The past two years one of the most frequently asked questions I have received is:

What’s the hot job?

In part I think a lot of people are starting to think what is next for them in their career and what do they need to start learning and gaining experience in.

LinkedIn came out with their Jobs on the Rise: 15 opportunities that are in demand and hiring now. They used their data from April to October of 2020.

My feeling is that some of these roles, while still in demand, may fall down the next time they do the survey and are whatever “post Covid” is.

Below are the general categories and then top job titles. You will want to click the link above as LinkedIn has more data including skills, top locations, education, salary range and remote job availability.

Question: when you are interviewing a candidate for a job, when you are interviewing for a job, when you are (were) on a date… do you find reasons to include or exclude them from the process?

NOTE: I am thinking out loud through a keyboard to get this idea out of my head… not a well thought out blog post so hang with me on this.

Try this another way… in any part of your life, when you are meeting someone new do you look for reasons to continue to speak with them and want to meet again or are you finding all the reasons not to?

Ponder that…

For me, I am always trying to find shared interests, commonalities and reasons to like someone.

That is my default.

I want to grow with people, share new ideas, be challenged. I want to be around people not like those who already are.

The upcoming calendar for my live Be Your Own Headhunter sessions (and yes, there’s always an on demand session available):

• Job Search For All

• On Demand - listen anytime

• September 19 at 11 am CDT

• September 23 at 8 pm CDT

• Tech Edition

• On Demand - listen anytime

• September 19 at 9 am CDT

• September 22 at 8 pm CDT

• Planning A Future Job Search

• On Demand - listen anytime

• September 19 at 1 pm CDT

• September 24 at 8 pm CDT

• Office Hours

• September 26 at 9 am CDT

What is Be Your Own Headhunter?

Hello Minnesota Tech Friends… to get started, click the video above for some info.

Really… click it

Did you?

OK

Here’s the deal, I’ve been thinking about doing this… and then going to do this for the past six weeks. Notice thinking about and going to do this but have not.

No more thinking… we’re going to do this even with little (less than a day) notice. If you can’t join me live or are seeing this post after… click the link and register anyway. It will be available on demand.

When:

• June 16th at 12 pm CDT

Where (to register):

• Click => Managing Your IT Career v.COVID 19 (Why do recruiters suck so bad?)

Format:

• I’ll have some prepared topics (see agenda) for about 15 minutes

• Q&A from you and email received

• I want to engage so please type comments and I’ll answer back

• I will be very laid back and casual

Agenda:

• What is the job market like right now
• What skill sets are most in demand
• Tips on if I have to be doing a job search right now
• Tips on if I want to voluntarily do a job search right now
• The economy… how I see it now and as the year progresses
• Questions already received
• Networking virtually, how to do it
• Where do I find virtual events
• The year seemed promising, was it
• I’m a recent bootcamp grad, what do I do now

Send a question in advance:

• [email protected]

Who am I

• If you are new to me, I have been recruiting in the Twin Cities for 20+ years helping companies of all kinds and sizes build their engineering, product, digital and data teams. I also do recruiting process and strategy things. And be an advocate for them in the tech and business scene. Look to your right and you’ll see links to LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram where you’ll find more info. I speak a lot and get on TV and radio now and again. That last line… I’m an introvert and despise promoting myself but I am told I should start taking (doing) the advice I give.

Why does the title include (Why do recruiters suck so bad?)

• A number of years ago the camera in the room was not recording and I was asked not to start. We had that awkward, weird silence. I said, “While we wait, what do you want to know?” and someone in the back of the room asked, “why do recruiters suck so bad?” and most in the room started laughing. Of course, this is when the camera started recording. So… I added it in the title because EVERY year someone does ask the question.

NOTE… in the video I mention that Minnestar did have a virtual event in April:

• Here is the agenda => (mini) Minnebar Agenda

• Here is the video => (mini) Minnebar Video

   

Click Minnesota Headhunter for current blog posts, Work With Me if you are growing your team and Minneapolis Tech Jobs for Minnesota IT searches I am working on.

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

I’m done sitting around reacting to the news of the day: Coronavirus, layoffs, politics and whatever else is bringing on stress.

Dealing with the Coronavirus has already been a part of my work for… eight weeks.

Eight weeks.

Eight weeks of me reacting.

I’m done.

