“Don’t Call Your Boss an Idiot” To Focus on Workplace Diplomacy
The importance of social skills for career advancement in engineering and related disciplines will be the focus of an unusual afternoon seminar at NJIT on Jan. 23, 2008, presented by former Bank of America Vice President and NJIT alumnus Alan Rosenthal. Drawing on the experiences of himself and others, Rosenthal’s talk-- “Don’t Call Your Boss an Idiot”-- will illustrate why diplomacy matters.
The public is invited to attend the free event http://web.njit.edu/cs/CS_Seminar/ sponsored by NJIT’s College of Computing Sciences, 2:15 p.m., room 3740, Guttenberg Information Technologies Center, on the campus. Street parking should be available.
While honesty and technical excellence are important, Rosenthal will provide examples of behavior that may hurt or help the chances for success. “Indeed, even if your boss is an idiot,” he said, “You should have a plan for dealing with that situation.”
The talk will focus on relationships with management plus situations in which communication and social skills may ultimately affect a career. Examples include getting a job, the challenges of presenting a project plan that needs funding, the difficulties encountered in managing vendors, the complexities of working with clients and colleagues and networking’s critical importance.
Rosenthal worked in the financial services industry for 24 years. At Bank of America, he headed the information technology business architecture group. Before then, he was at Merrill Lynch where he was vice president and group manager of the Bloomberg Systems Development area. During the first 20 years of Rosenthal’s career, he was chief engineer for Decicom, Inc., and involved with engineering design.
Rosenthal earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and a master’s degree in engineering management from NJIT. He chairs the board of visitors at NJIT’s computing college.
Rosenthal also serves as a board member for several organizations at Cornell including the Engineering Alumni Association, the Advisory Council of the Cornell Financial Engineering program, the Cornell Club Alumni Association Board and the Career Services Advisory Committee. A longtime Manhattan resident with his wife Dee, Rosenthal has been is involved in the Jewish community affairs as a representative on the Greater New York Council of Reform Synagogues and honorary trustee of Congregation Rodeph Sholom. Rosenthal is also a docent for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.