Minnesota Headhunter

Welcome To The Minnesota Headhunter Blog

PLEASE NOTE: I am in the middle of a redesign and rather than unveil it at one time this has been a piece by piece strategy including this new temporary logo:

 

Some pages may look different than others. Some may be blank. Some links may have changed. Not the way most would do it but, well, it is how I am doing it!

This is a “what’s going on” here at Minnesota Headhunter. Blog posts of interest, event announcements and links to Be Your Own Headhunter seminars and presentations.

You can also scroll down past this to see posts in chronological order.

Blog Posts (recent/popular)

• Florida Search Firm: “No Unemployed Candidates Will Be Considered At All”
• Minnesota Recruiters Hiring And Jobs Survey | Spring 2010
• 3 Minnesota Companies Listed In Computerworld 100 Best Places To Work In IT
• Research Pay Before the Interview

Events 

• 6/25 Future of Talent (attendee)
• 6/26 UnSummit 4 (sponsor & attendee)

Be Your Own Headhunter

July schedule to be announced soon.

Have a question, comment or looking for some information? Leave a comment or send an email to paul@mnheadhunter.com

Paul DeBettignies
Minnesota Headhunter 

  

Support The United Way And Join A Dream Team

PLEASE NOTE: Today (Sept 2, 2010) is the last day to join a team

The Greater Twin Cities United Way has been for the past month or so running a “competition” of sorts to draw awareness to four main issues in our community: Hunger, Literacy, Shelter and Wellness.

They turned each issue into a “team” with captains who are well known local TV anchors and reporters.

Here are the Dream Teams:

Team Hunger sponsored by Land O Lakes

• Captain: Jason DeRusha, WCCO 4 TV

Team Literacy sponsored by Target

• Captain: Vineeta Sawkar, KSTP 5 TV

Team Shelter sponsored by Xcel Energy

• Captain: Jason Metheson, KMSP 9 TV

Team Wellness sponsored by HealthPartners

• Captain: Rena Sarigianopoulus, KARE 11

Job Search Tip: CNN's Advice for How to Overcome the Stigma of Unemployment

If you've been another victim of our terrible economy in the last few years, you're not alone. Thousands of people have been laid off across all industries in a major shakeup of our workforce.

If you've been out of work for a while, it can take a toll on your finances, certainly, but also on your morale and your job hunt itself. There's a stigma that can become attached to candidates who've been out of work for a while. Employers think, basically, "If that person is so good, why hasn't he/she found a job yet?" Obviously an unfair blanket assumption, but there it is.

If you are finding yourself in this situation, there's a terrific article on CNN.com you should see called In the job hunt, the stigma of being unemployed is hard to erase (and I am thrilled to have been quoted in it!). It talks about the effect that being laid off can have on your job search, but more importantly, it shows you what you can do to overcome it. Very worth the read.

If you're unemployed, you're in a defensive position in the job search. That affects what you might normally do or say in the job search, but not by much. Here are some of my strategies you can use to get past this negative situation and land the job:

Five Easy Ways To Get Your Resume Back Onto One Page

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

Does your resume “bleed” onto two pages (or three pages) and you can’t quite figure out how to eliminate those few extra lines to bring it back onto one page? There are several tricks to get rid of wasted space and make your resume appear more sharp and concise (and more likely to be read).

1. Minimize the contact information. You don’t need to list your address, three phone numbers, your fax, and an email address. Now that almost everyone has an email and cell phone, there is no need to bombard employers with so many ways to reach you. Employers want one to two simple ways to get a hold of you. You can even get away with the following:

Ed Smith | New York, NY | 212.555.5555 | esmith@email.com

2. Bring “danglers” up to the previous line (by that, I mean any line that only contains one to three words). Edit down your content by removing unnecessary words (e.g. "very" and "that" are often arbitrary and waste space) to bring that line up.

Free Webinar: Optimizing Your Job Postings

 

Minnesota Recruiters and Monster.com are hosting a free webinar tomorrow, August 31^st from 1-2 PM Central time titled “Optimizing Your Job Postings”.

You do not need to be a member of Minnesota Recruiters and heck, if you are outside of Minnesota and reading this join in on the session.

