{"id":716,"date":"2010-01-30T11:53:28","date_gmt":"2010-01-30T19:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.codebelay.com\/blog\/?p=716"},"modified":"2010-01-30T12:07:39","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T20:07:39","slug":"survival-books-for-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codebelay.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/30\/survival-books-for-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Survival Books for 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a San Francisco ad agency, I’ve seen an office of well over 600 people in December of 2008 shrink to an office of less than 140.<\/p>\n

I got to visit the office on Thursday and it felt like a beehive where the queen bee has left and only hangers on are busy milling about.<\/p>\n

How did I survive? (Just to disclose: I am no longer part of the Ad Agency and have found work at a Creative Technology Agency<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

I was the last hire at the SF office in December 2008. It wasn’t until an ex-MySpace executive got hired in November 2009 that the hiring freeze ended. However, there were still additional cuts. I was invited to a lunch where I was told that we were the last folks remaining in December and that there would be no more cuts.<\/p>\n

Here’s what got me through that rough year:<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>
by James Heaphey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a pretty awesome book that gives a realistic look into how normal people act when they get into organizations of a certain size. This is the kind of book that will wake you up to the aggressive and covert competition that your office mates engage in to get ahead. I didn’t read this book to get ahead though. Historical forces demanded something more basic: survival.<\/p>\n

Here are some helpful hints the book gives:<\/p>\n