by Sara Goldsmith, WetFeet.com
The average recruiter sees 5,000 resumes a year. Any legitimate reason she finds to make one disappear makes her life that much easier -- and yours that much harder. Here, top-level recruiters reveal how candidates blow their chances to get a foot in the door.
Numbers Don't Add Up
If accomplishments can be quantified, do it -- but use discretion. Brandishing borderline performance numbers signals a lack of experience and bad judgment. "Phrases like 'managed a budget of $500,000' or 'led a team of two' might catch my eye in a bad way," warns Olaf Weckesser, a former recruiter for McKinsey & Co. Better to spin it as "managed company's largest budget."
Adds Alexandra DeMarino, a Citigroup recruiter: "If a small number is impressive, you absolutely have to put it in context." Because you can't provide context for academic numbers, don't include GMAT scores below 650 if you're targeting a top firm. DeMarino suggests bragging about nothing less than a 3.7 GPA.
Formality Takes a Vacation
Don't succumb to the informality of email. "If you send a cover letter by email that starts with 'Hi,' it and your resume will probably end up in the trash," says Cynthia Shore, an assistant dean at the University at Buffalo School of Management and former director of its career-resource center. Treat an email as you would a proper letter: Instead of "Hi," write "Dear Mr. Case." Instead of "Thanks," conclude with "Sincerely."
Keywords Are Overused
It's true that recruiters sometimes use scanners to sort through resumes looking for certain keywords. But resumes appear contrived when candidates consciously try to include them. Describing a business-development position using such terms as "needs assessment" and "contract analysis" in order to squeeze in more keywords is a misguided strategy. Assume that a human being -- not a computer -- will be reading the resume. After all, these days fewer than 25 percent of all recruiters even use scanners.
Things Get Too Personal
"If you mention your age, we have to trash your resume," says Jeremy Eskenazi, vice president of talent acquisition at Idealab!, the California incubator firm. Since it's illegal for a company to solicit a candidate's age, race, or marital status during the hiring process, firms have adopted a "don't tell" policy to avoid potential bias suits. Many won't risk even having it handed to them.
It Looks Too Fancy
"A recruiter who receives resumes in pretty plastic folders will likely toss them," says Dave Opton, CEO and founder of ExecuNet, an online executive recruiting service. "I don't have time to take the damn things apart." Another faux pas: Folding a resume so that it fits into a standard business envelope. Heavy-stock paper that retains its crease can be a nuisance. Says Opton: "They're easier to store and photocopy if they're flat."
Also, don't try to differentiate your resume with boxes or ornate lettering. When recruiters see a resume that's designed differently, they think the person's trying to hide something. Instead, focus on content. Your resume will rise to the top of the pile.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Deceptive Targets in the Job Hunt
5 Methods That Waste Your Time
by Caroline M.L. Potter
Time is money -- whether you've got a job or not. While it may be tempting to chase down every possibility when you're searching for work, don't. Many can lead you down a blind alley -- where you may lose the contents of your wallet.
A focused search using tried and true methods, especially networking, will lead to your next job, not tactics that smack of desperation.
Avoid these five job-hunting "don'ts" that will yield the poorest of results, according to leading workplace advisor Liz Ryan.
1. Spray and pray.
Don't blindly send your resume unsolicited, electronically or otherwise, to any company without first making verbal contact. Says Ryan, founder of AskLizRyan.com, "Tossing out un-customized cover letters and undifferentiated resumes in huge volumes and crossing your fingers is a job-search non-starter. That doesn't work, and it hasn't worked in 10 years, or more." Establish a connection before sending a customized cover letter and, adds Ryan, "You can even customize your resume if a job opening calls for it."
2. Stand in line for a job fair.
Admits Ryan, "Sad to say, but most job fairs are a waste of time. Avoid the huge cattle call-type job fairs where zillions of employers have booths, yet no one is taking resumes." There are some job fairs that have value. Ryan, a former human resources executive, points to company-specific open hours and college placement job fairs. Tap your network to learn if anyone can recommend worthwhile fairs. "Ask around before you head off to a job fair or risk having your time wasted and your ego dashed."
3. Earn certifications nobody wants.
It's common to feel less-than-confident in your skills if you're having a hard time finding work, but don't rush out to spend money on any additional training unless you're certain it will yield improved results. Ryan reveals, "Before you sign up for a certification training program, check the job boards to make sure that employers are asking for it. There's no sense investing time and money in a certification no one wants."
If you're getting the hard-sell from an educational institution, Ryan says, "Ask the people at the school that's doing the certifying, 'Which local employers have hired your graduates in the past year?' If they can't tell you, run away."
4. Pay a headhunter.
Don't dole out money to any kind of recruiter or sign a contract agreeing to do so. "Real headhunters, also known as search consultants or third-party recruiters, won't take your money. They get paid by employers to fill open jobs." She warns, "If a recruiter calls or emails you to say s/he's got jobs open, and then invites you to his or her office for a counseling session and presents you with a range of career-coaching services, bolt for the exit. Real search professionals won't take a dime from their candidates."
