Tech-Pro was mentioned this past Sunday in the Star Tribune on an article focusing on the IT Job Outlook in 2009. I was fortunate enough to have collaborated with both Laura French and Rick Deare on this article. You can check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/itjo2009. Laura is a regular contributor to the Star Tribune and has written many excellent articles around the Twin Cities job market!
For those of you that don’t know Rick Deare, he is both a friend and a mentor of mine. Rick is a wildly energetic veteran of the recruiting world that has focused in multiple areas but particularly in the IT world over the past several years. He has an outstanding blog I’d like to promote: http://meettheheadhunter.com/. You can also learn more about his company here: http://www.deare.com/.
Needless to say, I was excited to have even been mentioned in the same article as Rick.
We are certainly starting to see an uptick in the market which is great news. We did grow month over month from January to April which was the first four-month “winning” streak we had seen in some time. While we didn’t place as many consultants in May as April, we also saw a “net gain” in consultants as we placed more people than we had come out of a contract – which is still a positive sign.
The positions we’ve been busiest with have continued to be the more technical ones; particularly development and quality assurance roles. Where we’ve been slow the past 12 months is the project management and business analysis world – though that does seem to be changing. We are hearing about more projects that are “close” to becoming reality that are going to require talented PM’s and BA’s, along with technical professionals of course.
One trend we’ve seen that has REALLY emerged over the past few months is the power of the internal reference. I can cite several times where we’ve presented an OUTSTANDING consultant for a position – not only perfectly qualified for a role, but OVERqualified in most cases – only to lose to another consultant that had appropriate qualifications but also had either prior company experience and/or a strong internal reference inside the group they were interviewing with. This is something that wasn’t necessarily the case a couple of years ago, but it’s almost the norm now. Please keep this in mind when you are vying for a new position – the more internal references you can cite, the better!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Good signs!
We continue to see some good signs in the market when it comes to increased activity in the job market. While the general sentiment is that “we’ve still got a ways to go” – we’re seeing more positive reports lately than we have in some time.
One newsletter I subscribe to is the Electronic Recruiting Exchange, and I’d like to share an article posted there recently. This article talks about the spike in online job postings in May – an increase of 250,000 jobs posted over April! Please also check out the “Recruiter Confidence Index” – it’s the highest it’s been in a year and has gained 4 straight months. http://tinyurl.com/ncxxva
Another ERE article focuses on the reports last week you may have already seen – that there was a dramatic “slowdown” in job losses – something that was unexpected. While the unemployment rate continued to grow, the numbers of jobs lost were a welcome sign. Hopefully it’s yet another sign of the recession bottoming out: http://tinyurl.com/mt468n.
We also saw a DECREASE in unemployment here in MN from March to April! http://www.deed.state.mn.us/lmi/Home.htm
Hopefully these are all trends that will continue as 2009 rolls on!
One newsletter I subscribe to is the Electronic Recruiting Exchange, and I’d like to share an article posted there recently. This article talks about the spike in online job postings in May – an increase of 250,000 jobs posted over April! Please also check out the “Recruiter Confidence Index” – it’s the highest it’s been in a year and has gained 4 straight months. http://tinyurl.com/ncxxva
Another ERE article focuses on the reports last week you may have already seen – that there was a dramatic “slowdown” in job losses – something that was unexpected. While the unemployment rate continued to grow, the numbers of jobs lost were a welcome sign. Hopefully it’s yet another sign of the recession bottoming out: http://tinyurl.com/mt468n.
We also saw a DECREASE in unemployment here in MN from March to April! http://www.deed.state.mn.us/lmi/Home.htm
Hopefully these are all trends that will continue as 2009 rolls on!
Happy Summer!
Happy Summer!
Finally – another “edition” of the blogletter. What started out as something that was going to be a twice-a-month project has slowly regressed to a monthly post, then a every-other-month posting, and now it’s been three months, so more of a “quarterly” newsletter I guess. I am really hoping to post more in the weeks to come.
One of the biggest reasons it’s been so tough to keep this updated is that I am recruiting for two practices now and that has certainly kept me busy. I would guess I probably receive well over 150 contacts on a day-to-day basis between emails and phone calls – still, I’m excited to be in a position where I can help build both our PM/BA AND our Java practices and continue to be committed to helping create “the perfect fit” between candidates and the positions we see. I’m hopeful the work will pay off when the market does turn around. My #1 goal is to be the best possible resource I can be to the people I work with, and it frustrates me to no end when I don’t meet that goal. I promise that I will continue to work my tail off!
On that note, I would like to remind everyone about Tech-Pro’s $1000 referral bonus – as we are definitely on the lookout for the best and the brightest when it comes to java consultants! Where we’ve struggled a little is finding the “intermediate-to-senior” level developers – by that I mean those who have between 5-9 years of experience developing in Java. Of course, we’re on the lookout for ANY talented developer in any technology -- that just happens to be a particular segment we could use help with. As always, please drop me a line if you know of someone on the lookout for a new role, and I will ensure that you are made eligible for the $1000 bonus if we place that person on an engagement of 90 days or more!
Finally – another “edition” of the blogletter. What started out as something that was going to be a twice-a-month project has slowly regressed to a monthly post, then a every-other-month posting, and now it’s been three months, so more of a “quarterly” newsletter I guess. I am really hoping to post more in the weeks to come.
One of the biggest reasons it’s been so tough to keep this updated is that I am recruiting for two practices now and that has certainly kept me busy. I would guess I probably receive well over 150 contacts on a day-to-day basis between emails and phone calls – still, I’m excited to be in a position where I can help build both our PM/BA AND our Java practices and continue to be committed to helping create “the perfect fit” between candidates and the positions we see. I’m hopeful the work will pay off when the market does turn around. My #1 goal is to be the best possible resource I can be to the people I work with, and it frustrates me to no end when I don’t meet that goal. I promise that I will continue to work my tail off!
On that note, I would like to remind everyone about Tech-Pro’s $1000 referral bonus – as we are definitely on the lookout for the best and the brightest when it comes to java consultants! Where we’ve struggled a little is finding the “intermediate-to-senior” level developers – by that I mean those who have between 5-9 years of experience developing in Java. Of course, we’re on the lookout for ANY talented developer in any technology -- that just happens to be a particular segment we could use help with. As always, please drop me a line if you know of someone on the lookout for a new role, and I will ensure that you are made eligible for the $1000 bonus if we place that person on an engagement of 90 days or more!
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