Minnesota Headhunter

Laptops And Reproduction

This has nothing to with my blog other than I am a man and I have a laptop. So bear with me, but when someone says the temps on these things are too hot and that it can hurt my reproductive chances I am going to take notice.

Particularly as a single guy with no children.

So I consider posting this message as my duty to all men to make them aware of the potential dangers. Even if I am laughing while typing this…

Venture Capital Seeing More Action

The National Venture Capital Association has released its Q2 2005 results. Nationally investments by VC rose 19% and they continued to raise larger amounts of cash to be invested. Much of the investment is going to later stage companies but there is a growing trend of new cash going into first and second round deals.

Here are three links to the NVCA site with Q2 results:

Venture Capital Investing Rises 19% To $5.8 Billion In Q2 2005

Larger Venture And Buyout Firms Drive Vibrant Private Equity Fundraising Activity In Q2 2005

Venture Backed IPO Market Remained Week in Q2 2005

Here is a link to The Business Journal on the local venture scene. One bit of bad news, Utah two quarters in a row with more investment dollars than Minnesota? What’s up with that?

A Special Web Site, CaringBridge

I was introduced to the CaringBridge web site via the NetSuds monthly newsletter in June. My immediate reaction was what a fantastic way to help family and friends to communicate during life altering and challenging times.

I now have a personal experience with the CaringBridge site. At the end of June a student at the University of Minnesota and member of the Phi Gamma Delta, FIJI, fraternity was involved in an accident. Ryan Bade is from Sioux Falls, attends the U of M, was in the St Cloud Hospital and is now in Sioux Falls.

Ryan has an amazing group of family and friends and all wanted to be kept up to date on his progress. Ryan’s site has allowed for his family to give updates on his progress and for friends to send words of encouragement and share stories of Ryan. As of this morning his site has had 11,000+ visitors. It would be impossible for Ryan’s family to communicate with everyone looking for information on his improving condition but this site has done an amazing job.

This previous Sunday the Star Tribune had this article on the front page of their Business section. I applaud Ambient Consulting, bSwing, and Onvoy for donating their time and materials to support this site.

When I am asked by people who are still skeptical of the Internet and its use I point to this site. There are many uses for the Internet but the ability to communicate and share ideas and information is invaluable. This quote from the CaringBridge site says it all; “We make profound human connections, using technology to serve a higher purpose in a powerful way.”

Techniques And Tips For My Recruiting Friends

I have been neglecting my third party and corporate recruiter friends. It was pointed out by a colleague of mine that I had not posted anything recently for my recruiting friends.

Well here you go.

This article was posted on the Electronic Recruiter Exchange last Friday. Lou Adler posted his “Ten P’s of Recruiter Survival” As we get closer to the fall hiring season this is a good time to take stock in what we have accomplished so far, what we would like to do the rest of the year, and how we can improve our recruiting process and style to achieve our goals.

Last Weeks Unemployment Numbers Show Job Gains

Good news for most of Minnesota showing the number of jobs in the state greater than March of 2001 when most economists say the last recession started. As stated in the article below 28 other states have already reached pre March ’01 numbers so we are a little behind.

There is also some caution in the report, as month-to-month numbers tend to greatly fluctuate. If you look over the previous months there is a trend in the right direction. Lets hope this continues.

State Politics, A Rant

I was simmering pretty good during the government shutdown. Or the partial shutdown as they all tried to spin it. Marketing at its best right there. If thousands of workers are forced to take vacation time or unpaid leave there is nothing partial about it if your one of them.

In a July 10^th Star Tribune article, Governor Pawlenty is quoted as saying, "When the good people of Minnesota decided to send about 100 Republicans and 100 Democrats to the Legislature, they gave us a challenge." Governor, let me take a try at it. The good people of Minnesota sent 200 legislators to the State Capitol to do their work, not act like a bunch of hard nosed, spoiled, can’t talk to each other little kids throwing sand at each other on the playground.

That same weekend Speaker Sviggum and Minority Leader Entenza were on WCCO TV’s morning news show. In speaking of how hard they had been working Minority Leader Entenza mentioned that they had been up very late, 4 am in some cases, in days leading up to the budget deal.

Minority Leader Entenza, Governor Pawlenty and Speaker Sviggum too, where was that work ethic in February? Did it really take 5 months of a regular session, a 1-month special session, and two weeks of a “partial”, your word not mine, government shutdown to make that deal?

