Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Recession Has Ended...Now if it Would Just Feel More Like it

The Dallas Business Journal cited an article from MSNBC and Moody's Economy.com that basically says the recession is over in one out of every five major US cities. This includes my new home town of Dallas. An exciting piece of information for sure, not only for me but for may people across the country.

"Out of 384 metro areas in the nation, 79 are in recovery, according to the August data on jobs, manufacturing and housing, the report said. Another 270 areas have a "moderating recession," meaning their economies were not contracting as severely as earlier. That leaves 35 metro areas in a full-blown recession."

But no city is yet categorized as being expansion mode. Jobs are considered to be a lagging indicator and some have said we are going to see a jobless recover. There are still companies that are doing layoff, but as someone with "boots on the ground" experience in employment, I've noticed an uptick in jobs and requests for recruitment. Many of my associates at CyberCoders are seeing the same.

Finding top talent is still a priority for many companies and even with many candidates in the marketplace, companies are still finding it difficult to locate the right kind of people.

This paradox is a bit hard to explain since there is more supply than demand, but my experience is telling me that companies that are hiring are still trying to find the needle in the stack of needles as the haystack has blown over. Most are not settling on just someone who is good fit, but striving to find darn near exact fits in both salary, skill and personality.

What does that mean for you? Well, first with a rebound in the economy, more jobs will come. It may take time and hopefully you will weather the storm. Second, that building your network and using recruiters is still going to help you parlay yourself and your talent into career opportunities. Third, we aren't out of the woods, but we are getting there.

Keep your head up.

Vahid Behzadi
Executive Recruiter

Source: http://bit.ly/3KBNZy

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Do I Need to Give a (Two Week) Notice?

Some candidates have asked me to touch on the topic of surviving the final two weeks at a job after giving your notice of resignation. [Some jobs may require more than two weeks]

This is not an issue for most seasoned working folks.
Changing jobs can be welcomed relief for some. Others feel like they are leaving a loved one. But occasionally, the last two weeks can be torture.

A simple plan can help you avoid headaches and bad karma as you transition from one employer to the next.

Do I Need to Give Notice:
Let me first reiterate that giving appropriate notice is always the right thing to do. Demonstrated professionalism will carry you a long way throughout your career. I've had candidates give two week notice who had their employer tell them that they can leave the same day. But its always better to let the employer be the one to make that call.

Passing the ball:
Others need to transition responsibilities to coworkers before they go. I had a candidate tell me that he coasted through his last two weeks and just dropped off his workload onto another team member on the last day -- Not cool. You don't want that on you so do don't do it to other.

The last thing you want your coworkers or employer to remember about you is a bad work ethic. Keep these connections strong as you may need a reference in the future. You may even run into the same people you've worked with at future employers.

I was working to fill an architect role who had a perfect background. The candidate was an exact fit for the client but the hiring manager and candidate had mutual friends in the industry. A couple of off the record phone calls from hiring manager to friends revealed that the candidate had left his old team hanging. Thus, no job.

A Clear Line of Sight:
Leave a map for your coworkers to follow. Writing things down giving people a clear line of sight will save them time any the trouble of being a point of reference when you aren't there any more.

When the two weeks are over be sure that you are remembered for all the good things you've done during your time at that employer. Shake hands, thank those who have been supportive and move on.

Vahid Behzadi
Executive Recruiter

Monday, October 5, 2009

Searching for a Job or Career Bliss? I've got your roadmap.

You know CyberCoders has a strong team of senior recruiters, tons of great talent and an excellent network of affiliates and clients that all work collaboratively in providing people with the best career search resources out there today.

Recently Career Bliss launched in Beta. Its another one of the great network partners dedicated to making your job and career search even better. I love it and recommend it to my network of connection! Its innovative and just really cool. Read more about it at http://ping.fm/0tytL

Its still in Beta so I know they would love your feedback.

CareerBliss beta launched!

Using the Internet you can research just about anything now, from buying a new car to picking out the best seat on a plane, to finding the best Salsa club in Topeka, Kansas. But how do you find the best company when looking for a new job? 

CareerBliss launched in May of 2009 with the goal of filling this gap. We provide job seekers a comprehensive career research tool by giving access to thousands of company reviews and interview tips and millions of salaries and active job postings for companies nationwide. All of our information comes from anonymous reviews by real employees at real companies.

Company Salaries & Benefits (search)

CareerBliss has salary data for millions of companies and job titles nationwide. Curious what a Program Manager at Microsoft in Seattle earns? We have that. How about what Accountants in Debuke, IL earn? We got that too... and everything in between!What makes CareerBliss unique: Sure there are plenty of sites of that aggregate and report salary data, but their information is generally out-dated and generalized. CareerBliss gives you up to the second salary information for any job across the country, and granulized to exactly what you're looking for - down to a specific company, for a specific job title, in a specific city. We also only look at recent salary information, so your salary searches remain relevant to what is happening in real life.Share your anonymous salary review today! If you're the only person at your company with your position, or work for a very small company, we will automatically anonymize your salary review!
Company Reviews (search)

See the thoughts of real employees that work at the company you are researching. Company reviews can be filtered down to cities and job titles, so you can see specifically see what someone in your field and geography thought of the job.What makes CareerBliss unique: Speed and volume! CareerBliss collects more reviews per day than any other source available. This in turn provides you with a more complete picture of how the inner workings on a company runs, from real employees.Share your anonymous company review today! The whole process is very quick and we are sure to maintain your anonymity.
Jobs (search)

Our proprietary job aggregation technology finds millions jobs for companies from all reaches of the Internet and ties them neatly into the company profiles to assist in your career research.What makes CareerBliss unique: Freshness! We check every job each day to make sure the job is still active, wherever we find it.Search for your job today! 
Questions?

Email us at info@CareerBliss.com


Vahid Behzadi
Executive Recruiter

Friday, October 2, 2009

Texas Q3 VC Totals Around $363.97M

I am pretty much a Start Up Junkie. At a minimum I love to know the new cool things going on in my community are. I was in Los Angeles for 15 years and now that I am in Dallas, I have tried to really get my head wrapped around the community we have here locally and throughout the state of Texas.

I will keep you posted on the news I get and let you know about cool startups as I run into them, in Texas, California and Nationwide!

Texas TechPulse has a new report our that Q3 VC Totals hit over $350M, which is exciting for me and I hope is beneficial to all. The more exciting start ups, the more successful, the more jobs.

The amount of venture capital invested in Texas in Q3 totaled around $363.97M, according to an analysis by Texastechpulse of venture deals in our venture database. According to our analysis, investments were up from the $282M invested in Q2 of this year.

The biggest investment of the quarter was for Goodman Networks, based in Plano, a provider of engineering services to the telecom industry, which raised $62M in July. Other large deals included Plano's Prodea, with $29.56M raised; and Richardson-based Convey Computer, with $24.15M.

Texastechpulse tracks day-to-day venture capital activity in the state of Texas, and uses venture data disclosed by companies announcing funding; self-reported by both technology companies and venture firms; as well as regulatory filings and other sources. PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association, and VentureOne will release their quarterly nationwide results of venture activity later this month. Numbers from those firms will differ due to sources of information, timing of funding events, and classification of data.

Source: http://ping.fm/acjiL

Vahid Behzadi
Executive Recruiter