential employer.

The real question comes down to this - do you hire the person you like the best, or the person who is best qualified and experienced to do the job? Do you think the person you like the most can learn the bits they're missing quickly enough to make your decision a sensible one, or do you feel that the more experienced candidate will grow on you as you work together? Do you worry that your instant connection with Candidate A is overweighing their lesser experience? Is your heart overruling your head? The decision will be different for different organisations. In a large company, perhaps personality is less important than experience, whereas in a small business, personality and fit is key. Then again, it depends on the size, and the closeness, of the existing team. In some small companies, everyone who works there meets potential new employees before they are hired, to make sure everyone feels they can get on with them. In larger organisations, it tends to be the hiring manager and perhaps a line manager who will choose new employees who they feel will benefit both the company as a whole as well as their team or department.

It's a difficult one. But each hiring manager knows what he or she is looking for, and often will get that "feeling" at an interview that they may have found the right person. Perhaps we should all just follow our hearts and hire the person we like the most - after all, we have to work with them day after day. As long as they also have ability, because even the best personality is useless if they can't do the job, they'll be an asset to our team. Hopefully. And if we choose wrong, and they turn out to be a psychopath, then perhaps it's time for US to look for a new role, and hope someone likes OUR personality...

Don't Be Evil?

So it's March 1st. An important date not only for the Welsh - Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus i bawb! - but also for Google, as they launch their new privacy policy on the far-too-suspecting public. I was sent a great link to an article yesterday, "Eight reasons to fear Google", which actually made me first start to really think about all this information sharing malarky. Google's new policy has been spoken about, debated and discussed all over the internet for a few weeks now, but the date is here and it's going ahead despite grave concerns from the EU regarding its lawfulness. Google care not, it seems, and have ploughed full steam ahead with their plans to share information from a single Google account across their 60 services, including Gmail, YouTube and Blogger. Having not blogged for a while, I had to wade through the entire privacy policy in full before I could accept it and sign in to write this. It seems rather more innocent than the outrage posted across forums would suggest, but then I didn't have the patience to read it fully. According to Google, this new policy of gathering, collating and sharing personal data will make it "Easy to work across Google", "Easy to share and collaborate", and ensure that services (ads, presumably) are "Tailored for you". Sounds innocuous enough, really. And where's the harm in cross-platform information sharing within a corporation/ group of companies? After all, Google don't sell the information they gather, so it remains with them for their own use. You can follow Google's own advice to protect your privacy, such as altering dashboard settings and deleting browsing history. And if you don't like it, there are alternatives to using Google, so opt out. But the problems have already begun. Google are guilty of tracking web-browsing habits of millions of iPhone users without their consent, and Microsoft have accused them of bypassing Internet Explorer's privacy protection. It seems that many android users also require Googlemail accounts, and so are unable to opt out. People who use the Google Wallet app to store credit card details to purchase at the tap of a finger must be aware by now that Google keep records of what they buy, where they buy it from and how often they buy. For a corporation whose mantra is "Don't be evil", Google is attracting a lot of negative attention.

But privacy issues don't just affect Google users. Facebook is also experiencing issues with its determination to impose the new timeline on account holders, where nothing is deleted and everybody's updates, comments and photos are available for viewing in chronological order. No more hiding that misspelled slag-off post about your boss after you staggered in late from another works do and he's offended you. The trouble with social media is that employers (or potential employers) are as savvy about it as your mates, and can easily have a look for you on Facebook, or follow your Tweets, to find out more about you. There have been a few stories in the past year of teachers, particularly, ending up in hot water over social networking posts and photos - whether deservedly or not - and at least one who lost her job over ill thought-out Tweets to students, which were reported to the school board and read by her bosses. Facebook have been slammed for their "Facebook for mobiles" app, which could potentially collect data from texts to sell on to third parties - all with users' permission, if you agree to the long-winded and rarely read Ts&Cs. Worrying, isn't it?

We all know that if you post something stupid on Facebook or Twitter, chances are it might come back to bite us. If, for example, someone looking to join the police force posts of an illegal activity on Facebook, could it come to light if the wrong person sees it, scuppering their chances of a career in the force? I KNOW that teachers, for example, have the right to privacy and to be able to chat to their mates on Facebook or Twitter, but when they choose to have parents and/or pupils as "friends" or followers, then they need to make sure their content is appropriate for their audience. Slagging off parents or making lewd comments to students, for example, is not only inappropriate but intensely unprofessional, and yet is done because people don't seem to realise, or appreciate, the power of the written word and how it makes them come across to other people.

