Archive for December, 2006

Crazy Christmas Lights

I really, really love the Holiday Season. I really, really hate it when any Christmas decorations are up prior to December 1 (or the day after Thanksgiving, at least)…in malls, stores, etc. The commercialization of the Holiday Season. *tisk*tisk* But when the time is right and people go all out… let’s just say I get pretty excited. Here is a video from last year that I thought you might enjoy…regardless of what it is you celebrate during this time of the year.

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Help Harrison Find A Bone Marrow Donor

Harrison Leonardo is a two-year old boy who is fighting Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) and needs a bone marrow transplant to survive. He’s spent most of this year fighting cancer, which went into remission in August. Unfortunately his family learned the cancer relapsed just before Thanksgiving.

Read more about Harrison and how you can help…and, no, they are not asking for money.

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Does Your Current Compensation Reflect Your True Market Value?

While some are happy with their enormous salaries and rewarding careers, others often wonder “am I being compensated deservedly” and “…according to the market”. There are a number of popular resources available such as monster.com and CareerBuilder.com to help you find a job and get a general idea of compensation levels. But here are some that can help you get an idea of where you ought to be…categorically. The grass may not always be greener on the other side, but here are a couple of lesser-known but valueable services that might help you figure that out:

• SalaryScout: SalaryScout is an anonymous community of professionals whose purpose is to seek fairness in compensation. It is built around a network of users that offer various salary and compensation data (job title, salary, hierarchy within the organization, etc) to a specific job function. In addition to this interactive feature, SalaryScout offers regular posts with regard to “Career” (50 Common Interview Questions, How to be Ultra Productive) and “Compensation” (63 Salary Negotiation Resources, 10 Ways To Get The Most Pay)…and the service is free.
• PayScale: With the world’s largest database of individual employee compensation profiles, PayScale provides an immediate and precise snapshot of the job market. This service boasts a real-time profiling system, which indexes custom employee attributes (such as industry-specific certifications) and specific job titles for every industry…similar to SalaryScout. PayScale offers two tiers of membership: [1] My PayScale membership, which is free, allows you to create a profile and compare it to up to 3 other profiles of others with similar job titles as well as the ability to view job listings and educational opportunities related to your job. [2] Premium membership costs $19.95 and includes more specific job data comparisons to up to 10 similar profiles…and they offer a money-back guarantee.

The folks over at KnowHR.com make a good point with regard to using these resources:

‘Demanding’ pay and benefits based on [SalaryScout] is a sure-fire way to make yourself look foolish. Sure, have information. Know what you want to make. Get a sense of your value in the workplace. But know that there’s no single number for salary and benefits. And each company pays on a continuum for a given job. You can’t possibly think that you’re as valuable to a company going in as an incumbent with the same background and skills. Just beware.”

…and then there’s always blogging.

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The Rebirth of CNBC.com on December 4

Behold!!! The Rebirth of CNBC.com. I wake up every morning to the show…quite the CNBC junkie. So what can you expect from the new website? In an effort to expand its audience with personalized stock profiles and analysis (similar to that of Yahoo! Finance), CNBC.com will more greatly emphasize videos to include Video On Demand through CNBC Plus. CNBC Plus also allows you to watch CNBC live right on your computer, so you’ll never miss a moment of breaking news, even if you can’t get to a TV. CNBC also delivers on-demand access to over 10,000 videos with over 500 more added every week. CNBC Plus will also be touted as the ultimate investing tool…allowing users to access market data and research for any company, industry, or headline that matters to you (I would guess that is limited to publicly-traded companies). A monthly subscription gets you:

• Video On Demand Three Commercial-Free Live Streams: CNBC U.S., CNBC Asia Pacific, and CNBC Europe
• Thousands of video archives CNBC US
• Exclusive global content CNBC Asia Pacific
• News, interviews, & analysis CNBC Europe

I just can’t wait for the next Squawk Box Fantasy Protfolio Challenge. Maybe they’ll give away an Aston Martin this time around, although a Maserati isn’t too shabby either. According to MMA Global, more than 20% of registered contestants opted in to participate in the mobile portion of the game. Thirty-five to 55% of participants responded to daily trivia questions. CNBC was able to introduce a new channel for interacting with its viewers and in doing so, have built an opt-in database of viewers for future promotions. You can pre-register for CNBC.com and get a jump on previewing the goods before it launches.

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