Did you know that the Wall Street Journal recently did a piece on how ‘Product Manager’ has become the new dream job for MBA grads? Yup, move over CEO, there’s a new sheriff in town.

Here’s what’s really wacky, though — despite the interest in the job, few people are actually aware of what being a product manager entails. I mean, you can’t fault people for being interested — apart from being very well-compensated, product managers are highly respected worldwide. …

Hello from the otherrrrr sidddeee. Okay, I’m no Adele, and maybe my singing needs a little work. But, what I am is perfectly placed in the world of recruitment to help my fellow interviewers reach the zenith of organizational success.

How? That’s simple. You know how last week I wrote about mistakes candidates make in an interview that can cost them a job. Well, it’s time to change my shoes and talk about mistakes made on…the other side. That’s right, you know as well as I do that poorly conducted interviews can cost you the purple squirrel you have been…

Interviews — can’t live with ’em, and can’t live without ’em. Or that’s how most job seekers feel about the hiring process. I mean, like it’s not enough you’ve been prepping your entire life for your dream job, now you have to prove how bad you want it- to a complete stranger? As Katniss Everdeen had to deal with, “Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.”

As part of the recruitment world, I can bring you some perspective from the other side. Believe it or not, hiring managers and recruiters aren’t brainstorming all day about…

Believe it or not, more than 98% of the Fortune 500 companies use an ATS (applicant tracking system) to conduct an initial screening of resumes. Yup, biggies like Workday, Taleo, iCIMS, etc., are all fans of the ATS.

What does that mean for the job seekers out there? First, it means that a software is in charge of filtering and parsing through hundreds if not thousands of resumes to save the recruiting team some time. And, then there’s the fact that the ATS will employ various algorithms to generate results.

Is that a bad thing, though? I mean, we’re all…

Not giving feedback is hurting your brand. Seriously. I understand that giving feedback is a MASSIVELY controversial topic. Folks like Amazon, Facebook, and Google make it a policy to not provide feedback. It’s super frustrating. They all encourage you to “try again next year.” How are you supposed to try out again if you don’t know how to improve?

Even on The Voice, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, Pharrell Williams, and others always provide contestants with feedback immediately. Guess what, people come back and try again!

Most companies out there do not have the same brand as Amazon, Netflix…

Interviews are an amazing way to not only evaluate talent, but also to genuinely sell the role that you are hiring for right now. Too many companies shoot themselves in the foot by creating overly complex interview questions that have no relevance to the actual job. What do I mean? Well, I’ve seen a lot of teams choose recursion questions (example), not because they are relevant to the job, but because they “tease the brain” and require a “higher level of thinking.” I’m going to call BS. I assume it is in there because you were googling coding interview questions…

I hate the common idea of luck.

Luck is not waiting for a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end. There is no such thing as leprechauns. Luck is a roll of the dice. Luck is playing the odds. The awesome thing about odds is that it is a statistic. So, how do you control the odds?

Well, if you show up to a casino, you definitely do not want to be caught counting cards. That is just going to get you tossed in a dark room where you start losing teeth.

No, no, no. Instead, I am talking about controlling the odds of your…

Let’s first talk about Data Privacy…

Privacy has to do with giving users the ability to control how their data is being used and collected. As data becomes the new gold rush, there are those to intend to use and abuse the power that they have with the open web.

The realm of privacy prioritizes issues such as what kind of data should be collected, and what the permissible uses of data are, etc.

If you’re confused, think about how banks work. If your bank is a national financial institution, then it’s likely that most tellers in the country have secure access to your account details.

…