reCareered

Whos Hiring – Week of 11-23-09

2009-11-23T15:15:00.001-06:00

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 11/23/09. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

Total Job Openings:
The Hospitality, Shipping, Defense, Retail, Business Services, and Health Care verticals remain the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Seasonal shipping hiring continued strong, in preparation to send all those holiday gifts, with UPS and FedEx making the top employers list. Sears, Kmart, Macy’s, Food Lion, Target and Bed Bath & Beyond lead seasonal Retail hiring. Seasonal hiring also affected H&R Block as continued advertising to staff, preparing for tax season.

Health care hiring made a strong comeback this week, led by Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealth, Tenet Healthcare, HGI Healthcare, and Amedisys Home Health among the top hiring companies.

Business Service firms, SAIC, IBM, Accenture, and CSC Deloitte and continue to be in the top hiring firms, partially largely supporting federal government and DOD contracts. Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, US Army, and General Dynamics led Defense hiring.

Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job board aggregators, the following companies added the most job openings:

Total Job Openings by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

Pizza Hut
UPS Packaging
McDonald's Corporation
Northrop Grumman
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
H&R Block
SAIC
Kmart Corporation
AT&T
Kaiser Permanente
Raytheon
UnitedHealth Group
Tenet Healthcare Corporation
IBM
Accenture
U.S. Army
Liberty Mutual
Wells Fargo
FedEx
Macy's
Food Lion
Snap-on Tools
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
General Dynamics
Aflac
Sun Microsystems
Verizon Wireless
Hgi Healthcare
Amedisys Home Health
Woodforest Bank
Quest Diagnostics
DaVita
Allstate
Hilton Hotels
Kindred Healthcare
Combined Insurance
Target
Sava Senior Care
Fifth Third Bank
Bed Bath and Beyond Inc.

Job Openings Added This Week:

The Hospitality, Shipping, Retail, Telecommunications, Health Care, and Defense verticals are the top industries with new job ads based on a survey of recent advertisements from the nations’ top job boards added during the past seven days.

After Hospitality, Shipping companies continued to lead hiring firms, hiring additional Santa’s helpers to deliver holiday gifts, with UPS and FedEx adding many ads this week. They will be delivering gifts purchased from Sears, Kmart, Radio Shack, and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Defense continued heavy hiring with Army National Guard, US Army, Raytheon, BAE and General Dynamics all included in the top new employment advertisers this week. Consulting firms companies continue to expand with SAIC, Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, and Booz Allen as top hiring business service firms.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

Pizza Hut
UPS Packaging
Sears, Roebuck and Co
AT&T
UnitedHealth Group
Kmart
Army National Guard
U.S. Army
SAIC
Raytheon
Pilot Travel Centers
BAE Systems, North America
RadioShack
Accenture (Corp.)
Deloitte
Wells Fargo
General Dynamics
Verizon Wireless
JPMorganChase
Kindred Health Services
IBM
Booz Allen Hamilton
Food Lion
Liberty Mutual
Wachovia Bank
Apex Systems
Snap-on Tools
HCR Manorcare
Discover Higher Education
TD Bank
Amedisys Home Health
Combined Insurance
Quest Diagnostics
Farmers Insurance
UTMB
McGraw-Hill
Bed Bath and Beyond Inc.
Hilton Hotels
Fifth Third Bank
Ameriprise Financial

Sources: CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired, HotJobs, Google. Excluded: Recruiters, Staffing firms, Training, Franchise, and Work-from-home opportunities.

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant hiring plans, or employers actively adding large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Whos Firing - Layoffs week ended 11-20-09

2009-11-20T16:30:00.001-06:00

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 11/20/09. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

Top layoffs announced and rumored this week were in the Technology, Health Care, Telecommunications, Transportation, Energy, and Government sectors.

Inclusion on this listing doesn’t mean the entire industry is down, as some from the same sectors appeared on the “Who’s Hiring” article published 11/16/09. It is interesting to note that while Federal hiring is on the rise, a number of State and Local governments have continued to see cutbacks for over the past month.

Technology companies announced significant layoffs this week, including AOL, Dell, and Pandemic Studios/EA.

Telecommunications companies cut jobs as Verizon, and Sony Ericsson, Teleperformance, Windstream Communications, announced layoffs, even though Verizon has been on the top hiring lists for the past 6 weeks or more.

While many Healthcare organizations made the top hiring company lists, a number of Healthcare companies were laying off such as Aetna, Boston Scientific, and Mountainside Hospital. Energy companies including Valero Energy and Devon Energy announced staff cuts.

Job seekers: You might want to look in greener pastures than these companies.

Organizations announcing or rumored layoffs week ended 11/20/09:

AOL, Various (2,500)
Boston Scientific, Doral FL (1,400)
Aetna, Hartford CT & other locations (1,225)
Verizon Communications, Washington, D.C., Maryland, & Virginia (1,000)
Dell Corporation, Forsyth County NC (600)
YRC Worldwide Inc, Richfield OH (600 additional)
Valero Energy, Delaware City FL (550)
Fulton County, GA (500)
Sony Ericsson, Raleigh NC, Seattle WA, Miami FL, San Diego CA, & International (425)
W.C. Wood Company, Ottawa OH (425)
New Era Cap Co, Demopolis AL & Derby NY (322)
State of Pennsylvania (319)
Teleperformance USA, Akron OH (303)
ConAgra Foods, Garner NC (up to 300)
Mountainside Hospital, Montclair NJ (300)
NHS Woodhaven/Philadelphia, Erdenheim PA (290)
Devon Energy Corp, Houston TX (275)
The Brown Co. of Waverly, Waverly OH (264)
One Source Landscape & Golf Services, Williamsburg VA & Tampa FL (253)
Boeing Corp, San Antonio TX (250)
Municipal Transportation Agency, San Francisco CA (250)
Alcoa Howmet, Hampton VA (250)
Windstream Communications - D&E Communications, Ephrata PA (239)
Deluxe Corp, Colorado Springs CO (225)
US Food Service, Virginia Beach VA (up to 206)
Pandemic Studios/EA, Los Angeles CA (200)
Garland USA – Manitowoc, Freeland PA (200)
Midwest Stamping, LLC, Edgerton OH (198)
Beam Global Spirits and Wine, Carthage OH (184)
Catterton Partners' Farley's and Sathers Candy Company, Round Lake MN (175)
Johnson & Johnson, Spring House PA (174)
Dairyland Greyhound Park, Kenosha WI (174)
Marine Corps Logistic Base, Yermo CA (170)
Oklahoma Department of Human Service, Enid & Paul Valley OK (162)
Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis MN (150-200)
BusinessWeek, Various (125)
Society's Assets (Wisconsin Telecommunication Relay Service), Middleton WI (120)
Arizona Department of Transportation, Phoenix AZ (115)
California Sports Service, Dodgertown CA (112)
Invista, Waynesboro VA (110)
Petermann, Cincinnati OH (110)
Target, Bedford OH (109)
Fairfax County Public Libraries, Fairfax VA (107)
Business Week (100)
The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (runs McCormick Place and Navy Pier), Chicago IL (100)
Oklahoma Board of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (100)
Quail Lodge Hotel and Spa, Carmel CA (100)
Amway Corp, ADA MI (93)
Sears, Birmingham AL (92)
Murray Energy, Brilliant OH (91)
Associated Press, various (90)
iPass Inc, Redwood City CA & International (80)
Harsco Metals, Coatesville PA (77)
Simon & Schuster, Bristol PA (72)
BART, San Francisco CA (70 – 80)
Target – Brownsville, Brownsville TX (70)
Maryland’s Board of Public Works, Baltimore MD (70)
City of Dayton OH (66)
Guardian Automotive Products, Upper Sandusky OH (59)
State Industrial Products, Cleveland OH (58)
Nielsen Co., Oldsmar FL (57)
Nortel Networks Richardson TX (56)
Steel of West Virginia, Huntington WV (53)
Dillard's Inc., Cincinnati OH (50)
Qwest Communication, Denver CO (Unknown)
Wake County Schools, Raliegh NC (Unknown)
Alabama A&M, Huntsville AL (Unknown)
City of Fresno CA (Unknown)

Source: Google, Twitter, AllPinkSlips.com, Telonu.com, TechCrunch.com, CoStar.com, Gawker, Screwedd.com

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant layoff plans, or employers reducing large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

It's Almost Thanksgiving Do You Know Where Your Next Job Is?

2009-11-19T12:41:00.002-06:00

Thanksgiving is next week. Job seekers and career changers – Where’s your next job? If you can’t answer that question definitively right now, there’s slim chance that you’ll have that answer before 2010.

If you can’t answer that question, what can you do to help your job search during the holidays?

In November - December, executives and managers often create headcount budgets for the next year, and ask finance departments to approve positions. Most job seekers wait until this process is over, when positions are approved and advertised (see Have You Been Affected by The Holiday Effect?).

Savvy job seekers know that the best time to be considered for a job is before it’s advertised. It’s an industry statistic that 80% of the job market is unadvertised, and there’s very little competition for unadvertised positions.

Unfortunately, most job seekers have a poor strategy for learning about unadvertised positions. Most spam their network with their resume, or worse, spam thousands with resumes, letters, sell sheets, and other poorly designed push marketing communications that end up being forwarded to an HR database, deleted, or ignored. It’s not their fault…most job seekers don’t search for a job very often, so it’s not surprising that most job seekers employ less effective methods.

How can you learn about unadvertised positions?

First, realize that candidates rarely hear about unadvertised positions by sending a resume, or spamming their network. Letting your network know that you’re in the market, may have worked in 2005, but it’s ineffective during the toughest job market in your lifetime.

Spamming your network drastically underutilizes your network’s effectiveness. It risks alienating the people who want to help you, and rarely provides the information you need to help yourself.

Most candidates will tell me their networking goal is to find a job, which is why few candidates network effectively. It’s the wrong goal (See Will You Stop Looking for a Job Already?). A more effective goal is to find problems and information.

Use networking to start conversations. You’ll find more success in learning about unadvertised positions if you have answers to problems the company or hiring manager currently has…by branding yourself as someone who’s providing help, rather than asking for help. Yet, most candidates will tell me they always bring a resume to these conversations. Bring a resume to this meeting and you brand yourself as someone who wants something (a job) and your resume will usually be sent to HR.

Answers and solutions are how unadvertised positions are created and filled. Find pain and solve it before it becomes an approved position, and suddenly you have little competition. Wait until it’s advertised, and you’re joined by thousands.

Discovering problems isn’t as easy as it sounds, because people you’ve just met seldom will open up to a stranger quickly. Ask someone you just met…what are your biggest problems and you’re not likely to get much meaningful information.

Before your meeting, gain an understanding of the company’s goals and problems from its Quarterly reports, analyst reports, industry reports, and articles. These can lead to great discussion starters such as:

”I notice that your company is focused on cutting costs next year to increase profitability…how does this affect the marketing department’s goals?”
“You can only slash headcount so much, what other ways are you’re implementing technology to creatively cut costs?”
“I see that XYZ company is turning itself around through international expansion….how do global customers affect your finance department?”
“The Business Week article on your competitor describes how it’s revamping products, marketing, and sales to take market share away from you…How does that affect your sales force at ABC Inc?”

The holidays are a great time for these types of meetings. Hiring managers typically travel a little less (esp if travel budgets have been cut) and are often more available. The day before and after (if the hiring manager is working) a holiday can be the best days to get a hiring manager’s time - they’re often light days with room for appointments.

The holidays are a great time to look for problems that you are uniquely qualified to solve. Hiring managers are making plans on how to attack next year’s problems, and meet next year’s goals. What a perfect time to find out about next year’s challenges and goals…when hiring managers are concentrating on them.

What are your plans to advance your job search over the holidays?

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Can Linkedin Company Pages Help You Find Unadvertised Positions?

