LaidOffCamp Comes to New York

If you’re in New York, out of work and looking – or freelancing, looking for new ideas, new contacts and maybe the opportunity to get away from your desk for a while – check out LaidOffCamp NY, happening this Friday evening and Saturday. It’s free, but you have to register. (Full disclosure: Dice is a sponsor.) You can find details of where and when here, and notes on what to expect here. (LaidOffCamp is based on San Francisco’s BarCamp, so don’t be confused if you jump around a bit between Web sites.) The New York Post’s feature, which provides a good overview, is here.

Says the event’s Wiki:

Panels, workshops, demonstrations, and discussions topics include: The art of interviewing, legal and accounting needs of new businesses, alternative working spaces, budgeting for the downturn, building your personal brand, affordable health insurance, implications of accepting a shorter work week,  unemployment insurance, and becominga freelancer.

Job Hunting Tips for IT Graduates

Folks about to graduate from college must be thinking they have lousy timing. Not only are they competing with everyone else getting their degree, but they have to prove they’ll be a better hire than hundreds – even thousands – of newly unemployed, experienced IT workers. InformationWeek and TechCareers was kind enough to offer some tips.

• Take Advantage of Your Youth: Hiring managers tend to think younger workers are more comfortable with technology. This is the time to use that to your advantage. Companies want to stay ahead of the curve on new technologies, so you should emphasize this strength.
• Describe Your Experience Creatively: Highlight any experience you’ve gained while obtaining your degree. If you don’t have any “real” experience to point to via internships, then discuss what kind of volunteer work you’ve done with various organizations.
• Make Use of Your Contacts: This probably is the most critical part of your job search, so make sure to develop good relationships with professors, on social networks or within any organization that can help you build professional contacts. Developing strong social skills now will help you in job searches throughout your career.

Protection During Your Job Search

If you’re unemployed and searching for a job, having your identity stolen or receiving scam job offers just adds insult to injury. Although it’s important to conduct online job searches with a bit more caution, remember recruiting was one of the first business processes to move online, and the industry’s experience has resulted in few incidents of candidate identity theft. Nevertheless, you can protect yourself by using a little common sense and following these tips:

• Provide limited contact information: Consider using a professional alias like: Innovative Network Specialist or just your first initial and last name and provide only your city and state of residence and a cell phone number, until you’re certain you’re communicating with a legitimate employer or recruiter. Never include your social security number on your resume or the year you graduated from college, because you want to make it as hard as possible for a perpetrator to trace your identity. Use a free e-mail account (with a professional-sounding address), or a mailbox dedicated exclusively to job search activities. That way you can keep search-related e-mail separate from personal e-mail and shut down the extra mailbox, once you’ve landed a position.
• Provide additional information with caution: While it’s certainly possible that your ID could be ripped from the database of an employer or staffing agency, landing a job requires trust and most legitimate employers and agencies take precautions to make sure your data is secure. To be on the safe side, never give a prospective employer or recruiter your social security number, unless you know why they need it. If the recruiter needs the information to process a background check, ask which background screening company will be used and who will have access to the report.
• Spotting a scam: Research the sender of any e-mail to make sure the requestor is a legitimate recruiter before responding. Don’t respond to any request for money or any advertisement offering to find you a job for a fee. And although it’s not unheard of, it’s rare for employers to post job openings confidentially. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably a scam.

Making an Interview Work

Today’s ultracompetitive job market is inducing more candidates to adopt misguided methods to stand out in an interviewer’s mind. The old saw, “You want to stand out for the right reasons,” applies more than ever. Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal provides a useful roundup of tried-and-true interview advice.

A few tactics prone to backfire: Arriving an hour early for an interview (it’s best to arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled time); mentioning your own current financial or personal challenges; handing out bound summaries of your past work-related projects.

