Hire Ground

A slight detour through job fairs and outplacement companies before we get to networking.

I attended a job fair that was getting a lot of coverage and hype in the local paper, the San Jose Mercury News. It was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center. All of which made me think that there would be a lot of companies there.

I was surprised and disappointed that there were only about 20 companies of which only half were high tech. And this is in Silicon Valley.

Of the 10 high tech companies.......

Two were government contractor type of companies both of which were looking for people with Top Secret clearances. One was accepting resumes for a program management position even if you didn’t have a clearance. The other wouldn’t accept resumes for the same position unless you held an active Top Secret clearance.

How very governmental...Read More

Job boards have become huge businesses the past 10 years. They allow both companies to advertise job openings as well as allow recruiters to search for people who have posted their interest in finding a new job.

Monster advertises heavily on television. Craiglist and KitList spread by word of mouth. Jobster culls listings from other sites as well as their own listings.

There are job boards that masquerade as social or networking sites such as Linkedin.

Some job boards specialize in career field or salary ranges or job levels (executive vs. employee). TheLadders is an example of one that is both executive and jobs with salar...Read More

But first a trivia quiz.

Who out there knows why the address of the new facility of Zilog at 6800 Santa Teresa Blvd., San Jose, CA 95119 is humorous? My wife just doesn’t get it, she rolls her eyes and mutters, “engineers” under her breath when we drive past it and I point it out for the umpti-umpth time.

So play with me here, folks.

Anyway, back to Kalifornia, State of.

I applied for un-employment with some trepidation. After all, I have made it to this point in my life without ever going onto the public dole. And you hear things. About the bureaucrats. About the “rules”. Scary things.

So I get invited into an “interview” and along with the invitation am given a questionnaire to fill out. It was about my efforts to find work and/or job training to switch careers. Stern warnings appeared...Read More

Time to get moving on getting a job.

As I noted, my package included transition help from a company called DBM. I received 30 days of assistance with them. I wish I had negotiated to receive it until employed again.

There are many companies in this line of work, so I’m sure that what each brings to the table varies considerably. I’d like to hear of other’s experiences with other companies.

This particular service had a lot of self-paced on-line help as well as communal activities in the form of webinars, everything from writing your resume to interviewing to switching careers to starting a business to retiring. You are on the phone as you look at the slides, so questions are asked and answered immediat...Read More

Merry Christmas

Just a quick note to wish all a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah (if that is the proper greeting).

Despite being out of work, this past year has been a good one for the Betts family. I hope all of you have had a good year as well.

Even the endless presidential campaign, can’t take the shine off the past 12 months.

I hope all of you realize your hopes and dreams in the next year, that you and yours enjoy good health and the love of those closest to you.

Merry Christmas and to all a good night.

Bill

Thanks for all the comments. bert, beenthere and Ex-engineer all brought up good points that lead into the next couple of subjects I thought I’d opine about.

But first, one thing I should have noted in my first posting is the issue of geographical areas. I’m in Silicon Valley which has a growing economy and hiring is moving at a pretty good clip. I know that there are areas of the country job where hunting for a high tech job is a lot tougher today.

I’d be real interested in hearing from people in those places about the challenges they are facing and what they are doing to overcome them.

Back to the point at hand.

The majority of layoffs in this day and age come with some sort of package. It may include some set number of weeks of salary or maybe even weeks of salary tied to leng...Read More

If you are ever called to a meeting with your boss and you glance through the glass panel beside the door before entering the room and the only people you see are your boss and the HR rep, you can assume the meeting won’t be going well.

The dreaded “reorganization” had hit.

Thus began my search for a job. I believe I handled myself well. I didn’t fall shrieking to the floor. I tore no hair out (precious little to lose there). I think I behaved in a professional manner. My boss was very nervous and I saw no point in both of us having a really bad day, so I let him off the hook gently and he quickly fled the room.

After all, it wasn’t a real surprise. My previous company had been acquired and I had been the Director ...Read More