5. Sign up with a resume fax-blast service.
This old-school -- and desperate -- tactic is a total turn-off to potential employers and smacks of spam. Ryan says, "Services that send out hundreds or thousands of your resumes might have been worthwhile 20 years ago. Today, they're worse than pointless, because it irks employers to get unsolicited resumes. Forget the fax-blast services and do your own careful research to reach decision-makers with messages they actually want to hear."
by Caroline M.L. Potter
Time is money -- whether you've got a job or not. While it may be tempting to chase down every possibility when you're searching for work, don't. Many can lead you down a blind alley -- where you may lose the contents of your wallet.
A focused search using tried and true methods, especially networking, will lead to your next job, not tactics that smack of desperation.
Avoid these five job-hunting "don'ts" that will yield the poorest of results, according to leading workplace advisor Liz Ryan.
1. Spray and pray.
Don't blindly send your resume unsolicited, electronically or otherwise, to any company without first making verbal contact. Says Ryan, founder of AskLizRyan.com, "Tossing out un-customized cover letters and undifferentiated resumes in huge volumes and crossing your fingers is a job-search non-starter. That doesn't work, and it hasn't worked in 10 years, or more." Establish a connection before sending a customized cover letter and, adds Ryan, "You can even customize your resume if a job opening calls for it."
2. Stand in line for a job fair.
Admits Ryan, "Sad to say, but most job fairs are a waste of time. Avoid the huge cattle call-type job fairs where zillions of employers have booths, yet no one is taking resumes." There are some job fairs that have value. Ryan, a former human resources executive, points to company-specific open hours and college placement job fairs. Tap your network to learn if anyone can recommend worthwhile fairs. "Ask around before you head off to a job fair or risk having your time wasted and your ego dashed."
3. Earn certifications nobody wants.
It's common to feel less-than-confident in your skills if you're having a hard time finding work, but don't rush out to spend money on any additional training unless you're certain it will yield improved results. Ryan reveals, "Before you sign up for a certification training program, check the job boards to make sure that employers are asking for it. There's no sense investing time and money in a certification no one wants."
If you're getting the hard-sell from an educational institution, Ryan says, "Ask the people at the school that's doing the certifying, 'Which local employers have hired your graduates in the past year?' If they can't tell you, run away."
4. Pay a headhunter.
Don't dole out money to any kind of recruiter or sign a contract agreeing to do so. "Real headhunters, also known as search consultants or third-party recruiters, won't take your money. They get paid by employers to fill open jobs." She warns, "If a recruiter calls or emails you to say s/he's got jobs open, and then invites you to his or her office for a counseling session and presents you with a range of career-coaching services, bolt for the exit. Real search professionals won't take a dime from their candidates."
5. Sign up with a resume fax-blast service.
This old-school -- and desperate -- tactic is a total turn-off to potential employers and smacks of spam. Ryan says, "Services that send out hundreds or thousands of your resumes might have been worthwhile 20 years ago. Today, they're worse than pointless, because it irks employers to get unsolicited resumes. Forget the fax-blast services and do your own careful research to reach decision-makers with messages they actually want to hear."
Monday, July 27, 2009
A good time to look for a new job (yes...you read that correctly)
Beth Gilfeather
One of the big contributors to why the job market is so weak today is employee retention believe it or not (not necessarily the lack of newly created positions). This lack of job hopping is happening for several reasons to include misperception of market conditions, negatively perceived salary trends and plain old fear of getting caught. All of these obstacles can be addressed and easily overcome. Start looking for a new opportunity and YOU can help stimulate this job market.
In recruiting, we love attrition! It causes a daisy chain of vacancies that must be filled (Bob leaves his job and opens up a position, Sue leaves her job to take this position and opens up her job, etc..).
1- In some instances, people aren't looking right now because they think nothing is happening. Not true! While demand for new hires is certainly down, there are certain verticals that are doing better than others. The technology vertical is one of them. Sales is also a vertical that is picking up. To help you get a more positive (and accurate) perspective on the state of the job market, you'll need to jump online:
Make sure to use job boards like Simplyhired.com and Indeed.com (not just the run-of-the-mill Monster and Careerbuilders of the world). These sites "aggregate" postings from all over the web (not just from their paying customers) and this will give you a much better sampling of the jobs that you are interested in. Not only will it pull more jobs to you, their search capability is excellent and will allow you to really focus in on what you want.
You can also search the web using an effective boolean string. Try this one: (intitle:job OR inurl:job) KEYWORD or KEYWORD (MA OR Massachusetts) 01432..05544. I have used Massachusetts in this sample, but you can list your own state and zip code range. This will ensure you only pull back jobs in your location. Use a website called zipmath.com and go to "applications" and choose "Zip codes in a radius" to establish the zone you want to search in. Make sure to list the first and last zip in sequential order and separate it by two periods. You can also run this string replacing the word "job" with "position" or "career"
2- People also aren't looking because they think the salaries will be too low. No, we aren't seeing 20% pay raises like we experienced back in the day. However, people are getting good offers right now. We all need to wake up and smell the coffee here. Salary levels have changed. Just like how your home value has gone down, our professional "worth" has too to some extent. As a result, I think we all need to adjust to the new economy which will be about fair, reasonable, merit-based jumps in salary. I think it's perfectly acceptable to want to shoot for a 10% increase when expecting a job offer (and hopefully they can do this or even more). But we need to recognize that salaries are going to go through the same cycle that everything else has in the economy (a correction). So don't expect for an employer to pay you any more just because you need to make more money. Here's the good news...the days of the "low ball" seem to be over. We witnessed a lot of companies over the past 6 months try to put out a low offer and inevitably lose the candidate as a result. Companies are realizing this and are in a better position to be reasonable and fair having been burned by this in Q4 and Q1.