But back to the privacy (or lack thereof) laws - what does it mean for us? As far as I can see, very little right now. The concern is that, in future, will Google follow the Facebook route of collating information with the intent of selling it onto third parties for whatever revenue-generating reason it can think of? At present, we have companies in the UK who track our spending habits in order to build credit profiles, available on application to lenders who use it to assess our suitability for mortgages and credit cards, as well as to potential employers for whom a credit check is necessary. What if someone decides to create a service whereby potential employers can buy a "social media and web credit check" - to see what candidates post on social networking sites, how they behave, their web history, their online purchases - in order to assess whether the person might be a valuable employee or merely a porn-surfing, excessive shoe purchasing drunkard with a penchant for posting photos of themselves with their bottom out on Facebook whilst moaning about their clients on Twitter? And for how LONG will Facebook, Google et al retain this information for? Will a graduate who spent three wild years out partying and sharing it with the world find themselves explaining their party lifestyle to a future employer for five years? Ten? What effect could this have on being hired - or fired? At the moment, information stored about us is used with our implicit consent, the moment we hit the "agree" button when presented with the terms of use. How many of us actually READ these terms in any detail? And Facebook basically own us the moment we sign up for an account - they can do whatever they want with our information, because it belongs to THEM. If (when) Google follow suit, there's no saying who will one day be able to track what we search for online, how many pairs of jeans we buy each month, how much beer we drank at college, and even how we sign off emails to our mum.

It might not be evil, but it doesn't mean it's right.

Up For Hire.... Are They For Real???

I spent much of last week stuck in front of the TV watching BBC3's live series, Up For Hire, which set out to tackle the growing and very real problem of youth unemployment. Set over four nights, with live shows as well as pre-filmed segments, it presented its mission of getting young people into work, showcasing real-life experiences as well as offering paid work placements through industry partners such as Greggs and The Hilton Group. It sounded promising, even interesting, so on Monday night I plonked my bum on the sofa with some Dairy Milk, and started to watch. I'd already failed miserably to answer many correct questions on either University Challenge or Only Connect, so I was quite ready to watch other people suffer instead.



Based around the work placements for 4 young unemployed people, the show arranged for Ben, Kirsty, Chris and Sasha to experience a 40-year career in the space of a week or so. Starting out on minimum wage at Crealy Adventure Park in Devon, we saw tears, tantrums and badly made burgers as our two grads, single mum and teenage unemployed lad tried to get into the swing of the work. Over the course of the four days, they progressed through to management (of LUSH stores), and then onto being MDs and CEOs of corporations such as Liberty and AOL. In between these filmed clips, we were treated to a live audience debate (my favourite was the girl told she should be prepared to move for work even though she was searching for work in London... if you can't find a job there, where is better?!) and some words of wisdom from both entrepreneurs (James Caan, Richard Reed from Innocent) and celebs (Edith Bowman, Greg James). Even the deplorable Katie Hopkins from The Apprentice many moons ago showed up to wind up the audience. Although she was actually quite sensible, much as I hate to admit it, pointing out that "Micky Mouse" degrees such as Media should be removed and that academic excellence should be the sole aim of the degree system. The audience and presenters (the somewhat out of his depth Richard Bacon and Tina "I don't have to do anything except read out comments from the website" Dahely) debated issues such as relocating to find jobs, and whether degrees are necessary. We were also treated to filmed interviews of candidates who had applied for work placements through the BBC3 website, and told which ones had been successful. In between, there were little snippets of CV and interview advice from random advisors.

You know what? It was interesting, but not earth shattering. At the end of the series, we saw all four of our young 'uns being offered jobs, three by the people who'd mentored them as MDs, and one by a contact she'd met via her placement. What I found interesting that, despite all the advice offered on CV writing, interview techniques and so on, it was good old networking that got them roles. It's not what you know, it's who you know - and most young people never get the chance to meet the types of people who can give them a leg up in the career department, which leaves a slightly sour taste in the mouth. On the other hand, there were plenty of happy youngsters who had won placements for 3 or 12 months with household names such as Timpsons and Greggs, after applying through BBC3's website and acing their interviews. It does rather beg the question - why does it take the possibility of appearing on TV to push someone to apply for a minimum wage job serving cakes to customers,but hey ho, what do I know about it? Maybe the show goes to prove that young people need to reassess their expectations, and can't always get their dream job even as graduates.

As expected, the subject of self employment was brought up, as an alternative to spending months or even years searching for non existent jobs in your sector. This was pushed as a good way for young people to become employed, and obviously at a time when they have less to lose than later down the line, when mortgages and families need to be considered. What with the Young Apprentice having started over on BBC1 now, copying the new Apprentice format of winning cash towards starting a business rather than a job, maybe more young people will be looking at alternative ways of earning a living...

