trends

Can You Bring Business Along?

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Last week Rocky Agrawai of Venture Beat noted the simple painful fact that big box retailers have more online competition and need to upgrade.  He then documents his own painful big box experiences which you really don’t see in online retail (often because they’re screwups caused by being there).

Big Box retail needs an upgrade, he concludes.  I concur myself; most of my experience with Big Box these days is Frys, who has wisely chosen their own focus (crazy selections and sheer enthusiasm in bulk).

In fact, Rocky then went on to discuss how department stores need help too.  I imagine if he is going to fully explore businesses who are behind the times, he’s going to be very busy – and I encourage him, he’s got great insights.

We probably wouldn’t be complaining about this two decades ago as the stores wouldn’t have comparable experience.  We also probably wouldn’t be complaining as much as it’s a different economic and cultural time.  But in a day of cut-it-to-the-bone, short-term thinking, Big Box stores and many others often feel rather miserable.

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For Us, Easy Bake is Easy To Take

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Well, it’s happened.  Hasbro, after criticism, is going gender neutral on it’s Easy Bake Oven.  As a guy who likes to cook, let me say “bravo”, and may I suggest a line of gender-neutral kid’s cookbooks and cooking utensils.  No I’m serious, have you seen how kids are eating?

It appears there’s awareness of gender issues and toy sales, even if attempts are a bit offbeat.  Of course geeks like us know that there’s plenty of cases of gender-bent preferences.

  • Hasbro, of course, has My Little Pony, which makes the easy-bake over issue look like nothing.  If they released a Pinkie Pie Microwave, grown men would buy it.
  • There’s “The Transformers,” whose fandom taught me that if your last name is “Prime” there’s no small amount of women who, when younger, thought you were the sexiest thing on two legs or four wheels.  Peter Cullen, and that large cast of Rodimi, do you know what you did?
  • Huge amounts of anime targeted at men with casts of buff guys punching stuff and bonding attract huge female audiences because it’s buff guys punching stuff and bonding.  Yaoi is a kind of cultural alkaheist.

Nothing here really surprises us.  The issues of gender-target expectations being off doesn’t surprise us.

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Be Ready For An Irregular Job Search

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For those of you who hadn’t followed along, you all know I lost my job last month, which also led to me delaying my job search book, written during my last job search.  Once I swam to the shore of the irony sea, I got back onto it, did a job search, and got a new job.

I also had a valuable, painful lesson to share; the search for a job is not a regular thing, but we can miss just how many factors can influence when a job posts, when hiring is done, when interviews occur.  As I’d lost a job at early in a quarter, before a bunch of holidays, at the end of the year it was rather insightful.  As I talked to more people, I got a better picture of all the factors that make the job search and hiring so irregular.

There’s a lot more than I’d thought of.  Here’s my list of what to look out for that will make your job search chaotic, irregular, and a bit confusing.

Holidays: Sure, yes, we know this.  But remember that how holidays are handled varies by industry and by region.

Other Holidays: Diwali is a far bigger holiday out here than, say, in Chicago.  It affected many companies (and indeed, some people I knew directly).  You can miss holidays that aren’t part of your culture or how they affect.

Holiday-Related Efforts: Black Friday.  Duh.

Weather: Storms, snow, floods, etc. can be disruptive.  Think about that in Winter (heck, out here in Silicon Valley we get backfires set to avoid wildfires).

Cycles: Every city, megaregion, state, and country has its own cycles.  When I lived out east hiring was dead for Q4, but I found a job in Q4 in a few weeks in Silicon Valley.

Local Trends: This is one I became painfully aware of; titles are changing in my profession of Project Management.  This has been a relatively recent local trend, and it made my job search a little weirder (for instance, what’s the difference between a Product Manager and a Project Owner?).  Local trends that may not be reflected in the big picture can still affect your job search’s results.  This may be a one-time thing, but still . . .

Region Leaping: Sure a holiday, weather, or other factor may not affect where you live – but how many other offices around the country or world play a role in your hiring?  One holiday, one storm, one power outage can affect your hiring unexpectedly.

News Cycles: Publicity, news cycles, trade shows, really do reflect what people do in hiring.  Being aware of these trends – or one-time occurrences – can be very helpful.  I’m pretty sure one set of leads I had evaporated in the news cycle.

The job search is not regular, postings are not regular, results are not regular.  Keep those cycles in mind will make it a bit easier on you.

So, what cycles, trends, and other disruptors have you found?

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.