2009-11-18T15:47:00.002-06:00

Many job seekers can find Linkedin company pages to be a useful tool in their search. This often overlooked Linkedin feature allows the savvy candidate to gain an edge with companies they target. Remember, 80% of the available jobs are unadvertised…it’s a widely known industry statistic. Yet, most job seekers target the 20% of the jobs easily seen on job boards.

What can Linkedin Company Pages do for me?

Linkedin Company Pages provide information and views that’s helpful when targeting smaller companies as well as mammoth ones. For larger companies, Company Pages shows divisions and subsidiaries. For example, one of the companies that’s been consistently near the top of reCareered’s Who’s Hiring articles is IBM. IBM is many companies under a single brand…many non-techies think of IBM as a mainframe manufacturer (they sold off their PC division years ago).

Let’s use IBM as an example that can be applied to many different companies and industries. A look at IBM’s Linkedin Company Page gives a more in depth perspective:

If you’re in Finance or Sales, for instance, you’ll find many places and locations within IBM that need financial and sales talent…beyond just the mainframe folks.

You may remember that IBM purchased PriceWaterhouseCooper’s consulting division, and now competes with companies like Accenture & BearingPoint. Consultants know that IBM is one of the largest firms in ERP implementation, Supply Chain, and Government contracting. Looking at IBM’s listing of divisions and subsidiaries, you’ll also find enterprise software companies who create financial and operational software for large companies. These divisions need financial and operational talent.

You can see typical companies where IBM employees worked before IBM. This can be helpful, especially if you came from those companies or have a close contacts within those companies (IBM hires most often from PWC & HP). You can also see where IBM alums are likely go next (Microsoft & Oracle)…do you have any contacts at these companies who can introduce you to IBM’ers? Could you research Microsoft’s & Oracle’s new hires looking for people who just left IBM…could these represent unadvertised positions?

People:

With over 50M people now on Linkedin, Company Pages is like an internal phone directory (sorry, no direct extensions, but many email addresses). In prior years, recruiters would sell their soul (be nice, candidates) for this kind of information…now it’s available to candidates, for free. Search Company Pages by division and/or location to hone in on the people who are most likely to get you to a hiring manager. If I search IBM’s company page for Chicago area employees, I get over 3,000 people. I can narrow that list by keyword, specialty or division.

A separate section lists former employees…could former employees help you find the right hiring manager in a company as large as IBM?

New Hires & Recent Promotions/Changes:

Do new managers ever hire their own staff to build their own teams? Even companies that are laying off may hire new staff as well, as they change focus, strategy, or just get new blood into the company. New managers often come into a company to bring about change, and change often means new people. Recently promoted officer and managers may also have new challenges, or take over additional areas and want to staff their own teams.

Newly hired and promoted managers also give you the opportunity of communicating something other than “can I have a job?” Instead of spamming this contact with an uninvited resume, could it be valuable to congratulate your target on their promotion or hire?

Other information:

Company pages list specialties. As a candidate, why is this important? Could clicking on these specialties give you insight into other companies in the space…maybe small competitors not on your radar screen? Could specialties give you some guesses into keywords that a company might use to search Linkedin profiles and resumes?

Company pages list recent articles about the company, stock price graphs, links to Business Week articles, major locations (Does IBM have many employees where you live, in Nashville? ), demographics (maybe not a great place for women to work, as only 27% of their workforce is female, nor a great place for the guys to start an office romance)

Why is this feature hidden?

It’s not hidden, but it’s not exactly apparent to the casual Linkedin user. The easiest place to find Linkedin Companies is just to the left of the search bar. Most Linkedin users use the search bar to find for specific people. Click the drop down menu to the left of the search bar, select company, and search for companies on your target list.

Can you come up with other ideas of how Linkedin Company Pages can change your search methods?

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Have You Been Affected by the Holiday Effect?

2009-11-17T07:54:00.001-06:00

Have you ever heard of the Holiday Effect in hiring? Perhaps you’ve heard that companies usually don’t hire during the holidays, from Thanksgiving until after the New Year.

When I originally heard about the Holiday Effect, I pictured that hiring managers were just too busy with holiday parties, cookie exchanges, pot luck lunches, and Secret Santas to spend their time with the more mundane tasks, like hiring staff. It was strange that I never enjoyed the nearly daily brouhaha that the Holiday Effect must bring out. I ruled out it was just accountants being anti-party, as none of my friends had these daily festivities in their offices either – not even the folks in advertising.

So where were all these people dancing on their desks?

Could it be that whole departments, even entire companies take the 6 weeks off between Thanksgiving and New Years? Of course companies couldn’t hire until after New Year’s…everyone was in Cancun or Aspen until January.

After I got involved in recruiting, I learned that the holiday effect has nothing to do with endless holiday parties or December-long vacations. In fact, it’s got nothing to do with the holidays at all, other than coincidentally being at the same time.

The Holiday Effect’s got everything to do with third quarter numbers. Most public companies finalize their third quarter numbers by 11/1 each year, and private companies a few weeks later. So what’s the big deal about third quarter numbers?

It’s not such a big deal when the company is having a good year. For example, during strong hiring years like 2005 recruiters are especially busy with work during the holidays. In good years, hiring managers often press to get all their positions filled before the end of the year, out of concern that an unfilled position may not get approved in next year’s budget. In good years, the end of the year is “use it or lose it” time.

In not so good years, like say 2009 for instance, CFO’s see bad numbers and freak. It’s their job to manage expenses to assure the company is managed profitably. When third quarter numbers are in the red, or even barely profitable, it’s time for the finance department to earn its keep.

In many companies, payroll is the largest expense, and the most controllable. In bad years, CFO’s regularly slow hiring until after the New Year, or even enact fourth quarter hiring freezes so they can keep expenses as low as possible. Managing payroll typically has a much greater impact than a paper clip recycling policy.

So what does this mean for a candidate? Often one of two things:

1) If you’re a candidate for a position with a company that’s not doing so well this year…expect hiring decisions and start dates to be pushed off until the start of next year.

or

2) If you’re a candidate for a position with a company that’s going gangbusters…you might not want to book that Cancun trip for December.

Realistically, this year most companies fall into category #1. Many job seekers give up their search efforts during the holidays, assuming it’s hopeless since no one’s hiring. It’s a mistake.

Companies may delay pulling the trigger during the holidays but they make decisions about who they want to hire during November and December. Even during bad years, hiring managers prepare for first quarter when finance departments start to approve headcounts again. I advise my clients to keep a high level of activity, as the work they do now builds a pipeline of opportunities for the first and second quarter of next year.

While it’s easier for candidates to think of it as the holiday effect than the 4th Quarter effect, the November and December timeframe can be a great time for candidates to concentrate on their job search. The candidates who use the holidays to work on their search, may well find themselves entering the new year with a strong pipeline of opportunities.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Whos Hiring – Top employers week of 11-16-09

2009-11-16T16:13:00.003-06:00

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 11/16/09. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

Total Job Openings:
The Shipping, Business Services, Restaurant, Retail, Defense, and Telecommunications verticals remain the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Seasonal shipping hiring continued strong, in preparation to send all those holiday gifts, with UPS and FedEx making the top employers list. Blockbuster, Sears, Macy’s, Kmart, and Food Lion lead seasonal Retail hiring. Seasonal hiring also affected H&R Block as continued advertising to staff, preparing for tax season.

Business Service firms IBM, SAIC, Deloitte and CSC continue to be in the top hiring firms, partially largely supporting federal government and DOD contracts. Army National Guard, Northrop Grumman, US Army Medical Service Corps, Raytheon, and General Dynamics led Defense hiring.

Other interesting top hiring companies included HP, Sun Microsystems, JPMorgan Chase, Liberty Mutual, Aflac and Combined Insurance.

Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job board aggregators, the following companies added the most job openings:

Total Job Openings by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

UPS
IBM
McDonald's Corporation
Blockbuster
Army National Guard
H&R Block
Northrop Grumman
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
AT&T
SAIC
Macys
U.S. Army Medical Service Corps
Pizza Hut
Raytheon
JPMorgan Chase
Kmart Corporation
UnitedHealth Group
Verizon Wireless
General Dynamics
Gentiva Health Services
Deloitte & Touche
Food Lion
HCA Healthcare
Liberty Mutual
FedEx
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
Marriott
Snap-on Tools
HP
Avon
Kaiser Permanente
Aflac
Combined Insurance
Sun Microsystems
Quest Diagnostics

Job Openings Added This Week:

The Shipping, Defense, Business Services, Telecommunication, Retail, and Restaurant verticals are the top industries with new job ads based on a survey of recent advertisements from the nations’ top job boards added during the past seven days.

Shipping companies led hiring firms, hiring additional Santa’s helpers to deliver holiday gifts, with UPS and FedEx adding many ads this week. They will be delivering gifts purchased from Toys “R” Us, Sears, Macy’s, Radio Shack, Kmart and Bed Bath and Beyond.

Defense continued heavy hiring with Northrop Grumman, Army National Guard, US Air Force, Raytheon, US Army, and General Dynamics all included in the top new employment advertisers this week. Consulting firms companies continue to expand with IBM, SAIC, and Deloitte continuing to hire, joined by CSC.

It’s interesting to also see these companies began heavy job advertisements this week: Toys ”R” Us, Kaiser Permanente, Bank of America, Wachovia Bank, and Bed Bath and Beyond.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

UPS Packaging
Northrop Grumman
IBM
Army National Guard
AT&T
SAIC
Toys "R" Us
Sears, Roebuck & Co.
Pizza Hut
BAE Systems, North America
Kaiser Permanente
Food Lion
US Air Force
Raytheon
Macy's
U.S. Army
HCA Healthcare
RadioShack
Liberty Mutual
Deloitte
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
General Dynamics
UnitedHealth Group
Chase
Kmart Corporation
FedEx
Bank of America
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
HCR Manorcare
Aflac
Hewlett Packard
Apex Systems
Wachovia Bank
Bed Bath and Beyond
Snap-on Tools

Sources: CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired, HotJobs, Google. Excluded: Recruiters, Staffing firms, Training, Franchise, and Work-from-home opportunities.

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant hiring plans, or employers actively adding large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Whos Firing – Layoffs week ended 11-13-09

2009-11-13T17:06:00.002-06:00

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 11/13/09. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

Top layoffs announced and rumored this week were in the Telecommunications, Technology, Business Services, Government, Manufacturing, Transportation, Energy and Pharma sectors.

Inclusion on this listing doesn’t mean the entire industry is down, as some from the same sectors appeared on the “Who’s Hiring” article published 11/9/09. It is interesting to note that while Federal hiring is on the rise, a number of State and Local governments have continued to see cutbacks for over the past month.

Technology companies announced significant layoffs this week, including AOL, Electronic Arts, Applied Materials, Adobe, First Data, and Sun Microsystems.

Telecommuncations companies cut jobs as Sprint Nextel, and Nortel announced layoffs, even while Sprints competitors have been on the top hiring lists for the past 6 weeks or more.

While many Healthcare organizations made the top hiring company lists, a number of Healthcare companies were laying off such as Assurant Health, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Unicare, Stiefel Labs, and Jackson Health System. Transportation companies including IC Bus, Colorado Springs First Transit, Cirrus Aircraft, Great Dane Trailer, Peterman Transportation, Frontier Airlines, Workhorse Custom Chassis announced staff cuts.

Job seekers: You might want to look in greener pastures than these companies.

