Polly Pearson's Blog

Workplace Culture: "If you can see it, do it."

Culture at EMC

About eighteen years ago, in my first week working at EMC, I asked the head of my department this question, "How do I become successful at EMC?"

I love that the answer he gave that day is still so appropriate.

He said, "If you see an opportunity to do something, ask if you can do it and chances are they'll say 'Yes.'"

An even more up-to-date version of this, thanks in large part to social media tools and EMC's 2.0 management philosophy:

"If you can see it, do it."*

There is ALWAYS opportunity to jump in and work on something here, regardless of how it fits into your official day job. 

My colleague Dave Spencer, wrote a post on this today sharing a bit of his story and other observations he had while at EMCWorld. Below is an excerpt:

"A while back I told Polly one of the things I’d tell a new (or potential) employee about EMC is that there’s always something that needs doing that isn’t being done, and that if you can find a way to do that, you’ll always have a place here.  It’s never been more true, or more easy, than it is today.  I can’t imagine this is unique to EMC, but I certainly admire the way which EMC has allowed and encouraged us to explore those opportunities."

Dave was kind enough to sit down with me a couple quarters ago to answer the question, "What inspires you about EMC?" This is one of two clips we posted to the EMC Careers channel on YouTube with his answers.You can get to know Dave a bit better and hear more on this in the short clip below. (At 1:19 he talks directly to this subject of this post.)

* The only caveat, deep in the code of the EMC Culture, is that you continue to execute your official job inclusive of meeting all your goals. Anything you wish to do on top of that is essentially an open door.

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What's your story? Are you doing things at work because you saw an opportunity and jumped in?

Mothers Day ... make that "Working Mothers Day"

About two years ago I ran into an EMC woman, Natalie Corridan-Gregg, in the hallway. She recently had a baby. We shared a quick story about motherhood and working, and then went our separate, EMC-fast-paced, ways.

A few days later I received the most beautiful, goose-bump-type story from "new mom" Natalie via email. It was about her baby. I shared a story back. Then a light bulb hit us.  "I bet there are other moms at EMC with similar stories.  We should put them in a book! Imagine what a different side of EMC, and the world of working women,  it would show."

And thus it began.

 

Today, we, the Women of EMC, give birth to a new baby: The Working Mother Experience.

In it, you'll find our stories of Work, Motherhood, Parenting, and "Bringing It" every day in tandem with the values, culture, execution-expectations, and intellectual exhilaration that is "us," and that is, "EMC."

It is written by about 100 women EMCers, and one, single-working, EMC dad. The stories come from 15 different countries.  Bulgaria, Spain, India, Ireland, Israel, and the United States among them. It is a glossy, 250-page, weighty-book-of-substance, filled with passion, heart and amazing insights.

The book is an unexpected "page-turner," even for me.  Wisdom, wit and tolerance comes from wonderful places, like the voices of 5-year olds and 13-year olds.  It is like "Reality TV," complete with infuriating moments, for family life at the dawn of the 21st Century. How are we really coping? What are our days really like?

I don't think you've ever read anything quite like it.  Some people comment on the "humanity" and "honesty" of it. Others on the "love" and "beauty."  I'd love to know what your comment would be.

Here are two samples:

Joanna Pelc

Commercial Channel Manager, Poland

Mother of one: one youth

Excerpt from Joanna's essay (p. 138):

“Sometimes stress eats me up, but I try to forget about it when I am spending time with daughter. I remember that some time ago I found that, because of stress caused by work, I was irritable with my daughter. One day I told myself: “This is enough, what are you doing?” I learned to control it and now, after stepping into my home, I stop thinking about work—or at least I try.”

Why she wanted to contribute her story to the book:

Participation in the project and the chance to tell my story was very important to me. I want to show how difficult it is to deal with all the duties at work and at home if you raise a child as a single mother. It takes me a lot of time to control my daily agenda and tasks so that I can help my daughter grow up to be brave, wise, and joyful. I wanted to show that women are very strong and, contrary to what one might expect, we can deal with many difficult situations. While these have a price, you should not let these difficulties at work or at home get in the way of the most important things in your life.

