Sevillian's Civiside

Recruit Veterans for Aptitude and Train for Skills

2011-11-12T00:25:00.000-08:00

The good people at Bizzeness.com took the time out on Veterans Day to suggest to their subscribers that veterans are a great candidate pool to recruit for aptitude and train for skills: http://bizzeness.com/veterans-this-ones-for-you/.

Many employers are afraid to take the chance on training new hires because they fear a competitor will just hire them away once they have been trained. That is a risk but I believe it is a worthwhile one with veterans because these candidates typically have a high degree of loyalty.

If your company needs an objective assessment tool for recruiting veterans for aptitude then join the Guaranteed Interview Program (guaranteedinterview.com) and receive unlimited free job postings and Clearfit™ assessments of veterans candidates.

2 Minutes of Silence is Not Too Much to Ask.

2011-11-11T07:08:00.000-08:00

Today is Nov. 11th. I am in Philadelphia, PA, birthplace of the Marines 236 years ago. This is the first time I have been in the U.S. on either Veterans Day or Memorial Day. I have found out that this day has lost most of its original meaning for the American public. It has been co-opted to be a sale day for merchants and there seem to be minimal ceremonies for the fallen. I am saddened to see this because Remembrance Day in Canada is a big deal and bonds us with our fallen as we take 2 minutes of silence to honour them. I don't know the cultural reasons why Americans chose to make this day one for buying and selling rather than remembrance, but I feel terrible for the American veterans on this day knowing that they are largely the only ones who are remembering.

I wish for our American cousins a greater remembrance of the great sacrifices their brother and sisters have made in their name, and the minimal sacrifice of 2 mins they can offer in return.

Thoughts on "Be The First Mover".

2011-08-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Brad Feld, one of the founders of the Foundry Group put out this post this morning: http://bit.ly/ntrG2j

While the post is very good and reminds me of the Positioning concept, one of the comments from a reader struck me as a huge insight "I have found that you cannot predict the future, nor react to it. The only way to success is to direct the future to your strategy". This insight reminded me of a quote by George Bernard Shaw when he said "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man". Only the most unreasonable man would think the world's rules don't apply to him, and yet that is what world changing entrepreneurs do. They assume that the world's rules don't apply to them and have the guts and determination to face the consequences for that thinking.

This adapting the world to one's strategy is also why most others don't see what the visionary is talking about, they think that the rules of the world are immutable and therefore the vision is flawed. Only the visionary can see it because they are actively adapting the world to their vision and changing the future.

First New Epiphany in Awhile.

2011-07-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

It's been roughly 7 weeks since I last posted. Only excuse, I had nothing important to say. Well now I do. Arrived in Santiago, Chile last week Thurs. as part of the Start-Up Chile program and have been settling in and building up momentum trying to break out into a run again.

My first epiphany of this renewed period of startup activity is that it takes a village to raise a child, more correctly in this case, a community to raise a startup. CiviSide/GuaranteedInterview.com is a a social enterprise that solves a problem that civic minded people in Canada, the U.S. and around the world want to see solved, the reintegration of their warriors into society. I need to simply facilitate their efforts and help them achieve their desires. To this end I am seeking out community leaders that want to do their part in reintegrating warriors. I am going to spend less time trying to persuade individual companies the benefits of giving veterans a hand up, and instead put my effort into mobilizing civic leaders in industry and government to tap their networks and spread the word of how the recruitment of veterans is being democratized through the Guaranteed Interview Program. This program is a tremendous tool in the hands of those with the will to see the end of veteran unemployment/underemployment.

UWO CFLC's "Most Supportive Employer".

2011-05-27T04:15:00.001-07:00

http://communications.uwo.ca/western_news/stories/2011/May/western_honoured_for_reserve_force_support.html

Google helping veterans.

2011-05-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

http://iava.org/blog/google-steps-new-veterans

Two Kinds of People in The World.

2011-05-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

You’ve either started a company or you haven’t. ”Started” doesn’t mean joining as an early employee, or investing or advising or helping out. It means starting with no money, no help, no one who believes in you (except perhaps your closest friends and family), and building an organization from a borrowed cubicle with credit card debt and nowhere to sleep except the office. It almost invariably means being dismissed by arrogant investors who show up a half hour late, totally unprepared and then instead of saying “no” give you non-committal rejections like “we invest at later stage companies.” It means looking prospective employees in the eyes and convincing them to leave safe jobs, quit everything and throw their lot in with you. It means having pundits in the press and blogs who’ve never built anything criticize you and armchair quarterback your every mistake. It means lying awake at night worrying about running out of cash and having a constant knot in your stomach during the day fearing you’ll disappoint the few people who believed in you and validate your smug doubters.

I don’t care if you succeed or fail, if you are Bill Gates or an unknown entrepreneur who gave everything to make it work but didn’t manage to pull through. The important distinction is whether you risked everything, put your life on the line, made commitments to investors, employees, customers and friends, and tried – against all the forces in the world that try to keep new ideas down – to make something new.

http://cdixon.org/2011/04/26/there-are-two-kinds-of-people-in-the-world/

Startup Chile

2011-04-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

Really proud to announce that Civi-Side was selected to participate in Startup Chile. If you don't know what it is, essentially it's an offer from the Chilean Gov't to bootstrap your company in Chile for six months. They give a $40K grant, free office space, and media coverage. Nice article in Inc. Magazine about the program http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110401/the-silicon-valley-of-south-america.html. This is the break I have been waiting for. An opportunity to focus 100% of my energy on the business rather than having to also worry about making a living on side contracts. I leave in mid-July.

Great program for the families of injured veterans.

2011-04-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

"The Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, along with sponsor Ernst & Young, is offering "boot camp" for entrepreneurs. The program—open to family members who are full-time caretakers of wounded veterans, as well as surviving spouses of those who lost their lives in combat—consists of a four-week online course, followed by a week of classes and a year of mentoring."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703805004575606963165060290-search.html?KEYWORDS=boot+camp&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month

Great to see programs that empower those that take care of veterans who have been severely injured.

Veteran Homelessness

2011-04-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

Excellent article on the problem of veteran homelessness and the issues that lead to it.

http://www.ctmirror.org/story/12286/homeless-veterans

We’d be smart to start listening to the Turks

2011-04-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

Scott Taylor on why Canada would be smart to follow the Turks lead after our combat mission ends. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1238918.html

Crushed "The Pitch"

2011-04-14T05:19:00.000-07:00

For the last month we have been hard at work rebranding to GuaranteedInterview.com and developing a new job feed of careers advertised by Guaranteed Interview Program employers, finishing at the 11th hour before I was to go on a national television show called "The Pitch" to talk about the program and business. I practiced the heck out of my elevator pitch for the weeks before the show, but was still nervous when they walked me up to the stage. Goes to show that practice does make perfect http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip449605. My job from this point on is to make employers, the media, and veterans aware of what we are doing. You can help by Facebook "liking" the GuarantedInterview.com page and making more veterans aware of it. Thanks for your support.

G.I. Bill for Canadian Vets?

2011-03-31T07:31:00.001-07:00

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/966323--ignatieff-hints-at-college-university-funding-for-veterans?bn=1

Helmets to Hardhats

2011-03-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

A new program for veterans to transition into careers in the construction industry http://www.dcnonl.com/article/id43547. An identically named program in the U.S. has been very successful, so I can't see any reason it won't be successful here.

Washington Post article on loss of a son in Afghanistan.

2011-03-02T07:38:00.001-08:00

An amazingly written Washington Post article about one military family's loss of a son in Afghanistan http://wapo.st/dEKsfW. The General makes a great point that we either need to support the mission or actively work to bring the troops home, indifference should not be an option.

New Advisors

2011-01-15T05:13:00.000-08:00

This week has been a really good one for CiviSide. We added two highly relevant new advisors to our board. Duncan Haberly, former VP Biz Dev. at military.com, and Ashleigh Emerick, former Director of Marketing at military.com. Both were at military.com when it was a startup looking for its business model and have the experience in our market to help us find a way to make the company sustainable from a revenue standpoint.

I haven't talked about it much in this blog, but my vision for CiviSide and the Guaranteed Interview Program is to make it universal, a symbol for employer support for veterans everywhere. I have a conviction that society owes its veterans transition support and employers represent society in the vocational aspect of that transition. In turn, I owe employers who join the program the opportunity to find the best veterans for their positions. It is my belief that everyone wins when veterans are given a hand-up.

If you are reading this and looking for a way to help, the simplest and most beneficial thing you can do is to share this link for the Guaranteed Interview Program with your employer, all of society wins when you do http://civiside.com/guaranteed_interview.

Delta Chamber of Commerce

2010-12-21T03:14:00.001-08:00

About a week ago the Canadian Chamber of Commerce included a story about the Guaranteed Interview Program in its newsletter to 430 other chambers across Canada, the Delta, British Columbia Chamber has been the first to add the story to their website http://www.deltachamber.ca/2010/12/20/increase-access-to-qualified-job-candidates-benefit-military-veterans. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks the rest will also.

In related news, I'm currently in NYC meeting with some U.S. influencers about growing the program here. We envision the Guaranteed Interview Program symbol to be a universal one for employer support for transitioning veterans. The symbol can be used anywhere in the world where employers want to make a simple but tangible effort to give veterans a hand-up in their transition. The program has experienced quick growth with employers as large as General Electric, Canadian Pacific Railway, Goodlife Fitness, and Enterprise signing up for the program soon after hearing of it. Our goal is 6500 employers by 11 Nov. 2011.

Conversation with Kelly Perdew

2010-12-02T00:52:00.000-08:00

Had a really great conversation and brainstorming session today with Kelly Perdew, CEO of FastPoint Games, former Airborne Ranger, and winner of "The Apprentice: - season 2. We spoke for about 25 mins about The Guaranteed Interview Program, my vision of what needed to be done for veterans, and ideas on how to advance it all. He had a fantastic idea at the end of the conversation that I think will be very advantageous to a large potential partner, he even agreed to give an endorsement of the program.

That conversation was a direct result of Shaun Francis of MedCan offering to make the connection with Kelly, whom he was in a networking group with. It has been a great help speaking to influencers in the tech. space like Kelly and Chris Fralic of First Round Capital. They are opening doors in the U.S. that would be extremely hard for me to get a foot in otherwise. As tough as developing civiside has been, this has been an unparalleled growth opportunity for me to learn how successful business people work. In my experience they do so by smarts, integrity, and generosity.

In the near future I will be meeting with some other big influencers, one of which could be key in opening a door to the U.S. Veterans Administration. I'll keep you posted.

What I saw in Tim Hortons today.