3- Afraid of getting caught is probably the biggest reason people aren't looking. You certainly don't want to be the one who has demonstrated your disloyalty to the company when cuts are being made. If you do, you will likely find yourself terminated or conveniently laid off. And if you are lucky enough to not get terminated, get ready for the bitter attitude you will continue to get from your boss. There's no reason you have to risk your job to conduct a job search.
Use a confidential resume and make sure to take off not only your name and address but also your current employer name. Companies will often run searches on Monster and the web using their company name as the search term to pull back "confidential" resumes of current employees looking to leave.
Don't use your work email to conduct your job search. First of all, your company can monitor this and find out. Or an innocent subject line that reads "your interview tomorrow" could be easily displayed on your desktop when your boss is over at your desk.
Always list your cell phone, not work phone. If you work in an open environment, it is completely obvious when you are trying to hide something on a phone call. This will only lead to suspicion.
If working with an agency, make sure they aren't openly marketing your background if you don't want them to and make sure they aren't sending your resume out without speaking to you first.
Don't ever put your resume into an open database or resume emailing service. You have no control over where it will go.
Bottom line: There are jobs out there. They pay well and you don't have to get caught looking for a new job.
One of the big contributors to why the job market is so weak today is employee retention believe it or not (not necessarily the lack of newly created positions). This lack of job hopping is happening for several reasons to include misperception of market conditions, negatively perceived salary trends and plain old fear of getting caught. All of these obstacles can be addressed and easily overcome. Start looking for a new opportunity and YOU can help stimulate this job market.
In recruiting, we love attrition! It causes a daisy chain of vacancies that must be filled (Bob leaves his job and opens up a position, Sue leaves her job to take this position and opens up her job, etc..).
Unfortunately today, less and less candidates are jumping ship. Why?
-They are afraid there aren't any good jobs to choose from (or any jobs at all to choose from)
-They are afraid the salary they get offered will be too low
-They are afraid they will get caught and terminated, "laid off" or ostracized as a result
1- In some instances, people aren't looking right now because they think nothing is happening. Not true! While demand for new hires is certainly down, there are certain verticals that are doing better than others. The technology vertical is one of them. Sales is also a vertical that is picking up. To help you get a more positive (and accurate) perspective on the state of the job market, you'll need to jump online:
Make sure to use job boards like Simplyhired.com and Indeed.com (not just the run-of-the-mill Monster and Careerbuilders of the world). These sites "aggregate" postings from all over the web (not just from their paying customers) and this will give you a much better sampling of the jobs that you are interested in. Not only will it pull more jobs to you, their search capability is excellent and will allow you to really focus in on what you want.
You can also search the web using an effective boolean string. Try this one: (intitle:job OR inurl:job) KEYWORD or KEYWORD (MA OR Massachusetts) 01432..05544. I have used Massachusetts in this sample, but you can list your own state and zip code range. This will ensure you only pull back jobs in your location. Use a website called zipmath.com and go to "applications" and choose "Zip codes in a radius" to establish the zone you want to search in. Make sure to list the first and last zip in sequential order and separate it by two periods. You can also run this string replacing the word "job" with "position" or "career"
2- People also aren't looking because they think the salaries will be too low. No, we aren't seeing 20% pay raises like we experienced back in the day. However, people are getting good offers right now. We all need to wake up and smell the coffee here. Salary levels have changed. Just like how your home value has gone down, our professional "worth" has too to some extent. As a result, I think we all need to adjust to the new economy which will be about fair, reasonable, merit-based jumps in salary. I think it's perfectly acceptable to want to shoot for a 10% increase when expecting a job offer (and hopefully they can do this or even more). But we need to recognize that salaries are going to go through the same cycle that everything else has in the economy (a correction). So don't expect for an employer to pay you any more just because you need to make more money. Here's the good news...the days of the "low ball" seem to be over. We witnessed a lot of companies over the past 6 months try to put out a low offer and inevitably lose the candidate as a result. Companies are realizing this and are in a better position to be reasonable and fair having been burned by this in Q4 and Q1.
3- Afraid of getting caught is probably the biggest reason people aren't looking. You certainly don't want to be the one who has demonstrated your disloyalty to the company when cuts are being made. If you do, you will likely find yourself terminated or conveniently laid off. And if you are lucky enough to not get terminated, get ready for the bitter attitude you will continue to get from your boss. There's no reason you have to risk your job to conduct a job search.
Use a confidential resume and make sure to take off not only your name and address but also your current employer name. Companies will often run searches on Monster and the web using their company name as the search term to pull back "confidential" resumes of current employees looking to leave.
Don't use your work email to conduct your job search. First of all, your company can monitor this and find out. Or an innocent subject line that reads "your interview tomorrow" could be easily displayed on your desktop when your boss is over at your desk.
Always list your cell phone, not work phone. If you work in an open environment, it is completely obvious when you are trying to hide something on a phone call. This will only lead to suspicion.
If working with an agency, make sure they aren't openly marketing your background if you don't want them to and make sure they aren't sending your resume out without speaking to you first.