Toby Zeldin Yaakov

Senior Technical Writer,  RSA Security, Israel

Mother of two: two youths

Excerpt from Toby’s essay (p. 104):

“Does any woman actually dream of being a working mother? It’s a 24/7 smorgasbord of personal and work challenges all rolled into one. And for me, the icing on the cake is that I’m a working mother in the Middle East. I could never have imagined the swirled topping of ups, downs, and inside-outs of this working-mother’s life I lead: I’m a city girl from Toronto living in a far-away, out-of-the-way Yemen-Israeli community named Moshav Tnuvot, a former screenwriter now writing API documentation, employed by a U.S. corporation and working in the Israeli high-tech industry, and the English-speaking mother of two girls who speak Hebrew.”

Why she wanted to contribute her story to the book:

I think it's important to participate in projects in which employees are involved in activities outside of their usual work routines. A project such as this is especially interesting in a large, global company like EMC because you are exposed to the perspectives of people from around the world. I have a particular interest in projects about working mothers—because I am one!

I'll share more about it on this blog. I also encourage you to get more of a flavor and excerpts from the book, by visiting the blog Natalie created, fully dedicated to the global, Working Mother Experience.

A HUGE thanks goes out to my friend, EMC EVP, Frank Hauck for sponsoring the book project, and to my dear friend and colleague, EMC Executive & Internal Communications Fantastic-o/Project Leader, Stacey Yeoman, for managing it, and bringing it to life.

If you'd like a signed copy of the book, send me a note at pearson_polly@emc.com. I'll send one to you, free of charge, while supplies last. (I'll try to get Natalie's and Stacey's signature for you, too!) If you'd like to download the book, you can do so starting today at emc.com.

------------------ Talk Back --------------------

What do you think could come of this project? Will it impact Employee Engagement, Awareness for the not-at-work-world of Working Moms, Inclusion, other?  We really don't know where it will lead -- it just felt right to do it. 

Stories often start to flow out of people once they've read a page or two, especially from the dads among us. :)

What's your story?

What's your comment on this project or subject matter?

I hope you feel something when you read the book. Please circle back and let me know.

Question #1: Isn't Personal Branding Vain?

"The thought of Googling myself makes my skin crawl."

My prior post covered what I see as the top questions/reservations coming from business people on the subject of social media. The number one concern I hear has to do with taking the big jump into a pool that strikes many as overly self promotional, vain, unprofessional, or simply too revealing for comfort.

All understandable points.

Consider the flip side.

Would you go to an important meeting or an interview without first looking in the mirror?  You would want to know you look okay, and fix anything that might be out of place, right?

Today, "Google is the New Mirror."

What do you look like?  Not knowing could be like walking into an Interview with your fly down and spinach in your teeth.

When someone Googles your name (it could be a customer who wants to know what your track record is before they meet you; it could be an entity that wants to partner with you; it could be a company who is considering hiring or featuring you), what do they see? 

• Do you even show up on the first page of Google search? 

• How hard do they have to work to find you? 

• The longer it takes them to find you, the more of a non-entity you might seem to be. 

• What if the first listing under YOUR name is a photo of a Tequila swilling 40-something? A convict? A person who is the antithesis of you ... or of someone whose resume is close enough to yours to be confusing?

Is it professionally courteous, expedient, or responsible not to know what you look like to others?

 

Last year I had as radio guests on EMC's Visual Talk Radio Show Barbara Massa, EMC's head of North America Recruiting operation and Dan Schawbel, both author of the new Personal Branding book, Me 2.0and EMC's resident social media specialist.

A take away from this program is that matching talent to opportunity today is a branding two-way street. 

Opportunity needs to be able to know about You and what You stand for. 

You need to know about Opportunity and what it could mean to You/Your business. 

Today, you expect every entity to have a presence on the web.  You want to research every hotel room, baseball bat, pair of jeans, house and technology gadget before you decide. If something is not on the web, it must not be significant enough to be worthy of your consideration, right? 

Guess what? That's what the world expects when it comes to talent/people/partners.  They want to research you on-line before making the next step.  If you're not on-line, you likely are not significant enough to be considered.  Ouch.

Barbara noted the funny twist that exists today.  No one expects a young person to have a presence on the web. They're just starting out and their careers are likely far from remarkable.  Everyone expects senior people to have a presence on the web.  They have, their resume says, launched products, turned around companies, and done other amazing things.

