Education And Training

By LISA FLEISHER

Newark’s new schools superintendent, Cami Anderson, outlined a broad plan on Friday to reshape the state’s largest school system, including closing poorly performing schools and lifting standards for charters.

Although many of the changes echoed similar efforts in New York City, Ms. Anderson cast the blueprint as one tailored to the needs of Newark, a district where some parents, teachers and other stakeholders have grown resentful and suspicious of outsiders after more than 15 years under state control.

But in what was perhaps a sign of difficulties to come, her presentation before parents, teachers and residents at Rutgers-Newark on Friday evening was drowned out by shouts for her to return to New York City, where she worked as a superintendent under schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

After the meeting, Ms. Anderson, who took the job eight months ago, said, “We want to talk about our proposals and tonight was just the beginning. The bottom line is that we need more of Newark’s students in schools with the winning ingredients to help them succeed. Change is difficult and that’s understandable, but our kids can’t wait.”

She has waded into rocky waters. Newark is one of three urban districts in New Jersey under some version of state control because schools have consistently failed to meet academic benchmarks. New York City has undergone a decadelong experiment of shutting down failing schools and replacing them, in some instances, with smaller schools.

“It’s a spin on some of the stuff we did in New York, but it’s actually quite different,” Ms. Anderson said in an interview before she spoke at Rutgers. “There are unique elements of Newark that require a very sharp eye toward equity and community participation, which is very different than how we went about it in New York.”

She said she would consolidate about 10% of under-enrolled schools and allow principals in new schools to choose which teachers to rehire. Some buildings could be leased to charter schools. She said she was counting on funding for initial parts of the plan from donors, including a foundation launched with $100 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

“This is the Newark way to get there, which has to acknowledge that we have a large percentage of students who are struggling, and who will be for a while,” Ms. Anderson said.

Laura Baker, whose granddaughter attends high school in Newark and who was at the meeting Friday evening, said she wanted to see an academic-based plan from Ms. Anderson, rather than an organizational one.

“This is not New York, and we’re not just going to give away our buildings,” said Ms. Baker, who is a member of the Secondary Parent Council, which has also filed a lawsuit seeking details of Mr. Zuckerberg’s gift. “Why should we listen to her talk about closing schools just to bring in charters?”

The plan, which was first reported by the Newark Star-Ledger, also includes increasing the number of students who have access to the district’s themed, or magnet, schools. Ms. Anderson planned to hold a series of public and private meetings in February and hoped to start implementing changes by March.

“She’s doing a lot of new, creative stuff, building on some of the things we did in New York, building on some ideas she’s developed, and is working tirelessly to engage the community to build the support necessary for this kind of change,” said Mr. Klein, who was Ms. Anderson’s boss as the New York City chancellor until 2010. “That’s a very positive development.”

Mr. Klein, who now works for News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, said he sees the strategies used in New York replicated across the country and in federal policy.

Newark, a struggling urban school system splintered along political lines, has drawn national attention as it attempts to reverse course. Gov. Chris Christie has frequently spotlighted Newark as he argues for larger education policy changes, such as weakening teacher tenure protections or giving students vouchers for nearby public or private schools.

Ms. Anderson, who was appointed by Mr. Christie, has moved to Newark and met with smaller groups of community members, but she still faces considerable antagonism.

“She is a non-Newarker who basically is taking orders from whoever she takes orders from,” said Joseph Del Grosso, president of the Newark Teachers Union, which represents about 5,000 workers, including 3,800 teachers. “I think she’s put herself in a very precarious situation.”

He said he saw signs of improvement in the schools Ms. Anderson wanted to close, which led him to question why she wanted to change course.

The union is also fighting another of Ms. Anderson’s strategies: giving principals more authority and allowing them to move unwanted teachers out of the classroom and into a districtwide pool, called an excess pool. There are 82 teachers who have been “excessed,” meaning they have no permanent classroom position but are used sometimes as long-term substitutes or for other purposes.

It’s the same strategy that has been used in New York City to move ineffective teachers out of the classroom while satisfying union requirements and tenure protections. In New York, which has about 1.1 million students compared with Newark’s 36,000, there were about 980 teachers in the pool as of mid-January.

Write to Lisa Fleisher at lisa.fleisher@wsj.com

By DIANA MIDDLETON

Shane Torchiana was working in asset management in a job focused on global-fixed income, but he wanted to make the leap to analyst and eventually become a fund manager.

His first thought was to apply to a traditional two-year M.B.A. program. But he believed he didn’t need years of general management training in order to get the specific career he wanted. After researching his options, Mr. Torchiana opted for a master’s degree in finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, a new yearlong program launched this year.

“It might be a lesser-known type of program, but in terms of quantitative finance skills and the shorter time period, it wins,” says Mr. Torchiana. He says he is learning finance at a detailed level he couldn’t get in a typical M.B.A. program—including some doctoral-level coursework.

More students are looking to business schools for shorter and more focused alternatives to the M.B.A., with in-depth education in everything from science of management to international finance. Schools, in turn, are beefing up the specialty programs they already offer and adding more to keep up with demand.

