Welcome To The MN Headhunter Blog

This is a “what’s going on” here at MN Headhunter. Blog posts of interest, event announcements and links to Be Your Own Headhunter seminars and presentations.

You can also scroll down past this to see posts in chronological order.

Blog Posts (recent/popular)

• Paul DeBettignies To Present At The Fordyce Forum 2010
• Minnesota Start Up Culture Roundtable
• The Life You Have And Want Depends On You Managing Your Career
• What Price Would You Pay For Your Dream Job?
• Theme for 2010: Don’t Look Back
• My 11 To Do’s For 2010

Events 

• 1/28 SMBMSP Happy Hour (attending)
• 2/3 Chris Brogan at Best Buy (attending)
• 3/15-16 ERE Expo 2010 Spring (attending)
• 3/17 Employers Association Social Media Event (presenting)
• 3/27 Minneapolis blogger event (presenting)
• 4/16 HR Tomorrow 2010 University of Minnesota (presenting)
• 5/17 Social Recruiting Summit (attending)
• 6/9-11 Fordyce Forum (presenting)

Be Your Own Headhunter

I will be announcing the February 2010 schedule soon.

Have a question, comment or looking for some information? Leave a comment or send an email to paul@mnheadhunter.com

Paul DeBettignies
MN Headhunter

Join the Be Your Own Headhunter LinkedIn group

 

      

   
 

Minnesota Morning

I am so excited today as we have sun two days in a row!!! And no complaints from me regarding our 6”-10” snowfall as I watch the East Coast get dumped on again.

Here is a really cool time lapse video taken in Washington, D.C. every five minutes February 5-6, 2010:

 

Why The Undercover Boss Should Be An Undercover Job Seeker Part 1 Of 3

CBS rolled out a new show following Super Bowl XLIV called Undercover Boss. Reviews of the show have been fairly good with many saying how cool it is that a CEO or President of a company would hang out with the “little people”.

I think it is a cool idea. I do wonder though, if CEO’s were providing real leadership they should be doing this already on their own to learn what the real impacts are of the decisions they make.

Anyway, to this blog post...

Last summer I was asked to speak to a C- Level peer group on a HR topic of my choice and was told I could “be real”.

Home Run, I thought. Turns out I had no idea...

Minnesota Morning

I am having one of those moments where I am sitting at my desk and wondering where to start and instead of doing something productive I have looked at a bunch of web sites, watched Morning Joe and looked through my TweetDeck stream. Busy is not productive.

And I still have no idea where to start so I am doing this blog post in hopes that I can get my mind “jump started”.

So since all I have done so far is to look at blogs and news sites here is a list of links for you to check out from the past two mornings…

Four Reasons You Might Be Bummed If You Aren’t Working And What To Do About It

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Dorothy Tannahill-Moran

What do the following people have in common?

•    Retired engineer

•    Laid off project manager

•    Stay at home parent

•    Newly graduated student

•    Trailing spouse to a military soldier

•    Injured and recovered worker

•    Out of work actor

These people have much more in common than you probably realize.  The commonality is what they are missing.  All of these people are missing the many benefits we get from working.  Of course, we all know that they are missing the paycheck, but there are other aspects to work that most of us take for granted, until we no longer have them.   When you are in the work trenches it’s kind of hard to think you would miss anything.  You probably think the idea of not working sounds like a dream, and it can be, but not without recognizing what things you are missing and taking action to replace them.

Who Do We Hire For the Future of HVAC?

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Matthew Warzel, MJW Careers

The growing trend of Baby-Boomers retiring from the HVACR industry has forced many companies to scramble to find candidates to replace those seasoned service technicians and journeymen mechanics.

Without a doubt, the best way to find potential employees is through referral networks. Managers and HVACR contractors must always be on the lookout for new talent, even if they are not actively hiring. Companies that are not fishing for new talent as actively as they should will certainly feel the repercussions once their elder employees decide that golf is more enjoyable in retirement than soldering pipe is in the field.

Proactive recruiting should be at the forefront of any HVACR organization's professional agenda. Success will come to those who realize the importance of filling their employee pipeline with talent. Some candidates won't last, eaten up quickly by the competition; that makes it vital to have a stable of potentials in your pipeline at all times.

Jobs from the Fortune 500 Vol 11

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: CareerAlley

“Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.” - Peter Lynch

Excellent quote, and I'm sure we've all known an idiot or two. I'd like to think that any company that makes it to the Fortune 500 is run by an intelligent person, but I'm also sure that this group of companies has seen its fair share of idiots as well.