Don't ever put your resume into an open database or resume emailing service. You have no control over where it will go.
Bottom line: There are jobs out there. They pay well and you don't have to get caught looking for a new job.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
How to Answer 'Tell Me About Yourself...'
By: Jon Jacobs
A new acquaintance recently asked for guidance handling the open-ended interview question I used in the headline of this post. "Although it sounds benign, it can be lethal," he observed. "What do you feel is the answer a hiring manager/recruiter/other is looking for? Just as important: What do they not want to hear?"
He's smart to be looking for effective ways to field that deceptively simple question. It probably trips many people - and in fact probably tripped me up more than once.
While job-hunting in 2006 and early 2007, I faced the question numerous times. Later, when I had the opportunity to hear what career coaches and hiring managers had to say, I realized I'd been going about answering it all wrong.
More Than Where You've Been
The key is to not to make the question a jumping-off point for a career-path version of the "autobiography" your third-grade teacher asked you to write. Remember how everyone tackled those? "I was born in Metropolis, Ohio. My father is a car dealer. I have a sister, Patty, two brothers, Joe and Bill, and a dog, Spike. My hobbies are baseball, model trains and coin collecting....."
In other words: Resist the natural tendency to tick off each of your career roles and transitions in a single narrative.
The interviewer isn't looking for completeness. Instead, she is looking for a coherent "story" that provides indications you're a good fit for the opening. That means your answer should briefly convey both:
· A sense of who you are and where you're going - why the opening you're applying for represents a logical culmination of where you've been. You needn't make that point explicit, but if you can suggest it in your answer, you'll score points. And:
· Something about your previous career that prepares you for the role you're interviewing for. Just as with a resume, take pains to focus this part of your answer on accomplishments, not just responsibilities or functions. For each past or present job you discuss, mention an anecdote about a challenge you faced, a project you completed or a learning experience you had that's directly relevant to the new role. If you can also relate that challenge or project to your motivation for wanting the role, so much the better.
Don't Ramble
You needn't go through each and every job you've had. Feel free to skip over any of them. Nor must you explain why you left jobs: The interviewer surely will question you about that later.
The best answer to "tell me about yourself" will have the Goldilocks quality: just enough detail, without getting tedious or long-winded. Concise but not too concise. I envision this answer taking up to two minutes, assuming the interviewer doesn't break in with tributary questions while you're speaking.
If you can, try to watch yourself from outside while answering. Imagine one fraction of your mind perched in a corner of the wall and keeping tabs on how you're coming off. Be on guard against rambling. If you catch yourself starting to delve deeper and deeper into one situation or one past job, cut yourself off and move on.
When I had to job hunt a few years ago, I rehearsed answers to, "describe your three biggest strengths and your three biggest weaknesses." Surprise - not a single interviewer asked me that question. All the rage in the 1980s and early '90s, it seems to have all but vanished from modern practice. Instead, today's obligatory question is "tell me about yourself." Whether you meet by phone or face-to-face, it's often the first substantive thing out of the interviewer's mouth.
I hope this helps you develop a response that keeps you in the game.
-- Jon Jacobs
A new acquaintance recently asked for guidance handling the open-ended interview question I used in the headline of this post. "Although it sounds benign, it can be lethal," he observed. "What do you feel is the answer a hiring manager/recruiter/other is looking for? Just as important: What do they not want to hear?"
He's smart to be looking for effective ways to field that deceptively simple question. It probably trips many people - and in fact probably tripped me up more than once.
While job-hunting in 2006 and early 2007, I faced the question numerous times. Later, when I had the opportunity to hear what career coaches and hiring managers had to say, I realized I'd been going about answering it all wrong.
More Than Where You've Been
The key is to not to make the question a jumping-off point for a career-path version of the "autobiography" your third-grade teacher asked you to write. Remember how everyone tackled those? "I was born in Metropolis, Ohio. My father is a car dealer. I have a sister, Patty, two brothers, Joe and Bill, and a dog, Spike. My hobbies are baseball, model trains and coin collecting....."
In other words: Resist the natural tendency to tick off each of your career roles and transitions in a single narrative.
The interviewer isn't looking for completeness. Instead, she is looking for a coherent "story" that provides indications you're a good fit for the opening. That means your answer should briefly convey both:
· A sense of who you are and where you're going - why the opening you're applying for represents a logical culmination of where you've been. You needn't make that point explicit, but if you can suggest it in your answer, you'll score points. And:
· Something about your previous career that prepares you for the role you're interviewing for. Just as with a resume, take pains to focus this part of your answer on accomplishments, not just responsibilities or functions. For each past or present job you discuss, mention an anecdote about a challenge you faced, a project you completed or a learning experience you had that's directly relevant to the new role. If you can also relate that challenge or project to your motivation for wanting the role, so much the better.
Don't Ramble
You needn't go through each and every job you've had. Feel free to skip over any of them. Nor must you explain why you left jobs: The interviewer surely will question you about that later.
The best answer to "tell me about yourself" will have the Goldilocks quality: just enough detail, without getting tedious or long-winded. Concise but not too concise. I envision this answer taking up to two minutes, assuming the interviewer doesn't break in with tributary questions while you're speaking.