To register click --> Optimizing Your Job Postings

Webinar Information:

What do job seekers look for in a job posting? 

How do they search, when do they search, and what turns a job seeker into a potential candidate? 

By exploring seeker insights and best practices, we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we use best practices and data from Monster’s unique audience examine how to optimize your job postings to attract the best people.

Best Places To Work In Minnesota: Business Journal Survey

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal's Best Places to Work survey results are out. They are recognizing 30 small-companies, 15 medium-size companies and 10 large companies.

Here are the top 5 in each category:

Small Companies (10-100 full-time Minnesota employees)

1. CureIS Healthcare Inc.

2. First Financial USA

3. Travel Beyond

4. Reside

5. BERG Professional Staffing

Medium companies (101-1,000 Minnesota Employees)

1. Sierra Bravo Corp.

2. Winthrop & Weinstine

3.Periscope Inc.

Yes You Need A Resume

Minneapolis is blessed to have a great creative community filled with marketing, public relations, social media, designers, technologists and more.

We are also blessed to attract national speakers and thought leaders from all disciplines and with this comes a higher level of knowledge in our community than most other places.

Minneapolis/St Paul is a sweet place to be.

I am a HUGE fan of Seth Godin and Jeff Pulver who are both in Minneapolis today.

Unfortunately I have a head set screwed into my head today (this week) as I have call after call after call today.

As I usually do when I cannot make an event I follow the hashtag for the event so I can get a flavor of what is being shared. Never as good as being there but something is better than nothing.

I saw a Tweet that has raised the little hairs on the back of my neck and while I need to understand I am reading this out of context this blog post is necessary if this is even remotely close to what was meant:

Don't need a resume if you make yourself great, people will find you! If you want to be a cog have a resume! #SethGodinmpls

Minnesota Recruiter And Staffing Association 2010 Annual Event

The Minnesota Recruiter and Staffing Association is having their Symposium and Industry Partner Showcase on Tuesday, September 14^th 2010.

If you work for a search firm, staffing or employment agency, consulting firm this is a great opportunity to get some great training (and networking too) without leaving Minneapolis.

To register click Event Calendar

Event information:

Annual MNRSA Symposium and Industry Partner Showcase

Tuesday, September 14th

8:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Featuring

• Neil Lebovitz, Former Global President Adecco/Ajilon
• Terry Petra, Nationally Recognized Industry Trainer & Speaker
• Deena Ebbert, FISH! Philosophy
• Dave Mrocek, Industry Trainer

Job Search Tool: Company Lists Like The Inc 500

News Flash: This just in... there are other ways to find jobs besides job boards.

Seriously, there is. I swear.

And no, this is not another the job boards are dead post. Job boards are a necessary tool in the job search belt.

So are lists of companies.

The most recent list comes from Inc.com. and their annual (this link goes to the 2010 list) Inc 500/5000. I posted the Minnesota companies --> 6 Minnesota Companies In The 2010 Inc. 500 | 83 In the Inc. 5000

The Inc list is of the fastest growing, privately held companies based on revenue growth. Sure not all companies are represented as it is an opt in list but what a great resource.

6 Minnesota Companies In The 2010 Inc. 500 | 83 In the Inc. 5000

The 2010 Inc 500 | 5000 has been released with the fastest growing privately held Minnesota companies.

Minnesota had been very consistent with the number of companies in the Inc 500/5000 but this year, noticeably fewer companies. From 106-166 to 83.

Hmm…

Here are the last three years lists:

• 13 Minnesota Companies In The 2009 Inc. 500 | 106 In the Inc. 5000
• 5 Minnesota Companies In The 2008 Inc. 500 | 106 Minnesota Companies In The 2008 Inc. 5000
• 10 Minnesota Companies In The 2007 Inc. 500 | 116 Minnesota Companies In The 2007 Inc. 5000

Here are the companies in the 2010 Inc 500 | 5000 list from Minnesota:

State Rank | 2010 Inc. 500 rank and link to Inc. listing | Company name and link to company site

Doing A Job Search? Do Not Act Like A Secret Agent. Be James Bond

DISCLAIMER: Clearly what I am about to say is for those doing a job search after a job loss, upcoming layoff, etc.