These programs, which usually are 12 months long, often include elements of the typical M.B.A. curriculum (classes in finance or advanced mathematics skills are common), but are often more technical and focus less on general managerial skills.

“The master’s in finance degree isn’t designed for broader management positions,” says Debra Luchanin, program manager of MIT’s master’s in finance program. “We’re gearing students up for more specialized quantitative positions, such as asset management.”

Growing Appeal

For those without the five years of work experience most M.B.A. programs require, specialized business degrees offer entrance to students with just a year or two of experience. There are an array of degrees for those set on a specific career path. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the main business-school-accrediting agency, reports that the number of such programs is on the rise. For the 2008-09 school year, 645 such programs were offered, up from 614 two years earlier. In the 2006-07 school year, enrollment in these programs was 24,527; in 2008-09, that increased to 29,907 students enrolled.

Many of these programs are still small—including MIT’s new finance program, which is in its first year. The current class is just 27 students, although the school plans to eventually expand that number to 60.

This year, Tufts University has 31 students in its master’s in international business class—its first year offering the program. Tufts is positioning its program as an alternative to an M.B.A., which the school doesn’t offer. The program is as long as an M.B.A. and requires core business classes, such as corporate strategy, accounting and finance. But classes are globally-focused, with courses in international politics and international negotiations and electives focused on regional issues around the world.

“We want to empower those students who want to work abroad [in business] after graduation,” says Stephen Bosworth, dean of Tuft’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Christopher Barron, a first-year student in the program, applied to M.B.A. programs, too. But it was the opportunity to dig deep into agricultural economics abroad that swayed him toward Tufts. Already, he has detailed his ideal career trajectory with a career counselor—including working in the agricultural sector in Brazil—and he is targeting individual companies that dovetail with his interests and geographical preference.

“The school is small, but [it] helps us leverage our specialized degrees with equally specialized employers,” he says.

Bentley University, located in Waltham, Mass., has offered specialized business-related degrees for nearly 30 years—and it has plenty of traction with employers. Nearly 100% of its 2009 graduates with degrees in human factors in information design–a combination of technology, product design and human behavior studies–information technology, financial planning, accounting and taxation had jobs three months after graduation. Nearly 90% of its marketing analytics graduates had jobs.

Cass Business School in the U.K. offers 18 master’s programs, dubbed MSc degrees, in subjects such as investment management and management. The curriculums are similar to the M.B.A., but are geared toward students with less work experience says Susan Roth, director of Cass’s MSc programs.

“These programs are a deep dive into subject areas,” Ms. Roth says. “You won’t get marketing or strategy, but you may get all finance, all the time.”

Specialized Jobs

When it comes to finding a job post-graduation, these specialized business degrees can offer an advantage and a disadvantage all at once.

For starters, they aren’t as well-known as the M.B.A., so general management jobs will be harder to get. But for specialized jobs, like business-specific analyst positions, recruiters will often eschew two-year students for specialty graduates.

Many of the MSc graduates at Cass meet with some of the same recruiters as M.B.A. students do, but recruiters don’t plumb the MSc class for the same general positions. Instead, they look to the specialized students for international banking, investment management and financial mathematics positions.

“The MSc students have specific knowledge—it’s like knowing how investment management is done versus just understanding how business is done,” she says.

Niyati Gupta, a student in Bentley’s human factors in information design program, says the specialized degree has a strong business core that is well-received with potential employers.

“What I bring to the table is expertise in researching and evaluating consumer behavior,” she says. “I can make recommendations for Web sites, medical devices, financial software.”

Ms. Gupta has received a job offer from a technology consultancy firm and expects more before year’s end.

Paul Sorbera, president of New York finance recruiting firm Alliance Consulting, has seen the number of candidates with alternative degrees, particularly in finance, increasing. Mr. Sorbera, who recently sought a risk manager for a hedge fund, said the hiring firm preferred candidates with specialized degrees.

“The M.B.A. is preferred, generally speaking, but there are other factors that are important,” he says. “A degree with a heavy quantitative focus may edge out an M.B.A. for a trading position.”

To be sure, M.B.A. students still get the lion’s share of the economic benefits of an advanced degree. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, students with a full-time M.B.A. reported a 73% increase in salary post-graduation. Students with a master’s in a business-related subjectreported a 26% increase.

Mr. Torchiana, the MIT student, admits that he isn’t sure what sort of paycheck his degree will reap. “I certainly hope this will translate to a good salary,” he says. “But for the skills I want to propel my career—this wins over the other options.”

Write to Diana Middleton at diana.middleton@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A12

By JESSICA C. WAKEMAN

While talk of employment growth has been circulating for the last several months and experts expect Friday’s unemployment report to show job gains for the second month in a row, another group of key players say they plan to add jobs in 2010.

According to the Society for Human Resources Management, 35% of the 1,625 employers who responded to a March survey say they expect to add full-time workers in 2010, more than double last year’s 16% of respondents who said their firms would add staff.