Organizations announcing or rumored layoffs week ended 11/13/09:

Sprint Nextel, National (2,000-2,500)
Electronic Arts, (1,500)
Applied Materials, Santa Clara Ca (1,300 – 1,500)
AOL, NYC (up to 1,000)
Adobe Systems, San Jose CA (680)
PG&E, San Francisco (500)
IC Bus (Navistar), Conway AR (477)
Murray Energy Corp, Carbon County OH (91)
Lennox Hearth Products Inc, Orange CA (71)
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA (91)
Fiserv, Aurora IL (290)
SuperValu, Wood Dale IL (111)
Wyndham Suites Hotel, Glenview IL (93)
Relational LLC, Rolling Meadows IL (118)
First Data, International (250)
Colorado Springs First Transit, Colorado Springs CO (73)
State of Hawaii, Statewide (650)
Assurant Health, Milwaukee WI (94)
Iowa Judicial Branch, Des Moines IA (105)
Red Wing Shoe Company, Danville KY (200+)
City of Colton CA (60)
NYC High Schools, New York NY (500)
Pierce County WA (300)
City of Buckeye AZ (64)
Great Dane Trailer, Kewanee IL (161)
Musician's Friend, Northland MO (75)
Current TV, San Fransisco CA (80)
Iams Inc, Lewisberg OH (180)
El Paso Corp, Houston TX (300)
Wick Building Systems, Madison WI (500)
Peterman Transportation, State of Ohio (100)
Sitel, Longview TX (270)
Frontier Airlines, Denver CO (200)
Kolbe & Kolbe Millwork Co. Inc, Wausau WI (334)
Sun Microsystems, Broomfield CO (128)
Albertsons, Orlando FL (246)
Dearborn Schools, Dearborn MI (300)
Alcan Packaging Food, Neenah WI (50)
Herbst Gaming, Nevada (up to 200)
ABM Janitorial Services, Minneapolis MN (1,200)
Johnson & Johnson, Spring House PA (174)
UniCare Life and Health Insurance, Plano TX (187)
University of Nebraska, Lincoln NE (300)
Pfizer, Chesterfield MO (600)
Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN (100)
Nortel Networks, Richardson TX (56)
Sanford Corporation, Janesville WI (140)
City of Grand Rapids MI (up to 150)
Creekside Mushrooms, Worthington PA (260)
Family Support Systems Unlimited, Bronx NY (92)
Zip Realty Inc, Melville NY (103)
UPMC, Braddock PA (654)
Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Clark Summit PA (64)
Serco, Inc., Warrendale PA (93)
Harsco Materials, Coatesville, PA (77)
Graphic Packaging, Fort Wayne IN (118)
Workhorse Custom Chassis LLC, Union City IN ( 90)
HMSHost Corp, Grapevine TX (74)
ABB Inc, Wichita Falls TX (172)
Gardner Denver, Inc., Sheboygan WI (64)
Mount Bachelor Educational Center, Prinevile OR (70)
Stiefel Laboratories, Greene County NY (260)
City of Colton, CA (60)
Sykes Enterprises Inc, Milton-Freewater OR (336)
Cirrus Aircraft, Grand Forks ND (58)
Jackson Health System, Miami FL (93)

Source: Google, Twitter, AllPinkSlips.com, Telonu.com, TechCrunch.com, CoStar.com, Gawker, Screwedd.com

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant layoff plans, or employers reducing large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

5 Ways Social Media Gives Job Seekers an Advantage in a Recession

2009-11-12T15:33:00.008-06:00

This is a republication of an article I wrote for NewMediaHire at http://www.newmediahire.com/profiles/blogs/5-ways-social-media-gives-job .

In today’s hyper-competitive, recessionary job market, job seekers are finding more barriers than good news. Creative social media use gives job seekers a way to beat the odds. When government figures list unemployment as 6 times greater than job openings, you’ve got to try something different to be noticed.

The good news is that Social Media gives job seekers plenty of opportunities to stand out. While most job seekers recognize Social Media’s help in networking, few take advantage of Social Media’s power in branding, Subject Matter Expertise, research and differentiation.

Here’s a list of 5 Ways Social Media Gives Job seekers an Advantage:

Networking: Many job seekers use Linkedin to build their networks for job search, but what about Twitter, and MySpace? While these three are often viewed as non-professional, they can be gold mines, especially for media job seekers, content creators, artists, musicians, and designers.

• Linkedin is great for more formal contact with hiring managers, and to discover who to contact within a company. Linkedin has tools that overlay major job boards, so job seekers see who to contact in their network are at target companies where jobs are advertised.

• Facebook’s sheer size, viral distribution and groups make it a great place for media professionals to build network contacts. Facebook is great for more informal networking, especially to use common interests to contact hiring managers (Identify contact manager on Linkedin, discover common interests, search for them by name on Facebook groups with common interests and start a discussion about something other than your job search…build a relationship first, and the decision maker will ask what you do).

• Twitter is fast becoming a leading force in job ad distribution (see my list of top job tweeters at http://www.twitter.com/philreCareered/jobtweets . In addition, Twitter is a megaphone for content, enabling media professionals to announce links to their work to a wide audience.

• MySpace has long been the social network of choice for artists, photographers, videographers, musicians, and other content creators. MySpace is an excellent platform to build a network of people who communicate via content portfolios, allowing you to find potential collaborators and professionals who appreciate your work.

Publishing: Social Media Publishing platforms have exploded over the past 7 years, enabling marketers, writers, and creatives to display their work. Now Social Media can help accountants, bankers, IT professional, Lawyers, and others promote their expertise. Social Media platforms allow for easier content creation and distribution to a wide or a targeted audience.

• Photos, Music, Writing, Video, design: Blogs are great platforms to showcase your work, and can easily be used as an online portfolio. Blog links can be marketed to gain greater notice through Facebook Status and Twitter.

• Photos, Video, & Artists: Flickr gives visual artists an easy platform to share their work, whether freely, or promote it for sale to businesses/websites needing visual content.

• Video, Musicians, & Consultants: YouTube is more than just wannabe video producers these days. It’s a great place to load music samples/videos for distribution. It’s also an easy place to distribute podcasts, and videocasts for consultants promoting their business or training sessions. One of the bigger success stories is Gary Vaynerchuk the Wine Guy, who produced regular wine podcasts via YouTube, becoming an internet celebrity and exploded his online wine sales.

• Even non-creative types can publish, as most content creators allow republication, because it helps their Google rankings (you have to ask first). Republishing articles can help a non-writer demonstrate thought process, decision making ability, and subject matter expertise.

Commenting: Both creative types and non-creatives can get noticed by joining the conversation and commenting. There are so many places to comment…blogs, online news publications, groups, forums, even Facebook & Twitter. Find sites that are in your subject matter expertise, industry, or field, and comment on what others have written. Again, if you’re not a strong writer, share links to other articles that express your view.

Sharing: What you like can say as much about you as what you create. Delicious is a large social bookmarking site, allowing you to share your bookmarks. Bookmarks can help you build your reputation by demonstrating articles or content that’s helpful to others. Facebook allows sharing, by posting articles to your wall, others' walls, or walls of groups. Twitter encourages sharing, by making it easy to share links to a wide audience. Social Media applications like Digg and StumbleUpon are voting sites, allowing users to vote for content they like. Facebook can be set up through applications to integrate and share your Twitter postings, blog postings, comments, Delicious bookmarks, Digg & StumbleUpon votes, YouTube & Flickr postings.

Information: Social Media can help you learn what’s important to the companies you are targeting. Follow the Tweets of the CEO’s and VPs of your top target companies to learn what they’re thinking. Get connected to them on Linkedin and Facebook if possible. Find what they like on Delicious, Digg, & StumbleUpon, so you can engage them in conversations and build a relationship around something other than your job search. If the Decision Maker at one of your target companies is a runner and you are too…find a way to talk about running, and share running articles. If you start and continue a conversation, eventually the hiring manager will ask what you do. At this point you’ve already established trust and friendship, and you’re not asking for a job…like everyone else.

Notice a common thread…Social Media gives job seekers the ability to share interests. Sharing work interests builds credibility and subject matter expertise. Sharing personal interests builds relationships. Both can help you stand out against the competitive field in today’s recessionary job market.

Job seekers need every chance they can get. How will you use Social Media to increase your chances?

US Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

How Can Linkedin's New Features Help Job Seekers?

2009-11-10T12:50:00.004-06:00

Linkedin has released some interesting upgrades in the past week that can help job seekers. Linkedin’s two big new features are Linkedin Follow and Linkedin Twitter Integration. How can these new features help job seekers?

Linkedin Follow:

Linkedin Follow is a new feature for Linkedin Groups (If you haven’t discovered the power of Linkedin Groups yet, read Top 20 Linkedin Groups All Job Seekers Must Join). One feature of Linkedin Groups provide a way for employers to advertise jobs to a targeted audience….for free. Aren’t these postings you want to see, especially from targeted companies or industries?

For those already using Linkedin Groups, Follow gives a user the ability to follow the posting stream from an individual group member. Linkedin’s blog states that Follow’s purpose is “…making it easier for you to see contributions made by your connections and other people you value within your groups.”

You already see the posting streams of your Linked network…the accepted network invitations you’ve sent, and the LinkedInvitations you’ve accepted.

But what if you want to follow someone who’s not your connection? How about someone who has very few connections, but who writes interesting posts on groups…or advertises job openings on Linkedin groups?

If you’ve discovered this person’s posts, chances are you’re both members of the same Linkedin Group. If not, just pull up their profile, discover what groups they’ve joined, and join a group where your target most likely posts content. But once you’ve joined, you’ll see everyone’s postings, whether relevant to you or not.

Once you find a posting from the person you want to follow, you’ll see a link under their name and picture allowing you to follow this person’s posts.

Let’s put it into practice…Let’s say one of your target companies is AT&T. Search Linkedin for HR Managers and Recruiters currently at AT&T. Pull up their profiles, to see what groups they are in, and pick a group you think they are likely to post jobs (perhaps they’re in the Telcom Jobs group?). Join the group, and search the group for postings by people from AT&T.

Perhaps the person you think is a target isn’t posting jobs, but others are? Join industry groups and groups for job seekers to discover who’s posting jobs. You can follow their posts by clicking a follow link under the poster’s name.

If you’d like to follow my Linkedin Posts on the Career Change Central group, you can follow me at http://tinyurl.com/phillinkedin. You’ll now be able to see the stream of posts I submit to the group…just like a twitter stream.

Speaking of Twitter…Linkedin just announced Twitter Integration:

Why integrate with Twitter? You’ll double the reach of your tweets & Linkedin status updates by broadcasting your tweets on Linkedin, and broadcasting your Linkedin status on Twitter. This is great news for those job seekers who want to reach more hiring managers and recruiters on the open forum of Twitter. Also, since Google recently started indexing tweets, now your Linkedin status/tweets can be searched on Google which you can use to improve your Online Reputation Management.

Just click the Twitter icon underneath Network Updates on your Linkedin home page:

But what if you don’t want every tweet broadcast to the business-centric audience of Linkedin? You’ve got options here. You can set a default option so that Twitter only shares tweets with Linkedin that include the hashtag #in or #Li.

Here’s how I’ll use it. When I publish an article, I typically send status updates to Linkedin, Twitter & Facebook. I’ve already integrated Twitter & Facebook, but it would be nice if I only had to post once and have the same messages on all three platforms. However, I thank people who retweet my articles, send some messages only relevant to Twitter, and occasionally send some personal tweets…that I don’t want on Linkedin. I used the default setting to selectively rebroadcast, so when I want a tweet to appear on Linkedin, I’ll end it with #in or #Li. If I don’t include the hashtag, the tweet doesn’t go to Linkedin.

So if I’m letting a job seeker know that I’ve included them in my Twitter list @philreCareered/jobseekers, I won’t rebroadcast on Linkedin (unless the job seeker has asked me to). On the other hand, if I want to inform a hiring manager that they’ve made the list of top hiring managers on Twitter @philreCareered/hiringmanagers, I’ll likely rebroadcast that on Linkedin by using the #in hashtag.

Job seekers, recruiters, and hiring managers….

How will you use these new features, Linkedin Follow and Linkedin Twitter Integration? Please comment and share your ideas!

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Whos Hiring – Top employers week of 11-9-09

2009-11-09T17:38:00.001-06:00

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 11/9/09. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

Total Job Openings:
The Business Services, Restaurant, Shipping, Retail, Defense, and Telecommunications verticals remain the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Seasonal retail hiring continued strong, in preparation for the holiday season, with Sears, Blockbuster, Macy’s, and Kmart leading. Seasonal holiday hiring also affected shipping with UPS and FedEx making the top employers list. H&R Block continued heavy advertising to staff up in advance of tax season.

