Author:
Ed Pollock, January 30th, 2010
Beware what you post!
Saw a couple of interesting, related posts this weekend about social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace etc.) and job hunting. I’d group the concerns into three areas:
First, be careful what you post about the job hunt itself. If you’re updating your status to “just had a great interview” or “just interviewed a terrible company” you may be broadcasting to a much wider audience than you think. Facebook, for example, recently changed the way that your information is shared (and many people clearly aren’t aware of this). Yes, you can limit who can see your information if you’ve got everything set right, but it’s harder to protect than you think. For example, Facebook applications that you use (like FamilyLink) have access to pretty much everything – again, unless you set the application access to limit this. So, just assume your prospective employer can see your status. That way, you can’t go wrong. Read more…
Categories: Job Hunting Tags: Internet techniques | 
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Author:
Ed Pollock, January 26th, 2010
In an article yesterday, Fortune magazine details 22 companies hiring a total of 87,750 jobs nationwide. These companies were recently rated “best companies to work for” by Fortune. Several of the companies listed have a presence in the Bay Area, including:
- Edward Jones
- Google
- Qualcomm
- Cisco
- Genentech, and
- Intel
Some other companies hiring (with a lesser presence in the Bay Area) include: PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, and Accenture.
The article doesn’t detail exactly where the openings are – but sometimes companies are flexible on this, anyway.
-Good hunting!
Categories: Hiring Trends, Job Hunting Tags: Hiring Trends, SF bay area | No comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, January 24th, 2010
Just saw another job hunting myths post – seems like our original list (which dates back to the 90’s) continues to echo through the web! We still like ours best….but it’s nice to see others, too.
Categories: Job Hunting Tags: | No comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, January 24th, 2010
Job Hunting in December? Yes!
A widely held belief is that Job Hunting in December is a waste of time. But, times and beliefs are changing rapidly – and that belief about Job Hunting in December now needs to get washed down the drain.
Thanks to a highly motivated staff of consultants and some hard working clients, December came in as the best month of the year for 2009 for our clients to land new jobs. We refer to the job hunt as a “Market Campaign”, and we had more Market Campaign Completion (MCC’s) in December than any other month in 2009, and it was the best December since 1999 (the era of the dot.coms).
We started to see some good movement starting in the fall of 2009. Many companies, who have trimmed their staff to the bone, were starting to hire consultants for 3-6 month contracts. Also, as noted in prior blog posts, some of the stimulus money finally made its way to Silicon Valley. And the Dice Career Fair this month had 13 hiring companies; attendance came close to 1,000 job seekers.
In the MCC’s in December, the average compensation (base pay) was $117,000, with highest being $175,000. We also saw our first sign-on bonus ($6,000) in over 6 months. The clients were fairly evenly divided, with 38% making career changes and 62% staying with their career path. The biggest gains were in IT and ‘Green Jobs’.
We got some great comments from clients this month which we’ll use to update the website at some point, like “all the effort and hard work paid off”, “had great confidence walking into the interview room”, and “improved my salary $30,000”. 100% of our December clients who completed their job hunting campaigns checked the box that they would be happy to receive referrals.
I feel confident that 2010 will be a good year for the Valley.
Good hunting!
Categories: Hiring Trends, Job Hunting Tags: green careers, Hiring Trends, SF bay area | No comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, January 6th, 2010
Years ago, the San Jose Mercury used to hold Job Fairs at the Santa Clara Convention Center. It was not unusual for there to be 50 companies attending and space was on a first come-first served basis, and rapidly filled up. In the last few years the numbers have sharply decreased, and with the Mercury’s unfortunate down-sizing, they left the field.
Dice’s Targeted Career Job Fair has filled the void, and now has 4 shows scheduled in the South Bay for 2010. The first show is scheduled for Thursday, January 14th, between the hours of 11 am to 3 PM at the Santa Clara Convention Center. I suggest you come early, there will be a line to get in. Make sure you bring several clean copies of your most recent resume. Read more…
Categories: Hiring Trends, Job Hunting Tags: job fair, resume critique | No comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, January 6th, 2010
Choose the right clothes for your interview!
Here’s the follow-up to my post regarding the candidates who showed up for the interviews. There are two important themes here. First, dress appropriately, and second, arrive early.
Dressing for an interview.
I wrote a bit about this previously, so I’ll just enhance that a bit with examples of how people showed up here for their interviews.