The increase might be a reflection of a renewed sense of calm about the business climate, experts say.

“Many organizations have a sense that the market is improving, giving them the confidence they need to start rebuilding,” said John Dooney, SHRM’s manager of strategic research.

One firm adding employees now is Bank of America which has 6,000 open positions spanning human resources to investment banking, says Kelly E ref. Sapp, a spokeswoman for Bank of America. She says that the company has more than doubled the size of its intern program and also doubled graduate hiring over 2009, a shift she attributes to business need and growth from acquisitions.

iStock Photo

Friday’s job report is expected to show job growth.

Mark Anderson, president of ExecuNet, a network for business leaders providing recruiting, research and advice, says that recruiters and companies have been talking about the improving market for the last six months–and now companies are finally acting on those feelings by filling in the talent gaps left behind by layoffs and hiring freezes.

“One thing businesses do not like is uncertainity and now that things are starting to look positive, companies feel that they can add positions instead of trading up,” said Mr. Anderson.

ExecuNet’s own May benchmark Recruiter Confidence Index, a monthly survey that measures the executive job market, shows 65% of 185 responding executive recruiters are “confident” or “very confident” that the executive employment market will improve over the next six months, making May 2010 the second consecutive month that index remained over 60% since June 2008.

The SHRM report showed that 52% of professional, scientific and technical services firms will add jobs, up from 21% in 2009. Some 43% of high-tech companies also plan to add jobs.

And Mr. Dooney says that the report also shows salary freezes are being lifted and fewer employers expect to make layoffs in 2010 than in the last two years. On average across all industries, salaries are expected to rise 2.2 percent in 2010, the report showed.

By ELIZABETH GARONE

When Jon Burke decided earlier this year to look for a new job, he updated his LinkedIn profile with a new executive summary and up-to-date bullet points highlighting his recent accomplishments.

He hoped the changes would be enough of a signal to recruiters that he was serious about making a change and was someone worth contacting. He also hoped the changes were subtle enough not to arouse the suspicion of his coworkers or supervisors, he says.

Greg Hargreaves

He also wanted to make sure his profile was consistent and up-to-date with his résumé. Stealth job hunting while employed has never been easy. But in today’s workplace—where offices are more open and pressured managers more regularly check in with employees—it can require a Herculean effort by professionals. Plus, job seekers are often strapped with the workload of two or three people after the layoffs of the past two years. Still, savvy job hunters and career experts say there are a number of creative and traditional ways to ease the burden.

“In this market, having a profile on LinkedIn doesn’t necessarily mean you’re looking,” says Mr. Burke. Unlike wearing an interview suit to work, using such websites isn’t a clear sign of job hunting, since many people use these portals as part of their job. For Mr. Burke, who uses the site daily as a sales tool, it was the easiest way to search for a job without being too obvious.

After Mr. Burke, then employed by at NetSuite in San Mateo, Calif., made the changes to his profile, he says he was contacted on a regular basis by recruiters. He’d respond via LinkedIn to ask what they had to offer. Mr. Burke was able to quiz the recruiters almost exclusively through email. “I was very picky,” he says. “I … couldn’t afford to waste my time.”

For Mr. Burke, not using an online profile would have required a bigger investment of time. “It would have been much more labor intensive,” he says, recalling the “nightmare” of looking for work in 2003 when he used Monster.com and Craigslist to search for jobs. “It’s like having a second job at night, and you’re hoping people call you back. This way, people are calling you.”

Professional networking websites like LinkedIn are becoming particularly popular to recruiters who often have specific needs to fill when hiring. “Eighty-five percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to find talent,” says Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio, a career services expert with Vault.com and a former Fortune 500 recruiter. “It’s a completely passive job search tool.” To give yourself the best edge over the competition, make sure that any online profiles you have are up-to-date and complete, she says.

John Phillips, the director of Global Talent Labs at Microsoft Corp., says that one of the first places his recruiters look is networking sites and LinkedIn in particular to find candidates. “Your profile serves just like your résumé would,” he says. “If you’re not there, you would just be missing out on being found.”

Another way job hunters are keeping their job searches secret is through meetings at odd times. Stephen Miles, vice chairman of executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. says those doing the hiring will make the time to see a desirable candidate, even it’s outside business hours.

But don’t be too restrictive when suggesting times, Mr. Miles recommends. “Give the person on the other end a lot of options,” he says, offering some time slots before work and after. For his part, Mr. Miles, says he has held meetings as early as 6:30 a.m. and as late as 11 p.m. to accommodate candidates.

Mr. Burke eventually accepted a national sales position with PanTerra Networks, a technology start-up in Sunnyvale, Calif. after five rounds of interviews. For his first one, which was with the CEO, Mr. Burke suggested a 7 a.m. breakfast meeting in order to avoid having to leave work in the middle of the day. Subsequent rounds took place over lunch and dinner, also at Mr. Burke’s request.

