January 12th, 2009

Will it be impossible to change jobs this year?

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 2:14 pm

Categories: Economy, Job Hunting

Tags: Job, Recruitment & Selection, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Deb Perelman

Career Builder said last week that nearly one-in-five workers plan to change jobs in 2009, a percentage unchanged from the year. The lack of variation surprised me. I would expect that being in the early party of what threatens to be a drawn-out recession would make people feel too conservative to change jobs. How do you know that your new company is in good financial health? How can you put yourself at risk, as the newbie, to be the first laid off if things go south?

I pitched the question to a few recruiters and — not surprisingly, seeing as it is their line of work — most of them felt that it is possible to land new jobs during a recession, but that it’s on job-seekers to adapt their approach.

Don’t assume there are no good jobs out there

Even though fewer people are being hired, recruiters were quick to note that they are being hired for jobs that count.

“Obviously, a lot of people go by the theory that you should keep your job while you can and do everything in your power to not get laid off,” said Greg Gary, managing director of Technisource, Spherion’s technology division. “But the reality is that because we’re in a recession, if a company is offering a job, it’s not a ‘want’ job, it’s a ‘need’ job. And if they need that job filled, you have a lot of power when you’re negotiating.”

Don’t quit your day job

Not quitting one job before you land the next one is age-old advice. But it would be all the more shortsighted to do so when job opportunities are so sparse.

“With any job search it is always best to seek a new position while you still have your current one. I would advise against leaving a position until another opportunity is solidly within one’s grasp,” said Casey Manning, a San Francisco-based IT recruiter.

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December 30th, 2008

How to be a better techie in 2009

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 3:55 pm

Categories: Business Technology, Cubicle Culture, IT Skills, Job Hunting, Work-Life Balance

Tags: Hiring, Information Technology, Professional Development, Recruitment & Selection, Strategy, Career, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Management, Deb Perelman

In 2009, this could be you.

… Cure cancer, run that three-minute mile, save the whales… remember when your New Years Resolutions were downright triumphant? These days, they sound a whole lot more sober: “I hope I’ll have a job in January,” said one reader. “Contract work with no benefits is all I see out there,” commented another. World peace, anyone?

Yet the Web is full of advice for IT professionals on how they can be become better, more hireable pros. Not all of it is realistic, though it sure beats “cross your fingers and hope your job is still there after vacation”. Here are some of my favorites, and the things I would bank on getting you the furthest in the new year.

1. Pay attention to where the hiring is.

We all get caught up in our work. We all bear down for months and even years at a time on one all-encompassing project or another — this is a good thing — but the danger is in looking up and seeing that the field around you has changed. Keeping your eye on the “prize” so to speak — where the hiring is still taking place, even in a downturn — is essential for continued career success.

So where is this mythical hiring surge? It depends on who you ask, of course. Some people, such as Read Write Web’s Jobwire, point to the growing use of community managers and new media specialists and that developers are still being hired at twice the pace of sales and marketing folks. Others put their money on SAP, .Net and help desk support. But all agree that even in a downturn, there will be small pockets of growth.

2. Keep your skills current.

Advising tech pros to keep their skills current may be advice as old as time, but it doesn’t change the fact that if you’re still boasting skills at the top of your IT resume that haven’t been a central focus of enterprise organizations in years, or worse, a decade, you’re going to have a harder time selling yourself for a promotion or to a new company.

It’s not something to put off, either. “Any IT Pro knows that keeping up with the latest technology is a career key. Make it easy on yourself by reading technology news and subscribing to various newsletters and technology magazines. If you keep up consistently, you can’t be overwhelmed by falling behind,” explained Kristin Clifford at CompTIA.

3. Be a documenting fiend.

Most IT departments are a place where the cowboys still roam — the “cowboy” being the guy that everyone in the department depends on because he or she knows how to run things. Productivity can hinge on them, and dangerously so.

