In “Good to Great”, Jim Collins draws on a famous essay by Isaiah Berlin, a Russian-born social and political theorist of the late 20th century, entitled “The Hedgehog and the Fox”. In it Berlin divides the world into foxes and hedgehogs: the fox is a cunning creature, constantly on the move and looking to exploit many different ends while the hedgehog looks at the world in far simpler terms and shuns complexity. 

While the fox constantly tries to outwit the hedgehog by setting traps and chasing it down, the hedgehog simply curls up into its protective layer of spikes every time the fox nears thereby thwarting its advances. What does this have to do with you and your career you may ask? Well, a lot.

Collins found that that companies who made the leap from “good” to “great” companies all had one thing in common: they were run by hedgehogs. This led to the development of the “Hedgehog Concept” that helps to identify the three key “circles” or elements each of these successful companies and leaders exuded during their transformation.

Continue Reading

Week In Review:

Toronto - Sr. Marketing Analyst (Marketing and Advertising) Details / Apply
Toronto - Digital Account Supervisor, Direct Antidote (Internet) Details / Apply
Toronto - CRM Analyst (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Toronto - Product Support Analyst (Market Research) Details / Apply
Toronto - Accountant (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Montreal - Consumer Research Analyst (Computer Games) Details / Apply
Montreal - Program Manager (Computer Software) Details / Apply
Vancouver - QA Engineer (Internet) Details / Apply
Vancouver - Account Director (Market Research) Details / Apply
Ottawa - Senior Systems Administrator (Computer Software) Details / Apply

For the full rundown, log-in to Vestiigo.com

Some weekend reading
Career Savvy: 4 Reasons to Hire a Temp Worker This Year
Career Savvy:
How To Leverage Twitter In Your Job Search
TED Talk: Don Tapscott: Four principles for the open world

Continue Reading

How do you feel when you wake up in the morning for work? Do you feel energized and ready to tackle any challenges that come your way, or do you dread going in to the grind? Self-satisfaction tends to get pushed aside when titles, money, and job security comes in to play. Not that they are not important, but have you ever sat down to think “will I be happy?”

Case in point, take my friend in the banking industry at a fairly senior level. Getting paid over six figures within a prestigious firm, one would figure he would be quite content. However that is not the case, he frequently complains about his job saying that he is constantly stressed out. At times he would reminisce about his old job at a reputable bank. And at others would wonder how long he can last before he cracks. 

Continue Reading

You need talent now, but sometimes the pools seem dry and even desert-like when it comes to full-time workers.  Well, there is another shining stream that Recruiter contributor, Josh Tolan would advocate taking a look at. 

Temp’ workers are often overlooked by companies who have had problems finding qualified candidates for pressing jobs.  For workers, it’s a way for them to network and hone their skills, while for employers, there are a number of benefits: 

Continue Reading

We used to have an informational problem. It was difficult to track down the companies that were hiring – sometimes it meant going through the phonebook and calling them all or paying close attention to adverts in the newspaper.

Generation Y has quite a different problem – too much information. We now have access to company profiles, the backgrounds on their leaders and team, and in some cases their detailed financial reports all from the palm of our hand.

It’s now a case of too much information – a paradox of choice of sorts.

This guide is intended to help navigate these choices and help you ask the right questions when it comes to making a career move in Toronto.

Continue Reading

Dilbert: “My problem is that other people keep trying to bring me down, Bob. My theory is that people denigrate me because it makes them feel superior in comparison.”

Bob: “Sounds like a stupid theory to me.”

—Scott Adams, Dilbert

It seems as though this is a question that’s always on people’s minds. Why is your boss paid a fortune while your talents go unrewarded? The office can sometimes come across as the most illogical place on the planet, but is there a reason for it all? We recently came across a chapter on this very subject in “The Logic of Life” by Tim Harford and couldn’t resist summarizing his main points here. It makes for an interesting case.

Continue Reading

Week In Review:

Toronto - Integrated Marketing Manager (Internet) Details / Apply
Toronto - Senior Business Analyst (Internet) Details / Apply
Toronto - Manager, Event Rewards Travel (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Toronto - Financial Analyst - Revenue & Marketing (Internet) Details / Apply
Toronto - Product Support Analyst (Market Research) Details / Apply
Montreal - Manager-Customer Engagement (Computer Software) Details / Apply
Montreal - Sr. Web Designer (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Vancouver - Business Development Associate, HSU (Internet) Details / Apply
Vancouver - Asset Administrator, Professional Services (IT & Services) Details / Apply
Ottawa - Partnership Development Manager (Computer Software) Details / Apply

For the full rundown, log-in to Vestiigo.com

Some weekend reading
Career Savvy: The Importance of Setting and Exceeding Expectations
Career Savvy: How To Foster a Great Company Culture
TED Talk: Baba Shiv: Sometimes it’s good to give up the driver’s seat

Continue Reading

There was big news in the digital world when Yahoo named Marissa Mayer as the new CEO. Not surprising is the fact that she was hired - an established executive at Google, Mayer had a proven track record of success. What shocked the business world was her tweet which read “another piece of good news today — @zackbogue [her husband] and I are expecting a new baby boy!”