For job hunter Toni Unrein, a former executive-level recruiter for Washington Mutual, finding the time to research the companies that interested her was too time-consuming. So she has outsourced the work to a virtual assistant in India through Elance.com. For $8 an hour, the assistant, a former financial analyst with an M.B.A., researches business models, executive bios, and the past year’s most significant press releases on the companies Ms. Unrein assigns him. “It gives you time to focus on what’s important, like the strategic information,” says Ms. Unrein. “What are the potential problems? Where is the company headed?”

She also uses the assistant to do research for interviews and says he has done great work. “It’s as if he were interviewing himself,” says Ms. Unrein, who has yet to land a job.

Recruiters say outsourcing research is a tactic they’re seeing more often, and some recommend it to their clients.

Even networking now can be done on the sly online. When Kevin Nichols, a paralegal, saw signs the San Francisco law firm he worked for would have layoffs, he knew he needed to make new connections in order to find a new job. But his office was close enough to his boss’s office that his phone calls could be heard and it would be obvious if he left the office in the middle of the day.

Mr. Nichols had already started an-in-person professional networking group that met regularly in downtown San Francisco. So in 2008, he brought it online by making it a LinkedIn group limited to locals. Today, the group has 1,200-plus members. “If I had to meet each time to make a connection, it would slow things down a lot,” says Mr. Nichols, who was laid off and later found a legal sales position through a former colleague.

Write to Elizabeth Garone at cjeditor@dowjones.com

CHICAGO—Richard Malone has cooked up a new operating model for sick newspapers, an idea that may need investors.

Unsure of its feasibility, the former Chicago Tribune official outlined his tentative plan last month to executives seated in black leather chairs around a polished mahogany table here. The meeting’s attendees, mostly other displaced executives, proposed ways that Mr. Malone might improve his Power Point presentation before possibly pitching it to private-equity firms.

“Some of the free consulting I’m getting here, I’d have to pay hundreds of dollars for from outside firms,” he said.

Actually, Mr. Malone spent plenty for the “free” advice by forking over a hefty five-figure fee to Shields Meneley Partners, a Chicago career-transition firm that serves displaced top executives by offering specialized job-hunting help, including tapping clients’ expertise, as in the case of Mr. Malone. The boutique runs “Think Tank,” the weekly brainstorming session where he addressed eight fellow clients of Shields Meneley and one former client.

Welcome to the brave new world of high-end outplacement assistance. More laid-off senior managers now must pay part or all of the bill for this customized counseling because employers are less generous in the current economic environment. At the same time, jobless executives need every possible leg up in a fiercely competitive job market.

Shields Meneley charges between $45,000 and $100,000 for 18 months of aid. About 60% of its 35 clients cover at least a portion of the fee, up from 40% in 2004. Small rivals report similar recent spurts in clients footing part of the tab. Yet the median value of external outplacement offered to executives during the past two years is just $6,000, according to a June poll of 265 U.S. employers by the American Management Association and Institute for Corporate Productivity.

As the jobless rate soars, a close look at Shields Meneley offers insights into the pluses and minuses of deluxe career-transition services. The firm’s strongest selling point? Highly personalized attention.

Clients initially undergo a lengthy assessment with a staff psychologist. Assigned one of the firm’s three counselors, executives then develop a marketing plan, polish their resumes, practice interviewing, update wardrobes, enlarge professional networks and get “acclimation” coaching during their next job’s early days.

Shields Meneley represents “the custom tailors of outplacement,” says client Jeff Held, a former vice president of business development for Quixote Corp. The Chicago maker of highway- and transportation-safety products eliminated his post in December 2007. When Mr. Held arrived at Shields Meneley early last year, co-founder Gail Meneley already “had done her homework about my background,” he recalls. Mr. Held likes the firm’s array of services—plus extra touches, such as the staffer who arranged to send his wife a surprise birthday gift. And its plush, high-rise office felt “like being at work again,” he says. Mr. Held, who paid $32,000 of the $50,000 fee, is still looking for a new gig.

If clients need it, Shields Meneley provides extra hand-holding. One Sunday morning this spring, a telecommunications executive called co-founder Hugh Shields at home because he felt anxious about a job interview the next day. “We did role playing,” rehearsing answers to trick questions, Mr. Shields remembers. The man began work Monday, leading a global division at a major telecom.

Other executives appreciate Shields Meneley so much that they become repeat customers. Peter Dunn’s first stint helped him land the presidency of Steak N Shake Co. in 2002. Mr. Dunn later advanced to chief executive. He again used Shields Meneley after leaving the restaurant chain in fall 2007 following a strategy disagreement. He covered $5,000 of that $45,000 fee.

This time, Mr. Dunn rejected CEO offers. He says he and Ms. Meneley instead explored entrepreneurial roles where “my skills could make a difference.” Ms. Meneley encouraged him to consider elder care or health care as “opportunities for solving unsolved problems,” Mr. Dunn adds. In January, he and a partner launched Activate Healthcare LLC, an Indianapolis concern that operates on-site health clinics for businesses.