But this is now an age of standardized processes — things like CMMI and ITIL are more popular than ever — and documentation is at the core of this. Being someone who is organized and keeps track of what they’ve done, even if your boss doesn’t require it, will mean that you can always reference your work so that your successes can be repeatable. If this is where IT is going, you want to be there first. Heck, you might even like it.

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November 13th, 2008

'The devil you know' keeps worried workers in place

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 2:29 pm

Categories: Cubicle Culture, Economy, Job Hunting

Tags: Worker, Recruitment & Selection, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Deb Perelman, Job

The comfort of the familiar trumps the fear of uncertain economic conditions, say workers.

So, let’s say that you’re one of the lucky ones who slip out from under the economic downturn’s merciless grip, and you get to keep your job. Aside from keeping your head down and by all means, not audibly cheering your good fortune, what do you do?

While it is is of course a “gift” to “have a job at all” (as others will be sure to tell you), office life for those saved by the axe can be anything but a relief. There is a bigger work burden for each employee, who must then cover for a position or two that has been lost and morale takes a hit as the unsettled feeling about one’s job security doesn’t leave when the last pink slip is distributed.

There is more career conservativeness. Is this the time to job hunt, what with the job market flooded with established applicants with bad luck? Probably not, most workers rationalize, and choose to stay where they are.

If you’re one of these people, a new survey finds that you’re anything but alone. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. middle managers said that the economy was having a negative impact on their work environments, according to the survey released today by Accenture, a management consultancy. And despite the fact that more than half (53 percent) said that they were dissatisfied or only somewhat satisfied with their jobs, only 13 percent said they were actively looking for a new job. Nearly half (46 percent) felt that taking a new job in the current economic environment was risky.

There is good reason to be cautious, too, as it is hard to fully know the financial health of a company you may be considering jumping ship to. When layoffs come around, it is usually the newest employees who are given the boot, putting these professionals in exactly the place they were trying to avoid.

So what can be done? Accenture feels that employers whose ranks are filled with employees worried about their job security should do what they can to reassure them, and to help them cope, be it through opportunities for telecommuting, four-day work weeks or transportation subsidies. But if there is one thing for certain, it is that most employees are too unwilling to make waves right now to ask for these things themselves.

November 10th, 2008

Is there a better way to be handed a pink slip?

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 12:34 pm

Categories: Economy, Job Hunting

Tags: Pink Slip, Layoff, Salary, Workforce Management, Human Resources, Deb Perelman

Sadly, we’re talking about the other kind of pink slip.

I know what you’re probably thinking: What a ridiculous question. There is no gentle way to hand out pink slip. There is no way to be told that “your services are no longer needed” but “here is the number to our local unemployment office” and/or “an explanation of why we won’t be offering severance packages this round” that doesn’t sting. Want to do it better? Don’t do it at all.

But, it is hard to argue that there aren’t better and worse ways to break bad news. Countless layoff horror stories abound– from IMs to being informed by security that you are just a “visitor” now and disabled network connections–suggesting that even the so-called smartest companies could use a little tutorial in how to break bad news with respect and tact.

Jason Calcanis, on the day his company, Mahalo, shed 10 percent of their staff, shared lessons he’d learned laying off employees with TechCrunch.

1. Don’t spread layoffs over multiple rounds: Rounds of layoffs is a “horrible idea”, says Calcanis, because it creates massive fear and uncertainty inside of your organization.
2. Lay people off in a group, not individually: Calcanis found that telling people one-by-one was not more humane.
3. Don’t sugarcoat the rationale: Be 100 percent honest and upfront about why you chose to keep some people and not others.
4. Cutting jobs is better than cutting salaries: Rather than angering everyone in the organization by hurting all of their bottom lines, cut a few salaries altogether and leave the people you want to keep as happy as possible.
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October 15th, 2008

Signs your company might soon go belly-up

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 9:00 am

Categories: Economy, Job Hunting, Leadership

Tags: Job, Recruitment & Selection, Real Estate, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Business Operations, Deb Perelman

Before a company goes under, just about everybody knows it. And before everybody knows it, a bunch of people are already whispering in the corridors and around the water cooler, certain they see the writing on the wall. But what about you? Can you read the clues sprinkled like breadcrumbs down the cubicle aisles?