If so either we need to elect capable leaders who are able to figure out how to run a state government or we, "the good people of Minnesota", need to elect leaders willing to do the peoples work and not their own self serving ego and politics game.

CraigsList, Google, and Yahoo Show Major Increase In Traffic

Red Herring with some briefs on hits of the major sites. CraigsList now ranks as the 30^th most popular search term. Google and Yahoo see an increase in unique users. CraigsList and Yahoo are major players in job postings and I have said before I wonder how long until we Google get in the action.

3rd Quarter Job Growth According to CareerBuilder.com

This press release came out June 13 from CareerBuilder.com. It was forwarded to me a couple of weeks ago but I forgot to post it. It is worth noting that another survey shows job creation in the Midwest behind other regions. The flip side is when bad times hit, like the last recession, the Midwest gets hit later and not quite as hard compared to other regions.

Highlights:

-Three-fourths of hiring managers state they have added workers.

-The leading areas for new job requisitions include healthcare, sales, accounting/finance, information technology, retail and customer service.

-Businesses will be less likely to take part in outsourcing in the second half of 2005 as compared to the first half.

-For the third quarter in a row, projected hiring activity in the Midwest is tracking below the other regions.

-One-in-five workers still report discontent with their current positions and one-in-ten plan to secure a new position in the third quarter."

Fewer IT Internships Available

Many leaders talk about the lack of skilled IT workers yet fewer internships are available. This article from Information Week has some interesting points. Allow me to put one of mine out there, someone needs to step up and make sure these young people get experience or their future job may be offshored too.

Every sport has a minor league or “farm system” of some sort and some corporations are doing a great job of preparing future talent, and hiring them full time later, but most have no plan at all.

Girls Still Not Studying Math

This piggy backs on my posting of July 4, Women In IT, Where Have They Gone? Stats from the Department Of Labor say that 10% of the engineers in this country are women. A quote in this story bothers me in that this stereotype is still around after all these years; "There's definitely still a feeling girls have that they can't be good in math because they're a girl…"

Seriously? We have had all these advances in women’s sports like the World Cup and WNBA yet we cannot shake the idea that girls and math are not cool? This is absurd.

Tech Hiring Increased In 2nd Quarter

Seems like every week there is a story about tech jobs going over seas. Then there is this one from Business Week showing an up tick in hiring state side. New technologies, integration of different programs, and the need of offshore companies to have developers near their clients.

More evidence of techies needing to work with cutting edge technologies and not get caught up in maintenance of old skills. Also, a bad sign for entry-level workers.

Good News From UnitedHealth Group

An article with good news on a Friday, most of the time bad news hits on Friday, from the Star Tribune. UnitedHealth Group, Ovations is the division, will be hiring 600 new employees to service a Medicare program.

100 of the jobs will be professional track and staffed in Minnetonka while the call center will hire 500 people in Roanoke, Va.

Clothing, Pen And A Shoe Shine

ePrairie with a timely article Thursday in their weekly networking piece, Tech Connect.

This week they are talking about making impressions and the important part, clothing. You may remember this Job Search Tip post from me the other day regarding the too casual and much too short sundress.

I am dumbfounded that we find ourselves writing about such things as proper attire, getting a shoe-shine, and bringing a nice pen to an event.

Have you ever given a business card to a new contact and then they ask to borrow a pen to write down information? I bet they are the same person who when taking a test in junior high school forgot to bring their No. 2 pencil with them.

Job Confidence Levels Up, Down, and Up Again

Hudson, a professional staffing firm that does monthly surveys on employee confidence, shows a major swing to the positive in June after a big dip in May. Increases in hiring, income, job security, and job satisfaction are cited as reasons for greater confidence.

Information Week has some quotes on volatility in the IT sector and also notes skills in demand are web development, .Net technology, and upgrading ERP software.

Here is an article from June regarding the low numbers in May.

Looking at numbers from one month to the next does not make a trend. There are going to be up and downs in the months ahead but most trends show an increase in hiring and slow and measured growth in salaries.

Yes times have changed from the late 90’s. No longer is an IT person going to pick the salary and favorite flavor of coffee. Maybe a foosball table in a common place can still be found.

It is back to normal hiring and salary trends and I would think that after the dot-com bubble burst normal would be just fine with everyone.

MN Headhunter Blog Of The Day On The Blotter

MN Headhunter was featured July 12 as Minnesota Blog Of The Day on The Blotter, City Pages’ group news blog.

I appreciate them noting they can spell Paul DeBettignies.