Other interviewing chestnuts that remain as valid today as 20 years ago:

• Have a firm handshake
• Stay focused on the interviewer
• Exude an upbeat attitude, and never mention personal woes.
• Do your homework on the employer, then show it by relating your background and record with the company’s needs.
• Mention past accomplishments that are relevant to the opportunity, not just responsibilities – just as you did in your customized resume that got you the interview.
• Say nothing about compensation until the employer has made an offer.
• Know what similar positions pay in case you’re pressured to name your price during the interview.
• If you view the job as just a stopgap, don’t let that feeling slip out. You’ll be eliminated from consideration immediately if the interviewer detects, or even suspects, any lack of enthusiasm. (I’ve experienced this personally.)
• Quality-check your follow-up communications with the same care you put into proofreading your resume and cover letter. An error there could put all your effort to waste.
• After an interview and initial thank-you message, wait at least a week before checking on your candidacy.
• Don’t call a recruiter’s cell number even if it’s listed on her business card. Call only the office number.

– Jon Jacobs

No Posting Required

Astute business managers are always looking to add a great employee, even if they don’t have an opening. That’s because managers face business and personnel challenges that can only be remedied by talented people, and job postings often produce a flood of both qualified and unqualified candidates.

The concept of proactively marketing your skills to pique the interest of hiring managers was discussed in a thread created by FM1 on the Dice Discussions board.

It seems FM1 had some success submitting his resume and cover letter to local employers who touted their open door policies toward talented candidates on their Web sites, even when they appeared to have no open jobs. FM1’s initiative resulted in several interviews.

If you decide to take FM1’s approach and cold market your skills, use these tactics to achieve the best return:

1. Contact business managers: While it’s possible that a recruiter or HR rep may recognize your value and pass your resume along to IT, managers know their current and future hiring needs – and how to manipulate their budgets so they can squeeze in an additional hire. If you’re very bold, send your resume and cover letter directly to the CIO or CEO. Executives are often impressed when they are contacted by candidates, and they’ll pass your resume to the appropriate manager, which can result in an interview.
2. Anticipate business challenges: A rare skill set or experience with a respected competitor might be enough to get you an initial meeting. However, a sure fire way to score interviews is to do some homework on the company and its IT department, and then use your cover letter to discuss challenges they face. Secure an interview by describing how you’ll solve the problems.
3. Follow-up: Place at least one or two phone calls to the manager after sending your package, because he or she may not feel an urgent need to respond without an opening to fill. This is ideal an ideal method for employed candidates who want to surreptitiously test the waters. It also provides referral and networking opportunities to unemployed candidates who’d rather make something happen than sit at home waiting for the phone to ring.

The Age of Chronic Networking

Networking isn’t just for the unemployed. As more workers look over their shoulders in anticipation of the dreaded tap, they’re increasingly reaching out. According to The New York Times:

With companies firing workers in droves and those with jobs worried that they could be next, 2009 is shaping up to be a golden era of networking. Universities have shifted alumni outreach efforts to focus on career counseling and networking instruction, rather than social gatherings. The Center for Networking Excellence in New York, which advises companies, says requests for corporate seminars have increased 50 percent in the last year. Informal groups are popping up everywhere, inspired by people’s hopes that any connection might lead to the next job.

Katherine Wu, an executive at NBC Universal, also offered a good approach to networking: “I equate this to dating. Networking is a basic numbers game. If you don’t get out, you won’t meet as many people.”

Obviously, not everyone enjoys the dating scene and, by extension, networking can be tough on these types of people. But it’s an important part of the job hunt, so check out the Web and local universities for the right groups for you. It looks like new ones are springing up daily.

Managing Your References

The care and feeding of references has taken on greater importance in today’s market. As reported in the The Wall Street Journal, you’ll enhance your chances of getting a job if you go the extra mile when you’re preparing them:

Most job hunters grasp that basic maxim (“Seek references from someone besides the boss who fired you”), yet many still fail to make the most of their references. As unemployment soars and hiring shrivels, you must carefully cultivate your endorsers. Businesses looking to hire are pickier than ever.

I recently spoke with someone who found a job about two months after being laid off. His advice was simple: Think about what you want to get across to potential employers, and prepare your references to tell that story. For example, if a job calls for working across multiple organizations, offer references from multiple organizations. If the boss is a woman, make sure one of your references is a woman.