Shields Meneley also introduces clients to influential corporate leaders, including alums. That’s how Mr. Dunn met potential “angel” investors for his start-up. “These are resources I would not have found on my own,” he says.

The firm created the Think Tank partly so participants could swap potential opportunities in different industries. For instance, in Mr. Malone’s Think Tank session, participants included a printing-industry lawyer, a former marketer for a big consumer-goods maker and the ex-chief administrative officer of an asset-management firm.

There are downsides to high-level outplacement. It requires considerable time and money. On average, Shields Meneley clients now spend nearly a year finding employment—up from eight to 10 months last fall. However, the longer searches common these days persuaded the firm to temporarily extend its standard 12-month client contract to 18 months without raising fees.

New Directions, a Boston competitor, recently introduced a shorter and less expensive version of its traditional multiyear program. Other rivals slash rates for clients who could generate referrals.

Stephanie Kushner, who lost the chief financial officer’s spot at Federal Signal Corp. in December, didn’t mind paying 60% of Shields Meneley’s $45,000 fee. She figures that equals less than 5% of what she likely will earn next. “Why should I try some low-budget [outplacement] alternative?” she asks.

Another drawback: A comprehensive but cozy array of career-transition services may lull people into complacency. The exclusive clubhouse approach “takes the edge off your job search,” and you may not feel so motivated to hustle for a new job if you’re getting so much relaxed hand-holding, warns Laurence Stybel, co-founder of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire, a Boston consultancy that counsels jobless executives.

“Ours is high-end outplacement as a halfway house,” Mr. Stybel says. “We are here to help you get moving, get on your feet and get out of here.”

Ms. Meneley insists her clients work hard seeking work. “They don’t want to spend a single day longer than they need to in transition.”

—
Email Joann.Lublin@wsj.com

Write to
Joann S. Lublin at joann.lublin@wsj.com

By AMY PALANJIAN

Gigi Lee Chang was on a trip to California in 2004 when she had a realization that would quickly alter her career path.

Her young son wouldn’t eat jarred baby food and it was nearly impossible for her to make him meals from scratch during especially busy times or while traveling to visit her family. Ms. Lee Chang, who was then a vice president of strategic planning for Euro RSCG and on the fast track, quickly learned that many of her friends with babies were having a similar problem. Her years of experience in market research and planning for other companies kicked in and she decided to start a business to fill what she saw as a gap in the baby-food market: There was no convenient frozen organic baby food available to busy parents in the U.S.

Finance Background

It was a different animal than her previous work. But, Ms. Lee Chang grew up in an entrepreneurial household in Orange County, Calif., so her launching Plum Organics didn’t surprise her family. Her father ran an import-export business with manufacturing facilities in Hong Kong, and from an early age Ms. Lee Chang was involved in the family business. “I started checking my parents’ business letters for grammatical errors when I was about 10 years old,” she says.

After earning an undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Southern California, Ms. Lee Chang joined her family’s company as a liaison between the Hong Kong and China offices and clients in the U.S. Later, she attended graduate school at the London School of Business and went on to work for Oracle Corp.’s consulting group in the U.K. and at two boutique consulting firms: Tessera, where she was exposed to branding and marketing, and Euro RSCG, where she was working when the idea for what would become Plum Organics hit her.

Ms. Lee Chang’s initial research into the organic frozen baby-food market showed that the category was already established in the U.K., Australia and Canada, but not in the U.S. With the financial security and stability of her husband’s full-time job, Ms. Lee Chang, now 41, left Euro RSCG in 2005 to make her foray into the frozen baby-food business. “From past work experience, I knew I could make Plum Organics a success because I had a good comprehension of most facets of a business,” she explains.

Doing Research

Still, Ms. Lee Chang didn’t have any experience in the food industry, the natural or organic sector, or even in starting a business. She began with research, including a class at New York’s New School called “How to Start a Specialty Food Business.” She also scoped out other products targeting her intended audience, including Healthy Handfuls, an organic kids’ snack-food line that specializes in cookies and crackers. “I realized that they were a noncompetitive business with similar positioning, so I called them for advice,” she says.

Ms. Lee Chang was referred to a consultant who specializes in organic and natural-food start-ups, and a few months later, she teamed up with a research and development firm that helped her with recipe testing and branding. She also worked with a team who helped her turn the sentiments and attitudes that she wanted her products to stand for into the design of her packaging. All told, launching the company cost nearly $1 million, financed mostly through her personal savings.

Trade-Show Launch

Within a few months, Ms. Lee Chang launched Plum Organics at Natural Products Expo West, a large trade show for the natural and organic food industry. By the time she left, Whole Foods and Wild Oats stores in almost every U.S. region had committed to carry her products.

“Plum Organics was one of the first frozen baby-food lines, but what really caught my eye was the packaging,” says Perry Abbenate, global grocery coordinator of Whole Foods Market, who also liked the organic nature and simplicity of the foods.