Only the reality is exactly the opposite. 

The young people are easily found and their credentials and claims are validated on line. The senior people are not easily found or validated.

There is no such thing as "Job Security" any longer.  What got you to where you are won't keep you where you are. 

What can you do about it?

Be relevant. Be found. Be vain if that what it takes. 

The pay off?

The larger "your brand," the larger your company's brand and the larger the opportunities that can find their way to you and to your company.

If you want to know more on this subject, Dan's book is available as of March 30, 2009. It is a super read for anyone getting started with the concept of personal branding, or anyone in the job search game.  If you can't wait for the book in the mail, check out his blog. He lives this space.

 

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"If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?"

Do you exist if the Internet doesn't know you?

Do you have spinach in your teeth if you don't own your personal brand, a.k.a. your digital identity?

Looking for a Job?

In my role at EMC these days I'm lucky enough to be able to truly help people's lives as we transform into the ultimate place to work. 

In the last few weeks and days, I've had fun helping people in a new way: building connections that should help people find jobs faster. For icing on top, these activities also help to build EMC community, brand, and business results ... all for free.

What's new?

We started promoting our job openings and providing career tips on  Twitter and on Facebook.

So if you need a job, have job leads and career tips, or if you just like to stay close to what's happening at EMC -- consider following EMCCareers on Twitter and fanning EMC Careers on Facebook. Share your job leads and ideas, connect with others with similar interests, and we'll do the same.

(Anyone interested in working at EMC should also visit EMC.com/careers, upload your resume, and set up an alert agent, so we can easily find each other when the right position opens up.)

I look forward to getting to know you even better.

------------------------Talk Back ---------------------

Who do you think should we be "fanning" and "following" so we can be sure we're hooked up with the top movers and shakers when it comes to connecting people with jobs and enhancing their careers?

New Career Twist: Employment Branding Moves to Marketing

Career Change

I heard once that it is healthy to change it up, job-wise, every three years to stay fully in the learning and growth zone.

Right on time, it seems, the three year bell just rang for me. And my new change, so far, has been unusually fun.

Let me back up a bit to put this change in context. (The last time I discussed my careeron this blog was a story about my first week at EMC.)

My career track, though aligning to differing departments over the years, has a common string.

My path, from 1991 - present, is as follows; () denotes organizational alignment:

1. Advertising (Marketing Org)
2. Public Relations, Community Relations, Employee Relations (Marketing Org & CEO)
3. Investor Relations (Finance, then CEO)
4. Branding and Corporate Marketing (Marketing Org)
5. Internal Strategy Engagement Consulting (Human Resources)
6. Employment Branding and Strategy Engagement (Human Resources)

         and now ...

    7. The same job as #6, but as part of the Social Media/Change Accelerator arm of Marketing.

What is the string? At my core I am a communicator, a connector, and an idea person who loves to get things done in new ways, quickly, with big impact ... while establishing lots of positive relationships along the way. 

Does it make sense to move this Employment Branding role to Marketing?

Consider what we've been up to lately in this function:   We established the employment brand go-to-market strategy; built a message and brand architecture; created the visual identity and rolled it out globally; revamped the content, tone and look of our .com career site; drove a PR program and an awards program; started a talk radio show, a syndicated blog, an internal social network community centered around Culture; and established an EMC Careers HQ/community on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Second Life.  

Sounds a lot like marketing, right?  True ... though the beneficiaries are both the people and the business. It has been a blast to apply branding skills to a "human resource" function.

The career bonus was that while I was building this marketing tool kit,  I feel I've also earned a virtual masters degree via OJT (on the job training) in Human Resources. By sitting on the staff of the EVP of HR I came to understand areas of the business I had never seen before like Compensation, Learning & Development, Recruiting, HR Operations, Organizational Design, HR Change Management, Benefits, HR IT, Performance Management, and more.  I've written HR keynotes and case studies, and along the way infused some marketing and branding techniques into HR practices.

It has been an awesome experience and I am entirely grateful. And let it be noted, I sort of dragged my feet into HR. I agreed to the change only when the head of HR agreed with me on every one of the negatives I listed about the job.  (As long as all eyes were open with honesty -- what the heck!)

So what makes this seemingly minor reporting change so much fun?    

