Minnesota Headhunter

Tata Consulting Services Opening A Large Minneapolis Office

There have been a handful of rumors the past months about large organizations coming to or expanding their Minneapolis and St Paul offices.

A couple of weeks ago Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal had this article (premium content) Tata to open 300-person office.

While Tata already has a local presence with a sales office and a number of clients this is a large expansion.

In the article I was quoted:

Tata is a well-known name in the IT industry. However, if it plans to predominately hire tech workers, that will shake up the already tight labor market for IT workers, said Paul DeBettignies, vice president of recruiting for Minneapolis-based HireCast Consulting.

Best Buy recently swallowed up a lot of talent when it hired 200 workers for an in-house IT team, he added. “It’s not to say they won’t be able to do it, but the talent pool is only so big.”

Who Is The #1 Minnesota Executive Search Firm?

My colleagues in search and consulting firms are some of the most competitive people I know.

We have to be and for most of us it is in our DNA, to some extent.

We are always trying to find competitive edges, how we can do a search or project better than someone else, we have to find the best people, can we save the client time, etc.

And I like lists.

They may not always be accurate and some are subjective but it gives me an idea of who is doing well.

Last week the Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal released List Leaders: Twin Cities executive search firms with the 25 largest Twin Cities-area executive search firms ranked by revenue.

There are some curious things about the entries on the list:

• Revenue divided by Placements = Average fee
  • Those are some amazing, way above industry average fees
• Placements divided by Twin Cities recruiters
  • There are some very low and very high averages

16 Minnesota Companies Listed In Forbes Global 2,000

Forbes has come up with a Global 2,000 of the world’s biggest public companies.

How they came up with this list:

“Forbes annual ranking of the world’s biggest companies departs from lopsided lists based on a single metric, like sales. Instead we use an equal weighting of sales, profits, assets and market value to rank companies according to size.”

16 companies are based in Minnesota (524 in the U.S.) and are listed below. For more information on each company click the company name to go to their Forbes page:

#105 UnitedHealth Group 

#122 U.S. Bancorp

#159 Target

#193 3M

#259 Medtronic

Some Tech Companies Not Retaining Staff Because Of $5 An Hour

Last night I was chatting with Steven Sorsveen (my business partner) about how nearly every day a client says they lost a key employee to a competitor.

In this case it was a web development shop losing a mobile developer who was truly underpaid.

I told Steven I think it is silly that $10K more a year would have likely kept the person. They liked the company, culture and work.

Steven said, “Even more silly, that is $5 an hour”.

Think about that for a moment... $5 an hour.

The $10K would only have put the developer almost even with market rates. So no, they were not being greedy.

Why could that $5 an hour not have been added in to the projects when they were pitched?

I guess if you have 4 mobile developers working on a project that’s an extra $20 an hour and over a 160 hour project $3,200.

But $3,200 is cheap compared to the time and energy (those are dollars too) to recruit someone new. There is also the ramp up time of the new hire and likely lost revenue in the process.

All over $5 an hour.

Really does seem silly...

Click Recruiting for more posts on the topic, Minnesota Headhunter for most recent blog posts.

 
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MinneBar 7 | Recap

I am not sure how to start this post... do I talk about:

• How much fun I had
• That I learned a lot
• That nearly 12 hours left me completely wore out
• The conversations I had about recruiting and career maintenance

OK, maybe that is how I start the post.

I had a lot of fun at MinneBar 7 (@MinneBar). I was able to reconnect with folks from the tech, startup, entrepreneur community. I also bumped into an old friend after my second session. We had lunch together and then we spoke for more than an hour after that about life stuff. It was one of those conversations where after the first 20 seconds it was like we had seen each other last week. I hope he sees this and if so, thank you Friend.

Who’s Hiring In Minnesota: W3i

I am starting a new series highlighting Minnesota companies who are hiring. The idea being I know a lot of companies who are hiring and hopefully I can introduce them to a new audience.

These will not be paid advertisements and I will note any “disclaimers” if needed, like them being a current or former client.

For this first, this is the day before MinneBar 7, I am going with the folks at W3i who I have been able to get to know through Minneapolis and St Paul tech events.

Disclaimers: none

W3i is headquartered in Sartell, MN (just west of St Cloud) and have a “camp site” at CoCo MSP in the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and RocketSpace in San Francisco.

Getting Ready For MinneBar 7

Tomorrow is MinneBar 7 (@MinneBar) and I am looking to feeding my inner geek. After 3+ months of mostly hanging out with Recruiter and HR folks I need to satisfy the other part of my brain.

Before getting into this post a BIG thank you needs to be given to:

Host:

• Best Buy

Sponsors for the event and year long support to Minne*:

• Code 42 Software

• August Ash

• W3i

• ipHouse

• 8thBridge

• Fredrikson & Byron

• Bloom Health

• Split Rock Partners

• Chow Girls

• Ech03 

And the 80+ Community Supporters (I am one) who make an annual donation.

