How would you describe your job to someone standing behind you in the grocery checkout line?
My title at HR.com is Knowledge Manager. I'm part of the group known as Hunters and Gatherers: one of my main responsibilities is hunting and gathering information.

An underlying attitude at HR.com is to have fun. We're clear about what we're trying to achieve, so there are few rules. You do what you think is right for the company. People work from home, or have flexible hours. Some companies have policies laying out the rules for these kinds of work options; we don't rely much on policies, if people are getting the job done why do you need a policy? We're a site interested in good management processes so it's very interesting to live it ourselves.

What is your educational background?
I have a Hons B.Sc. in biochemistry and chemistry from McMaster University and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.

What path did you take to get where you are now?

It's not at all linear. When I finished my undergraduate program, I looked around at chemistry grad programs in Canada, but didn't see anything that was really exciting. A friend came back from Harvard Business School and said that's the place for you. The University of Western Ontario is the closest thing we have to Harvard Business School in Canada so I went there.

How did you get your current job?
My career has always been about looking for something interesting to do. After b-school I started in Finance with Gulf Oil. When PCs came out IT became a very interesting area so I moved to the UK and into IT. Later a friend working for a consultancy became interested in using technology to support decision making, and he brought me into consulting and to HR. This eventually took me to Malaysia, back to Canada and then back to Malaysia a second time.

In 1999 I returned to Toronto from Kuala Lumpur and was looking for something interesting to do. At that time, Debbie McGrath was looking to start a company and a mutual friend introduced us. I've become convinced that networking is the key to finding good jobs.

What do you consider to be your key career decisions?
I don't really see my career as characterized by specific important decisions. There's always an opportunity to move into a different field or onto a different continent. It's not that your decisions set in stone the direction you're going to take.

I will say I've had a strategy to look for things that I think would be intellectually and emotionally rewarding. I was interested in working overseas so I looked for ways to make that possible. Your career is one big adventure so I approached it that way.

What is your ultimate career goal?
I don't have one and don't know if I'd recommend that people live their lives that way. You have to feel rewarded with what your doing all through your career. My ultimate goal is to do things that are interesting and valuable.

What kinds of people do well in your company/organization?
There is a definite personality type. You have to deal with high levels of ambiguity, that things will change overnight-your role or the company direction or the project you've been working on-and you have to be able to work with little managerial direction. You just keep moving forward.

This is a very adventurous company. We spend very little time on analysis or second guessing mistakes. It's about going out and discovering what works.

What backgrounds does HR.com look for?
On the content side, it's helpful but not essential to have human resource experience. Other staff has sales and marketing experience, or technical expertise, for example.

What is your typical day like?
It's hard to say what's typical. I spend a lot of time acquiring content, looking over articles, giving people feedback; I spend a reasonable amount of time writing my own articles.

What do you like about your job? What don't you like?
One of the things I like best is that I get to interview great people. I interview people who have some special insight into people and organizations. That means I get to talk to people like N. Katherine Hayles (UCLA), Jeffrey Pfeffer (Stanford), and Henry Mintzberg (McGill University).

The only thing I don't like is that we could do so much more if we had more resources at hand. But the economics aren't there. We're a profitable dot. com and we are that way because we are careful about how we spend our money.

What have been your most interesting projects or opportunities?
The most interesting project was in the early days when from a blank sheet of paper we designed the site, starting from the fundamental intellectual principles, to what the screens would look like, and how people would interact with us.

If you had it all to do over again, what would you do differently about your career?
I would very seriously consider being a research chemist, which I suppose is quite different from what I ended up doing. I might go to the U.S. or UK after my undergraduate studies and do a doctorate there.

Who are your role models?
One role model is Northrop Frye, who was an English professor at the University of Toronto and one of the smartest people anywhere. I've always admired his intellectual depth.

Henry Mintzberg is another; he sees things much more deeply and clearly than the vast majority of management academics.

What do you do when you're not at work?
I play with Barbies and "Tomb Raider" with my 4-year old daughter.

What is the most rewarding thing about what you do?
I hope we're having an impact on managerial practice, an impact that makes people more humane and more effective. There are a lot of bad ideas out there; as well as presenting the good ideas we're combating the bad and negative ones.

What advice do you have for others who want a job like yours?
First, you have to decide that it's really what you want. Changing functional areas and moving across oceans is not the way to maximize your income nor is it the most stable way to live. But the key to pursuing a career like mine is to invest a lot of time in learning and to learn about as wide a variety of things as possible. The appreciation of technical depth you get in chemistry is a wonderful foundation for anyone who embarks on lifelong learning. I've never faced anything in life as tough as second year thermodynamics.