I now sit on the staff of the head of HR, and the head of Marketing, allowing  for great visibility into two powerful areas of the company during major times of change.  In Marketing, I am directly aligning with a small group of firecracker brains doing really cool stuff with via social media. The energy, break-through ideas, and urgency from the people around that table is awesome.

 

How does this career change compare with others I've had?

• It is wonderful to take what you currently do and add to it.  Full transitions where you keep none of the relationships or core work are a heck of a lot more challenging.
• The zone of work I'll be doing more of is clearly cutting edge, and I get to do it with other senior-level passionate people, versus being a lone advocate or visionary. 
• The leadership truly cares about what I'm doing and shows this by the questions they ask and the resources they offer.

Change. Imagine the Possibilities.

--------------------------- Talk Back ---------------------------

How do you find career change?  What's the ideal timing for you? What are the elements for a good job change and a challenging one?

Employment Branding folks -- where do you think we belong?  HR or Marketing?

Career Management, Excellence & Self-less Giving: Meet VJ Manickham

Can you think of a person whose very being somehow has the invisible ability to change the atmosphere and energy in the room to one that is tangibly soothing and positive?   I had the pleasure of meeting such a person a few years ago – her name is VJ Manickam. 

She’s had many roles at EMC since joining in 2002. I met her when she worked in our Massachusetts-based headquarters in Human Resources’ Information Systems group. Today, she is a Lean Six Sigma and “Total Customer Experience” Change Agent working out of her home country of Singapore for EMC’s Asia Pacific Japan  (APJ) & Centers of Excellence business functions. 

Her story is one of taking charge of her career, appreciation of mentors, hard work, world travel, self-less giving to others, intellectual excellence and award-winning contributions to EMC.  (Just before I posted this story it occurred to me to ask her if she had any career tips to share. One of her answers surprised and delighted me as it came from such a humble person. Read on to find out what she said.)

I’m delighted to introduce to you the wise and kind soul of VJ Manickam:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you like to do in your spare time, outside of EMC?

I recently worked in a variety of shelters that challenged me in different ways.  I flew to Vietnam for a week to volunteer at a couple of orphanages and helped mentally and physically-challenged kids as well as street kids.  The people in Vietnam are very hardworking and gentle.  The international volunteers I met at the guesthouse I stayed in Ho Chi Minh couldn’t  have been nicer.  I came away more knowledgeable about these charities and now have special memories.

I also like to cook exotic dishes and bake, and host dinner parties for my friends.  I love people and have friends from all cultures.  It is so gratifying to see people of varied backgrounds, gathered together to celebrate each other’s uniqueness and enjoy the company.

Besides meeting people of all cultures, I enjoy traveling with no expectations. I love adventures and the unknown.  Next stop – a culinary tour in Asia in August 2008.

What do you do to inspire and encourage your EMC team?

I’m a change agent.  I instill a mindset for my team to do things in a pro-active manner, with a logical sequence.  We go beyond providing adequate service – adequate is a “dirty” word because it’s not enough.  We need to show our customers the “Wow” factor and go the extra mile, not be stuck in a silo.

I am surrounded by competent, outstanding colleagues who create the “Wow” factor!  They don’t say to themselves, “What’s in it for me?”  These colleagues have the natural DNA which has become second nature for them to “go beyond” in servicing our customers.  This style eliminates frustration as well as develops a synergy which other functions understand; we’re better able to help each other.  We don’t do things for instant gratification -- we expand our horizons.  By helping others, we also develop ourselves as well as redefine who we are.

Another dirty word is “manage.”  I do not manage people.  I influence them.  I roll up my sleeves and Walk the Talk.

Do you feel different about working at EMC than other companies you’ve worked for?

Certainly …the whole Lean Six Sigma experience has been a great journey for me as I’m  learning about other businesses, and being able to work with people across different geos/divisions.  I’ve had an incredible manager/mentor, Scott Casavant, whom I worked with, and who selflessly developed me over the years. It is the warmest place I’ve ever worked. My boss and colleagues are like my family.

The opportunities are present for anyone at EMC if one has the right attitude.  The right attitude determines the altitude for career development at EMC.

 

How has the company supported your career development?