Thank You Volunteer Resource Center

Thank You to Katie Walsh of the Volunteer Resource Center, which runs the web site www.volunteertwincities.org. The web site is a searchable database that allows the non-profit community to post their volunteer needs and allow individuals and/or groups to search the postings.

Katie included information on my effort to link non-profits with technology needs to volunteers with technology skills in an email to their affiliated organizations.

I really appreciate their support and look forward to working with them in the future.

Job Search Tip

I have received a couple of messages from readers wondering why I do not post insights into my life as a headhunter in Minnesota recruiting IT candidates.

Frankly, I have had very few horror stories regarding my candidates or clients. I will give credit to the professionalism of my contacts, and small doses of luck and skill.

Until today. I recently was contacted by a candidate who was referred to me by a person I had placed four years ago. The referrer is a very talented project manager working for a large health care company in the Twin Cities and he has done extremely well with his career with my client.

He forwarded to me a friend of his that he was willing to stake his reputation on. Yes, you can probably see a pending train wreck.

On paper the woman is a very skilled DBA, has a stable work record and shows progression in her career.

I was a little put off by her email address, longlegged(enter name here)@xyz.com. She said when she gets an interview it normally goes well but has not been able to get a second meeting.

The first bit of advice I gave her was to use a different email address, something more professional.

The second bit of advice I gave her was today after she interviewed with a HR friend of mine. My friend’s company is not using a third party search firm but I thought this woman would be a good fit so I made an introduction.

There is good news. The woman is using a new email address.

There is bad news. The woman went to the interview in a much too casual sundress that was also much too short in length.

Moral to the story, she is not getting a second interview.

So my advice for today is this, if you are using a nickname or some other casual form of email address, consider a more professional, tame, conservative one for your job search.

The other bit of advice, even though many companies have summer or casual dress codes, when you are interviewing make sure you stay with professional attire. Save the much too short sundress for the beach.

The Future Of Online Job Postings

See that? Way out there in the distance. No over there. Yeah that’s it. Not sure what it is? It’s Google and I am wondering if they will get into the job posting business.

For a few years there have been the niche job boards competing with the big boys like Monster, HotJobs now owned by Yahoo!, and CareerBuilder.

Oh, and don’t forget about CraigsList. Craig Newmark has competed very well with the big boys by charging a nominal fee in only a few cities. This is a link to CraigsList with page views and rates in some cities.

Enter Google?

From what I understand most of the dollars they get are from ads whether placed at the top of searches or from the margin. So why not do a similar fee, or free, as CraigsList? Use a crawler to use on corporate sites, niche boards, and free boards and aggregate the jobs.

Think I am crazy? If you have done a search on HotJobs lately you will see they are already doing this. 

Google is talking about a product similar to compete with PayPal. Could a job board aggregator compete with Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder, and CraigsList? I would like to see what that does to the pricing models of Monster and friends.

I Am Quoted In The Star Tribune This Week

A shameless plug on my part. I was mentioned in this Star Tribune article on July 6. While it is nice to be mentioned for the work others and I have been doing it would have been nice if they had spelled my name right. Instead of Paul DeBettignies they printed Paul DeBettigens.

The work is the University District Improvement Association, which is the newest neighborhood association in Minneapolis. It covers a very small area in terms of territory but does have around 6,000 residents, its own police department (UMPD), a potential football stadium, a new biotech corridor, and thousands of people that work and travel through it on any given day.

Minneapolis is fortunate to have a strong neighborhood system, which is looked over by the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, or NRP. Here is their web site. I have been fortunate to get to know Bob Miller, Director of NRP, very well over these years and he does an amazing job juggling the budgets, politics, and grass roots organizations.

I look forward to working with the residents, businesses, and University as we get this new group up and running.

Competing In The Global IT Job Market

A good article from InfoWorld on how to survive the trend of outsourcing and offshoring. So many articles lately have been about the gloom and doom of the next ten years but this one has tips on how to survive and what skills will likely be in demand.

While all three pages are a good read, here are a few highlights:

-IT workers with project management skills and the ability to work with non-technical people will be in high demand.

-The inset on page 2, “Seven Keys to Job Security”.

-Having the capability to handle the third party or outsourcer will become a key skill.

The last paragraph, “The classic bad news is, your manager calls a meeting and says, ‘Your department is being outsourced’,” Trowbridge says. “The IT worker with a better shot at success is the one willing to study how the work will be migrated, how that transition will be managed, and what all the steps are. Learn that and you’ve just made yourself more valuable.”