Gretchen Neels | Gen Etiquette

May 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Gretchen Neels: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Gretchen Neels has over ten years of experience recruiting and retaining top talent at a number of prestigious professional services firms, including Skadden, Baker & McKenzie, McDermott Will & Emery, Bain & Company, Bank of America and Gordon Brothers.

As a recruiter, Gretchen often saw excellent candidates who did not get jobs for which they were technically qualified because they lacked developed soft skills - the ability to connect personally with another.

She also observed that employers would sometimes overlook a lack of soft skills in a new hire, thinking their technical competence made up for whatever interpersonal shortcomings they had. Unfortunately, in today’s competitive marketplace, employers need every employee to have the ability to both do their work and connect with clients. As a result, employers now more than ever strive to hire people who excel in both technical (hard) and interpersonal (soft) skills.

She has found manners and interpersonal skills elements essential to success in todays business environment. An accomplished and sought-after public speaker, Gretchen enjoys developing young executives:

“Helping a young associate understand the intricacies of the corporate world brings immense satisfaction to me as a facilitator. Seeing them gain confidence and develop client relationships brings that same satisfaction to management.”

Posted by admin | Filed Under Business, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Donald Ray Pollock | Knockemstiff

May 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Donald Pollock: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Donald Ray Pollock was born in 1954 and grew up in southern Ohio, in a holler named Knockemstiff. He dropped out of high school at seventeen to work in a meatpacking plant, and then spent thirty-two years employed in a paper mill in Chillicothe, Ohio. Currently, he is a graduate student in the MFA program at Ohio State University and still lives in Chillicothe with his wife, Patsy, a high school English teacher. He hopes to someday teach fiction writing. His work has appeared in, or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Third Coast, The Journal, Sou’wester, Chiron Review, River Styx, Boulevard, Folio, and The Berkeley Fiction Review. He is currently at work on a novel set in 1965, about a serial killer named Arvin Eugene Russell. http://www.donaldraypollock.com/

Posted by admin | Filed Under History, Fiction, AUTHOR INTERVIEW