The past month has been extremely active for me on the job hunting front.  In October a large national financial institution flew me to St. Louis to interview for a project/program management leadership position (put me up at the Four Seasons, no less).  They said I was in the top two of only 4 candidates nationally they identified as potential fits.

Then I interviewed with a top medical technology/pharmaceutical company in southern California.  They had trouble finding good candidates, so they approved funding for the position at $85/hr.  After looking at my would-be expenses, I countered with $95/hr.  They tried for a couple of weeks to get approval, then the recruiter told me no-go.  Two weeks later he called to see if I was still available.  Too late.

In the midst of all that, I was contacted by a major university on the west coast.  In my attempt to scare them away (because I really did not want to move/travel for a 5 or 6 month gig), I quoted $90/hr.  The next day I had my phone interview at noon, and they extended an offer by the end of the day on Friday.  The specific need was a unique opportunity for any BA, and it would have been an excellent chance to exercise my entrepreneurial skills and make another awesome entry into my resume.  Like I had been told before, they were having a very difficult time finding qualified or well-fitting candidates.

I turned down the offer for a work-from-home opportunity with a national mortgage company that paid a lot less but was perm.  The next week they called me back to see if I could refer anyone to them.

Interestingly, between receiving the offer from the mortgage company and rejecting the one from the prestigious university, I was scheduled to have a face-to-face interview with a different mortgage company.  But having planned to accept the offer from the first one, I called the recruiter at Apex IT Solutions to decline and cancel the interview.  But there was a mix up in the communications, and his colleague called me to confirm the interview.  When I told her I was getting ready to accept the offer from mortgage co 1, she somehow persuaded me into at least talking to the hiring manager at mortgage co 2.

Surprisingly to me, after talking for only 5 minutes I became very interested in the position because it appealed as a challenge which would use my process engineering skills, and it was a leadership opportunity.  The hiring manager said she was having trouble finding a candidate who was a good fit (she had actually had to release someone hired previously who did not work out).  By the end of the call, she basically said she wanted me and was willing to pay more for me.  And I told her she better hurry with her formal offer since I needed to responded to mortgage co 1 the next day.  In short, after a brief interview with a couple of her team members, the deal was sealed.

There you have it.  In addition to the afore-mentioned instances, I am receiving about 2 or 3 or 4 recruiter inquiries a day looking for a good BA.  Many of them are interested in process definition skills.  This indicates to me that Corporate America is ready to look at innovation again and willing to hire good business analysts to do it.  Companies are recognizing that you shouldn’t send a Systems Analyst to do a Business Analyst’s job.

Summer is bringing high temperatures that stifle personal physical activity.  Summer brings with it changes in schedules – like vacations – which impact meetings and projects and budgets and overall business activity.  And that typically suppresses hiring activity in most realms.  This is all normal.

Another normality that I have found in my years as a professional jobhunter is the paradox that oftentimes when companies are laying off permanent workers, they are at the same time staffing up with contractors.  On many occasions I have been brought into companies that were downsizing their employees.

The current economic situation in the US and around the world is both troubling and challenging, no doubt.  But the otherwise funny thing is that I am receiving more calls from recruiters than ever before – usually between 12 and 20 contacts every day.  Go figure!

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that hiring of all kinds was deferred for so long during 2009 that companies could finally wait no longer.  They had projects they wanted to do, but they wanted to wait out the financial and political uncertainties.  But inevitably, project wants turned into project needs.  I predicted it a year ago, and I was right;  however, I expected that the cycle would be shorter and shallower instead of as deep and strong as it is turning out.

To those of you who are also professional IT consultants/contractors, you know what I am talking about.  To those of you who are deeply sown into the mindset of being a permanent employee with all the holidays and benefits, you might want to reconsider.  While I think that being an FTE is a wonderful concept, and while I acknowledge that contracting can be tough row to hoe, I also have learned that the latter can be a much better way to effectively pay the bills whereas dreaming, wishing and hoping about the former is not.  “Hoping” is not a strategy for gaining employment or paying bills.

Feel free to submit any questions.  All the best!

Stephen

I enjoyed these tips from Bob Parsons of GoDaddy.com.  In regards to disclosure, I must say I am not necessarily a fan of GoDaddy’s heavy use of skinny skin-bearing women for its marketing.  However, I can say that Bob shoots straight when giving management advice and direction.

This segment says among other things:

1. DELEGATE
2. DON’T DO LUNCH MEETINGS
3. DON’T ANSWER YOUR PHONE
4. AND MORE!

Definitely worth a watch for the Internet Jobs professional.

Make $100 to go shopping and report on my experience?  You bet I’m interested!

Mystery Shopper

What They Say

Here is how it is supposed to work:

• A market research company (“MRC”) performs business survey services to their clients – usually large corporations – to analyze their customer experiences.
• MRC uses select freelance individuals as mystery shoppers to perform “secret shopping” activities.
• Mystery shoppers fill out the surveys so the MRCs can report the results to their clients.
• MRC pays the shoppers for their services.

Sounds good, right?  Real good.

You know what they say about if it sounds too good to be true…  But what if it is legit? – I could be passing up good money that I could really use.  How can you tell and how do you decide?  Here is how I dealt with it…

(Note, what started out as intentions to be a short article has turned out to be quite a bit more involved.  I hope it will be helpful to you).

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  Recruiting is a(n)…

• Sport – it is very competitive.
• Art – there are as many different styles as there are people.
•   Craft – you have to do it to get it done.
• Often neglected – some just don’t care about the means.

The title of this article is not to imply that corporate HR professionals have had a crisis thrown onto them, but rather that some, or many, have consciously made decisions to operate in such a way to ensure chaos and confusion and inefficiency in their workings.

Recently Mark Sheldon of Dallas shared about his experience in dealing with a recruiter who sources for several airlines, and in this case, Southwest Air…

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