Although the show did address many of the problems surrounding youth unemployment, and offered solutions and advice for many, what it didn't - for me - achieve, was to explore the reasons so many young people are unmotivated and disenfranchised, and what can be done about that. It's all very well being a graduate on a work placement arranged by a TV show, and then be offered a good job on the back of that, but what about the long-term unemployed? The studio audience seemed to be made up mainly of graduates who had been out of work for a few months, and who had none of the issues affecting the long-term unemployed, disabled or disaffected youngsters from the wrong side of the tracks, and showed a pretty one-sided (read: middle-class) view of the issue.

Having said that, for all the recent graduates - and motivated non-graduates - still in the job market, the show offered a lot of useful advice and encouragement, as does the website. Check it out :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00k9c3r

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Failed IT projects lead to big business failures...

I read an interesting article from Computer Weekly the other day, claiming that "failed IT projects demolish big businesses and executive careers". According to researchers from Oxford University, senior executives are losing jobs and businesses are collapsing due to unfinished, or failed, projects. With IT projects estimated as 20% more likely to run out of control than other projects, with 1 in 6 increasing their average budget/ cost by 200%, this is a real worry for businesses. More complex projects can become unpredictable, with this often not understood by the project managers, and both public and private sectors are suffering from these oversights. With managers focusing on average performance rather than variability, many IT projects seem doomed to fail.

Massive companies - such as Airbus, Levi-Strauss, Tollcollect and Hershey's - have all been on the brink of collapse because of out of control IT. In 2009, BT Global Services lost £1.2bn due to cost overruns on big contracts with the NHS and Reuters. In the same year, the £234m "C-Nomis" IT system for prisons failed. It was continuously assessed as proceeding to time and budget, but in fact wasn't. The National Audit Office concluded that the technical complexity had been "significantly underestimated." The system had gone the same way as many other failed government IT-based change programmes, making the same mistakes along the way. IBM were sued only last year for a failed virtual PC server project, and in 2009 HMRC sucessfully claimed over £71m in damages from ERS for the muck-up they made of the Tax Credits system, which led to thousands of families being overpaid.

So what IS it causing these large-scale failures? Is it leadership, project management, over/under estimating... or incompetence? Duncan Haughy of Projectsmart.co.uk says that "the biggest problems that projects face are inadequate definition, scope and planning." Is this true of IT? Seems like it. So how do we avoid these pitfalls? Reinder Otter of Capgemini has these rules to follow for a successful outcome.

1) Freeze scope - enforce release management rules.
2) Keep requirements SMART.
3) Involve stakeholders and users at the start.
4) Keep things simple with the right funcionality.
5) Avoid bad management - someone must have an overview at all times and manage any gaps or overlaps between suppliers, stakeholders and customers.
6) Balance quality and cost.

And another one I would add - learn from past mistakes.

I suppose that, at the end of the day, not all projects are created equal, but they can all equally fall by the wayside.

I'm just glad that my biggest IT project involves turning on my laptop and checking my emails...


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For more IT news, try www.computerweekly.co.uk

I spent an awful lot of autumn blogging about The Apprentice, I know, and promised I'd stop - but this new series has once again got me hooked and I can't resist. The candidates are from the same old mould as the last god-knows-how-many lots, but still as entertaining as ever. I am enjoying Jim's evil machincations, Susie's sulky pouting, and Natasha's irritating nasal whine. The tasks are, as ever, pointless and unrealistic, but serve their purpose - to provide us with an hour of amusement at the expense of the Apprentice crew as they balls up big time. We don't want them to succeed, surely - we want Lord Sugar to treat them with the contempt they deserve. The format is the same, but the reward has changed this year. Instead of winning the (frankly dubious) honour of working for Lord Sugar, the contenders get to go into business with him. Sugsie intends to show that you don't need a lot of money to start a business... by injecting £250,000 of his own cash into the venture. Interesting stuff from someone who famously declared that small businesses should stop expecting funding and go it alone. Hmmm. If he can do it, and all that...

Anyway, this got me thinking about swapping employment for self employment and running a business rather than working for the man. With jobless benefit in May increasing by 19,600 (more than double the forecast), it seems that there is not enough employment to go around. Increasingly, this means that people are choosing to start their own businesses rather than compete for the few jobs that may be out there. In the 6 months prior to April, self employment reached a record high of 4.03 million. With a million of them out of work, its the twenty-somethings leading this trend, with the number of self-employed university leavers jumping 46% in the last 6 years, and 4/10 London undergrads already having set up their own business whilst studying. Research by Enterprise UK shows that over half of 14-19 year olds aspire to run their own business.