It’s time to go forward now.

This weekend and into next week you’re going to see a number of things I will be promoting. Things that had been on my mind when 2020 started (and in some cases for years) and it’s time to do them regardless of what the current conditions are.

That sounds like a formal headline… this is me taking my own advice and example of the kind I will be giving in a couple of weeks at SMBMSP focusing in part on our personal digital profiles.

I bumped into Mykl Roventine at Minnebar 2019 and we had a quick conversation about me coming back to the SMBMSP group and leading a career conversation. I love this group and was at one time the “most frequent speaker”… this will be my 6th presentation. I’m thrilled to be coming back.

I have a “concern” that a lot of people (most everyone) have fallen into a (false) sense of job security and/or are not ready for the next internal promotion or new client. Generally speaking the economy has been doing well. We hear about the “shortage of talent” a lot in the media and how companies can’t find who they are looking for.

That’s generally true.

However, there are some signs of a slight cooling:

• GDP will not be as high in 2019 as 2018

• The “we’re hiring” survey numbers are a touch lower than last year

• Tariffs have some companies hiring not as many people as before

A couple of posts of mine you may find interesting:

2019 Minnesota Jobs Prediction (I made this in December of 2018 and I am sticking to it)

Minnesota Recruiters In Demand - Summer 2019 (fresh data posted 2 weeks ago)

To be clear… things are still good.

But it’s likely time for most everyone to take a pause and assess where our jobs, careers and/or consulting practices are at. When times are good we tend to spend less time on our personal digital profiles. So think of this conversation as tending to that garden… we’re going to pull some weeds, add some fertilizer, prune and add some landscaping. Can you tell this is how I spent some time over the holiday weekend?

I’m going to talk about researching companies/clients that we are thinking we want to work with now and in the future and starting those relationships.

And a bonus… I’m going to show how I do my sourcing and recruiting, and what attracts hiring managers/clients, based on your digital profile.

Are you ready for the next promotion, job search or landing that new/big client?

If not… you should hang out with us.

Plus, there’s bacon.

This month (March of 2019) legislation (H. F. No. 1196 & S.F. No. 1432) was introduced at the Minnesota Legislature making it illegal for employers to require access to their employees’ private accounts, to demand they be opened in front of the employer, force an employee to “friend” a superior or change privacy settings so the account can be viewed publicly.

Whew… that’s a lot. I think I have it all straight.

Essentially your employer or possible employer cannot make you show them your private accounts.

There are likely going to be a few exceptions. One may be for those applying for security clearances.

I’ve been asked a number of times including in the interview below with KARE 11 if I am aware of local employers doing this. I am not. I have not heard of one case. And no one replied to KARE 11 with one. And I am certain that any employer silly enough to do this would have a major PR issue on their hands.

Is it needed? I guess the answer is yes if we want to be proactive and protect people.

I spend a lot of my time hanging out at tech user groups and meetups. Being a frequent face, sharing career tips, giving job search advice… creating relationships over time, builds a lot of trust.

So, tech pros are not shy when they tell me their recruiting horror stories. They forward email, name recruiters and the companies they work for. And it is equal opportunity… it seems that search firm, consulting firm and corporate recruiters are all equal offenders.

A number of years ago while having a video glitch at Minnebar I was asked to not start my session yet. They wanted it all on video so to pass the time I ask, “So what do you want to know?” And the room was awkwardly quiet. Then an attendee from the back of the room says with a very loud voice, “Why do recruiters suck so bad?” The room erupts in laughter and of course… the video started recording and I have a blank look on my face.

While I share the frustration they have with poorly written job descriptions, being ghosted, doing “tell me about yourself” questions during every interview and a huge number of other offenses… I also share with them why some of this happens.

I explain that most of my corporate recruiter friends have an insane workload, frequently their teams are understaffed and underbudgeted, recruiting tends to be an “entry level” role to HR so experience can be lacking and more. When I finish and at least for a moment… I see some empathy.

I’ve always wanted to do a day or week in the life of a recruiter but as a consultant, my weeks rarely are the same.

I bumped into this amazing post on LinkedIn Adding Up Why Recruiters Suck from Terra Carbert a Minneapolis Recruiter who I have known for a long time. She’s one of the good ones. Click => LinkedIn and @terracarbert to learn more about her and to say hello. I asked her if I could repost her article here and she said yes. She shows what it’s like being one of us. So the next time you think, why do recruiters suck so bad? You’ll know that much of it is not our fault and most of us really are doing the best we can.

