My book is out - RECRUIT OR DIE

Click here or on the cover to see Recruit Or Die on Amazon.
Read the introduction for free
Listen to my first interview about the book.
Or scroll down for links to more early media mentions.

Kirkus Reports - review of Recruit Or Die
Harvard Business Review online - Ideacast interview with our lead author Chris Resto
Entrepreneur magazine
Yahoo! columnist Penelope Trunk on how to use Recruit Or Die to help your career

If you know anyone whose organization recruits young talent, please tell them about Recruit Or Die. Or introduce them to me directly (ian -AT- alwaysrecruiting.com). I'd be happy to talk recruiting with them.

Posted by Ian Ybarra on 26 August 2007 Permalink

Dance like nobody's watching

So proud of my friend Beau. Now performing with several professional companies in New York, he tells the Lawrence Journal-World how hard it was to overcome societal pressures to do what he loves.

Beau Hancock lived in fear of those stereotypes as a boy growing up in the small southwest Kansas town of Hugoton. He was afraid of being teased. Afraid of being dubbed a sissy or called gay.

“For years I denied that I danced,” says Hancock, who studied dance at Kansas University and now performs professionally in several New York companies. “When I had to leave sports practice early to drive to dance class, which was in a nearby town, I would lie about where I was going, even though all my friends knew. I was embarrassed, and especially in elementary and middle school, I was teased.”

Link: Lawrence Journal-World - "It's a man's whirl"

Posted by Ian Ybarra on 5 February 2007 Permalink

The VP who quit to become an actor

Just read this in Men's Health. Guy's name is Steve Belanger.

I must admit, my life had been pretty comfortable. I was a vice president--one of hundreds, but still--at one of the largest corporations in the world. There was a lot of room for advancement. I had a nice office, an enormous expense account, and plenty of perks. I played more free golf on the country's top courses than my 19 handicap deserved.

And I don't need to tell you how tough it is to become an actor. There are just shy of a gazillion actors in America trying out for seven roles. I know because they all cram into small, windowless waiting rooms every time I go out for an audition. And screen-writing, my backup dream, is even harder to break into. Walk into any Starbucks in New York or L.A. and ask for a script, and you'll have baristas coming at you as if you're an unclaimed acre in Sooner territory.

So why would I, by all accounts a reasonably intelligent person, take such a huge risk?

I wasn't happy.

Three things to do now.

1. Read the whole article Men's Health - "Why I Quit My 6-figure Job"

2. Learn more about Steve at his website and this hilarious bio/story about his career actually living The Office.

3. Whatever it takes to make sure that when you're 38, your bio doesn't start with the line After a sixteen-year, soul-crushing career as a corporate executive... (Steve's bio)

Posted by Ian Ybarra on 2 January 2007 Permalink

Why John Edwards became a trial lawyer

Letterman: When you were a kid...what drove you or led you to law?

Edwards: I thought Perry Mason was cool.

That and more in the video below (starts at 2:28 if you want to get right to it).

Posted by Ian Ybarra on 28 December 2006 Permalink

In the Boston Globe

I'm in the cover story of the Boston Works section today (that's me in the blue, my friend Chris who built the largest internship program at MIT is in the black). It's about how mentors can help jumpstart your career.

Link: Boston Sunday Globe - "Find someone to watch over you"

Or if that doesn't work, try the writer's blog at
Link: Penelope Trunk - "Get good mentors by building relationships"

Posted by Ian Ybarra on 26 November 2006 Permalink

Andy Byrnes, baseball bat maker

I knew nothing about woodworking when I started.


He just knew he loved baseball. Now he's worked five years at Sambat, the company known for its maple bats that Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols use.


Link: Popular Mechanics - "This is My Job: Baseball Bat Maker"

Posted by Ian Ybarra on 18 November 2006 Permalink

Emily Meehan, trying to make it in media, in New York

Great first-person account of the hope and hopelessness that come with moving to New York by yourself to do anything but work on Wall Street, really.

As I studied my icons' biographies on Wikipedia, I realized that Joan Didion, Hunter Thompson and Dorothy Parker were not alone with a buzzing fly in a borrowed apartment at age 26. They were out and about, working with witty peers and learning from their elders.

Many creative twentysomethings I know are happy to rent a room from someone else and live off cereal and burritos until they make their mark. Me too, but I want to feel like I'm getting somewhere while I'm doing it. I also need to know when money is coming in and how much for the sake of my own sanity.

Yet another harsh reminder that having control of your money situation is undeniably one of the four keys to living your dreams.

Full column on WSJ CollegeJournal - Free-lance Dreams Give Way to Reality

Posted by Ian Ybarra on 17 November 2006 Permalink