Dr. Neil Hair

On Monday I got to watch my wife graduate with her PhD in management at Sheffield University in England. It was without doubt one of the best moments of my life. Its hard for others who haven't been through the PhD process to truly appreciate the utter madness, sadness, emptiness and all the other nesses that go with that process unless of course you've been a part of that journey with them (her mum for instance). To finally walk the stage and have the degree conferred is exhilarating. Id go as far to say it makes up for all the angst you go through in not quite knowing – even up to the moment of viva (oral examination) whether or not you might fail or pass. I saw my wife go through that madness just as she had seen me go through it – and the remarkable thing is – WERE STILL TALKING TO EACH OTHER!! Rose was one of just three people walking around in red amongst the 400 other people graduating (all wearing black). She looks – as Im sure you will agree – absolutely fabulous! Go Dr Hair!! Rose starts teaching Organizational Behavior at RIT's Saunders College of Business in the Fall.

An interesting article in the D&C today about a schools superintendent charged with 'filing a false instrument' (ie his resume) – suspended on full pay and benefits whilst investigations continue. This serves to my mind as a stark warning to all about the use of little lies (such as claiming to have worked as a State Trooper for 17 years) to help pad your resume for potential employers. In the UK the discovery of this act constitutes immediate dismissal from your post (no matter how good you might be). Their reasoning, if you lied to get the job, what have you been doing whilst ON the job? So what constitutes a lie and how can you avoid them? First off – you should have gone to Saunders College of Business. We give our students enough experience not to warrant a lie in the first place! A Saunders resume has the potential through classes, co-ops and volunteer work to be jammed full of experience – even before you start work. I counted at least ten classes recently where you can gain real world consultancy exposure that can (and should) be placed on your CV. Secondly – my advice is to stick to the facts of prior experience. Wax lyrical in the interview situation about the details but on your resume – a simple line of facts to support what you did and for whom. Thirdly – you know if youre lying or not about this experience the moment you put it down on your resume. Its clearly not worth the act of being marched off the premises by security with nothing to show for your 'last' experience other than a box of personal items.

Ive been presenting my ideas on Marketing Trends for 2010 for some time now to the great and good of Rochester. It's proved a popular session that I've run at a number of local conferences and in the UK. One of the key issues I explore in this is the business case for online social networks, the role of virtual worlds in innovating the provision of service / customer experience, and how to build and maintain a personal brand in this new era. Towards the end of summer I will be presenting 'Marketing Trends 2010' to the Greater Rochester Area Partnership with the Elderly – looking specifically at how marketing trends affect the business of elderly care. As with my classes – one of the key outputs I use to judge the effectiveness of the presentation is the extent to which there are concrete take homes for participants to then act on. The benefits of experiential learning shouldn't be the preserve of our students alone afterall. I also find it helps keep me honest – practitioners are always very quick to pick up on practical application, relevance and the measurement of the bottom line with my suggestions.