The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge 2012 – Recap

Every year I stop by this event and every year I have failed to write a blog post about it which is odd because it is an intersection of my life: tech folks, friends and non profits.

The Nerdery hosted their Overnight Website Challenge at the University of Minnesota St Paul campus and the space was packed. How packed?

They had 18 web teams (10 folks in a team) and 18 non profits and community organizations.

Here are some photos of the three rooms:

List: 2012 Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal 40 Under Forty

Congratulations to this years Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal 40 Under Forty. A talented group for sure and very happy to call a few of them Friend.

Here is the list with the link back to the Business Journal and their profile:

• Jessica Boden

• Gina Brennan

• Michael Caguin

• Kate Cimino

• Katie Clark

• Gary Collins

• Scott Cummings

• Mike Derheim

• Paul Dzubnar

• Jonathan Fletcher

Minnesota Job And Career Fair: Jobs Summit 2012

The Minnesota Recruiting and Staffing Association will be hosting the 2012 Jobs Summit March 27^th (next week) from 9 am to 2 pm at the Minnesota School of Business in Richfield.

This is a FREE event for job seekers and has four parts:

Job Fair

30 staffing and recruiting companies will be interviewing for full time, part time and contract jobs.

Is Best Buy In Trouble?

Disclaimer:

• I am not an analyst.

• I have no inside info (although I was at Best Buy HQ’s yesterday)

• Best Buy is a frequent host of the Minnesota Recruiters group

Minnesota based Best Buy has been in the news the past two weeks and it is has not been pretty.

It started with the pre 2011 Christmas debacle of customers who placed orders online as early as Black Friday were notified that their gifts would not be shipped in time for the holiday.

Worse, they were not told until days before.

Today is the report of December 2011 same store sales being down. There was some good news in the report too but many headlines I have seen are focusing on the negative.

Earlier this week (and what has spread online very fast) is this article from Forbes Why Best Buy is Going out of Business...Gradually

Minnesota IT User Group Meetings – Week Of August 15, 2011

The following Minnesota technology events for this week were found on the TECHdotMN (@TECHdotMN) calendar.

Be sure to check with the groups to confirm meeting date, time and location:

August 16th

• TECH Masters Twin Cities 7:30 am – 9:00 am

• TC Web Pros 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

• Minnesota SQL Server User Group 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

August 17th

• Minnesota Visual Studio User Group 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

• TECH Masters Twin Cities North 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

• FlashMN 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

• Minneapolis Hackathon 7:00 pm – Midnight

• TC Maker Weekly Gathering 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

August 18th

• Mac Consultants SIG 7:00 am – 9:00 am

• Twin Cities XNA Group 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

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Minnesota Recruiters Conference 13 | Recap

 

On April 15th, 2011 we held the 13th Minnesota Recruiters Conference at Best Buy HQ’s. We had around 200 in attendance that day.

The night before the event sponsors, speakers and volunteers were invited to Oberon (group sponsor) to help celebrate their 5th Anniversary

  

This gave me some time to finally meet in person someone who I have called friend for 5+ years, Jim Durbin (Blog - Twitter - LinkedIn - Facebook). I met Jim online shortly after I started this blog when he was working as a recruiter in St. Louis.

For our event we brought Jim and his business partner Craig Fisher (Blog - Twitter - LinkedIn) to present to the group.

MinneBar #6 Twitter Transcript

What follows is a transcript from MinneBar #6 held May 7, 2011 at Best Buy HQ’s.

I used BackTweets to gather the Tweets and is in reverse chronological order that starts at 9 AM, May 6th and ends at 3 PM, May 8th.

Around 2,200 Tweets went out with the #MinneBar during this time.

 

3:00 PM May 8th

eggsurplus If you want to follow the great minds making up the MN tech scene at #minnebar yesterday here's a list I made: http://bit.ly/iqKYZI 1 day ago

cdeutsch @AccordionGuy, great to meet you at #minnebar! @johnsheehan is the Twilio evangelist you should connect with. 1 day ago

paulprins RT @TECHdotMN: Latest #MinneBar puts Minnesota tech on the map [pics] [videos]: http://bit.ly/jCVsux 1 day ago

brandtrock RT @TECHdotMN: Latest #MinneBar puts Minnesota tech on the map [pics] [videos]: http://bit.ly/jCVsux 1 day ago

keithprivette RT @TECHdotMN: Latest #MinneBar puts Minnesota tech on the map [pics] [videos]: http://bit.ly/jCVsux 1 day ago

thingles My handful of photos from #MinneBar yesterday. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jthingelstad/tags/minnebar6/ 1 day ago

thingles .@beckje01 @minnebar Send #MinneBar stories to feedback@minnestar.org. 1 day ago

Minnesota Job And Career Fair And Professional Clothing Drive

Note: Unfortunately because of a scheduling conflict I am not able to present at the event. I am doing a live version of my Be Your Own Headhunter presentation online March 28th 2011 from 12 - 3 PM CDT. A session can also be heard on demand.