That being said, the Fortune 500 is a rich field for job search (no pun intended) and these companies are generally the best placed for bad times and many have strongly recovered in the current recession. Of course, some also did not do well and some are no longer with us (not to say they were run by idiots, I'm sure there is some correlation).

Email From A 13 Year Old

Yesterday I received an email from a 13 year old boy young man that stopped me in my tracks. He is the son of a job seeker who listened to my series of presentations “Be Your Own Headhunter” about job search, LinkedIn and Social Media.

His father took my advice about doing a job search, how to network both online and in person and in a small way I was able to make an introduction through a friend of a friend on LinkedIn and that is how he got the offer and his job at the new firm.

What I did not know how to do was reply to this young man. I have been doing these types of presentations for eight years (last year using webinars was new to me). I teach people how I use these tools, what I would do if I were them and then rely on the attendees to translate to how they could do it.

There are a lot of success stories of the years and I have received the sweetest of messages but this one really got to me. In three short lines he made an impact on me and I wanted to say thank you to him.

Minnesota Start Up Culture Roundtable

The Minnesota Tech Start Up conversation continues on and thanks to Thomas Knoll (@thomasknoll) we will take it from online (Tweets, podcasts, email and blog posts) to the in person.

Thomas started the conversation Startup culture roundtable before I posted Minnesota Startup Community: The Time Has Come For Less Talk and More Walk on Minnov8. Some of what Thomas wanted to talk about has been aired in one form or another so now we are going to talk about action steps.

Thomas is getting a group of interested folks together February 5^th from 8 – 10 AM for the (click this link) MN Startup Culture Roundtable

Thomas and I had a great conversation over the weekend and I look forward to seeing him and continuing the conversation.

More Thoughts On The Minnesota Start Up Scene

I am not exactly sure how to start this and many readers of the blog may need to be caught up on this topic.

The short version of a long story is a I wrote a blog post that my friends at Minnov8 posted last Friday. It was an honest assessment of what I think about where we are as a tech community. I am a bit of an outsider but have a perspective that needed to be shared.

I was really shocked at the reaction to the post which you can find by clicking Minnesota Startup Community: The Time Has Come For Less Talk and More Walk

Lots of comments, Tweets and quite a few one on one and small group email.

A lot of people are saying, “Way to go Paul!!!”. Well, I appreciate the acknowledgement but I already knew others were thinking this too. It just happens that I was the one to say it out loud at the right time and the guys at Minnov8 trusted me enough to post it.

Paying for College

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Candice Arnold

A Guide for Parents and Students

College tuitions increase every year, regardless of the state of the economy. In Pittsburgh, there was even talk about a tuition tax, proposed by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, to help the city raise $16 million for its 2010 budget. According to the Pitt News, the tax was removed from consideration when the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and health insurance provider, Highmark, stepped forward and offered to increase their charitable donations to the city in exchange for elimination of the proposed one percent tuition tax; Ravenstahl agreed.

Even without the extra strain of a tuition tax, like the one proposed in Pittsburgh, paying for college is difficult. Knowing how much money to save and how to save it are questions on the minds of many parents and potential college students. An article in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Reader's Digest, The Best Way to Pay for College, by Lisa Goff, offered a lot of helpful hints. Financial advisors like Suzy Orman and Jean Chatzky recommend that parents start saving for college right after their children are born. Some of the ways that parents can start saving for their children's college educations are:

You Say You Are A Social Media Expert Or Guru. OK, Prove It

I swear (it seems literally and often lately) that if I see one more self professed Expert or Guru I am going to spontaneously combust. Which is to say, this would be me last Will and Testament because no doubt by the time I finish typing this I will have two new Guru followers.

So here goes... if you are such a person I hope you have a track record. You better be able to show some results.

Why? Besides the obvious your competition is now FIERCE:

Self-Proclaimed Social Media Gurus on Twitter Multiplying Like Rabbits and the above graph are from a few weeks back about the crazy number of Social Media Experts and Social Media Gurus on Twitter and the exponential growth in the use of such terms. I used to think that an expert was in the top 5% or 2% of their industry.

Wow, we are so blessed to have so many talented people amongst us. (read with sarcasm)

How to Find Hidden Jobs From Last Year’s Job Applications

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Lorraine Russo

How many of you applied for dozens, if not hundreds, of jobs last year? If you’re like most people, chances are pretty good that your resume went into the stratosphere, never to be seen by the overworked eyes of our nation's recruiters.

But what if some of the jobs you applied for are still open?

It's possible when the company originally posted the job, there was a reasonable expectation that they would fill it. However, consider that the last quarter of the year is typically when department heads submit their budgets for the following year.

