Minnesota Headhunter

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…

Minnesota Morning

After putting up these two posts today What Price Would You Pay For Your Dream Job? and Theme for 2010: Don’t Look Back I think I have said enough for one day :)

Instead I will leave you with some highlights from my Twitter stream going back the past 10 days or so. Most of them are not from me and if you are using Twitter I would recommend giving these folks a follow.

Oh, there is no rhyme or reason to these. Some are work, sports, life related or funny, thoughtful things (I have added some links to names and articles) and are in reverse chronological order (in other words start at the bottom):

Minnesota Morning

I have been told by numerous people that my blog has become lame. Since these are friends of mine who have my interests in mind I am going to listen to them.

And it starts today. I don’t know how long it will last but I am going to give it a shot anyway.

Other friends are saying that I am putting my best thoughts on Twitter and Facebook. I think they too are correct. I think I do much better, am far more interesting and funny in 140 characters or less.

But one thing for sure is that I have a lot on my mind. I have a Word document that is open all the time and it is now 104 pages in length of links, articles and thoughts of all varieties that I never get to share and I think it is time to clean out the closet so to speak....

Minnesota Morning

Being a guy who watches the stock market and economy closely I understand at a freshman level college course what is going on. I get what the issues are and understand most of the ideas to fix it.

Most folks do not follow this like I do. And rightly so. I am a little nuts for following this stuff like I do.

Then again, it is part of my job to follow market and industry trends and as we know and are experiencing labor markets go with the economy.

Our elected officials have and are missing opportunities to speak to the American people and explain the heck is going on.