Tech Career Development Mentor

Americans Turn to Career Sites During Economic Downturn

2009-07-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a June 2009 overview of the career services & development category based on data from comScore Media Metrix and comScore Marketer. The study revealed that more than 65 million Americans visited the category in June, representing a 10-percent increase versus year ago, ranking it as one of the top-growing site categories. Seven of the top ten sites in the category achieved double-digit gains during that period.

CareerBuilder LLC led the category with 21.7 million unique visitors, followed by Yahoo! HotJobs with 17.9 million visitors (up 23 percent vs. year ago) and Monster.com with 14.5 million visitors (up 6 percent). The next three sites in the ranking have each achieved substantial growth in the past year, with Indeed growing 59 percent to 8 million visitors, Job.com Sites up 46 percent to 7.4 million visitors, and SnagAJob up 48 percent to 4.7 million visitors.

“Job and career-related resources continue to be one of the fastest-growing categories online, which is not surprising given the current state of the economy and the number of people seeking job opportunities and career advice,” said Jeff Hackett, comScore senior vice president. “The top three sites in the category – CareerBuilder, HotJobs and Monster – have maintained their leadership positions for several years now, but there are also a few upstarts in the industry making some noise. Certainly with millions of Americans reevaluating their careers right now there is opportunity for continued growth and innovation in this segment of the online marketplace.” Review the complete list of career portals in this survey via the comScore web site

Monster.com’s Nation-wide Keep America Working Tour Swings into New Orleans -- Nearly 35,000 Qualified Job Seekers Have Attended Events to Date

2009-06-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

The national tour of the Keep America Working career fairs sponsored by Monster.com®, the leading global online career and recruitment resource and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW), travels back to the Southeast this week with a stop in New Orleans, Louisiana, tomorrow, June 30. The Keep America Working Tour includes more than 140 stops across the nation throughout 2009. Since its kick-off in Boston at the end of February, the tour has featured 1,132 employers with more than 24,650 jobs to fill and nearly 35,000 qualified job seekers ready to fill them. Tour stops have included job fairs in 30 major markets in 25 states. The nearly 25,000 jobs represented at the fairs are backed up by tens of thousands of jobs listed on Monster.com in these 30 metropolitan areas.

At the core of the Keep America Working Tour is Monster’s mission to help rebuild the American workforce. In a break with tradition for both Monster and other job fair organizers, Monster’s Keep America Working job fairs are free of charge to both job seekers and Monster employers with current job openings, to eliminate any cost barrier, and encourage the greatest number of employers with available jobs to link face-to-face with people who need those jobs. See Monster.com of the tour schedule

US SBA and IEEE-USA Partner to Promote Innovation, Job Growth

2009-06-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Administrator Karen G. Mills has signed a strategic alliance memorandum with the IEEE-USA designed to expand opportunities for innovative small business entrepreneurs. The IEEE-USA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is a non-profit association of more than 200,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals whose technical interests are established in electrical engineering, computer science, and related disciplines dedicated to fostering technological innovation and excellence.

“The SBA and IEEE-USA have joined together to help some of the nation’s most innovative entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses,” said Administrator Mills. “This cooperative agreement means that more technical businesses will be able to benefit from SBA programs, services and financial assistance as they create the jobs of the 21st century.”
IEEE-USA is a leading professional association for the advancement of technology in areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics among others. See the joint US SBA-IEEE press release for complete details

Federal Antitrust Probe Targets Tech Giants, Sources Say

2009-06-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether some of the nation's largest technology companies violated antitrust laws by negotiating the recruiting and hiring of one another's employees, according to two sources with knowledge of the review.

The review, which is said to be in its preliminary stages, is focused on the search engine giant Google; its competitor Yahoo; Apple, maker of the popular iPhone; and the biotech firm Genentech, among others, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Justice Department officials declined to comment about an investigation, as did officials from Google and Yahoo. Apple and Genentech could not be reached for comment. See the complete Washington Post article online

Preparing Your Career Campaign Correspondence

2009-06-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, a resume is an essentail tool for landing the next job in your career campaign. Nonetheless, preparing your complete portfolio of career campaign correspondence can give you a competitive edge in the marketplace and also increase the efficiency of your campaign.