Business Service firms IBM, SAIC, Booz Allen, Deloitte and CSC are all top hiring firms – SAIC & Booz are largely supporting federal government and DOD contracts. Raytheon, Northrop, General Dynamics, and US Army led Defense hiring.

Other interesting top hiring companies included HP, Sun Microsystems, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Liberty Mutual and Combined Insurance.

Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job board aggregators, the following companies added the most job openings:

Total Job Openings by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

1. IBM
2. McDonald's
3. UPS
4. H&R Block
5. Pizza Hut - Yum! Brands, Inc.
6. Sears, Roebuck and Co.
7. SAIC
8. AT&T
9. Raytheon
10. UnitedHealth Group
11. Northrop Grumman
12. Kaiser Permanente
13. Blockbuster Inc.
14. General Dynamics
15. Macy's
16. JPMorgan Chase
17. Kmart Corporation
18. Verizon Wireless
19. Gentiva
20. Booz Allen
21. Deloitte
22. U.S. Army
23. HCA Healthcare
24. FedEx
25. Wells Fargo
26. Snap-on Tools
27. Marriott
28. Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
29. HP
30. Liberty Mutual
31. Krystal Company
32. CA State Personnel Board
33. Aflac
34. Combined Insurance
35. Sun Microsystems

Job Openings Added This Week:

The Restaurant, Business Services, Retail, Telecommunication, Defense, and Shipping verticals are the top industries with new job ads based on a survey of recent advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Restaurants were heavily hiring, as McDonald’s led this week’s new job ads, with Pizza Hut also looking for help. Consulting firms companies continue to expand with IBM and SAIC, and Deloitte continuing to hire, joined by Accenture and PWC.

It’s interesting to also see these companies begin heavy job advertisements this week: US Air Force, Avanade (A Joint Venture between Accenture & Microsoft), Oracle, and HP.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

1. McDonald's Corporation
2. IBM
3. SAIC
4. Food Lion, LLC
5. AT&T
6. Northrop Grumman
7. Raytheon
8. Sears, Roebuck and Co.
9. UPS
10. UnitedHealth Group
11. Murphy USA
12. WellPoint
13. US Air Force
14. KinderCare Learning Centers
15. RadioShack
16. UnitedHealth Group
17. General Dynamics
18. JPMorgan Chase
19. Deloitte
20. Macy's
21. Avanade Inc.
22. Wells Fargo
23. Marriott
24. Liberty Mutual
25. Cardinal Health
26. Macy's
27. Pizza Hut
28. HCR Manorcare
29. Oracle
30. Hewlett Packard
31. Snap-on Tools
32. Wachovia Bank
33. Aflac
34. FedEx
35. Hilton Hotels

Sources: CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired, HotJobs, Google. Excluded: Recruiters, Staffing firms, Training, Franchise, and Work-from-home opportunities

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant hiring plans, or employers actively adding large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

How can Twitter Lists help Job Seekers? Top 400 job posters on Twitter

2009-11-05T14:12:00.004-06:00

Twitter just released powerful new capabilities, called Lists. Sure, new technologies, gadgets, bells and whistles are announced every day, but this is a new feature that can really help job seekers.

In addition to describing what you ate for lunch, Twitter is becoming one of the primary publishers of job advertisements, as they take feeds from job boards, company websites, job board aggregators, newspaper help wanted ads, recruiters, and anyone else who wants to publish ads….for free.

One problem is that Twitter can provide TOO MUCH information to users, as it’s grown from a 1M users to over 50M users in a little more than 2 years. Tweets come so fast that it’s impossible to keep track of new ads that are being published, or even know which twitter accounts to follow.

Twitter Lists help the job seeker determine who to follow, and provides an aggregated feed of job ads…by list.

For example, I created 4 lists:

@philreCareered/jobtweets
@philreCareered/recruiters
@philreCareered/hiringmanagers
@philreCareered/jobseekers

I listed every twitter account I could find, and included in @philreCareered/jobtweets. I quickly built the largest list on twitter of job posts, which you can follow…aggregating a majority of job postings on Twitter into a single feed. You can also search this feed for jobs in Atlanta, or Tech jobs. I’ll continue to add to the list as I find additional accounts listing jobs (feel free to comment and suggest who to include on the list – please include the twitter names).

Basically, I created Twitter’s version of Top 400 Job Advertisers on Twitter.

A job seeker can use this in a number of ways. The easiest is just to follow my lists, with a single click. You’ll get a twitter stream of job postings, or a stream of recruiters and what they have to say, a stream of hiring managers (direct hiring companies). Or a job seeker can message me, asking for their twitter name to be included on @philreCareered/jobseekers.

Twitter lists can be described as a Themed list of Twitter users. You could create a list arranged around interest (baseball writers), by topic (Social Media), by type (College friends, family), etc. Even easier, you can find lists that have already been created that you can follow with just one click.

A job seeker can create a list of recruiters they like, or who are in their industry, either by searching on their own, or by using my lists (@philreCareered/recruiters) as a starting point (creating a sub-list of their own), combining with other recruiters they like (feel free to suggest recruiters to follow in the comments, including twitter names). An increasing number of companies and HR departments are tweeting jobs directly – I list the ones I find under @philreCareered/hiringmangers (again, any suggestions are welcomed – please include the twitter name).

Josh Catone of Mashable has a great basic “how to” article in Twitter Lists, suggesting 3 reasons to create lists at http://mashable.com/2009/11/02/twitter-lists-guide/trackback/ :

“ Create a Group – Because Twitter Lists create grouped tweet streams of the people that are on them, you can use Lists to organize your tweeps into groups based on anything you want. For example, we’ve created a list of everyone at Mashable. By viewing or following this list, you easily see what all of Mashable’s (Mashable) employees are tweeting about. You could do the same thing with your co-workers, family, or friends, or just group Twitter users based on location, subject, or anything else you can think of.

Recommend Cool Tweeps – One of the other intended purposes of Twitter Lists is to allow people to recommend other users to follow. You can create a public list of people you think other Twitter users should follow, then anyone else can visit that list and follow the people on it (or follow the list).

Follow People You Aren’t Following – When you follow a Twitter List, you’re not actually following every user on the list, but following the entire list — those users’ tweets aren’t added to your main stream. You can then visit that list and view its tweet stream. That’s why you can also use Lists to follow people without really following them. For example, if there are users whose tweets you’d like to follow, but whom you don’t necessarily want in your main Twitter stream (perhaps they tweet too often for your liking), you can add them to a list and then check up on their latest tweets every once in a while by viewing your list.”

You’ll also want to be careful about Twitter lists, because you have no control which lists your account turns up on. Online Reputation Management becomes critical to your job search (or current career) with Twitter lists. If you’re a passive job seeker, you might not want to turn up on a list of job seekers, since this is public information. On the other hand, if you’re an active job seeker, you’d want to be on job seeker lists, but avoid lists like “sure_things_in_atlanta” or “alcoholicfriends”.

Job seekers - I recommend investing a little time in Twitter Lists, to see how it can help your search, how you can use the feature to promote your job search, and manage your online reputation. It’s a powerful new tool that can give you additional info in your career change.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Who’s Hiring in Health Care - November 2009

2009-11-04T17:12:00.002-06:00

Hospitals, Federal Government, Nursing Homes, Home Health, Clinics, and Outsourced Health Services top Health Care hiring during November 2009, based on job advertisements open for 30 days from the top job boards.

Led by large Hospital groups, including UnitedHealth, Tenet Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Kindred Healthcare, and Catholic Health Initiatives are the top Health Care hiring organizations in November.

Government organizations including the US Army (Including US Army Nurses, and US Army Dental), and US Department of Medical Affairs are adding staff to care for aging veterans, and to employ additional civilians in military hospitals and health care facilities.

Nursing Homes including Genesis HealthCare, HCR ManorCare, Golden Living Centers, Extendicare Health, Brookdale Senior Living, Sunrise Senior Living, and SunBridge Healthcare are building. Home Health providers Gentiva, Amedisys, Bayada Nurses, PSA Healthcare, and Amedisys are growing from increased demand from America’s seniors.

Outsourced service providers have grown as they provide specialty services less expensively than hospitals, and allow nursing homes & Doctors’ offices to realize savings by group service purchases. Companies including DaVita, Ageis Therapies, Sava Senior Care, Quest Diagnostics, and RehabCare are growing to meet these needs.

Interesting, there’s a Pharmaceuticals company on this list, ASN Healthcare at #32. ASN is based in India, and distributes generics. They are hiring nationally for reps to build their US sales force.

Top Health Care Hiring Organizations – November 2009

1. UnitedHealth Group
2. U.S. Army
3. Tenet Healthcare Corporation
4. Kaiser Permanente
5. Genesis HealthCare
6. HCR ManorCare
7. Gentiva
8. Amedisys, Inc.
9. Kindred Healthcare
10. Catholic Health Initiatives
11. DaVita
12. Bayada Nurses
13. Aegis Therapies
14. Sava Senior Care
15. PSA Healthcare
16. HealthSouth
17. Golden Living Centers
18. Quest Diagnostics
19. Extendicare Health
20. RehabCare
21. UTMB
22. Brookdale Senior Living
23. Aurora Health Care
24. United States Department of Veterans Affairs
25. Amedisys
26. Baylor Health Care System
27. Sunrise Senior Living
28. HCA Healthcare
29. Providence Health & Services
30. Provena Health
31. Mountain View Regional. Medical Center
32. ASN Healthcare
33. Fresenius Medical Care
34. SunBridge Healthcare

Sources: CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired, HotJobs, Google.

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant hiring plans, or employers actively adding large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Step Out of Your Comfort Zone - Why are job seekers are afraid to change?

2009-11-03T15:51:00.005-06:00

Job seekers are notoriously afraid to embrace change…even though their entire goal is based on change (sure - sometimes the change is thrust upon us). Some candidates are afraid to approach new career paths, others afraid to change industry or function, almost all are afraid to change their approach.

I spoke to a candidate today, whose job search strategy was “the same thing I did 7 years ago”. When I asked why he felt what worked 7 years ago would work well today, he listed these reasons:

It’s what has always worked for him
A CEO complimented him on his good resume
Of his friends, he was considered the expert in how to search for a job

This illustrates an interesting phenomena…while many job seekers realize the job market has dramatically changed, most still won’t change their strategies. This unfortunate fellow fought change, tooth and nail, even after discussing how much the job market has changed and how much more competitive it is, especially in his field, Pharmaceuticals.

A rational person would react to a changed environment with changed strategies and tactics to match the new market realities. This individual was well educated, intelligent, and had a couple dozen patents…in scientific knowledge, he was in the stratosphere. Yet, his resume was terrible (unclear goals, didn’t differentiate, didn’t give reason he should be hired, poorly structured, didn’t demonstrate subject matter expertise, didn’t demonstrate value he provided to past employers…and I could keep going on).

So why was this very educated and intelligent individual fighting change?

People fight change when it brings them outside their comfort zone. In everything…new policies/procedures at work, in our personal lives, we are creatures of habit. But why?

A. J. Schuler, Psy. D of SchulerSolutions.com lists “Top 10 Reasons for Change Resistance”:

The risk of change is seen as greater than the risk of standing still
People feel connected to others who are identified with the old way
People fear they lack the confidence to change
People feel they lack the competence to change
People feel overloaded and overwhelmed
People have a healthy skepticism and want to make sure new ideas are sound
People fear hidden agenda among would-be reformers
People fear that proposed change threatens their notions of themselves
People anticipate a loss of status or quality of life
People genuinely perceive that the proposed change is a bad idea

Interestingly, #10 didn’t enter into the equation, as this candidate generally agreed with my comments on his resume. Yet he still fought the idea of changing his strategies. So why would a candidate feel “you’re right, but I’m still not going to change”?

In this candidate’s case, he didn’t lack the competence (#4), and certainly not the confidence (#3) to change. Admittedly, I implement resume and career strategy change, so I’m not without bias – so he may have perceived an agenda (#6 & #7 l…yet this was a free analysis, where I usually don’t discuss services I offer…it’s not a sales pitch).