I take charge and drive my career, but I put in that effort.  I have been so fortunate to have great mentors.  I also don’t believe in luck; I’ve done the legwork and worked hard.  Scott, my boss and mentor has been my teacher and strongest pillar of support.

Would you recommend working at EMC to a friend?

Absolutely!  At EMC, the sky is the limit – it’s like “help me to help you.”

What inspires you about EMC? What keeps you here?

I continue being effective because EMC let me spread my wings into this global, strategic position.  I like variety, and love people on all different levels.  The opportunities to expand your horizon are boundless.  But you have to be working at the right aptitude with the right attitude; if you don’t go beyond with the “Wow” factor, you don’t go.

What is one “cool” thing you’ve worked on recently at EMC?

I helped transform the APJ Partner Support Center team to improve business processes to create higher levels of customer satisfaction, quality and productivity and was awarded the Partner Support Center MVP Award for Q1 08.

 

 

Do you have any career tips for others?

1. Take Risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
2. Branding: Talent is not enough. Focus on raising one’s profile. Start looking outward.
   - How are you perceived?  
   - What is the value you bring to your organization?
   - How aware are others of this value?
   - What mental pictures/perceptions come to mind when your name is mentioned?
   - How do you raise your profile without overshadowing?
3. Leverage your strengths in order to move from successful to extraordinary.

 

Before EMC: VJ grew up in Singapore and dedicated her early years to helping raise her two sisters and put them through college (today, one is a lawyer and the other is a lecturer.)  She has worked as a Social Worker with the Singapore Children Society; an orthopedic surgery Research Assistant at the National University of Singapore; an Air Traffic Controller at Singapore Changi Airport; and a Guidance Counselor at Canadian International School.  She paid her own way through Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, finishing her undergrad in 3 years. She finished her graduate studies at Clarkson University in New York in 1 year.

She currently maintains a home in Worcester, Mass and in Singapore.

 

PHOTOS:  1) VJ at a School for the Blind during her recent vacation 2) VJ with International Volunteers in Vietnam 3) At a school in Ho Chi Minh for girls 4) Singapore's Skyline 5) On a boat to Mekong Delta

 

------------- Talk Back:

Has this story brightened or enlightened your day? If so, what part of the story spoke to you?

Resumes Are No Longer Enough; A Stand Out Story with Second Life

 

 

I was entertained recently when a new college grad told me how much time he put into his resume and cover letter and how mad he was that the company he sent it to didn't respond as he might expect. Did he really think that's how it worked?

 

The hard truth is that a lot of resumes sent into a company's website or to a recruiter never get read.  Do send resumes. That's not the point.  Just know that having a resume represents the basics alone. So how to you stand out in the job race?  And how does a company stand out in the war for top talent?

 

You Stand Out.

 

An example: EMC had two great experiences with career fairs in Second Life. We got a couple of super hires from the effort -- a developer with a key IT skill set and a financial controller who had experience with large, global, and dynamic organizations. On top of that,  the brand ripple effect blew away expectations like the special effects of a Will Smith blockbuster.  The ripples are still spreading by people who participated, saw the coverage of it on TV , heard about it on National Public Radio, or spoke to anyone who might have participated -- whether hired or not. Everyone won in this adventure.

 

EMC is not alone in the Virtual World Success Club. Sodexo and Amazon have made career connections as well. Here's a link to the Amazon story as told by a recent hire as a result of the Second Life Recruiting event.  It is a great read.

 

Following is the story of one of EMC's Second Life hires. We would not have found each other if it were not for this "Stand Out" medium.  No method of 'stand out' stays new forever. The name of the game is to be seen or known in addition to your resume in order to stand out from the crowd (but not in a crazy way; jobs mean business).

 

Further your brand to capture attention today -- employment brand and personal brand alike.

 

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“I had reached a point in my career where I needed a new opportunity—a place where I could be more creative and face some new professional challenges,” Yevgeniy (Eugene) Gorelik said.

He had been at a start up and found it light on resources, training, development and career potential. He had been at a big, established company and found it lacked innovation and drive.  He knew he wanted a job where his creativity could thrive … a place that respected innovation provided great training, resources and career opportunities.