The benefits to the common worker of seeing the doom in your company’s future before they get around to mentioning that, oh, paychecks are running a few days behind this week, are immeasurable: First of all, the sooner one has the inkling that their organization isn’t doing so hot, the sooner they can get their resume in the hands of friends and former coworkers, in hopes to make an exit before the pink slips are shipped. Second, it is a lot easier to find a job if you already have one–or in this case, while you already have one. Finally, say you’re in an IT group of 1,000 at a company that has decided to offshore the whole shebang (there are almost too many examples to choose from, sadly) in a desperate cost-cutting measure one day. Rather than be in that job market flooded with techies with experience similar to yours, you could be ahead of the rush, and hopefully in the front of the line for the best positions.

Here are some of the most common things to look out for. Do any one of these mean you should go into a full-out panic and take the first job you can get? Of course not. But if some of them sound all too familiar, it might be time to sniff out further clues that might protect your own interests, as you can be certain your employers are protecting their own.

• It’s no longer focused on what was once its business: Straying from the business’s main product or service is a common occurrence when a company is struggling. You work for a widget manufacturer that’s suddenly making outside real estate investments? You’re absolutely right to find that fishy.
• Their customer base is limited. Say your company only sells their widgets to one or two buyers; if either of their accounts are lost to bankruptcy or the buyer opting for a competitor’s widgets instead, your company may struggle to stay afloat until they can find a new one, if they find one at all.
• It hasn’t bounced back from its last downsizing. If two years after laying off 50 percent of the workforce, your company is still making the same number of widgets because employees are still doing the jobs of four people, you’re right to feel a little unsettled.

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October 13th, 2008

Desperate times, desperate job hunting tactics

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 6:00 am

Categories: Job Hunting, Recruiting

Tags: Hiring, Job, Recruitment & Selection, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Deb Perelman

In a recent post about tactics to help land a job in an uncertain economy I included a cartoon of a sorry-looking fellow wearing a “Will work for food” billboard as he paced the sidewalk and said it “hopefully wouldn’t come to this”. I was just joking, you know.

Yet someone out there has carried around a sign that said, “Will work for paying bills.” in an effort to land a job. Another candidate advertised on a billboard, while a different one wore a shirt to an interview that said, “Please hire me.”

So much for not seeming desperate, huh?

These examples come from a recent CareerBuilder.com survey highlighting some of the most unusual tactics job seekers have used to get hired, according to the employers who were subject to them. Eschewing the more popular 30 second elevator pitch, one candidate approached the hiring manager instead in a restroom. Another job seeker, clearly a technically-inclined one, created an electronic resume with flash animation and musical score.

“Candidates have a short window to make a lasting impression on potential employers,” said Jason Ferrara, senior career adviser at CareerBuilder.com. “Those who apply resourcefulness and an inventive approach to their job search may have a better chance of standing out in the minds of hiring managers. The key is making sure you are maintaining an appropriate balance of creativity and professionalism so you are remembered for the right reasons.”

Perhaps it is because I have yet to have my morning coffee, but it is the candidate who showed up with breakfast for the employer every single day until they were hired that really warmed my heart. I mean, sure, I’m not hiring for any position right now, but I’d probably consider creating one for someone who brought me a daily latte or bagel I didn’t have to forage for myself.

How about you: What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve done to land a job you really wanted? Was it worth it?

October 8th, 2008

How to job hunt during a recession

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 11:21 am

Categories: Economy, IT Skills, Job Hunting

Tags: Job, Network, Recession, Information Technology, Recruitment & Selection, Strategy, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Management, Deb Perelman

Hopefully, it won’t come to this.

Between rounds and rounds of layoffs and further devaluation of retirement portfolios, you don’t need to look far to find dismal employment news out there these days. The job market outlook isn’t much better, as slumped job growth is affecting skilled workers in- and outside of the credit sector. It is no wonder that many who were interested in finding a new job this fall have put their search on hold until more of the dust settles.

