And They’re Coming to Teach You Things You Need to Know
By: Victoria Goldenberg

Could No Shortage of Work (NSoW) have existed 20 years ago? The costs in time, money and labor to gather and direct members and run a publication might not have justified the modest and seemingly unrealistic ends of encouraging people to work for free. But now that the Internet is widely accessible, setting up the NSoW Web site was relatively inexpensive and easy. More important, communities commonly assemble around Web sites without anyone organizing them. The formerly difficult task of finding people and directing them to collaborate on meaningful work now happens organically, as those who share NSoW’s philosophy participate in the community on their own.

NSoW exemplifies the behavioral shift New York University professor Clay Shirky analyzes in his engaging book Here Comes Everybody (2008, Penguin Books). He describes a compelling variety of cases, from charming Livejournal and Meetup groups to flash mob protests against the government in Belarus, to illustrate how ordinary people are taking the reins and using new tools, such as cell phones and blogs, to organize themselves.

Mr. Shirky stresses that technology itself hasn’t changed the world, but the ways people adopted it have. He cites people who took photos of Coney Island’s annual Mermaid Parade and posted them to the photo-sharing site Flickr under one name, so people could view all the pictures in one place. Prior to 2005, parade attendees hadn’t pooled their photos, but they’ve changed their behavior because of access to a service that makes it simple. At the same time, the photo-takers organized the pictures themselves, without supervision from Flickr or the parade’s sponsors. By coming together, the photographers created a new, valuable resource for the public.

What’s most appealing about Here Comes Everybody is that it resists exaggerating the Internet’s democratizing power and takes a realistic, contextual approach. Mr. Shirky acknowledges that new media and behaviors do not render older institutions useless, (such as newspapers and commercial developers of operating systems), but they do decrease their relative influence. I especially liked the chapter “Everyone is a Media Outlet,” which compared the effects of mass amateurization of journalism to the popularizing of the printing press, noting how it ends professional publications’ monopoly on the news just as the printing press ended scribes’ monopoly on publishing.

I spoke with Mr. Shirky by phone to discuss how No Shortage of Work can challenge people’s assumptions and encourage working for free, rather than not working at all.

“Whenever the digital sharecropper hypothesis comes up—why are all these people working without pay?—the answer is: That’s the wrong question. The idea of working for free assumes there’s this normal case in which you only do something if you get paid, and then there’s this pathological case in which you do things because you like them. That is a legacy of neoclassical economics that assume we’re all self-interested and isolated, rational, maximizing actors. One of the observations I’ve made recently is that one reason these behaviors are so surprising to us is because our previous explanations for human behavior were so lousy. We all do things for free all the time and we don’t even experience them as being for free.

“I think the surprise has been that we’ve believed that intrinsic motivation—things we do because we like them—is inherently limited to the private sphere, basically hearth and home.

“The intrinsic motivation can take place in the public sphere now. We just needed a medium to make that possible. The value of people working, full stop, is basically the value of making yourself happy. It’s a value that’s indivisible to other things.”

He also discussed whether communal learning might decrease the higher education system’s relative importance in the job market:

“Given that the premium of college education offers on the job market is now being leveled out, we’re clearly going to see a rise of lower-cost attempts to deliver the value of a college education.

“We may be in one of those times where people say, ‘demanding a four-year college degree for the training I need for this job doesn’t make sense anymore’. There have certainly been enough observations about the economic disadvantage of four-year education that people are willing to consider it, but it’s not going to be a general social change. Probably some industry will shift away from demanding a four-year degree pro forma to figuring out when it matters and when just having the skills training is enough.”

Shirky described how he learned skills such as computer programming from online communities and how this valuable method of learning can be invisible:

“I think it’s telling about the social piece that we don’t have any middle word between ‘I went to an accredited institution and got formal learning’ and ‘I am self-taught’ to reflect the way a lot of people learn these things which is, ‘I joined a community that knows and cares about the subject I care about, and I learned it there.’

“The language doesn’t yet give us a way to reflect on being communally taught as opposed to institutionally taught.”

No Shortage of Work is a venue for communal education. By participating in it you can learn from the pros, outside of a formal setting, and work to build vital job skills—or just for the joy of it.

by: Adrienne Rodney

You think you got it bad? Try waiting in a mile-long line where a callback is like hitting the jackpot and landing a part is like going to heaven.

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First Lesson: CHANGE THE GAME

Darbi Worley, producer of the Everything Acting Podcast, knows that not every role is right for her. “I look at every project as a jigsaw puzzle missing one piece,” she says. “I am a puzzle piece and I only fit certain puzzles. If I jam myself into the wrong puzzle, both the puzzle and I are going to be really uncomfortable. Better to wait for the right puzzle. It’s out there.”