A few times in the past week I have been asked the question, “What is the first thing I should do when starting a job search?”

I am going to make an assumption that you already have a resume.

First thing to do is... are you ready for it?

TELL EVERYONE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A JOB!!!

That was me yelling at you.

Minnesota Cup Announces 2010 Division Finalists

 

The Minnesota Cup has announced finalists for it’s sixth annual event.

Click About the Competition to learn more about this very cool program and Meet the Review Board and Meet the Partners to check out the list of volunteers, sponsors and hosts.

August 31st the division finalists present and September 1st division winners are announced.

On September 13th the division winners present to a review board and that evening the grand prize winner will be announced at an event held at the McNamara Center on the University of Minnesota campus.

Here is what the Division and Grand Prize winner receive:

Credit Checks Are Impacting Job Seekers? WCCO TV Interview With Paul DeBettignies

  
 
A few months ago after seeing an interview on CNBC and an article from SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management) on how some states are trying to limit this practice I wrote the blog post Credit Checks As Part Of Employer Background Checks: Fair?

Since that post Oregon has joined Washington and Hawaii in their ban of credit checks on most job reference checks.

A bill in Congress has been tied up in a committee for a little more than a year.

A question I often get is, “Should I say no?

My gut reaction is to say no but then in most cases you will be taken out of the running for the job.

Either way, you’re kind of screwed.

Some see a credit report as a financial resume. Sure there is some validity to this but as the “Great Recession” has taught us, bad stuff happens to good people too.

Are You Ready For The Big Time?

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

"If your gonna screw up, do it while you're young. Older you get, the harder it is to bounce back." - Winston Groom

I remember my first "real" job after college (even though it feels like it was a million years ago). It was a surreal experience, because I realized for the first time that I was an adult and was expected to take on "adult" responsibilities.

This, I decided, was the "big time".

Little did I realize that many "big time" moments would occur in my career as I took on more responsibility. And even 25 years later, there are still times that I think "this is the big time".

2010 U.S. And Minnesota IT Jobs See Increase In Q3 To Continue In Q4

While the Minnesota and U.S. IT employment did not get hit as hard as the 2001-2003 recession no doubt many jobs were lost.

Here in Minnesota we saw a noticeable tone change to the positive this spring, specifically March 2010. By noticeable I mean it went from “sucks” to “eh, the light at the end of the tunnel may not be a freight train coming at us after all.”

Yeah, it was that bad but we have seen a significant number of jobs posted and filled in Q2 and Q3 and expect this to continue into Q4.

I am talking about the IT job market in general, the aggregate. Certainly throughout the “Great Recession” we have seen pockets of strength:

• .Net
• Java
• C++
• PHP
• Mobile
• SharePoint

Many with those skill set had no idea that there were bad times going on.

Minnesota Recruiter Jobs

The following new Minnesota Recruiter Jobs have been added to the Minnesota Headhunter Recruiter Jobs Page:

• University Relations Program Specialist - Full Time Job - Accenture - HR BPO Services

• Senior Recruiter - Full Time Job - Life Time Fitness

• Talent Sourcer - Full Time Job - Deluxe Corporation

 

Click Minnesota Headhunter for most recent blog posts.

Stay in touch with me by clicking Blog Posts by RSS, Blog Posts by Email and/or the From The Desk Of Paul DeBettignies Newsletter

Minnesota Jobs And Employment Report: July 2010

It’s been a while since I blogged about jobs reports and with some mixed signals we are getting in the local and national economy it is time to start following them again.

Today the State of Minnesota (all states), Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), released job numbers for July 2010.

9,800 jobs were created for the month. June numbers were revised up from -3,700 to -800.

The unemployment rate is at 6.8% unchanged from June.

The U.S. unemployment rate is 9.5%

40,900 jobs have been created since the beginning of 2010 and we are +29,100 over the past 12 months.

Job Gains - July (Year to Date):

5,500 (+14,200) Education and Health Care

4,300 (+11,100) Professional and Business Services

Minneapolis Ranks #1 In Medical Device & Minnesota #6 In Quality Of Life

Business Facilities magazine (July/August 2010) ranks cities and states on a number of different categories.

