Farewell, Mobiquity

About a year and a half ago, a good friend & colleague in the talent acquisition field connected me with Susan Miele, one of the top human resources pros in the world (as a side-note, if you ever have the chance to work with Susan, jump at it). We hit it off, to say the least. After several hours over coffee, swapping stories, approaches, ideas and ideals, she asked me to come chat with the executive team at a company she had recently joined: Mobiquity.

What sold me (beyond the chance to be mentored by an A+ level boss) was the opportunity to fix a pretty broken talent acquisition department. Over our tenure together, Susan and I have built a team that is second-to-none in terms of quality, camaraderie, and results (also, this team – if you have the chance to work with, for, or hire any of them, don’t lose that opportunity). We get things done, and we do it with a sense of humor. To paraphrase Joel Spolsky, we looked for people who were “Smart, Can Tell a Good Joke, and Get Things Done”. We succeeded beyond our expectations, and the team was able to play a key role in scaling Mobiquity from around 100 employees to close to 450, a small handful of offices in the northeast of the US to 12 offices on 4 continents. Personally, I’ve had the unique opportunity to spend time overseas, working on M&A from an HR perspective, along with traveling domestically helping open offices in key cities across the US.

It’s been a blast. And, now, it’s coming to an end – for me, at least.

I’m not going to say much, yet, about where I’m going, beyond saying that an opportunity arose that became too interesting for me not to pursue. When I was discussing it with a trusted colleague, in a Hamletesque moment of indecision they said: “If you don’t pursue this, I’m going to tell Susan to fire you so you can. You have to do this.”

So… I did. I’m beyond excited for my next step, while, like Janus, looking back with a pretty ridiculous smile at what my team hath wrought.

Here are (a few) of the people I had the absolute pleasure of working with – the Talent Acquisition team: Jeff Newman, Alex Bowler, Michael Fabiano, Melissa Adamo, Becky Bajan. I thank each and every one of them, and I can’t wait to work with them again.

More to come, soon – I promise….

Beyond Good Recruiting: Why You Need to Change Your Approach

Most (okay, some – those over 30 for sure) will know how to complete this movie cliche: “you had me at…”

I think Amazon had me at: “Amazon is building brand new recruiting tools and services from the ground up…”  Which makes me kind of a geek. I’m good with that.  I’m also very happy to see lines like that in job postings.  We’re going to need many more major US employers to take up that attitude if we’re going to stay competitive as an economy.

Amazon gets it: what’s been good enough in recruiting won’t even come close to cutting it in the near future.  Blind acceptance of others recruiting methodologies, behaving in a reactionary fashion to job markets, and moving slowly won’t just make your job tougher: it may well kill you company.  Right now, Amazon’s in the minority. How many companies can you name that are really preparing themselves for the the coming shift in our work-force demographics? How many companies do you think even truly, deeply understand this shift, let alone how radical it might be?  If you work in human capital, and you’re thinking “what the hell is he talking about?”, I’d recommend getting yourself out of the trees and taking a look at the forest.  Things, they are a’changin.

Some Issues

If you haven’t, dig into the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008-2018 Projections – it’s sobering stuff.  I’m not going to dive into a full review (Josh Bersin has a nice, quick analysis over on his blog), but there are a few key points I want to lay out, and then go into a bit about impact.

There’s been a lot* of talk about the retirement of the Boomers. That quieted down a bit with the recession (nothing like putting off thinking about bad news – one of humanities recurring foibles). It’s still happening. They’re getting older, and – despite how the recession impacted their 401k plans – they’re leaving the work force. Illness, buckling down & living with less, mortality, and economic resurgence will push that trend in its inevitable direction.  Which means very soon, less than half the US population will be providing food, shelter, etc for the country. That may well be unsustainable. I think this graph shows it pretty starkly:

A few more juicy quotes from the study:

• “Employment in management, scientific, and technical consulting services is anticipated to expand at a staggering 83 percent”**
• “Computer and mathematical science occupations are projected to add almost 785,700 new jobs from 2008 to 2018.”

