June 30, 2005

Coming soon near you: .jobs
Posted by at 9:49 PM

Job seekers may soon have an easier way to search for openings at their target companies:

For the very first time in the short history of the domain industry, Corporate Human Resources Departments have an opportunity to highlight their strengths and the vision of their company through the .jobs domain name. The .jobs registry expects the .jobs domain to "offer an exact destination for job seekers (i.e., companyname.jobs), and provides the HR function a consistent method to communicate and promote HR (including jobs) information." For potential job seekers, the companyname.jobs domain clearly tells them how to get to a company's career page, rather than to search the main corporate web page for the careers site.

Read the entire piece.

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Now hiring: hot jobs of the moment
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:16 PM

Things are definitely heating up in the job market, especially in certain segments, as this piece from the Christian Science Monitor (via WBUR) reports:

Although experts are quick to agree that the job market is not quite up to the late 1990s, when the economy was creating about 300,000 jobs per month, there are nevertheless numerous professions that are hiring as fast as the resumes come in.
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"The hot jobs are in the forefront of technology and medicine, or they are in the sweet spot of where the economy is growing like energy, healthcare services, financial controls, and international," says John Challenger of the Chicago outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "Of the hot jobs, the most sustainable will be those where you can't be outsourced."

Read the article.

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The Catch-22 for job seekers
Posted by Jason Tuohey at 2:29 PM

The age-old Catch-22 for many job seekers is: To get a job, you need experience, however, you can't get experience without having a job. Most of us have probably found ourselves in this frustrating position at least once in our lives, myself included. So, I dug up an old Washington Post article that gives some good advice on what you can do to get your foot in the door.

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June 28, 2005

Special Report on Sarbanes-Oxley
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:55 AM

For finance professionals, here is a terrific resource from CareerJournal. They have created a Special Report on Sarbanes-Oxley and the hiring opportunities it has created:

Hiring demand is extremely high for specialists who can help companies comply with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations. Yet we often hear from finance professionals who say they aren't sure how they might translate their skills to opportunities in this booming specialty.

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June 27, 2005

Beware your employment contract
Posted by Jason Butler at 2:04 PM

Eric Wise gives some good advice for engineers about landmines in employment contracts.

A very common mistake I see being made by developers involves the signing of their employment contracts. Oftentimes there are clauses, like invention clauses, in the contract which can have a signficant impact on your personal time and pet projects

Make sure your company doesn't claim ownership over your outside and freelance projects.

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Top ten soft skills employers seek
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:18 PM

While many individuals focus on the acquisition of job-specific skills and knowledge in order to obtain and retain employment, these attributes alone are not enough. Employers also recognize and seek out another set of attributes, broadly known as "soft skills", that enable a person to work well within an organization:

'Soft-skills' refer to a cluster of personal qualities, habits, attitudes and social graces that make someone a good employee and a compatible co-worker. Companies value soft skills because research suggests and experience shows that they can be just as important an indicator of job performance as hard skills.

Read the article, via our NYT sister site About.com, including a list of the top ten soft skills sought by organizations.

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June 24, 2005

Boomers being wooed
Posted by at 4:53 PM

Interesting article from careerjournal.com on what some companies are doing to attract the older worker.

Age bias is about as common as coffee in the workplace, but there are signs that may be changing as a small but growing number of companies seeks to attract older workers. Some companies cite the need to beef up shrinking work forces, while others worry about the loss of wisdom as the Baby Boomers hit retirement age.

Read the entire article.

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Pfizer to add 50 staffers at its Cambridge lab
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:51 AM

From today's Globe:

Pfizer Inc., the drug manufacturing giant based in New York, said it is hiring additional scientists at its Cambridge research lab as the facility has assumed a larger role within the multinational corporation.

Philip J. Vickers, a Pfizer vice president and head of the Memorial Drive facility, said the firm is about halfway through hiring 50 additional staffers, including scientists, which would bring the workforce there to 175, an increase of 40 percent.

Read the entire piece.

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June 22, 2005

From making movies to making moves
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:58 PM

What's the connection between making films and making urban housing? A local up and coming real estate developer tells his story:

Tim Pappas muses on the similarities between making films, a craft he studied at New York University, and building homes, a craft he has learned as part of his family's decades-old real estate business.

The idea, in both cases, is to keep the consumer in mind.

''Who are you telling the story to? Who's the audience?" he asks.

Read the piece from today's Boston Globe.

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June 20, 2005

Ever want to run a job board?
Posted by Jason Butler at 2:41 PM

BostonWorks is looking for a Senior Product Manager.

You'll be driving the development of the BostonWorks.com product, leading innovation and managing execution. ? You'll work on making the business cases for projects, building the ones that have the most market impact. ? It's your product. We expect you to be able to do something special with it.

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And the winner is ...
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:56 AM

Maybe winning is on my brain because I'm reading Jack Welch's new book, but it seems that recently "winning" is definitely in vogue for businesses these days. See an online article from a new national women's business magazine, aptly titled, Pink Magazine, about Negotiating to Win.

The trouble starts early on. From the sandbox to the playing field to the classroom, boys encounter far more power and control over their environment than girls do. Boys are often rewarded more often for taking a stand and admonished less frequently for making aggressive demands. It's no wonder they grow up more eager to negotiate than women.