So we took to our #CareerSavvy tweetchat (Tuesday’s at 12pm-1pm for those who don’t know) to get their reactions:

Continue Reading

Great products require great people, and there’s more than one industry that lives and dies by the happiness of its employees.  Recruiting and training new people is expensive and time consuming, so it most definitely pays to build a great cultural environment at your company. 

Inc’s Langley Steinert likes to think of the CEO role as something akin to a rock band manager.  You just want to make sure your band has what it needs to perform, all the way down to making sure they’ve got what they want come lunch-time.  Unlike some perks, company culture is the benefit that keeps on giving, and Steinert has 5 suggestions that any employer can use to create a great environment.

Continue Reading

We underestimate the importance of expectations. Whether you’re buying a car, a pair of sunglasses, or a cup of coffee you’re not so much buying a product, but investing in an expectation.

You don’t buy a Toyota because you believe it’s the fastest car in production, you buy it because you expect that it will still be running 15 years from now. You expect your morning coffee from Starbucks to be fresh, hot, and made to order. That’s why you go there. Think how you would feel if your Toyota broke down after 3 years or if your coffee was lukewarm?

Continue Reading

Week In Review:

Toronto - Project Manager (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Toronto - Globe Product Analyst (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Toronto - Manager, Merchandising & Packaging (Internet) Details / Apply
Toronto - Product Manager (Internet) Details / Apply
Toronto - Marketing Account Executive (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Montreal - Inside Sales (Internet) Details / Apply
Montreal - Strategic Account Manager (Computer Software) Details / Apply
Vancouver - Operations Manager (Internet) Details / Apply
Vancouver - Website & SEO Content Manager (Internet) Details / Apply
Ottawa - Implementation Consultant (Computer Software) Details / Apply

For the full rundown, log-in to Vestiigo.com

Some weekend reading
Career Savvy: What Rejection Really Means
Career Savvy: Questioning Tradition
TED Talk: Jane McGonigal: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life

Continue Reading

Summer break is in full swing, and employers know what that means.  Interns, interns and more interns.  While the stereotype may relegate most of this temporary workforce to running coffee and stock data entry, Forbes’ Kate Harrison argues that you can get a lot more out of your interns if you give them some real responsibility.

What’s in it for you?  Well…

1) Positive energy – Given their relatively short timeline with a company, interns are keen to please and can bring a lot of unexpected energy to even the most mundane tasks.

Continue Reading

With ever rising tuition rates without a guarantee of landing you a “good” job, we question the traditional path of post-highschool education this week on #CareerSavvy. If you have been applying to jobs in the last 10 years, you will notice one of the requirements “University degree or equivalent experience”. What does this mean? It means that one is able to obtain the job with relative experience regardless if the person holds a degree or not.

Rewind back twenty years ago a university degree would almost certainly guarantee a good job at a relatively big company. Education was scarce and valued. Fast forward to today, educated individuals are in abundance. My economics degree tells me that there is not enough demand (jobs) for all the supply (people), which means we live in a world which is not in equilibrium. It leads me to ask the question, would it be better to join the workforce right out of high school?

Continue Reading

For most, rejection is a horribly uncomfortable thing. Even the thought of it makes us uneasy. This permeates our everyday life in so many ways and regularly affects how we make decisions. The goal is to avoid rejection and we work back from there.

Yet, if you’re not getting rejected it probably means you’re not aiming high enough. When it comes to careers, we’ve all been through interviews where we didn’t land the job or didn’t even receive a call back. This is more constructive than you might imagine.

When you’re rejected, there’s a suggestion that the other party doesn’t see a fit. It may not be obvious to you, but perhaps they’re right. If it’s not a fit for both, chances are it won’t be a great long term fit even if you are successful in landing it. Therefore everyone is better off.

Continue Reading

Week In Review:

Toronto - Intern, Video Production Editor (Sports) Details / Apply
Toronto - Senior Copywriter (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Toronto - Bilingual Marketing Coordinator (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Toronto - Market Research Analyst (Market Research) Details / Apply
Toronto - Associate Art Director (Marketing & Advertising) Details / Apply
Montreal - HR Consultant (Computer Games) Details / Apply
Montreal - Platform Product Manager (Computer Games) Details / Apply
Vancouver - Account Manager, English & Spanish (Market Research) Details / Apply
Vancouver - Business Development Associate, HSU (Internet) Details / Apply
Ottawa - Product Sales Specialist (Computer Software) Details / Apply

For the full rundown, log-in to Vestiigo.com

Some weekend reading
Career Savvy: What University Won’t Teach You
Career Savvy: The Question All Great Candidates Answer
TED Talk: Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?

Continue Reading