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Mark Birch
New York, NY
Managing Director, Columbus Holding Group
General Business
Fans (2)
Groups (4)

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Tameem Qazi After reading a recent article on why job hoppers make good employees as opposed to those stuck at one place for a long time( unless they're doing exceptionally well), i agree job hopping does tend to boost your career. Spending 10 yrs in the same company myself, it was impossible to ignore the settling signs of stagnation, and the desperate urge to step out of the utopia to feel the challenge adrenaline rush inside you once again. Thus, complacency lost the battle.

108 weeks ago from Global Careers and Business, London Brazen Careerists and Upstarts!1 more

Mark Birch: Job hoppers make terrible employees. But let's put some meat on the term.

If someone says at a company for a few years and makes some changes ...More
Job hoppers make terrible employees. But let's put some meat on the term.

If someone says at a company for a few years and makes some changes over the years, that is just the nature of the employer - employee dynamic that has changed over the past few decades.

Someone that I define as a job hopper shows a track record of 1 - 2 years at each company across a long span of time. They have zero loyalty, are completely self-interested, work poorly with teams and bring little depth of content. A person has got to demonstrate that they have been able to succeed in the context of an organization over time and shown advancement.

Read this if you need any more food for thought: http://bit.ly/bAi4pX

108 weeks ago
JRandom42: Here's the problem I have with job hoppers, other than what Mark has highlighted. Very few finish the projects they claim they've worked on. They ...MoreHere's the problem I have with job hoppers, other than what Mark has highlighted. Very few finish the projects they claim they've worked on. They seem to stay for a few months, working on all the cool and interesting stuff, but when things get difficult, routine, dull or boring, they leave and are off to find the next project in the cool and interesting phase.

If you don't have the stamina and discipline to stick with finishing a project through to implementation and support, how can I be sure a job hopper is going to stick around when I really need them?

58 weeks ago
 
Rebecca Thorman Want to be an entrepreneur? Drop out of college - so says the co-founder of Flickr and Hunch (http://bit.ly/dlJbx1) I think that's mostly a myth and only works for very few people. I like RWW's take on this better (http://bit.ly/aURudm). What do you think the role of education is in entrepreneurship?

108 weeks ago from Entrepreneurs, Upstarts!, Brazen Undergrads and Education2 more

kathleen fasanella: I humbly suggest the framing of this discussion amounts to a fundamental attribution error. It has nothing to do with optimizing your start up by ...MoreI humbly suggest the framing of this discussion amounts to a fundamental attribution error. It has nothing to do with optimizing your start up by dropping out. It's that you need to drop out because you're so consumed with your project that education becomes an extraneous time sink by comparison. Think I'm wrong? Substitute "relationship", "job" or "socializing/leisure activities" for "education". Dropping out should not be (yet another) strategy or tool that optimizes creation of a great business. Dropping out is a CONSEQUENCE of some successful businesses but they are not the cause of them. If you're passionate and wholly consumed with your project, you'll get rid of whatever time sinks there are in your life.

Likewise, finishing your degree is no guarantee either. Sure, you get some strokes for perseverance and meeting a socially esteemed barre but no one owes you anything. A degree is not a free pass. Especially now, getting a degree today is equivalent to finishing high school 30 years ago. It's rote. The only thing that getting a degree in four years says to me is that you had the foresight to pick good parents who could fund it. Unless your degree is in something intellectually rigorous (and I don't mean B-school), it says nothing about you.

And fwiw, I dropped out twice. First high school and then college. I LOVED college and was pasionate about it, I could have stayed there forever except I picked crappy parents. I had zero, zip interest in starting a business. But, came such a time that I had no choice. I am passionate about my industry so my choices were to leave it and do something else or become self employed. I never expected to succeed at it and I take little pride in being my own boss but it's worked out for 15 years now with no sign of abating. Now I can't imagine any other way.

106 weeks ago
Sean Masters: @kathleen Excellent, excellent post.
106 weeks ago
 
Alex Medvedovski Our company, Supercool School, built an online school platform that empowers everyone to create customized education environments for live online learning. If you have any comments or suggestions on this please let me know. Any advice is greatly appreciated! See www.supercoolschool.com

108 weeks ago from Upstarts!

Sean Masters: The concept is interesting, but I'm left wondering how it will be supported financially. Will you be monetizing the platform somehow? Relying on ...MoreThe concept is interesting, but I'm left wondering how it will be supported financially. Will you be monetizing the platform somehow? Relying on angels or VCs? Working full-time and keeping this as a side-project? Don't feel like you have to give your secrets away just because someone is asking ;)
107 weeks ago
Jamie Nacht Farrell: I'm writing this from the viewpoint of an online edu executive:

First, Love the idea and think you did a solid job executing. The site is simple ...More
I'm writing this from the viewpoint of an online edu executive:

First, Love the idea and think you did a solid job executing. The site is simple and very user friendly.

A couple questions or areas I'm wondering if you've thought of: 1) Have you thought about accreditation at all? If you want to make money in the market, it may make sense to see if this would pass SACS (or another board's) approval.

2) Have you thought about talking to OPENcourse ware that currently offers DUKE, Yale, etc for free? May be a partnership there.

3) In your definition, a 'class' is a synchronous environment that you save for people (love it). But what about asynchronous activity?

4) How do people turn in papers? Quizzes?

5)How does this differ from the products that are already in the market?

6) How do you plan to monetize?

I went through to create my 'school' and did so, however I was unable to figure out how to create a class with a whiteboard, video of myself doing a lecture, upload a syllabus or assignments, etc. Is this all in another version?

106 weeks ago
 
Ryan Healy John Mayer says Twitter is overrated, Tumblr is the future of Social Networking because it's about intelligent conversation http://bit.ly/diKKRx. he makes a great point. Anyone else notice that Twitter is getting very crowded? Too much noise, too little substance.

108 weeks ago from Social Media, Social Media Marketers, User Experience, Entrepreneurs and Upstarts!3 more

Lindsay Browning: So many new platforms coming our way! My blog, twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook work for me. I think you need to work with what works for you and ...MoreSo many new platforms coming our way! My blog, twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook work for me. I think you need to work with what works for you and build on it. We can become swamped with all the latest and greatest in social media.
101 weeks ago
Rebecca Thorman: I'm not on Tumblr - the crowd seems to be more vacuous hipsters... just kidding ;). I think Tumblr is starting to go mainstream since so many ...MoreI'm not on Tumblr - the crowd seems to be more vacuous hipsters... just kidding ;). I think Tumblr is starting to go mainstream since so many people keep asking about it... Should be interesting to see their climb.
101 weeks ago
 
Kenji Crosland Just put together a screencast of my soon to be released app. Any feedback is appreciated: http://vimeo.com/10993214

109 weeks ago from Web Startups

Mark Birch: Probably a bit of a reach to say you are changing the Internet plus you are mixing two distinctly different concepts of monetization and ...MoreProbably a bit of a reach to say you are changing the Internet plus you are mixing two distinctly different concepts of monetization and donations, thus potentially confusing the audience.
109 weeks ago
: I think your project and the application are really interesting. Good luck for creating your community!
109 weeks ago

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