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Second lesson: RE-FRAME REJECTION

Lidia Ryan says most thespians go on twenty auditions before getting a job – sometimes more, sometimes less. There are too many circumstances to take it personally. “I may lose a part not because I’m not a good actor or they [casting agents] didn’t like me,” she says, “but perhaps because I look too much like one of the actors in the project that are already cast, or they decided to go with…the opposite sex. It’s never a rejection of you; they just decided to go with someone else. If you see it as a rejection of you, well then you will probably just give up.”

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Third Lesson: KEEP GOING

Brooke Lewis, a horror-film actor and producer, knows how hard you have to work to be noticed. “When you get in front of those people you better be prepared and you better be good,” she says. “However, how will these people ever know you exist if you don’t put the work in to get there? If you’re not putting yourself out there in the work sense, then you’re not moving. You’re not getting to the next place.”

Ms. Lewis put herself out there by staying busy. “I can’t tell you how many coffee and dinner meetings I used to take, with anyone and everyone in the industry who I could have some kind of beneficial relationship with – where I could help assist them and they could teach me. I mean, you really have to put the time in.”

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Fourth Lesson: TAKE ACTING LESSONS

Dan Nainan was a senior engineer at Intel touring around the world with cofounder Andy Grove as his “Demo God” doing technical demonstrations on stage. He says, “Although the technical part was easy, the public speaking was terrifying, so I took a comedy class to help with stage fright, and found I had an affinity for comedy.” Now he’s a professional comedian and actor who appeared in a “Get a Mac” commercial for Apple. Learn how actors and comedians deal with their fears and it will surely help your career, and perhaps even lead to a new one.

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Fifth Lesson: DO SOMETHING ELSE

Kai Soremekun, creator of the web series CHICK, says. “When you’re looking for a job and worried about your future you’re already afraid.” She recommends, “Stop watching the news.” and “Get a hobby or project.” She describes a friend who renovates houses, “Often she is so wrapped up in the latest house she’s working on that it almost becomes a hassle to drop what’s she’s doing to go to an audition. But the result is she’s less invested in the outcome of the audition and so books more acting gigs.”

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Kai brings up a very important point. Optimism, helplessness, and depression have been studied for decades by Martin Seligman, past president of the American Psychological Association, and director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

In his book, Learned Optimism, he describes how worrying about things out of your control (e.g., the economy, most news stories, etc.) will make you feel helpless and depressed. However, being engaged in an activity like a hobby or side business will keep you positive, particularly if it is meaningful and benefits others. Watch Dr. Seligman explain how to live a fulfilling life on this TED Video.

A book review by: Steve Amoia

Pat Williams, who was assisted by Mike Sielski, has written a book about a famous American baseball player. (Baseball has the same popularity in the USA as cricket enjoys in Australia, India, Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies.) More importantly, this is the story about a great American: Mr. Jack Roosevelt Robinson, a man of incredible courage, character and integrity. It is a story that transcends sports. This tale epitomizes the tremendous burden carried on the shoulders of one man and how the rest of us can benefit from his example in our daily working lives.

Legendary Athlete and Civil Rights Champion

“Jackie” Robinson was a star in the American Negro Leagues of baseball. He was a multi-sport legend at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) and also a former military officer. One of the painful ironies of the United States was that an African-American could die defending America on foreign lands, but he could not play in the Major Leagues (the highest division of American baseball.) Two men changed this injustice and altered the American sporting landscape forever: Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Jackie Robinson, the first man to break the color line of professional baseball in 1947. This was the first act by Mr. Robinson as a life-long champion of civil rights.

Strength of Character for a Greater Good

This book is replete with inspirational quotes, along with the long road of courage that was taken by Mr. Robinson. He had to make a vow to Mr. Rickey that lesser mortals would have never considered for a day. Jackie Robinson had to promise never to retaliate against the racial slurs, insults and deliberate attempts to physically injure him during his first season with Brooklyn. Mr. Robinson was a proud man and a ferocious competitor. But he understood the challenge that awaited him, and in one of the most unselfish acts, sacrificed his own personal feelings for a greater good. His actions opened the doors for generations of African-American athletes, and also opened the eyes to the country at large. As Dr. Martin Luther King would eloquently state many years later (and I paraphrase) “A man should be judged by the content and quality of his character. Not by the color of his skin.”

A True Champion

If I take one thing away from this great book, it would have to be the initial meeting that took place between Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson. It set the tone for everything that would follow. Branch Rickey began to insult Robinson in every form possible as a means to “test” him. 