Notice that we’ve ruled out Schuler’s “rational” reasons to resist change. That’s because this gentleman’s reasons were emotional.

If you look at this candidate’s rationale above, his third point rings out. His friends look to him for help, and he acts as an amateur career coach. He must get a certain amount of satisfaction, and even pride from this status…or he wouldn’t have mentioned it.

Changing his strategy would be in conflict with a number of Schuler’s reasons: #2 His friends connect to him (and are grateful to him) and identify in the old way; # 8 Changing would threaten his notion that he’s an expert at finding a new position; #9 Changing would risk him loosing status among his friends.

The candidate’s second point that a CEO complimented his resume adds validation to the candidate’s emotional needs as an amateur career coach. While the CEO offered compliments, it’s important to note that the CEO didn’t offer him a job. Hiring managers often will compliment someone’s resume out of empathy to the job seeker and to soften the uncomfortable feeling of telling a candidate “no” (remember, this was a brilliant guy with an awful resume). Having 100 CEO’s compliment your resume doesn’t get you a job….you get a job because you solve a specific business problem or because you fit in with the company’s culture better than your competitors. Skills & fit get you a job, not resume compliments.

Yet this compliment was a source of pride to the candidate (#8 and #9), because it validated the candidates’ self-view as being an expert at job search, and adviser to his friends (#2).

So how can candidates break free from the vicious cycle of fear of change? Doug Howardell of Inventory Performance offers some great suggestions in his article “Overcoming People’s Fear of Change”, as he describes The Third Position. Doug suggests that the Third Position involves three steps.

“Step 1: Come face to face with the threat, understand the reaction and the fear.

Step 2: Seek to find the opportunity in the change, focus on the opportunities and not the threat.

Step 3: Do what must be done to take advantage of the opportunity. Step three is deceptively simple. Do what must be done. "BUT I’M SCARED!" So, do it anyway. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Acknowledge that you’re afraid and act in spite of your fear. The fear won’t go way but you can move on in the face of it.”

I’ll add steps 4 & 5:

Step 4: Take baby steps…Don’t try to radically change overnight. It’s much tougher to muster the courage to make drastic changes all at once. The fear of failure is too great, so try smaller changes at first to build confidence that your changes are on track.

Step 5: Learn from failure, rather than fearing it. Failure is a great teacher, and the basis of most scientific theory. As humans, we learn from trying something new, and gaining knowledge from what we’ve tried…whether they work or not.

Step out of your comfort zone today, and try something new in your job search. Maybe it’s using a new strategy, maybe it’s a new industry, maybe it’s an entirely new career path. Regardless of whether your efforts result in success or failure, I guarantee you’ll learn from it. Change is good…embrace it.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Whos Hiring – Top Employers week of 11-2-09

2009-11-02T16:34:00.002-06:00

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 11/2/09. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

Total Job Openings:
The Business Services, Shipping, Retail, Defense, Telecommunications verticals remain the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Seasonal retail hiring continued strong, in preparation for the holiday season, with Sears, Kmart, Macy’s, and Radio Shack leading, with Blockbuster and Food Lion also added to top hiring companies. Seasonal holiday hiring also affected shipping with UPS and FedEx making the top employers list. H&R Block continued heavy advertising to staff up in advance of tax season.

Business Service firms IBM, SAIC, Booz Allen, Deloitte and CSC are all top hiring firms – SAIC & Booz are largely supporting federal government and DOD contracts. US Army, Northrop, Raytheon and General Dynamics led Defense hiring.

Other interesting top hiring companies included HP, Sun Microsystems, Liberty Mutual and Combined Insurance.

Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job board aggregators, the following companies added the most job openings:

Total Job Openings by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

IBM
H&R Block
UPS Packaging
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
U.S. Army
AT&T
McDonald's
Northrop Grumman
Kmart
Pizza Hut - Yum! Brands, Inc.
SAIC
Raytheon
UnitedHealth Group
Blockbuster Inc.
Macy's
JPMorgan Chase
Verizon Wireless
General Dynamics
Gentiva Health Services
Booz Allen
Deloitte
RadioShack
Food Lion
Avon
FedEx
HCA Healthcare
Wells Fargo
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
HP
Snap-on Tools
Krystal Company
Liberty Mutual
Aflac
Sun Microsystems
Combined Insurance

Job Openings Added This Week:

The Business Services, Telecommunication, Defense, Retail and Shipping verticals are the top industries with new job ads based on a survey of recent advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Consulting firms companies continue to expand with IBM and SAIC, and IBM continuing to hire, joined by Accenture and PWC. While state governments continue to lead layoffs, it’s interesting to see the California State Personnel Board make the top hiring company lists.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

IBM
AT&T
SAIC
US Army: Army Corps of Engineers
Northrop Grumman
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
UPS Packaging
Murphy USA
Kaiser Permanente
General Dynamics Information Technology
Gecko Hospitality
Kmart Corporation
UnitedHealth Group
Kmart Corporation
RadioShack
Verizon Wireless
Macy's
Accenture
Cracker Barrel
JPMorgan Chase
Gentiva
Wells Fargo
Sun Microsystems
HP
Liberty Mutual
Advance Auto Parts
Wachovia Bank
Raytheon
Avon
Food Lion
Kaiser Permanente
CA State Personnel Board
Pizza Hut
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Allstate

Sources: CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired, HotJobs, Google. Excluded: Recruiters, Staffing firms, Training, Franchise, and Work-from-home opportunities

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant hiring plans, or employers actively adding large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Whos Firing – Layoffs week ended 10-30-09

2009-10-30T17:07:00.003-05:00

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 10-30-09. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

Layoffs announced and rumored this week were in the Transportation, Government, Publishing, Health care, Manufacturing, Financial/Banking, and Education sectors.

Inclusion on this listing doesn’t mean the entire industry is down, as many from the same sector appeared on the “Who’s Hiring” article published 10/26/09. It is interesting to note that while Federal hiring is on the rise, a number of State and Local governments have continued to see cutbacks for over the past month.

Transportation, especially airline related companies announced significant layoffs this week, including Boeing, US Airlines, and American Airlines.

Publishers continued to shed jobs as Associated Press, Forbes, Southern Progress, and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette announced layoffs, while rumors continued at Conde-Nast about which units would face job cuts.

While many Healthcare organizations made the top hiring company lists, a number of Healthcare companies were laying off such as Quest Diagnostics (they are also on the top hiring company list), Dorothea Dix Hospital, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, LCA-Vision, and TomoTherapy. Education organizations including Michigan State, University of Maine, and State of Arizona teachers. Princeton & Dartmouth also announced layoffs, but the numbers were too small to make this lists’ cutoff (50).

Job seekers: You might want to look in greener pastures than these companies.

Organizations announcing or rumored layoffs week ended 10/30/09:

Southern Progress (Time, Inc), Birmingham AL (90) – Click to view
Boeing Corp, Kennedy Space Center FL (330) - click to view
Boeing Corp, National (500) - click to view
US Airways, National (1,000) – Click to view
American Airlines, Kansas City MO (700) – Click to view
Quest Diagnostics, Wallingford CT (60) – Click to view
Milwaukee County, Milwaukee WI (200) – Click to view
Diversco, Winston-Salem NC (55) – Click to view
Tracy CA (69) – Click to view
State of Massachusetts (1,000) – Click to view
ComScore, San Fransisco CA (50) – Click to view
Target, Minneapolis MN (85) – Click to view
Royal Dutch Shell, International (5,000) – Click to view
Michigan State University, East Lansing MI (600) - click to view
Bath Iron Works, Bath ME (191) - click to view
YRC Worldwide Inc, Overland Park KS (900) - click to view
John D. Hollingsworth on Wheels Inc, Greenville SC (190) - click to view
General Electric, Bloomington IL (96) - click to view
Microsemi Corp, Scottsdale AZ (200-300) - click to view
Dorothea Dix Hospital, Raleigh NC (300) - click to view
Shaw Industries, Tifton GA (200) - click to view
Associated Press, International (400?) - click to view
Site, Huntington WV (112) - click to view
Aramark/Broward County Jail, Pompano Beach FL (96) - click to view
Hendrickson International Trailer Suspension Systems, Canton OH (189) - click to view
State of Missouri (700) - click to view
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida, Jacksonville FL (150) - click to view
Forbes, National (100) - click to view
Intermet/Archer Creek Foundry, Campbell County VA (192) - click to view
University of Maine School System, Augusta ME (100) - click to view
Arthur J. Gallagher, Itasca IL (400) - click to view
Harley-Davidson Inc, Talladega GA (100) - click to view
Thomas & Betts Corporation, Cleveland OH (117) - click to view
Honeywell, Springfield IL (120) - click to view
HanesBrands, Forsyth NC (240) - click to view
Solano County, CA (161?) - click to view
Georgia-Pacific Corp, Fordyce AR (300) - click to view
Caterpillar, National (2500) - click to view
Arrow Electronics, Melville NY (100) - Click to view
Supreme Foam, Archdale NC (50) - Click to view
Perot Systems Corp, Lincoln NE (54) - Click for view
Capital One Bank, Melville NY (99) - Click to view
Gianni Versace, International (350) - Click to view
LCA-Vision Inc., Cincinnati OH (70) - Click to view
Wood-Mode, Kraemer PA (95) - Click to view
Direct Energy, Richardson TX (85) - Click to view
New United Motor Manufacturing, Fremont CA (3,764) – Click to view
USS-Posco, Pittsburg CA (50) – Click to view
Bank of America, Pasadena CA (174) – Click to view
Assurant Specialty Property Tustin, Orange, Santa Ana CA (256) – Click to view
Lennox Hearth Products, Inc, Orange CA (71) – Click to view
Rockwell Collins, San Jose CA (192) – Click to view
Standard Chartered Bank, Miami FL (72) – Click to view
Mohawk Flush Doors, subsidiary of Masonite Corp, South Bend IN (73) – Click to view
GECOM Corp, Frankfort KY (160) – Click to view
Miller Bros. Coal, LLC, Prestonburg, KY (225) – Click to view
New River Foundry, Radford, VA (76) – Click to view
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock AR (Unknown) – Click to view
TomoTherapy, Madison WI (10%) – Click to view
City of Cuyahoga Falls OH (53) – Click to view
US Steel, Granite City IL (Unknown) – Click to view
Citigroup, Las Vegas NV (75) – Click to view
City of Grand Rapids MI (Unknown) – Click to view
Dutchess County NY (70) – Click to view
Seattle WA Department of Planning & Development (Unknown) – Click to view
Fairpoint Communication, National (Unknown) – Click to view
State of Arizona Teachers (described as “Massive”) – Click to view
Guardian Auto Glass, Auburn IN (64) – Click to view
City of Birmingham AL (800) – Click to view
State of Pennsylvania (Estimated in hundreds) – Click to view

Source: Google, Twitter, AllPinkSlips.com, Telonu.com, TechCrunch.com, CoStar.com, Gawker, Screwedd.com

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant layoff plans, or employers reducing large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Job Search Trick or Treat

2009-10-28T16:00:00.007-05:00

How often do candidates treat their job search like it’s Halloween?

Do you dress up your resume to appear like you are someone other than you?

Not only is it unethical, it’s impractical. It wastes the employers’ time, but even worse…IT WASTES YOUR TIME as a candidate. Take your kids Trick or Treating, there’s a more effective way for you to stand out.

I can’t begin to count the number of times a candidate has asked me if they should hide their age, change their experience, or try to adopt a different personality, so they can appear to be someone other than themselves. To make it worse, many recruiters either turn a blind eye, or actually encourage this.

It wastes your time because hiring managers aren’t stupid. They read many resumes after they are pre-screened by HR staff & recruiters that read thousands of resumes. So whatever trick you’re trying to pull to mask the truth…they’ve seen it.