Biography: One page summary written in third-person style which summaries your major career accomplishments (Audience - Hiring Managers)

Career Campaign Summary: One page summary of your target positions, industries, locations and companies (Audience - Fellow job seekers and networking contacts)

Recruiter Memo: One-half page email describing your target positions, industries, locations and a brief explanation of your past experience (Audience - Third party retained or contingency recruiters)

Resume: Two page chronological or functional description of your future career goal and relevant previous experience including 2-3 Situation/Action/Results (SAR) statements for each position (Audience - Primary: Human Resources, Secondary: Hiring Managers)

Thank You Letter: One page memo summarizing your relevant experience, interest and motivation and key priorities for a recent job interview (Audience - Primary: Hiring Managers & Influencers, Secondary: Human Resources) This letter should be sent within one business day of your interview

The Cover Letters web site is a good place to start and has many samples

Preparing Your Professional "Work Sample" Portfolio

2009-05-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

Having a high quality portfolio of professional work samples can provide you with an edge over other job seekers. Your resume has been submitted to a hiring manager or perhaps a recruiter. You have passed an initial screening interview and your in-depth face to face interview has been scheduled. Employers now want to see focused examples of what you have done in the past ... and in turn what you can do for them. Perhaps there is no better method for convincing a hiring manager that you are the best candidate for the position than by showing him or her work samples from a recent position(s).

Work samples can be in one of three forms - hardcopy (peferrably color), electronic (e.g. Word, PDF or PowerPoint documents viewed from your laptop computer or even better live content on an Interent web site. Knowing the employer's requirements, the type of deliverables you are expected to produce and critical success factors for the role is the first step. Second, review previous deliverables you have created - being sure that you do not compromise any confidential business informaiton from a previous employer - and selected 4-6 samples that directly correspond to the position for which you are interviewing equips you to impress an hiring manager or committee. Again, the key message you want to send to the interviewer(s) is "what I have for company A in the past I can do for your organization in the future" (ideally form day one on the new job). Consider this to be a professional "show and tell" session.

Examples of appropriate work samples include any publicly available information such as brochures, web content, graphic design and layout, and generic non-sensitive plans or reports. Take extra precaution when evaluating any non-public or sensitive information including business pans, product roadmaps, engineeering designs, etc. Be sure that this information does not violate a non-disclosure or professional code of conduct agreements.

Appropriate use of these work samples and verbally relating them to the new role under consideration will provide you with an advantage in this challenging job market. The Conover Company web site provides further details on this topic

How Steve Ballmer Sizes Up Job Candidates (New York Times excerpts)

2009-05-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Question: How do you assess job candidates?

Answer: If they come from inside the business, the best predictor of future success is past success. It's not 100 percent, but it's a reasonable predictor. For an external candidate, what I've found is that reference checks are super-important. I didn't used to believe so much in reference checks. You can always get somebody to say something nice about you. But the truth is, if you ask enough questions and you ask around, you can really get a profile of who's accomplished various things and who hasn't.

And I try to figure out sort of a combination of I.Q. and passion. I just ask somebody to tell me what they've done that they are really proud of and tell me about it. And if it's something you are proud of, you should be able to answer any question I can come up with, at least at a level that would satisfy my interest. I ought to be able to see your passion. It might be quiet passion; it might be bubbly passion. But I should be able to sense that you are one of those people who just sort of throws themselves into things.

See the complete interview transcript on the New York Times web site.

Seeking a New Job or Becoming Self-Employed

2009-05-20T12:33:00.001-07:00

Should a continue to seek a new job in this tight economy or consider becoming self-employed?
This is a question many mid-career professionals are asking themselves these days as the job market remains very weak, competition for available jobs in high and monthly bills need to be paid. The two scenarios are not necessarily mutually exclusive - meaning, you could if fact launch your own practice or consultancy until such time the job market strengthens.