 

An excerpt from EMC’s Intranet, “ChannelEMC,” featuring Eugene’s and EMC’s Second Life recruiting adventure follows:

The deciding factor

“At the time the EMC virtual career fair was advertised, I was interviewing with Genzyme and Google,” said Eugene. I was looking for a company where things are not set in stone. EMC's involvement with the Second Life world illustrated the fact that—even though it’s a big, well-established IT company — it’s also open to new ways of doing business. For me, the virtual interview was the deciding factor in choosing EMC. It provided evidence of leading edge technology and innovation. That’s what I was seeking in my next place of work.”

A “fun and exciting experience”

Eugene’s Second Life experience began when he clicked on the Monster ad, submitted his résumé, and quickly heard back from an EMC recruiter with an invitation to set up a virtual appointment at the fair. The recruiter also offered training—just in case

Eugene felt a little unsteady on his virtual feet.

“She told me how to teleport to the EMC facility, where I met Polly Pearson and a number of other people from EMC. Then I followed the recruiter to the interview area, where we talked for a half hour. It was a fun and exciting experience—not what you’d usually expect at a job interview,”

Eugene recalls.

The Second Life experience was followed by a meeting at the EMC bricks-and-mortar facility. Soon he was offered his current position.

“I thought this was a very creative approach to hiring, which gave me a really good feeling about EMC,” he says.

It just gets better

Now that Eugene has been at EMC for several months, I recently circled back with him and asked what his experience has been.  He said that he believes EMC’s real life persona has lived up to its virtual image as a company that supports creativity and innovation. “When I have an idea, people are always ready to listen,” he says. “And, if it turns out to be a good idea, there’s a lot of support for implementing it. That’s just what I wanted.”  Eugene has also become a huge fan of EMC’s training and development resources, the MBA tuition reimbursement program and all the on-line technical training modules we offer. 

Learn more: EMC’s Peter Quirk blogs about virtual worlds and EMC’s Second Life career fairs at Peterquirk.wordpress.com.

EMC’s Second Life career fair has so far resulted in more than 16,000 Google hits and international media coverage (print, TV, and radio).

 

Second Life is a registered trademark of Linden Research, Inc.

Where PASSION Lives

Twitter nuggets made my day richer today.  The people I follow led me to three great blogs and a super piece of music. I found within these nuggets a common theme which is a nearly consistent thread in my own life (everyone has to be reminded every now and then!):  Follow your passion fearlessly, focus your message, leverage your strengths -- and you will find that anything becomes possible.

 

http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/008246.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKfDwChOoHI&feature=related

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

 

Are you deploying passion fearlessly?

 

Feel free to find me on Twitter under the catchy name, "pollypearson."

Career Choices and Company Leadership

eWeek recently published the Top 100 Most Influential People in IT.

EMC CEO Joe Tucci

Cheers most notably to Microsoft; EMC & VMware; IBM; and Google -- home to volumes of movers & shakers in IT.

At Microsoft -- an amazing 9 execs made the Top 100.

At EMC & VMware (VMware is “an EMC company”) – an impressive showing of 4 execs were among the Top 50. Notably,

• Joe Tucci, EMC CEO was ranked as the 7^th most influential person in IT
• Mark Lewis, EMC President of Content Management and Archiving and author of http://marksblog.emc.com was ranked as the 50^th most influential.

IBM and Google also graced the Top 100 with 4 spots each.

What does a list like this have to do with career choices?

Business is tough and tech is tougher than many other industries given the pace of change. If you’re going to attach your train to a company in a dynamic industry consider strongly the influence and the track record of its leaders and of its culture. Good leaders and powerful cultures will help make your career ride a continuously progressive one.

EMC has reinvented itself more than six times in its nearly 30-year tenure. This ability takes a culture that is agile, open to change and able to execute with speed and passion.

Our most recent transformation came at the hands and strategic vision of Joe Tucci, #7 on the list. Joe helped EMC grow revenues about 150% from 2002 through 2007. Business Week called the Tucci-led transformation the most stunning turnaround in the history of technology and Institutional Investor named Tucci the CEO of the year for two consecutive years.

Today, EMC is one of the fastest growing companies in high tech in terms of revenue and profit growth. The company is also one of the ten most valuable (market cap) major IT product companies in the world. Yet at “only $13+ billion”, EMC has plenty of headroom compared to its “Top 10” tech peers. In career terms, this amounts to the potential for great professional growth.