Click Be Your Own Headhunter for more information.

The Minnesota Recruiting and Staffing Association (MNRSA) is hosting the 2011 Job Summit & Professional Clothing Drive Thursday, March 24^th, 2011 from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm at The Mall of America, 4^th Floor Executive Center.

Job Seekers this is a FREE event (you do need to register) and a good opportunity to meet with Search Firms, Staffing Firms and Employment Agencies.

To register click MNRSA Job Summit

Besides the job fair (employers listed below) there are also job search sessions, resume writing workshops and practice interview sessions.

If you are thinking… “should I attend” the easy and quick answer is yes. Last years event was a big success.

Survey: Minneapolis #4 & St. Paul #29 America's Most Socially Networked City

Never one to be shy in promoting the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul (and seems like there have been a lot of surveys lately) this one warms my social media heart.

Men’s Health came up with Men's Health finds the most socially networked cities in America and has Minneapolis #4 with an A+ and St Paul #29 with a B-.

Here is the Top 10:

1 Washington, DC     A+
2 Atlanta, GA     A+
3 Denver, CO     A+
4 Minneapolis, MN     A+
5 Seattle, WA     A+
6 San Francisco, CA     A
7 Orlando, FL     A
8 Austin, TX     A
9 Boston, MA     A
10 Salt Lake City, UT     A-

I wonder if Minneapolis is ranked higher and St Paul lower because many of the folks across the river use Minneapolis as their location in their profiles.

I also wonder if they combined the Twin Cities if we would be #1.

But that’s just me being competitive.

 

Click Minnesota Business Scene for more posts on the topic, Minnesota Headhunter for most recent blog posts.

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Minnesota Layoffs 2011

While we continue to inch forward at a snails pace with this economic recovery we are still getting news of layoffs. Below are the Minnesota layoff announcements so far this year (2011).

For those looking for job search advice I have 2 links to help:

Be Your Own Headhunter (my job search and LinkedIn webinar)

Job Search Tips (200+ blog posts)

Announced layoffs:

Smead Manufacturing: 50

• About 50 Smead employees in Hastings to lose their jobs  (Hastings Star Gazette 3/9/11)

Hutchinson Technology: 700 to 900

• What's next for victims of Hutchinson layoffs? (MinnPost 3/8/11)

• Hutchinson Technology cuts hundreds of jobs (MPR 3/8/11)

• Hutchinson Technology Announces Manufacturing Consolidation & Restructuring Plan (Press Release 3/8/11)

• Hutchinson Technology to cut 30-40 percent of U.S. workforce (MSP Business Journal 3/8/11)

Wisconsin Is Open For Business

Caution: you are about see my competitive side come out much like my friends see when the Gophers play the Badgers in any sport…

On a number of border crossings with Minnesota and Illinois as one enters the “great” state of Wisconsin they will not only see “Wisconsin Welcomes You” but also “Open For Business”.

Well I am sure glad they cleared that up. I thought all they had was cheese curds, beer and football. Apparently they have something else to sell.

I get a bit snarky when it comes to our neighbors from the east. All I hear is how it is “God’s Country” and how great it is there. Funny, I hear that from people who live in Minnesota.

Yeah, ironic right?

Previous marketing for the State of Wisconsin was focused on tourism with “Escape to Wisconsin”.

The license plate says “America’s Dairyland”.

Which probably gets us to why new Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is making this push.

2 Minnesota Companies On Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For

Fortune has announced their 100 Best Companies To Work For and it includes 2 companies with headquarters in Minnesota:

#58 General Mills (#90 in 2010)

• General Mills web site

• General Mills jobs

#61 Mayo Clinic (#55 in 2010)

• Mayo Clinic web site

• Mayo Clinic jobs

Fortune gives you a number of ways to search the companies listed including job growth, child care and work life balance.

Quite a few of the companies listed have a presence in Minnesota.

Here is the Top 10:

#1 SAS

#2 Boston Consulting Group

Minnesota Business Events | January 2011

To borrow a phrase from the horse tracks, “Annnnnnnnnnd we’re off.”

The New Year brings with it a bunch of professional, association and user group meetings many of which are put on pause during the holidays.

I am looking forward to seeing some old friends and making some news ones.

What follows are most of the events I am attending this month. Not noted are the tech/user group meetings I will decide at the last minute to attend depending on the work week. Yes there are some events missing but I need to get some work done too:

January 7

• Project Skyway

January 13

• MinneDemo

January 14

• Minnesota Blogger Mini Conference

January 19

• MNTRN – Minnesota Technical Recruiter Network

• MIMA – Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association

January 28

• SMBMSP – Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis St Paul

January 31

• MIMA - CATFOA #1