2010-11-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

What would you have done at 10:57am on Remembrance Day if the location you were standing in refused to observe a moment of silence? This is the situation I faced this morning in the Tim Hortons just before the Kingston sign, ironically on the Highway of Heroes. I was on Hwy 401East to Ottawa and unable to make a Cenotaph ceremony, so I stopped at the Tim Hortons. I went in and looked around, noticing that nobody seemed to be preparing for the moment of silence, so I walked up to the counter and asked a blonde cashier if they would be turning off the radio so that we could observe the 2 minutes of silence. The response “We don’t do that here”. I immediately asked to speak to the manager; we still had two minutes to right this. The cashier went into the back room and emerged about a minute later with a message from the manager that “She is busy in a meeting with head office”. Apparently they would not be observing the moment of silence. The last minute before the moment drew down and I realized that I would be the only one in the restaurant to observe it. I became nervous, butterflies stirred in my stomach. At 11am I put my right hand over my heart, just under my poppy, and put my head down. A few moments later another person with a poppy realized the time and stopped to observe the moment, then another. I wish I could say that the movement spread like wildfire and everyone stopped, but unfortunately that is not what happened. The radio kept blaring, the people kept walking, the cashiers kept serving and the moment went by without any notice from the dozens of people in the restaurant. I’m sure that scenes like these played out across Canada today but I think Tim Hortons is worthy of being singled out, not because a single manager of a roadside stop refused to observe a moment of silence, but because the head office of a corporation that brands itself as the reflection of Canada chooses to do business instead of taking two minutes honouring our war dead and veterans. However, they are not the only ones to blame, remembrance begins in our hearts and from what I saw in that restaurant, we have forgotten.

The Networked Job Market

2010-11-06T07:03:00.001-07:00

Thinking about The Guaranteed Interview Program and why it is so powerful in aiding veterans disadvantaged by their military service led me to coin a new term that I think should be an alternative to the "Hidden Job Market". I was reading an interesting blog piece asking whether the "Hidden Job Market" was in fact a myth?: http://www.quintcareers.com/hidden_job_market_myth.html

The piece discussed the often cited statistics that 75%+ of jobs are unadvertised but still filled in the Hidden Job Market. The problem for this statistic is that there is no quantifiable evidence that this is the case. Many experts cite evidence that 70%+ of job seekers claim to have found their job through networking, as proof that a Hidden Job Market is where the majority of jobs reside. However, the author rightly argues that this is not conclusive proof because we don't know that those jobs weren't advertised with a winning candidate in mind. In fact, I know of many cases where the job was advertised because of company policy, with no intention of hiring someone other than who they already had in mind, the piece suggests that 30% of jobs are filled this way.

The author does find some evidence that a Hidden Job Market exists by using statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor to show that the difference between the number of hires reported by employers and the number of positions advertised for was about 40% of all jobs. What this suggests is that these positions were filled by some form of direct or indirect connection to the person interviewing. This is where the disadvantage for transitioning military veterans comes in. Most transitioning military veterans usually have most of their professional connections among other veterans and therefore their access to civilian-professional connections that can help them secure interviews is much more limited than their civilian peers. This puts them at a distinct disadvantage in getting interviews through connections. To make things worse veterans also have a great deal of difficulty communicating their transferable skills because many jobs in the military have no civilian counterpart, therefore their qualifications on a resume often don't offer much for job recruiters to use in deciding whether to grant an interview to a veteran versus a civilian with clearly parallel experience.

The Guaranteed Interview Program puts transitioning veterans on equal footing with their civilian peers by ensuring that at least one veteran per job posting will get a fighting chance to earn the job they are applying for. Some people may perceive the program as discrimination against non-veterans but this is not the case. It simply gives veterans an accommodation that overcomes the disadvantages created by active duty service to country.

250 000 Homeless Veterans

2010-10-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

Powerful piece on how veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming homeless at a faster rate than any other generation.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6966795n&tag=contentMain;contentAux

A staggering number in this is that there are 250 000 homeless veterans in the U.S. This makes me want to extend our solution as fast as possible in order to prevent future additions to the masses of homeless veterans.

Thanks to Chris Fralic of First Round Capital for bringing this clip to my attention.

The Civi-Side story summarized.

2010-10-10T07:24:00.001-07:00

I just read this AWESOME post from another startup founder and felt that I had to create a similar summary of where Civi-Side came from and is going:

http://wensing.tumblr.com/post/1215873671/bootstrapping-stormpulse

By no means have I persisted through hard times as long as these guys did, but I would, and maybe will have to still if things don't take off like I think they will. Without further ado....

Civi-Side first occurred to me sometime in mid-2005 according to my first blog post about it: http://civiside.blogspot.com/2007/12/civi-side.html. I don't actually recall when I had the idea, so I will trust my words from Dec. 2007 to be the authority on the inception. The original concept was to connect military Reservists with Reserve-Friendly employers in order to solve the problem where the Reserves were losing trained young people after they graduated from post-secondary because they were going to work for employers that did not support their military career.

March 2007: Get meeting with Sonya Bata of Bata Shoes, more relevantly, Ontario Chair of Canadian Forces Liaison Council. Sonya listens intently but doesn't seem to have a clue about what I'm talking about. Meeting goes absolutely nowhere.

Dec. 2007: Get invitation to meet with General about the concept and he displays great enthusiasm, but apparently legal kills the proposal.

Jan 2008: Honorary Lt. Col. Kevin Reed offers $15 000 in seed money to get the service up and running. I find a technical partner and pay him for 3 months to build the site. Beta is up and running in April of 2008. No adoption of service whatsoever.

Nov 2008: Do massive press campaign leading up to Remembrance Day under the title "Tomorrow's Veterans Need a Supportive Employer Today". Get great press coverage coast to coast including CBC Radio interview. Unfortunately leads to no greater adoption of service by either employers or Reservists.

Jan 2009: 3/4 of a page in Business Incubator section of Globe and Mail. "Experts" assembled to critique the site give kudos for doing something good for Reservists but soundly spank our design and technology. Oh yeah, and my co-founder/technical partner quits on the same day, so I can't do anything to fix the problems.

Feb 2009: Find a developer who will work temporarily on redesigning the site so that the service can overcome some of the difficulties identified in the Globe and Mail article. Attend North America's largest HR tradeshow as a vendor and start to feel some interest in what we are doing. Lots of leads to follow up on. Unfortunately none pan out, there goes $2000 I didn't have.

March 2009: Relaunch new site...still no significant adoption...this is getting frustrating.

April 2009: Reposition and rebrand Civi-Side as a location to source professionally trained young leaders. Try this new approach for a year but no employers are willing to pay for a service that sources them trained young leaders. Doesn't help that we only have 300 Reservists in our database.

Sept 2009: Move to Ottawa to try to persuade Department of National Defence decision makers that backing Civi-Side makes financial sense. Thus begins a frustrating 6 months of fruitless meetings with no end in sight.

Nov 2009: Accepted into Lead to Win program for technology business acceleration. Cool program and great community of startups but I discover that despite the best intentions of the program, there are essentially no serious technology investors in Ottawa and that I am not going to raise any money to build the company.

Warm winter, cold part of Civi-Side history where I seriously began to doubt whether it would be possible to build this company. Start to wonder if I should just get back to furthering my own life rather than sacrificing more for a startup that seems to have not a chance in HE double hockey sticks of getting any traction.

May 2010: Get a LinkedIn message out of the blue from an ex-Air Force officer turned CEO of a tech. company in Hamilton that he was at a PwC CEO networking event and that one of the CEO's at the event brought up the idea that they as corporate citizens should be doing something for veterans and all of the CEO's agree. CEO that contacted me says that he knows someone working in this space and offers to come up with some ideas. CEO that contacted me offers to meet and we discuss a few ideas including priority hiring, and an off the cuff suggestion from him that "maybe we could guarantee and interview". I go to work researching the idea of priority hiring and come to the conclusion that would be too complex for the corporate world to adopt readily. I start thinking about the guaranteed interview idea and realize how brilliant and adoptable it is. I refine the idea and then go back to the CEO who contacted me and propose it, idea needs a bit more refining.

Program is now defined as: "Employers guarantee an interview to at least one veteran who meets the qualifications of the job posting and applies with a Civi-Side resume". The idea here is to make the program as simple and flexible as possible so that the company can adopt and apply the program without any reservations. The philosophy of the program is not that any one employer should interview all veterans but that all employers should interview at least one veteran. A small but important distinction that emphasizes that all employers should be publicly committing to corporate citizenship in giving their nation's veterans a hand-up in transitioning to the civilian workforce.

July 2010: With idea refined a bit more I contact CEO who originally suggested idea at PwC event and propose that they be the founding partner in what I have now called "The Guaranteed Interview Program" or G.I. Program for short. He loves idea but needs me to sell it to his management team, this takes another 6 weeks to get them in the same room. We meet in late Aug.

Aug 2010: We have our founding partner signed. The management team loves the idea and definitely wants to be on-board.

Sept 2010: Meet with Chris Fralic of First Round Capital about G.I. Program and ask him for help in connecting to CEO's in the U.S. who would want to be part of the program. He offers his help, we now have a toe-hold in the U.S.

This brings us up to today. I feel very confident that the service, which has morphed into a vehicle for the G.I. Program, is poised to take off. We have our 3 founding partners for the program and 7, yes 7, interns from the Mohawk College PR program who are going to help us tell Canada's media that there is a simple and tangible way for employers to support their veterans.

Everything is coming up Millhouse!

FedEx not an overnight success.

2010-09-06T03:16:00.000-07:00

Just came across this link on Twitter and followed it to a thread on Quora: http://economist.com/node/16892040. I had heard this story before but had not heard this quote from Changing How The World Does Business -- a book about the history of FedEx, by Roger Frock. Frock was one of the founding executives at the company.

On page 101 of the book, Frock says:

By mid-July our funds were so meager that on Friday we were down to about $5,000 in the checking account, while we needed $24,000 for the jet fuel payment... When I arrived back in Memphis on Monday morning, much to my surprise, the bank balance stood at nearly $32,000. I asked Fred where the funds had come from, and he responded, "The meeting with the General Dynamics board was a bust and I knew we needed money for Monday, so I took a plane to Las Vegas and won $27,000." I said, "You mean you took our last $5,000-- how could you do that?" He shrugged his shoulders and said, "What difference does it make? Without the funds for the fuel companies, we couldn't have flown anyway." Fred's luck held again. It was not much, but it came at a critical time and kept us in business for another week."

I think that this may be the essence of entrepreneurship, absolute belief in ones business, ones self, and an extraordinary dose of luck. All three were present in the founding of FedEx. Despite having blown through $84M in capital it was the last $5 000 and an unwillingness to fail that made the company and gave us overnight delivery.