Net: it is not only cool to have your CEO be among the most influential people in your industry – it serves to help your career continuity and growth.

Talk Back------------------

Are you at a company with top industry influencers and a powerful culture? If so, what has it meant to your career?

When is a big bump in pay more of a pothole?

EMCer Steve Kimball in recent Triathlon

Steve Kimball, Iron Man Triathlete and EMC Recruiting Manager, and I met this week. We looked at some charts reflecting research that the Corporate Leadership Council conducted on the subject of the value of a strong employment brand and related factors such as compensation and career growth. Steve was smitten and repeated one line a few times, “Good companies don’t buy talent.”

Good Companies Don’t Buy Talent

He then shared that to join EMC, he left a bigger title and a bigger paycheck. When approached about other jobs now with seemingly juicier offers, he replies that he’s more than happy at EMC.  [huh?]

What the 3 charts said that inspired this story and an ‘Aha’ moment

1. The first chart showed that the average pay bump a candidate receives when changing companies is 16%. It shows that a company with a weaker than average employment brand can expect to pay more – a 21% increase. Companies with strong employment brands can expect to pay an 11% increase.

2. A second chart outlined the type of talent a company with a strong employment brand can expect to attract (passive candidates – the likely high performing, engaged, non-job seeking talent) and the type of talent a company with a weaker employment brand can expect to attract (active candidates – the type that job jump often – and who will likely job jump again soon enough.)

3. The third chart outlined what makes a company attractive to the talent market. “Future Career Opportunities, Development Opportunities, Respect and Organizational Stability” are leading factors along side “Compensation.”

The “Aha” Moment

Steve smiled at these charts and said, “You know why EMC was so appealing to me? It offered me career growth and future job opportunities. I could have stayed a VP at that 70 person company and not learn as much as I learn here and not have the future job opportunities. I’m still young. I have a lot to learn. At EMC I’ve been given more new assignments and several opportunities to further my career. I have variety and I’m learning so much.”

He continued, “What people often don’t factor when they get offered a bigger paycheck at another company is the cost and burden of their next job search. So if xyz company offers $165k and a real quality company offers $135k – people dwell on the money delta. That isn’t the full picture”

The Delta

“Ah, the ‘cost of down time,’” I replied. The full picture would include the value of the company's employment brand. At a company with a stronger employment brand, part of the package would be the career growth opportunities, the professional development, interesting work, and the stimulation from working alongside accomplished people along with fair compensation and respect. So which is the better deal?

The Corporate Executive Board’s research actually states that an employment value proposition featuring career opportunities and respect is “even more attractive to the labor market” than “high-compensation and strong product brands.”

At EMC you get the Full Package

What is pretty cool about EMC is that here you get, as many of my EMC colleagues often say, “The full package.” EMC’s products are the brand leaders in our industry. On compensation, we pride ourselves on pay for performance and provide motivation for that performance. In the most recent major Best Places to Work survey, EMC employees rated EMC better than the “100 Best Places” composite to the question, “People here are paid fairly for the work they do.”

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What has made a job or a company attractive to you? What have you learned along the way?

A Tip for Your Career Growth

On my first week on the job with EMC in 1991, I asked my manager's manager, "How do I become successful at EMC?" (We had about 500 employees then.) He replied,

"If you see a chance to do something, ask if you can do it and chances are they will say 'Yes.'"

Not a week has gone by where I have not put to use that advice.

Why is it still so powerful today?

EMC has grown in my time from about $200 million in revenue to $13 plus billion ... that’s a compound annual growth rate of about 30%! We're always running at EMC. If someone steps in and volunteers to take something off a plate or get something done that seems to need doing, chances are we'll say “Yes.”

That custom spans work groups. I once had an administrative assistant in my HR role who volunteered to the Marketing group to help put on EMC's biggest event of the year -- "EMC World" (about 7,000 attendees).  The Global Marketing Events staff said "Yes."

Bingo!

• Improved resume.
• Improved sense of personal value.
• Enhanced contribution to EMC.
• Helped out fellow members of the "EMC Family."

Wins all around!

That's one sure fire way to grow a career and have fun while doing it! I've had about 50% of my career 'assignments' at EMC simply from asking for them. For me (and many, many others at EMC), that's pretty cool.