Yes, the 'rotational' tour might work for you if you are a 25-year-old software engineer who wants to get some corporate credentials from a well-known firm, then go out and raise capital to start your own company. Once I read the book, I found it hard to see how the system would truly help the many employees who, under this arrangement, seem to be, in essence, freelancers with benefits. And when I first heard about the premise of the book-from an employer who understood it to mean that companies would no longer have to offer permanent jobs in the future-I was very curious.

Hoffman is right that corporate employers and employees are both forced to live a lie in our current employment system. Once the tour of duty is coming to a close, the employee promises the employer the right of 'first conversation,' meaning he or she will discuss future career plans with the employer before talking with others. Most top executives should be offered this arrangement, he argues. * The foundational tour of duty, which is more like a long-term marriage between mission-critical employees and the company.

* The transformational tour of duty, where an employee is hired for a specific mission, with a duration that typically lasts two to five years but is negotiated by the employee. The idea is to create an opportunity for both the employee and employer to assess the new hire's 'future fit' at the company. This is similar to the analyst program at investment banks. * The rotational tour of duty, typically aimed at entry-level employees, in which they work for the company for one to three years. It is built around the 'tour of duty.' Under this approach, used at LinkedIn, employers are up-front about the fact that they are hiring employees for one of three types of jobs, each with its own expiration date: His answer is the alliance-a new relationship between employers and employees based on the value they bring to each other.

Reid hoffman new book