Military Service as Preparation for Entrepreneurship

2010-09-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

A short but interesting article on how military service in Israel is good preparation for entrepreneurs: http://economist.com/node/16892040. This also seems to be the case for veterans in the U.S., veterans own nearly 3M businesses, 500 000 of which employ an average of more than 10 people. Perhaps you are military and have been thinking of starting your own business, the numbers suggest that you have the right preparation.

Facts about Veterans in Canada

2010-08-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

"Although last week was an emotional week for veterans, the truth is that each day is an emotional day for disabled veterans. In war or peacetime, missing limbs, crushed vertebrae, damaged organs, broken spirits and overburdened minds are the same tragic legacies for Canadians who suffered them in the service of their nation. That Canada fights so hard not to properly care for the needs of veterans and their families only humiliates proud military veterans all the more."

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/some-facts-about-canadas-veterans-101362344.html

A Bigger Voice for Veterans...We Hope.

2010-08-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

With a 10-1 injured to killed ratio in Afghanistan, it is my hope that this issue doesn't die with the inevitable wane of the newscycle. It is clear from the tone of the articles and the comments from readers that taking care of veterans is the responsibility of Canada and penny pinching at their expense is not acceptable. I hope that the government does the honourable thing and changes their ways and that the loyal opposition press them on this issue until it is resolved.

http://bit.ly/aJT9vu

Penny pinching insurance industry approach to veterans.

2010-08-17T14:23:00.001-07:00

I am very concerned that what Col. Storgran says in his indictment of the government and Veterans Affairs is accurate:

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/08/17/veterans-ombudsman-stogran.html?ref=rss

Col. Storgran's words echo a Senate report from December 2008 that slammed the government for their poor treatment of wounded Reservists. I tried to find the link but it seems to have disappeared from the Canadian Press archives where I originally posted it from.

Unfortunately the care of wounded soldiers is placed in the hands of bureaucrats whose favourite interests include stonewalling and denying. It's no wonder that this is how it ends up.

What is Social Entrepreneurship pt 2

2010-08-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

I really liked this article in the NYT about Social Entrepreneurship and its definition:

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/what-exactly-is-a-social-entrepreneur/?src=twt&twt=nytimesbusiness

One of the comments after the article that really struck me as a brilliant piece of insight was this:

"Social entrepreneur, to me, is just a way of saying this person has a motive other than profit. Since "greed is good" it has become implied that entrepreneurship is a field focused on profits, when in reality it is about returns. Using social as an adjective is there to break the association of one word with 'chasing a big pay day.'"

I have been working on civiside for more than two years without a cent of profit and a whole lot of personal and sweat equity invested. If it were purely about a profit motive I should have moved on long ago, yet I still persist. I believe that what I am working toward is an important social good that can benefit millions of transitioning military around the world, if I give up no one will do it and I cannot allow that to happen. I believe that with a little more concentrated effort civiside will develop into the service that I know it can be and will create the returns, monetary or not, that will have made the great sacrifices worth it.

Updated G.I. Program logo

2010-08-02T04:56:00.001-07:00

Fresh from the designer's oven, our newly updated logo.

Colin Finkle of firebrandcreative.ca, an industrial designer by trade, got in touch with us after hearing on TWiST that we needed an updated design and offered to to do it for free. This is what he came up with. I'm pretty darn happy with the update. It is much more defined and has an interesting new design element in the silver/metallic lining of the emblem. My feeling is that it has a much greater strength of identity to it now. What do you think?

The Guaranteed Interview: "Killer Idea"

2010-06-29T02:53:00.000-07:00

Civi-Side was on This Week in Startups this past past Fri. talking about the Guaranteed Interview. The host called the G.I. a "Killer Idea" and suggested ways to improve the site and logo design so that the program would take off. This was an important appearance and a great boost in our confidence. We are seeing increased site traffic following the show and are gaining more credibility in the marketplace. To watch a 2 min. clip of the show appearance visit: http://civiside.com/resource/twist.wmv

In case you don't know, the G.I. is a free grass-roots program enabling employers to tangibly demonstrate their support for transitioning military by displaying the G.I. logo wherever they post their jobs and guaranteeing an interview to transitioners qualified for the job posting and applying with a Civi-Side resume. To learn more visit: http://civiside.com/guaranteed_interview

This Week in Startups

2010-06-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow civiside.com will be featured on the "Ask Jason" segment of This Week in Startups. I thought that this was a cool opportunity because I really like the show but turns out it is also a huge promotional opportunity. I got in contact with another startup founder in Ottawa who has been on the show and he said that he got 5 000 hits from that one appearance. If we got anywhere near that in ours I will flip my lid.

On a related note, I have been alluding to a big initiative and new service model. Something that I have forgotten to mention is that civiside has expanded in both our service market, instead of just Reservists we now serve all transitioning military, but also in scope, we are now global in at least one respect, we believe that we have the formula for the world's first scalable ex-military job network. In order to achieve that we will probably have to bring on some investors, so we are beginning to reach out to them now.

As I said before, it's an exciting time to be civiside.com.

3 Week Countdown

2010-06-15T01:14:00.001-07:00

These are exciting times to be part of civiside.com. We are poised over the next few weeks to change our corner of the world through an entirely new service model that promises to connect military personnel with exponentially more opportunities than ever before, and a unique initiative announcement that will supercharge our growth.

In related news, we are co-hosting a Support The Troops Day with the Ottawa Fat Cats Baseball Club at Ottawa Stadium on 4 July at 13:00HRS. Admission is free for military. It would be great if you are in Ottawa to have you there. Especially since that is where we will be making our game changing announcement and introducing our new service model. If you can't make it, keep your ears open anyway, this is going to be big.

Social Media Screening: Nearly 50% of surveyed employers screened.

2010-05-20T08:25:00.001-07:00

For those military job seekers, careful what you post on social media. Roughly 50% of employers routinely screen social media before hiring.

http://mashable.com/2009/08/19/social-media-screening/

New Recruitment and Retention Numbers

2010-05-13T05:35:00.000-07:00

In a release from last week, recruitment and retention is up in the Regular component and down in the Reserve component of the Canadian Forces:

http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/news-nouvelles/news-nouvelles-eng.asp?cat=00&id=3359

A couple of Reserve numbers caught my eye, the first one being "Paid Strength" of 24 265, this number is only 8 more uniformed members since I joined in 2005. Given that at the same time in 2009 we had 26 293 uniformed members, I am seriously questioning the retention side of the equation for the Reserves. What are we doing to lose so many members in one year? I would like to see more explanation for this. The other number that caught my eye was the dramatic reduction in the Supplementary Reserve. We went from a high of 40 000 in 2005 to only 16 138 this year. Why such a dramatic reduction? Are those numbers being redistributed elsewhere?

If anyone understands these numbers more intimately I would love to hear your comments.

The letter from the Faculty of U of R

2010-03-27T04:43:00.000-07:00

This is the letter with the demands of the faculty of U of R: http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Letter+from+University+Regina+professors+opposed+Project+Hero+scholarships/2730833/story.html

In my opinion it reads more like a letter from high schoolers than PH.D's. What's the relevance of Kevin Reed being 42? How does a scholarship for war dead open a debate on student debt and free tuition for all? Why must a public debate on the war in Afghanistan and Canadian imperialism be held in lieu of the scholarship.

At heart I am an academic and encourage all kinds of public discourse, especially on issues such as war, but choosing to take a stand on the war at the expense of children whose parent has died in service of the Canada is some kind of new low.

Project Hero in the news again.

2010-03-26T05:22:00.000-07:00

Kevin Reed's Project Hero initiative is being railed by a group of professors at the University of Regina: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/criticism-of-scholarships-for-children-of-fallen-soldiers-draws-sharp-rebuke/article1512784/

It's the name that is setting off these "intellectuals". They are protesting a concept but in the process hurting real people who have already been disadvantaged. It's quite an unfortunate situation. I will reiterate that there are numerous good reasons to support this initiative and none of them are political. The beneficiaries are apolitical and do not deserve to be politicized. That was never the intention of either Gen. Hillier or Kevin Reed.

An additional link to Roger Martin

2010-01-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

Radio interview with Roger Martin on his ideas about Design Thinking

http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/10/full-interview-roger-martin-on-design-thinking-in-the-workplace/

The Design of Business

2010-01-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

Interesting book about how business strategists need to get away the emphasis on analytical business thinking and move to design centric thinking. Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Business at U of T writes:

"Most companies today have innovation envy. They yearn to come up with a game-changing innovation like Apple’s iPod, or create an entirely new category like Facebook. Many make genuine efforts to be innovative-they spend on R&D, bring in creative designers, hire innovation consultants. But they get disappointing results. Why? In The Design of Business, Roger Martin offers a compelling and provocative answer: we rely far too exclusively on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo.To innovate and win, companies need design thinking. This form of thinking is rooted in how knowledge advances from one stage to another-from mystery (something we can’t explain) to heuristic (a rule of thumb that guides us toward solution) to algorithm (a predictable formula for producing an answer)."

I was commenting a few weeks back on Blue Ocean Strategy, and how despite it being a breakthrough strategy book, it would largely be underutilized because the people who are tasked to read and implement it are too analysis driven to make the leaps of faith necessary to make great products and services that make the competition irrelevant. Roger Martin's book supports my argument. Roger is a leading strategic thinker, it will be interesting to see if his book makes any waves.

http://rogerlmartin.com/library/books/the-design-of-business/

Everyday a new article or editorial.

2010-01-21T23:33:00.001-08:00

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/the-overburdened-army/article1438502/

Grad@Loblaw Program

2010-01-20T07:33:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to announce that the Grad@Loblaw Management Training Program is now advertising their positions on civiside.com. They hire 200 new grads annually to be future managers of the stores and corporate operations. I think that this is a great opportunity for Loblaw to find extraordinary candidates and for Reservists to find a great organization to grow in. I'm looking forward to the success stories.

For more information visit civiside.com and look under the retail industry category.

Globe and Mail Article

2010-01-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

There's an article in today's Globe and Mail about how Reservists are being shortchanged and how that is destroying the fabric of our organization.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/only-thing-canadas-reservists-need-cut-is-some-slack/article1435628/

As you know, I met with some key personnel in the CF last week, and frankly, I don't have high hopes for the situation getting better. The people in that room last week are the best barometer for the state of thinking about the Reserves from within the CF, and that thinking is at best detached from reality, and at worst indifferent. Some of the things that I heard were so self-serving that I was personally disappointed that they were our leaders. Not to say they were all detached, of the four people in the room, two acknowledged a problem with how we retain people in the organization, unfortunately, neither of them will carry the torch further.

