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Out on the Street: How to Feel Like a Bitch

Published: Apr 20, 2009

“Hey—I got to hop, I got some friend of a friend I have to talk to. I’ll lose him in 10 to 15 minutes.”

Ummm, I am waiting right outside your office. I can hear you.

So that’s how I met Kevin, a friend of a family friend who runs a $2.5 billion hedge fund. When I actually met him I was greeted with a terse, “How can I help you?” No pleasantries with Kevin—after all, our informational conversation was going to last 15 minutes tops and he was doing me a favor. But I was determined to stretch it to 20. Ha. That’d show him.

I have been to too many meetings in my professional career to count, and along the way I learned that every single face-to-face is an opportunity to establish your standing in the power structure. The rules of engagement are many. Rule One: Make your guest wait at least five minutes. To do otherwise signals that your time is less valuable than theirs. This was true even if it was a meeting with clients, but especially for an interview or, God forbid, an informal conversation. There were plenty of other ways—subtle and not-so—of showing who held the power. Who got to end the meeting? Who could take a phone call in the middle? As my career developed, over the years, I got used to being in charge of the meeting. No longer. [more...]


--Posted by Joe The Trader, RecessionWire.com

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