Environmental Responsibility

If you have 10 minutes to spare, I highly recommend this Ted Talk:

Lewis Pugh, a crazy Brit, swam the North Pole a few years ago to raise awareness about the implications of climate change.  That was not a typo. He swam the North Pole.  Recently, he's been up to more insane swims...


I've discussed sustainability in previous blog posts, but I still think the idea of business + sustainability as a viable business model has a long way to go before it really catches on in the United States.  However, there are companies that are putting forth effort to champion "greener" behavior.  And, these companies actually have job openings specifically aimed at creating the link between profitability and sustainability.


Here are some examples:


Medline Industries, Sustainability Program Manager


Avery Dennison Groups, Sustainability Manager


Lowe's, Sustainability Manager


I strongly believe that business and the corporate world will be the 'driver' for the implementation of effective sustainable and earth-friendly policies and will be critical in shaping new social norms regarding our 'environments.'  That's why jobs like these are so interesting--they are creating a foundation for much, much bigger things to come!

Non-Traditional Employment, Part II

You might recall I wrote a piece about non-traditional employment a little more than a week ago  and posted a link to a Businessweek article that featured ~20 recent graduates and their back-up employment plans.

One of the vignettes that caught my eye was of a University of Washington (my alma mater) MBA student named Eddie Minkoff.  He listed an interest in Product Development but when his plans didn't go as expected, he ended up climbing mountains all over the world--sounds like my kind of work!

This last week I tracked Minkoff down and asked him about his journey and where he ended up.  Here is a snippet of our conversation:

EM: The short answer is I did end up travelling after finishing up my internship at T-Mobile, ultimately spending 5 months in Iceland, East Africa, India, and Nepal. I came back to Seattle in February and the job market was still bad. I took a mountaineering course and got involved with a second non-profit called Intercity Outings, which is a part of the Sierra Club that takes disadvantaged K-12 students on outdoor trips to gain an appreciation for nature.

The last component is that I'm working as a contractor for Microsoft right now in Product Development for the Bing search engine. Still shooting for the product management in a consumer company path, but nothing there yet.

Not looking for traditional employment?

As I sit in the BCS office each day I see the excitement on the faces of undergrads immediately before they interview.  Actually, a few MBA students pass through here too--be sure to say "hello!"

When I graduated from the University of Washington I can remember getting excited about the possibility of interviewing and landing any job.  However, I've gotten older (done laughing at the old man joke yet?) and am getting more picky in my job selection process. I want to be a difference-maker, add value to an organization and find employment with a highly-ethical company.  My standards today, unlike a decade ago, are much, much higher.  Just working any old job doesn't sound very appealing.

But, what if nothing pans out for me (or you) in the traditional job arena?  Recently, I found a link to a BusinessWeek article that features numerous people that faced the same issue.  You can find the article here:

http://bit.ly/dXF8r