The easiest example is age. So many candidates blame a poorly thought out job strategy on age – complaining “I’m too old” or “Hiring managers want someone with more experience”. Guess what…it’s not your age. It’s how you’ve branded yourself, the perception you give, the skills you choose to highlight, and how you describe your skills.

It’s so easy to play the age game, pass the blame to your grey hair, and devise ways to mask your experience. I see it in over half the resumes I look at, and the easiest giveaways are missing dates. Does it take a rocket scientist to realize that if you leave your college graduation dates off your resume, you’re probably hiding your age? Duh!

But what if you get lucky, trick the reader to think you’re interview-worthy, and land the interview? If you’ve given the impression that you’re a hip 30 year old gel-head, what impression will you make when you meet in person, with your thinning grey hair? At best, you’ll make a first impression of disappointment…at worst one of deceit. Either way, at that point, your skills and talents won’t matter - you’ve wasted your time and set yourself up for disappointment.

Why play that game when there’s a better way?

Instead of trying to play Trick or Treat with your resume, why not look for companies that WANT someone like you? There are plenty of companies that want grey hair, and plenty of firms that want younger talent. There are companies that want someone who’s extroverted and others that want a quieter, serious employee. Instead of dressing yourself up for Halloween, look for companies that value someone like you!

OK, How can I find which companies want someone like me?

Information Rules! Talk to your friends who work at target companies…they are your best resource to understand what type of person and what type of personality succeeds within a particular corporate style. Every company has its own unwritten rules, or culture. When employers look at culture, they look for someone who can easily communicate and fit in with 80% of the workforce who have a similar style.

So if everyone at a target company is 40+, been there 20 years, and wears pocket protectors, it might not be a such a good fit for a 26 year old tattooed and pierced woman. If it’s a jeans and t-shirt environment, this company might not be such a good fit for someone who’s experience has been working at a large bank. Or maybe a video game development company with a game room, music room, and weekly happy hours, might not be such a good fit for a guy who looks like Kevin Malone (from The Office). Maybe a guy like Kevin would be happier in a pocket protector environment. (Picture courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattmatlock/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

But what if you don’t know anyone at your target company? This is where Linkedin and Facebook can provide such a huge edge. Use your social network to gain introductions to employees at your target companies. But don’t waste the introduction to ask for a job or to pass a resume – there’s a much more valuable use.

Instead, do some espionage. Gain critical information about a company’s culture and style. Ask what type of person succeeds, and what type of person fails within a target company and department. Ask what the hiring manager is like…is she a team player, or a maverick? Ask how does he dresses…casually or formally? Ask about the hiring manager’s communication style…is it open door, or do you have to wait a week to get an appointment?

If you really want some great insight into a company’s style, use guerrilla tactics. Find a nearby bar, and head there at 5:00pm on a Friday. That’s right, use Happy Hour. Talk to a few people, including the bartender, you’ll find people who work for your target company. At a bar, information is so inexpensive...just a round or two of drinks. But think of the wealth of information you can pick up. Plus, you might even get a referral for your offer of drinks. You’ll see how they dress and act, and probably pick up some great scoop.

Armed with all this information, could you figure out if your personality is a likely fit, or if your time is better spent somewhere else? There are so many uses for this information, such as insight as to a company’s challenges and opportunities…so you can show how you’ve already solved these problems and leveraged these same opportunities in your past firm.

When you can clearly demonstrate you’ve already solved an employers’ problems, or maximized the same opportunities…limiters like age, dress, or personality stop being such relevant factors. These are the “20 percent-ers”…the employees whose skills and experiences are so important that fit, culture, and style take a back seat. Now the ball’s in your court to decide if you really want to work at a company where everyone wears pocket protectors, and looks like Kevin.

Instead of trying to trick your prospective employer, doesn’t it seem like a better tactic to treat some employees to a drink – and pick their brains?

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Whos Hiring - Week of 10-26-09

2009-10-26T15:49:00.001-05:00

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 10/26/09. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

Total Job Openings:
The Shipping, Retail, Telecommunications, Consulting, Defense and federal Government verticals are the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Retail hiring continued strong, in preparation for the holiday season, with Macy’s, Sears, Kmart, and Radio Shack leading, with Blockbuster and Target also added to top hiring companies. Consulting firms Deloitte, IBM, Booz Allen, and SAIC – Booz & SAIC are largely supporting federal government and DOD contracts. Northrop, Raytheon, US Army, & General Dynamics led Defense hiring. Top hiring financial institutions included JPMorgan Chase, Ameriprise, Aflac, and Combined Insurance made this week’s list.

Other interesting top hiring companies included the CIA, and Snap-on Tools.

Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job board aggregators, the following companies added the most job openings:

Total Job Openings by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

UPS
Macy's
Sears Roebuck and Co.
Blockbuster
McDonald's Corporation
Kmart
AT&T
Deloitte
Northrop Grumman
JPMorgan Chase
Verizon Wireless
Advantage Sales and Marketing
IBM
Raytheon
General Dynamics - IT
RadioShack
Marriott
Federal Government
U.S. Army
Booz Allen Hamilton
Siemens
CIA
SAIC
Ameriprise
Target
St. John's Regional Hospital
Snap-on Tools
Aflac
Combined Insurance
Quest Diagnostics

Job Openings Added This Week:

The Shipping, Retail, Telecommunication, Consulting, Financial, Defense, Shipping, and Hospitality verticals are the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Consulting firms companies continue to expand with Deloitte and IBM continuing to hire, joined by Booz Allen, Accenture, SAIC, and EDS. UPS, Macy’s Kmart, Radio Shack, Sears, and Target continue to prepare for the holiday rush.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

UPS
Macy's
AT&T
Kmart
Sears
Deloitte
Booz Allen Hamilton
IBM
Verizon Wireless
JPMorgan Chase
Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC
RadioShack
Northrop Grumman
Boston Market
Federal Government
Target
Raytheon
Accenture
Marriott
St. John's Regional Hospital
Sears
Target
SAIC
EDS
Kaiser Permanente
Flextronics
Alliedbarton Security Services
Combined Insurance
AT&T

Whos Firing? Layoffs for week ended 10-23-09

2009-10-23T16:46:00.009-05:00

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 10-23-09. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

Layoffs announced and rumored this week were in the Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, Financial/Banking, and Publishing sectors.

Inclusion on this listing doesn’t mean the entire industry is down, as many from the same sector appeared on the “Who’s Hiring” article published 10/19/09. It is interesting to note that while Federal hiring is on the rise, a number of State and Local governments have continued to see cutbacks for over the past month.

Health care organizations were laying off such as Valley Mental Health, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Cook County Health System, Oak Forest Hospital, Pfizer, Carestream Health, Navilyst Medical, Eli Lilly, Smith Medical.

Publishers continued to shed jobs as Time, The New York Times, The Charlotte Observer, and McGraw-Hill announced layoffs, while rumors swirled all around Conde-Nast about which units would face job cuts.

Job seekers: You might want to look in greener pastures than these companies.

Organizations announcing or rumored layoffs week ended 10/23/09:

Alstom Transport, Hornell NY (500) – Click to follow
Electrolux, Webster City IA (850) – Click to follow
Valley Mental Health, Salt Lake City UT (up to 125) – Click to follow
Time Inc, NYC (approx 600) – Click to follow
Sun Microsystems, National (3,000) – Click to follow
International Paper, National (1,600) – Click to follow
Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Evansville & Mt Vernon IN (115) – Click to follow
Cook County Health and Hospitals System, Chicago IL (335) – Click to follow
State of Iowa (793) – Click to follow
Oak Forest Hospital, Oak Forest IL (200) - Click to view
Emerson/Schneider National, Bridgeton MO (330) - Click to view
NCR Corporation, National (2200) - Click to view
Modine Manufacturing Company, Harrodsburg KY (110) - Click to view
Nautilus, Independence VA (173) - Click to view
Expedia, Tacoma WA (200?) - Click to view
New Page Corp, Whiting WI (100?) - Click to view
Pilkington Automotive Glass Plant (NSG Group), Clinton MI (130) - Click to view
Sallie Mae, National (1-2K?) - Click to view
State of Massachusetts (726) - Click to view
Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto CA (150) - Click to view
Pfizer, Overland Park KS (200) - Click to view
Regions Financial Corp, Birmingham AL (1700 YTD) - Click to view
Sullivan County, NY (100) - Click to view
Lexmark International Inc, Lexington KY (825) - Click to view
Mohawk Industries, Waynesboro VA (120) - Click to view
Jakks Pacific Inc, Malibu CA (100+) - Click to view
Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago IL (1000+) - Click to view
Missouri Department of Natural Resources (Division of State Parks) (100+) - Click to view
BAE Systems, West Manchester PA (130) - Click to view
City of Chicago, IL (220 positions eliminated) - Click to view
New York Times, NYC (100) - Click to view
Workforce Solutions, East Texas (50) - Click to view
Standard Chartered Bank, Miami FL (72) - Click to view
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, National (57) - Click to view
Forum Health Inc, Youngstown OH (52) - Click to view
Carestream Health Inc, Windsor CO (70) - Click to view
State of Iowa (791) - Click to view
Kronos Inc. (Stromburg), Lake Mary FL (70) - Click to view
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach FL (21) - Click to view
General Shale, Spring City TN (19) - Click to view
Navilyst Medical, Glens Falls NY (51) - Click to view
Sacramento County, CA (76) - Click to view
Pilkington Automotive, Clinton MI (130) Click to view
LHI Enterprises Inc, Hartland WI (80) - Click to view
Georgia Pacific, Fordyce AR (300) – Click to view
Extreme Networks, Santa Clara CA (70) – Click to view
Lockheed Martin, Archbald PA (50) – Click to view
Goss International, Dover NH (unknown) – Click to follow
Eli Lilly, National (unknown) – Click to follow
Freescale Semiconductiors, Austin TX and National (unknown) – Click to follow
Shuttle America, Honolulu HI (74) – Click to follow
CNH Global, International (10-12%) – Click to follow
Child Protective Services, Sacramento CA (76) – Click to follow
St. Joseph County, IN (54) – Click to view
Estes Express Lines, Knoxville TN (unknown) – Click to view
21^st Century Insurance, Vestal NY (54) – Click to view
State of Pennsylvania (unknown) – Click to view
Mothers Against Drunk Driving MADD, National (unknown) – Click to view
The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte NC (unknown) – Click to view
Arizona Department of Public Safety (unknown) – Click to view
Smith Medical, Waukesha WI (104) – Click to view
Wausau Paper, Appleton WI (55) – Click to view
Tree Top Inc, Rialto CA (75) – Click to view
Assurant Specialty Property, Santa Ana & Tustin CA (74) – Click to view
The McGraw-Hill Cos, Woodland Hills CA (85) – Click to view
West Marine Products, Watsonville CA (325) – Click to view
Curtiss-Wright Controls, Integrated Sensing, Long Beach CA (81) – Click to view
Kavlico, Moorpark CA (169) – Click to view
Baker Hughes Incorporated, Houston TX (62) – Click to view
Fluor Enterprises, Inc, Sugar Land TX (617) – Click to view
Redcats USA, Universal City TX (490) – Click to view
Big Stick Media, National Sports Services, Las Vegas NV (unknown) – Click to view
FormTech Industries, Minerva, OH (68) – Click to view
Coca-Cola Enterprises, Havre de Grace MD (50) – Click to view
Faurecia Automotive Seating Inc, Walton KY (68) – Click to view
Farmers Group Inc, Vestal NY (54) – Click to view
The Really Cool Food Company LLC, Syosset NY (78) – Click to view
Matrx (Midmark Corporation), Orchard Park NY (87) – Click to view

Source: Google, Twitter, AllPinkSlips.com, Telonu.com, TechCrunch.com, CoStar.com, Gawker, Screwedd.com

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant layoff plans, or employers reducing large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Who’s Hiring in Finance – October 2009

2009-10-22T16:23:00.003-05:00

Banks, Consulting firms, and Financial advisors top Finance hiring during October 2009, based on job advertisements open for 30 days from the top job boards.

