Minnesota Headhunter

Minnesota Morning: Happy New Year 2013 - Page 1 Of 365

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Most folks do an inventory at the end of the year on “where they are”. For me… I have been doing it much of the past year.

And it has not been much fun.

Life experiences of the past 16 months have forced me to and now looking with some hindsight I realize these are long awaited changes that I have wanted to make for a long time.

Minnesota Morning: Economy, War For Talent And Gopher Hockey Edition

After a couple of weeks of being able to fall asleep at night… last night was not such a good night. I went to bed well after midnight  and woke up well before the birds started chirping.

So no words of wisdom or funny things to say today…

 
Economy

The middle of the month is always a busy time for different economic reports and there were a bunch of mostly good news last week highlighted by:

- Initial Jobless Claims: March 10^th the Labor Department reported 351,000 people filed for initial unemployment benefits. That was below the average market predictions of 355,000 and down from the revised number of 365,000 claims the previous week. The 4 week moving average was unchanged at 355,750.

Ongoing claims were 3.343M much lower than predictions and lower than the 3.424M.

- Philly Fed: March 15^th the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released their general economic index. 12.5 was the number in line with predictions and up from 10.2 in February. This is a positive indicator with manufacturers putting out more products which tend to lead to hiring more folks. The New York index was also a positive report.

- The Thomson Reuters & University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment dropped to 74.3 from 75.3. 76.0 was the average prediction. Gas & fuel prices are most to blame for the negativity.

Check out The American economy: Unmired at last (The Economist)

 

War For Talent

I am seeing this phrase (popular from 2003-2007) more and more as the economy continues to recover. For those of us in I.T. this is not news and is more like “where have you been” kind of news.

Today on ERE.net is this article The War for Talent Is Returning; Don’t Get Caught Unprepared from Dr John Sullivan.

I am not a big fan of the words “war” and “talent” but it is the phrase the industry uses.

It is always easy to use Silicon Valley as a place to talk about the “war” but here in Minnesota when it comes to recruiting I.T. folks we have definitely seen the increase in competition to hire moving past a “skirmish” but not quite a “war”.

Gopher Hockey

Congratulations to the Minnesota Golden Gopher Women’s Hockey Team for their victory over the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Frozen Four Championship Game

This is the Gophers third NCAA Championship with the most recent in 2005.

Check out the post on GopherSports.com Gopher Women's Hockey Wins National Championship where you will see a lot of information about the game including this video:

 

This still shot is currently the splash page on the Gophers web site:

 

 

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has declared today to be Gopher Women's Hockey National Champions Day.

GO GOPHERS!!!

Links:

Minnesota Business

• Minnesota misses out on new Moneygram jobs (MSP Business Journal)

• Hallock, Minn.., offers free home lots to attract canola plant workers (Grand Forks Journal)

• Publisher John Cowles Jr. shaped the Twin Cities for 50 years (Mpls StarTribune)

Career

• 7 Things Never to Put On A Resume (AOL)

• Is Your LinkedIn Profile 100% Complete? (Executive Career Brand)

• Dumb Things People Have Said During Job Interviews (Yahoo! Finance)

• 8 Ways to Meet Your Professional Goals Using Social Media (Law.com)

 
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Minnesota Morning: Summer In March, Gopher Hockey And March Madness Edition

It might normally be around this time of the year when someone in Minneapolis might say that spring has sprung. Not so much last year as we did not get to see spring until almost June.

This year... we skipped spring (for now) and jumped to June.

And I like it… for the most part.

The only thing that I have not liked so far has been the rock concert the birds are putting on in my courtyard between 5 am and 6:30 am. I love the birds and the spring they bring with them but dang.. why so early?

Here is one particular crooner. I took this at 8 pm. I love the song. It sounds good at 8 pm.

But I have different feelings for it at 5 am:

 

Minnesota Morning: Code 42 And SOPA Edition

This is a short version of Minnesota Morning today with many conversations with companies finding it difficult to recruit and hire IT folks. Worse, a few bordering on many are finding it difficult to retain the staff they have.

All I can do is remind them of what I said March of 2010 when the IT jobs market came off the bottom... I told you so. I told them this was coming and very few planned for it.

No, I am not complaining... this is good for me.

No links today but a few short topics:

Code42 receives funding

Great news broke in the Minnesota IT community the past 14 hours that Code 42 (creator of CrashPlan) has received $52.5M in venture funding from Accel Partners and Split Rock Partners.

I have been a huge fan of the company and their CEO Matthew Dornquast who has been firm in his commitment to build his company and stay in Minneapolis. More than that they are a huge supporter of the local tech community.

Minnesota Morning: MinneDemo And Minnesota Recruiter Jobs Edition

We had a whopping .5 inch of snow this morning and from the posts on Twitter and photos on Facebook you would have thought we had a major snow storm. I was seeing commute times double the normal.