It’s entirely possible that hiring for certain positions was put on hold until the budget was finalized.

Why Do You Follow Me On Twitter And My 2 Year Anniversary

2 years ago today I started on Twitter with @MNHeadhunter. It was my 3^rd shot at Twitter and not until my buddy Katie Tierney @txaggie94 set me straight did I figure out why it might matter to me. So if you like me thank her and if you find me annoying, it’s all her fault :)

I have met a lot of people who have turned into dear friends, made placements, been invited to speak and lots of other cool things because of my sharing, collaborating and listening on Twitter.

Rather than talk about the successes I would like to evaluate my activity and since I am a “one man band” without a yearly review (other than looking at the business bottom line) I am asking you my Twitter followers the following questions:

Paul DeBettignies To Present At The Fordyce Forum 2010

I have written a few times how 2010 is shaping up to be a time when stars are aligning for me and that I am going to do some butt whooping. 2008-2009 was not fun and I am taking my revenge on 2010.

I have accepted an invitation to present at The Fordyce Forum 2010 this June in Las Vegas. This will play a big part in the whooping of 2010.

For those not familiar with The Fordyce Forum it is annual event for the Search Firm industry. Or to put it another way, this is where the Big Dogs go for their event and to be asked to speak is a big thing for me, well, anyone.

The Fordyce Letter is the source of information for the Search Firm industry and I will be able to do an article leading up to my presentation.

So what to talk about? Here it is:

Uncover Hidden Jobs Through Federal Business Opportunities

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Lorraine Russo

At any given time, the Federal Business Opportunities website has tens of thousands of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) that allow vendors to bid on the opportunity to provide goods and services. By law, the government is required to conduct an open and competitive bidding process for any purchases meeting certain criteria. (The federal regulations for government contracts are known as the FAR: Federal Acquisition Regulations.)

A provider that has registered at fbo.gov can bid on any opportunity. Also, subcontractors (which include small and minority-owned businesses), can add themselves as an Interested Vendor for any posted opportunity. Go to any new opportunity and you’ll see the Interested Vendors List tab. Click here for an example.

Who Is Looking For Your LinkedIn Profile?

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Laura Vezer is an IT recruiter and creator of the blog, IT Matters Canada! The blog contains resources and advice for IT Professionals looking for work in Canada.

Recently, the Recruiting Animal had a LinkedIn specialist on his online radio show. Neal Schaffer spent the hour analyzing various LinkedIn profiles that were sent by courageous volunteers through Twitter.

This got me thinking. Who do you think is looking for YOUR profile?

There are recruiters out there who conduct searches through search engines like Bing and Google, to find their candidates. They can even key in search commands to search LinkedIn beyond their own networks. When you come up in one of these searches, it is the information that you have on your profile, is it going to sell your capabilities in the most effective way?

Here are a few points that came up during the show.

Minnesota Recruiter Jobs

The following new Minnesota Recruiter Jobs have been added to the MN Headhunter Recruiting Gigs Page:

• Recruiter - Full Time Job – Oracle

• Technical Recruiter - Full Time Job - Pearson VUE

• Division Recruiting Coordinator - Full Time Job - Ameriprise Financial

• Lead Technology Recruiter - Full Time Job - Thomson Reuters

  

Click weekly newsletter to receive the Wednesday message of nonprofit needs, IT jobs I am recruiting for, recruiter jobs, and most popular blog posts of the week.

If you are using a RSS Feed click Recruiter Jobs.

Minnesota IT Jobs And IT Volunteer Opportunities With Minnesota Non Profits

The following new Minnesota IT jobs and IT volunteer opportunities have been added on the MN Headhunter Volunteer Page:

• SharePoint Guru – Volunteer – St Stephen’s Human Services
• Telecommunication Analyst – Full Time Job - Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota
• Information Technology Coordinator - Part Time Job - Face to Face Health and Counseling
• Manager, IT Infrastructure - Full Time Job - Minnesota Public Radio

 

Click weekly newsletter to receive the Wednesday message of nonprofit needs, IT jobs I am recruiting for, recruiter jobs, and most popular blog posts of the week.

If you are using a RSS Feed click Volunteer.

Jobs in Marketing & Advertising Vol 1

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: CareerAlley

"Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on." - Jerry Della Femina

Closing the sale. That's what it is all about in Job Search, selling yourself, closing the deal, elevator speeches, etc. Intuitively, you would think that someone who is good at marketing and advertising would have an easier time selling themselves at a job interview than non-marketing types would have. And, that may just be the case.

But it doesn't make the search process any easier and closing a deal for a product is very different from closing a deal on yourself.

