Wednesday January 28, 2009

Typically January and February are the hottest hiring months according to what several recruiting professionals have told me personally.  Being a professional job seeker, my own experience is a living indicator of the temperature of the job market.  And, it is cold!

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The past couple of weeks have been very slow; a few new unique reqs, but largely redundant calls for a BA position at Game Stop as well as for my former integrator client whom I represented at Wal-Mart last year.

• Boeing announces plans to cut 10k jobs
• Starbucks might eliminate 6,000 more jobs, and plans to shut down 200 more US stores.
• AOL to lay off 900.

Friday January 29, 2009

Overall, it was a very slow job hunting week.  Yesterday I did have a nice conversation with a recruiter I talked to a couple of weeks ago for a PM position.  He explained how the client had closed the req for a PM and changed it to a manager.  Their problem is that they require certain technical skills and experience that are usually contained in job descriptions for programmer analysts and development leads.  For example, as a seasoned IT consultant who has served on many projects as a BA and PM, I have been involved with the implementation of diverse technologies, including Visual Basic.

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My recruiter said he had a heated discussion with the account manager over the fact that my experience with VB would be more than adequate regardless of which version of VB it was.  And I agree with him – especially for a management position.  But he says the hiring manager claims that there is in existence a person who fits the req to a T.  Perhaps.  But if so, then why haven’t they found him yet?  Perhaps the hiring manager needs a reality check and the account manager needs to be honest enough to tell the truth and advise his client that the prudent thing to do is to find the best available candidate as opposed to adhering to a checklist created by an account and looking for perfect conformity in check marks.

But now I am soured on the position since I now view the hiring manager, and perhaps a large part of the organization, to be inflexible and at least a little arrogant.  That does not make for a happy work environment.

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On the other hand, this morning I received a call from a recruiter in Arizona representing an ebusiness solutions company in Dallas.  After 5 phone calls and 7 emails, I am scheduled for a face-to-face interview Monday afternoon, wearing my best business suit.  Interestingly, it is a company for which a position was brought to me several months ago.  It sounded wonderful, but the compensation was way too low.  Then a month later I heard about it again, but the pay was still deficient.  Now, from what this recruiter has told me, the hiring company has set the pay aggressively and is serious about filling the spot with good talent.

Of all the jobs and consulting gigs that come across my plate, most of them are of little interest other than in being gainfully employed.  However, this is one of the few that I can sincerely say I am interested in.