“Anger smoldered within Robinson, but he remained quiet for awhile.’ Mr. Rickey, are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?’ ‘Robinson, I’m looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back.’ “

Learn from His Example at Work

In an American society that is becoming increasingly sensitive, bad-mannered and thin-skinned, we need to look at the sterling example of Mr. Robinson. The next time that a boss or colleague gets under your skin, think about Jackie Robinson and his unique workplace circa 1947. It might put the matter into its proper perspective.

To learn more about the book at Amazon.com, please click here.

My rating: *****

Steve Amoia is a freelance writer, editor and translator from Washington, D.C. He is a contributor to NSoW and writes the World Football Commentaries blog.

A Book Review by Steve Amoia

This physically small book delivers a very large message from one of our most admired and analyzed business leaders: Warren Buffett. He earned his billions by investing in conservative companies with strong balance sheets, along with passionate managers and subordinates who focused on the long-term. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, is a sterling example that has rewarded its shareholders for decades.

Collection of 125 Quotes

This book is a collection from 125 of Mr. Buffett’s quotes on a variety of topics. The authors, Mary Buffett and David Clark, were a former daughter-in-law and family friend, respectively. They are best-selling authors of what they term “Buffettology,” which is the study of the tremendous investment and business acumen of this intriguing man.

Ms. Buffett and Mr. Clark have organized this book into fourteen chapters. For example: Business, Education, The Workplace, and Why Not To Diversify. You will learn from the wisdom and insights of Mr. Buffett, along with the personal examples from his life that the authors provide after each quote.

Here are a few appetizers from the Oracle of Omaha:

“If Calculus or Algebra were required to be a great investor, I’d have to go back to delivering newspapers.”

“Never be afraid to ask too much when selling or offer too little when buying.”

“You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.”

“You should invest like a Catholic marries: for life.”

“You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because some day, a fool will.”

“In looking for someone to hire, you look for three things: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity, because if they don’t have that the other qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you.”

“It’s hard to teach a young dog new tricks.”

“Managing your career is like investing. The degree of difficulty does not count. So you can save yourself money and pain by getting on the right train.”

“Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.”

“Wall Street makes its money on activity. You make money on inactivity.”

“Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.”

“I’d be a bum in the street with a tin cup if the markets were efficient.”

“What we learn from history is that people don’t learn from history.”

“We do not have, nor have had, and never will have an opinion about where the stock market, interest rates, or business activity will be a year from now.”

Here was my personal favorite:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and 5 minutes to lose it. If you think about that, you will do things differently.”

Legendary Shareholder Letters

To learn more about Mr. Buffet’s investment and economic theories, you can visit the Berkshire Hathaway website that displays his legendary annual shareholder letters.

Learn how to have purposeful conversations with anyone, and the job interview will be a piece of cake.

by: Brooke Allen

When Darya Gorlova met Lola Falkowski through No Shortage of Work, they did not just chat; Darya interviewed Lauren about her business, LolaFalk.

And Darya did not just write down notes, she wrote up an article.

She published it on her blog.

I am often asked by colleges to speak to their seniors about interviewing. I ask the colleges why they don’t want me to speak to their freshmen.

By the time a student is a senior, and ready to apply for the first serious job, she could have dozens, perhaps hundreds of interviews under her belt. And, I’m not talking about “practice interviews,” I’m talking about real ones. An interview is little more than a purposeful conversation intended to obtain information. If you want to learn something from someone, interview them.

A college friend of mine was never satisfied simply referencing publications in her schoolwork; she often called the authors on the telephone and interviewed them.

In a classic scene in Annie Hall, Woody Allen gets in an argument with a pedantic professor. Woody finds Marshall McLuhan behind a movie poster and gets him to straighten out the professor. Likewise, my friend could tell her professors, “Well, when I spoke with the author last night, he said…”

I admired my friend, but I did not emulate her, and that is why, when she graduated, she had many more useful contacts than me, and she was much more at ease speaking with strangers – particularly ones more powerful or knowledgeable than her. She had practice. I did not.

Here are some suggestions for how you can be more like my friend:

When you interview someone, your goal is to learn something. You will soon discover that people love it when you take an interest in their interests, and they will be very forgiving if you are amateurish at first.

It is important that you take notes. Not only does it make it clear you respect the person’s words, it will help you remember later. And if you don’t remember a conversation, it may as well not have ever taken place.

Take some time and write up your notes in more formal prose. As you do, you will uncover follow-up questions. This will give you a reason to call or write and that will solidify your relationship.