But is this really necessary? A recession doesn’t mean that you’ll never, ever get a new job, say hiring experts, only that it may take longer and require you to sell yourself differently. Here are some of their tips:

Don’t assume the worst about the IT job market.

Curt Sterling, partner at The Cydio Group in San Diego, an IT Staffing firm says that IT growth has actually increased in the past couple quarters, despite what the overall markets might reflect.

“A lot of industries are upgrading their IT infrastructure, and IT budgets should actually grow into 1st quarter of 2009. So in short, I would advise people in IT to keep their nose to the grindstone and push for the position they are seeking because the opportunities are out there,” said Sterling.

Get back to basics.

Stuart McGill, Chief Technology Officer, Micro Focus, a provider of enterprise application management tells IT job-seekers that the demand for COBOL skills is rising, not declining.

“This underlines the importance of maintaining and modernizing core IT systems in enterprises worldwide. Especially in light of the current economic climate, enterprises must extend the value of their existing IT assets. Successful organizations will be those able to hire graduates familiar with key programming languages at the heart of today’s enterprise systems, such as COBOL,” said McGill.

Change your focus.

Job seekers should start by shifting their question from “What’s in it for me?” to “What’s in it for them?” explains Joe Turner for the Vault, a job board geared to students and young professionals.

“Especially in an economic downturn, you’ll want to stay focused on what you can accomplish for your next employer. Show them that you understand the macroeconomic “bigger picture” of the role you play in moving the company forward,” explains Turner.

Don’t rule out part-time or freelance work.

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October 2nd, 2008

Five unfortunate ways the financial crisis affects your daily grind

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 8:02 am

Categories: Economy, Job Hunting

Tags: Job, Financial, Economist, Worker, Recruitment & Selection, Real Estate, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Business Operations, Deb Perelman

By now, you’re probably up to your eyeballs in unsettling economic crisis news. The stock markets, tanked. Mondays $700 billion Hail Mary of a bailout plan, dead on arrival (though since resuscitated). Real estate value, sunk. Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke warned last week that the difficulty households and businesses were now to face obtaining loans posed “a direct threat to economic growth.”

But much less has been said about probably a more pressing concern to most workers–your job. Is it safe? Is the credit crisis going to make it impossible to find a new one if you get unceremoniously evicted from your current position? How long will it be before you can ever expect to see a raise or bonus again?

1. It has already hurt job growth.

Unfortunately, the credit crisis has already begun affecting job growth. The unemployment rate has grown an entire percentage point–from 5.1 to 6.1–between the month JPMorgan Chase moved to bailout Bear Stearns, March, and last month, August. Furthermore, it is likely to get worse before it gets better. Goldman Sachs Group economists wrote in a report to clients yesterday that they expected unemployment to rise to seven percent in late 2009.

2. The damage is likely to spread to other sectors.

At the outset of housing market’s turmoil, most expected jobs in the banking, finance, construction and real estate sectors to take a direct hit, as the problems started in those areas. However, now it is clear that the damage is likely to spread to other industries, including ones that who use credit to buy their goods or rely on new investments to move forward. In short, most of them.

As for the IT department, David Foote, CEO and chief research officer at the IT workforce research consultancy, Foote Partners told Computerworld this week that he thinks more companies will be looking more closely at what parts of IT spending are actually critical, and some IT workers may be safer than others. But, overall, he finds little reason for techies to worry.

“Bottom line, considering tight credit, oil prices, and overall consumer confusion and pessimism, plus the lag time between business decisions and direct labor market effects, we won’t see much IT workforce reduction or jobs shifted to outsourcing for the next few quarters,” said Foote.

3. Skilled workers might not be spared.

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September 23rd, 2008

The price of a pink slip

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 9:42 am

Categories: Economy, Job Hunting

Tags: U.S., Worker, Deb Perelman

The U.S. makes giving you the boot an easy choice.

