Minnesota Headhunter

Follow The Program And TheLadders “Guarantees” You A $100K Job Offer

Today The Ladders announced Signature their new job coach program that for $2,500 guarantees you a $100,000 job offer in six months or your money back.

There are some requirements on the job seeker so check out Signature Terms and Conditions.

is this worth checking out?

Yeah, I suppose it is. They say during their trial period they have had a 90% success rate.

Here is why I am a bit skeptical…

Marc Cenedella, The Ladders CEO, was on CNBC this morning announcing the program with the video below.

He says they guarantee an offer within six months.

Is the guarantee an offer or a job? There is a huge difference between the two. I have seen it said both ways.

Can Or Will A Robot Do Your Job?

One of the lessons learned from the Great Recession is that many companies figured out how to maintain productivity with less people.

Some of this comes from advances in technology, some of it from learning that they had over hired and some from workers willing to work longer hours and in return having some job security.

But lets talk robots.

Can (will) a robot do your job?

Example, at the grocery store the other day I notice that the number of self checkouts increased.

Sure jobs were created to build the systems but surely the number has to be less than the hundreds and thousands of cashiers who are not going to be needed.

Same thing with robots doing tasks. No doubt really great high paying jobs will be created but a company of 500 could create robots and tools that will take the place of 1,000’s.

The lesson to be learned here is we all need to be doing continuing education and advancing our skill sets.

We need to evolve with the times or way me be left behind.

Unemployed Need Not Apply: Is It Legal?

My usual disclaimer: I am not an attorney and I do not play one online.

Back in June of 2010 a search firm representing a client posted a job on a job board saying

“NO UNEMPLOYED CANDIDATES WILL BE CONSIDERED AT ALL”

I wrote this blog post about it including a screen shot of the ad

Florida Search Firm: “No Unemployed Candidates Will Be Considered At All”

Here is an image of part of a Craig’s List ad from a few weeks ago:

Why I Love Minneapolis And St Paul

I get this question a lot, "Why do you live in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul?" The short answer is I love this town. I really do.

Rather than have me talk about the outdoors, arts, sports, universities and colleges, diverse economy, night life, etc check out this awesome video from Seven and Sixty Productions called Why We're Here: Twin Cities

Why We're Here: Twin Cities from Seven and Sixty Productions on Vimeo.

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

What follows is an update (31 blogs) to my blog roll. These blogs are also added to my TwinCitiesBlogs.com project.

Minnesota Recruiter and HR Blogs:

• Work 'N World
• The Miracle Worker

Minnesota Technology Blogs:

• Average Joe MN
• AppleSlut.com
• Jesse Hanson
• Attached WPF
• 2,000 You Should Know About C#
• Ryan Rampersad's Blog
• Vince's Random, Tech-Related Thoughts
• BenkoTIPS
• Brent's Notepad
• Brent says…
• (software) => iterate{ design; test; develop }
• People are the Platform
• Scott Koland's blog
• Assembly Required

Minnesota Blizzard 2010: Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, snOMG And Metrodome Roof Collapse

Well… we lived through what has ended up being  a 14” to 22” snowfall depending on where in Minnesota you live.

Here in Downtown Minneapolis I am guessing we had around 19” with 17.1” the official storm tally making it the 5th largest storm ever and the biggest since the Halloween storm of 1991 with 28.4”.

Here is what my patio looked like before and after shoveling:

Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up – Jim Valvano

What do you decide to do when you are at the end of the road?

This has been a common theme in 2010 and for the last couple of years for myself and most people I know. The Great Recession has kicked a lot of people in the backside and add that on to caring for parents, kids, careers and day to day things a lot of people have felt overwhelmed at one time or another.

For some it has been a constant feeling.

I did a job search presentation to a local group two weeks ago and after one of the attendees took me aside and said they had “quit” a long time ago on the job search. I was torn between showing empathy and wanting to kick the guy’s butt. I get what he meant and that feeling is horrible but he needed to “wake up”.

Instead I asked if him quitting had helped and he said no.

OK then, I guess we need to keep going, right?

You can’t give up, you just can’t.