Expect things to get worse before they get better.

Want to be a Business Owner?

2010-01-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ever wanted to be your own boss but didn't know where to start? Civi-Side Inc. is looking for 1-2 additional partners to commercialize the business. We have a unique concept in connecting Junior Military Officers with Management Training Programs at large companies. Our financial projections for Canada are in the millions and our projections for the U.S. market are exponentially higher. The skills needed to drive the business further are Web Development, Sales, and CFO type aptitude. If you possess any of these skills let's talk. Just send your resume and a brief description of why you would like to be part of the civiside team. All who submit will be responded to.

If you, or someone you know, is ex/military, wants to be part of a military-space technology startup, and has the will to push beyond all obstacles, get in touch: ken.seville@civiside.com. The right partners will earn equity ownership in the business and can draw a salary as the business ramps up.

A good idea cannot be caged forever.

2010-01-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I met with the Chief of the Reserves to discuss civiside.com and how we could help them solve some pressing problems. Frankly, the meeting didn't go so well. We had a misunderstanding about the purpose of the meeting, I thought that I was briefing them on a problem they were aware of and pitching them civiside technology as a solution, they thought it was a briefing on what civiside.com was doing. The long and short of it was that there was very little movement.

With that said, after my meeting I became aware of a similar service to civiside in the U.S. In fact I learned of it from two independent people in the space of twelve hours and from two entirely different sources. It's amazing how a good idea can't be caged forever. When its time has come it will happen. My confidence in the decision makers actively engaging in either licencing the civiside technology, or building a similar service that connects Reservists with Reserve-Friendly employers is much higher. I think that it will be difficult for our military leaders to say it's not a good idea when our neighbours to the south are working so diligently on the same kind of service to benefit their troops.

The link to the CNBC article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/34823212/

"You are probably not wrong, but you are probably not right"

2010-01-06T12:05:00.000-08:00

Just had a long and interesting conversation with the web developer who created civiside.com. We talked about everything under the sun, including the dangers of not protecting one's digital footprint, and the purpose of entrepreneurship. The conversation wasn't interesting because we think anything alike, in fact, it's exactly the opposite. You probably couldn't find two people who were more diametrically opposed. Yet, the conclusion that I drew from the conversation can be summed up in a short maxim that I will now carry with me everywhere "You are probably not wrong, but you are probably not right". The reason that I think that this is an important finding is that debate tends to lead to polarization and hardening of one's position, without necessarily arriving at a reasonable truth. By concluding that the other person is probably right in some respects and being open to changing your own position to integrate some of the ideas; you arrive at a much stronger final position. This finding may not be revelatory for most, but by integrating the statement into my debates I think I will come much closer to the truth.

Book Review

2009-12-26T08:16:00.000-08:00

Blue Ocean Strategy is a must read for any entrepreneur. It is thought provoking, and even more importantly, mind altering. I have read it several times over the past year and see its effects on my business thinking everyday. The only shortcoming from my perspective is that it is designed to appeal to exactly the people who are unable to make the creative leaps necessary to create Blue Oceans. The book is designed to be accessed by analysis driven thinkers in big corporations. The problem with trying to impress these kind of thinkers is that the reason they became decision makers in big corporations is that they demonstrated early on; their proclivity toward middle-of-the-road thinking. Big corporations don't promote boat shakers into decision making positions because they are risky. Therefore, while these thinkers may find the concepts contained in the book interesting, they will continue to thrash it out in the Red Ocean because they are predisposed to perpetuating the status quo.

I realize that this is a generalization about big corporations and analysis-driven decision makers, but on the whole it is an accurate one.

To read an excerpt of Blue Ocean Strategy visit: http://tiny.cc/cIvDp

The more things change....

2009-12-23T16:05:00.001-08:00

This morning I looked at the document that I created almost four years ago describing the problem that civiside.com was designed to solve; and realized that I haven't veered from the problem at all and my solution isn't all that different. Sure I haven't accomplished my goal yet, but on the other hand, it is clear to me that the problem still needs to be solved and no one but me has stepped up to solve it. If anyone is going to do it, it looks like it will have to be lonesome old me.

With that said, I have a big meeting with the decision makers at DND early in Jan. I think that they understand the problem that I have been working on for the past two years, I just hope that they have decided that it is time to plug that leak. Wish me luck.

News

2009-12-18T14:20:00.000-08:00

Big week for civiside.com. After the article on Wed. a fire lit under me and I reached out to make a connection with a Canadian Forces decision maker. My new hero, Scott Taylor of Esprit de Corp Magazine, connected me with one email to the Chief of Reserves. If there was one person that I would want a connection to it was him, so it was a tremendously big deal. General Tabbenor agreed to meet with me in early Jan. so that I could present what it is I am doing. I am ready to knock his socks off!

Other news, another connection introduced me to the President of CADSI, the defence industry association. I will be meeting him over the next couple of weeks also. This could open the door to thousands of defence industry job postings.

I may have one more big piece of news to announce next week. Still to be determined, but I have a good feeling that it will come through. Until then, have a great weekend!

Fiscal Adjustment means different things to the troops that lose their jobs.

2009-12-16T08:48:00.001-08:00

Like a gift from above, this article came out today in the Star group of newspapers:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Military+cash+crunch+hits+training+maintenance/2345179/story.html

This proves the need for civiside in Canada. I can help these Reservists find work with employers who want to hire military. Some doors in the defence industry have just opened up to me and I have opportunity to immediately help. I am mobilizing all my resources and contacts presently to meet the need. Next step, endorsement from the Canadian Forces.

Pitching OCRI and Tenacity

2009-12-16T03:32:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I pitched to the Commercialization Panel of the Ontario Center for Research and Innovation . It went ok, but not as well as most of my recent pitches. It's funny how that goes. I adjusted my presentation slightly to pare down a few slides and make it shorter, but somewhere in that paring some critical information must have been lost because there seemed to be alot more confusion on what it was I was pitching. I figured the people in uniform on the first slide and the bold lettered "Workopolis for Junior Officers" would have been sufficient explanation, but it seems not. There was also alot of push from the panelists to drop the civiside.com and get the military.ca domain so that I could be a "franchisee" of the popular U.S. site military.com. I know this is well intentioned advice...but really? You think it's just that easy? In addition, the name of the domain is almost irrelevant compared to the quality of the employers on the site, and that is why I expressed my need for marketing and sales help from the beginning. Frankly, I don't know what kind of help I may get from these people. I'll report back when I hear, in the meantime I'll just keep pushing forward in any way I can.

On a related note, I came across this post on qualities essential in an entrepreneur and see tenacity as being my greatest strength. I should have given this up a year ago at least. Any sane person would have, but my passion for seeing this through miraculously keeps me sustained despite almost no encouragement from outside sources. On a positive note, despite all the ups and downs I have learned a diverse set of skills that I simply could not have learned in any other way. Overall a plus experience.

http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/12/15/what-makes-an-entrepreneur-111-tenacity/?awesm=grp.vc_AXg&utm_medium=grp.vc-twitter&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=site-basic#comment-25859689

Lead to Win: Phase 3

2009-12-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

I received the results from my Lead to Win presentation. Successful and moving into the supported commercialization phase. The program was an awesome gift from the City of Ottawa, a gift that keeps on giving. With the continued support of LTW and OCRI I see civiside.com taking off now with great focus and effect to benefit both employers and military members.

I am looking for a sales and marketing partner to build the sales team. the person that I am seeking will have experience in sales team management and development, as well, ideally a military background. I have spoken to one candidate but if anyone knows additional candidates feel free to point them in my direction. I can be reached at ken.seville@civiside.com. If they come on board with a significant time commitment they will be rewarded with equity options and a share of all revenue generated.

Editorial Rebuttal

2009-11-21T07:54:00.001-08:00

I read this editorial this morning in the Mount Allison University student newspaper and felt compelled to write a rebuttal: http://www.argosy.ca/view.php?aid=41958

my rebuttal is as such:

"I came across the editorial on Project Hero and felt that I should address it. I first want to say that I know Kevin Reed personally and know his intentions for Project Hero to be completely honourable, which I think that the writer recognizes also when he states that the project is “commendable for providing a free education to children who have lost a parent”. While I think that the writer is addressing a valid issue of ‘why not scholarships for other children of parents that have died in service to country or community?’, I think that he has drawn an unfortunate conclusion that Project Hero represents a “dangerous trend in global affairs” and “more than being a worrying sign of the times, “Project Hero” is exemplary of precisely the kind of thinking that is informing these military conflicts”. These conclusions I must dispute. Project Hero is not by design or accident representative of what is wrong with this world, to paraphrase the author. Project Hero is one Canadian’s personal mission to ensure that the children of soldiers, sailors and airmen/women killed in combat are not disadvantaged to a greater extent than other Canadians by their parent’s sacrifice in the service of Canada. Perhaps the title “Hero” is too broad a blanket to cover every military person killed in combat, however, to not accord the title to the ones who unambiguously deserve it is a much greater disservice than to give cover to the few who don’t. At the end of the day let’s remember that Project Hero is an ambitious goal conceived by a university chancellor and furthered by a businessperson to ensure that the children of service personnel killed in combat are not disadvantaged by not only losing a parent but also financial hardship. Allan Rock, former cabinet minister, former ambassador to the U.N., and current president of the University of Ottawa, illustrates the need for a Project Hero, he has stated publicly that if his father, a WWII vet, a peacekeeper in the Middle East, and member of the Canadian Forces for 26 years had been killed in service, he would not have been able to afford to go to university. Would Canada not have been disadvantaged by the loss of Rock’s talents on the national and international stage? I hope that the writer can now see that Project Hero is neither jingoism nor an unfair advantage for the children of service personnel killed in combat; but the rectification of a long-time wrong."

I hope that they publish my rebuttal because I hate the idea that such a worthy initiative can somehow be turned into a symbol for what is wrong in the world.

Lead to Win

2009-11-09T13:47:00.000-08:00

Lead to Win was nothing like I thought it would be, and at the same time better than I thought it would be. It was not advice at all, but a crash course in segmenting markets, identifying target customers, crafting customer value propositions, and a whole lot of other business crap that you don't care to read about. I'll give you the upshot, civiside is refocused and clear on the road ahead. We connect young Reservists graduating from post-secondary with companies that offer Management Training Programs. Right now that is where we can offer the most clear cut value proposition to employers and Reservists.

On a related note, I received word today that civiside is moving into phase 3 of Lead to Win (40% of the last phase's participants won't). This will mean even heavier instruction, constructive criticism, and operational focus, but that is exactly what I need to get to the next level, so I am ready and willing.