Led by banks that are repaying TARP funds, banks including Chase, Wachovia, PNC, Citi, HSBC, Fifth Third, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and National City are the top Finance hiring firms in October. Many of these banks are expanding regionally, such as JPMorgan Chase.

Consulting firms including Deloitte, IBM, CSC, and KPMG are staffing to support financial institution and process improvement practices, as they are landing significant projects to help clients build profitability improving technology. Some of these positions are straight finance, while others are profitability consulting (supply chain, for example), and others are finance/technology hybrid roles.

Financial advisors including Edward Jones, Morgan Stanley, Scotttrade, Merrill Lynch, New York Life, AXA, and VALIC are building. While Wall Street may still be hurting from last year’s financial meltdown, Financial advisory firms on Main Street still have an increasing needs for client facing employees as Baby Boomers continue retirement. In addition, as layoffs occur, workers need to roll over employer-managed 401-Ks into IRAs.

Top Finance Hiring Organizations – October 2009

JPMorgan Chase
Deloitte
Edward Jones
Wachovia Corporation
PNC Financial
IBM
Citi
HSBC
Fifth Third Bank
Wells Fargo
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
Bank of America
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
UnitedHealth Group
National City
Scottrade
Merrill Lynch
New York Life
Security Finance Corporation
AXA Advisors
Farmers Insurance
VALIC
Country Financial
KPMG LLP

Sources: CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired. Excluded: Recruiters & Staffing firms.

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant hiring plans, or employers actively adding large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Are You Buying the Mac & Cheese of Job Search?

2009-10-21T15:54:00.008-05:00

So much of today’s job search advice is like Mac & Cheese. It’s comfort food. It’s not very good for you, but it’s comfortable…it makes you feel good.

Like Mac & Cheese, this advice is very popular – you see it everywhere. Just as Mac & Cheese isn’t an efficient food source, this advice won’t make your job search efficient. But it WILL make you feel good, like you’re doing the right thing, because you see this advice everywhere.

So how can you tell what advice is Mac & Cheese? Examples of job search comfort food are cover letters. Think of how many articles you see, and how much advice a candidate receives about how to write a perfect cover letter. It’s comfortable advice that we’ve heard since we were originally taught to type them…on typewriters.

But cover letters just don’t work today. At best, cover letters are an obsolete tradition. But cover letters can work against a candidate, providing much more of a disadvantage over any potential advantage.

Here’s why cover letters are like Mac & Cheese:

Hiring Managers usually don’t get cover letters. I talk to 60 executives per month, and each one tells me how they hire candidates. About 75% of the time, hiring managers tell me they don’t even get cover letters from HR departments or recruiters. Recruiters and HR departments often don’t see cover letters, even though they are asked for within the ads they place.

Hiring Managers only see about a dozen resumes per position, out of thousands of applicants. HR departments and recruiters use databases to pre-screen resumes. These systems, called Applicant Tracking Systems, search resumes by keywords, allowing the HR screener or recruiter to pick the resumes that best match the keywords being searched…just like we do every day on Google. Most Applicant Tracking Systems don’t keyword search cover letters, only resumes.

Most candidates sent the same static resume to the jobs they apply to, hoping that the words in their resume happen to magically match the words being searched for. The odds are lousy.

It’s a published statistic that most hiring managers make an interview/non interview decision in an average 15 seconds. In 15 seconds you can’t read both a resume and cover letter. Which do you think most hiring managers read first?

I’m running a poll currently on Linkedin, asking hiring managers which they read first…75% read the resume first. Anecdotal evidence I hear each month puts that percentage at 90% who read the resume first.

I’m currently running another poll on Linkedin, asking candidates if they send a cover letter, or include a customized resume…over 85% send a cover letter and most customize the cover letter. Just 6% send a customized resume.

Isn’t that gap eye opening? 85% put their customization into a document that’s rarely seen.

I hear anecdotal evidence from hiring managers about the impact of cover letters if they get them and if they read them. I’ve rarely heard of an instance that a cover letter will talk a hiring manager into an interview, if the resume doesn’t first clearly demonstrate they meet the key hiring criteria. On the other hand, I hear stories all the time from hiring managers who recall times that a cover letter that gave additional information talked the candidate out of an interview…because they revealed information that was inconsistent with the hiring manager’s needs, or made mistakes on the cover letter.

As digital resumes exploded the competition that candidates face, and flooded HR departments/recruiters, these groups developed process improvements that reward candidates who heavily customize their resumes…and penalize candidates who don’t or who customize a different document.

Other Mac & Cheese examples are generalist resumes, broad opening summaries, lack of clarity of what a candidate is looking for and why they’re the best choice.

So what are you buying in your job search? Mac & Cheese? Or Smart Food?

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Who's Hiring? Week of 10/19/09

2009-10-19T15:56:00.003-05:00

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

Total Job Openings:
The Restaurant, Retail, Telecommunications, Defense, Health Care, and Banking verticals continue as the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Retail hiring kicked it into high gear, in preparation for the holiday season, with Sears, Kmart, Macy’s and Radio Shack leading the list. Northrop, Raytheon, & General Dynamics led Defense hiring. Top hiring financial institutions included JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Citi made this week’s list. No surprise that Healthcare hiring remained strong.

Other interesting top hiring companies included consulting firm Booz Allen, and hotels Hilton & Marriott. Century 21 hiring increased, and remained on the top hiring company list. UPS is staffing up for the holidays, making its first appearance on the list.

Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job board aggregators, the following companies added the most job openings:

Total Job Openings by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

McDonald's Corporation
AT&T
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Kmart Corporation
Northrop Grumman
Verizon Wireless
Raytheon
Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC
General Dynamics - IT
JPMorgan Chase
Macy's
Booz Allen Hamilton
UnitedHealth Group
RadioShack
UPS Packaging
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
Quest Diagnostics
Kindred Healthcare
Hilton Hotels
Terminix
Amedisys Home Health
Century 21 Real Estate
Morgan Stanley Smith
Marriott
George S. May
ACS
PSA Healthcare
Aegis Therapies
University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey
Citi

Job Openings Added This Week:

The Telecommunication, Restaurant, Defense, Shipping, and Hospitality verticals are the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Financial services companies continue to expand with Scottrade continuing heavy hiring, joined by TD Bank. Real Estate company Century 21 also joined the top companies hiring this week. Of course, Sears, Toys”R”Us, Macy’s, UPS, and RadioShack are preparing for the holiday rush. Take Care Health (Walgreens in-store clinics) are adding staff, getting ready to give all those flu shots.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

AT&T
McDonald's
Sears, Roebuck and Co
Northrop Grumman
Toys"R"Us
Macy's
UPS
Verizon Wireless
General Dynamics Information Technology
RadioShack
Raytheon
Hilton Hotels Corporation
Deloitte
Flextronics
Apex Systems
Genesis Healthcare
UnitedHealth Group
Quest Diagnostics
Century 21 Real Estate
Kindred Healthcare
Scottrade
George S. May
HEALTHSOUTH
TD Bank
TruGreen
Affiliated Computer Services
Medassurant
Take Care Health Systems
ACS

Sources: CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired, HotJobs, Google. Excluded: Recruiters, Staffing firms, Training, Franchise, and Work-from-home opportunities.

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant hiring plans, or employers actively adding large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Who's Firing? Layoffs week ending 10-16-09

2009-10-16T16:45:00.005-05:00

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

Inclusion on this listing doesn’t mean the entire industry is down, as many from the same sector appeared on the “Who’s Hiring” article published 10/12/09. It is interesting to note that while Federal hiring is on the rise, a number of State and Local governments face continued cutbacks. Also, Verizon has led the top hiring lists, but is also announcing a number of layoffs. Boeing made the layoff list, while competing aerospace manufacturers top the Who’s Hiring lists.

Job seekers: You might want to look in greener pastures than these companies.

Layoffs announced and rumored this week were in the Government, Manufacturing, Automotive, Technology, Publishing and Energy sectors.

Organizations announcing or rumored layoffs week ended 10/16/09:

AM General (250) - click to view
State of Massachusetts (up to 2K) - click to view
State of Iowa (1000) - click to view
Standish Max Prison (Michigan) (100) - click to view
Smiths Medical PM Inc. (100) - click to view
The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation (260) - click to view
Boeing Corp. (200-300) - click to view
City of Spokane, WA (200) - click to view
SunTrust Bank (YTD 100) - click to view
Wilsonart International (120) - click to view
Moog Aircraft Group (220) - click to view
Onondaga County, NY (133) - click to view
State of New Hampshire (300) - click to view
Country Financial (400) - click to view
Kohl's Corporation (250) - click to view
Team Broadcast Services (96) - click to view
HNI Corporation (150) - click to view
State of Vermont (160 total jobs lost) - click to view
Verizon Communications (200) - click to view
City of Moraine, OH (187) - click to view
Solvay Pharmaceuticals (450) - click to view
Steifel Laboratories (200) - click to view
Pilgrim's Pride (GA) (100) - click to view
Hamilton County Public Library (250) - click to view
Oral Roberts University (124) - click to view
NYC Dept. of Education (714) - click to view
Albany County, NY (109) - click to view
Bestop (140) - click to view
Flour Energy Corp. (500) - click to view
Valero Energy Corp. (250) - click to view
Boeing Corp. (130) - click to view
D&E Communications (280-290) - click to view
United States Postal Service (650) - click to view
Lafayette Caterpillar (106) - click to view
American Cancer Society (140) - click to view
Canron Western Constructors Inc. (106) - click to view
Fluor Corporation (100-150) - click to view
Redcats USA (490) - click to view
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (150) - click to view
Kent County, MI (145) - click to view
Boise Cascade (130) - click to view
Dell (905) - click to view
L.L. Bean Call Center (700) - click to view
Sunoco Inc. (400) - click to view
ATK Space Systems (550) - click to view
Hilton Reservations and Customer Care (176) - click to view
Thermo Fisher Scientific (130) - click to view
Conde Nast Publications (180) - click to view
Atlantic City Casinos (1067) - click to view
Metavation (120) - click to view
Prairie Correctional Facility (120) - click to view
University of California Riverside (425) - click to view
Pilgrim’s Pride (640) - click to view
Emerson Network Power Connectivity Solutions (135) - click to view
United Space Alliance (258) - click to view
Dow Roofing (100) - click to view
Tomasco Mulciber Inc. (213) - click to view
Delta, Eagan, MN (unknown) – Click to view
Aramark Health Support Services, Huntsville, AL (163) – Click to view
Chevron Mining, Gallup NM (80) - Click to view
Electric Boat, Groton, CT (96) - Click to view
Sylvania Yarn Systems (145) - Click to view
Trojan Battery Co., Sandersville, GA (50) - Click to view
HON Co., Owensboro, KY (144) - Click to view
Aramark Sports & Entertainment, Deer Creek Resort, Mt. Sterling, OH (112) - Click to view
Phoenix Health Systems, Pittsburgh, PA (50) - Click to view
GE Oil & Gas Operations, Bethelehem, PA (81) - Click to view
Parsons, Pittsburgh, PA (90) - Click to view
Alliance One Inc., Trevose, PA (63) - Click to view
Richfield Hospitality, Charlottesville, VA (146) - Click to view
FreightCar America Inc., Roanoke, VA (33) - Click to view
Lockheed Martin, Fairfax, VA (65) - Click to view
Educational Credit Management Corp., Richmond, VA (60) - Click to view
Wells Fargo Mortgage, Kirkland, WA (60) - Click to view
Brandrud, Auburn, WA (104) - Click to view
Corhart Refractories, Buckhannon, WV (26) - Click to view
Care Wisconsin First, Madison, WI (77) - Click to view
Eppendorf Inc., Westbury, NY (44) - Click to view
Avant-Garde Optics LLC, Washington, NY (137) - Click to view
Matthews International Corp., Seneca Falls, NY (33) - Click to view
Tavern on the Green LP, NYC (405) - Click to view
Dominion Enterprises DBA Interco Print, Ontario, CA (31) - Click to view
Telecare Corp, Lemon Grove, CA (102) - Click to view
Duane Morris LLC, Carpinteria, CA (126) - Click to view
USS-Posco Industries, Pittsburg, CA (827) - Click to view
Bassett Furniture Industries Inc, Bassett, VA (45) – Click to view
Summit Holdings, Lakeland, FL (70) – Click to view
Frontier Oil Corp., Cheyenne, WY (28) – Click to view
NCH Healthcare, Naples, FL System (66) – Click to view
Freudenberg-NOK, Spencer, IA (65) - Click to view
Franciscan Skemp Healthcare, Lacrosse, WI (25) – Click to view
McCann Erickson, San Francisco, CA (40) – Click to view
Jeld-Wen, Bend, OR (31) – Click to view
Foley & Lardner LLC, Milwaukee, WI (39) – Click to view
Crothall Services Group, Valhalla, NY (235) – Click to view
Aramark, Huntsville, AL (163) – Click to view
Mueller Industries, Fulton, MS (37) – Click to view
Miller Brothers Mining, KY (85) – Click to view
Baker Hughes Inc., Houston, TX, (62) – Click to view
Hamilton Sundstrand, Hartford, CN (30) Click to view
City of Loveland, CO (5.9%) – Click to view
Comcast, Wellesley, MA (64) – Click to view
Rensselaer County, NY (24) – Click to view
Midcoast Aviation, Cahokia, MO (150) – Click to view
TomoTherapy, Madison, WI (10%) – Click to view
Boston Globe, Boston, MA (unknown) – Click to view
Police Department Kansas City, MO (16) – Click to view
Clear One Health Plans, Bend, OR (25) – Click to view
Save – A – Pet, Greyslake, IL (40%) – Click to view
Microtune, Plano, TX (10%) – Click to view
Viking Range Corporation, Greenwood, MS (30) – Click to view
Current Media, San Francisco, CA (unknown) – Click to view
NH Department of Corrections (37) – Click to view
Bossier City, LA (88) – Click to view
Calumet City IL Schools (57) – Click to view
Lackawanna County, PA (30) – Click to view
Verizon, Newark, DE (66) – Click to view
Bistol Meyers Squibb, National (355 of Abilify sales force) – Click to view
MetLife, Lackawanna County PA (34) – Click to view
Stanley Furniture, Stanleytown, VA (unknown) – Click to view
North Providence, RI (35) – Click to view
Louisiana State Department of Education, Baton Rouge, LA (50) – Click to view
Yuba Community College, Clearlake, CA (56) – Click to view
Chelan County, WA (50) – Click to view
City of Kingston, NY (28) – Click to view
AOL, NY, NY (2,000) – Click to view
EBay, San Francisco, CA (several dozen) – Click to view
LCN Closers, Princeton, IL (47) – Click to view
NC Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, NC (thousands) - Click to view
City of Aurora, CO (50) – Click to view
Ohio State Prisons, Ohio (41) – Click to view
Osceola County, FL (40) – Click to view
University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, OH (50) – Click to view
Volvo Trucks North America, Dublin VA (50) – Click to view
Zillion TV, Sunnyvale, CA (1/3) – Click to view
Victor Valley College, Victorville, CA (28) – Click to view
DaySpring Inc, Siloam Springs, AR (53) – Click to view
CNN, Atlanta, GA (unknown) – Click to view