I am reminded this week of a speech Jim Valvano gave at the ESPYs in 1993 to serve as a reminder to myself and hopefully you can take something away from it.

Below is the video and here is the transcript: Don't give up, don't ever give up.

7 Computer Programming Languages To Watch

Maybe instead of watch I should say learn?

One of the most frequent questions I get from tech pros is something like:

So what is the next big thing?

What are companies looking for?

What should I get a certification in?

I can give a good answer on what Minnesota companies are looking for right now and maybe this next year but I am not sure I can see any further.

Mostly because my sight is on today to six months from now.

I did come across this article from InfoWorld and they list (with some reasoning) 7 languages that the enterprise is starting to use more of.

Click 7 programming languages on the rise for the full article (yes they do list 8 but call the article 7):

• Python
• Ruby
• MATLAB
• JavaScript
• R <—this one is new to me
• Erlang
• Cobol
• CUDA Extensions

Who Are The 99ers?

Because of the Be Your Own Headhunter presentations I do online and in the community on job search, networking and LinkedIn I have met a lot of people with heart breaking stories about how the Great Recession has impacted them and their families.

I also know many people who have been completely untouched from the economic hell that many are going through. Yes they worry about what might happen and they may save more than they used to but generally have been untouched.

On the other end of the spectrum are a group of people who are now called the 99ers, those who have exhausted all unemployment benefits.

60 Minutes did a story on them and I thought it would be a good idea to post the video here as sometimes I hear people make comments about the long term unemployed being lazy, unwilling to take any job or being unskilled.

For the folks who I have met, this could not be further from the truth.

Here is the video (there maybe a 1 minute commercial inserted in it):

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

What follows is an update (32 blogs) to my blog roll. These blogs are also added to my TwinCitiesBlogs.com project.

Minnesota Recruiter and HR Blogs:

• HR Soot
• The Jobs Guy
• LaborStats
• Seven Degrees
• That Recruiter

Minnesota Technology Blogs:

• MentorMate
• Techerator
• The Mighty Mo
• Object Partners
• The Foundation

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Fall 2010

 

After missing a lot of the early season fall colors I set out for the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum last weekend (2nd weekend in October). It may have been just past peak colors but in a word… it was awesome.

For those familiar with the layout of the arboretum I walked along/near Three Mile Drive and as I headed back looked at my map, took a right (heading east) and kept walking.

And walking.

And walking.

And… you get the idea.

It was a most beautiful day, I had my camera with and I knew this would be my best (only) chance to soak fall in.

After walking the trails on the east end I made my way back and spent some time in the gardens. Even though late in the season they still looked very good and you will see some of those photos as well.

Right before leaving I found a help desk and showed the winding route I took and asked, “How far did I go?”. The fella looked at me and said, “A little more than 7 miles. You are going to feel that in the morning.”

Good news was after taking a nap and rehydrating I felt good that night and the next day.

Below are some of the photos I took that day.

Top 50 IT Certifications And Skills To Have

Almost no day goes by where I am not asked what is the cool thing to be doing in IT, should I get certified and if so in what and what should I be doing for my career in the long term.

I found the following list on ComputerWorld who sourced the Foote Partners IT Skills and Certifications Hot Lists for July 2010.

I think there are some skill sets not listed that should be (maybe they could have just added SAP one time and said all modules) like PHP, Java, .Net, etc but it does also depends on who replied to the survey (how big a company, industries, U.S. or global, etc.)

But this is a good place to start when thinking about what skills one may want to pick up, learn and get better at:

IT Certifications

1. SAS Certified Base Programmer

2. Red Hat Certified Security Specialist

3. CompTIA Security+

4. SAS Certified Advanced Programmer

5. VMware Certified Professional 

6. GIAC Security Essentials Certification

Job Ads Do Not Have To Suck | Minnesota Marketing Job

I have not ever posted a job from someone else on my blog but I received a nice email from Jon Parshall, COO at CodeWeavers, and I am going to make an exception.

First time for everything, right?

Here is why, it’s a cool ad. It engages. It is a bit funny. I doubt it was approved by an attorney.

In other words, this is something I can support.

See folks, your job ads and descriptions do not have to suck.

Disclaimer: none needed. Code Weavers is not a client and I have not worked for them in the past. But you know, should they ever need a good recruiter… :)

Another reason to post this is if I can do something to help promote a local tech company I will. (Yes, that is an invitation for others to ask if I can help)

Their Marketing position:

Support The United Way And Join A Dream Team

PLEASE NOTE: Today (Sept 2, 2010) is the last day to join a team

The Greater Twin Cities United Way has been for the past month or so running a “competition” of sorts to draw awareness to four main issues in our community: Hunger, Literacy, Shelter and Wellness.

They turned each issue into a “team” with captains who are well known local TV anchors and reporters.

Here are the Dream Teams:

Team Hunger sponsored by Land O Lakes

• Captain: Jason DeRusha, WCCO 4 TV

Team Literacy sponsored by Target

• Captain: Vineeta Sawkar, KSTP 5 TV

Team Shelter sponsored by Xcel Energy

• Captain: Jason Metheson, KMSP 9 TV

Team Wellness sponsored by HealthPartners

• Captain: Rena Sarigianopoulus, KARE 11

Beloit College Mindset List: Class Of 2014

Since 1998 Beloit College has put out a yearly list of things that describe what the incoming freshman class at college and universities have experienced culturally.

Having now stepped “Over the Hill” some of the items below freak me out. See when these kids were born I was more than half way through my college days.

As I get ready for another year of volunteering at the University of Minnesota this helps put into perspective why sometimes I wonder if I landed on Mars.

It also puts into perspective how cool and interesting they really are.

Mindset List for the Class of 2014

Most students entering college for the first time this fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992.

For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.

From CNBC: Are CEO’s To Blame For High Unemployment

Most of the time on most days I have CNBC on mute sprinkled with some MSNBC and FOX News (I can’t watch much of either one), CNN and of course ESPN (because we all need balance).

This is a great exchange with James Pethokoukis, of Reuters BreakingViews, and Dan Gross, of Newsweek on why unemployment is where it is, why CEO’s are not hiring, why with reductions in productivity they may now need to (or soon).

An interesting topic to me is how we have workers without jobs yet companies cannot find workers with the right skill sets.

They mention a Michael Moore piece in Daily Beast, here it is Profits Up at GM! And You're Still Unemployed.

Here is a question to you and rather than send me email (which I always appreciate) put your comments below. I am curious about what you think of why companies are not yet hiring and if you were a CEO would you.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Here is the video:

Take This Job And Shove It - Not A Great Exit Strategy

(AP Photo)

This will shock those that know me but I think JetBlue guy, Steven Slater the now (in)famous Flight Attendant who slid down an emergency chute after having a couple of beers and telling everyone what he thought, is an idiot.

This should not be celebrated.

4th Of July 2010 Minnesota Fireworks Shows

For 2012 info click:

4th Of July 2012 Minnesota Fireworks Shows

 

 

This is my 3rd year of putting together a list of Minnesota Fireworks show for the 4th of July.

Below are the shows I was able to fine along with links for more information.

While it appears all start times are 10 PM or Dusk please check to be sure.

 

 

Did I miss any? If so, please leave a comment below.

Stay safe. Have fun. And I wish you many OOHH AAHH’s.

Minnesota Full Moon

I have an intense fascination with the Moon. I am not sure where it comes from but maybe because I have been a night owl most of my life it feels like a friend.

You might be wondering, what does this have to do with recruiting? Nothing. Nothing at all.

I noticed last night we are coming up on another full moon and was reminded of this poem:

Some Kiss We Want - “From Soul of Rumi” by Coleman Barks

There is some kiss we want with our whole lives, the touch of spirit on the body.

Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell.

And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild darling!

At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come and press its face against mine.

Breathe into me.

Close the language door and open the love window. The moon won't use the door, only the window.

Here some photos from the past couple of months of the Full Moon as I was walking around the neighborhood.

Attention Wannabe Gurus And Experts: White Guys In Suits Needed In China

This is what we should do with all the Social Media (and related) experts and gurus, send them to China. Or at least they will have a place to go once the “shiny new toy wears” off.

Check this from CNBC –> "Fake" Execs Wanted in China