Know both your strengths and weaknesses and make sure you have references that can address both sides. If you’re concerned with a lack of experience in a certain area, find a reference that can show your strengths there. Talk to your references and discuss where you think you are weak and what they can stress to counter that weakness.

Your references should be up on the story you’ve been trying to demonstrate during the interviewing process. Make sure they’re not describing you as a meat-and-potatoes person when you’ve been talking about yourself as a vegan. As the Journal says, you’ll have prepare your references for tough questions from potential employers. These days, companies are being unusually picky. That’s the reality. It’s not enough to just let your references know they may be getting a call.

Inquiring Recruiters Want to Know

Working with recruiters is part of a comprehensive search strategy, but sometimes one might ask for information that seems sensitive, such as where you’ve already applied. Here’s some thoughts:

• Recruiters need to assess the prospects of placing you. If you’ve already progressed to second or third interviews with companies, for example, the recruiter may prefer to wait for those opportunities to play out, before submitting you to additional employers.

• The recruiter also needs to determine whether you’re a serious candidate. While it’s less likely to happen in today’s market, sometimes candidates go on job interviews just to kick the tires. They may be willing to change jobs, but only if they receive an offer that’s substantially higher than the going market rate. In that case, the recruiter would be better off working with more flexible candidates.

If a recruiter asks where you’ve been interviewing, consider this before responding:

• Ask the recruiter why he needs the information. You shouldn’t worry about whether your resume has already been submitted for a position, because recruiters will always ask before sending your resume to a client. For the recruiter, communicating with you  eliminates the concern  your resume has already been submitted or that you’ve applied for the position on your own.
• Do tell your recruiter the names of companies that interest you. With your permission, a recruiter can market your profile to company managers, in the hopes of generating interest. While submitting your resume through a recruiter will preclude you from applying to those companies on your own, a team effort built on trust, is one of the the most effective way to find a job in a tight market.

For Some, It’s Time to Hire

While March’s unemployment numbers showed companies continue to slash workers, there are some firms viewing the wave of talented, skilled workers looking for jobs as an opportunity to bolster their business. Says The Wall Street Journal:

To bolster its information-technology department, Family Dollar contacted managers at Circuit City Stores Inc., which recently liquidated. Family Dollar ultimately hired four IT specialists from the defunct electronics retailer. Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk A/S, boosted by sales of new diabetes treatments, is hiring salespeople and researchers in the U.S., as many pharmaceutical companies shed jobs. Novo Nordisk employs 27,000 people worldwide, including more than 3,000 in the U.S. Novo Nordisk drew more than 4,000 applicants for 80 positions at a new research facility in Seattle, opened in October, including research directors laid off elsewhere.

Model N Inc., a closely held Silicon Valley software maker, is taking the opportunity to snap up IT talent that normally would have gone to work for Oracle or SAP. Kamal Ahluwalia, vice president of corporate marketing, says: “Now, all the big guys are on hiring freeze, and most of the startups are dying. In this downturn, we really do have an opportunity to hire the best talent.”

Avoid Using Generic Cover Letters

With competition so fierce, job applicants need to pay attention to every detail. Take cover letters. I’ve always found them to be tedious – to write and read – but they’re necessary. And be warned: Generic cover letters aren’t going to do you much good in this market.

TechCareers argues against the use of generic cover letters mainly because they’re so, well, generic:

Due to the ease of applying to several positions at one time, many jobseekers are tempted to use a generic cover letter for each position they apply for.

If you’re one of them…STOP!

They do not work and they will not get you noticed. What is more likely to happen is that it will be obvious that you did not take the time to sit down and really think about the position and how you can bring something worthwhile to it. Employers see so many cover letters that they can instantly tell the difference between one that has some thought put into it and one that has been created for multiple jobs.

It’s true. Companies are closely scrutinizing how well job candidates know their business model, culture, etc. So it’s important for you to do your research and use the cover letter as a way to show how you’ll benefit a prospective employer. Remember, it’s a crowded job market and you have to make yourself stand out from that pile of resumes laying on some hiring manager’s desk.