Ms. Lee Chang’s company is positioned at the center of a booming organic baby-food market, which grew by nearly 22% in 2007, according to market-research company Mintel. But she isn’t stopping there. “I built the business to be able to extend into other product categories, like we’re doing with our new toddler-friendly kids’ line,” Ms. Lee Chang says.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page B15

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

Around 6 p.m. on Oct. 27, two men entered a Houston business establishment and robbed the place while holding a pregnant employee at gunpoint. The robbers made off with an estimated $500, plus $50 and a cellphone from Karina Monita, the expectant mother.

“It was really scary,” Ms. Monita says. “I was shaking.”

Ariel Zambelich for the Wall Street Journal

“Visitors can’t take two steps without someone greeting them,” says Gordon Fowler of 3Fold Communications, which was robbed last summer.

The location wasn’t a bank or convenience store—cash-heavy businesses that typically attract thieves. It was Don Francisco Insurance & Services, a quiet insurance company that generally keeps little money on hand, according the owner, Francisco Diaz. Local police say the perpetrators, who remain at large, are suspected of robbing at least 29 other insurers in the area since May.

These days thieves are really reaching. As traditional targets for theft have beefed up their security and the recession has driven people to desperate measures, robbers are infiltrating corporate offices. Many of the incidences involve small companies with ground-level offices that offer easy access. And sometimes the perpetrators are armed, heightening fear among office workers who thought their sleepy cubicle farms were safe.

While the total number of robberies in general decreased slightly in 2008 from 2007, according to estimates from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there was an estimated 10.1% increase from 2004. In 2008, there were an estimated 2.2 million burglaries—an increase of 3.6% when compared with 2004 data.

During the third quarter of this year, Crisis Care Network Inc. provided crisis counselors to employees at 206 workplaces—including offices and retail stores—following incidents of armed robbery, up from 185 during the same period in 2008.

“A little heightened vigilance could be helpful,” says Bob VandePol, president of the Grandville, Mich., company.

In the past year, ComPsych Corp. , a provider of employee-assistance programs, has seen a 21% increase in the number of requests for crisis counseling at offices that were robbed while employees were present; requests from banks rose 16%.

But the crimes may be more widespread than that since counselors typically are called in only following incidents in which employees’ lives were actually threatened, says Richard Chaifetz, chairman and chief executive officer of the Chicago firm, which services more than 11,000 organizations and 29 million workers world-wide.

Employees at 3Fold Communications LLC, a Sacramento, Calif., marketing firm, declined counseling after a burglar made off with $6,000 of office goods and personal items in August while they were meeting in a conference room. Gordon Fowler, president, says video surveillance didn’t capture footage of the crime because it covers only the rear of the firm’s office building. He says he filed a police report online after local law enforcement declined to investigate the matter.

A spokesman for the Sacramento police says nonviolent thefts may not be investigated if the perpetrators can’t be identified in any way.

Meanwhile, 3Fold’s 13 staffers are making sure its three entrances are monitored at all times by employees. “Now visitors can’t take two steps without someone greeting them and asking why they’re here,” says Mr. Fowler.

Office thieves may be hard to detect at first glance. In the past year and a half, intruders got into Crosby-Volmer International Communications LLC’s Washington, D.C., office three times during normal business hours.

“All of these people had on ties and were wearing dress pants,” says Robert Volmer, president of the public-relations firm. “People in offices tend to give [strangers] the benefit of the doubt. Whether it’s caterers, deliverymen or people who water the plants, there are always news faces coming in and out.”

Rifling Cubicles

Crosby-Volmer’s D.C. office is on the fourth floor of a large building five blocks from the White House. Mr. Volmer says two of the intruders were caught and escorted out by employees who saw them rifling through colleagues’ cubicles; one successfully made off with a laptop computer. He suspects the intruders snuck in through the parking garage or a side door by closely following someone with access to those entrances. Mr. Volmer emailed a letter of complaint to the building’s owner, Blake Real Estate Inc., in July but says he hasn’t seen any signs of increased security. (Offices of The Wall Street Journal are located in the same building.)

Two months later he says he stopped a person trying to enter a side door and asked what he was doing there. He says the man claimed to be making a delivery but couldn’t name a recipient, so he escorted the stranger off the property. Mr. Volmer admits he didn’t consider the possibility of the intruder being armed and says he wasn’t worried for his safety. “I just went on instinct,” he says.

Stephen Lustgarten, Blake Real Estate’s executive vice president, says, “The crime in that building would be no higher than any other urban environment in Washington. [Crosby-Volmer employees] left their back door open and unattended which is why they had a problem.”

After receiving the complaint email, Mr. Lustgarten said the company briefed tenants on how to prevent future incidents by reminding them to be prudent, and avoid leaving personal items and entrances unattended. He said the property manager replied to Mr. Volmer’s email as well as visited Crosby-Volmer’s office, but Mr. Volmer wasn’t there so the manager briefed his assistant instead.

Mr. Volmer says he used to keep the back door to his office suite unlocked during the workday because the building has a security desk at the main entrance on the first floor for greeting visitors. But he’s been keeping it locked at all times ever since the intrusions occurred.

