Who's Hiring - Top employers week of 11-30-09

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 11/30/09. 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 experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

Total Job Openings:
The Hospitality, Shipping, Business Services, Telecommunications, Retail, and Health Care verticals are 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, Blockbuster, Macy’s and Food Lion lead seasonal Retail hiring.

Telecommunications continued strong hiring, with AT&T, and Verizon advertising heavily for employees. Health care hiring had a second strong comeback week, led by UnitedHealth, Gentiva Health, HCR Manorcare, and Amedisys Home Health among the top hiring companies.

Business Service firms, IBM, Booz Allen, Accenture, Deloitte, CSC, and SAIC continue to be in the top hiring firms, partially largely supporting federal government and DOD contracts.

Hospitality hiring made the move to the top, and has been consistently moving up the top hiring company lists during November, with Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Marriott, and Hilton all 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):

1. Pizza Hut
2. United Parcel Service
3. McDonald's Corporation
4. IBM
5. AT&T
6. Sears, Roebuck and Co.
7. UnitedHealth Group
8. Raytheon
9. Kmart
10. JPMorgan Chase
11. BAE Systems
12. General Dynamics
13. Blockbuster
14. Booz Allen
15. Gentiva Health
16. Accenture
17. Deloitte
18. Macy's
19. U.S. Army
20. HCR Manorcare
21. Liberty Mutual
22. Wells Fargo
23. FedEx
24. Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
25. Snap-on Tools
26. Marriott
27. Food Lion
28. SAIC
29. Aflac
30. Amedisys Home Health
31. Genesis Healthcare
32. Hgi Healthcare
33. Quest Diagnostics
34. Verizon Wireless
35. Wells Fargo
36. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
37. Columbia University
38. Allstate
39. Hilton Hotels
40. Fifth Third Bank

Job Openings Added This Week:

The Business Services, Shipping, Retail, Telecommunications, Defense, and Health Care 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.

Business Services made a strong comeback this week, led by IBM, SAIC, Booz Allen, Accenture, and Deloitte. AT&T continued to hire in the Telcom vertical, though Verizon dropped off this week.

Shipping companies continued to hire heavily for additional Santa’s helpers to deliver holiday gifts, with UPS and FedEx adding many ads this week. They will be delivering gifts purchased from Blockbuster, Sears, JC Penny, Kmart, Radio Shack, and Target.

Defense continued heavy hiring with US Army, BAE, and Raytheon all included in the top new employment advertisers this week. Health Care companies continue to expand with HCR Manorcare, UnitedHealth, Amedisys Home Health, and Quest Diagnostics as top hiring health care firms.

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

1. IBM
2. UPS
3. Blockbuster
4. AT&T
5. Sears, Roebuck and Co.
6. SAIC
7. JCPenney
8. U.S. Army
9. Booz Allen Hamilton
10. HCR ManorCare
11. BAE Systems
12. Raytheon
13. Kmart Corporation
14. UnitedHealth Group
15. RadioShack Corporation
16. Accenture
17. Target
18. JPMorgan Chase
19. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
20. Deloitte
21. Snap-on Tools
22. Food Lion
23. Aflac
24. Wells Fargo
25. Amedisys Home Health
26. Quest Diagnostics
27. Liberty Mutual
28. Marriott
29. Allstate
30. FedEx
31. Pizza Hut
32. Fifth Third Bank
33. Kindred Healthcare
34. Sava Senior Care
35. Aegis Therapies
36. Bed Bath and Beyond Inc.
37. Combined Insurance
38. Wachovia Bank
39. Columbia University
40. Genesis Healthcare


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".

Some Thanks on Thanksgiving

Thank you to the readers and fans of reCareered for helping me to help you this year. I’m thankful for your encouragement and support, for your engagement. I’m even thankful for your criticisms ,which keeps me on my toes, always striving to deliver better content.

Even though some of you face difficult times with the job market, I wish each and every one of you finds something to be thankful for.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Phil Rosenberg

Guerrilla Job Search Tactics

When the Department of Labor reports there are 6 times more unemployed workers than advertised jobs, you’ve got to approach job search differently than your competitors in order to get noticed.

Most candidates spend the majority of their job search efforts replying to ads, company websites, and calling/emailing their contacts, asking about available jobs, or to pass a resume along.

These tactics have an unfortunately low response rate, yet the majority of candidates use them as primary search tools. Why? Because it’s what they know…it’s in their comfort level. Plus it’s simple – it may not be effective, but it’s easy to execute.