Everything is interesting when viewed from the right angle. Occasionally, you’ll find yourself interviewing boring people, and you’ll start to lose focus. Here’s a trick I use: I ask myself, “How am I going to make this interesting when I write it up?” Committing to producing a finished product gives you a goal that will motivate you to continue. You will discover that almost everything can be made interesting.

Learn to interview like a reporter (and get lots of practice), and you’ll ace the job interview. Few hiring managers know how to conduct an interview, so it will help you greatly if you do. My suggestion: don’t just make the other person’s interests (or yours) the topic of the interview. Make the conversation be about the WORK. Look to learn all about what needs to be accomplished, how it gets done, and why. Don’t try to impress people with your knowledge (reporters don’t do that) but rather with your interest. People would rather hire a learn-it-all than a know-it-all.

Look for every opportunity to interview people, and there is a good chance you’ll get job offers without needing to answer ads or go on “job” interviews. Hiring managers know how hard it is to find people with a sincere interest in the job at hand, and when they run across you, they will wonder if you might be available the next time something opens up. They don’t enjoy conducting “job” interviews any more than you like going to them.

So, take the initiative as Darya has.

A No Shortage of Work networking party is a good place to find people to interview – we’ll even help you. Of course, so is every other place in the world – wherever you find people.

Why is it that lazy people accuse people who are helping themselves of acting out of desperation?

I was waiting for the uptown #6 subway train in New York City when I overheard a conversation between two men in early middle-age; one standing and the other sitting.

The one sitting said “The market sucks; I can’t get a job.”

The one standing said, “I know. I lost my job at the end of 2008 and I couldn’t find anything for nearly a year.”

“Tell me about it. I haven’t worked since then either. At first I wondered what was wrong with me, and then I realized it wasn’t me, it was the economy. It isn’t even worth sending out resumes.”

“I gave up on that too, and if I got an interview, I stopped trying to sell myself. I would just ask, ‘What do I need to know to get this job?’ and usually I didn’t have what they wanted anyway.”

“Me too.”

“Then I asked everyone I knew, and everyone they knew, ‘What’s hot now?’ It turned out, just knowing HTML and Java isn’t good enough. And the big thing is social networking.”

“Don’t worry. It will come back when the economy recovers.” The man on the bench said this in a reassuring tone.

The train came, and I followed them into the car. I had to hear the end of their conversation.

“I’m not so sure. I signed up for this thing called MeetUp, and I found some people who told me about some free classes and study groups.”

“Sounds like a scam.”

“Well, I learned a lot and worked on some projects. I didn’t know anything at first, but it was good just to be with people. It didn’t cost me anything except my time. It took five months, but I landed a job.”

His friend said, “I’m not that desperate.”

When I got above ground, I Googled the definition of “desperate” on my Blackberry, and the first definition was, “marked by despair or loss of hope.” Perhaps our subway rider meant, “frightened and in need of help,” another one of the definitions.

Funny, I find that people who say they are not desperate are the ones who aren’t helping themselves. Could it be that they aren’t frightened enough yet? But, why wait until you’re that far down that road?

And, I’ve noticed that the people I admire the most, especially during hard times, are the people who don’t wait for someone to manage their lives, and who don’t need to be bribed, coerced, or even taught in order to learn or do something new.

And yet, these are the very people who are called “desperate” by the people most in need of help?

And psychologists have discovered that, if you work really hard at improving your circumstances, it is almost impossible to become depressed, and that if you wait until you feel like doing something before doing it, you might be waiting a long time.

Are you doing nothing? Or doing things that don’t work, time after time? I don’t want to tell you what to do, but I don’t think that your situation will be improved by accusing people who are doing something of only doing it out of desperation; at least not before consulting a dictionary.

But if you’re reading this, you’re already doing something, so I doubt I’m referring to you.

- Brooke Allen

by Steve Amoia

When I think about my first job, it taught me lifelong lessons. All of us have to start somewhere in the world of work; however, many of our first jobs are not mentioned on resumes, C.V.’s, or applications as we gain professional experience. We may feel that they don’t relate to our current objective. Or they may age us out of the hiring decision. We remember what we were paid; however, don’t always recall the important lessons that have no price tag.

I was a high school freshman, and summer vacation was approaching. My parents told me about a new restaurant that was looking for help. I was not quite 15 years of age. With the exception of cutting grass, raking leaves, shoveling snow, and a three day stint in my uncle’s car wash (which was curtailed due to my age for insurance reasons), had never had a job.

First Interview

The establishment was called the “Chinese Village Restaurant.” I could see the “Help Wanted” sign hanging prominently on thefront door. My mother dropped me off, and said just to be myself. The restaurant was empty of any customers, and the lighting was very dim. The carpet was red and black, and I could see some construction going on in an adjacent room.

