Academic, Faculty, Interviews, Questions

A very good good-example/bad-example. The moral of the story is to be prepared to deliver what they want to hear.

Dan

Succeeding in Academic Interviews – Career Development – jobs.ac.uk

While academic interviews are a little off-topic for this blog, they are something that many students are going to encounter and should be prepared for. Also, the advice given on this topic is good for question and answer sessions at the end of presentations (and even preparing the presentation itself).

Dan

Warning: Do You Recognize These 8 Body Language Killers?

This is a pretty good list of don’ts that apply just as much in a conversation as they do in a presentation.

To summarize:
1. Keep eye contact
2. Don’t let anything get between you and your audience (e.g., equipment)
3. Don’t fidget.
4. Don’t keep your hands in your pockets or clasped together
5. Don’t stand perfectly still (look alive)
6. Don’t slouch, lean back, or hunch over.
7. Don’t use “phony” gestures. Don’t practice your hand guesture too much. You want them to look natural.
8. Don’t do any repetitive movements (similar to #3) that take attention away from your message (don’t play with stuff in your pockets).

Dan

The New Rules Of Technology VC

This isn’t what I normally post on, but I find myself more and more interested in what it takes to launch a startup these days. The barriers to development and overhead seem to be crashing down. What is to stop someone with a good idea and a couple thousand bucks from running with an idea? Even if you can’t code, outsource it. Heck, even college students are making a couple extra bucks coding. Just snag a couple outside some computer science class and make an offer they can’t refuse.

According to this post, that’s essentially what VC firms are finding out too. The competition has increased because lower investment requirements have enabled smaller funds to change the rules.

I bet there are thousands of folks out there who could get some site or service off the ground with just $20-30K. Seems like it could pay off better that the multi-million dollar crap tosses of old.

Dan