First, it features some interesting information about what’s happening geographically, and there’s some interesting information (although at a high level) on jobs in the San Jose area.

Second, it has some interesting stats on industries.  According to their data, the following industries/job areas are seeing the highest growth:

• Renewables and the Environment
• Internet
• Online Publishing
• Computer and Network Security
• Wireless
• E-Learning
• Nanotechnology

Check it out!

Good hunting!

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.

After 9/11, all the US airlines, uncertain of their future and faced with a pending recession started laying off tens of thousands of employees.  One airline didn’t follow the crowd:  Southwest. Southwest Airlines, in its 40 year history has never had a involuntary lay-off, and today it’s the largest U.S. domestic airline and has a market capitalization bigger than all its domestic competitors combined.  In the 1930′s,when the Great Depression hit this country, most firms had huge lay-offs, and drastically cut back their advertising.  A few companies kept their employees, increased their marketing efforts and they became the number one company in their industries, and reigned in that position for 70+ years.

For some corporations, circumstances are such that lay-offs are necessary for the firm to survive.  If your industry is disappearing or permanently shrinking, layoffs may be needed to adjust to the new market size.  An example of that is the newspaper industry.  But, in most cases, layoffs are done to minimize hits to profits, not to ensure the company’s survival.  We continuously see companies announcing layoffs, and the stock market responds by increasing their share price. No thought, or not enough thought, is given to the effects on the morale and productivity of the remaining employees.  Thoughts like, “Will I be next?” infect the remaining employees.  Some companies will offer outplacement assistance to the laid-off employees ( in which the contracts are awarded to the lowest bidding company) in the hopes of showing the remaining employees that they care about what happens to their laid off people.  Some of these services are no more than a couple of seminars and some hand outs on how to do a resume, etc.

When most companies do layoffs, they reduce their R&D staff, marketing people, and their sales force…the same people they will need to take the company forward.  In some cases after a layoff, non-laid off key people will leave the company based upon what they feel is a low value placed on employees.  Layoffs weaken the entire organization, and affect its future growth.

People who lose jobs also lose income, and they spend less.  Even workers that aren’t directly affected, due to worries that they may be next, reduce their spending, creating less demand for products. If, for example, you worked for a computer maker, when purchasing your next computer would you buy one from a company that only months before laid you off?  I don’t think so.  So reduced sales continue the layoff spiral.

An example of that was Circuit City, the now defunct electronics retailer. They decided to lay off 3,400 of their highest-paid , most effective sale associates to cut costs. Companies such as Best Buy gained market share and Circuit City filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and closed its doors in March 2009.

Not to be left out is the effect on people and their loved ones.  When layoffs hit, studies have shown an increase in alcoholism, smoking, drug abuse and depression and these can become long term evil effects of layoffs.  Companies need to re-examine their employment philosophy and management decisions.

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.

The good news is that here in the Silicon Valley we still lead the nation in average IT salaries at $96,299, with the average national salary being $78,845.  The major area for salary growth was in Washington, DC (that figures), which had a jump of 4.3% to an average of $89,014.

Another interesting number was the increase in compensation for consultants, with an increase in Silicon Valley to $106,366 (nationwide average $98,964), and at an hourly rate of $67.67 (national average $61.56).  This correlates well with what we’re seeing at AA-Careers.  We’ve seen an increase in job offers for consultants, with companies being cautious about adding regular employees with the economic situation being as it is at present.

The article also quotes Tom Silver, Senior VP, North America at Dice, “Today, Silicon Valley has more available jobs than at this time last year”.  We agree, this is an improved market for technology job hunters.  The report went on to say, that in the survey, 46% stated they were satisfied with their compensation and only 37% were dissatisfied.  The Conference Board estimates a 2.8 wage increase in 2010, headlining “wage increases will barely cover inflation“.  At least covering inflation is better than losing ground, so that’s progress.

I think also we have to take in consideration that in some cases people have seen a reduction in rent, and for those who had the opportunity to re-fi their homes, that monthly payment has been reduced… that should also help to get thru these times.

Copies of both these reports can be found in the Client’s lounge at AA-Careers.

As always,
Good Hunting!

• 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!

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!

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.