Source: Google, Twitter, AllPinkSlips.com, Telonu.com, TechCrunch.com, CoStar.com, Gawker, Screwedd.com

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant layoff plans, or employers reducing large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Who's Hiring? Week of 10/12/09

2009-10-12T15:33:00.001-05:00

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

Total Job Openings:
The Restaurant, Retail, Telecommunications, Health Care, Defense and Banking verticals are the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Restaurants including McDonald's, Cracker Barrel, and Arby’s were heavy job advertisers for the past month. Retailers continued hiring for the holiday season, with Blockbuster, Sears, Kmart, Macy’s, RadioShack actively searching for employees. Top Telcom hiring companies included AT&T, Verizon, and Cingular making this week’s list.

Other interesting top hiring companies included an expanded number of Banking and Financial Services companies, expanding beyond traditional banks. Banking and Financial Service companies included JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citizens’ Financial, and Citi. Some surprises included Century 21 and the hospitality industry (Marriott & Hilton).

Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job board aggregators, the following companies added the most job openings:

Total Job Openings by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

McDonald's Corporation
Blockbuster
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
AT&T
Kmart Corporation
Gentiva Health Services
Raytheon
Northrop Grumman
JPMorgan Chase
Verizon Wireless
Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC
General Dynamics - IT
Macy's
RadioShack Corporation
UnitedHealth Group
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
Quest Diagnostics
Kindred Healthcare
Terminix
Century 21 Real Estate
Marriott
Morgan Stanley Smith
Arby's
Deloitte
ACS
University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey
George S. May
Citizens Financial Group
Hilton Hotels
Flextronics
Citi
Cingular Wireless

Job Openings Added This Week:

The Restaurant, Retail, Telecommunications, Contracting, Education, Banking/Financial Services, Defense, and Health Care verticals are the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Some interesting companies expanding with new ads this week are Perini Plumbing, hiring plumbing and mechanical contractors nationwide – including inexperienced hires. Financial services companies continue to expand with JPMorgan Chase continuing heavy hiring, joined by Edward Jones, Ameriprise Financial, Scottrade, and Freddie Mac. Real Estate company CB Richard Ellis also joined the top companies hiring this week.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies not included):

McDonald's
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Kmart
AT&T
Perini Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors
Macy's
Murphy USA
KinderCare Learning Centers
JPMorgan Chase
RadioShack Corporation
Northrop Grumman
General Dynamics Information Technology
Edward Jones
Verizon Wireless
UnitedHealth Group
Raytheon
University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey
Verizon Wireless
Apex Systems
Quest Diagnostics
Sava Senior Care
Ameriprise Financial
Scottrade
Siemens
Yellow Pages
McGraw-Hill
Kindred Healthcare
Cingular Wireless
Freddie Mac
ACS
Accenture (corp.)
Bojangles'
CB Richard Ellis

Sources: CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired, HotJobs, Google. Excluded: Recruiters, Staffing firms, Training, Franchise, and Work-from-home opportunities.

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant hiring plans, or employers actively adding large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

How About a Bigger, Badder Monster?

2009-10-07T15:46:00.004-05:00

I spoke to Eric Winegardner, Monster's VP of Client Adoption and Kathy O'Reilly, Monster's Director of Social Media Relations at the HR Technology conference last week. Eric was excited about Monster’s new candidate and employer platforms, recently released and still in Beta. I wanted to know what changed, and what made it “new and improved”.

It turns out there’s more than just a new skin on Monster. The job board has made some interesting advances towards contextual search…what most of us mistakenly call artificial intelligence. For us non-geeks out there, contextual search is defined as “A search for documents or records based upon the data they contain, rather than their file names or key fields”, according to Answers.com. Or in other words, Monster is now a more intuitive search that delivers close matches.

Why is this important to job seekers?

Contextual search allows you to have related jobs included in your search, rather than multiple searches or complicated Boolean formulas with nested AND and OR statements. Instead, contextual search allows the candidate to search for “RN” and pull up jobs for nurses, or search for “attorney” and find jobs for lawyers. The “Old Monster” (it’s still available if you prefer) suggests additional close searches, but would not include exact and close matches within in the same search. So a candidate only has to perform a single search.

In addition, contextual search knows the difference between a Java developer vs a Real Estate developer. A search for “Financial Executive” won’t return Executive Assistant jobs in the new Monster.

Contextual search has even further reaching implications when you consider how it affects how employers can now search. For instance, an employer searching for a Manufacturing Supervisor, might also like to see Operations Supervisors, or Manufacturing Managers at smaller companies. Contextual search allows close matches of experience to criteria. In addition, employers can search for required criteria, as well as nice-to-have criteria.

Monster’s new capabilities also allow employers to search for number of years of certain experience, plus place additional weight on recency. If a hiring manager has 3 years of events marketing experience as a criteria, the employer can direct Monster to rank candidates with 3 years of recent experience higher than candidates with that experience further in their background. This is critical for candidates to understand, as more experienced candidates tend to focus on how many people they manage, but leave out the details of their current roles. This underscores the importance of heavy resume customization for each position you apply for.

One of the Monster’s big selling points to employers is to make it easier for hiring managers to pull candidates out of the database that the employer wouldn’t otherwise find. When hiring starts to increase again, employers will start to find shortages of certain skill sets, increasing as the Baby Boom continues to retire. Even today, certain pockets of job skills are in short supply – nursing, for instance.

I was able to test drive the site, and I’ve got to admit it was pretty cool. I can see how it can save candidates time and frustration, and provide employers a closer match.

In addition to the technical changes, Monster has added a ton of new features for candidates:

1) Career Mapping: Monster now allows a janitor the tools to figure how to become an astronaut, and what steps he needs to take. For instance, Monster might suggest that our janitor friend first enroll in some flight classes, earn a pilots’ license, and log thousands of hours of flight time, because a high percentage of astronauts have already reached their career goal via that path. Next, Monster might suggest that either working as a commercial pilot, flying an Air Force jet, or getting an engineering degree might help by showing the percentage of astronauts who gained these experiences along the way.

In the same way, Monster can show a reCareering manufacturing worker what she needs to do to start a career in health care. What options does she have and what’s the best way to get there?

2) Career Snapshots: Monster publishes career snapshots so that candidates can read real, unabridged commentary about what a job is like…pros and cons. Sure it sounds cool to be an astronaut, but what if you can’t leave Piscataway, NJ? A corporate President role might sound great, but will the travel, overtime, and stress fit well with your personality? Better to get an idea first, before committing to a career track.

3) Virtual Mentoring: Monster has a huge audience of staff as well as managers. By identifying managers who are looking to “give back” and find mentoring opportunities, earlier stage employees can get career guidance from someone who’s already been there.

Finally, Monster is rolling out some social media tools, like blogs, Facebook groups, and Twitter job postings that make it easier for candidates to find job postings and job search information.

I recommend you check out some of these tools…you’ll see me there also, as my articles are often republished on Monster’s blogs.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".

Who’s Hiring – Week of 10-5-09

2009-10-05T16:22:00.003-05:00

McDonald's
AT&T
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Gentiva Health Services
Northrop Grumman
Raytheon
Verizon Wireless
JPMorgan Chase & Co
General Dynamics - IT
Kmart Corporation
Bae Systems
Deloitte
UnitedHealth Group
Kindred Healthcare
Raytheon
UnitedHealth Group
Verizon Wireless
Quest Diagnostics
Arby's
Kindred Healthcare
Macy's
Sears

Job Openings Added This Week:
The Restaurant, Telecommunications, Defense, Retail, Banking, Shipping, and Engineering verticals are the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies Not Included):

McDonald's Corporation
AT&T
Northrop Grumman
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
RadioShack Corporation
JPMorgan Chase
Verizon Wireless
Bae Systems
Raytheon
General Dynamics Information Technology
Kmart Corporation
R-Solutions, a subsidiary of RadioShack Corp
UPS
Siemens
Apex Systems
Macy's
Cingular Wireless
Morgan Stanley SmithBarney
Quest Diagnostics
UnitedHealth Group
Flextronics
Scottrade

Sources: CareerBuilder, Indeed, SimplyHired, HotJobs, Google. Monster does not list ads by company or city. Excluded: Recruiters, Staffing firms, Training, Franchise, and Work-from-home opportunities

Readers – If you know of employers announcing significant hiring plans, or employers actively adding large numbers of employees, please comment below to add to this list.

Executives exploring Career Change: For a free 30 minute resume consultation, or career advice for executives, email your resume confidentially to reCareered (phil.reCareered@gmail.com), and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Staff, Managers, Entrepreneurs, and career changers outside the US: Send your resume to phil.reCareered@gmail.com to enroll in a free group teleseminar "Accelerate Your Job Search - tools you can use".