Bay Area hiring trends…with a bit of perspective…

Author: Ed Pollock, November 18th, 2009

The job hunting pendulum swings to...GREEN...

Many patterns in our society act like the swing of a pendulum, first one way and then the other. The highs usually go too high, and the lows sink too far. The same pattern fits hiring trends.

In the not to distant past we had the swing of the dot-coms, companies were being started almost every minute of each day. During that period, we had an office in San Francisco. When our lease expired, the landlord looked to triple the rent. We looked at other locations in the city and the first question the building owner asked was “Are you going public” and then requested as part of the lease he would require stock option. Many of the “old companies” were forced to depart the city, and then came the swing of the pendulum, companies folded, jobs disappeared, and now ten years later many of those building remain vacant.

Then we entered the 21st century and the hot industries were bio-tech and health-care. The Bay area saw a growth of schools training people in the medical field, even the EDD started training people for entry level jobs in the medical field. Unfortunately, after a few years, the number of people looking for jobs far exceeded the needs of the industry and today many of these people are now seeking a new hot field.

The new buzzword for jobs in 2009-10…and maybe beyond…is “GREEN JOBS”. The government has injected huge sums of capital for companies in a variety of connected fields – like energy storage, smart-grid, solar, wind. These funds are allowing these companies to expand and also helps new companies to get a start. According to CNN Money (11/18/2009), the government stimulus money has created 110,185 jobs in California In discussions with Paul Davis, V.P. of Client Services here at AA-Careers, this year 25% of new clients are seeking career changes, and over 20% of them are taking “Green” jobs. The job openings cover the complete spectrum from accounting to software developers to administration and marketing.

According to an article done by CareerBuilder, hiring in the 2009 period in “Green” jobs increased nationwide by 13 %, and that will increase again in 2010. Clean Edge.(October 2009) states “President Obama and Chinese President Jintao have both made clean-tech development and deployment a cornerstone of their leadership, targeting the creation of millions of new clean-tech jobs”. “Many believe we are just at the beginning of the clean-tech job creation era” It could be the largest growth area since the advent of the computer and the Internet.

The top 5 sectors for clean-tech job activity, according to CleanEdge are:

Solar
Bio fuels & Biomaterials
Conservation
Smart Grid, and
Wind Power.

Making career transitions has never been easy. Many people using the old “Historical Style” resume have very limited success and tend to give up, using statements such as “they are only hiring people with prior experience”. Paul Davis and his staff at AA-Careers have been highly successful for years using targeted resumes which contain more information regarding the clients ability to make the company money or save them money, based upon past accomplishments. Think about your past accomplishments and how could they apply to the new rapidly growing clean tech (“green”) jobs.

Good hunting!

Most things in our society’s happenings react like the swing of a pendulum, first one way and then the other way. The highs usually go to high, and the lows sink to far, some where in the middle you find the proper direction. The same swing fits hiring trends.

In the not to distant past we had the swing of the dot.coms, companies were being started almost every minute of each day. During that period, we had an office in San Francisco. The lease expired and the landlord looked to triple the rent. We looked at other locations in the city and the first question the building owner asked was “Are you going public” and then requested as part of the lease he would require stock option. Many of the old companies were forced to depart the city, and then came the swing of the pendulum, companies folded, jobs disappeared, and now ten years later many of those building remain vacant.

Then we entered the 21st century and the hot industry was the bio-tech and medical field. The Bay area saw a growth of schools training people in the medical field, even the EDD started training people for entry level jobs in the medical field. Unfortunately after a few years, the number of people looking for jobs far exceeded the needs of the industry and today many of these people are now seeking a new hot field .

The new buzz words for jobs in the 2009-10 and maybe beyond is “GREEN JOBS” .The government has injected huge sums of capitol for companies in that field to expand and also helps new companies to get a start. According to www.CNNMoney.com (dated 11/18/2009) the government stimulus money has created 110,185 jobs in California In discussions with Paul Davis, V.P. of Client services at www.AA-Careers.com , this year 25% of new clients are seeking career changes, and over 20% of them are taking career jobs in the environmental GREEN field. The job openings cover the complete spectrum from accounting,software developers,administration and marketing.

According to an article done by www.Careerbuilder.comm , they state that hiring in the 2009 period in the so-called GREEN field increased nationwide by 13 %, and that will increase in 2010. In an article by Clean Edge Inc.(www. cleanedge.com) published in October 2009, it states “President Obama and Chinese President Jintao have both made clean-tech development and deployment a cornerstone of their leadership, targeting the creation of millions of new clean-tech jobs”. “Many believe we are just at the beginning of the clean-tech job creation era” It could be the largest growth area since the advent of the computer and the Internet.

The top 5 sectors for clean-tech job activity(www.cleanedge.com) are 1)Solar, 2)Bio fuels &Biomateriels 3)Conservation 4)Smart Grid and 5)Wind Power.

Making career transitions has never been easy and many people using the old Historical style resume have very limited success and tend to give up , using statements such as “they are only hiring people with prior experience”. Paul Davis and his staff at AA-careers( www.aa-careers.com) have been highly successful for years using targeted resumes which contain more information regarding the clients ability to make the company money or save them money , based upon past accomplishments. Think about your past accomplishments and how could they apply to the new rapidly growing clean tech(green) jobs.

Categories: Hiring Trends, Job Hunting Tags: clean tech, green careers, pendulum, SF bay area