How To Be a Genius: This Is Apple’s Secret Employee Training Manual

via gizmodo.com

We recently showed you just how badly some of Apple’s retail elite behave when no one’s watching, but surely they were taught better, right? You bet they were: Apple tells its new recruits exactly what what to think and say. How do we know? We read Apple’s secret Genius Training Manual from cover to cover.

It’s a penetrating look inside Apple: psychological mastery, banned words, roleplaying—you’ve never seen anything like it.

Should employees use social media while at work?

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via techi.com

There are some top dogs in various industries that have incorporated social media into their business plans. Many of you may already be aware of this and interact with some of them within your online networks. However, some companies still haven’t accepted that employees are also going to use social sites while at work and have yet to create a social media policy.

If your company is on the fence about having staff update their social networks from the office, take a look at this infographic for it just might change your mind.

Google’s First 20 Employees: Where Are They Now?

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via businessinsider.com

Marissa Mayer was Google’s 20th employee. Now only 7 of the initial 20 remain at the search giant that made them all rich (excluding founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page).

Some have become entrepreneurs, others are angel investors, and a few are happily retired.

A Quora user compiled a list of all the original Googlers and where they are now. We did some additional digging to find out which roles they had, when they joined, and more.

Motivate Employees: 5 Effective & Genuine Techniques

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via inc.com

As a business owner, it’s my job to make my business grow. There has never been a doubt in my mind that most of that growth comes not from mysterious market forces, but rather from my most precious internal resource: my employees. To that end, I’ve always tried to make sure my employees are treated well with paid health benefits, three weeks’ vacation from year one, a matching 401(k) plan, and even homemade (by me!) birthday treats.

The 25 Best Tech Companies To Work At In 2012

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via businessinsider.com

Google and Facebook get a whole lot of hype. But what are the real best tech companies to work for in the world?

Does Google have the best benefits and job security? Which tech company has a jazz quartet during lunch hour?

With help from Glassdoor.com, we’ve put together a list of the 25 best tech companies to work for right now.

The reviews appear to account for culture, lifestyle and what you can learn while working there — not necessarily the upside for your career.

All reviews and ratings taken into account are from the past 12 months, and only companies with more than 25 total reviews were included.

Google Coordinate: New Tool to Track Mobile Workers

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via inc.com

Google has a new way for you to keep an eye on your employees.

The search giant is entering the market of location-based apps and services with the launch of Google Maps Coordinate, which the company calls “a workforce management tool that improves the efficiency of your mobile teams.”

The service, announced Thursday, combines Google’s mapping and geolocation services and APIs with an enhanced dispatch service to help businesses dispatch and track mobile employees. A Google spokesperson said the company hopes togive businesses with on-the-go employees—think delivery services, perhaps, or a repair team—the tools to assign jobs and deploy staff more effectively.

This Kid Spent Two Months Secretly Living in AOL’s Offices

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via gizmodo.com

It turns out there is at least one person who likes AOL—enough to even eat, sleep, shower, and live out of their Palo Alto HQ like some sort of Silicon Valley hobo for months. Meet Eric Simons.

Eric was a crappy high school student with bad grades. Eric turned this failure into an idea for a startup, ClassConnect, which he says makes it easier for teachers to find and improvise interesting new lesson plans. Cool! Eric got a little cash from and the opportunity to work on his project at AOL over a summer—then that cash ran ou and all of his friends went away to college. So, like any normal 19-year-old, Eric decided to live in AOL.

The two month luxury squat sounds pretty harrowing, as recounted to CNET…

HP slashes 27,000 jobs as PC market stagnates

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via theglobeandmail.com

Plagued by cost-conscious corporate buyers and smartphone-loving consumers, the personal-computer market has become a dangerous place to do business.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ-N21.08-0.70-3.21%), the world’s largest PC manufacturer, announced Wednesday it will lay off 27,000 employees, or 8 per cent of its work force. The layoffs, which are the largest in HP’s history, come as the computer-maker tries to find a way to get profits growing again at a time when global sales of information technology (IT) are stagnating and only a handful of PC companies are seeing their fortunes improve.

What To Do When The Next Layoff Could Be You

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via forbes.com

All Things Digital reports that Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Meg Whitman will put the wheels in motion next week to eliminate about 30,000 jobs. Add them to the list of companies that are pruning the ranks. What if yours is next?

How you cope with a layoff can be a life changer – not only for your career but increasingly for your personal finances too. The steps you take when you are most vulnerable – that is, when you get the news and during the weeks or months following it – can play a huge role in the future. In various ways, they influence whether you must dip into savings and if so, how soon; your ability to find another job (and the speed with which you do), and whether you will need to permanently alter your standard of living.

Making the Leap From Full-Time to Freelance

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via freelanceswitch.com

Summer is knocking on your front door, begging you for attention. Living in New England, where summer never lasts long enough, it’s hard for me to say no. But with a full-time job and my freelancing work, saying no means procrastinating. It’s hard to enjoy yourself in the summer sun when you know there is a heap of work waiting for you.

I have recently told my boss that I will be going from full-time to part-time starting in October. It was a hard decision but one that, ultimately, I had to make if I wanted to stay sane.

It’s a risk—leaving your full-time job for freelancing. But this is a risk I was comfortable taking. I had two big reasons for deciding to make the leap: I am now the co-owner/publisher of a twice-annual publication and my husband and I are expecting our first child this summer. Cutting back my hours at my full-time job just made sense for us.

I started wondering how other people came to the conclusion that it was time to back out of their full-time jobs and focus on their freelance careers or small businesses. I found two women who have made the switch and thought I would share their stories. Perhaps they’ll inspire you to think about taking the leap.