Face to Face With a Thief

Of course, confronting a workplace thief can be dangerous. “The worst thing you can do in a robbery is resist,” says Dr. Chaifetz.

Earlier this year, he says, his firm dispatched crisis counselors to an office where an employee was pistol-whipped after trying to talk a gunman out of doing harm. “He had a pretty damaged face because of it,” says Dr. Chaifetz.

If you do find yourself face to face with a robber, avoid looking the person in the eye, says Bruce Blythe, chief executive officer of Crisis Management International Inc. of Atlanta. “Keep as much distance as possible,” he says.

Federal law and most state laws require employers to provide safe workplaces, says Jennifer Rubin, an employment lawyer for Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo P.C. in New York.

In general, worker-compensation laws prohibit employees from suing employers for workplace injuries except in circumstances involving gross negligence or recklessness, she says.

“It’s hard to make the connection between employer recklessness and injuries sustained during a robbery,” she says.

But even if no employees are hurt during a break-in, the experience can have a lasting impact on a work force, says Debra Holland, a crisis counselor in Los Angeles. Victims often experience symptoms such as anxiety, nightmares and difficulty concentrating for several days.

“People can’t go back to work like normal because they’ve been traumatized,” she says.

One strategy for coping is to pick something positive to focus on for whenever crippling memories of a robbery surface, says Kate Harri, vice president of workplace interventions for Behavioral Medical Interventions, a national post-trauma-counseling provider in Minneapolis. This might be a favorite song or scene from a movie that you’ll play in your head to change the image and the memory, she says. In the past year, BMI has seen a 20% increase in demand for its services following robberies that took occurred in workplaces of all kinds, Ms. Harri adds.

Employees also can feel scathed even if they weren’t present when their co-workers were robbed since what happened occurred in a setting that is typically assumed to be safe, adds Ms. Holland, the crisis counselor. “They’re imaging all the things that could’ve gone wrong,” she says.

Managers can help employees by asking how they are doing—without mentioning deadlines, quotas or other work pressures—to show they care, she says. “It has to be done with delicacy and empathy,” she says.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

By ELIZABETH GARONE

Q: I’ve worked several jobs since separating from the Army. Some have been contracting positions, others as an exempt employee. Some have been with high-profile international companies. Not once have any of my previous employers or references been contacted. Do references really matter anymore? It seems to me they are even less important than cover letters and the objective statement in resumes.

A: You would be mistaken to think that references hold little weight, especially in the current depressed job market. “References absolutely matter,” says Paul W. Barada, president of Barada Associates Inc. The Rushville, Ind.,-based firm provides pre-employment screening services for large employers such as Emmis Communications Corp. and Acorda Therapeutics Inc.

Some people who are out of work embellish their past job performance, credentials and academic achievements to gain an edge over the competition, Mr. Barada says.

Getty Images

With applicant pools growing larger by the day, it would be good to assume that employers will be diligently contacting references. “In my experience, references are always being checked,” says Dena Sneider, a career consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. “In this market, they will certainly be checked since employers have their pick of candidates.”

Remember, too, that just because you haven’t heard anything from a reference doesn’t mean that he or she hasn’t been contacted.

More than ever, it’s essential to choose those references who can best speak to your work abilities and past successes on the job. A problem that Mr. Barada frequently sees is job seekers who list references with whom they’ve never actually worked. “What, for instance, can your golfing buddy know about your management style or job responsibilities?”

It’s important to consider who would be an employer’s ideal set of references. Usually, this is a current or former supervisor, peer and subordinate whom you’ve worked with in the past five to seven years, according to Mr. Barada.

Another mistake job seekers often make is not checking in with their references each time they list them on an application. You don’t want a reference to be caught off guard when he or she receives that all-important call. If you are planning on listing someone, send an email thanking him or her for agreeing to serve as a reference and include a copy of the job description. It couldn’t hurt to refresh a reference’s memory by including a list of your responsibilities and achievements from when you worked together. By providing the necessary information, your references will be much more prepared to take a call and to impress a potential employer.

For Bob Daugherty, who heads U.S. recruiting for PricewaterhouseCoopers, the best references are ones from people who work for the organization you’re looking to join. “Resumes and letters are expected to be strong, and candidates should still have several strong references at the ready, but it is those networking relationships that truly matter the most in getting in the door.”

Mr. Daugherty offers hard evidence that relationships matter more than you might think. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, more than 40% of hires with experience (as opposed to those recruited directly from campus) come through employee referrals, he says. If you don’t already have connections at a firm you’re targeting, seek out references from people in your network.

Write to Elizabeth Garone at cjeditor@dowjones.com. If you have a question for the careers columnists, be sure to put Career Q&A in your subject line.

By ALEXANDRA LEVIT

Standing out in a crowded marketplace isn’t always easy. And these days, people have seen it all, which means you might only get ahead if you use a compelling and unique approach like Pat Lencioni’s to present your ideas.

Several years ago, Mr. Lencioni, 44 years old, of Lafayette, Calif., was a Bain & Co. consultant who loved writing screenplays and fiction pieces on the side. He didn’t move to Hollywood or New York City to pursue his passion.