We missed on a few I thought we should be on and a few we need to get better with so we can be ranked.

From the 2010 Business Facilities Rankings Report:
Metro Rankings

Top 10 Metro – Medical Devices and Equipment

#1 Minneapolis, Minnesota

#2 New Haven, Connecticut

#3 Salt Lake City, Utah

#4 San Jose, California

#5 Madison, Wisconsin

40% May Do A Job Search This Fall, Time To Start Talking About Retention

Maybe because I hang out with recruiters and HR folks who focus on recruiting I am missing out on the conversation but are there any circles talking about retention?

Not an article here or there but substance. Or a HR event topic?

Try this: you are hiring Software Developers (or accountants, customer service associates, project managers, etc.) so you post jobs on your site, place some ads, engage the referral network (and a number of other tactics) and start looking at companies in your area that you might want to hire from.

Common sense, right?

News flash: other companies doing the same thing.

Are you on their list of companies to recruit from?

So back to retention, what are you doing to keep your people?

Surveys show employee satisfaction is very low and here is the most recent one showing 40% of U.S. workers are thinking about a new job when they get done with the summer vacation season.

Beloit College Mindset List: Class Of 2014

Since 1998 Beloit College has put out a yearly list of things that describe what the incoming freshman class at college and universities have experienced culturally.

Having now stepped “Over the Hill” some of the items below freak me out. See when these kids were born I was more than half way through my college days.

As I get ready for another year of volunteering at the University of Minnesota this helps put into perspective why sometimes I wonder if I landed on Mars.

It also puts into perspective how cool and interesting they really are.

Mindset List for the Class of 2014

Most students entering college for the first time this fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992.

For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.

Would You Hire You?

One interview question (or some variation) job seekers frequently get is, “Why should we hire you?”

This has to be one of the toughest questions we face because we are now self promoting and selling ourselves.

My suggestion to get comfortable in answering it is ask yourself this question ahead of time, “Would you hire you” and why?

If you cannot sell yourself you have little chance of selling anyone else on your abilities.

So think about your work experience.

Think about what you did no one else could do as well, fast or less expensive.

What are the things your peers or boss would turn to you for help with?

What do you like to do that no one else does?

Have some of those thoughts (talking points) ready for the “Why we should hire you” question and you will find yourself much more confident in who you are, what you do and why they should give you an offer.

An Open Letter To The SMBMSP Crowd

For those of you wondering what is SMBMSP it is the Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis St Paul group.

For those of you wondering why I am writing a letter, here goes...

Rick Mahn has decided to start charging $10 for the monthly events and I want to be very open and transparent about this, I support this change.

Here is a disclaimer, I am now one of the sponsors.

Here is another, Rick did not ask me to write this. He did not see this before posting. We have had conversations about this change over recent weeks.

Let me give you a short story about my own experience.

Who's Hiring On Wall Street?

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

Author: CareerAlley

 

For those of you who have followed by blog from "the early days", you will know that I work for a Wall Street firm.

Two years ago, the answer to my blog title would have been "no one". But today, there are more jobs on Wall Street than they can fill ("not true" you say?).

Some of the headhunters I use to fill my open positions have been begging me for names of potential candidates for all of the jobs they have.

How can this be? There are two things driving this trend.

Jobs in Retail - Who's Hiring

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

“Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping.” - Bo Derek

One of the first part-time jobs I had when I was in college was in Retail. Granted, it was working as a cashier in a (now bankrupt) department store. It's where I got my first taste of "working with the public" and I can tell you, there were as many rewarding experiences as there were lousy experiences.

Retail is an interesting occupation, you get to learn a lot about a wide range of products, you get to work with people and there are many different roles you can play.

Minnesota Blogger Conference 2010

I am thrilled to hear that finally, FINALLY, we are going to have a blogger conference in our area. I have heard many people talk about the need for one for years, myself included.

Hats off to three friends who I have much respect for before they put this together and now the cup runs over with it:

Melissa (aka Missy) Berggren (@MarketingMamaMN) writes The Marketing Mama

Arik Hanson (@arikhanson) writes Communications Conversations

Katie Schutrop (@kshoop) writes k@tie.in.mpls

They have put together a sweet list of presenters and topics and it will be held at a location that will help facilitate some great conversations.

