Agile Elephant

Is Your Recruiter Working with "A Full Deck"?

I'd like to start this post by wishing a fellow blogger, James McGovern, all the best as he retires from the blogosphere.  He has always been a strong advocate for his personal and professional beliefs (whether we agreed with him or not).  I appreciate his support and his offer to speak at OWASP (I look forward to future opportunities!).  I feel confident our paths will cross again.

I'm often contacted by clients who would like for me to work on a job requirement for them.  It's not uncommon for them to provide me with very little of the information that I need to proceed.  This is not  always the fault of the hiring manager, but often times either the client assumes that the recruiter understands the scope of the requirement or the recruiter moves too quickly to get started without a comprehensive job description (and this is just a big waste of time).

 

This leaves a lot of good follow-up posting information to work on, but all clients should realize that their human capital is their greatest resource.  Yet most do not put in the time or effort to identify the best candidate.  Work with your recruiting team, whether they are internal or external, and heed their advice when moving through the hiring process.  More money will be wasted hiring the wrong candidate than taking the time and effort up front to find the right one.

 

Happy hunting!

 

IBM IMPACT, Social Media, Personal Branding and Expanding Your Network

As IBM IMPACT comes to a close, there was a lot to learn and I certainly left with an expanded viewpoint on SOA, Cloud Computing and, most interesting to me, the application of social media tools to build your personal brand and expand your network.

It was Twitter-mania as people were pounding away at their laptops and blackberries, sometimes just a few feet away from their intended message target.  Larger screens were used to display all Twitter traffic related to IMPACT (#ibmimpact).  Bloggers were treated as IT gods, given press passes and special access to learn more about what IBM had planned for release.

So what might seem to be overkill, actually made for a very interesting event.  The attendees, and not IBM, became the true focus of this conference.

Two sessions stood out for me:  First was Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) fromForrester Research.  If you follow Jeremiah on Twitter or on his blog, there are always great take-aways!  In his research, what Jeremiah was able to uncover was that social media tools were going well beyond the personal use aspects and are already very embedded in our corporate marketing culture.  More and more marketing dollars are being taken away from traditional marketing projects and being put into building an on-line brand.  And this trend is just going to continue to the point where we, as consumers, become a 'community of buyers' who can be represented or sold to on the open market.

The other session was hosted by Sandy Carter, IBM's VP SOA & Websphere Strategy.  Sandy discussed the importance of personal branding, using social media to build trust and creating an emotional connection with your intended audience.  Overall, a wonderful session.  Sandy touched on a subject that I have blogged about and presented on many times in the past; your ability to network and take advantage of the network of others is the key to creating success in your personal and professional life.. plus it is a lot of fun!

IBM IMPACT was a big success in my book.  Many connections were made to expand my own network, the network of others and I learned quite a bit about how to leverage social media tools to advance one's personal brand.  See you next year!

When good people get fired...

Working off of a good post by James McGovern, I am often reminded that I can succeed as a recruiter in a down economy because strong talent is a rare commodity and my access to it makes me unique.  The difficulty comes in finding the companies that realize that an increase in compensation levels overall can benefit a company in the long run.  However the inverse is true as well... Those that release good talent to simply reduce overhead are risking the vitality of their organization.  

"Employers don't want to pay the cost associated with replacing employees, but eliminating employees is usually considered to be a cost saving measure..."

I would like to modify this statement by James slightly.  I honestly don't think that most employers realize what costs are involved in replacing an employee (good post for a later date).  This 'cut and save' attitude is a losing proposition.  Taking advantage of the companies that are short-sighted and release good talent is key.

The days when job security was almost a certainty are long gone.  Being able to maintain a wide network of contacts will keep you active (and employed) for the long haul.

On that note, mark your calendars for April 30th, 2009 when I will be speaking at OWASP Hartford on how I go about recruiting elite IT talent and how you can better utilize your networking skills to keep yourself gainfully employed.

Top Blog for Developers!

A big thanks to Mike Kavis (@madgreek65) for pointing out to me that Agile Elephant was in the Top 200 list for influential blogs for developers.  While my ranking within that 200 is nothing to write home about, it's still nice to be recognized and I really have a ton of room for improvement.

Thank you to all those who track Agile Elephant and follow me on Twitter (@jordanhaber).  I'll keep pushing stronger content and try to achieve what I ultimately wanted: an influential blog that focuses on the human aspects of agility within any corporation.

IT Asset Management On Steroids

I don't usually post information related to my own IT Practice, but this is an area that is in high demand and worth further discussion on future posts..

I have seen an increasing need for many of my clients to get their arms around their asset management processes.  Since I'm not a shy person, I began to make some inquiries as to whether or not IT Asset Management (commonly referred to as ITAM) is a practice area worthy of exploring.  It didn't take long for me to learn quite a bit about ITAM and how it touches on every aspect of a company's internal IT spend.

After a good deal of C-Level discussions within my company, we decided to make a significant move into the IT Asset Management Services space.  It didn't take me very long to identify and recruit some of the best ITAM talent in the marketplace:  David Keith (CSAM CHAMP CITAM) and Judy McCall (CSAM CHAMP) as ITAM Director and Associate Director respectively.

David Keith is a known entity in the ITAM Practice world.  As the former Director of Government Relations and Research for the International Association of IT Asset Management (IAITAM), he has professionally trained thousands of Asset Managers in industries all over the world.  But because of his role in the Association and the need for him to remain vendor and services neutral, he has never been able to lend his expertise to the marketplace.

We're looking forward to working with Dave and Judy.  We have the ability to truly create the most robust ITAM Services Practice in the world. 

A Four-Day Work Week to Lower Costs?!?!?!

So Trip Chowdhry, the tech analyst at Global Equities Research thinks that Silicon Valley is headed for a four-day work week in 2009 (see Barrons post).  This will cut salaries by 20%, leading to lower energy usage and, ultimately, lower housing prices in an already inflated market.

You can read the post for yourself but the absolute nonsense of this type of prognostication is beyond belief.  I would pay particular attention to some of the comments from the post which are spot-on.

Even if this were true (which I highly doubt), energy costs would not be lowered as people would just have to fit their 60-hour work weeks into a 32 hour week, instead of a 40-hour week.  It would be a pure cost-cutting measure.

I would love to hear from anyone who either thinks this is a possibility or even a good idea.

Company Pride

I have been actively building a significant technology staffing and consulting group with System One Holdings for the past few months and I have to say that our focus on client satisfaction and superior services is what is driving us to the top in such a difficult economy.

But the latest report from Staffing Industry Analysts shows how our Engineering Staffing Practice exemplifies that client commitment.

 

It's not the best graphic, but we are ranked 13th in the US based on 2007 figures.  Expect that to grow for 2008.  And expect to see System One as one of the top Information Technology Staffing firms in the near future!

Cloud Strategy & Capacity Planning

The cloud looks to revive the strategic advantage of capacity planning.  Thanks to James Governor (once again) for the twittering.

It would appear as though there is a career in cloud strategy.

What is Cloud Computing?

"Talk to me like I'm five years old"

Here is a video that provides a definition of cloud computing from multiple sources.  I'm not sure I would call this worthwhile, but it's a good view.

If you need a better explanation, give James Governor a shot...

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.