Recap: Managing Your Tech And Startup Career

 

Last week I hosted my first online chat in all long time, maybe 3+ years, on Managing Your Tech And Startup Career. This is something I do every year at MinneBar and tech user groups throughout the year.

This one was a lot of fun for me as it was not only tech professionals in Minneapolis/St Paul but marketing, sales and CxO’s in our area along with a number of tech and data pros from the Bay Area.

The original agenda I proposed was:

• What is the local job market like right now?
• Is this a good time to look for a new job?
• What's a reasonable salary increase year over year?
• Should I stay a developer or move into management?
• I'm thinking about moving to "FILL IN THE BLANK CITY", should I go?
• Why is there so much recruiter spam?
• How much personal info should I share with corporate/search firm recruiter?
• I’m not a tech person but want to work with a tech company, how do I get in one?

And then attendees asked a number of questions including one I always seem to ramble on waffling back and forth on and paraphrasing… specialist or generalist?

In all it went for about 45 minutes and below is the session uploaded to YouTube.

This was my first time using Zoom and while it went OK it’s clear I need some more practice with which screen is showing.

To those who asked questions… thank you. It’s always way more enjoyable to have interaction particularly when I can’t see you.

If you have questions or comments after listening to this please send me an email paul@mnheadhunter.com

Here we go…

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Online Chat: Managing Your Tech And Startup Career

Every year at MinneBar I do a presentation called, “Managing Your IT Career - (Why do recruiters suck so bad?). This past spring, 8th year doing this, I had an end of the day speaking time and still had a full room with people sitting on the floor and along the wall. I do wonder how many more people would attend a morning session… part of my group:

 

The past weeks I have been getting a higher than usual number of inquiries from tech, data and product professionals, along with those interested in the Minnesota and Midwest startup scene, asking questions about salaries, Minneapolis and Midwest tech jobs, what code schools to choose, etc.

So I am going to do an online chat… a webinar to answer the current most asked questions and ask attendees to send theirs.

Survey: 57% Of Employers Less Likely To Interview A Candidate They Can't Find Online

 

CareerBuilder released their annual survey, Number of Employers Using Social Media to Screen Candidates at All-Time High, about how companies are using social media to source and screen candidates. There are the usual “headline” stats:

• 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates
• 54% have decided not to hire a candidate based on their social media profiles

That last one is the one that usually gets the most attention. Here’s the thing… of course the number is that high. Look at the wording of it. Of course any/every “Fortune 500” company, as an example, has not hired someone because of their online stupidity profile. Think of how many people apply with them. So they didn’t hire one? That’s easy to understand.

And I think the 70% number is much higher. Surely some respondents didn’t want to tell the truth.

Webinar: Minnesota IT Jobs, Salary and Recruiting Report - Spring 2017

 

A frequent question I get locally and nationally is “what’s going on in Minnesota?”.

After all the fall and winter events and conferences and leading into spring it’s time for me to give some clarity… I am putting together a summary of all of the info I have gathered over the past months, add in a bunch of reference points from national IT job and salary surveys and do a webinar.

This is my perspective from attending user groups, working with and recruiting for startups and tech companies, conversations with large companies about their recruiting strategies and speaking at local and national conferences.

When:

• March 1^st, 2017
• 1 pm CT

Cost:

• Free

To register click:

• Minnesota IT Jobs, Salary and Recruiting Report - Spring 2017

Topics:

• Intro
• What’s going on in MN
• Recruiters in demand
• Job and Skills info
• IT salary info
• Recruiting trends
• Conclusion

Who should attend:

• Corporate Recruiter or HR
• Hiring Managers
• Startup CEO
• IT Manager, Director or CIO
• IT professionals
• (Who am I missing?)

Q&A will be part of the webinar. Please interact with me.

