FortySouth

Lately, I’ve been mulling over this thought: what does it take to create a technology hub?

I’m almost certain Paul Kukubo has been onto this too for longer than I have, since the ICT Board‘s vision is that Kenya becomes a top 10 global technology hub. Nairobi being Kenya’s, and arguably the region’s, technology epicenter, does it have what it takes? Continue reading

About two years ago I had a crisis of thought. As some most at the pinnacle of their undergraduate electrical engineering education, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t considering a change in major to anything else, not just because I was too far in already, but I actually did enjoy most of what I was learning.

I asked myself this often because I found that I seemed to quickly forget material learnt from previous semesters. Once the semester was done, I let out a sigh of relief and promptly sold some of my books.

I sold fewer, though, as I progressed through my program for a couple of reasons. The first, and more compelling reason, was that the books became invaluable references in subsequent classes. The other was that the geniuses at the school bookstore would usually buy them back for the almost criminal rate of 50% of my purchase price! Now, just so you understand, I bought all my books out of pocket which stung, and each hardly cost under $100 so offering $49.99 was tantamount to a very classy No Deal. What sort of investment will, with predictable consistency and without fault, depreciate to half its value in a 16-week time span? The same book is then unassumingly decked on the shelf the following semester retailing at, predictably, 7/8ths of the price of a new book. Clearly, I’m in the wrong business. Then I found the Amazon seller account, somewhat more reliable than eBay, where on a good day I could almost recoup my investment.

But I digress. Continue reading

A little while back I wrote about how job references are increasingly becoming irrelevant to smart managers because the said referees have the propensity to tell them what they want to hear – that you have a fine candidate. In essence, references inadvertently degrade to a factor of lesser significance when selecting “the candidate” from the herd.

Well I held that view until recently when I happened upon a slightly dated yet insightful excerpt from Dr. Pierre Mornell’s Hiring Smart! in my reading that struck me as genius:

Here’s the simplest, most effective reference check that I know. It’s also fast and legal. Call references at what you assume will be their lunchtime–you want to reach an assistant or voice mail. If it’s voice mail, leave a simple message. If it’s an assistant, be sure that he or she understands the last sentence of your message.

You say: “Jane Jones is a candidate for (the position) in our company. Your name has been given as a reference. Please call me back if the candidate was outstanding.”

The results are both immediate and revealing. If the candidate is outstanding, I guarantee that people will respond quickly and want to help. Take such a response as a green light. Proceed to the next level by checking out the individual.

However, if only 2 or 3 of the 10 references selected by the candidate return your call, this message is also loud and clear.

Now then, would your references initiate a callback? What would they say of you?

By the way, the excerpt is recommended reading for hiring managers and job seekers alike. Better yet, get the book.