Thank you Terra!!!

And if after reading you have some comments and thoughts to share (I hope you do)… don’t do it here. Click the link above and comment on Terra’s post.

I tend to stay away from making predictions… I don’t have a crystal ball that tells the future. If I did I likely would not be writing this post right now. When I was a kid I did have a Magic 8 Ball. Those were the best. Didn’t like your answer? Try again. Or do 2 of 3 or 4 of 7.

But I do trends.

I am always reading economic surveys, watching CNBC and Bloomberg, reading company quarterly reports, scanning Glassdoor company reviews, looking at Indeed and Google Jobs. Anything that when combined with other bits of data show trends. Sometimes new data jives with what I have been thinking and other times it shows some change.

Late 2017 while prepping for our end of the year MSP On Deck Podcast we each were going to make a prediction. I knew mine right away.

I went with this… that in 2018 the Minnesota jobs scene and particularly the Minnesota tech jobs scene was going to see greater churn. By churn I meant that we would see more companies hiring, more companies laying off and restructuring and for a variety of factors more people taking a look at what might be available to them in a new job, career or employer.

While I can’t point to a particular survey or chart… I am claiming a win on that prediction.

If you ask corporate and search firm recruiters… most experienced a busier year of recruiting. If you ask managers, directors and those who run teams if they had a harder time retaining people… most will say yes.

Remember the gopher from CaddyShack and how he would stick his head up from underground to see what was going on outside? That’s what a lot more people did in 2018. They all didn’t move but more were willing to take a look.

Now to my 2019 Minnesota Jobs prediction… I’m not taking a big leap with this one.

I am predicting even more churn in 2019.

I am starting a series of job search advice tips focusing on soon to be and recent coding bootcamp graduates. This first one may be the most important one…

Raise your right hand and repeat after me:

“I will never, ever, not once and surely never again call myself an Entry Level Developer”

Just don’t. Please. I am begging.

If you went through an intensive program of any kind be it in person, online or self taught, spent many weeks/months doing it and can write code that is useable… you are not an Entry Level Developer.

I want you to use titles like these:

• Junior Developer

• Associate Developer

• Software Developer

The connotation of “entry level” is HUGE and using it any way absolutely does not help you:

• Likely increases odds of you being passed over for a role

• Likely leads people to believe you do not know anything

• Likely gives a rationale to pay you less.

So why would use Entry Level Developer?

And now you won’t… because you just swore an oath you wouldn’t.

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

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

I am seeing a trend lately with the conversations I am having with tech pros… and I am not sure if it is because I have been attending more tech events and meetups so these conversations find me, if it is because many tech pros have hit a tipping point with their (dead end) conversations with recruiters or this is a natural progression in a long bull market economy (people are proactively doing a search)…

Tech pros are starting to take control of where they land next.

Conversations generally sound like this, “I usually wait for a search firm or corporate tech recruiter to reach out to me about a job and if the timing is right, I take a look at it. Now I am actively seeking out companies and roles I want and reaching out to them directly.”

(applauding)

YES!!! <= how I usually respond.

I get that your busy writing code, managing a team, architecting the app, listening to end users, keeping the system running and keeping board members informed and happy.

But to leave to chance that a corporate recruiter or search firm recruiter has your next dream job is freaking crazy.

Should you pay attention to the inquiries?

Absolutely.

Should you rely on those being the only opportunities that are available to you?

NO WAY.

There are some easy ways to stay in touch with what is going on including:

• Attend events and conferences
• Read the MSP Business Journal, Minne Inno, Tech.MN and Ping.MN (should it get off the ground)
• Listen to our MSP on Deck podcast
• Lurk on Twitter the “cool kids” in MN tech
• Network with your peers and learn about who is doing what

Take control.

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

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

Ahhhh yes… the long and frequently debated question, how long should a resume be?

Many years ago I mostly joked, with a side of serious, that I wanted to get 5 Recruiter and HR friends around a table with 7 bottles of wine and video/audio record the conversation that would include this question… how long should a resume be?

My guess is I would end up with 7 or 8 different answers. That some of my friends would end up contradicting themselves.