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Hiring solid through September
Posted by Jason Tuohey at 9:05 AM

Career Journal reports that U.S. companies will be hiring at a steady pace through September. Here's the money quote:

"The survey of 16,000 U.S. employers found that 57% see no change in work-force levels in the third quarter compared with the current quarter, while 31% expect to increase their hiring."

The article even makes a reference to the hiring boom of the late 1990s!

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June 16, 2005

Is working from home your calling?
Posted by at 11:32 AM

For years, a career dream of mine was to work from home. The dream became a reality in 1998 and lasted for three years. Though it had its perks, all was not rosy.

Here’s a balanced article from WorldWIT on the “good, bad, and the ugly” of working from home.

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Managing the Edge (and Bono)
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:24 AM

From sister site the New York Times Job Market, an interesting piece on the job of a rock band manager, profiling U2 manager Paul McGuinness:

The band members and I were always aware that it would be pathetic to be good at music but bad at business. They shared my understanding that great rock 'n' roll is a complex equation involving art, commerce, advertising, fashion, sex, politics and all sorts of things.

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June 14, 2005

How to hire a product manager
Posted by Jason Butler at 1:58 PM

I'm a product manager. I've always had a hard time explaining to people just what it is I do, my daily alchemy of trying to fuse sales, marketing, design and technology needs into a cohesive whole that can actually ship and can actually sell.

It's even harder to describe what you're seeking when trying to hire one.

I came across this article entitled "How to hire a product manager." It's fabulous, especially the description of product "spidey-sense."

I am a strong believer that certain people are born with innate product instincts.  These people just know what makes a great product.  They're not always right, but their instincts usually point in the right direction.  They tend to be passionate advocates of a point of view, sometimes to the chagrin of their colleagues.  I've had the good fortune to work with a good number of these people, and it's an essential trait in product managers.  And it can be tuned, but it can't be learned.

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Still need a summer job?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:32 AM

From our new sister company, About.com, some last minute tips on landing a job as a summer camp counselor:

With only a few weeks until children begin packing their bags and leaving for summer camp, you might think that you've missed the boat for a job at a camp this summer. Think again! If you are willing to move fast you could soon be starting staff training at a camp. Here's how to approach a last minute job search.

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June 13, 2005

Advertise your availability via IM
Posted by Jason Butler at 4:30 PM

Wired reports on a novel way Hollywood types advertise their working availability: via their instant messenger "away" message.

Instead of displaying simple "away from my computer" messages, Hollywood buddy lists now overflow with come-ons, from "need work" to "wrapping up shoot." Producers hiring for a new production can tell at a glance who's available now, who's not and who might be free in the near future.

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Jobs on jobs
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:31 AM

At a commencement speech yesterday at Stanford University's Palo Alto campus, just up the road from his office at Apple Computer Inc., computer pioneer and Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs dispensed - what else? - his own brand of career advice:

Apple Computer Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates Sunday that dropping out of college was one of the best decisions he ever made because it forced him to be innovative -- even when it came to finding enough money for dinner.

In an unusually candid commencement speech, Jobs also told the almost 5,000 graduates that his bout with a rare form of pancreatic cancer reemphasized the need to live each day to the fullest.

"Your time is limited so don't let it be wasted living someone else's life," Jobs said to a packed stadium of graduates, alumni and family.

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June 7, 2005

Driving into the ground
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:03 PM

Bad news on the domestic automotive front, with the announcement today of massive layoffs at GM:

General Motors Corp. plans to eliminate 25,000 jobs in the United States by 2008 and close plants as part of a strategy to revive North American business at the world's largest automaker, its chairman said on Tuesday.

Why does this matter to us here in Beantown? Well, you never like it when the giants take a hit, because you never know what the ripple effect will be - loss of incomes, loss of buying power, not to mention the pain and suffering that will accompany each and every one of the job losses. But Wall Street will probably applaud the steps taken to correct recent troubles:

Aside from growing health care and pension costs, GM has had lackluster sales lately of its highly profitable trucks and sport utility vehicles, which have been hurt by high fuel prices.

GM's sales were down 5 percent in the first five months of the year, and the automaker reported a $1.1 billion loss in the first quarter.

Moral of the story: try to work for an outfit that's driving in the right direction. And don't buy an SUV. Buy a hybrid.

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June 1, 2005

Who needs Harvard?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 5:03 PM

An article in Sunday's Boston Globe Magazine asks the question: Who needs Harvard? Translation: there are more paths to a satisfying and lucrative career than just gaining a four-year degree that leads to a white-collar desk job:

In a city full of Audi-driving, Ivy League desk jockeys who wouldn't know an elbow wrench from a ratchet, Joe Lamacchia is preaching the gospel of calloused hands. This 46-year-old Watertown guy barely graduated from high school and spent the next 10 years feeling like a flunky because he wasn't one of the downtown suits with soft hands pushing paper for six figures.

No city of big shoulders, Boston elevates brains and dumps on brawn. Too often we forget that if the two don't meet somewhere in the middle, the streets don't get plowed and homes don't get framed.

Read the piece.

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