May 31, 2007

Who's what, where
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:42 AM

Have a new hire or a promotion you want to crow about?

Then this is the place, the Who's What, Where page on Boston.com. It's located under the Business tab on the site and is the key place to be seen for new hires and promotions in Greater Boston.

All the info you need to submit a listing is there. And it's all free. So make sure your movers and shakers are noticed.

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May 22, 2007

The 2007 Globe 100
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:52 PM

Did you read the Globe today?

If not, you may have missed it - the annual Globe 100, with rankings of the top public companies in Massachusetts.

This year the section appeared for the first time in glossy magazine format, just like all your favorites found on the magazine rack. And it's free with today's paper.

If you didn't see it, you're not out of luck. Our multimedia wizards here at Boston.com have captured the entire magazine and added dozens of features - video, audio, an interactive quiz, and more - that lend even more value to the core information.

Whether you're interested in biotech or high tech, the largest employers in Massachusetts, or any of dozens of different slices of information, if it's about business in the Commonwealth, it's here.

Check it out now.

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May 17, 2007

Building an intern inventory
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:13 PM

It's that time of year: intern time. Your department managers are taking a look at their needs for the summer months and letting you know if they could use an intern or two.

But, says Workforce Management magazine, maybe you should be thinking a little more strategically about this critical talent pool:

Employers that don't yet understand the strategic value that Gen Yers play in the labor force could suffer talent shortages in the future. This group of individuals is a critical source of workforce inventory - the batch of interns recruited this season can be harvested for entry-level positions next year.

"Companies need to think of interns not only as a source of educated yet inexpensive labor, but also as the next wave of leaders," Rothberg says. There are about 4 million U.S. college students, of whom 1.5 million to 1.75 million are in their junior or senior year - the prime years for internship recruitment.

In the interest of full disclosure I do have a college-age daughter (junior) who is interested in interning (PR, communications) this summer. Fortunately for her she has already landed the type of position she was seeking. But I can tell you that her campus career services office and I both coached her to approach it strategically - yes, get the right experience, but if you can also get it with the right firm and perform well for them, who knows, it might result in a full-time job offer after graduation.

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May 14, 2007

Welcome to Boston.com/Monster
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 2:02 PM

Happy birthday to us!

One week ago today we launched the new Boston.com/Monster website. After four-plus years of noble service, we have retired the BostonWorks name and brand. May it rest in peace.

In its place, you now have access to the world's leading jobs database right here on Boston.com. That's what Monster does for you - in a heartbeat.

And because we're still Boston.com, the online home of The Boston Globe, you'll still get all the great career and employment stories you're used to seeing from the Boston Sunday Globe, which started appearing yesterday in the newly renamed "Careers" section.

Plus all the employer-focused content you're used to seeing right here on the Hiring Hub, from NEHRA - The Voice of HR, to Elaine Varelas' Hire Authority, to Aaron Green's On Staffing, not to mention the HR Blog, is all still available.

What more could you ask for? It's one-stop shopping: Monster's industry leading database, tools, and functionality; the great Globe coverage and original Hiring Hub content you've come to know and love; and all the other recruitment vehicles we offer such as our career fairs and special sections, all right here. All focused on Greater Boston.

Job seekers know it, too. With over 50,000 local job listings, this is far and away Boston's biggest and best careers site. It's no secret.

Any questions? If so, head to our Boston.com-Monster Alliance FAQ page. Till next time, see you in the resume database.

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May 11, 2007

Not just a glass ceiling, but a mommy wall
Posted by Diane Danielson at 8:56 AM

It's almost Mother's Day and Ellen Goodman discusses the bias against "moms" in the office.

Here's a Mother's Day card from a study just published by Shelley Correll in the American Journal of Sociology. Correll performed an experiment to see if there was a motherhood penalty in the job market. She and her colleagues at Cornell University created an ideal job applicant with a successful track record, an uninterrupted work history, a boffo resume, the whole deal.

Then they tucked a little telltale factoid into some of the resumes with a tip-off about mom-ness. It described her as an officer in a parent-teacher association. And -- zap -- she was mommified.

Moms were seen as less competent and committed. Moms were half as likely to be hired as childless women or men with or without kids. Moms were offered $11,000 less in starting pay than non-moms. And, just for good measure, they were also judged more harshly for tardiness.

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May 9, 2007

High heels and flip-flops
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:41 AM

Just when I thought it was another generic article about how bad high heels are for women, they toss in the bit about how bad flip flops are too!  I have to admit, while I love most things about Generation Y, the flip-flops in the office drives me nuts.  (Sorry, I'm just not a fan of any open toe shoes in the office - or as one of my pals says: no cleavage at all in the office - no frontal cleavage, no butt cleavage and no toe cleavage). 

Women often think they're doing their feet a favor when they ditch the heels and put on flip-flops or ballet flats because there's no heel, no pointed toe, no reason to worry. Right?

