Author:
Ed Pollock, June 30th, 2010
Getting Back in the Game. Keep your chin up!
A while back, as the economy was slowing down, I and a few other HR people were discussing if there was an interest in hiring a software person who had been laid off over a year before. The person had a good educational background, one 4-year job, and a couple of short term jobs during better times and was now at the Director’s level.
Some of the remarks were, “…what has he been doing for over a year?”, “if no one else wanted him all this time, why would we?”, “…looks like a job jumper to me, stayed long enough to keep the sign-on bonus”, etc. It ended up with nobody interested in setting up an interview. I am sure if they met the person they would have been very impressed, unfortunately he had just made some bad career moves.
What can a person do who has been out of the job market for a year or more? First of all, you should be using a functional resume that highlights your accomplishments, not the dates of employment. Keep in mind the resume is a marketing piece, not a life story. Also a good idea during this period would be to enroll in a school that offers you the chance to increase your skill level, offer to do some volunteer work for a non-profit, and/or start a consulting firm and try to get some short term work.
Most important is to be working at something. Stay in the habit of getting up at the same time you did when you had a job. Looking for the right career position is a full time job. Keep a calendar, set up your daily schedule in advance for each week and don’t forget to exercise every day. The more active you are, the less depressed you get, and keep in mind that companies don’t hire depressed people.
Job Hunting can be a fun experience; make sure you play the game the right way.
Good hunting!
Categories: Interviewing Tips, Job Hunting Tags: | 
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Author:
Ed Pollock, June 12th, 2010
A ray of hope for the job market!
A new 16 month high for job openings was hit in April, according to the Department of Labor. This is a good sign that private employers have started employing.
In April 2010, new jobs advertised rose to 3.1 million from 2.8 million in March. That’s the most openings since December 2008.
Private employers accounted for the entire net gain, government hiring decreased in April.
The competition for jobs still remains tough. There were 5 unemployed people on average for each new job offered. That was down from 5.4 in the previous month, but well above the pre-recession levels that average 1.8 jobless workers per opening
The biggest increase in available jobs were in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and health care services and education. Government job openings fell by 36,000.
The report comes from the Department of Labor, which stated the economy generated 431,000 jobs in May.
As always,
Good hunting!
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Author:
Ed Pollock, May 1st, 2010
Sometimes, help is a good idea!
Many years ago, when I started earning some real money, I completed my IRS Tax return, and realized I owed an additional $1800. It was a surprise. I talked to a friend of mine who suggested that I let his tax CPA take a look at it. After about an hour of discussion, she re-did the return, and I ended up getting a $1250 refund. I never did my own tax returns again.
When looking for a new career position or changing careers, basically the same situation exists. Using a Career Marketing Advisor is certainly not for everyone. One thing to consider: according to the last U.S. government numbers, the average person change jobs 7.8 times in their lifetime. A professional Career Marketing Advisor does that many every month that he/she works with clients.
Why Not Use an Advisor?
Lets first take a look at the cons – why wouldn’t you use a Career Marketing Advisor? Read more…
Categories: Job Hunting Tags: Career Advisor | No comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, March 7th, 2010
Layoffs hurt people and come back to bite businesses, too.
A recent article in Newsweek (February 15th, 2010) written by Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, discusses the bad effects of lay-offs at corporations and on their employees.
In the early 60’s I was being recruited by IBM for a position in Human Resources. I was told about IBM’s dedication to its employees and their families, and given a copy of the employee’s handbook, which even included company songs. I was invited to a large company meeting at an auditorium in the Washington, D.C. area. I went. At the end of the 2 hour meeting, all the employees stood up and sang one of the company’s songs. Morale and spirit were high, and in those days IBM ruled the roost of US corporations. But, by the time the 80’s came around, IBM started a series of lay-offs, and the company started their great decline from the top. Read more…
Categories: Hiring Trends, Job Hunting Tags: layoffs | No comments
Author:
Ed Pollock, February 21st, 2010
It might not be as bad as you think - keep your chin up!
Of course as you’ve read and heard, the media have been blasting over TV, Radio, net and newsprint that the nation has over 10% unemployment. Some articles break down the numbers for unemployment by race, sex, and age groups, which sometimes reveal interesting information. But they often miss a different cut – some very critical numbers that affect you directly.
Now, a story published by Daily Finance called “Recession Hammers Low-Wage Workers, but Glances Off the Affluent” cites findings by researchers at The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University which tell a truly different story about unemployment numbers. This survey covers the period of October to December 2009. Here’s the deal: Read more…
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Author:
Ed Pollock, February 14th, 2010
At least the patient has a heartbeat!
As we previously mentioned, the job market in the Bay area has definitely improved, but with a slight glitch: salaries (on an average) have either gone down or not kept up with inflation, as reported by a Dice.com salary survey of 1,260 Silicon Valley based technology professionals.
A key example is the IT field, where salaries were down 1%. With inflation running about 3%, that’s a loss of 4% in buying power. Read more…
Categories: Hiring Trends, Job Hunting Tags: Hiring Trends, salaries | No comments
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 | No comments
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.
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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