My answer to, “How long should my resume be” has been the same for as long as I can remember… not one line longer than it takes to get someone to want to talk with you.

I get that is subjective and we all don’t have a sense of what is too much or too little. If you’re cutting your resume short to fit onto a page, it’s likely too short. If you have 10 bullet points for every employer going back 10+ years it’s likely too long.

So maybe not a perfect answer just like the one page resume or only two page resume is not perfect.

“They say…” is what we always hear. “They say recent college grads should only have a one page resume.” Who the heck is “they” and who made them the all knowing on the subject. Oh, likely those who anoint themselves an “expert”.

Have you caught on to my sarcasm yet?

Some research from Resume Go with => Settling the Debate: One or Two Page Resumes

“Despite the common arguments given on the matter, there is little to no empirical data to support either side. In fact, so-called “experts” often base their conclusions on individual preferences and unsubstantiated claims from random sources. Furthermore, recruitment methods and the hiring landscape are constantly evolving, so what may have been true in the past may no longer be the case today.”

Some data:

I don’t think they “settled the debate” with this one simulation but it is some interesting data. And it has me sticking to my advice… not any longer than it needs to be to get me or someone like me to call you back. However many pages that is.

My guess is, in the next two weeks we’ll see a major “expert” refute this and the debate will go on.

It’s worth noting that most applicant tracking systems (ATS) put resume content into fields so once it is in the system and without clicking on the original document… we don’t usually know how many pages it was.

If you are a Recruiter or in HR and want to try my wine experiment… send me an email

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

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

The Minneapolis StarTribune released their 2018 Top 150 Workplaces. While that is the top list there are also a bunch of companies that did well:

“These 119 Minnesota employers scored high enough to meet Energage's (formerly Workplace Dynamics) national benchmark as a Top Workplace, although not high enough to crack the Top 150 Workplaces.”

Congratulations to current and former clients Daugherty Business Solutions and When I Work and friends Calabrio, Drip + Leadpages, Field Nation, TempWorks Software and Total Expert.

There is not much overlap between this and the MSP Business Journal list I posted here => Best Places To Work In Minneapolis And St Paul 2018 v1

And of course no overlap with the Top 150 I posted here => Best Places To Work In Minneapolis And St Paul 2018 v2

Like the other lists… this is a solid group of companies so should you find yourself looking for a new place to call your work “home” this is a good place to start.

This list is only alphabetical (not ranked):

ACI Asphalt & Concrete
Alliant Engineering Inc.
Amplifon Americas
Andy's Liquor
Animal Humane Society
Arvig
Baker Tilly Virchow Krause
BankVista
Banner Engineering Corp
BDO USA, LLP
Bonfe Plumbing, Heating, & Air Service
brightpeak financial
broadhead

The Minneapolis StarTribune released their 2018 Top 150 Workplaces.

Congratulations to friends Kipsu, Reeher, sdg, SportsEngine, Code42 Software and C.H. Robinson.

There is not much overlap between this and the MSP Business Journal list I posted here => Best Places To Work In Minneapolis And St Paul 2018 v1.

Like that list, this is a solid group of companies so should you find yourself looking for a new place to call your work “home” this is a good place to start.

Small

1 Kipsu Inc.
2 Gentle Transitions
3 Serenity Couture Salon & Spa
4 Brighton Home Health and Hospice
5 Relationship One
6 Valley Rehabilitation Services
7 Pioneer Bank
8 Ovative/group
9 Success Computer Consulting
10 J.L. Buchanan
11 Intertech Inc.

Minneapolis and St Paul Business Journal released their 2018 2018 Best Places to Work.

Congratulations to current and former clients Livefront, phData and friends Structural and Clockwork.

This is a solid list of companies so should you find yourself looking for a new place to call your work “home” this is a good place to start.

Extra Small

• Advent Group
• AIM Consulting Minneapolis
• Ambrion
• Beehive Strategic Communication
• Celarity
• CureIS Healthcare Inc.
• Demand Chain Systems
• Hallett Financial Group
• Harbinger Partners
• Livefront
• Media Bridge Advertising
• Medical Alley Association
• Modern Foundation
• Newmark Knight Frank
• Quotacy Inc.
• StoryTeller Media + Communications
• Structural
• Structure Tech
• SuperClean Brands
• Supreme Lending