This is a difficult time to be a worker. If you’re in the financial sector or in one that is affected by it–in short, just about everyone with a job–you’re likely feeling a squeeze brought on by the housing market collapse and the ensuing stock market loss of $160 trillion.

And sadly, when it is time for companies to figure out where to cut expenses, headcount is one of the first places they look. Shaving 10 percent of a workforce can save millions a year in payroll expenses, typically without losing 10 percent profit.

However, a sidebar in The Economist this week highlights exactly how much of a U.S. phenomenon the idea of slashing jobs to save money actually is. It turns out, it costs less to sack a worker in the U.S. than it does almost anywhere else in the world, as there are no penalties or compensation repay required to fire a full-time employee of even 20 years in the U.S.

In Germany, that same company would have to continue paying the worker the equivalent of 90 weeks pay, as would China. India requires about 55 weeks pay to lay off a 20-year full-time company veteran, and Britain about 23 weeks. After the U.S. (tied with New Zealand and Tonga in having no mandatory penalties), the country with the smallest fiscal punishment for firing a long-time employee is Japan, and even there the worker would receive an additional four week’s pay.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that laying off a U.S. worker, even a short-term one, can’t be costly. Businesses often refer to the “cost of turnover,” and what they mean is that the time they spend training another employee to do the same job, not to mention incurring legal fees, should a worker feel they were wrongly terminated. Nonetheless, the laws are in their favor, not yours, which likely has many-a-workers at least considering relocated lives in Venezuela or Bolivia, countries where workers cannot be fired at all.

September 15th, 2008

Is it "reasonable" to ask IT job candidates to prove their skills?

Posted by Deb Perelman @ 4:25 pm

Categories: IT Skills, Job Hunting, Recruiting

Tags: Job, Information Technology, Job Interview, Slashdot, Job Candidate, Recruitment & Selection, Strategy, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Management

Did your last job interview give you flashbacks to this?

Consider your workplace: When a in-house council gets hired, are they tested on their familiarity with those thick law books that line their offices? Are HR professionals required to show evidence that they have never embarrassed their former company? Do accountants have to provide the scores from their back-in-the-day CPA exams?

Yet increasingly, IT professionals are asked to take some sort of test when they go for a job interview, to prove they know the technology that’s on their resume. This is the subject of a long–and heated–discussion on Slashdot this week, wherein an IT job candidate says that even with more than one university degree, a couple of IT certifications, over ten years work experience in the industry with two to four years with each employer, working with a wide range of technologies, he’s not sure he finds it “reasonable” to take a test on a job interview.

This is, understandably, a sore subject among many commenters. “I won’t take them. I have turned down several jobs over it,” responds the first Slashdot commenter, banbeans.

But it also might be a sore subject among those who hire IT pros, or enough that nearly every IT professional that has been featured on this blog to date has warned tech job candidates not to embellish or outright lie about their skill sets on their resume. Clearly, many had been burned before.

“Don’t ever pad your resume unless you’re able to back it up. I’ve interviewed candidates and if they had kept to what they really knew they’d have been better off… there is nothing worse than someone nixing their chances because they have overextended themselves,” explained Michael Donohoe, a developer for the New York Times.

Some blame these resume-embellishers for causing interviewers to distrust IT candidates.

“We only have ourselves to blame. Why do you think the interviewers want a test? Because somewhere along the line, in some capacity, they were burned by an unscrupulous IT person who lied about their level of competency,” writes Slashdot commenter multimediavt.

Others feel that the job-seeker is wrong to be offended.

“Actually it does happen in other fields… I’m a statistician/epidemiologist and every post I’ve ever applied for has had some kind of technical test. Some have been more formal than others. Anyway if I was applying for a post that needed a high level of technical knowledge I would expect to be tested on it,” retorts another Slashdot commenter.

How about you? Do you think employers are right to ask IT pros to prove their skills, so to speak? Have you been asked to take a test of any sort when you’ve gone on an IT job interview? Was is a deal-breaker, or did you not care because you wanted the job?