Exciting times!

Advice

2009-11-02T22:42:00.000-08:00

I just read my last post and realized that I hadn't announced the other big news that I was hinting at...well here it is, I have relocated to Ottawa. Ostensibly it was to take a job, which is true and has been great, but in my heart I have believed for at least a year that I needed to come to Ottawa to make the connections I needed to move the civiside ball further down the field. So how has it been? In short, great! I have made some excellent connections in the startup community and even been accepted into an intensive business development program called Lead to Win (which I should be currently resting for since it starts tomorrow, but I am not resting for since my mind is heavy).

The reason my mind is so heavy is that I met with, and received advice from, an entrepreneur tonight who sold his company for nearly a billion dollars. He is now an Angel Investor so I was hoping to gain some ideas on how to create a compelling investment proposal so that I can raise some money to bring on additional expertise. However, what really happened was that I received advice on how to sell civiside to employers, how the business model should operate, and even how civiside the website should operate. What I realized is that alot of the advice I was receiving from him was directly contradicting earlier advice I had received from other successful entrepreneurs. Now I could evaluate the advice on a hierarchy and establish the billion dollar entrepreneur's advice as more valuable and reset my thinking...but somehow I don't think that it works that way. I have come across this contradictory advice conundrum before and tried to defer to the most recent advice and found it to be less than successful. I think that the problem with people giving advice is that it usually comes from personal experience and success...and half of success is luck. What people attribute their experience, and therefore advice, could come from skill, but probably comes from at least 50% luck...a non-reproducible variable.

This is not to say that the billion dollar entrepreneur didn't say some things with a great deal of value, his ideas on increasing the credibility of our candidates and sales techniques to employers have definitely impacted my thinking, but I would say in more of an incremental manner. More like a strategy for rushing than a well defined and executed play. Nevertheless, I am grateful for what I have learned.

So why is my mind heavy? I guess it's heavy because I am realizing that I can't rely on advice to move the ball down field. It's going to take some strategy, some skill and a lot of brute force. I have to increase my luck component by doing more and reducing my reliance on the advice of others. This is again contradictory to what I have learned in the military, "learn from the experience of others", or maybe it's not? Maybe learning from the experience of others is not following what they say led to their success, maybe it's observing what they did with as much objectivity as possible to ascertain potential patterns. Of course, to identify patterns you usually have to observe more than one situation, and often more than one person, so maybe I am on the right track after all. Maybe I just need to refocus my observation not to what is said but to what was done...drawing more objective conclusions that can be applied to unique but similar circumstances.

So what I'm saying is that I am not going to follow advice as I have been apt to do since launching civiside, but I am not going to ignore it either. I am going to look more deeply into what the person attributes their advice and try to understand where the advice comes from more objectively. Hopefully I will be able to gain additional strategies so that I can come up with ingenious new plays that will move the ball down field. So once again, "why the heavy head?", I have to wake up in 4 hours and churn my way through three-days of well intentioned advice until I find the underlying principles that will guide my strategy going forward. Good luck to me.

Big Announcement - Deal with Esprit de Corp Magazine

2009-09-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

I suppose that it's about time that I posted something new to the blog. In fact, I have something big to announce., It's something I didn't want to blog about until I was sure it would go through but it is now confirmed. Civiside.com has made a deal with Esprit de Corp Magazine, Canada's most popular independent military magazine, to contribute content for a "Civi-Side Careers" section in the magazine each month. The first issue hits the newstand 15 Sept. I am really excited to have seen this deal go through because it increases our visibility among serving and retired members and increases the utility of Esprit de Corp for the many members now contemplating retirement and second careers in the civilian workforce.

In the next few weeks I may have a couple of other big announcements, so check back periodically.

Project Hero

2009-06-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

Here's an initiative by Hon. LCol. Kevin Reed to get all Canadian Universities to offer free tuition to the children of our fallen brothers and sisters: http://www.canada.com/Life/Ottawa+offer+free+tuition+kids+fallen+soldiers/1744761/story.html

Kevin is the guy who stepped up and gave me the seed capital to get the civiside.com service up and running when it was only a half formed idea. He is a really great guy who is truly a friend to the troops and their families.

I am going away to Gagetown for a couple of weeks in July but will be back reinvigorated to continue the development of civiside. I must admit, the last six months have been tremendously tough as I have had to slog through setback after setback from losing my business partner to financial difficulties in moving civiside forward but I think that this upcoming year will be much better than the last. I am in the process of making some connections and deals that I think will publicize civiside much more clearly through the right channels and create more legitimacy for my claims that hiring a Reservist is a great business decision. This is our year.

2009-05-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting opportunity for those with the driver wheel instructor qualifications, Calian has been awarded the contract for Driver Wheel and is now hiring ex-military and current reservists as instructors. They pay $21 hour and offer long and short-term contracts.

Check out http://civiside.com/browse/company/58?url_name=defence for more info.

Repositioning Civiside

2009-04-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

If you have been paying attention you will notice that civiside looks a little different today than it did yesterday (or even earlier this afternoon). We are repositioning our candidate pool in the minds of employers as the eminent online location where they will find professionally trained young leaders.

We decided to take this approach because many employers, while somewhat interested, were not committed to posting jobs on civiside. Clearly there was not enough incentive for them to even go through the minimal effort of sending us their job postings. In simple terms, they just weren't hungry enough for what we were offering.

In order to capture their hunger we need to offer the one quantifiable value proposition that a young reservist graduating from post-secondary uniquely offers, professional leadership and management training. There is no other employment organization that invests as heavily in young people before they graduate from post-secondary than the military. A UK study suggests that a Lieutenant's leadership and management training would cost an employer around $9000 CDN, while the leadership and instructional techniques training in PLQ would cost the employer over $3000. These are industry applicable qualifications that are most often ignored by employers while making employment decisions. Employers you find on civiside won't ignore your training and in fact are looking for exactly what you have to offer.

If you don't have PLQ or higher you will still find opportunities with many of the companies branding on civiside. However, I encourage you, if you are able, to take PLQ before you graduate. In this economic climate any professional skills upgrading you can get are of benefit. No matter what, you will gain industry skills that will give you advantages in the workplace, and may even be the very reason that you get your dream job right out of school.

As always, your feedback is welcome.

Saskatchewan Bound?

2009-03-30T18:01:00.001-07:00

I just came across a program that Saskatchewan is offering to new grads and thought that it had to be shared. If you are a new post-secondary grad, since 2006, you are being recruited by the province of Saskatchewan. They are offering a tax credit that when fully phased in (2010 and beyond) will reward grads from anywhere in Canada to the tune of a $20 000 paid out over a seven year period, just for working in Saskatchewan. For reservists this a double benefit because the Sask. government will even give you the credits for the tuition you had reimbursed by the military.

I'm not saying that you should take Sask. up on it's offer, but if I were an eligible grad I would certainly give it some thought.

If you are interested in the program, you will find more info here: http://www.aeel.gov.sk.ca/Default.aspx?DN=1267,1036,104,81,1,Documents#q7

Civiside.com now browsable!

2009-03-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

I am ecstatic to announce that civiside.com is now browsable. You can see the jobs posted and the employers branding their company to Reservists. You also still have the option to create a civi-side resume, which I highly encourage you to do so you will be notified of posted opportunities that you are qualified for.

I am now hard at work getting employers to sign up and posting their jobs. Speaking of jobs, civi-side is expanding its sales staff. This is an opportunity to make great commissions, make connections with employers, and work for an employer that will give you a high degree of flexibility in regard to your military career. In addition, if you are a student and looking for an internship opportunity, civi-side is the place to be. We could really use a marketing intern with great knowledge of guerrilla marketing techniques. If interested, check out the site and get in touch.

New Addition Imminent

2009-03-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

The new site addition is only days away. All the code development is completed and we are just waiting for the designer to put the front end on. With the new development comes a new business model. From here on in employers will be branding their company as well as their jobs. Reservists will have information such as what the company's military leave policy is, what kind of training and advancement opportunities they offer, what they offer in terms of work-life balance, and what kind of company culture they have. Of course the employer's jobs will be featured also.

This is only the beginning of what civiside.com will be for you. Our goal is to "Reduce the Friction between your Civilian and Military Lives". In order to do that we are going to be introducing a host of other services over the next six months that will make your life easier.

As always, if you have ideas on how we can make civiside better for you, let us know.

Independent Traction

2009-03-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

An interesting little change of pace, I was just contacted out of the blue by an international company looking to hire military people for their Engineering positions in Canada. I think that this suggests that our little startup is starting to gain it's own independent traction.

Over the next few months I think that things are really going to start taking off...and not a moment too soon. This has been a tremendously challenging year in every respect, and nothing could make me happier than to see the service bloom into the tremendous resource for Reservists that I know it can.

Site development almost there.

2009-02-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

It's funny how quickly time moves. It's been 11 days since my last post. In that time civiside has been moving toward a new site and business model. We are about 2-3 weeks from getting there, but I promise it will be worth the wait. We have listened to feedback from users and incorporated as much as we could within the limits of our resources. I think that you will be very happy with what we are developing.

I think back to just a little under two months ago and how we were on the edge of disaster. We had lost our developer, were getting some pretty negative feedback on our site design in a Globe and Mail article, and had no money to fix either problem. The money situation hasn't changed much, but the solution just required perseverance and ingenuity. I'm happy to say that we are getting closer to our goal of providing Reservists a service that gives Reservists an advantage in gaining employment with the best companies in Canada. In the meantime, if you have any ideas on how we can better serve your needs in finding employment let me know.

1% there!

2009-02-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

I just looked at the Google Analytics for civiside and realized that we have hit the 1% mark of all Reservists now visiting the site monthly. This is good news because we are starting to gain traction with more employers using the service. Over the next month we should be unveiling a new component of civiside that will allow the user to browse Reserve-Friendly employers and see, and apply, for jobs they are offering.

I have also been working on a sponsorship deal with a major corporation that could see some really fun promotional events being run for Reservists. If they go well the events could be spread further out across the country and done on an annual basis.

I guess I can safely say that I am about 1% done now. Hopefully the next 99% goes alot quicker and without as many hiccups.

CAE is hiring.

2009-02-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

I just read this news release that CAE was awarded a huge defence contract and will be hiring 330 people over the next few years: http://tinyurl.com/b3uamw

In case you are wondering what positions they will be hiring for, check out this visual that they provided on their website: http://tinyurl.com/b2kugt

Anyhow, I will get in touch with them tomorrow. See if we can help them fill their positions with qualified Reservists.

