Today I was reading a lot of stories about Best Buy and how apparently they have been having a lot of trouble financially due to a changing market such as people buying things online and general management issues. The news story interested me more as I actually worked in company a few years back and even had shares in the business.

Even though from a corporate point of view or ladder I was pretty much an unknown I still remember the times such as the store I was involved with did literally over 2500% more sales than the other top stores during various key launches mostly due to the management’s ability to allow a person like myself to take full charge as to how to market and sell the items.

Of course that number definitely turned heads. Afterwards I was actually motivated in wanting to contribute in different ways such as getting more into the corporate decisions such as taking advantage of the social media scene as at the time there wasn’t really many companies in that industry that did it. That was actually one of my keys to success to as I took a lot of pride in what I did and constantly scoured various places on the Internet to see what people were saying about the store. However, it appeared though that they went more for the trust the guys on the board table direction as opposed to the people that were knowledgeable and passionate about products and of course people like myself felt that there was nothing to grow into anymore which meant parting ways.

Looking back it really makes me wonder what simple choices like those would have done for the business. In some ways it reminded me of like the “old timers” basically swaying off the “young generation” where the new way of doing things sounds crazy. Never just sway off ideas just because you don’t understand it yourself I guess is what I would say in that scenario. I think the Netflix and Blockbuster story is a good example of that. Sure is weird though seeing a company where at the time you were with was so big just to now read it is struggling.

Today I saw this person start to create a new consulting business in a category where she had no formal training in. Interestingly enough, even the person was saying herself that by no means is she a certified expert of any sort as she is simply a person that has been around a longtime and is now willing to offer advice for a fee on certain matters based on her experience.

It was interesting in one aspect as many people would think you must go through some kind of rigorous training course where you have to have all the certifications in the world until you can start like say a business. In some cases like this though when you think about it it really does boil down to the practical experience and whether or not the service you provide fixes the problem that people have. Basically, it’s mainly about the results.

I have seen it many times before but it is always interesting to hear this. Essentially, Christmas is coming up and usually that is when businesses scramble to get their products out for the shopping season. For consumers that usually means scrambling to find those hot products too as they stock up. Today a person was telling me that he was going to apply for this seasonal job at a retail store for the sole purpose of getting this hot release coming as this way he will know immediately when items will be arriving. This isn’t like a student either as it is someone who is rather well off and self employed.

And yes, people were saying why waste time as if he wanted it that badly he could even just pay someone to line up. But of course that then led to him saying things like how it would be fun to try something a little different and that it’s temporary anyways. I was thinking too while on paper he probably sounds like he will be the worst employee ever as he is working to try and make it easier to find items, ironically the business will probably get a good worker as he doesn’t care about the money and is pretty clear in terms of what he is offering and his background kind of shows what he can accomplish.

It must be really weird as a hiring manager I bet though which is kind of funny too as like in this case it’s a seasonal position and so the applicant has an expectation it is temporary anyways. However, I bet in most cases the hiring manager would think it makes no sense even if the person is coming in and will do the job with professionalism while being a team player. At the end of the day I think it is more about the experience though. Like in this case he most likely wants to experience how it is like being on the inside of the crowd rush. It’s not so weird to me anyways when you think of it with that perspective.

Interesting comment I was reading about the recruiting practices of an organization. Essentially, whenever they are looking for new people and talent they would advertise that the person must have X amount of experience and all that. There were then some promising people who mentioned that they wouldn’t apply to them because they don’t meet the requirements that are listed.

The recruiter then made a comment how people shouldn’t be discouraged over lists like those as they only write it like that to hopefully avoid hundreds of generic applications from people who clearly wouldn’t qualify for the role. That is a good point to consider whenever you read things like that where people say you must have say five years of experience or even for something like a network that says you must have X amount of customers. In most cases they are simply used as a quality control type of precaution.

Therefore, if you believe in the quality of your work or skill then don’t let that stop you from seeing if the opportunity will be a good fit or not.

It was fun to see today where a person that I met way back often updated photos with minor posts about the places he has been to as his job required him to be in various cities across the world. I suggested to him back then that he may have fun documenting his journey a bit more thoroughly such as by blogging and it definitely caught his interest but of course was a bit fearful of the unknown like most people. So he basically started by with a more simple route such as creating a Facebook Fan page of sort.

From there he seemed to have got confidence to take it more seriously and sure enough today I see that he has pretty much dived into it in a consistent way and it seems like he has integrated it into his lifestyle and has made good use out of it. This almost reminds me of like teachers and how one little word they say can semi dictate a path that a child would take in their life. I suppose like in this case it isn’t always about money as a way to help get people started but rather at times it’s just simple words of encouragement to help them get going.