What if there was a more effective way? Would you incorporate more effective tactics, even if they weren’t as simple?

One way is to adopt a guerrilla job hunting approach. In your job search, Information Is Power. Yet most job seekers don’t invest the time to gain an advantage by gaining better information.

Most candidates, if they do much research at all prior to applying for a job, find out little information other than what they might find in a job ad. Candidates who spend a little more time might review a company’s website … or if they’re investing a LOT of time, might search Google or business portals like Yahoo Finance. Do you think that information gives you much of an edge over other candidates? Doubtful – when your competitors can find the same information, how can it give you an advantage?

Why won’t job seekers go beyond basic publicly available information in their search? Going farther is difficult, time consuming, and outside most job seekers’ comfort zones.

Becoming a Job Search Guerrilla

Job search is a war, and you have thousands of competitors. Your primary weapons are marketing materials, contacts, and information. Guerillas don’t play by the standard rules…Guerrillas push the envelope to gain an advantage over their competition.

Many candidates focus just on marketing materials – something tangible that they can see. Marketing materials are important, but contacts and information are just as important to gain an edge.

Your best way to push the envelope is to gain an information advantage over your competitors. But how can you gain an information advantage? The same information is available to everyone on a company’s website, on Yahoo Finance, on Google.

How to become a Job Search Guerrilla:

1) Find other sources of information - Your most valuable information about a target company will come from non-public sources. How could you gain insight about what’s going on within a company beyond company websites, Google, Yahoo Finance, and the business press?

2) Maximize use of contacts – Most candidates misuse their contacts by spamming their resume, asking them for work, or to keep an eye out for openings. Using your contacts insight just as a resume conduit creates a huge missed opportunity and may result in undermining your relationship.

Instead, ask for insight and gather data. Your contacts have a wealth of information of what’s going on within your target companies. Why not learn from them? Ask what their department is working on, what business opportunities their company is focused on, how they interface with the department you’re interested in, what are the top corporate initiatives, and company concerns/risks? Ask what bothers your contact about their company, what’s bugging their boss?
If your contact can’t or won’t answer these questions, talk to someone else in the company. It doesn’t have to be the CEO, but a Mail room clerk might not be so helpful either (unless you’re looking for a job in the mail room). Of course, the closer your contact is to your desired department and hiring manager, the better.

3) Build intelligence – Evaluate the data you’ve gotten from a number of sources within the company. What does it tell you about the issues that affect your target department and it’s manager? Is the company cutting costs? Is it expanding products or locations? Is it focused on customer retention, developing new customers, or lowering the cost per customer?

How does this information translate to pain? Do you have a track record solving any of this pain? (If you don’t have experience solving your target company’s identified pain, keep looking or choose a different target).

4) Gather more data to find more pain – Hang out at the water cooler. Since you may not be able to loiter inside the company or hide behind potted plants, do the next best thing. Hang out where employees have lunch or go to a nearby happy hour. Make it a point to spend a few early Friday evenings at the closest bars around your target company and make some new friends. You’ll be amazed at the information you can gather and the additional informational assistance you can gain just by buying a few drinks.

5) Be selective – Guerrilla job search takes time. You can’t scatter-shot this strategy. Pick a small handful of your top targets for Guerrilla tactics.

This is exactly how the folks on Wall Street make extraordinary returns – it's legal to use use inside information to gain an unfair advantage in the job market and an incredibly effective strategy. Just don’t buy investments from this information.

One of the best times to gather this information is during the holiday season. How will you use the next 6 weeks to advance your job search?

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".

Source: http://reCareered.blogspot.com

Related Articles:
Networking Wedding Crashers – Be the Only One Like You in the Room
What Can You Do When Nothing's Working in Your Job Search?

For access to more information:
Become a fan of reCareered on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chicago-IL/reCareered/21126045429
Join Career Change Central on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1800872

Whos Hiring – Week of 11-23-09

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

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?

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?

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?

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

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

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

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:

1. 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.


2. 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.


3. 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.


4. 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.


5. 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?

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

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

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

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?

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”:

1. The risk of change is seen as greater than the risk of standing still
2. People feel connected to others who are identified with the old way
3. People fear they lack the confidence to change
4. People feel they lack the competence to change
5. People feel overloaded and overwhelmed
6. People have a healthy skepticism and want to make sure new ideas are sound
7. People fear hidden agenda among would-be reformers
8. People fear that proposed change threatens their notions of themselves
9. People anticipate a loss of status or quality of life
10. 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".