Thales Canada job

2009-02-12T06:29:00.000-08:00

Received a request from Thales Canada to fill some technical jobs, two in Kingston, two in Petewawa. They are very interesting because they require the person to deploy to Kandahar Airfield for four months to teach some equipment and troubleshoot. A good opportunity for a Navy person who might not otherwise have the chance to get over. It's also well paid and tax free when deployed.

On an unrelated note, I had lunch yesterday with a recently retired Lt. Col. of a Reserve Infantry unit in Toronto. We chatted about the purpose of civiside and he gave suggestions as to some things I could do to improve the service and get the word out. I will definitely incorporate them into the mix.

Off to have a late breakfast with a rep. from Molson Canada.

Traction

2009-02-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

Once again I have been slow in posting to the blog. However, it not for lack of progress. This week has been a busy one following up on leads from the HRPA tradeshow. Some fantastic employers are either posting on civiside, or will be shortly. The tradeshow was such an amazing learning experience, it helped focus who on, and how civiside would direct it's efforts. I now have a much clearer view of how to bring it all together.

I look back on the past year and am amazed by how much I have learned. I am even more excited for the next six months as the traction of civiside grows and the utility we can offer to CF members increases. The vision of creating a service that connects Reservists with Reserve-friendly employers has almost come to fruition. Look for some big announcement in the next few months.

HRPA Tradeshow

2009-01-31T05:59:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been more than a week since I last wrote a post. I was busy promoting civiside.com at the HRPA tradeshow to HR professionals across the country. This was a superb opportunity to speak with many employers in a short period of time, and to find a real focus on what industries we should pursue first. Overall, a very successful event that I will do annually.

On an unrelated note, a fine officer that I know from HMCS Star, Lt(N) Fancy has been awarded the order of military merit:

http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/504681

The Spec made a mistake on his rank (he commissioned from the ranks as a CPO1) but still a great story regardless. Congratulations Lt. Fancy!

"Old School"

2009-01-21T22:35:00.000-08:00

Today Lauren and I did the Gen Y in the workplace debate on CFRB 1010 in Toronto. During the debate the host asked what I thought of the Gen Y demand that if a worker can get their 8 hour day of work completed in 6 hours (or less for that matter), they should be allowed to knock off for the rest of the day. I responded that if the worker can get their work done early that they have just created 2 more hours of value that they can give to their boss. The host responded that this was a very "old school attitude". Upon reflection I suppose that it is an old school attitude, but it's one that I truly believe in. If an employer chooses me to work for them, I want to return the favour by making sure that I put in the best day of work that I can. I don't have the fundamental belief that I am owed a job by society. I believe that I must earn that job daily.

It seems that one of the very fundamental concepts at stake in this question of whether Gen Y should adapt to the workplace or vice versa is whether the individual is owed employment by society. It really seems to me that if you fundamentally believe that you are owed a job, the idea that you owe the employer something back is lost. For example, Lauren and I discussed after the show whether the young entry-level employee morally owes the employer a certain amount of work to cover the costs of training that employee to a productive standard. My view is that the employee should stay long enough to help the employer recoup the costs of training, and ideally even help generate some profit. Lauren took the opposite view saying that if the job isn't making the employee happy; then they don't have any moral responsibility to the employer. Her logic is that the employer is not bound to be loyal to the employee, and therefore the individual should act in their own interest...it's just the cost of doing business. Frankly this position disturbs me. It is so mercenary as to be sociopathic (not that I am saying that Lauren is sociopathic, I think just misguided). It disregards the favour that the employer has done by choosing the individual for the job.

So, I will go on record as being "old school" in my belief that I am not owed a job by society. If an employer chooses to employ me I wish to return the favour by giving them a solid, and when possible, spectacular return on investment.

Turns out Civiside is Social Enterprise!

2009-01-19T07:04:00.000-08:00

I had never heard the definition of Social Entrepreneurship until today and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Civiside is a textbook case of it.

Lauren mentioned the term in our conversation the other day, and I decided to give it a look this morning. The definition, according to J. Gregory Dees...

"in his paper "The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship”, mentions that social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents, by:

-Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value)
-Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission,
-Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning,
-Acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand, and
-Exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created".

I suppose the relative obscurity of the term combined with the counterintuitive nature of the concept, is what is apparently so revolting to some MBA/Business Prof. types that I have run into. They all seem to come to the conclusion that Civiside is not worth doing because it will not make alot of money. While I have known intuitively that I will do Civiside regardless of the monetary outcome, I have been hard pressed to explain why...until now. Having an established term makes it significantly easier to explain why I am doing what I am doing, despite the apparent lack of financial incentive.

With that said, I completely disagree with some of these naysayers. I do believe that Civiside will make money, and even be an attractive acquisition at some point. I may not have proven it yet, but I think that with some of the recent learning I have done, and connections I have made, the service is well on it's way to becoming viable and profitable.

Constancy of our Debate.

2009-01-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

Next week Wed. (21 Jan: 5pm) Lauren from TalentEgg.ca and I have been invited to debate Gen Y in the workplace on CFRB 1010 in Toronto. They have asked us to send some background material on our companies, as well as the area we are debating. I suggested that we also send the initial article from Steve Maich in which we began this debate (completely unaware of one another at the time):

http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/11/24/is-this-the-future-dont-bet-on-it/

If you scroll down about a dozen comments you will first find my comment on the article, and then you will find Lauren's. It is remarkable how almost two months later we are now debating this on radio (and hopefully other media) across the nation. It is also remarkable that our positions have remained the same, though we certainly have come to agreement on a number of points on the periphery of the debate.

On a coincidental note, turns out the producer from the CFRB show is a guy that I went to university with. Certainly a welcome surprise.

Interesting conversations

2009-01-15T04:21:00.000-08:00

Lauren, from TalentEgg.ca, and I met yesterday and discussed everything under the entrepreneurial Sun. I think that we talked for about 1.5 hours, but it seemed like only minutes (well I guess it was technically 90 mins). What a pleasure it is to talk to someone who understands the challenges of being in a startup. We could have gone on for many hours more.

I also attended the Ruby on Rails Project Night last night. As amazing as this sounds, I actually found the technical presentations interesting. For sure they were way over my head, but watching the passion with which the presenters talked about different philosophies and techniques programmers can use with Ruby on Rails, really made it interesting.

Anyhow, the countdown to the HRPAO tradeshow is on. I am extremely excited about getting face-face with employers. There should be some significant awareness of civiside at this point, which I hope will convert to interest in posting jobs.

Service to Wounded Veterans

2009-01-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

Today I had the most interesting conversation with an U.S. Navy (SEALs) Officer named Eric Greitens; that runs an organization called the Center for Citizen Leadership. They are a non-profit organization that helps wounded combat veterans transition back into civilian life through monetary fellowships that allow them to volunteer for three months at a charity of their choice. The veteran then uses that experience and time to find what it is that they truly want to do in the civilian world, whether that be to go back to, work for the charity, go back to school, or try something else. Ultimately it is a bridge between the military and the civilian life in a way that benefits all of society.

I have to first say, I felt very honoured to have 20 mins of this great man's time. He is not only a warrior, but also a scholar (PH.D in Politics from Oxford University). The ancient Greek historian Thucydides wrote more than 2500 years ago:

"The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."

Eric ably demonstrates that the warrior scholar is not myth. He goes further to show that military service and community service are one in the same. His organization is something that is needed here in Canada (see summary of this Senate report on wounded veterans:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5g3-1Ri9KIhBg2vZWCMiEcxj8eMzg

I am going to do at least part of the work to bring it here by introducing the concept to some influential military people that I know.

Another Media Hit

2009-01-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Today Lauren of TalentEgg.ca and I did our live debate head to head on CJOB in Winnipeg. Originally we scheduled for 15-20 mins, but the segment was such a hit that we were on for 45 mins. As soon as the host opened to callers; the phones rang off the hook. The host actually told us during a commercial break that we work really well together...which, I completely agree.

Anyhow, I had to feel bad for Lauren because the show had callers that were none too kind about the position that Lauren was defending. I tried to support her position abit by prefacing my comments saying that I wasn't generalizing that every Gen Y felt entitled and were unproductive...however that didn't stop some of the callers from outright calling Gen Y lazy. Anyhow, Lauren rolled with it and showed great composure, probably more than I would have, in handling these comments.

Anyhow, the debate is obviously a very hot one, and I suspect that we will be quite in demand on this topic. A very good day indeed.

Media hit

2009-01-07T19:13:00.001-08:00

Today we got our first hit for the press initiative that we are doing with TalentEgg. It was a strange one because it was conducted as two separate interviews. Kind of difficult to debate when you don't know what the other person is saying. Regardless, another new media experience under the belt.

To Adapt or not Adapt, That is the Millennial Question

2009-01-06T07:13:00.000-08:00

Fresh from our Globe and Mail feature, today Civiside.com is launching a joint press initiative with TalentEgg.ca: "To Adapt or Not Adapt, That is the Millennial Question"

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Civi-Side-Inc/Talentegg-Inc-934855.html

It's a bit off the beaten path, but is actually a topic that is of great importance to me, and one that I think I can offer some unique insight into. I wrote an earlier post essentially summarizing my position if anyone cares to read it:

http://civiside.blogspot.com/2008/12/army-of-one.html

Effect of Globe and Mail feature

2009-01-05T19:47:00.000-08:00

It's been a very interesting day. I have received calls and emails that run the gamut from a business professor (not the one in the article) urging me not to continue pursuing civiside because it is not going to make money, to military people, active and retired, thanking me for taking the initiative to build something that benefits the troops. If you wonder what I will do...wait for it....I'm sticking it out (of course).

Though this is a business, it didn't start out that way. I conceived of civiside entirely as a means to help reduce the number of trained soldiers retiring due to working for employers that wouldn't give them time off for training. I had to make it into a business because I couldn't get the military to build the service itself.

My motivation to create civiside predates any concept of a business model or monetary reward, so the argument that it won't make money has no effect on me. I am building it for my colleagues, and the personal satisfaction of doing the improbable. If it doesn't make money, but solves the problem that I set out to fix, I have been successful. If I make some money off of it...icing on the cake.

Globe and Mail article

2009-01-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

Civiside was featured in the Business Incubator of today's Globe and Mail with advice from some business experts:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090105.INCUBATOR05/TPStory/Business

I would have been happier if the experts had taken the time to learn a little bit more about why the service was launched, their advice would probably have looked different. However, some of the criticism and advice is valid and I will act on it asap.

Civi-Side Co-Founder Resigns

2009-01-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

It is with great disappointment that I announce that Jamie Smith, my co-founder, has decided to move on from Civiside. He has other opportunities that he would like to pursue. Good luck in your endeavours Jamie.