If you can, try to watch yourself from outside while answering. Imagine one fraction of your mind perched in a corner of the wall and keeping tabs on how you're coming off. Be on guard against rambling. If you catch yourself starting to delve deeper and deeper into one situation or one past job, cut yourself off and move on.
When I had to job hunt a few years ago, I rehearsed answers to, "describe your three biggest strengths and your three biggest weaknesses." Surprise - not a single interviewer asked me that question. All the rage in the 1980s and early '90s, it seems to have all but vanished from modern practice. Instead, today's obligatory question is "tell me about yourself." Whether you meet by phone or face-to-face, it's often the first substantive thing out of the interviewer's mouth.
I hope this helps you develop a response that keeps you in the game.
-- Jon Jacobs
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Is Print Recruitment Advertising Dead?
by John Zappe
Jun 24, 2009, 5:37 am ET
At a time when one of America’s largest newspapers is worth perhaps $1 — assuming it can be sold at all — is there any likelihood that the print industry’s single largest revenue category will ever even come close to approaching the $6, $7, and $8 billion glory days of a decade ago?
Not likely, say observers of the market (here’s just one) who have warned of the demise of the newspaper Help Wanted for years. The Conference Board, which once used the volume of employment ads in 51 of the nation’s newspapers as an index of labor health, discontinued its Help Wanted Advertising Index in July 2008. The Board explained the decision this way, “Because print advertising no longer comprehensively captures changes in labor-market demand, The Conference Board will focus its efforts on other indicators that better reflect today’s labor market …”
Earlier this month the Newspaper Association of America released the results of the first quarter newspaper revenues showing all categories down. But no classified category is down more than recruitment, off 67.4 percent from the first quarter of 2008. That’s a near disastrous showing, made worse because 2008’s first quarter was itself down by 35.4 percent from 2007.
In dollars, the drop means America’s daily newspapers took in $205.441 million in recruitment advertising from Jan 1 through March 31st. Compare that to the $119 million Monster took in from its North American job postings or compare it to CareerBuilder’s $141 million for the same period.
You don’t have to be a math wizard to see that just two online sites — the two biggest, to be sure — took in more job posting revenue than did all of the nation’s 1,400 or so daily newspapers. The newspapers also took in $3.1 billion in online revenue, with employment ads accounting for a piece of that total.
The accompanying chart shows the rise in employment advertising through 2000; its sudden drop with the tech crash of 2000 and then 9/11; it’s improvement into 2006; and, now, what is likely to be its final decline.
So definitive has been the crash of newspaper employment advertising that many newspapers are running help-wanted ads only on some days, rather than seven days a week. The Chicago Tribune, an owner of CareerBuilder, became the first major market daily to curtail recruitment advertising, when in early 2008 it decided to run ads only two days a week.
The rapid decline in newspaper employment advertising coincides with recruiter sentiment that newspapers don’t provide the same value as online job boards, employee referral programs and, increasingly, social networks.
In 2006, ERE in collaboration with Classified Intelligence surveyed several hundred recruiters visiting ERE and found they considered print advertising to be the least effective means of attracting candidates from among the five choices. Those choices were employee referral programs, job boards, career fairs, print, and social networks. We asked the decision-makers among the survey respondents about their spending on various media in 2006. Some 43 percent expected to spend less that year on print, while about that same percent expected to increase their spending on social networking sites, referral programs, and job boards. The numbers bear out those predictions.
That’s the glass-half-empty look at print recruitment advertising. If there is a half-full point of view, it’s not evident. We could point to ads in The New York Times, Las Vegas Review-Journal, and a few others that list available openings and point to online sites for more information. The Chicago Tribune does something similar with ads it runs for CareerBuilder during the week.
Recruitment advertising agencies that used to earn 15 percent commissions on newspaper ads that cost upwards of $3,000 on a Sunday have embraced other media, generating fees from buying online advertising, designing online campaigns and building career sites, and managing search engine marketing campaigns.
Executives from these agencies no longer spend time placing what used to be called in-line display ads in the daily newspaper. Now, they advocate using newspapers for integrated campaigns and for special events like on-site open houses and career fairs, where a wide net is desired.
Jun 24, 2009, 5:37 am ET
At a time when one of America’s largest newspapers is worth perhaps $1 — assuming it can be sold at all — is there any likelihood that the print industry’s single largest revenue category will ever even come close to approaching the $6, $7, and $8 billion glory days of a decade ago?
Not likely, say observers of the market (here’s just one) who have warned of the demise of the newspaper Help Wanted for years. The Conference Board, which once used the volume of employment ads in 51 of the nation’s newspapers as an index of labor health, discontinued its Help Wanted Advertising Index in July 2008. The Board explained the decision this way, “Because print advertising no longer comprehensively captures changes in labor-market demand, The Conference Board will focus its efforts on other indicators that better reflect today’s labor market …”
Earlier this month the Newspaper Association of America released the results of the first quarter newspaper revenues showing all categories down. But no classified category is down more than recruitment, off 67.4 percent from the first quarter of 2008. That’s a near disastrous showing, made worse because 2008’s first quarter was itself down by 35.4 percent from 2007.
In dollars, the drop means America’s daily newspapers took in $205.441 million in recruitment advertising from Jan 1 through March 31st. Compare that to the $119 million Monster took in from its North American job postings or compare it to CareerBuilder’s $141 million for the same period.
