Minnesota Headhunter

MN Headhunter Updated

Today you will see 13 more Recruiting Blogs, 3 more Business and Technology Blogs, and many more possibilities for feeds and bookmarks.

   

For those getting the RSS feed here are the added Recruiting Blogs:

   

Cheezhead 

   

Siliconvalleyjobs.com Blog 

   

Jim Stroud 2.0 

   

George's Employment Blawg 

   

John Sumser 

   

Marketing Headhunter.com 

   

Being Bold Blog 

   

Recruiting Animal 

   

New Workforce - The Weblog of New Equities 

   

The Asia Pacific Headhunter 

   

Jobster: The Lefkow Zone 

   

Career Builders Blog 

   

Secrets of the Job Hunt

   

And the added Business and Technology Blogs (with more to add the next few days):

   

Venture Blog 

   

SiliconBeat 

   

Brand Storming

Twin Cities Rankings

Spring must be the season when rankings of different things come out. I guess that makes sense now that they have had last year’s data to play with.

   

Instead of posting each one as it comes out I have been holding on to them:

   

Kiplinger Personal Finance, 50 Smart Places to Live

#2 Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
We get a high grade for the economy, culture, sports, universities and colleges. Here is the best line I have seen in a while:

   

Yes, the winter weather isn't for wusses. But locals embrace the cold with winter festivals, and they make the most of every pleasant day with trails, parks and outdoor restaurants.

   

That’s right, no wusses allowed…

   

Business Ethics, Top 100 Ethical Companies

7 Minnesota companies make the list:

#14 General Mills

#19 St. Paul Travelers

#20 Ecolab

#43 3M

#54 Tennant

#85 Graco

#98 Apogee Enterprises

   

Fortune, America’s Most Admired Companies

13 Minnesota companies make the list:

3M

UnitedHealth Group

Wells Fargo

Medtronic

St. Jude Medical

Bemis

Best Buy

C.H. Robinson

General Mills

Patterson Companies

PepsiAmericas

SuperValu

Target

Enron Verdict

***Updated*** Ken Lay was also found guilty on the 4 counts of bank fraud in the bench trial by Judge Sim Lake.

   

***Updated*** A jury of eight women and four men returned verdicts again Kenneth Lay, 64, and Jeffrey Skilling, 52, former executives of Enron.

   

Ken Lay was charged with a total of 6 counts and faced 45 years. He was found guilty on all 6:

   

1 Count of Conspiracy

2 Counts of Wire Fraud

3 Counts of Securities Fraud

   

Lay’s maximum sentence is 45 years.

   

Jeff Skilling was charged with 28 counts and faced 275 years. Skilling was found guilty on 19 of the 28:

   

1 Count of Conspiracy

12 Counts of Securities Fraud

5 Counts of False Statements to Auditors

1 Count of Insider Trading

   

Not Guilty on 9 Counts of Insider Trading.

   

175 years is the maximum for Skilling.

   

Sentencing will be September 11, 2006. 5 years and 10 days after the scandal broke.

   

On Wednesday, another U.S. judge in Houston approved a $6.6 billion civil settlement by three banks accused by Enron shareholders of helping the company hide financial misdeeds that led to its collapse.

   

The settlements to be paid to former Enron shareholders include $2.4 billion from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, $2.2 billion from JP Morgan Chase and $2 billion from Citigroup. This combined with a previous settlement with Lehman Brothers and Bank of America totals $7.2 billion of the $40 billion lost by shareholders.

   

***Original Post*** The jury in the fraud and conspiracy trial of former Enron chief executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling has reached a verdict. It will be read at noon eastern time, 11 am central time.

   

I will post an update after the verdicts are read.

Starting A Blog

At least once a week I get an email asking about this blog, how I got started and why. The next question inevitably is what software and hosting is needed.

   

I originally put together a blog on Blogger.com. It was easy to set up but too basic for what I wanted to do.

   

I went with TypePad. It gives enough flexibility on changing the look and feel of the site without requiring any coding knowledge. I may recruit the techie folk but that odes not mean I can do the techie work.

