Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Why is it that people ask questions when they don’t want to hear the answers? Let’s go in reverse order here. Result: Dead silence. My Answer: I want to work with good, smart people on difficult problems whose solution enhances national security. Recruiter’s Question: What is it you like to do? What […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the news has a sharp, pungent taste or smell. Short and sweet is a fond, old cliche. Gosh, wouldn’t real life be better if most news were short and sweet? Sometimes that is not life; sometimes the news in life is short and bitter. So, let’s attempt to learn something from […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Forget the old cliche about stupid questions. There ARE stupid questions, and hiring managers have asked me a bunch of them. I’ve been interviewed for jobs a dozen times There are stupid questions, and hiring managers ask them all the time. First, don’t ask the person to solve your problems. This is […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Probably the best preparation is to be prepared to be unprepared. I prepare. I plan. I am ready. I drive some people nuts with these habits. Somewhere along the line I learned that I was never prepared for everything. Hence, I became prepared for that, too. I learned to be prepared to […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips We don’t choose what happens in life. We do choose how we react. The title of this post is something that I’ve heard numerous times from consultant and author Jerry Weinberg. It seems that almost every day I trip over yet another example of this. The phone rings at 2 AM. Something […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Hyperventilation and hysteria are shows of emotion, not commitment. A recent post from Seth Godin reminded me of the above. I have been the victim of the “why aren’t you going berserk?” syndrome over the years. I was once reprimanded for concentrating on performing the work instead of yelling and screaming at […]

[Read more →]