Agile Elephant

Governor Rewards Job Creation

So Governor Corzine (D-NJ) has enacted a bill that will provide a $3,000 grant to new companies for each job that they create that lasts for one year.

An interesting attempt to drive job creation and tempt new businesses to New Jersey but right now it just seems like he is putting out a  three-alarm fire with a dixie cup.

In the long run, I hope it can make a difference but I think business owners in NJ would appreciate more of a tax cut to allow for job creation rather than have the state government force the job creation...just my 2 cents.

Spotting Resume Fraud

A good article in the WSJ on how to spot resume fraud.  Times are obviously tough and people are getting desperate.  The subtleties of the candidates' career and academic history can be easily overstated and, in some instances, flagrantly falsified.  The article points out some very key points:

• Confirm the circumstances of every change in employment
• Ask the candidate for exact dates of prior employment and have him/her explain gaps
• Don't rely solely on the references provided by the candidate
• Don't assume that candidates provided by an Executive Search firm have been fully vetted
• Run a web search

In the realm of Technology Architecture, there are many other areas that are ripe for fraudulent claims.  Let's put aside for the moment thathe title "Enterprise Architect" has been seriously diluted by many individuals claiming to be what they are not.  But we should all be aware of areas that can be verified as it relates to Architecture:

• Check credentials such as TOGAF and LZA status
• Speak directly with individuals that most recently worked with the candidate.  As a rule of thumb, I like to speak with someone who worked with the candidate, someone who worked for the candidate and someone whom the candidate reported to.  These are essential.
• Last, but certainly not least in my book, is gut instinct.  For those of us who have been interviewing candidates for longer than we can remember, there is a gut feeling that you get as to whether or not the individual will fit within your organization.  Follow that instinct and act accordingly.

The glut of candidates in the marketplace does not diminish the need to hire the best and brightest available.  Our jobs are only made that much harder in separating the wheat from the chaffe.

 

"Will I Lose My Job in the Clouds"?

The advent of cloud computing is bringing a new dynamic to the way companies are managing their infrastructure.  This, in turn, creates a new corporate strategy for managing talent.

There is still quite a bit of discussion regarding whether or not the cloud is an IT revolution.  Companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft are betting big on its complete adoption.  And who can blame them?  The reduced start-up costs, reduced capital investment, rapid scalability, access to diverse development platforms and the ability to have a flexible and powerful computing platform with a variable cost structure and no long term commitment.... this, in my opinion, is certainly the future.

One of the fall-offs from a move to the clouds is the potential ability for companies to reduce headcount within its infrastructure and application development groups.  I would like to hear from others who have experience in the cloud and find out if they are seeing a reduction in workforce.   In my opinion, this is one of the cost savings of moving applications to the cloud.  But let's not forget that this strategy comes with other costs.  The monthly charges alone can add up if you are managing large-scale projects.  But I would suspect that these prices will diminish over time and provide even more cost-effective solutions.

If you have experience working with a company that works in the cloud, I'd like to hear your opinions as to its effect on headcount.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can leverage the cloud in your company, contact me for a consultative session.

Being Part of the IT Labor Solution

I just received my latest copy of InformationWeek and enjoyed Rob Preston's article "Are You A Complainer Or Part Of The Solution?"  His summation is spot on:

In the broad scheme of things, if you're a tech employer having trouble finding good people, ask yourself these questions before you point fingers at others: Are you training and cultivating the technology professionals you now have?  Are you providing them with a clear career path?  Are your recruiters IT savvy - do they know where to look and have the chops to evaluate talent?  Are you reaching out to professional associations and schools?  Are you truly committed to IT as a competitive advantage?

If you're a tech employee having trouble advancing your career, you're not off the hook either.  Are you keeping current on technologies and best practices?  Do you understand - really understand - what matters to a business and approach your technical work with a business mind-set?  Do you work on your communication skills?  Do you network like mad?

It's too easy to point fingers in the war for talent.  The challenge is in the solution.

The Power of Relationships

Mark Cummuta has been chronicling his job search on the CIO eZine for quite some time and I have enjoyed most of his posts.  One of his most recent really got me to thinking about my business, the importance of relationships and how many people take this for granted.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to develop many good personal and professional relationships as a Recruiter.   These have been honed over time and have helped me to be successful.  When I started recruiting in the early '90's, all of my contacts were in a rolodex and resumes were stored in file cabinets.  When working on searches for clients, I would attack my rolodex of contacts and network, network, network.  The phone and the fax were my main tools of the trade.  Even email was not as widely utilized.