It's not just the youngsters looking for alternative ways to make a living. We have the "mumtrepreneurs", the stay-at-home mums setting up and running successful businesses from home, which fit in with their kids as well as making them a nice was of cash. Marla Nelson from Coventry, for example, set up her own marketing consultancy last year after being made redundant. The over-50s are also increasingly going it alone, with more of them than ever becoming self employed or starting a business, often with the help of PRIME, who are linked to Age UK and offer support and advice. A4E, based in Yorkshire but operating nationwide, provide redundant and unemployed people with training and support, and last year helped 2,000 people into self employment. With the recession leaving people out of work or unhappy with work, many workers disillusioned with their jobs have decided that they prefer to be their own boss. And they've been kick starting the economy ever since. With David Cameron hailing the next decade as "the age of the entrepreneur", and laucnhing the new Enterprise Allowance to help the unemployed into business, this may just be a taste of things to come.

I can see why BBC have changed the objective of The Apprentice - going into business is what young people (and us older people!) aspire to nowadays, helped in no small part by programmes such as Dragon's Den and The Apprentice. It remains to be seen how successful this new format will be, and how the winner will get on with Lord Sugar in the driving seat. As long as we get to see the "what happened next" show (my favourite part of Dragon's Den), I'll be happy. I just wonder how long the honeymoon period will last...

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Let's Get Britain Working!

Incapacity Benefit has been in the news again today, with reports that over 80,000 people in the UK are claiming it due to alcohol or drug addiction, or obesity. A quarter of these alkies, druggies and fatties haven't worked for a decade! Obviously, the British tax payer isn't completely happy about having to foot for bill for what could be seen as, essentially, a lifestyle choice. The government has revealed plans to shake up the system and get these people back into work, rather than allowing them to remain on benefits indefinitely. Everybody claiming Incapacity Benefit will now be retested to ensure they meet the criteria to continue paying, or move onto Jobseekers Allowance and be encouraged (or forced, as some see it) to look for work. Last year, IB was replaced by Employment and Support Allowance, in which all ill and disabled people are assessed to ascertain their fitness for work. But what about these addicts and obese claimants? Can their "incapacity" indeed be classed as an illness, or are they just a drain on society? If you look at those addicted to alcohol, drugs or food, then yes - we could say they have made these choices and should be paying for their addictions out of their own pockets. But if we consider - as many do - addiction to be a form of mental illness, then they are, in fact, suffering from a disability and as such, whilst in the grip of the addiction, incapable of working. And let's face it, how easy can it be to hold down a job if you ARE an alcoholic or a drugs-user? I think obese people get less sympathy as their addiction is rarely as serious, and we feel that there is nothing stopping them from getting or keeping a job. Yet in some circumstances, manual labour, or driving for example, a person's size would preclude them from being able to do the job. There are a lack of treatment facilities in the UK to help addicts recover, and the government haven't addressed this issue yet. However, Chris Grayling (the Employment Minister) says that private and voluntary organisations have pledged £580m to treat addicts and prepare them for employment. Even so, it may be too little. Some addicts may find the pressures of work too much, and others may find it nigh on impossible to even get a job after being unemployed for years due to addiction. In today's job market, these people stand even less chance of finding employment than the general population.

In a climate where the unemployment figures stand at 2.48m, finding a job isn't easy for anyone. And women are at more of a disadvantage than men - the amount of out of work women rose in March by 14,000, where the amount of unemployed men fell by 31,000. With the rate of Jobseekers Allowance standing at a paltry £64.30 for the over 25's, it makes sense for people to get back into work post haste, although there are concerns that people on income-based Jobseekers Allowance worry about being worse off in lower-paid jobs. So what to do, and where to find these jobs? With a report by Gumtree finding that 50% of people are concerned about losing their job, the competition is fierce. Lucky for us all, then, that The Mirror has launched their "Get Britain Working" campaign. According to them, this week they have found 10,118 jobs up for grabs. Sounds impressive, huh? These include: 70 jobs with DHL; 550 graduate positions; 70 jobs with DFS; 44 at Sainsburys and 2,320 on Fish4Jobs (who The Mirror have teamed up with on this campaign, forming a "one stop job shop"). Helpful articles such as tips for young jobseekers and starting your own business are also on their website at www.mirror.co.uk/getbritainworking. Sounds good so far. In the last 5 weeks, the paper claims that it has located 284,735 jobs, including 37,00 IT jobs. Do we believe it though? Personally... no. Has The Mirror taken into account multiple postings of the same job, on different websites? Plenty of companies advertise through several channels for the same role, using boards such as Monster, Jobsite and Reed. The same goes for recruitment agencies, where one role is worked on by different companies. How many jobs on the most popular sites are repeated by a number of different agencies - often with identical wording. And a lot of the jobs found by The Mirror are in specialist areas such as IT, or social care... making them inaccessible for the majority of readers. Whilst the campaign is a good idea, I think it's a little misleading, to claim that they have found such a huge number of jobs. But good on them for giving it a go, and if it only helps a few people, then they've done their job. In this current climate, anything's better than nothing.

And as one of those lucky people still in employment, at least I can look forward to the long weekend knowing that I have (vaguely) earned it. Happy Easter!