Which is bad. Beyond the fact that the percent of 16 – 24 year-olds is decreasing from 14% to 12% by 2018 (so, less fresh CS & Math grads to answer the increase in bullet 2), we’re also seeing a decline in CS & Math majors among current college students: “According to the Computer Research Association, there were 43% fewer graduates and 45% fewer CS degree enrollments in 2006/2007 than in 2003/20041.” (DARPA: CS-STEM Education Research Announcement – PDF)

Some Suggestions

Professionals in the human capital field need to stare at these numbers pretty hard, and begin to craft solutions – fast. Some of these will be industry/ geographic/ and-or company specific.

This loops me back to Amazon. I don’t know much about what they’re doing, beyond the interesting way they’re positioning their recruiting positions on the job boards, but my gut is they’re one of the few firms that’s being sufficiently proactive. They get that relying on their brand alone won’t cut it: these numbers I’m laying out means it’s going to get bloody out there.

What if you’re a SMB, with limited budget? First: go get some. Use the BLS’s data, the DARPA report, and any other credible data you need to make your case to your exec team. They’re (probably) pretty smart people. Numbers like these should get their attention.

No matter what company you work for, think hard about your short and long term talent strategies – do you have one? Does it factor in the coming disruptions?  If not, get to work. Lay out a strategy for how you think you’ll need to compete, from increasing brand awareness to getting more staff to work on the problem with you (shared resources and likely an increase to your recruiting staff). Commit to your ongoing education – from ERE to HCI summits. Take a relevant classes. Make sure you have the best possible technology available to you – if you don’t know what to use, invest in a consultant who can guide you through a dizzying array of solutions.

The way ahead isn’t totally clear – will we increase outsourcing, or loosen immigration policies? What impact will the cloud have on resources and productivity?  Are we going to evolve into a largely migratory workforce – ie, is the idea of salary and employer-issued benefits going to become a thing of the past?  One thing we can know: the numbers point to a serious drop in our available resources. And lack of resources is rarely a good thing.

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*Googling “boomer retirement” OR “boomers retiring” brings back 75,500 results

**On manufacturing: if you’ve been reading this and felt your blood boiling over the loss of manufacturing jobs, and you’re composing a juicy comment about how “it’s criminal” or “it’s so-and-so’s fault”, etc: save it for the OpEd pages. It’s very clear that that’s a sore spot for a lot of people – right or wrong – and those sentiments seem to get tossed into any discussion about the labor force. Instead (please) give me your take on this: $38000 vs $35000. Those are the (rough) averages of the median salaries of the top-20 winners versus top-20 losers in the jobs created vs lost categories.  If you look at the #1 categories in both columns, it’s $62,450 vs. $19,870 (RN’s versus sewing machine operators). If the jobs we’re creating pay so much more, isn’t this a gain? Also: we’re going to be short-handed as it is. Perhaps losing low-skill roles is a good thing – frees up more hands for the areas where we’re going to need them.

Job Change (like it or not)? You May Need to Start With a Mindmap…

via mind42.com

If you’re feeling a bit lost about your next move, join the club. The most recent recession and spike in unemployment it (invariably) brought on coincides with – and adds consideralbe fuel to – an employment economy that your grandparents would likely freak out over just a little. Well – the ones who spent their lives working for one employer. If you grandparents happened to be seasonal workers, or your grandmother temped for Kelly back in the day, then this may look familiar. Or if they happened to play pro ball…

Here’s the thing: there’s a good chance you’re going temping. Not steno-pool level, but more along the lines that match your skill sets. We’re looking at a 30% increase in the number of temps/ consultants/ freelancer types by the end of this decade. Or, 10% more of the labor market will be “foot loose and fancy free”. As it were.

Why? Here’s one reason: companies are becoming more agile. They’re able to quickly switch what tech they use to suit immediate needs, rapidly adapt their marketing approaches via live data they’re pulling from their CRM’s, etc. You may be well suited for an approach they’re taking, but if doesn’t prove out or the project ends and there’s nobody in the company that needs your skills you may get bumped.

Since most companies aren’t big fans of hiring & firing people in rapid cycles, expect them to be looking for people who can come in and work for the for a temporary period.

Temping.

Not a bad thing: If you’re a skilled knowledge worker, you’ll be working with a talent agency (sort of like Ari Gold) who will be lining you up for projects while you’re still on one. This is a pretty regular thing in the IT world – yes, that’s right, always the early adopters – where a staffing agency will have a roster of clients who will call in when they need to bolster their tech department. IE: Putnam calls and needs a handful of DBA’s, systems engineers, an integration person, etc, for 6 month project they have starting in 3 months. IT agency talks to their engineering talent, figures out who can start then and fits the bill, then sends the team in when its time. They handle all payrolling, taxes, benefits, as well as firing. Expect to see that model applied much more heavily to other departments.

