The Software Scout Inc.

Blog: items written in previous eLetters from The Software Scout

2/12/08:

Welcome to my electronic newsletter! In this newsletter I write about local employment or the local economy, work that I am currently doing, positions I am looking to fill, stories related to employment, or anything else that I think would be of value to my readers. Please feel free to pass this on to other people that might be interested, especially the hot positions listed below. Let me know if you have any questions or if there is something that you would like me to write about. For subscription information please see the bottom of the newsletter.

Employment Projections: You have all been reading my comments about the labor shortage that is approaching. I found some statistics to back up some of the anecdotal tales that I have been telling. It is the Employment Projection report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics which was released this past December. Over the next ten years the number of jobs is expected to increase by 15.6 million. The labor force is expected to grow by 12.8 million. That is a difference of 2.8 million. "Computer systems design and related services" jobs are projected to grow by 38.3 percent, which is the third largest growing group of jobs. The quickest growing group is actually "Management, scientific, and technical consulting services" expected to grow by 77.9% and which I would think contains some computer related jobs. Combine these with the continued decline in the number graduates in computer related college programs, and I think that the odds are high that computer professionals will be in high demand in the coming years. You can see the actual report on http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.nr0.htm.

Viewpoint Data Management: I previously mentioned that I am working with Viewpoint Data Management, and that I would provide more details. I have been working directly with the company for over a month now, and I like it more than ever (I worked with the parent Viewpoint Systems multiple times previously).

Viewpoint Systems has been here in Rochester for 16 years now, and has seen steady growth over that time. They have done software consulting and projects, training, specialize in working with LabView and have been a partner with National Instruments for as long as I have known the company. The company is still in a stable growth mode, and will continue to expand their services and size.

In the course of their work they helped clients to gather large amounts of data, and they found that there was so much data that clients were having a hard time dealing with it. Thus was born Viewpoint Data Management to create a product to solve the problem. VDM recent launched their first product called Aperio (http://www.myaperio.com) and is currently selling the product. We are currently looking for Windows developers for the implementation teams to continue expaning the group.

My experience is that this is a very bright, talented, and enthusiastic team. If you know anyone that wants to work with a great team in a growing company, please have them contact me.

2/5/08:

1/4/08:

Welcome to my electronic newsletter! In this newsletter I write about local employment or the local economy, work that I am currently doing, positions I am looking to fill, stories related to employment, or anything else that I think would be of value to my readers. Please feel free to pass this on to other people that might be interested, especially the hot positions listed below. Let me know if you have any questions or if there is something that you would like me to write about. For subscription information please see the bottom of the newsletter.

I know that is has been two month since my last newsletter. I was waiting to get contracts signed with two new clients before sending this out. One side effect is that this newsletter will be longer than usual, and that I still have more material that I could not fit in here!

Local Economy: My thought today is simple. The local economy is continuing to grow. The evidence of this is that I have more business now than I have had since 1999. Companies only need staffing help when they are growing.

Employment and the future: I find it hard to understand how so many managers and directors of companies do not understand employment trends and where things are going to be in three to five years. I was talking with a recruiter recently, and he was getting heat from management because he was not filling positions fast enough. This is a company that is very forward-thinking in most ways, but that does not understand that good employees are getting tougher to find, and that time and money need to be allocated to new programs to bring is good applicants.

I will qualify my first statement by saying that in some ways I do understand. Back in 1999 someone tried to recruit me saying "things are not always going to be this good. You will be much better off in a larger staffing company, which will provide some stability when the economy goes down. Here is my card - give me a call." I never called. I never thought that the need for software engineers, and thus my job at finding them, would not be needed. While this person was wrong about her company having more stability, she was right about the economy dropping. I was not looking ahead, not watching trends, not listening.

I am paying attention now. I was stuck for a number of years, and if possible I am going to prevent it from happening again. I would guess that I am surprised at how many people are like I was. I tend to think that managers and directors have some type of forecasting in their job description, but maybe they get so caught up in the day-to-day activity that they do not have time to look ahead. Even more curious is that many of the Rochester Top 100 executives say that finding talent is one of the biggest challenges that they have. However I know that some of these same companies have done nothing to actually create solutions to the problem.