Has this very warm winter made us so soft we forgot how to drive?

Silly me. Of course it has.

Wait until next week… many of the forecast models are predicting a “significant weather event” in the Upper Midwest.

A quick self promotional item… I had a feature on StaffingTalk.com last week. Click Five Question Friday: Paul DeBettignies

MinneDemo Winter 2012

Tomorrow night a few hundred tech folk (and a few wannabe’s like me) will be getting together for MinneDemo (one part tech, one part beer and one part networking event) at the University of St Thomas.

How popular is this event? it “sold out” in one hour. That’s right… 500 attendees in one hour.

This time we have the following companies and coders showing off their work: CrashPlan Mobile, fitparel.com, Team Digest, Brahmageddon, Red Stamp, Wahooly, FitBolt, Migration+, LeagueSafe

Minnesota Morning: Links To Recruiting, HR, Career And Minnesota Business Articles Edition

No commentary today. I have some things to share but it is 2:30 pm now which now makes this Minnesota Afternoon and by the time I get to write the other stuff it will become Minnesota Midnight.

So the heck with it…

Today’s Quote:

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today’s Links:

Recruiting & HR

• Five Predictions About The Future Of Careers and Workplace in 2012 (TLNT)

• 10 Things LinkedIn Did in 2011 to Help You Recruit Better (LinkedIn)

• Why Recruiting Looks Easy (Recruiter.com)

Minnesota Morning: Best Buy, Economy And LSU vs Alabama Edition

After days off of writing Minnesota Morning I am back. The optimism and freshness of a new year were interrupted last week with health and life issues with those around me. Thankfully everyone is on a road to recovery of some sort.

Funny though how fast the enthusiasm of a “new year” can change in a moment.

I said that to one of my friends who was waiting on a test result and he said, “Dude, just because these first days have been rocky does not signal how the new year will be. It’s life, stuff happens anytime of the year. Who won the football game?”

And just like that things were back to normal...
 

Best Buy

Friday I wrote Is Best Buy In Trouble? and I received a number of DM’s on Twitter and email. Response was about 70-30 in support of the company and about 40/60 in support of senior management.

So far I do not see/hear any mass exodus from Best Buy but I do think there are some turbulent waters.

Minnesota Morning: Economy, Wisconsin Fans Edition

Welcome to what is for most of us the first work day of 2012. Because this is a short work week it seems most people are using this as a ramp up to next Monday and the full week.

I might put myself into that category. I had hoped to get more done during the “slow” days of the end of December but I spent some time charging the personal batteries. So I will be using these next days to get to full speed by next Monday.

Economy

With the beginning of the month and year the next days are busy with some economic statistics coming out and mostly about jobs.

I am seeing analysts predicting +200K jobs on the ADP numbers (Thursday) and non farm jobs +150K to +170K and non farm private jobs around +200K (Friday).

If those numbers hold and can be sustained the U.S. economy will finally slowly start to make a real dent with the unemployment situation.

A very unscientific job indicator I will be looking for over the next ten days is the number of Minnesota Recruiter Jobs I will post. Last year at this time it was as if a light switch was turned on. This year given the growth we have had in recent months I am expecting more of a light turning on but more of a dimmer switch that will gradually become brighter.

Minnesota Morning: Recruiter, HR, Marc Cuban And Vikings Edition

I messed up Saturday... I forgot to hit “publish” so this is a bit of a 2 fer 1 post. With that, no extra commentary today.

“The one requirement for success in our business lives is effort”

Marc Cuban (entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks) has written an ebook “How To Win At The Sport Of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It.”

Business Insider has There's Only One Thing In Life You Can Control: Your Own Effort with an excerpt with a link to some more.

This quote hits home:

“In sports, the only thing a player can truly control is effort. The same applies to business. The only thing any entrepreneur, salesperson or anyone in any position can control is their effort.”

While I enjoy sports and politics in part because I can look in the paper and see how won and who lost I have always looked at my business and life as more of a golf scenario.

Yes there are others playing but I need to play the course as best I can. What others do I cannot control but I need to do the best I can. Maybe that’s too simple but it works for me.

Minnesota Morning: Happy New Year 2012 Edition

Dear 2012, please be kind to my friends. Let them find & keep the hope, peace and love they are looking for. Keep them healthy and give them the strength they need on the bad days and give them time to celebrate the good days.

We get more time this year as 2012 is a Leap Year so we have 366 Days | 8,784 Hours | 527,040 Minutes | 31,622,400 Seconds

13.5 hours in and I do not (yet) feel I am behind. Well… maybe a little. I had hoped to get more done the past two weeks and will take some of the advice I have below.

While I am not one to make resolutions I try to find a few things that remind me of the mood I start a year with and what I will likely need for the year.