   

That may change this summer. I am looking to take the next step with the blog. I see sites that are more pleasing to the eye, that look less like a template and more like a custom built site.

 

So I have been searching for a comparison of the different services available. I think I am going with my original idea and will use Moveable Type.

   

I have been using this site to do comparisons, Blog software comparison chart.

Happy 1st Anniversary, MN Headhunter

MN Headhunter is celebrating its first year this week. The actual first posting(s) was May 21^st, 2005 so really I am 3 days behind but who’s counting.

   

A blog turning a year old seems anti-climactic. How do you celebrate? Punch and cake, fireworks, how do you invite friends over?

   

Hopefully before I get out of here tomorrow afternoon (checking out early for the holiday weekend) I can get my press release put together and announce a couple of new things.

   

As of the 21^st I had 240 entries, which could have been more if not for last fall when I did not post for almost two months and instead did many postings in one. I have learned that it is easier to add content every day versus trying to catch up with many in one day. I said I learned it that does not mean I will practice it.

   

I also have learned that I have more to say and talk about than I thought. Which my friends will find crazy that I could talk, think or analyze more than I already do.

   

There is still a lot of ground to cover, topics to bring up, and things to add. I think I am finally figuring out what I want to do with this.

   

Minneapolis And Google Trends

The Star Tribune has this article today Google shows what we want to know. From the article:

   

Here are some randomly chosen topics for which Minnesotans are among the top 10 searchers worldwide.

   

1 Seasonal affective disorder (Minneapolis): This explains our No. 1 rank for coffee.

1 Light rail (Minneapolis): We've only got 12 miles, but we ride it back and forth.

1 Prairie Home Companion (St. Paul): Hometown pride.

2 Fishing (Minneapolis): Tampa's No. 1. They don't crack the list for ice fishing. St. Cloud is No. 1.

2 Gas prices (Minneapolis): Ottawa is No. 1, but they pay in loonies.

3 Snow (Minneapolis): Behind Salt Lake City and Denver. San Diego is No. 5!

7 Bars (Minneapolis): Coincidentally (or not), we're also No. 7 for Alcoholics Anonymous.

   

Weather, the outdoors, light rail and gas prices. Pass me a beer. Yeah, that pretty much covers what we talk about…

Online Career Hub Adds Seattle

Welcome Seattle!!!

   

The last two weeks I have been very busy with work so not until this past weekend was I able to make any progress on the site. I found quite a few web sites for the Seattle area.

   

As always, if you have a site that you think may be useful please send me the link.

Weekend Talk

Since my post the other day regarding Aaron Gleeman, the now famous Minnesota Twins blogger, I have had a few messages wondering why I am not adding more personal stuff on my blog. Well, because this is a “professional” blog and the RSS feed goes to many places so I thought against it.

   

The heck with that.

   

Not only is this a blog about being a recruiter in Minneapolis but also it is about my career and working/living in Minneapolis. So today I am starting what is going to be called “Weekend Talk”. Short postings, thoughts and links that grabbed me in the past week or have me thinking about what’s coming up.

   

So here’s the first post:

   

Happy Mother’s Day

Hey Mom, I love you…

   

Isabelle and Abbigail Carlsen

The now world famous formerly conjoined twins from North Dakota have had the most fabulous weekend. So far all news from the Mayo Clinic has been very positive. Here is a link to their CaringBridge site, Isabelle and Abbigail. Here is a news link from the Mayo Clinic.

   

Komen Twin Cities Race for the Cure

The Minnesota event is now the third largest in the country. The weather this morning was lousy at best but 47,000+ were at the Mall of America this morning to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

   

Farewell to The West Wing

While sometimes annoyed with the constant left of center story lines, what’s a moderate to do, I have been a big fan of the show. Link to The West Wing.

   

Grand Old Day 2006

Just a few weeks until the summer festival season starts here in the Twin Cities. The first is Grand Old Day held on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. 250,000+ are expected once again for the one-day event.

   

A run and walk, a parade and then an afternoon of bands including GB Leighton and The Johnny Holm Band.

Be Careful What You Say And Do Online

Saturday evening, May 13^th, the NBC Evening News had this story Employers digging up dirt online. I, and other bloggers, have been writing, better yet warning, people of all ages to be careful of what they are posting on Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites for a year or more. (Nice to see that the mainstream media is catching up to us.)

   

I also include a topic on this in my job search and networking seminars. These are great tools to stay in touch with classmates, friends, co-workers and family. These are great foundations to build upon a personal and business network with.

   

Steven Rothberg of CollegeRecruiter.com (who I seem to be quoting more and more lately) was in the story. He had a great analogy comparing profiles to tattoos. If you do not want someone to see your tattoo do not put it in a place where others can see it.

   

Same goes for these sites. If you do not want your parent, employer or friends (the ones who might not understand) to see what you are saying then make your profile “hidden”. Better yet, do not write it at all.

   

The story quotes a recent survey of recruiters:

-77% have used search engines to uncover information about candidates.

-35% have eliminated a candidate based on information found online.

   

Consider this another warning…

Highlights From The Recruiting Blogosphere

Blogosphere

"Please do not respond to this e-mail." (Secrets of the Job Hunt) With a forward to Boston Works.com. I am not 100% effective at reaching out to everyone that contacts me but I do the best I can. The good news is that I am one of the few who goes as far as I do.

   

10 Hot Jobs - from B2.0, May 2006 (Career Builders Blog) 5 out of 10 are in information technology

   

Managing Your Recruiter (Technical Careers @ Microsoft) I like the way the candidate handled the recruiter but did so in a professional and proactive manner. Be persistent, not pushy.

   

Social Engineering and Recruiting: What's the difference? (Jim Stroud 2.0) A must read…

   

Electronic Recruiting Exchange

Build a Candidate Pipeline Through Internships (Kevin Wheeler) I just don’t understand why more companies do mot create a formal system. I know it takes time up front but you save more of it 1-3 years later.

   

The Best Article Ever Written on Passive Candidate Recruiting (Lou Adler) This is not exactly rocket science but a good reminder and definitely need to know for those getting into recruiting.

Getting Invited To The (Interview) Dance

Quite a while ago I had a post on how getting a job is a lot like dating. I started with the part where a candidate goes in for the first interview. It’s a lot like a blind date and you hope both people like each other and a relationship develops.

   

I came across this post from CollegeRecruiter.com today, Persuade Me, by Yvonne LaRose.

   

My original post missed an important part, the attraction. Even for a blind date there is a phone call, an email or a mutual friend giving each person some information. Something that causes both parties to want to do a blind date. After all, it can be awkward

   

For the employer it’s the job ad, the web site, and other information one finds about a potential employer.

   

For the candidate it’s the resume and introductory email.

   

Steven has some great comments for job seekers on how to best present themselves.

Minnesota Sports Blogger Is A Hit

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not one can make a career out of being a blogger. (I assure you that is not my intention. I will continue to be a Minneapolis technology recruiter.)

   

Meet Aaron Gleeman; if you are a Minnesota Twins fan, baseball fan in general, or read Sports Illustrated you likely already know who he is.

   

Aaron writes a self-titled blog, AaronGleeman.com with his focus on the Minnesota Twins. He has been writing for about 3 ½ years and I finally came across his site two weeks ago. Where have I been? Apparently everyone in Minneapolis and St. Paul knew about him but me.

   

He does not just write about the Twins although clearly it is the focus. He does write about other sports, the Twin Cities and pop culture. Usually it relates back to baseball one way or another.

   

Aaron and his blog are of great interest to me because of the way he and it have evolved from just a local interest to a national following without losing his voice, or style.

   

He started writing about something that interested him. As he posts today in Twins Notes:

People often ask what motivated me to start this blog four years ago. It's a complicated answer, but in the end can be boiled down partly to me getting fed up with the sub par coverage of the Twins in the local mainstream media.

   

He had no idea of greatness four years ago. He just started writing about what he knew a lot about, the Twins, baseball, and sports in general.

   

If you write good content, write frequently, have a style of your own, interact with other bloggers, and most important of all actually know what you are talking about you will be noticed.

   

In the time that I have been writing this (in between phone calls over two hours) Aaron’s visitor count has increased by 70+. Currently his visitor stats show 1,922,858 since 8/1/02. No, that number is not a mistake on my part. That is the number.

   

Aaron was a successful blogger but his fortunes (so to speak) were fast-forwarded after his appearance in this article in Sports Illustrated, How the Web is Changing Sports Coverage. You can read his take on the article and his excerpt from it, My 15 Minutes.

   

While writing his own blog he is also a contributor to other publications including USA Today and Fox Sports.

   

Yes Aaron’s story of a college student turned blogger turned national writer (and getting paid for it) is a rare occurrence but it does happen and it is nice to see a local guy be one of them.

   

A closing tangent:

I am always looking at my statistics to see how someone found the MN Headhunter blog. I am paying attention to links from other blogs, posts that have been shared with others, and the search engine referral words. My site is rather boring when it comes to referrals from Google, Yahoo and MSN. Common words include: MN, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Twin Cities, recruiter, headhunter, jobs, careers, volunteer, IT, etc.

   

All career related as one would expect, as I do not write much about anything else. I have written some on Gopher football and sports in general but it has not been my focus and finding time to write on industry topics has been difficult enough.

   

From last week’s Link-O-Rama, Aaron wrote about his referrals. I was most fascinated to see that a blog focusing on baseball and the Minnesota Twins specifically has the #1 return on Google for Jennifer Aniston’s butt from an October 2002 post. To show how specific search engines really are if you drop the (‘s) from the search Aaron's blog is nowhere to be found.

   

Huh, maybe I should start writing about fishing, walleye, the Guthrie and the Warehouse District…

Highlights From The Recruiting Blogosphere

Blogosphere:

company perks: even the odd ones count (The JobSyntax Blog) Feminine hygiene products as a recruiting tool? I am not sure how I would promote that to a candidate. That makes for an interesting job ad.

   

CollegeRecruiter.com Acquires Jobseekers Revenge Blog from Microsoft Recruiter, Jim Stroud (CollegeRecruiter.com Blog) Steven Rothberg picks up a great archive of information.

   

How to Start a Corporate Recruiting Blog (Recruiting.com) Jim Durbin with his first of two white papers on getting started with your blog.

   

Battling Free (Recruiting.com) A link to Joel Cheesman who is offering his e-book for free this week. Good information on creating revenue while competing with the free sites like Craig’s List and Google.

   

Web sites:

Are you Prepared for a Candidate's Market?

MNspeak Waters Getting Rough

Online communities can be interesting creatures and the anonymity the web provides can be a good thing, it also can be used by the dark side. Or in this case turn a community into a living, breathing soap opera.

   

I have been “lurking” at MNspeak for almost a year. (In fact, my blog was around the 100^th in the aggregator at the time I started.) I liked the idea of the local folk getting together for a chat. While I have never met any of the personalities as a frequent visitor you feel like you know some of the users. I have some of their blogs linked on the left hand side of this page.

   

I have been really busy so my lurking has become more like an infrequent drive-by to the site. Maybe, 2-3 times a week.

   

Not so happy with what I found yesterday and in other recent posts. It seems that the general tone has turned more negative. Sure I get that online communities can get this way and people will do what they will do but as a visitor I can and may choose to go somewhere else.

   

Rex Sorgatz who started MNspeak recently sold the site to a local group as he took a job with Microsoft and relocated to Seattle. I was aware of that.

   

Before I go on, a disclaimer. I am not good with “famous” or “it” people. I rarely know names and for the most part could care less. That goes for Hollywood and the local scene.

   

Monday the Star Tribune ran an article, Bartel 2.0. Here is where I show my ignorance. I read the City Pages often. Until the article I had no idea who published it. Frankly, I did not and still do not care. So I would never have known that Tom Bartel used to own City Pages and now owns the Rake. That Tom’s brother Mark is now the publisher at the City Pages.