Too many of the applicants were either over dressed or under dressed. How can you be “overdressed”? Well, in a sense, its dressy clothing for the wrong occasion. When you dress up for an interview, you don’t want to wear clothes that look like you’re gong out on a date. Yes, that’s dressy, but it’s not business dress. It’s fancy casual dress. Others were under-dressed. No matter how much you paid for your jeans, they aren’t interview clothes for office jobs. After you get the job, jeans may be fine – but when you interview, you want to dress in business wear. With so many people today responding to the same ad, it is critical to dress properly.
Read more…
Categories: Interviewing Tips, Job Hunting Tags: arrive early, interview dress | No comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, December 14th, 2009
Um...don't do this ever, and especially not when job hunting!
A few weeks ago, AA-Careers ran a job ad on Craigslist. When we ran the same ad 3 years ago, we received 48 resumes in a 30 day period. The November, 2009 result? This time, we received over 650 resumes in less than a week.
After a couple of follow up questions to my initial post, we decided to go into some more detail on the statistics:
- 29% of applications had at least one spelling mistake.
- 33% had attachments we couldn’t open using either the latest version of Microsoft Word or Acrobat Reader.
- 17% of applications had poorly written, missing, or completely inappropriate cover letters.
- 44% of resumes had a very vague objective unrelated to the job being applied for.
Ouch! Our initial reaction was a bit of shock at all the work it would take to go through the applications. Then, after we’d gone through a triage process, we became concerned for all the job hunters. Hundreds of them made the triage process easy – because they were easy to eliminate. Read more…
Categories: Job Hunting, Resume Writing Tips Tags: Cover Letters, Resume Writing Tips | 4 comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, December 10th, 2009
Hmmm... maybe I should have done more research!
Preparation and practice for interviews is critical, and can help you avoid the 8 deadly mistakes.
How do you prepare? Use ZoomInfo, Yahoo Finance, and the company’s website. Learn as much as you can about the company (or if a large company, the particular group or division you’re interviewing with).
First, know the basics. How long they have been in business? How many employees do they have? What products do they produce? Who are their clients? Are they privately or publicly owned? Where is corporate headquarters? Who is on the Board of Directors? Who are the officers of the company?
Second, dig in. You might find out that the CEO graduated from your alma mater, or that the company does business with one of your past employers, or you own one of their products. All that information will help you ask or answer questions at the interview. Be prepared! With that, and a bit more, you might avoid the 8 deadly interview mistakes below! Read more…
Categories: Interviewing Tips, Job Hunting Tags: Interviewing Tips | 2 comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, December 6th, 2009
Choices, choices...
Most Human Resources people will tell you that a candidate’s appearance at your job interview is the best that the candidate will look during their employment with the company. They’re talking about you. In the Silicon Valley, the dress code has always been less formal than the East Coast and has become more and more informal for decades. Today, it’s not uncommon to find companies that are not just “business casual” or have “casual Fridays” but are “casual”. That doesn’t mean that informal dress is right for the job interview.
You need to consider what level of job you are applying for, and the level of the person you’ll be interviewing with, and if possible, the typical dress at the interviewing company before deciding what you will wear. The term “dress for success” is a good policy to follow. Spend a few minutes using ZoomInfo or LinkedIn and learn the interviewer’s title(s) at the company. Talk to someone you know about how people dress there. Read more…
Categories: Interviewing Tips, Job Hunting Tags: interview dress, Interviewing Tips | No comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, November 30th, 2009
Just saw this over the weekend, and it builds on my recent post on hiring trends: it was recently reported in the Wall Street Journal, that the government’s multibillion-dollar push into energy (green jobs) research is reinvigorating 17 giant University funded research facilities, which included Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This is great news for people looking to shift careers into the “Green” area. The Office of Science estimates that 1,400 jobs were created in 2009, that’s an increase of 11% over 2008. Another 1,400 jobs were created at Universities doing research in to clean energy.
This makes the future at Lawrence Lab look bright for 2010, and an interesting place for job seekers who are interested in making the switch to “Green” jobs. The push on the government funding now appears to be for applied science rather than pure research as it has done in the past. Lawrence Labs says it will receive about $240 million for research in alternative energy sources, computing, energy efficiency and other areas.
-Good hunting!
Categories: Hiring Trends, Job Hunting Tags: cleantech, green jobs, Hiring Trends, lawrence livermore labs | No comments