So what are the basics? Well to start, review some sites that focus on exactly this topic - Market yourself. There are plenty of these sites (two are listed below). Most have similar information, although a few have a slightly different slant.

Talent Management? I Just Want a Job in HR!

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: CareerAlley

"We’ve all been blessed with God-given talents. Mine just happens to be beating people up." — Sugar Ray Leonard

Talent is many sometimes subjective. Who is to say who is talented and who is not? And, like everything else, talent comes in all shapes and sizes. Some people are talented at losing their jobs, others are talented at being CEOs and most of us fall somewhere in-between.

Entry Level And College Grad Jobs Vol 4

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: CareerAlley

"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." - Benjamin Disraeli

Action is the key word for this post (as well as your job search). It may seem like an endless job hunt with no end in sight, but there are many things you can do to help your search.

Job Seekers Creating “Black Lists” Of Employers

The blow back at employers for not being able to reply to job seeker inquiries has finally hit a level of frustration where quite a few job seekers are creating lists of companies they will never talk to again.

No doubt most employers are receiving more resumes, email and phone calls than they can handle and no doubt many have downsized their HR and Recruiter staff. Why keep these folks when there is no hiring right?

WRONG!!!

If there ever was a time to be creating those talent pools it has been the past 18 months but most “C-Level” decision makers have their head in the sand.

Who's Hiring in Finance Revisited - Vol 1

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: CareerAlley

"Every morning I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work." - Robert Orben

You know what they say - "another day, another dollar. One million days, one million dollars". Of course one million days is 2,740 years. The world of financial services was hit the hardest of any industry, and I would venture to guess that there are more financial services people looking for work than any other field (in percentage terms).

While I have nothing to support my comment, true or false, it certainly feels that way. Hard to say what the prospects are for financial services. It does seem that those companies that survived with little intervention have already turned the corner on both profitability and stability.

My 11 To Do’s For 2010

These are likely not going to be earth shattering to you and some of them were mentioned in this post What Price Would You Pay For Your Dream Job? but since I have been sharing like have been the last week some friends are asking about what 2010 is going to look like for me.

You will find that 2010 is going to be as much about my personal life as the professional. While not overdue (unless you ask my longtime friends) it is time to invest as much in the personal me as I have in the professional part over the past few years.

In no particular order:

The Life You Have And Want Depends On You Managing Your Career

This is not going to be some profound post with the top 10 illuminating and hot tips on how to do this. Those posts are all common sense but at times our common sense account gets bankrupt.

Here is the secret sauce, do it. Manage your career. It’s not the details you would read in some blog post it’s simply the act of taking care of your business.

Please, please, please let the last two years be a lesson to you (and really the 3 leading up to the recession) that you HAVE to be actively managing your career path, skill set and business/work relationships.

Top 20 2009 Traffic Sources For The MN Headhunter Blog

I do not pay much “micro” attention to blog statistics but I do watch the bigger trends. Another recruiter blogger and I are sharing statistics with each other to get a sense of what each other are doing. I will share some of that (my statistics) over the coming weeks.

According to Google Analytics here “All Traffic Sources” of the 52,813 visits to the MN Headhunter Blog in 2009:

Management Vs. Leadership Mindset: What Millennial Employees Need To Know As They Enter Leadership Roles

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Lisa Orrell

The confusion between the role of a manager and a leader has tripped up more than one business professional and cost many companies their very existence. Is ‘the person in charge’ automatically a leader? If you’re managing other people, are you also leading them, by default? Just what is the difference between the two?

According to the current wisdom, managers are principally administrators; they write business plans, set budgets, monitor progress, and, yes, they manage people (but sometimes without the concept of an effective leadership mindset).

Minnesota Morning

After putting up these two posts today What Price Would You Pay For Your Dream Job? and Theme for 2010: Don’t Look Back I think I have said enough for one day :)

Instead I will leave you with some highlights from my Twitter stream going back the past 10 days or so. Most of them are not from me and if you are using Twitter I would recommend giving these folks a follow.

Oh, there is no rhyme or reason to these. Some are work, sports, life related or funny, thoughtful things (I have added some links to names and articles) and are in reverse chronological order (in other words start at the bottom):

Theme for 2010: Don’t Look Back

This is my theme for 2010 complete with a 1970’s rock video from the group Boston (a short live version):

Last year at this time I remember saying I wish that we could go back to a time when as kids there were “do overs”. Those were the best. You could call “do over” whenever you wanted.

I still wish we could go back to those days. I suppose in some ways we can. We can try something again. We can try things a different way. We can say we are sorry.

What Price Would You Pay For Your Dream Job?