   

I did know that Matt Bartel, son of Tom Bartel, bought MNspeak from Rex. How it was financed, I could care less. I do find his particular story interesting being he is still in college and trying to find what to do with the site.

   

Now forward to this posting How Mo Po and the 200+ comments.

   

Take a read for yourself as I am not going to take the time to introduce the known characters, the assumed identities of the “anonymous” posters, or put in my two cents on the many comments that are filled with self-serving ego and talking about what clearly is a few years of confrontation between a writer and publisher.

   

My only suggestion is this, moderators of online communities should receive formal training on how to not let the inmates run and ruin the asylum. Rex did a great job with this and I hope he can help Matt out.

   

I am curious about the part with Girl Friday and how a comment of hers was edited regarding a link to a recipe on “meth”. Personally, the link in her comment should have stayed and then the community should have shunned her for including it.

   

Prepare for a tangent:

The recent City Pages Best of the Twin Cities 2006 listed as the Best Cheap Thrill, Crystal Meth. Yeah no joke. The City Pages did not handle that well at all. Take a look at the two updates and the comments that were posted.

   

Heck, in this season of a U.S. Senate race Minnesota Congressman Mark Kennedy took his displeasure regarding the Best Cheap Thrill to the floor of the House.

   

Back to MNspeak:

Around the first of the year I contacted Rex about my interest in placing a banner ad on MNspeak promoting this blog. I am in the middle of figuring out where to place the ads now.

   

Until I see what direction the new management is taking and what the tone of the site will take I think I will wait a while before writing the check.

6 Cities Added to Online Career Hub

I had hoped to get farther than I did this weekend with the new web site. I did get the formatting for each page consistent with some content added.

   

The first cities to be added besides Minneapolis/St. Paul are:

Atlanta

Boston

Chicago

New York

San Francisco

Washington, D.C.

   

Why are these cities first? Simply, they are the ones that I most frequently hear someone from Minnesota moving to. Admittedly this may not accurately reflect where people from Minnesota go as I most of who I talk with are in a tech industry. Next cities will likely come from the following:

Austin

Dallas

Denver

Los Angeles

Seattle

Highlights From The Recruiting Blogosphere

Blogosphere:

Top job sites In Yahoo & Google – David Beats Goliath (E-Cruit Blog), a nice explanation on SEO.

   

Headhunting Defined (Recruiting.com), this clears some of it up.

   

Links To Blogs That Have Been Tagged (Recruiting.com) geez I was tagged more than a week ago. If this were the playground the kids would be laughing at me by now.

   

How to Follow-Up after Interviewing (Being Bold Blog), for every job seeker.

   

Links for 2006-05-05 [del.icio.us] (George's Employment Blawg), more employment statistics than even I care to read.

   

Who's holding you back? (Guerilla Job Hunting), this one has been on my mind all day.

   

More than 15,000 recruiters on TheLadders.com now (stone), that did not take long.

   

Web Sites:

How HR/Recruiting Wastes $100 Million Every Year!

   

5 ways to start a company (without quitting your day job)

COBOL Not Dead

I was having a conversation with a CIO last night and we started talking about how we met the same week he became a CIO and I started being an IT recruiter. We had a great chat about how most things have changed and a few stayed the same.

   

The most prevalent of which was when just about every “expert” said the career path in COBOL was dead.

   

Ummm, no, not so much.

   

Most financial transactions like billing and credit card payments to name a couple are still using COBOL. They have been for decades and it will likely be used for a few more.

   

Our conversation then moved to the retirement of the Baby Boomer. There is already a shortage of developers but if/when all of these seasoned professionals retire, what then?

   

Forrester Research says the peak of retirement is 2020 to 2030. Well that’s great but there are two factors. What if they take early retirement? What if they stay on as part-time consultants to make some extra cash?

   

The banks, insurance companies, and large/old firms are those at risk. Web development and “new” technologies like Java are seen as more cutting edge and exciting, that’s where the young folk go.

   

So if you are thinking about joining the ranks of information technology do not dismiss a career in COBOL. It may not be as “cool and sexy” as other programming languages but it is here to stay.

