These are just the transformations the small-business financial execs experience on daily basis: from CFO to Policy Enforcer to Strategist to Forensics Pro to Computer Geek to Legal Authority.
If you are interested to read more on the subject, please, go back to my very first two-part post:
CFO’s Many Hats: Etiology of Affliction, Part I.
CFO’s Many Hats:Etiology of Affliction, Part II.
Readers who have stories to share, as always, welcomed to contact me.
It is difficult to look for a job – I already talked about it several times and even have a "Job Search" category to keep the related posts in one place. Every time I encounter information that may help job-hunting CFOs and Controllers, I make sure that it finds its way into this blog.
But what about my peers and myself who are in an active headhunter mode? Truth: we dislike looking for people nearly as much as job-searching. I guess, being a seeker is not as enjoyable to us as it is to Harry Potter.
Pitching yourself to prospective employers and recruiters is nerve-straining. Dealing with unfairness, randomness and subjectivity is frustrating. Facing rejection is disheartening. That's all true. However, after each attempt you collect yourself, you move on.
On the other hand, recruiting people who will work for you, who will carry out functions you delegate to them, but for which you are ultimately responsible, is not just an excruciatingly difficult and tedious work. When that stage is over, you are not done - this is just the start. Now you have to ease the new hire into his functions, fill him with missing knowledge, perfect his ability to perform the tasks, i.e. develop your new staff member into an asset.
Here is what frequently happens. After spending your preciously scarce time looking through hundreds of resumes, interviewing candidates by the score, all you want is to get this damned recruitment issue off your agenda. If you cave in and make a mistake of hiring a wrong person simply because you are tired of the process, you will still go through the remaining steps without a chance of achieving the desirable result. So, all that time will be completely wasted. Moreover, it is damaging to the company, to your own success, to your staff's morale. It leads to enormous amounts of the worst type of frustration – the one that's based on guilt.
Why do we end up falling into this trap? If you are not a giant corporation that can afford to fill departments with bodies and let the most ambitious and talented ones to surface, every person you hire needs to be the best you can find. And of course, you are somewhat handicapped by the fact that you are not a household name.
Still, it is shocking really how difficult it is to find good candidates considering how many people are out there unemployed. On one hand, it is a buyer's market, on the other hand, the shelves are stocked with generic products who are limited, unfocused, and dull.
And I am actually very flexible. I don't hold industry-specific experience in much regard. I believe that it depends on a person, and not the school, whether he is well educated or not. What I am looking for is that spark in the eyes showing intelligence; the ability of systematic thinking; the foundation I can build on. And that's hard to come by.
I thought I'd show you my own Page of Frustration. However, I insist that if you decide to use this method of release, you should create one for yourself according to the general description I provided in item 2 of my previous post One CFO's Personal Tools for Frustration Relief. The process of designing your own Page will not only help you to work out the real reasons behind the frustration, but will also have a therapeutical effect.
Many of my peers make an inexcusable mistake of thinking that a Cover Letter is an artifact: in old times of applying to jobs via mail or fax, it made sense to include one with your resume, but now, when you either click "Apply" button in the job board ad or send an email, it's not needed. Lazy and wrong! It is true that the cover letter most likely will not make a difference in the first resume screening. However, if your resume gets into the second round, a good cover letter will compliment it and make you stand out.
Here is a link to AOL original online article. It is written by a recruitment professional and has the most concise and comprehensive outline of what must be included in a contemporary cover letter. You will still need all your talent to find the right words and present yourself in the most impressive way, but it is a good start.
Yes, frequently the frustration heats your blood up to the boiling point. You can physically feel it: adrenaline rushes through your body, your air intakes come faster, your temples are throbbing. You feel as if you are about to choke. You want to scream, you want to destroy the obstacle, the cause! You want to hit the roof!
But you cannot! You are a Financial Executive – the CFO or the Controller of this company. You have to control yourself. There is no way you can throw your boss out of your office. You can fire your inadequate employee on the spot, but that would mean spending months on search and training of someone new. And the VP, who drives you insane with his inability to improve sales and at the very least to show up on time for the meeting, is your CEO's son.
So000, you have to control yourself in the face of these frustrating circumstances. You have to present your most composed self on the outside and act constructively like a seasoned professional you are. At the right moment you mention some urgent marketing matter that only your boss can resolve and he obediently runs out while being convinced that it was his idea in the first place. You calmly ask your employee to get off the Internet and start her on the project with recommendations for the best solutions. You explain again to the VP of Sales why it is important to concentrate on distribution of more profitable, but not necessarily most expensive products. And next time, if you want to meet with him at 2 pm, you ask him to come at 1:30 pm.
Well, that's all good for the business and your authority position, but it does not stop the chocking feeling, and the throbbing, and the anger. As the matter of fact, the symptoms are getting worth, because you bottled that Molotov cocktail inside and it threatens to explode.
There is a need for release. In my post on Tuesday, the 31st, I will share with you my few tricks.
The Frustrated CFO 