Last week I was working with a client on their job descriptions. What I mean is, we were rewriting them because the descriptions sucked. Sucked bad, like all job descriptions do. Fortunately they knew it so the process was easy.

I was working with their VP and during this writing process she said, “What’s your dream job?” A really neat conversation to have and we decided to write what that job description would like.

Things I included were:

- Being a Recruiter (nit not the account management side)

- Creating relationships, being an evangelist

- Involved in the local business community and groups

- Helping job seekers

- Doing some training, teaching

- Being able to try and experiment with new things and ideas

- Be on a team that is more like a family

Yesterday I received a call from her that I should expect an email while we were talking. Sure enough I here the chime and open it up.

Increase Your Odds. Candidate Job Board Tricks

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR

Major job boards like CareerBuilder and Monster are one of the most popular ways for companies to develop a candidate pool when looking to fill an open position. CareerBuilder alone boasts 2 million unique users per month according to a report by Cnet News last year. With unemployment at its highest since 1982 and candidate competition increasing, how does a candidate stand out from the virtual pack when posting a resume on a major job board?

Minnesota Morning

I have been told by numerous people that my blog has become lame. Since these are friends of mine who have my interests in mind I am going to listen to them.

And it starts today. I don’t know how long it will last but I am going to give it a shot anyway.

Other friends are saying that I am putting my best thoughts on Twitter and Facebook. I think they too are correct. I think I do much better, am far more interesting and funny in 140 characters or less.

But one thing for sure is that I have a lot on my mind. I have a Word document that is open all the time and it is now 104 pages in length of links, articles and thoughts of all varieties that I never get to share and I think it is time to clean out the closet so to speak....

Christmas 2009 Winter Storm | Snowmaggedon | Birth Of Frosty The Snowman

Happy Holidays to everyone. Looks like the professional weather predictors got this one right or, Mother Nature was predictable for a change. I mean, how many of these storms over the past couple of years have been duds?

These types of storms are called a Panhandle Hook or Texas Hooker. Seriously, not making that up.

The folks online are using words like snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snownami, hohosnow, and what I think will be my favorite (even though it is not used much) snowlyshit.

Company Career Sites Revisited Vol I

"By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day." - Robert Frost

Why company career sites? Well for one, most jobs are with companies and what better place to get your job than from the source. All other jobs are generally through recruiters, job boards and friends. Speaking of which, if you find a job on a company career site, you should leverage your network. Does anyone you know work there? If yes, see if they can submit your application for you.

Minnesota Business, Technology, Sports, Politics And HR Blogs Updated

What follows is a major update (40 blogs) to my blog roll. These blogs are also added to my TwinCitiesBlogs.com project.

Minnesota Recruiter and HR Blogs:

• simply-hr
• Hockenberg Search
• Passion on Purpose
• Freelance Staffing

Minnesota Technology Blogs:

• But You’re A Girl
• this.Reflect();
• WhoisHenry.com
• Dahlin Development

Two Ways to Convince Employers to Hire You

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Kevin Donlin

I got a considerable amount of feedback on last week's article, which exhorted job seekers to ask the following question every time they learn of someone who got hired: How can I adapt what they did to my situation?

The example I used was this: If a sales rep got hired after bringing sales leads to a job interview, what could you bring to an interview to convince employers to hire you?

Coworking Opportunities And Locations In Minneapolis And St. Paul

There is a really interesting movement going on around the country that has found its way to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and it is called Coworking.

Coworking as a concept is a bit new to me. For all but the last two of my twelve years I have had office space. I am one of those people who know he does not get more done at home and that it can be HIGHLY overrated. It is cool in the beginning or now and again but full time from home, not for this guy.

But when the recession started knocking on the door I dumped my office space to work from home. I had to, it was a business call.

I miss not seeing people and the interaction of office neighbors. Or showering every day. Yeah I said it. There have been 3 day stretches when I have not ventured out of my place. Not that I go 3 days without a shower, anyway, I got off track (again)...

12 Days Of Christmas In Minnesota

I have been looking for some sort of holiday video or picture to post and stumbled across this one that Target Corporation put together and since it has a Minnesota vibe to it, this is the one.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes in the New Year.

The Fastest Growing Companies - Who's Hiring Vol VI

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: CareerAlley

So where are we in the recession life-cycle? Not sure that anyone really knows the answer yet, but we are all hoping that we are about at bottom and this recent quiet period is not just a temporary lull in the downward spiral. That being said, jobs will still be lost - especially in the automotive related industries. So hopefully the fastest growing companies are the fastest at job creation too. Picking up where we left off on the last volume in this series.