   

And as we learned the last five years there is something to be said about stability…

April '06 Job Scene, National

Today the April employment numbers were released showing a weaker than expected increase of 138,000 jobs and no change in the unemployment rate of 4.7%.

   

Winners:

Professional/Business +28,000

Financial +26,000

Health Care +23,000

Manufacturers +19,000

Education +12,000

Construction +10,000

   

Losers:

Retailers -36,000

   

Average hourly earnings were up .5% from the estimated .3%.

   

National job gains:

December ’05, 145,000

January ’06, 154,000 (revised) 170,000 (first reported)

February ’06, 200,000 (revised again) 225,000 (revised) 243,000 (first reported) 210,000 (consensus number)

March ’06, 200,000 (revised) 211,000 (first reported) 190,000 (consensus number)

April ’06, 130,000 (first reported) 200,000 (consensus number)

   

National unemployment rates:

December ’05, 4.9%

January  ’06, 4.7%

February ’06, 4.8%

March ’06, 4.7%

April ’06, 4.7%

Highlights From The Recruiting Blogosphere

There are a few blog posts in the past day or so that I want to comment on but because of time and I am just going to link to them here:

   

-For Some Tech Companies, the Perks Are Back (Canadian Management Centre's Training Blog) Yahoo parks cars? Sweet!!!

   

-Non-Profits Can Pay Reasonable Salaries (Hiring Technical People) I have learned that many if not most of the nonprofits in our area are able to compete when you look at total compensation packages.

   

-How to Handle Contract Work on Your Resume (Being Bold Blog) Great explanation.

   

-The Local Scene According to The MN Headhunter (Recruiting.com) Of course I like this one and many thanks to Jim for the nice comment.

Regional Competitiveness And The Itasca Project

Tuesday I attended the Carlson School of Management's First Tuesday Luncheon Series at the University if Minnesota.

   

Jim Campbell, Interim Dean of the Carlson School of Management, spoke about "Advancing a Regional Civic Agenda through Business Leadership".

   

Besides Interim Dean, Jim is the Chairman of the Itasca Project and former Chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo.

   

The Itasca Project is a group of 40+ community leaders including CEOs, the Governor of Minnesota, the Mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul and the president of the University of Minnesota, who provide leadership for long-term regional development and competitiveness to the metropolitan area.

The goals of the Itasca Project include building a stronger University-business partnership, advancing a comprehensive transportation plan, retaining and growing leading employers, improving early childhood development, addressing socio-economic disparities and supporting the growth of small businesses and clusters.

   

Notes on the Itasca Project:

-An idea was formed to create a group of leaders six years ago after then Dean Kidwell gave a presentation on regional competitiveness.

-There were so many ideas, issues, and people involved that it became hard to coordinate.

-A few people continued conversations and in September of 2003 the consulting firm McKinsey brought some people to a meeting. This was the beginning of the Itasca Project.

-Three themes of how the group operates: Getting stuff done; CEO’s must be actively engaged (No staff); collaboration is a key and partnerships are made with other groups and thought leaders.

-A similar organization exists in Boston.

-Itasca is trying to help regional leaders. To gather information.

-McKinsey has donated the staff time needed.

-The focus of the Itasca Project is on the Twin Cities. As the cities go, so goes the state.

   

General notes:

-Other cities are looking to the Twin Cities to see how groups like the Itasca Project work.

-The STEP-UP Summer Jobs Program had 117 students involved in 2005. So far for this summer 200+ have been accepted with more applicants to be interviewed.

-Transportation. Itasca Project believes $750 million a yeas is needed every year for the next 15 years to meet current and future needs including roads, bridges, rail, etc.

   

One of the last comments Jim made was that unlike in the “old days” CEO’s today are leading publicly held corporations that are global. They are worrying as much about South America as they are South Minneapolis.

   

To this point I found this link to MPR in 2004, CEOs enlist in civic 'renaissance'. It talks quite a bit about the time needed to address regional issues and the pressures CEO’s face now that were not around 50 years ago.