This is a good opportunity to reflect on the key qualities of an entrepreneur...tenacity and optimism. It is par for the course that crisis will hit at the worst possible time. This particular crisis is hitting when Civiside is about to be featured in the business section of the Globe and Mail, potentially creating awareness among hundreds of thousands of Canadians (circulation of over 300 000 daily). We are also launching a couple of other media initiatives over the next month, as well as doing a very important tradeshow at the end of the month. All in all, civiside is entering its most critical period and I am going to be doing it entirely alone.

Instead of treating this crisis as a lethal blow I am looking at it as a test of my tenacity and optimism. I can clearly see what needs to be done and am focusing my plans on making it happen. Civi-Side and I will come out of this just fine.

Addendum

I just found this video interview of Rebecca McDonald, CEO of Energy Income Savings Fund, a billion dollar Canadian business. What I liked about the interview is that she credits sticking with an idea despite the obstacles and working hard as the keys to success. Not too complex a formula really.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/video/vs?id=RTGAM.20080812.wvleaders_macdonald&sid=

Wounded Canadian Soldiers

2008-12-28T14:23:00.000-08:00

A Canadian press story noting the numbers of wounded soldiers coming back from Afghanistan, and the difference in care and compensation received by Reservists:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5g3-1Ri9KIhBg2vZWCMiEcxj8eMzg

An "Army of One"

2008-12-26T09:54:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays I watched an award winning documentary called "Army of One". It was about three young people, all under 25, who joined the U.S. Army post 9/11. One particular young soldier really caught my attention because of his disillusionment. He was trying to get out of the military because he felt that he had been misled into signing up by promises of action, adventure, service to country and civilization. Instead he was driving a military truck in Fort Benning, Georgia. During Christmas Leave the camera followed him home and it became crystal clear why he felt the way he did. His mother spoke to him on camera saying “If our government cannot find something good to do with you, and something you’ll be interested in, and valuable, because you are unique”. We are left without the mother’s final conclusion as to what should happen if the government doesn’t provide what he needs, but we can assume that the advice was something along the lines of ‘Quit the Army’.

It explains so much of this soldier's crisis when the mother expresses that the government owes her son interesting experiences because he is "unique" (This programming is prevalent among Boomer parents). She forgets that the military is not an organization of service to oneself, it is an organization of service to others. Of course, proponents of Gen-Y will immediately point out that the statistics show that this generation is volunteering for community service in unprecedented numbers. However, the question isn’t whether they are willing to give to others, it is whether they are willing to sacrifice for others. The example of the young soldier above casts this value into doubt. After all, the exact same logic that the mother used to give her son an ‘out’ from the military would presumably be applied to volunteering for a charity, think again of the above words, but substitute in Habitat for Humanity “If Habitat for Humanity cannot find something good to do with you, and something you’ll be interested in, and valuable, because you are unique” (Quit Habitat for Humanity). As an outsider hearing these words, most would immediately red flag this as a flawed piece of logic that discourages self-sacrifice for the greater good.

The military indoctrinates the concept and practice of perseverance and self-sacrifice into every soldier from day one. For some, like the example above, their prior programming cannot be overridden and therefore they are extremely dissatisfied with what they experience. They fail to learn that self-sacrifice is honourable and fulfilling, though often difficult and painful. Most often this leads to them leaving the service.

Voluntarily staying with the military, on the other hand, is a clear signal that this individual has been indoctrinated with the values of perseverance and self-sacrifice. In an employment situation this means that they will be inclined to put in the hours and dirty work to contribute to the collective good. This doesn't mean that your company should overload them like beasts of burden, rather they should be raised to be leaders in your organization so that their work ethic is evident to everyone that encounters them, therefore setting the example of what the company is looking for from its young employees.

Some employers will say that hiring reservists means that they will lose productivity for periods of time. However, keep in mind, that the same organization that initially indoctrinated them with the values of perseverance and self-sacrifice, is continually reinforcing those qualities in the training that they are doing, therefore returning them to your workplace even further imbued with the personal work ethic that leads to greater productivity for both themselves, and the people that work for them. A very small loss in personal productivity is more likely to result in greater productivity for the whole.

With that explanation, this is a good time to announce that CiviSide.com is doing a joint press release with TalentEgg.ca debating whether Gen-Y should adapt to the workplace, or vice versa. From the above you can certainly see where I stand. I believe that this is an important debate that must be given very careful consideration by every employer. The result of this debate may well decide the basic philosophy of work for a very long time.

Globe and Mail photoshoot

2008-12-15T07:51:00.000-08:00

I just finished a photoshoot with Peter Powers of The Globe and Mail. He did the shoot as part of a feature the Globe is doing on Civi-Side in the Business Incubator section. The section features a business that is usually at the startup stage and looking for advice on how to grow. The Globe then brings in a panel of experts to comment on how they would approach the problem. This should be great national exposure, as well as a learning experience.

I don't know when the article will be coming out, but I expect it should be within the next 4-6 weeks. I'll let you know when it does.

Coincidentally, Peter is a former military guy himself, as is his editor Noel Hulsman. I seem to run into that in the most random of places, including Newspapers, Venture Capital funds,and HR conferences. I think that this shows how flexible military people really are, and how the soft skills they gain in the military directly translate into the civilian world to make them successful.

Christmas Dinner, and a Wrong that Must be Righted.

2008-12-07T06:21:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we had the Christmas Dinner for the troops. In the military we have a tradition where the Officers and Senior Non Commissioned Officers serve the troops Christmas Dinner. The idea behind it being that the troops work for us all year, and that at Christmas we work for them to show our appreciation. It's a wonderful tradition that I look forward to every year.

On a unrelated, but very important note, I just came across this story about an auxiliary RCMP officer that was killed in the line of duty in 2004:

http://tinyurl.com/5cvxta

http://tinyurl.com/66n9ml

I am sad that this is the first time that I have heard of this loss, but more angry at the way his service to the community was treated. Instead of his name being placed on the Police Memorial, he was denied official recognition because he was not a full-time paid employee of the service. Imagine that you as a military reservist were treated in such a shameful way by being allowed to die in uniform, but not be recognized as an equal member of the Forces? There is something you can do about this. There is an online petition that you can sign to rectify this injustice:

http://surreyauxiliary.org/petition/

It's called "Hard Work" for a reason.

2008-12-04T06:43:00.000-08:00

The Steve Maich, Macleans Magazine article, I referred to in my last post has really been sitting on my brain since I read it. Steve perfectly encapsulated the definition of Hard Work: "perseverance, discipline, focus, and sacrifice". Most people walk into an interview and tell the employer "I'm a hard worker". However, the employer knows that most of his workforce are not "hard workers", they are simply doing the minimum needed to collect a paycheque. The phrase hard worker is simply a punchline used to get a job.

Here's a new idea, tell the interviewer that you are a hard worker, but back it up by breaking down how you have shown perseverance, discipline, focus, and sacrifice in your personal or working life. If you are military this will be easy. For example, I could tell an employer that I persevered through extreme sleep deprivation, unreasonable deadlines, physical exhaustion, and mental stress...in basic training alone. I could say that I have shown discipline by maintaining a high level of physical fitness for military service on my own time. I could say that I have shown focus by staying with the military for almost four years. I could say that in addition to my regular civilian schooling/work, I have voluntarily sacrificed my evenings and weekends to prepare myself physically and mentally to defend Canada. Imagine what the employer would think of a job candidate that comes in and says that I have proven that I will voluntarily push my body in order to make sure that I am capable of coming in every day to work with the greatest ability to get the job done for you? Be a hard worker, it is to your benefit.

I urge you to measure your work against the criteria of perseverance, discipline, focus, and sacrifice. This is especially true if you are military, but is applicable to any competitive field. An organization's success depends on the individual/team's perseverance, discipline, focus, and sacrifice being greater than the opponent's. Be in it to win!

Macleans on Millennials

2008-12-01T00:22:00.000-08:00

In a random coincidence to yesterday's blog posting, I just came across this article that appeared in last week's Macleans Magazine:

http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/11/24/is-this-the-future-dont-bet-on-it/

The passage that most caught my eye was

"they (Boomers) raised their kids to be steeped in the ethos of self-esteem, praised at every turn, enrolled in dozens of activities to ensure “well-roundedness.” Boomers, who’ve spent their lives terrified of being seen as old-fashioned, never bothered to dwell on archaic notions like perseverance, discipline, focus and sacrifice."

It was interesting to me that the author would use character traits such as perseverance, discipline, focus, and sacrifice, to describe the qualities missing in Millennials as a generation. Aren't these the character traits that the military teaches our young soldiers? This article certainly supports our claim that hiring reservists is a smart business decision.

Millennials at Your Service

2008-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

We have decided to begin another press push with the theme:

"Millennials at Your Service"

The idea behind this theme is that young reservists are differentiated from their civilian peers by the experience, skills, and character gained in their Service to Canada.

For those of you who have not heard the term Millennials, the Millennials are the generation born roughly between 1980-2000. This generation have been characterized as "Trophy Kids" because they expect to receive a participation award for everything. Millennials are also often seen by employers as selfish, disloyal, and lacking in work ethic. This manifests itself in the workplace as an expectation for recognition, promotions, and raises, even for substandard work.

We at civiside.com are contrasting the negative characterizations of Millennials with an image of hardworking, loyal, and team-oriented young reservists. Sure we have the occasional Bloggins in our midst, but overall, our young people are some of the best that this country has to offer. They know how to put in a hard day of work individually and as a team, they are enthusiastic about challenges, and don't expect something for nothing. These qualities alone should make them top of the list for employers. In addition, reservists bring proven team-building and leadership skills, as well as training in First Aid, Harassment Prevention, Media Awareness, and Ethics.

I've said it before, employers are the ones who gain the most when they hire reservists. Hopefully our efforts will help them see this clearly.

Article in HR trade publication

2008-11-24T11:21:00.000-08:00

There is an article today in Workplace Magazine that I think very nicely summarizes why employers should be hiring reservists:

http://tinyurl.com/6c3t72

We are now pushing our press campaign into the business and trade press with the message that hiring reservists is good business sense, in addition to good corporate citizenship. This is an irresistable combination for most employers.

As always, I encourage you to tell fellow reservists about civiside.com. Employers are posting jobs and they need to see job candidates in return. We have built the platform, raised awareness of the value of reservists and the need for a supportive employer, now it's up to reservists to complete the final part of the equation by signing up.

Update.