So – a mindmap? Yes. You’re going to need to have a decent tool belt of skills to stay agile in the years coming. You have many more skills than you realize – people have a much easier time seeing their flaws versus strengths. A mindmap is simply a way to put it all on screen, quickly, and then have a foundation of skills & talents you can build on. Once you’ve done that, get going. Pick three that seem promising and do some homework. Might want to apply Slide 29 of http://www.slideshare.net/merlinmann/who-moved-my-brain-revaluing-time-and-at… to each one (10/ 50 dash from 43 Folders).

Posted via web from Martin Burns’s Evolving Work

I Need a Job

Sound familiar?  It should.  One of the most commonly searched words on Google is job, and “need a job” is up there in terms of phrases.   You’ve got company, in other words.  Likely this guy is one of them.

You’ve done what you think is the right thing: created a solid resume, and cover letter.  Used one of the job search engines (Indeed, SimplyHired, etc – blow off Monster, HotJobs, etc, the only jobs there are the ones that companies pay to put up, whereas the engines crawl employer sites, job boards, CraigsList, etc – everything in one spot, way easier).  Applied and applied and… oh wait: that’s where it seems to break down.  Nobody’s calling you back.

Don’t worry – the same people you’re competing with are having the same issues.  Here’s a tip: it’s likely no one even looks at your resume.  The reason comes down to resources on the hiring side.

Think of it this way: you see an interesting job at what seems like a great company.  You e-mail in your resume with cover letter as instructed (btw, copy and paste your resume into your e-mail – below the cover letter/ e-mail – as well as attaching it – trust me here).   Want to know how the sausage gets made from that point on?

• Resume gets e-mailed into an applicant tracking system (ATS)
  • The ATS rips your resume apart (parses is a nicer way of saying that), looks for keywords, then reassembles it into a file in the ATS
  • (hopefully) a copy of your resume gets attached to the file
• The recruiter logs into their ATS
  • They don’t look at every single applicant
    • Here’s why: they don’t have the time
    • Why? Simple math: if they’re working on 10 openings and doing their job right, they’re getting on average (and I’m making this average up, but it sounds right) 10 applicants per day
      • So, no big deal, right? That’s just 100 resumes to look through
        • Hmm – ‘k, so let’s say they give each resume an average of 5 minutes, which is a poor return on your investment of days and days of working on the thing, but so be it
        • 5 minutes X 100 resume = 500 minutes
        • 500 minutes = 8.3 hours
          • Per day
          • It’s not gonna happen
          • Whoever’s doing initial resume screens has meetings, coffee, interviews, lunch – hell, they might even go to the bathroom
• Instead, the recruiter uses a nifty feature that every ATS comes with: a search box
  • Let’s say they’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer, and you have a couple of key requirements before somebody will even be considered
  • They type in things like J2EE, Hadoop, Spring, etc
    • The results get looked at – if you’re not one of ’em…

There’s a lot more beyond this, of course – the recruiter might find you, say “a-ha!” (I prefer shouting “excelsior!”).  Then, the manager might say “no, I don’t like that typo…” or “they change jobs every two years” or “who uses that font?”  and rule you out.  It’s a crappy world.   All that said: you need to at least get your resume looked at.

How? Keywords, keywords, keywords.  Don’t make things up or drone on and on, but think about how the search will operate: likely by somebody who doesn’t work intimately enough in your field to read between the lines and understand that when you say X, it also includes Y and Z.  It’s perfectly acceptable to add a technical skill-set to the resume, separate from your day-to-day job descriptions – if it’s a long one, you can add it at the end of the resume with a quick summary of your Core Skills at the top.

One caveat here: there’s a trick floating around where people add keywords in white font all over their resumes, in between sections, at the end, top, wherever.  The idea is that they can add every tech term in the book and the ATS will read it, but the naked eye won’t thereby making sure you get “found”.  Don’t do it: savvy recruiters will find the resume, wonder why the keywords they searched for aren’t there, drop a copy of the resume into a Word doc, hit “select all”, and change the font to black – et voila, all your keywords now belong to us.  And you don’t make it in.