The initial list of companies includes… Lockheed-Martin, Acuitus, NetLogic Microsytems, Rockyou-HQ, Lawrence Livermore Lab, AA-Careers, and many more are signing up each day.

In our blog on November 30th we covered the additional funding be given to Lawrence Livermore of $240,000,000 for research on alternative energy sources, and now they pop up at the job fair. If you are interested in “GREEN” jobs, I suggest you review your resume, consider a change in the objective, and re-focus your accomplishments toward that objective. In the past Livermore Lab has given strong preference to those with advanced college degrees…if you’ve got them, show them!  …and maybe wear something green… 

The staff of AA-Careers will also be providing, as we have for over 20 years, a free resume critique booth which is separate from our regular booth.  We will try to see everyone, and even stay after the show closes if they’ll let us.  We know how popular this service is with job seekers. The resumes that are worked on are not given over to our regular booth, nor are any copies kept, it is up to you to submit one to them for consideration. Our regular booth collects resumes, has you fill out a very short questionnaire. These are taken back to the office, reviewed by the staff, and those that we feel our services will help will be called as soon as possible for the next available interview time. The January shows always draw a good crowd, and because of the companies attending, we expect this fair to have very good attendance. If nobody calls you from the AA-Careers office for an interview, please be patient, it may take 3-4 weeks to find an open time. If no one calls you I am sorry, we try to get those people in that the staff feels are the most marketable, and that our services could best help.

Good Luck on your Job Hunting, 2010 will be a better year than 2009…the job market door is opening!

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!

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:

1. Solar
2. Bio fuels & Biomaterials
3. Conservation
4. Smart Grid, and
5. 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!

Searching for a job in the Great Recession...

In a recent article by Dan Burrows in Daily Finance, the lead on the story is “Bernanke between the lines: We’re in for the mother of all jobless recoveries”.  The government’s “bail out” and “stimulus” programs seem to be working.   The “too large to allow to fail” mantra and policies have saved many companies, which now – after huge layoffs – are beginning to show a profit and the stock market is on its way to complete recovery.

But, what happened to the second part of the government program to develop new jobs?  So far, that is a failure.   Unemployment has risen nationally to 10.2%, and it’s more like 17.5% if you count the people who have given up looking for a job. Over the last two years, 8 million people have seen their jobs in the private sector just disappear and in some cases they re-appeared in some distant country.

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.  We learned a few things from that ad – and these are the most commonly made mistakes:

1. Over 70 resumes could not be recovered, the attachments would not open.  Suggestion:  Send your resume to a few friends and see if they can open it up, before you send it to companies.
2. Over 15% of the cover letters had statements that eliminated them from consideration, and we never looked for the resume. 
   Suggestion:  Keep the cover letter simple and short, don’t put in statements such as, “although it may seem that I am over qualified for this job, I really need a job”, or “I don’t have any real experience in that area, but I am a quick learner” and a sad one said, “since my husband is sick, and I don’t know when he will get better, I have to return to the job market after not having worked for many years”. Suggestion: don’t provide too much information. The ONLY purpose of the cover letter is to get them to read the resume. Keep it short and to the point.
3. Far too many spelling and grammar mistakes in both the cover letter and resume.   If a person is having problems with a prepared letter and document, how can they answer the phone and carry on a conversation with someone?  How will they write while on the job? Suggestion: Use spell check on your resume and cover letter.
4. If the ratio of resumes to jobs, 650 to 1 continues in the job market, then maybe answering job listings is the hard way to go in Job Hunting.  Government figures show 100,000 new people per month trying to find a job. Based on those numbers, plus the unemployed, and the expected GDP growth for 2010 of 2.9% (Wall Street Journal’s economic  forecasting survey) then it isn’t going to get much better in 2010.  Suggestion:  Do not base your job search on job postings.  Read on…

The majority of job hunters, for at least the next 18 months, must learn and use, the method of “contacts and networking” if they want to increase their odds of finding a job.  There are several good articles on CareerBuilder on how to develop and use a network.  Learn them, practice them with a friend and then apply them. Always keep in mind that about 90% of the labor force is working.  Join the majority, don’t stay with the minority.   Looking for a job is a full time job, and it takes a lot of effort and time.

Good hunting!