Instead, Mr. Lencioni stayed where he was—in the business world—and used his talent to break out of the typical management-consultant mold. He began writing business books that read like novels and featured real characters to which textbook- and theory-fatigued readers could relate. In “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” for example, the fictional DecisionTech’s new CEO, Kathryn, must unite a fractured executive team.

Many say Mr. Lencioni’s parables have sold over 2.5 million copies because they attract people who need to be better managers but don’t want to read a traditional business book to do it. “The plot-driven approach makes people want to read to the end,” says Mr. Lencioni. “Readers are also more comfortable passing the books on to friends because they personally enjoyed them and were able to learn without a lot of effort.”

So, how do you infuse your day with creativity if it’s not your natural strong suit?

First, block out some time on your calendar to think about it. When you set aside time to do something, you elevate its importance in your mind.

Practice clearing your head of all of your everyday concerns, turn on some music, and let your mind wander. If you’re having trouble letting go, ask one of your artistic friends what she does to get in the right frame of mind and try adapting that technique to make it your own.

It also helps to look at your life and business from a different perspective. In providing career advice during this recession, for instance, I often pretended I was the person I needed to reach—a reader who was out of work. I asked myself, “What information do I need right now, and how would I best like to receive it?”

If your daily reading consists of one paper or online publication and Google news, you might try expanding your horizons.

In particular, today’s literary fiction and narrative nonfiction books are often worded so eloquently that they can’t help but inspire you to express yourself in a more creative way.

If you read before going to sleep, be sure to keep a pen and a notebook by your bed to jot down ideas that come to you in the middle of the night.

You might also want to start carrying a pad and pencil with you when you commute or travel. Inevitably you’ll overhear or see something that provokes an interesting train of thought.

Mr. Lencioni suggests forcing yourself into an uncomfortable situation to get your mind going—like doing manual labor if you’re a high-ranking executive, for example.

Sometimes just getting out of your comfort zone can spark creative ideas. “And finally,” he says, “you have to be willing to throw stupid ideas out [there], or ideas that no one believes in but you.”

Recognize that creativity doesn’t understand deadlines. Because you can’t depend on a terrific idea to show up at a certain point, you might try to build in long timelines for projects that require creative zeal and try not to put a lot of pressure on yourself.

“My best insights don’t usually show up when I’m sitting at my computer waiting for them,” says Mr. Lencioni. “I’ll usually be jogging or in the shower, or out in the public where my creative mind is stimulated by watching others.”

Once you’ve begun to think more creatively, look for ways to apply this change at work, from suggesting new projects to discussing projects in a new way.

— Alexandra Levit is a business and workplace author and speaker.

Write to Alexandra Levit at reinvent@wsj.com

By DENNIS NISHI

As a child in 1976, Boris Zelkin emigrated with his family to Brooklyn from what was then the Soviet Union. He learned to play piano; his teachers said he was gifted. Today, he scores music for film and sports broadcasts such as Wimbledon and the Stanley Cup playoffs. Edited interview excerpts follow:

Dennis Nishi

Composer Boris Zelkin

The Wall Street Journal:
You moved to Los Angeles in 1992. How did you break into entertainment?

Mr. Zelkin: I got a temp job through an employment agency at a production company. After seven months of answering phones and making copies, they hired me as an assistant to the producers. I made contacts there that led to other things.

Did you teach yourself the technical side of scoring films?

I took an extension course in film music, where I also met my wife—who is also a composer. I knew how to compose music but the class grounds you in the technical aspects, and you get a demo piece.

And that actually led to getting a job?

It did. I got an internship at a company then called Media Ventures [now Remote Control Productions], which was composer Hans Zimmer’s company. I eventually became his assistant, working on movies like “Broken Arrow” and “Crimson Tide.” After a year and a half, I left to start my own company called The Playground.

Was it tough finding work in the beginning?

I called people, met people, worked on some independent films and got lucky. My big break happened when a buddy of mine, who was editing [television coverage of] the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, asked for a CD of my music. A week after the Olympics he asked me to work on ESPN and Disney projects. They’ve been using me since.

What kind of work did you do for them?

Producers hire me to compose music for sporting-event teasers like the U.S. Open, the NCAA Championship and Wimbledon. Most are two-minute-long narrative-driven promos about a person, place or event. I continue to split my time composing music for films.

Is that what you and your wife won a Sports Emmy for in 2005?

Yes, for the World Figure Skating Championship. I was also nominated for two Emmys this year but didn’t win. One was for an ESPN tribute to the closing of Yankee Stadium in 2008.

How do you and your wife work together?

I’ll be at my keyboard and she’ll sit in the couch and we’ll often switch off as writer and producer. She has a pop music background and I have more of a classical music background and that really works out. When I create something in the pop music vein it has a different sound and the same thing happens when she delves in classical. So together we’ll create something unique and original.

Write to
Dennis Nishi at cjeditor@dowjones.com