Now we're in the era of social networking and relationships are measured by the number of connections you have on LinkedIn.  There are a lot of people who are 'connection aggregators'.  But I never really understood what this achieved, unless you are able to take advantage of the opportunity and build real relationships with the people you connect with.

Building strong relationships is one of the real keys to success, professionally and personally.  If everyone had the ability to build and maintain these strong ties then I, and many other people in my profession, would be out of a job.

Quality, not quantity people.  And if you're really interested in building better relationships, read this book. 

Agile Thoughts For the Day

You Say EA, I Say SOA: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off:  Joe McKendrick points out that these two terms may be converging.  Until the skills gap is closed, however, and more Enterprise Architects better understand SOA, then it will be hard to use these terms interchangably.

Grown Men Can Cry: The human aspects of technology and the efforts we all put forth for others are really what makes everything worthwhile.  Maybe our personal/charitable interests should be higher up on the resume for employers to see...But would they care?  I think Jim McGovern would.

Go Big Blue!: Now I'm a Dallas Cowboy fan trapped in NY Giant country, but how lucky is this guy.... You know, I think that's actually Mike Kavis.

My Favorite Posts

I guess I could be considered a 'newbie' to blogging as I just started a year ago, but I've learned a great deal and also met some very interesting people during this journey.  Going back and looking at my posts for the past year was a good experience for me.  I wanted to give you some of my favorites.

Happy New Year to all and I wish a properous 2008 to each of you!

• Consultants are Going Fast!
• Enterprise Architects: Needles in a Haystack?
• SOA and Going Green
• SOA Governance: Is There Such a Thing as Too Much?
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Recruiting World
• Are You an Enterprise Architect...
• Enterprise Architects as Impact Players
• Winning the War for Top Talent: Build a Talent Factory
• Put Your Talent on Display
• Enterprise Architects and Online Poker
• Do Women Hate IT?  Should We Care?
• Keep Your Job From Being 'Bangalored'
• Becoming a Recruitable Enterprise Architect

"Great Opportunity, But I Can't Take the Travel"

Do you have any idea how many times I hear this every day?

Due to the nature of the skillsets I recruit for (SAP, Oracle, SOA professionals), many of my clients are large (i.e. 'Big 4') consulting firms that require a certain percentage of travel.  And while the ability to travel is important, I am always amazed at how this one aspect of the job gets completely over-blown and becomes a brick wall to a great career move.  There are many people who think about a career in consulting and have images of all the hassles that go along with it.  It's my job to debunk many misconceptions about these images.

First let me say that I realize that there are many people who can absolutely not be away from home even for 1 day during the week.  Either you have a small child at home, an infirmed relative or you are under house arrest and need to be home for curfew.  These are all understandable reasons to remain within driving distance of your home.

Now no one likes being at the airport on a regular basis.  Hell, even airline pilots hate the airport.  But it's part of their job and they need to get past it in order to fly planes, which is what they love.  So let's just look at the airport as a means to getting you to the job that you love so you get to work on the projects that excite you and fulfill your day.

You would also be surprised how many people think that consultants leave home on Sunday evening and don't come home until Friday night.  This is not the case.  Most firms ask that you travel to your client site on Monday morning and you return home Thursday afternoon.  Now there are some limited exceptions to this general rule.  I'm sure there are times in a project lifecycle where you will need to stay longer than usual, but this could happen whether you are in a corporate or consulting environment and, once again, it just comes with the territory.  But my point is that, in actuality, most consultants are away from home for three nights a week.

It has been my experience that of all the people who I have placed with a Management Consulting firm where travel was a necessity, they have embraced the opportunity and are key players within their respective organizations.  I will do a follow up post that outlines some of the benefits of this type of opportunity that you might not have thought about, but suffice to say that it is my professional opinion that travel should not be a limiting factor in exploring a great career move.

How Corporate Investment Can Hurt Recruiting Efforts

An interesting article in the WSJ (subscription required) discusses Microsoft's recent investment in Facebook and how that investment will affect Facebook's future recruiting capabilities.

