Minnesota Headhunter: My Minnebar 2018 Presentation: Managing Your IT Career v10 (Why Recruiters Suck So Bad)

My Minnebar 2018 Presentation: Managing Your IT Career v10 (Why Recruiters Suck So Bad)

December 10, 2018

Minnestar sent out their email newsletter today and I saw after the Minnedemo 31 save the date for February 7 at Pantages Theater and the Minnebar 14 save the date for April 27th at Best Buy HQ’s… there is a note that Minnebar 13 session were posted in the past days and one of the videos in the image is mine.

And I thought… oh (bleep), did I say anything stupid that was caught on the audio?

So I am listening to it and taking notes for you here so you know ahead of time if this has some value to you. I’m talking about:

Why “Why Recruiters Suck So Bad” is in my session title. And no, I don’t think all recruiters suck. And I explain why some tech pros think we do
I do a quick intro of me and worked in that the “Badgers Suck”. I look forward to having a picture of Paul Bunyan’s Axe
Then clients who I was working with phData (Big Data consulting), Daugherty Business Solutions (IT Consultants) & Livefront (iOS & Android Dev’s and Designers)
My love for Prime Digital Academy
I mention the MSP on Deck podcast and CoCo now Fueled Collective
What the local job market is like and I use terms like funky, churn and weird
Why tech salaries seem stagnant
Why Midwest employers seem slow to hire Junior Dev’s
How to find potential employers that are not well known (and a what is going on in St Paul)

I pause on my agenda and take some questions from the crowd:

What is the definition of a Jr Dev for a big company and by a Jr Dev (you will hear a loud giggle during my answer)
I have a long rant about companies (and the tech industry) inability to deal with the Junior Dev situation
How does the Minneapolis tech scene rank with other cities (and I share some data)
I mention something I call “Minnesota Nice Passive Aggressive We Don’t Like To Promote Ourselves Syndrome”
Is this a good time to go to the Bay Area for a job
What to do if you are new to Minnebar
How to promote that your company is hiring
Salary differences between the Bay Area and Minneapolis (and a New York City example)
Trend of tech companies HQ’d somewhere else opening an office in the Twin Cities
Yes, most job descriptions suck
If you are a generalist… ideas on how to do a job search
How do you know if a Recruiter is worth working with (find someone who cares about you)
Ageism is a thing in tech and what it means for everyone
Salary expectations for a Junior Dev
Do not just apply for a job online… reach out to a human
I give an “Application Tracking System 101” for Dev’s
If you want to start learning to code, what should you start with
How to make it so your role is not outsourced or offshored

So… I don’t think I said anything stupid. Or cringeworthy.

I think I see a lot of individual blog posts in the future.

Here is the video:

I am thankful for those who attended, asked questions, engaged and Tweeted nice things. I hope everyone walked away with what they were looking for.

If you are watching this and you have questions about anything I said or want to dig deeper on a topic send me an email.

As is with every Minnebar… there were a lot of awesome presentations. To see other videos click Minnestar Media were you will find hundreds of Minnebar and Minnedemo sessions.

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