Event information:

• Minnesota Blogger Conference (click for information)

From CNBC: Are CEO’s To Blame For High Unemployment

Most of the time on most days I have CNBC on mute sprinkled with some MSNBC and FOX News (I can’t watch much of either one), CNN and of course ESPN (because we all need balance).

This is a great exchange with James Pethokoukis, of Reuters BreakingViews, and Dan Gross, of Newsweek on why unemployment is where it is, why CEO’s are not hiring, why with reductions in productivity they may now need to (or soon).

An interesting topic to me is how we have workers without jobs yet companies cannot find workers with the right skill sets.

They mention a Michael Moore piece in Daily Beast, here it is Profits Up at GM! And You're Still Unemployed.

Here is a question to you and rather than send me email (which I always appreciate) put your comments below. I am curious about what you think of why companies are not yet hiring and if you were a CEO would you.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Here is the video:

Take This Job And Shove It - Not A Great Exit Strategy

(AP Photo)

This will shock those that know me but I think JetBlue guy, Steven Slater the now (in)famous Flight Attendant who slid down an emergency chute after having a couple of beers and telling everyone what he thought, is an idiot.

This should not be celebrated.

Facebook Gets 500 Million Users | Paul DeBettignies Interviewed On WCCO AM Radio

Back on July 22^nd after Facebook hit the 500 million user mark I was interviewed by Mike Grimm on HINESight on WCCO AM radio.

We spoke a bit about Facebook for personal and business use and the way companies are using it for recruiting.

Of course we found a way to inject Gopher football into the conversation. Mike does the radio broadcast for Gopher football.

Click the Play button to hear his show. Wait a few moments for it to load and then forward to the 58:20 mark. We go to 70:37.

 

Minnesota IT Jobs

The following Minnesota IT jobs I am sourcing and recruiting for have just been posted on my Minnesota IT Jobs page:

Immediate Needs:

• SAP SD Functional - Full Time, Employee

• Director Of Security Operations - Full Time, Employee

• Data Architect - Full Time, Employee

• PHP Developer - Full Time, Employee

Ongoing Needs:

• Java J2EE Developer - Full Time, Employee, Consulting

• SharePoint Developer - Full Time, Employee, Consulting

• Software Engineer - Full Time, Employee

 

If interested in speaking about these or other opportunities send your resume or inquiry to me:

Paul DeBettignies
Managing Partner
Nerd Search, LLC
resume@mnheadhunter.com

 

Click Minnesota IT Jobs for more jobs, Minnesota Headhunter for most recent blog posts.

Stay in touch with me by clicking Blog Posts by RSS, Blog Posts by Email and/or the From The Desk Of Paul DeBettignies Newsletter

Minnesota Recruiter Jobs

The following new Minnesota Recruiter Jobs have been added to the Minnesota Headhunter Recruiter Jobs Page:

• Sr Recruiter - Full Time Job - Schwan's Shared Services, LLC.
• Technical Recruiter - Full Time Job - Pearson VUE
• Senior Recruiter - Full Time Job – Target
• Recruiting Manager 4 - Full Time Job - Wells Fargo
• Recruiter - Full Time Job - Polaris

Click Minnesota Headhunter for most recent blog posts.

Stay in touch with me by clicking Blog Posts by RSS, Blog Posts by Email and/or the From The Desk Of Paul DeBettignies Newsletter

Minnesota IT Jobs With Minnesota Non Profits

The following new Minnesota IT jobs have been added on the Minnesota Non Profit IT Jobs And Volunteers page:

• Information Technology Manager Job - Full Time - Twin Cities Public Television
• Information Technology Coordinator Job - Full Time - Minnesota Council of Churches
• Sr. Systems Software Programmer Job - Full Time - Hennepin County
• Network Administrator Job - Full Time - Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency
• Systems Analyst Job - Full Time - Human Services, Inc.
• User Interface Designer Job - Full Time - CaringBridge
• System Analyst Job - Full Time - CaringBridge
• User Experience Analyst Job - Full Time - CaringBridge
  

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