I am currently a Manager with Ernst & Young~s consulting practice. I was introduced to MGTaylor through my firm~s partnership with the organization.
My varied work experience includes:
Army Officer - Lived in Germany and ran the Fire Direction operations of an eight-inch cannon unit. Saw a whole lot of Europe through travel and a lot of mud and dust courtesy of the military. The Army also helped me become a connoisseur of dawns, as they allow one to view a great many. I also did more dangerous things like jumping out of perfectly good airplanes and letting eighteen year-old boys play with high explosives.
Sales Rep - Procter & Gamble hired me out of the military, taught me how to sell and bored me to death doing route sales. One day I walked into a headhunter~s office . . .
Headhunter - and never left. Recruiting is sales where your product can say no. So you have to sell in two directions. Headhunting is really about arranging meetings between parties that you are pretty sure will fall in love and get married. It can also be lucrative, as it is 100% commission sales. There is no upper limit to the amount or money you can make. I discovered in 1990 that there is no floor either should the economy go south.
Consultant - I joined Ernst & Young as a recruiter. Every so often I would open my fat mouth and say that such and such a job needed to be created. Inevitably, it was with me in it. I worked my way up in this process of ~advancement by definition~ to National Director of Campus Recruiting for the Management Consulting practice. We hire over 500 college students per year. Meeting with students on a regular basis is a wonderfully energizing. I particularly enjoyed giving presentations on our firm and on interviewing in general. Now I have moved in to the consulting ranks myself. I facilitate DesignShops in Chicago, Hilton Head and Boston for clients of the firm.
I am married and have three children. Interests include being with family, watching my kid~s soccer games, reading voraciously, learning, travel that isn't for work, bodysurfing, computer games, repairing my old house so it does not fall down around my ears, tormenting telephone solicitors, writing, telling funny stories, giving classes on interviewing and being interviewed, studying military history, cooking waffles every Saturday morning, building a file of humorous resumes and cover letters, searching for the perfect tortellini Alfred (try the Blau Glocke restaurant in Bamberg, Germany), skiing, eating bagels, people watching, chess, watching funny movies and thinking in the shower.
Lifetime goals: being a Jeopardy contestant, hang-gliding, authoring a book, teaching History so that it is interesting, traveling to places I have never been and having my children inherit a better world.
Thus far in the network I have tried many of the Knowledge Worker roles and have zeroed in on the facilitation/transition manager spot. It is incredibly fun, incredibly hard work and incredibly scary.
I am on a personal crusade to lead by example in sharing my learning experiences with the other members of the network. This includes summaries and thoughts on books I have read and on events I have facilitated. We are not unlike a guild, and the passing of the craft to new members is the way we will grow.
Ernst & Young - I helped design an earlier version of this, so I am very pleased with the way it has developed.
Monty Python - This is the entire script to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Amazon.com - Order books on line! The only thing you can't do is sit in a comfy chair and browse.
MG Taylor - MGTaylor homepage.
Discover Magazine - Discover Magazine's back issues and articles on line.
Fast Company - Fast Company Magazine on line.
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