I was approached by a gray haired woman. She looked both tough and gentle.

“How can I help you? I saw the sign in the window, and I would like to apply for a job as a busboy. She smiled and looked me over. I was short for my age, and weighed 120 pounds (54 kg).

“Have you ever worked in a restaurant before?” No Ma’am.

“What is your name, young man?” Steve.

“Okay, Steve, I am Mrs. Thom. Margaret Thom. That guy peering through the kitchen windows is my husband, George Thom. My children also work here. David is a manager, and Joyce is a waitress.”

She kept looking me over.

“You look real young and small, Steve, how old are you?” She then pointed to a silver tray stacked with dishes. “I want you to pick that up, and carry it back to my husband in the kitchen. Can you do that for me?” Yes, ma’am, I can do it. So I proceeded to pick up the tray, incorrectly as I would soon be told, and struggled to carry it the roughly 75 feet (23 meters) to the kitchen area. Where I would soon meet Mr. George Thom. He was a very tall man to me (about 6’2″ or 1.89 m) with a broad smile.

The kitchen area was very bright and immaculate. All of the cooks were Chinese men. The cuisine and language were Cantonese. Mr. Thom was standing against a work table.

“What is your name?” Steve.

“Okay, Steven, (he never called me Steve) you seem like a hard worker. We need to teach you how to carry heavy trays. You’re a little small (he chuckled) but I think you have a strong spirit. Now go back and talk to Mrs. Thom.”

She was waiting at the cash register. I saw a few of the waitresses reading Chinese newspapers at a side table, but they didn’t look at me.

“Your pay will be the minimum wage plus tips. You will also get a meal every night. No jeans, tee-shirts or sneakers. I will provide a red jacket for you. Come in on Friday at 4:30 p.m. and bring your Social Security card.”

It was one of the easiest and toughest interviews that I ever had. No application. No illegal or non job-related questions. As Nick Cordodilos of Ask The Headhunter® states, they made me do the job in the interview.

Life As A Busboy

My first night was difficult. I was very nervous, and the restaurant was busy. I was trained by the head busboy, Chris, who was 18 and recently graduated from high school. Chris was very patient with me. He taught me how to “bus” a table, and then change the table cloth and arrange the silverware, napkins, and how to serve water glasses correctly. He also showed me the correct way to lift a tray, using your legs, and then to balance it with one arm.

“Call Mr. Thom ‘Uncle George.’ If a tip is left on the table, clean the ashtray, and put it in there. Don’t ever remove the money unless the waitress gives you permission. Keep the water glasses full. Do that without asking the customers. Smile. If they ask you to take an order, tell them their waitress will be there very soon. We don’t take food orders, but sometimes carry out the meals from the kitchen. At the end of the shift, the waitress will give you a tip for helping her.”

In a few weeks, Chris was promoted to waiter. Actually, he was the only one among about six or seven servers. Mrs. Thom was very organized. She created “stations” of tables. I noticed that a server would be assigned to the same station for each shift. I asked Mrs. Thom about this, since some stations had larger tables. Which I noticed left better tips.

“Steve, I try to spread out the work, and also give them their preferences. Especially to ones who have worked for me awhile. Some like the larger tables because the pace is slower. Others like the two-seaters against the wall that turnover quickly. The stations with larger tables usually go to the most experienced person. It usually works out, tip-wise, at the end of the night, to be about the same.”

Work Tips That Became Lifelong Lessons

At the time, I focused more on the tips in my pocket every night, along with my weekly pay packet. What could a 15 or 16 year old learn about the world of work by cleaning and setting tables? I was too young to realize how much Mr. and Mrs. Thom taught me by their customer service focus, ethics, management styles and work ethic. As I became older, this job and the Thom’s became a point of reference. They would become a measuring stick for every job and boss I would ever have.

Lessons Learned

• There was a clear division of labor at the Chinese Village. Mrs. Thom’s domain was the dining hall, and Uncle George ruled the kitchen. With rare exception, they never impeded upon each others domains.

• Restaurant work is physically and mentally draining. Your mistakes always have an audience.

• Smart managers correct you in private, but praise you in public.

• Respect and competence are not always shown by titles or age. Even busboys can learn how to lead others and set a winning example.

• You don’t have to like people to work with them.

• Different cultures can co-exist if they make the effort to understand each other. I learned a few words in Cantonese to make my brief stays in the kitchen more enjoyable. You would be surprised how a simple “thank you” is received.

• People can be competitive or mediocre. Some aspire to be the best busboy, cook, server or hostess. Others feel entitled to a free meal just for punching the clock on time.

• If you don’t serve the customer, someone else will.