So while I am still accused of being an optimist, on this subject I now sound like more of a doom sayer: Employers beware, competition for employees will get tougher and tougher over the next five years. If you want to thrive, and be on the top, the time to start making positive changes in your company is now!

10/18/07

9/13/07:

Welcome to my electronic newsletter! In this newsletter I write about local employment or the local economy, work that I am currently doing, positions I am looking to fill, stories related to employment, or anything else that I think would be of value to my readers. Please feel free to pass this on to other people that might be interested, especially the hot positions listed below. Let me know if you have any questions or if there is something that you would like me to write about.

Local Economy: The September hiring season is here! I am seeing more positions posted daily. More detail in my next eLetter.

Unlearning the rules: As many of you know I worked for many years doing agency work before switching to staffing and HR work as a consultant. Part of the agency job is to present the candidate in the best light, because the goal was to get the candidate an interview. If the candidate interviewed, and it went well, the next step was to do reference checks. Upon completion of two to three good reference checks the client would consider a job offer. Please realize that as an outside agent the situation was often very delicate. One negative item anywhere along the line was often enough to get the candidate crossed off the list of eligible candidates. Once that happened it was close to impossible to change the mind of the client, as the agent would be perceived as trying to get a commission check rather than trying to help the client and candidate. When something went wrong the agent would try to explain, while trying hard not to be perceived as pushy which could also cause the loss of the client. [Obviously the situation would be different if it were a long term client with whom a strong honest relationship had been built, but I am not looking at that case right now]. After a little effort the agent would give up on that candidate, and begin to look for a new candidate.

Recently while working on the 'inside' for one of my clients, I had found an excellent candidate for one of the positions I had been looking to fill. The candidate had been to several interviews, and I was doing reference checks. One of the references ranked the candidate as below average on two items. I marked the items as the reference had spoken, and continued on. I did not think that it would cause a problem, as it was two items out of 10, and the other reference had given the candidate good marks on those items. It turned out I was wrong and those items did cause a big concern, and doubt about whether or not to hire the candidate. I went back to doing more reference checks with the thought that more positive responses would override the concerns. It was at that point that my co-worker, an experienced HR Manager, called back the first reference and dug for a lot more detail about those two poorly marked items. It turned out that the items were not really bad when a lot more detail was added, and that the candidate was still a very good fit for the position. The humbling part for me was that I had never considered calling back the first reference for that detail. I had learned that 'rule' of not pushing too hard while doing my agency work and it had closed my mind to an excellent way to solve the problem. The event increased my respect for the HR Manager, and caused me several days of introspection looking at what other rules I might need to unlearn.

New Business Model: I am continuing to work on-site with a small number of clients. I am still working at RSA, and this week I am discussing work with three new possible clients. I like this work because I have been able to save my clients significant money while building high quality staff, and have fun working on-site directly with the hiring managers. I also have more previous clients asking for help with direct placements as well, and some of those jobs are listed below.

8/15/07:

Welcome to my electronic newsletter! In this newsletter I write about local employment or the local economy, work that I am currently doing, positions I am looking to fill, stories related to employment, or anything else that I think would be of value to my readers. Please feel free to pass this on to other people that might be interested, especially the hot positions listed below. Let me know if you have any questions or if there is something that you would like me to write about.

Finding fault?: A few months ago I had a candidate that was interviewing with one of my clients. He had been in for several interviews, and was well liked. The client had asked me to do the reference checks and was discussing an offer internally. There were some delays as a few of the company officers were away for various reasons. Then I received a surprise. The candidate sent me an email telling me that he had accepted another offer, that he was no longer available, and thanked me for the help. My initial reaction was to think that the candidate was not very smart for not waiting for the second offer, or at least for not calling me to tell me that he had received the offer, and to see what could be done to speed up my client. In retrospect I have several more thoughts. My first new thought is that my competitor (regardless of whether it was an agency or direct company) obviously did a much better job of selling the opportunity to that candidate than I had done. I also realized that I had not been in constant contact with this candidate, and that I did not even know that the other offer was pending.

I am reminded of a quote that I will probably not get quite right (and that I could not find on-line): "People do not necessarily learn from making mistakes. Learning from a mistake takes self awareness, the admission that a mistake was made, analysis to understand the true cause of the error, tactics to approach similar problem differently, and a real desire to be better. The lack of any of these can doom a person to repeating mistakes." In my case my errors were underestimating the competition, and overconfidence in the sales pitch that I had given the candidate. I have taken other steps to make sure that I do not repeat those mistakes, and I will go into those another time. Are there any mistakes that you have not learned from? Any mistakes that you have made more than one time?