Well it turns out that hiring talented employees to an internet company (I can't really refer to FB as a 'start-up' anymore) is difficult without the offer of options.  With the rise in valuation of FB, so goes the rise in the value of employee stock options.

While you can't argue the fact that stock options at a low valuation is a huge incentive for a growing internet company, I won't be shedding a tear for Facebook.  They will have to rely on other aspects of their firm in order to entice the best and brightest.

Becoming a Recruitable Enterprise Architect

My apologies for being away from the blogging realm for a brief period.  The Executive Search business is picking up a big head of steam on multiple fronts and it has simply consumed most of my time.  But I'm back on track and look forward to sharing insights and ideas on recruiting.

James McGovern has posted a few items of late regarding Enterprise Architecture and how this particular profession is managed by recruiters and executive search professionals.  He has also taken me to task personally to define 'talent' as a need within an organization.

I believe that I am unique in the sense that I am an Executive Search professional that dedicates his time to identifying and placing Enterprise Architects; especially those that have a strong understanding of SOA principles.  James (I hope I'm not being too forward using first names) claims that he is typically the first one contacted for EA positions due to his high accessibility on the internet (blogs, LinkedIn, etc.).  Well he is certainly correct that one's ability to be found on the internet creates a higher probability of being contacted by a company or a recruiter.  I highly recommend to everyone that is interested in exploring the career marketplace that they do everything they can to increase their presence utilizing the same methods that James does...blogging, LinkedIn (posting your profile as well as asking/answering questions).  Blog Roll links are also very helpful for increased exposure (any help here James?).

But what James should be very careful of are those recruiters that are simply contacting him because the two words "Enterprise Architect" happen to be in his title.  I personally have never contacted James for a job opportunity even though I am currently working on multiple needs for this type of candidate.  My lack of contacting him is driven by two factors:  First of all, and most importantly, his employer is a client of mine and I will not ravage the company that I work to build.  This is a professional ethic that I hope most recruiters follow.  Secondly, I simply have not had a position that fit James' profile.  Now I don't profess to know his background backward and forward, but I know enough from his internet presence to understand his general profile.  This second point, however, is rather moot due to my previously mentioned client relationship.

But the overall point I am attempting to make is that those recruiters or companies that are contacting him based on his title are more lost than they will ever know.

I understand his point regarding competitive compensation:

"The phrase, competitive compensation tends to mean mediocrity where they don't pay below the line, nor will you be highly compensated but will simply end up in the middle of the pack"

This is an overused term by recruiters and probably deserves some better clarification.  Recruiters are often hesitant to post an exact dollar figure in their recruiting efforts for fear of scaring away potential candidates with either too high or too low of a dollar figure.  Hopefully better information is being given to the candidates upon their initial conversation with the recruiter, but I must admit that I am as guilty of this practice as anyone.  I will endeavor to revise the policy of my staff (myself included) in at least posting more definitive information regarding salary, bonuses and other monetary and non-monetary perks.

Part of the conversation vs. interview dilemma is a tough hurdle to overcome.   As you'll read in his post, James had a great 'conversation' with an SVP that attempted to directly recruit him.  In this case, James was a known entity to this SVP due to the efforts that James had gone through to make himself visible on the net and through other mediums.  But when the client or recruiter is exploring the unknown, then many times the need for more of an 'interview' approach is necessary at first to gain some perspective.  All interviews will go much more smoothly if approached in a more conversational tone.  Would you want to work for a firm that just peppered you with questions for 2 hours?  I think not.

Recruiting is truly an art that we should all strive to perfect.  This is most important with clients that are looking to hire top talent.

While the Webster dictionary has two main definitions for the word, they both seem to work well:

1. The natural endowments of a person.

2. A unit of value equal to the value of a talent of gold or silver.

Any way you slice it, talent is a measure of value.  For our purposes, it is the value that one brings (or can bring) to an organization.  The organizations that understand the importance of this value are the ones that will succeed.  Too many companies are focused on their short-term goals (project-based needs) and are not paying any attention to hiring individuals (or existing employees) that can grow in their company.  Building a talent factory is a difficult process and cannot be done merely by attempting to match candidates with key words on a job description.  I'm sure James is smart enough to understand the difference when he is contacted.