Professionals with 10-15 years of functional- and domain-specific experience may be excellent candidates for self-employment. While self-employment is not a quick-fix or panacea for those out of work it warrants careful consideration. What are your most marketable skills? Which skills are in the highest demand? Are there previous employers, vendors, partners or contractors you have dealt with who may be under severe staffing constraints yet who need work that must get done.

The opportunity to offer your services as a 1099 contract-consultant to these firms at 20%-40% below what they would pay for a "fully loaded" staff employee (when considering overhead and insurance expenses) can be an attractive alternative. First step, define your target set of companies, second create a "consultant" version of your resume and thirdly call mid-senior level functional managers at these companies and deliver your "value proposition" pitch. See the Riley Guide for in-depth description of self-employment and independent contractor career scenarios.

Occupational Outlook Handbook 2008-09 Edition

2009-05-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

The US Department of Labor's bi-annual publication entitled The Occupational Outlook Handbook for 2008-2009 provides critical insights for job seekers. The handbook not only describes key educational, training and certification requirements for hundreds of occupation, it also forecasts demand for these careers for years to come. Details for each occupation include:

training and education needed
earnings
expected job prospects
what workers do on the job
working conditions

Whether you are a recent college graduate or a mid-career professional exploring a potential career change (function, industry or location), the OOH is a valuable reference tool.

Managing Your Credit Score to Your Advantage

2009-05-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

A clean , solid credit score is not only the key to ensuring a low interest rate - whether for a home mortgage or refinancing - credit scores are increasingly viewed by employers to gage the integrity of future employees. MyFico.com is the key service for obtaining managing your credit score (http://www.myfico.com/Default.aspx). Their data clearly reveal the direct correlation between your credit score and mortgage or re-fin APR rates.

The Three Overarching Questions in the Interviewing Process

2009-05-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

The goal of any legitimate interview process for both employer and employee is to find the right long-term match that provides the business with value for its customers and opportunity for the individual. Understanding the steps in the interview process is a vital ingredient of a successful interview process for both parties.

Remember the three key questions both parties need to answer.

1. Can the candidate do the job? Skills fit.

2. Will the candidate do the job? Is there true interest, not simply the need for a paycheck.

3. Will the candidate fit in with the company culture?

Only once the employer and interviewee has positively answered all three questions do you know this is the right match. Vault.com has excellent article on interviewing and related resources.

Interviewing 101 - Knowing Your Relevant SARS

2009-05-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

The ability to clearly and succinctly article your key accomplishments is a vital ingredient in any career or job change. While placement companies have varied acronyms, your "accomplishments" can be thought of in the following terms.

Situation: What was the business or professional situation or challenge your were given in your job? And yes, there are likely multiple challenges for each job you have held.

Action: Which actions did you take or deliverables did you prepare to achieve the objectives of your previous jobs?

Results: What were the measurable results of your above action?

The most concrete, precise and quantifiable your SAR statements are the more credible they will be with future employers ... given you a competitive edge in today's job market.

Launching Your Successful Career Campaign

2009-05-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

A critical first-step in launching a successful career campaign (e.g. searching fr and landing your next job) is to have a clear picture of when you want to land. Many job seekers, especially in these turbulent times, aimlessly spend precious time and effort without taking the time to think through their objectives.

While there is no magic formula for finding your dream job, let alone your "interim" position, during a weak economy, defining the basics of your career path are essential. Here are some starting points.

Job function and target titles.

Industry or segments (private sector, government, non-profit, etc.).

Seniority level - are you entry-level, mid-career or senior-executive level within your target functional area and industry).

Size of employer. Some professionals are wedded to small, pre-puplic, mid-size or large e.g. Fortune 500 sized firms. Others are content regardless of the size of their next employer as long as the job function and industry are a good match.

Location, location, location. Is your preference to stay in the same metro-area or are you a "relocation" candidate.

Once your have these five factors well defined you are further ahead than most job-seekers and are ready to speak confidently with prospective employers and recruiters.

Yes, the company culture, management style and other "soft" factors are very important to consider. All are food for fodder in a subsequent blog posting, so stay tuned.