New Business Model: I am continuing to work on-site with a small number of clients. I have completed my work with TEOCO and I had been using my spare time to work on my house and do some contingency placements for some clients. I am still working at RSA, and this week I am starting looking for another part-time client. If you know anyone that needs staffing help please let me know. I have been able to save my clients significant money while building high quality staff.

6/20/07:

Welcome to my electronic newsletter! In this newsletter I write about local employment or the local economy, work that I am currently doing, positions I am looking to fill, stories related to employment, or anything else that I think would be of value to my readers. Please feel free to pass this on to other people that might be interested, especially the new positions listed below.

The Market: I have seen some pretty quick changes in the market in the past few months. The demand for senior software engineers has turned the corner, and those people are much harder to find now. This is generally true of C# and J2EE developers, and I expect the demand for other types of developers will follow. I know that for several years now I have been hearing that there will be a shortage of workers, but I always kept a wait-and-see attitude. Well, I am seeing it now. Combine this with a 70% decrease in college enrollment in computer related programs (over the past 6 years), and that there are no H1B visas available again until 2008, then you see that the rest of the year will be a challenge. I also know a few people that will be retiring this year. Granted I do not think the retirement of the Baby Boomers will impact computer professions as much as many other older professions, but I expect that there will be a ripple effect much the same as the dot com crash. An interesting reflection of this is that I recently saw a developer with three job offers at one time, and that after turning down several more interviews. This was the first time I had seen that in eight years. I have also had a few more companies express interest in my staffing services, which is also a very nice change. It is nice to be in demand again.

My prediction: that there will be fewer companies in the US in five years, mainly because there will be fewer people working. Those companies that can attract and retain workers are the companies that will survive. Companies will need to be lean and efficient, and able to use employees effectively.

Personal news: After several months of studying I passed my SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) exam. The combination of this and my BSCS may make me unique in this area. If I have not been in contact with you over the past few months, this has been the reason.

4/12/07:

Welcome to my electronic newsletter! In this newsletter I write about local employment or the local economy, work that I am currently doing, positions I am looking to fill, stories related to employment, or anything else that I think would be of value to my readers. Please feel free to pass this on to other people that might be interested, especially the new positions listed below.

Local Employment: I have seen strong improvements since my last newsletter, with many more small companies looking to increase staff. Many of these are having a tough time finding the right people. It seems that the toughest positions to fill are the software engineers and related positions. One clear indication of the demand is that some of my old contacts have tracked me down and asked me for help (see Jobs section below). I am not saying that this demand is in all areas, as I still perceive that there are many more IT and network administration professionals out there than there are positions. I have been seeing overall improvement for over two years, and it looks to be continuing.

Lightening up: Earlier today I was working on updating my website, which was badly needed (and there is still more to do...). I came across the Humor section, and had some good laughs. I had not actually made any changes to that section in six years, and apparently had not even read it is a while, as I did not remember most of the humor there! So take a break from your stressful job and relax for a few minutes http://www.softwarescout.com/humor.shtml.

New Business Model: As most of you probably already know I have changed my business model. I am now working as a staffing consultant with small technical companies, either on an hourly or retained search basis. This saves my clients money while building high quality staff. I am still working with RSA, but I have also begun to look for some new clients as I have more time in my schedule.

I have begun working toward my Human Resources certification, and as such I am taking a class I found through the Genesee Valley Chapter of SHRM www.gvcshrm.org. There is still plenty of room in the course, though if you are interested sign up soon, as you will also have to register for the test. The paragraph below is written by Frank about the course. I hope to see you there!

Human Resource Professionals: Isn’t it time you joined the growing number of your colleagues who have earned certification as a Professional in Human Resources (PHR®) or Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR®)? With the PHR® or SPHR® designation you can set yourself apart from the crowd and receive the recognition you deserve. CANIAHR is offering an intensive four-day preparation workshop May 30th – June 2nd in Rochester. For additional information and registration forms visit www.caniahr.com and click on the “Workshops” tab.

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Eric R. Derby, The Software Scout
office: (315) 906-4085 - mobile: (315) 719-1897