Two new quotes:

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” - Edith Lovejoy Pierce

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Minnesota Morning: Welcome Back, Transplants, Bowl Games Edition

Hello blog, it’s me Paul…

You’re right, it’s been a long time I know.

Yes I know, I have sucked.

And I have said this many times over the 6 years since I started you and rarely followed through, I want to do better.

We have a lot… A LOT to catch up on.

Give me another chance?

Thanks. I will do better. It can only get better, right?

So where to start…

For those of you getting the RSS feed or posts via email you are going to see a bunch of blog posts in the coming week. It could be 3-4 a day and it might be annoying.

Minnesota Morning

So much on the mind and trying to figure what if anything someone might want to know about but my mind is a bit warped from yesterday’s weather so lets start with that, the weather.

Why? When one adds the air temperature of 93 and mid 70’s dew point one gets a heat index or “feels like” 108 degrees. That is tropical like conditions.

I picked up some food to go (I will fire up the grill at -5 but not +108) and bumped into an old friend. We moved to the shade but after just a 20 minute chat found myself sweating.

But there was some relief last night after the storms went through the area. I was on a phone call, looked out the window and saw we were having an amazing sunset. Not able to get out a I sent out a Tweet, “Please someone in Minneapolis get a pic of this amazing sky/sunset -- late night conference calls SUCK”

My request was answered by two followers with these photos:

Minnesota Morning

Thoughts today...

Titles: Recruiter, Blogger, Speaker, etc. BEST title is "Uncle Paul"

Yesterday I put out that Tweet with a photo below.

I spent some time with my buddy and his two daughters. While not family we really are and to be “Uncle Paul” is one of the coolest things. I am very fortunate that so many of my friends have allowed me to play this role even if we do not see each as frequently as we would like.

Then again, that does sound like a family:

Minnesota Morning

I started my morning off with what has become a regular Saturday morning activity, a nice long walk along the Mississippi River in Downtown Minneapolis. Every walk brings something new to see.

Part of it is the change of seasons and I think part of it is me just wanting to watch and observe versus looking and seeking. Something I have been working on the past couple of months.

March Madness

Other than hoping my Minnesota Golden Gophers would win the title (I know, I know) I am loyal to no team, including those from the Big Ten. Sorry Buckeyes and Boilermakers you are learning what the Badgers already know.

Minnesota Morning

Starting with a useless fact but it means a lot to those of us in Minnesota... It looks like what is usually the snowiest (or second most) month of the year will end with no snow for the first time since records starting being tallied. I have 100 years and 116 years. Whatever, that’s a mighty long time.

Yes, this is a big deal. While enjoyable I do wonder how this will impact the drought we are carrying over from last year.

But the “I want to get outside” guy in me is thrilled.

Sometimes, it’s the simple things....

Healthcare Reform

Why does everyone call this healthcare reform? It is health insurance reform and I still wonder why they did not go after the healthcare stuff first. There is so much money to be saved. And why is it that some of this does not kick in for four years?

Minnesota Morning

On this Sunday morning I found myself wanting to do some cleaning of ideas in my mind. It’s been this way for about a month now and while at moments a painful process I think I am coming to the end of it.

Clarity is an awesome thing and I think maybe I did not know for some time I was without. Kind of like when you clean your windows, you realize how dirty they had been.

Darcy Pohland

I had a really emotional blog post about her but decided against it, I do not think she would have wanted me to remember her that way. Check out Darcy Pohland to see the stories and blog posts that her colleagues have put together.

Darcy and I had one of those friendships where a month might go by without seeing each other but when we bumped into each other an hour or more would go by as we shared what was going on in our lives. That would be the first 30% of the conversation and then the rest about Gopher sports particularly football. We both had tickets and she was one person I knew who could talk more about it than I.

Minnesota Morning

Aww heck, I went quite a few days in a row and then poof, almost three weeks go by. A new month maybe I can get on a roll again with these “daily” posts.

There are a few really random topics that are on my mind from the past weeks and I am going to get them out of my head now to free up some bandwidth.

Valentine’s Day

Even though single I enjoy the day but something struck me while I was making my morning delivery of flowers to some folks to brighten up their day... why do most people only express their feelings to this extent one day a year? More than that, why is there is much pressure leading up to it? Dinner, flowers and gifts, etc. Seems to me if we told those we love more often that we do there would be a lot less stress. And lot more really wonderful days.

Minnesota Morning

I should not say this but three days in a row of Minnesota Morning, I am on a roll. What’s the number it takes to make something a habit, 21 days? Baby steps Paul, baby steps. Stay focused, you know you can do it.

Yes, I am talking to myself. Yes, it happens often. It’s when the voices start having conversations and I am just a spectator. OK, the last two I was joking. I swear.

For better and worse Minnesota has been on cable news the past two days. No, not because of the snow storm (we have been trumped by our East Coast friends) but because of this billboard on I 35 north of Minneapolis:

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:

 

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…