If you have any questions ahead of time send me an email paul@mnheadhunter.com

FYI… a few events this spring you may want to attend:

• 3/3 Tech Cities
• 3/25 MinneBar
• 3/30 Enterprise Rising
• 3/31 Midwest Capital Call

Save the Date:

• June (TBD): Midwest Recruiting Bootcamp
• 10/9-15 Twin Cities Startup Week
• 10/16-18 ERE Fall 2017 in Minneapolis

Click Minnesota Headhunter for current blog posts and Minneapolis IT Jobs for searches I am working on.

 

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Recap: MinneDemo 25

 

Another fun night at MinneDemo (February 16th, 2017)… one part new Minnesota tech, one part Minnesota tech community reunion and one part networking although for me that last one was mostly nonexistent. More on that later.

MinneDemo 25 was held at The Depot and I am guessing 700+ attended. Here is the crowd at 7 pm not including the folks behind the doors in the atrium socializing:

 

minne* board members Jenna Pederson, Adrienne Peirce and Casey Helbling getting us started:

I really enjoyed the variety of demos and beginning to end one of the best sets we have had:

Programming Languages Most Used On Weekends

It’s a winter weekend in Minneapolis so after doing some kid craft things and having some free time I decided to work on a couple of work projects. Not sourcing and recruiting ones but stuff I have been meaning to get to like a new landing page and slide deck.

If it were summer I would be sitting on the deck, dock or in the boat.

That’s the thing about weekends… we get to do the things we want to do.

So when Stack Overflow came out with What Programming Languages Are Used Most on Weekends? I was curious… what are my tech friends learning, experimenting and playing with on the weekend? What are they using on their side projects?

Conversation With A Ruby Developer… Should I let Search Firms Float My Resume Around?

Yesterday I had a phone call with a Ruby Developer who is currently in Silicon Valley and looking to move to the Midwest. They are highly skilled, easy to work with, highly recommended and from this region. Specifically they are looking for a company in Minneapolis or Chicago.

They asked me a curious question…

Many of the search firm recruiters are asking if they can float my resume around for me. I don’t have a network in those cities so it seems convenient but I think there are negatives to this too. Right?

My reply…

YES!!!

Minnesota Fastest Growing State For IT Jobs - Summer 2015

Since around the beginning of Q2 ‘15 I have been a part of many conversations with recruiters in town, startup and Fortune 500, about some trends we have been seeing including:

- Generally companies are in another hiring spree

- Companies seem to be loosening up their job requirements

- There seems to be a small inflow of IT pros from the west coast

This week from Dice.com:

Pop quiz: What’s the fastest-growing state for technology jobs?

You might be tempted to say California or New York, or even North Carolina. But according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it’s actually Minnesota, which saw the size of its tech workforce jump 8.36 percent over the past six months, to 37,600 workers.

Is Your State Losing Tech Jobs?

Let’s be clear… this is a percentage growth number NOT a total number of jobs created. Clearly other states would be doing better.

This is an important number as it shows the Minnesota tech community continues to grow. Some would have you believe that everyone is leaving for the West Coast.

It’s just not true.

Video: Finding A Job Using Social Media

Back in May (2015) I gave my 6^th presentation at Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis St Paul:

Get Recruited: Finding Your Next Job Through Social Media

When Mykl Roventine asked me to speak again this year I paused thinking… does anybody really want to hear from me again?

Mykl was right (Mykl warming up the group):

The answer was yes. We had 100+ at the event.

And we had a good time.

Here are a couple of blog posts recapping the event with some takeaways:

Minnesota IT Jobs And Career Resources For IT Pros vIII

Short and simple… a number of Minnesota IT pros are looking for career information, job search advice, how to ask for a raise in salary or rates, etc.

Here are 2 videos (2013 and 2014 sessions at MinneBar. 2015 has not been posted yet) and the recent Minnesota IT Jobs Report.

NOTE: that these are very casual conversations. Some inappropriate language is used.

And there is A LOT of really useful content.

If you have any questions send me an email:

paul@mnheadhunter.com

And check out what I am recruiting for:

Minnesota IT Jobs

 

MinneBar 2013:

 

MinneBar 2014: