ALUMRISE

Most days, when I wake up, I don’t have time to take a pulse. Life’s too busy.

But this Thanksgiving week is deliberately slow.

When the year gets quieter, I turn to literature both to help me move forward and to allow me to reflect on the past and ideas that have been fermenting throughout the year. For most of this morning, a certain quote has been stuck in my head:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.

Dickens spent most of his life serializing the plight of the new industrial age. What children, what bourgeoisie, what farm workers were affected by the shift to factories and assembly lines?

This holiday season, we will have every opportunity to reflect on new shifts, seismic shifts, global shifts, in how we work and live.

Let’s make this quiet time, this holiday time, the best of times, by illuminating new solutions, not despairing the demise of the old.

How can we make 2009 the best of times?

Our team has had a series of questions over the past few months about the name of the company. Why ALUMRISE?

We thought we’d share a quick perspective, and a visual, and would love to hear your comments in response.

So what’s in our name? In our opinion, knowledge workers outside the workforce are alumnus of a broad set of experiences – industry tenures, corporate cultures, specific management backgrounds – but until we came along, there was no good way to triangulate on the intersection of those experiences to hone in on the “profile” of a uniquely qualified worker.

Consider a stretched manager with no budget to spend, but a revenue or growth pipeline to deliver. And think about them finding, within ALUMRISE, in a moment, a hypothetical Sara who used to work at P&G in the CPG industry in London, expert in pricing with 10 years of experience, now living in Florida, raising kids, and willing to work at $80 an hour full time for the next four weeks and deliver the necessary results.

We are the sum total of our experiences, and we rise with them to new opportunity. That’s the genesis of the ALUMRISE name. We’ve been proud to hear some people telling us already that they are beginning to consider themselves, and call themselves, ALUMRISERS.

Another quick note, because we have been asked: ALUMRISE is not a place for just temporary or consulting employment. It’s a global opportunity marketplace for talent, offering and exchanging certain, sell-able or trade-able skills and experiences – whatever the form those take. It can be a marketplace from which to find a new job, shift industries, source a non-traditional role or engage in a skills-building assignment.

You’ll hear from us in coming months as to why we think this flexibility is important and why we believe that “opportunity” will change shape and guise many times over the coming years. The most important lesson for individuals and employers may be to stay open to a multiplicity of employment compacts as the fixed lease model is challenged by economic and business trends.

So stay tuned, but meanwhile, do share what you think of the name ALUMRISE. Good, bad, ugly, our team would love to hear from you.

In this our launch week, I’d like to take a moment to talk about some thoughts and perceptions on the new global talent economy.
 
I believe each of us will face some seminal challenges and emerging issues — but these are ones that we can solve, together:
 
We must come to terms with the struggle between private lives, and the growing pressure for a public brand identity to enable our continued employment and survival in a changing global landscape.

• How we will shape our dual or quadruple life brands? How will our future buyers react? How will we feel and act in this atmosphere of 24/7 exposure? To support our members, I’d like to continue to talk about privacy and public identity in the ALUMRISE blog, and I hope you’ll join in our future dialogue.

We must find new, flexible, real-time ways to grow skills and experience to ensure they we get ahead and do not, like the machines that drove industries of yore, become redundant due to macro economic shifts.

• In upcoming days and months, I’d like to talk about how a real-time talent economy tool like ALUMRISE can help move people more swiftly into new industries and new roles, helping them to define skills and opportunities much, much more broadly. And I’ll talk about the myth of work redundancy, driven by an industrial mindset that should no longer define us, and frankly probably never should have. I’d like to talk about the myth of the line between work and life for everyone from retirees, to exiting mothers and newly minted workers. I hope you’ll participate and share your earned wisdom via our blogs and future ALUMRISER forums, and also explore new solutions we’ll be launching. 

And we must reconcile with confusing issues like how to shape our own life stability if income is not fixed or if work is cyclical and dynamic, and learn how to shore up energy and resources to manage a longer life and work span than perhaps we started out being prepared to invest in and for.

• If you are facing choices or introspection around these topics, I hope you will join us in providing and supporting solutions and in proposing better ways to manage the changing nature of work, either by contributing your voice or perspective as a future guest-blogger, or by supporting our solutions for continued income and opportunity for all those across the demographic and life stage spectrum, from first-time workforce entrants, to the newly retired from work, but not life.

It’s about time we gathered ’round to talk about these issues, because we are all bound by common circumstance, common life stage, common realization or uncommon intellect, about the changing nature of the way we will work and live. 
 
I’ll end with a tip: Within our launch Gathering Place marketplace, simply press “go” to see ALUMRISER members in the simple search bar, and recognize that there’s others out there like you facing the same questions and decisions on a daily basis. I’ll admit our whole team still gets a thrill from seeing a new ALUMRISER sign up. I hope you do, too.

- Aassia Haq, President and CEO, ALUMRISE Inc

When ALUMRISE was founded more than two years ago, we could have not imagined the day we announced the launch of our full application to the marketplace, would coincide with the day that millions across the U.S. would vote in a highly charged, mixed atmosphere of great hope, great uncertainty and great pressure.
 
Do you, too, believe there are big changes brewing in how each of us will work and live?
 
As today’s U.S. election comes and goes, the real truth is that no matter which candidate you selected or supported, you should also consider a new vote - a vote for yourself. 
 
Consider standing up with us for your earned rights: to be a productive contributor, hooked in and hooked up to opportunity, income and influence - whatever your circumstance, location, choices, or work life stage and whatever the macro shifts of the global economy.
 
Together, we can re-enfranchise millions into the workforce, enabling a new source of productivity and growth for the global economy. The person dubbed an ALUMRISER is someone with real skills to offer, and their alum-sourcing is as valid a business/buyer strategy & solution today as off-shoring or downsizing. 
 
Our joining members, both buyers and ALUMRISERS, will help shape the path of how we work and live. You’ll be hearing more about ALUMRISE’s exciting vision for how to do that on our blog, and via the introduction of new features within our marketplace. 
 
If you are not an ALUMRISER today, tomorrow you might be. (With a shout out to those hunting for new opportunities on the streets of New York, or other towns and cities around the country and the world). So might your parents, children, spouse or partner, relatives or friends. Each of us can reach out and touch an ALUMRISER.
 
When you get out to vote - please also remember to vote for yourself.
 
It’s time to sign up.
 
Posted Nov 4, 2008 - By ALUMRISE Team