Not so, say podiatrists, who treat foot problems often exacerbated by improper footwear. "The thing that flip-flops do best is carry patients into my office," said Stephen Pribut, a D.C. podiatrist. The repeated process of lifting your heel away from the shoe surface (creating that characteristic flip-flop sound) creates tension in the foot, said Pribut, which can worsen such painful inflammatory conditions as plantar fasciitis.

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May 8, 2007

Miss MySpace Cautionary 2007
Posted by Maureen Crawford Hentz at 9:59 AM

Well, it's started: what I predict will be annual, graduation-season calls to students to clean up their MySpace pages. 2007 has been kicked off by coverage of a lawsuit filed by Millersville University graduate Stacy Snyder. A photo and caption published on Stacy's MySpace page cost her dearly last year, one day prior to her graduation. To read the story on CNN.com, click here.

What is unique in this case, is that according to CNN.com, Ms. Snyder is suing her university for the actions taken in reaction to her MySpace content.

Although Snyder apologized, she learned the day before graduation that she would not be awarded an education degree or teaching certificate.

Jane S. Bray, dean of the School of Education, accused Snyder of promoting underage drinking, the suit states.

A copy of the picture and the lawsuit can both be accessed at The Smoking Gun.

When will GenXers and Boomers begin to understand that millennial culture has shaped and is shaping the use of sites like MySpace? Posting a picture on social networking sites like this is a common 'cultural' practice.

That the picture in question is innocuous doesn't seem to enter into the equation. Unfortunately, GenXers and Boomers look to sites like MySpace and assign (mostly negative) valuations like 'not professional' and 'no filter' to people posting their lives 'out there'.

Wouldn't our attitudes be different if photo documentation from our college days was suddenly available?

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May 3, 2007

Hub's inner city ranks high in booming firms
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:37 AM

Diversity - and thriving diversity at that - is the new watchword of inner city Boston, according to a new economic report cited in today's Boston Globe:

Boston has more of the fastest-growing inner-city companies than all but one other US city, according to a report due out today.

Five companies on the annual Inner City 100 list, compiled by Inc. magazine and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a group founded by Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter, are based here. Three are owned by minority women, which Porter said reflects a national explosion in the number of minorities becoming entrepreneurs.
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The report, [Initiative for a Competitive Inner City senior vice president Deirdre] Coyle said, foreshadows a shift that will force corporate America to drastically alter how it does business.

"In 10 to 20 years, we will be an extremely heterogeneous population everywhere, and we will be majority ethnic-minority. If you're a business owner or you're a corporation and you're not doing business in the inner cities now, you're missing an opportunity," she said.

Read the full article here.

For more local diversity info, read the latest DiversityBoston - Spring, 2007 special magazine supplement, found exclusively here on BostonWorks.

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Mom's annual worth: $138,000
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:58 AM

OK, compensation experts. Sharpen those pencils and answer this question: How much is a mother worth?

While many might say there is no way to quantify the value of a mother (priceless, in the current advertising catch phrase), Waltham-based Salary.com has once again this year put a monetary value on a stay-at-home mom's worth - and it's going up:

The work of a stay-at-home mother has an annual monetary value of $138,095, up 3 percent from last year, according to a survey out today.

Those are some findings from the seventh annual Mom Salary Survey issued by Salary.com, a Waltham compensation software and consulting firm.

Here's the piece from yesterday's "Daily Business Update."

Got an opinion on the matter? Then join the conversation and let us know your thoughts on the message board.

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Many female lawyers dropping off path to partnership
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:56 AM

From yesterday's Boston Globe, more fuel on the fire about women leaving their careers and the workplace:

Female lawyers continue to face intractable challenges in their attempts to become partners, causing them to abandon law firm careers -- and the legal profession entirely -- at a dramatically higher rate than men, according to a local study to be released today.
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The report, "Women Lawyers and Obstacles to Leadership," which was produced by the MIT Workplace Center in conjunction with several of the state's major bar associations, is rife with devastating commentaries on law firm life, including one female lawyer's remark that "I would not encourage my daughters to enter the legal profession."

Read the full piece.

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May 1, 2007

Massachusetts lags nation in women leaders
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:36 AM

Judith H. Dobrzynski has a good editorial in this morning's Globe about how Massachusetts still lags behind national averages for women leaders in corporate America.

There's been a lot of talk lately about women fleeing corporate America because they are unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to advance. Perhaps. But doesn't it seem just as likely that women are leaving because they are not allowed into corridors of real power even after they've made the sacrifices?

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Among the 30 that have neither a woman officer nor a woman director are Perini, Watts Water Technologies, Safety Insurance Group, Progress Software, Boston Beer, Zoll Medical, Cognex, and iBasis.

There's also Kronos, which calls itself a "human capital management software company" and clearly ought to know better. And there's American Dental Partners, which tellingly uses a large image of a woman on its home page, but has no women in its top ranks.

Among those who managed to find a woman director but lack women officers are Thermo Fisher Scientific, Boston Properties, CMGI, Investor Financial Services, Clean Harbors Inc, Varian Semiconductor, PolyMedica, and Lojack.

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