You don’t have to be a math wizard to see that just two online sites — the two biggest, to be sure — took in more job posting revenue than did all of the nation’s 1,400 or so daily newspapers. The newspapers also took in $3.1 billion in online revenue, with employment ads accounting for a piece of that total.
The accompanying chart shows the rise in employment advertising through 2000; its sudden drop with the tech crash of 2000 and then 9/11; it’s improvement into 2006; and, now, what is likely to be its final decline.
So definitive has been the crash of newspaper employment advertising that many newspapers are running help-wanted ads only on some days, rather than seven days a week. The Chicago Tribune, an owner of CareerBuilder, became the first major market daily to curtail recruitment advertising, when in early 2008 it decided to run ads only two days a week.
The rapid decline in newspaper employment advertising coincides with recruiter sentiment that newspapers don’t provide the same value as online job boards, employee referral programs and, increasingly, social networks.
In 2006, ERE in collaboration with Classified Intelligence surveyed several hundred recruiters visiting ERE and found they considered print advertising to be the least effective means of attracting candidates from among the five choices. Those choices were employee referral programs, job boards, career fairs, print, and social networks. We asked the decision-makers among the survey respondents about their spending on various media in 2006. Some 43 percent expected to spend less that year on print, while about that same percent expected to increase their spending on social networking sites, referral programs, and job boards. The numbers bear out those predictions.
That’s the glass-half-empty look at print recruitment advertising. If there is a half-full point of view, it’s not evident. We could point to ads in The New York Times, Las Vegas Review-Journal, and a few others that list available openings and point to online sites for more information. The Chicago Tribune does something similar with ads it runs for CareerBuilder during the week.
Recruitment advertising agencies that used to earn 15 percent commissions on newspaper ads that cost upwards of $3,000 on a Sunday have embraced other media, generating fees from buying online advertising, designing online campaigns and building career sites, and managing search engine marketing campaigns.
Executives from these agencies no longer spend time placing what used to be called in-line display ads in the daily newspaper. Now, they advocate using newspapers for integrated campaigns and for special events like on-site open houses and career fairs, where a wide net is desired.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
How To Get A Job
Fortune Magazine on-line has an excellent presentation on their Website that provides detailed information about how to market yourself.
Please check it out here and follow their excellent advice to land that next opportunity:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/storysupplement/flyp/
It's all about targeted marketing of yourself!
Consultis of Orlando
Please check it out here and follow their excellent advice to land that next opportunity:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/storysupplement/flyp/
It's all about targeted marketing of yourself!
Consultis of Orlando
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Ten Dying IT Skills
Ten Dying IT Skills
By Linda Leung
There are some things in life, like good manners, which never go out of style, and there are other things, like clothing styles that fall in and out of fashion, but when an IT skill falls out of favor it rarely ever comes back. Here's our list of 10 dying IT skills. If any of these skills are your main expertise, perhaps it's time to retrain.
1. Asynchronous Transfer Mode: ATM was popular in the late-1990s, particularly among carriers, as the answer to overworked frame relay for wide-area networking. It was considered more scalable than frame relay and offered inherent QoS support. It was also marketed as a LAN platform but that was its weakness. According to Wikipedia, ATM failed to gain wide acceptance in the LAN where IP makes more sense for unifying voice and data on the network. Wikipedia notes that ATM will continue to be deployed by carriers that have committed to existing ATM deployments, but the technology is increasingly challenged by speed and traffic shaping requirements of converged voice and data networks. A growing number of carriers are now using Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), which integrates the label-switching capabilities of ATM with the packet orientation of IP. IT skills researcher Foote Partners listed ATM in its IT Skills and Certification Pay Index as a noncertified IT skill that has decreased in value in the last six month of 2008.
2. Novell NetWare: Novell's network operating system was the defacto standard for LANs in the 1990s, running on more than 70% of enterprise networks. But Novell failed to compete with the marketing might of Microsoft. Novell tried to put up a good fight by acquiring WordPerfect to compete with Windows Office, but that move failed to ignite the market and Novell eventually sold WordPerfect to Corel in 1996. Novell certifications such as Certified Novell Engineer, Master Certified Novell Engineer, Certified Novell Certified Directory Engineer, and Novell Administrator were once hot certs in the industry but now they are featured in Foote Partners' list of skills that decreased in value in 2008. Hiring managers want Windows Server and Linux skills instead.
3. Visual J++: Skills pay for Microsoft's version of Java declined 37.5% last year, according to the Foote Partners' study. The life of J++, which is available with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, was not a smooth one. Although Sun Microsystems licensed Java to Microsoft to develop J++, Microsoft failed to implement some features of the official Java standard while implementing other extensions of its own. Sun sued Microsoft for licensing violations in a legal wrangle that lasted three years. Microsoft eventually replaced J++ with Microsoft .Net.
4. Wireless Application Protocol: Yes, people were able to browse the Internet in the late 1990s before Apple's iPhone. Web site operators would rewrite their content to the WAP's Wireless Markup Language, enabling users to access Web services such as email, stock results and news headlines using their cell phones and PDAs. WAP was not well received at the beginning because WAP sites were slow and lacked the richness of the Web. WAP has also seen different levels of uptake worldwide because of the different wireless regulations and standards around the world. WAP has since evolved and is a feature of Multimedia Messaging Service, but there are now a new generation of competing mobile Web browsers, including Opera Mobile and the iPhone's Safari browser.