2008-11-17T20:29:00.000-08:00

Over the last week I have continued to do press and media interviews in Brandon, Belleville, and Kingston. The media continue to show an interest in what we are doing, and that has been a welcome surprise.

I have also been working on an information package that we will be sending to all the reserve units across Canada. The hardest part of our mission has been getting reservists to sign up for the service. Employers for the most part have been very interested in posting jobs to attract reservists to their companies. The problem is that we can't actively promote the service to many employers without a sufficient pool of reservists to take the jobs. We are at a Chicken or Egg situation that is slowing down our progress. If you are a reservist who has been putting off signing up for the service because you want to see what happens, I recommend that you take the initiative and receive the benefit of being one of the early users.

In case you don't see why using civiside benefits you, here are a few reasons:

1. Position your military experience as a competitive advantage versus your civilian peers. Employers posting jobs on civiside consider military experience to be a competitive advantage versus the other indirect work experiences of your civilian peers.

2. Employers posting jobs on civiside have signed a statement of support for reservists working for them. This means, if you decide to stay in the reserves you will have an employer who won't refuse time of for training requests, or make you use your annual vacation instead of accommodating your military service.

3. Civiside is designed to do the job searching for you. All you need to do is sign up with an email, password, and your educational credentials. Civiside will then automatically inform you whenever a job is posted that matches your credentials. No need to browse, or even return to the site, until you are matched with a job that you want to apply for.

I hope that the benefits of civiside are now clear. I look forward to continuing the iteration of the service so that every reservist that wants a job with a reserve-friendly employer gets one.

CBC Radio One interview.

2008-11-11T03:38:00.000-08:00

My interview on CBC Radio One yesterday went exceptionally well. It was a little shorter than I thought it would be, but nevertheless excellent. I received calls from friends all over excitedly telling me that they had heard me on the radio. It really shows how great exposure on CBC is.

With this interview finished we have wrapped up our press campaign and will get back to the job of bringing reservists and reserve-friendly employers together. I expect that we will be putting out an information package in the next week or so to most of the reserve units across Canada, then contacting our list of reserve-friendly employers and encouraging them to post their jobs.

An exciting time to be civiside.com.

To listen to the interview visit http://www.civiside.com/press

90th Remembrance Ceremony

2008-11-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Today I marched with the 1000 member strong Hamilton Garrison in the 90th Remembrance ceremony. It's always an honour to be part of the parade. Marching as part of such a large body of soldiers you also remember that you are part of a much larger fraternity of Canadians that have served the country, many paying the ultimate price of sacrifice.

It is important to remember that when we reach the 100th Remembrance ceremony that most of our current WWII veterans will no longer be with us to give their first hand account of the great suffering their generation went through to protect the spirit of freedom. It is my hope that we as a nation will continue to remember those that fought as part of The Greatest Generation, and what they stood for, and against, whether they are still in our presence or not.

Technical Problems

2008-11-07T04:29:00.001-08:00

In case you are wondering why civiside has largely been down since Thurs. afternoon (yesterday), our server host decided to migrate our server to another one, in the process lousing everything up for us. Our site became unusable b/c the database was corrupted. We had to spring into action and decide what to do to salvage the situation, and decided to upgrade our site to what we were intending to launch in a week...a brand new civiside.com site! The new site is developed in Ruby on Rails, a cutting edge programming language that makes development leaner and meaner.

The new civiside.com is designed to be quicker, more robust, and easier to use. We took people's feedback to heart and designed from the ground up a service that will get you in and out as quickly as is possible.

Don't be surprised if there are bugs, as we are rolling out this site ahead of where we intended. If you do find bugs use the feedback buttons to let us know and we will be on it lickety split.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

National Press Coverage

2008-11-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

In addition to the media/press we have been receiving in individual cities from Victoria to Charlottetown, we have two upcoming national radio shows: The Roy Green Show on Sun, and CBC Radio One "The Point" on Mon.

We are still waiting for bites from the national press like The Globe and Mail and The National Post. Hopefully they will see fit to do a piece on our mission to help reservists connect with supportive employers.

Successful So Far.

2008-10-31T16:21:00.000-07:00

Our press campaign has been successful to this point, and looks to be picking up momentum. I have done radio and newspaper interviews from Victoria to Hamilton, with a number of places in between. It's a very exciting time and I am enjoying all the support that the press are giving to our concept.

Tomorrow's Veterans Need a Supportive Employer Today.

2008-10-21T06:54:00.000-07:00

We will be launching our "Tomorrow's Veterans Need a Supportive Employer Today" media campaign in the next couple of weeks. We received some excellent advice from a Globe and Mail editor, and a MetroLand Papers managing editor, on how to make our story more appealing to the media. I am very excited to see how it is picked up by media outlets.

Another little lesson that I have learned is to really cast a wide net of advisors with many different perspectives (some being specialists, as in the case of our media advisors). Our permanent group of advisors gave advice on how to approach the media that was very different from that our media advisors gave. After reworking our press story into the problem/solution narrative suggested by the media advisors I can really see how much more interesting it is from a news perspective. This knowledge gained will be very useful to me as we continue to progress throughout the lifespan of civiside.

Passion

2008-09-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

I am not terribly consistent with blogging and for this I apologize. We have been busy coming up with our strategy for the 08-09 recruiting year, contacting vendors for a virtual job fair that we will be running, and getting prepared for our first press release. We expect that over the next 6 weeks or so things should take off.

I suppose the lesson imparted over the last months has been sticking to your passion. We ran out of investor money almost 6 months ago and have had to bootstrap development since. I hope that this shows to potential investors that we are committed to making civiside a success. We have personally sacrificed (and continue to do so) more than we have. We are not giving up until every reservist and employer has either accepted or rejected civiside as a service. If you are reading this blog for inspiration, find something that you will do despite the sacrifice and nil extrinsic reward, and you will have a real passion that will carry you through the hard times.

Mentors and Mentees

2008-08-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'm on Ben Casnocha's email newsletter list and was interested to read his thoughts on how to be a good "Mentee". Ben made a great point that for a mentor to feel like their time and effort is worth giving the mentee has to show that they are people that can be coached. However, he rightly points out that the kind of people who will risk everything on a startup are typically very headstrong, self-confident, and aggressive. This creates a fine line to walk on b/c well intentioned mentors may find the mentee push back on advice given, and therefore seem to reject the mentor's gift. I can tell you that this is something that I constantly struggle with as an entrepreneur. I ask for advice, but then get very frustrated with what I perceive to be overly conservative responses. Or, I ask for feedback on our business plan and financials and then get tasked with more work to further clarify what seems to me to be ridiculously clear. I ask for honest advice and feedback...I just want it to reflect what I'm already thinking. Probably not the best model for a successful relationship.

Anyhow, I am aware of the problem and continue to work on my shortcomings as a mentee. One of our advisors in particular has given us huge amounts of time and advice on our business plan and financials, and I must admit that I have been less than the ideal mentee to work with. However, I have complied with his requests to tighten up the plan and financials if for no other reason than to make sure he feels that his feedback is being heard and acted on. Maybe this will be the start of being a better mentee.

With all that said, I would like to thank all of our advisors for their generosity in helping us startup and succeed. I hope that one day I can return the favour.

HRPAO trade show.

2008-08-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce that civiside will be at the Human Resources Professionals of Ontario trade show in January. This is an awesome opportunity to present our services to over 4000 HR decision makers over a 3 day period.

I know this to be a great event b/c just as civiside was beginning as a company, I happened on the trade show and saw it for myself. It is quite a production. I got a ton of great ideas for civiside just by seeing what was already out there.

The timing of this couldn't be better (end of January). It gives us a chance to sign a critical mass of reservists before a large number of employers flood civiside with job postings. I'm actually a little afraid that we will have too many employers and not enough reservists signed up to accommodate the demand. Hopefully we will be able to rectify this sooner rather than later.

Canadian music still rocks! Part II

2008-07-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

I have over the last few days been listening to a band that never quite made it mainstream, but nevertheless influenced scores of young musicians back in the early 90's. The band is none other that The Lowest of The Low"...do I hear crickets? I'm not surprised if you haven't heard of them, they were really only popular around Southern Ontario and Western New York. However, after listening to them again after this many years I am amazed by the staying power of their music and incisive lyrics.

The reason I am getting back into them is because I have recently picked up my guitar and started playing after many years of neglect. I learned of The Low at exactly the time I was learning to play guitar so I ended up learning a number of their songs. Another band that I learned to play guitar to was The Lemonheads. They're not quite as brilliant in the lyrics department, but nevertheless still so fun to play.

It's funny to me that what has returned me to playing music hasn't been new songs, but the same old ones, albeit experienced in a new way as I age and mature.

I also hope that you find joy in the same old songs experienced in a new way.

Canadian music still rocks!

2008-07-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

Three weeks into my working vacation in Quebec. Have enjoyed the city immensely. The summer musical festival was fantastic. Saw acts such as Feist, Stars, Great Big Sea, and venerable rockers Honeymoon Suite. Two things really struck me about the shows I saw: 1. Great Big Sea were unbelievably good. In fact so good, that my 15 minute stopover before going to Stone Temple Pilots turned into 2 hrs of Newfoundland kitchen party and no STP. 2. Even though they haven't been in the spotlight for roughly 2 decades Honeymoon Suite could still rock. It was also amazing to me that I knew many of their songs this many years later (that's the benefit of a hook).

Anyhow, in business news, Jamie and I have been busy trying to put together pro forma financials that investors want to see. We think we have something together now that should do the job. Hopefully the right people will see what we have to offer and will come through.

That's it for now.

Update

2008-06-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

In the past 5 weeks we have gone to the Founders and Funders Dinner and made some great connections. We have also just about finished the next iteration of our technology. Finally, we have been working with select employers to help them find the talent that they are looking for.

We expect Sept to begin the high season for our efforts with corporate recruiters and reservists. So, most of our time now is spent on setting ourselves up for a a highly demanding sales season between Sept08-April09. We expect that by this time next year civiside will be a valued resource for employers, and a household name in the reserve community.

I'm off to Quebec City for the month of July to enjoy the 400th Anniversary celebrations. However, it will be a working vacation. I'll be doing everything that I am doing here, just moving it with me to a new locale. I also hope to improve my French considerably in this time.

Founders and Funders

2008-05-23T09:22:00.001-07:00

I'm really excited to report that civiside was invited to the Founders and Funders Dinner in Toronto. We were invited to the one in Montreal also, but couldn't afford to travel (that's how cash strapped we are : (

Founders and Funders is great idea to give startup founders and investors a way to network in a very informal way that allows for open dialogue without pressure.

Anyhow, this will be a great opportunity to meet others in the Toronto tech community. I expect that we will make some great connections.