In today’s business climate “the old rules of job hunting and career management no longer apply,” says Joe Watson ’87. With the recent publication of his second book, Where the Jobs Are Now, and through his two businesses, Strategic Hire and Without Excuses, Watson is equipping people with tools to adjust to new global economic realities. His personal slogan: “Subtle pressure, relentlessly applied.”
Strategic Hire and Without Excuses began as human-resources consulting firms that emphasized building diversity at the highest organizational levels. In 2006, he published Without Excuses: Unleash the Power of Diversity to Build Your Business,” a guide for executives and human-resource managers. He’s appeared on CBS’s The Early Show, NBC’s Today and Fox News’ The Live Desk and has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Essence Magazine and Black Enterprise. Watson, who lives in Virginia, also worked with former governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine to shape their administrations.
With the economic downturn, Watson continues to advocate for self-empowerment. “What I have a real passion for is helping people who get overlooked,” he says. Where the Jobs are Now “is written to be intellectually available to all people—young, old, blue collar, white collar—and speaks to both the employed and unemployed. My goal is to help people … prepare for a radically different future.
Published February 12, 2012