5. ColdFusion: ColdFusion users rave that this Web programming language is easy to use and quick to jump into, but as many other independent software tools have experienced, it's hard to compete with products backed by expensive marketing campaigns from Microsoft and others. The language was originally released in 1995 by Allaire, which was acquired by Macromedia (which itself was purchased by Adobe). Today, it superseded by Microsoft .Net, Java, PHP and the language of the moment: open source Ruby on Rails. A quick search of the Indeed.com job aggregator site returned 11,045 jobs seeking PHP skills compared to 2,027 CF jobs. Even Ruby on Rails, which is a much newer technology receiving a major boost when Apple packaged it with OS X v10.5 in 2007, returned 1,550 jobs openings on Indeed.com.
6. RAD/Extreme Programming: Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s the rapid application development and extreme programming development philosophies resulted in quicker and more flexible programming that embraced the ever changing needs of customers during the development process. In XP, developers adapted to changing requirements at any point during the project life rather than attempting to define all requirements at the beginning. In RAD, developers embraced interactive use of structured techniques and prototyping to define users' requirements. The result was accelerated software development. Although the skills were consistently the highest paying in Foote Partners survey since 1999, they began to lose ground in 2003 due to the proliferation of offshore outsourcing of applications development.
7. Siebel: Siebel is one skill that makes a recurring appearance in the Foote Partners' list of skills that have lost their luster. Siebel was synonymous with customer relationship management in the late-90s and early 2000s, and the company dominated the market with a 45% share in 2002. Founded by Thomas Siebel, a former Oracle executive with no love lost for his past employer, Siebel competed aggressively with Oracle until 2006 when it was ultimately acquired by the database giant. Siebel's complex and expensive CRM software required experts to install and manage. That model lost out to the new breed of software-as-a-service (SaaS) packages from companies such as Salesforce.com that deliver comparable software over the Web. According to the U.K.'s ITJobsWatch.com site, Siebel experts command an average salary of GBP52,684 ($78,564), but that's a slide from GBP55,122 a year ago. Siebel is ranked 319 in the job research site's list of jobs in demand, compared to 310 in 2008.
8. SNA: The introduction of IP and other Internet networking technologies into enterprises in the 1990s signaled the demise of IBM's proprietary Systems Network Architecture. According to Wikipedia, the protocol is still used extensively in banks and other financial transaction networks and so SNA skills continue to appear in job ads. But permanent positions seeking SNA skills are few and far between. ITJobsWatch.com noted that there were three opening for permanent jobs between February and April, compared to 43 during the same period last year. Meanwhile, companies such as HP offer consultants with experience in SNA and other legacy skills such as OpenVMS and Tru64 Unix for short-term assignments.
9. HTML: We're not suggesting the Internet is dead but with the proliferation of easy to use WYSIWYG HTML editors enabling non-techies to set up blogs and Web pages, Web site development is no longer a black art. Sure, there's still a need for professional Web developers (see the ColdFusion entry above for a discussion about Java and PHP skills) but a good grasp of HTML isn't the only skill required of a Web developer. Professional developers often have expertise in Java, AJAX, C++ and .Net, among other programming languages. HTML as a skill lost more than 40% of its value between 2001 and 2003, according to Foote Partners.
10. COBOL: Is it dead or alive? This 40-year-old programming language often appears in lists of dying IT skills but it also appears in as many articles about organizations with legacy applications written in Cobol having a hard time seeking workers with Cobol skills. IBM cites statistics that 70% of the world's business data is still being processed by Cobol applications. But how many of these applications will remain in Cobol for the long term? Even IBM is pushing its customers to "build bridges" and use service-oriented architecture to "transform legacy applications and make them part of a fast and flexible IT architecture."
About the Author
Linda Leung is an independent writer/editor in California. Reach Linda at leungllh@gmail.com.
By Linda Leung
There are some things in life, like good manners, which never go out of style, and there are other things, like clothing styles that fall in and out of fashion, but when an IT skill falls out of favor it rarely ever comes back. Here's our list of 10 dying IT skills. If any of these skills are your main expertise, perhaps it's time to retrain.
1. Asynchronous Transfer Mode: ATM was popular in the late-1990s, particularly among carriers, as the answer to overworked frame relay for wide-area networking. It was considered more scalable than frame relay and offered inherent QoS support. It was also marketed as a LAN platform but that was its weakness. According to Wikipedia, ATM failed to gain wide acceptance in the LAN where IP makes more sense for unifying voice and data on the network. Wikipedia notes that ATM will continue to be deployed by carriers that have committed to existing ATM deployments, but the technology is increasingly challenged by speed and traffic shaping requirements of converged voice and data networks. A growing number of carriers are now using Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), which integrates the label-switching capabilities of ATM with the packet orientation of IP. IT skills researcher Foote Partners listed ATM in its IT Skills and Certification Pay Index as a noncertified IT skill that has decreased in value in the last six month of 2008.
2. Novell NetWare: Novell's network operating system was the defacto standard for LANs in the 1990s, running on more than 70% of enterprise networks. But Novell failed to compete with the marketing might of Microsoft. Novell tried to put up a good fight by acquiring WordPerfect to compete with Windows Office, but that move failed to ignite the market and Novell eventually sold WordPerfect to Corel in 1996. Novell certifications such as Certified Novell Engineer, Master Certified Novell Engineer, Certified Novell Certified Directory Engineer, and Novell Administrator were once hot certs in the industry but now they are featured in Foote Partners' list of skills that decreased in value in 2008. Hiring managers want Windows Server and Linux skills instead.
3. Visual J++: Skills pay for Microsoft's version of Java declined 37.5% last year, according to the Foote Partners' study. The life of J++, which is available with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, was not a smooth one. Although Sun Microsystems licensed Java to Microsoft to develop J++, Microsoft failed to implement some features of the official Java standard while implementing other extensions of its own. Sun sued Microsoft for licensing violations in a legal wrangle that lasted three years. Microsoft eventually replaced J++ with Microsoft .Net.
4. Wireless Application Protocol: Yes, people were able to browse the Internet in the late 1990s before Apple's iPhone. Web site operators would rewrite their content to the WAP's Wireless Markup Language, enabling users to access Web services such as email, stock results and news headlines using their cell phones and PDAs. WAP was not well received at the beginning because WAP sites were slow and lacked the richness of the Web. WAP has also seen different levels of uptake worldwide because of the different wireless regulations and standards around the world. WAP has since evolved and is a feature of Multimedia Messaging Service, but there are now a new generation of competing mobile Web browsers, including Opera Mobile and the iPhone's Safari browser.
5. ColdFusion: ColdFusion users rave that this Web programming language is easy to use and quick to jump into, but as many other independent software tools have experienced, it's hard to compete with products backed by expensive marketing campaigns from Microsoft and others. The language was originally released in 1995 by Allaire, which was acquired by Macromedia (which itself was purchased by Adobe). Today, it superseded by Microsoft .Net, Java, PHP and the language of the moment: open source Ruby on Rails. A quick search of the Indeed.com job aggregator site returned 11,045 jobs seeking PHP skills compared to 2,027 CF jobs. Even Ruby on Rails, which is a much newer technology receiving a major boost when Apple packaged it with OS X v10.5 in 2007, returned 1,550 jobs openings on Indeed.com.
6. RAD/Extreme Programming: Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s the rapid application development and extreme programming development philosophies resulted in quicker and more flexible programming that embraced the ever changing needs of customers during the development process. In XP, developers adapted to changing requirements at any point during the project life rather than attempting to define all requirements at the beginning. In RAD, developers embraced interactive use of structured techniques and prototyping to define users' requirements. The result was accelerated software development. Although the skills were consistently the highest paying in Foote Partners survey since 1999, they began to lose ground in 2003 due to the proliferation of offshore outsourcing of applications development.
7. Siebel: Siebel is one skill that makes a recurring appearance in the Foote Partners' list of skills that have lost their luster. Siebel was synonymous with customer relationship management in the late-90s and early 2000s, and the company dominated the market with a 45% share in 2002. Founded by Thomas Siebel, a former Oracle executive with no love lost for his past employer, Siebel competed aggressively with Oracle until 2006 when it was ultimately acquired by the database giant. Siebel's complex and expensive CRM software required experts to install and manage. That model lost out to the new breed of software-as-a-service (SaaS) packages from companies such as Salesforce.com that deliver comparable software over the Web. According to the U.K.'s ITJobsWatch.com site, Siebel experts command an average salary of GBP52,684 ($78,564), but that's a slide from GBP55,122 a year ago. Siebel is ranked 319 in the job research site's list of jobs in demand, compared to 310 in 2008.
8. SNA: The introduction of IP and other Internet networking technologies into enterprises in the 1990s signaled the demise of IBM's proprietary Systems Network Architecture. According to Wikipedia, the protocol is still used extensively in banks and other financial transaction networks and so SNA skills continue to appear in job ads. But permanent positions seeking SNA skills are few and far between. ITJobsWatch.com noted that there were three opening for permanent jobs between February and April, compared to 43 during the same period last year. Meanwhile, companies such as HP offer consultants with experience in SNA and other legacy skills such as OpenVMS and Tru64 Unix for short-term assignments.
9. HTML: We're not suggesting the Internet is dead but with the proliferation of easy to use WYSIWYG HTML editors enabling non-techies to set up blogs and Web pages, Web site development is no longer a black art. Sure, there's still a need for professional Web developers (see the ColdFusion entry above for a discussion about Java and PHP skills) but a good grasp of HTML isn't the only skill required of a Web developer. Professional developers often have expertise in Java, AJAX, C++ and .Net, among other programming languages. HTML as a skill lost more than 40% of its value between 2001 and 2003, according to Foote Partners.
10. COBOL: Is it dead or alive? This 40-year-old programming language often appears in lists of dying IT skills but it also appears in as many articles about organizations with legacy applications written in Cobol having a hard time seeking workers with Cobol skills. IBM cites statistics that 70% of the world's business data is still being processed by Cobol applications. But how many of these applications will remain in Cobol for the long term? Even IBM is pushing its customers to "build bridges" and use service-oriented architecture to "transform legacy applications and make them part of a fast and flexible IT architecture."
About the Author
Linda Leung is an independent writer/editor in California. Reach Linda at leungllh@gmail.com.
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