I have just started reading Googled - The End of the World As We Know It written by Ken Auletta - I can't get enough of it
Oh to be an early investor into Google!!
I thought the Steve Jobs book was good, but I think this is going to top that. If you want to have a read after I have finished, let me know.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Lack of IT Graduates in Oz
While talking to a leading HR Consultant based in Melbourne yesterday regarding the state of the Australia IT market and she commented on a concern that her organisation has around the drastically declining amount of IT graduates coming out of the Australian Universities. They hire a large amount of IT graduates annually but are struggling to find the appropriate amount they require.
I heard that back in 2008 that Victoria University had a reduction of 40% of new enrollments looking to complete a Computer Science degree.
This doesn't bode well for looking to plug the shortages in the IT markets in Australia and New Zealand, meaning that recruiters, organisations and the government need to get smarter on how to attract suitably qualified people to New Zealand (I sense deja vu)
I heard that back in 2008 that Victoria University had a reduction of 40% of new enrollments looking to complete a Computer Science degree.
This doesn't bode well for looking to plug the shortages in the IT markets in Australia and New Zealand, meaning that recruiters, organisations and the government need to get smarter on how to attract suitably qualified people to New Zealand (I sense deja vu)
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Wellington IT Market
Things have certainly picked up from what it was 12-mths ago.
There are large programmes of work occuring in the utilities and banking environments. Government are starting to get into some large change initiatives and rather than doing themselves the work is getting fed out to the services / vendor community.
If you are a candidate and seek either Test Analyst, Java Developer, .NET Developer or Business Analyst you should have no trouble finding work and if you are a contract Business Analyst with banking experience again you shouldn't have to much issue finding work.
Looking to the future I see New Zealanders being a target for the Australian market as that is extremely buoyant currently, so hopeful the budget that gets announced this week provides some benefit that keeps talented people on the ground.
There are large programmes of work occuring in the utilities and banking environments. Government are starting to get into some large change initiatives and rather than doing themselves the work is getting fed out to the services / vendor community.
If you are a candidate and seek either Test Analyst, Java Developer, .NET Developer or Business Analyst you should have no trouble finding work and if you are a contract Business Analyst with banking experience again you shouldn't have to much issue finding work.
Looking to the future I see New Zealanders being a target for the Australian market as that is extremely buoyant currently, so hopeful the budget that gets announced this week provides some benefit that keeps talented people on the ground.
Are JD's useful?
In the last couple of days I have sat down with a couple of organisations to discuss certain roles (nothing new in that). BUT I was thinking how much time and effort people put into developing them and how useful they really are?
JD's is short for Job Descriptions!
Now I am sure there are many people (I admit I am not great) whom can draw up a great JD and that there are some great JD's out in the market, that explain the job, the daily tasks, the culture of organisation etc but my head tells me that there are many, many JD's that don't do justice to the organisation and the role. In fact it may turn people away because it is to long, to dull, doesn't really tell me much etc
So what can else can you do?
- Put a video up on YouTube or your website on what the office is like - shows people that you have appreciation of Social Media
- Do a job description via a Video upload - have the line manager talking about the role, the challenges involved, the people in his team, some of the projects their team have been involved in etc
- Be upfront on what daily tasks people will be doing (if the role involves spending 2-hours a day drawing Visio diagrams tell people, as what you don't want is people being surprised when they turn up to the interview to hear certain things or even worse when they have accepted the role and get surprised).
- Get some photos up on your website off some social events involving your staff - snapshot of culture
- Get people to 'pass a test' (it might be a programming test) before submitting their resume - gives people an impression on what is expected
On that note I should take note myself of what I am writing!!
JD's is short for Job Descriptions!
Now I am sure there are many people (I admit I am not great) whom can draw up a great JD and that there are some great JD's out in the market, that explain the job, the daily tasks, the culture of organisation etc but my head tells me that there are many, many JD's that don't do justice to the organisation and the role. In fact it may turn people away because it is to long, to dull, doesn't really tell me much etc
So what can else can you do?
- Put a video up on YouTube or your website on what the office is like - shows people that you have appreciation of Social Media
- Do a job description via a Video upload - have the line manager talking about the role, the challenges involved, the people in his team, some of the projects their team have been involved in etc
- Be upfront on what daily tasks people will be doing (if the role involves spending 2-hours a day drawing Visio diagrams tell people, as what you don't want is people being surprised when they turn up to the interview to hear certain things or even worse when they have accepted the role and get surprised).
- Get some photos up on your website off some social events involving your staff - snapshot of culture
- Get people to 'pass a test' (it might be a programming test) before submitting their resume - gives people an impression on what is expected
On that note I should take note myself of what I am writing!!
Are we a dying breed?
In the last 6-mths I have seen 'career recruiters' departing from the market which is possibly a sign of the times or it might be people making the call that IT recruitment isn't a career for them. For me it is all I know, so I need to be good at it otherwise I don't know what I would do.
It is certainly not an easy job or career but it is unbelievably rewarding and effectively we get paid to talk to people and to listen to people. We have the opportunity to meet some of New Zealand's most innovative and entrepreneurial IT people, help their organisations grow but also have the chance to better ourselves by seeing their behaviours and drivers.
For those that are willing to make it a career, it certainly becomes easier the more you deliver to your clients and soon you will be the only recruiter they call - that does far too easy, but it happens (is that sounding like Rachel Hunter).
It is certainly not an easy job or career but it is unbelievably rewarding and effectively we get paid to talk to people and to listen to people. We have the opportunity to meet some of New Zealand's most innovative and entrepreneurial IT people, help their organisations grow but also have the chance to better ourselves by seeing their behaviours and drivers.
For those that are willing to make it a career, it certainly becomes easier the more you deliver to your clients and soon you will be the only recruiter they call - that does far too easy, but it happens (is that sounding like Rachel Hunter).
Doing it yourself
We are seeing a handful of organisations (largely government) looking to get staff themselves via internet and print based avenues. For certain roles this will absolutely work for certain roles (Helpdesk is one job that comes to mind) in this marketplace - but they will be swamped with applications (expect in excess of 100). But what we are seeing is that organisations will spend maybe four / six weeks going through a process and then coming out asking for help. My point is, I would hate to think how much time, effort, productivity and money has been wasted in that period.
An example comes to mind that occurred earlier this year which if they had asked themselves the hard question "are we best to do this" they would of saved a huge amount of time, saved some people getting highly stressed, saved some money and they would have had a person on sooner than what they did:
- A SOE needed to recruit a new role - strong response - seven people interviewed - none of the seven deemed appropriate - another ad on Trade Me and SEEK - another reasonable response - four people interviewed - none of the four deemed appropriate. Then we get a phone call and I wouldn't say it was the easiest role to fill, but what was needed was some headhunting - ringing some people whom were comfortable in their role and tempting them with an opportunity. This organisations approach was 'well there must be a lot of people looking for a job, we will be right', and they were correct on the quantity point, but not right when it came to the quality!
By no means am I absolutely against organisations watching costs in these market conditions, but all I ask is that they think seriously whether they are in the best position / have the best resource and know the people they need before commencing a process.
An example comes to mind that occurred earlier this year which if they had asked themselves the hard question "are we best to do this" they would of saved a huge amount of time, saved some people getting highly stressed, saved some money and they would have had a person on sooner than what they did:
- A SOE needed to recruit a new role - strong response - seven people interviewed - none of the seven deemed appropriate - another ad on Trade Me and SEEK - another reasonable response - four people interviewed - none of the four deemed appropriate. Then we get a phone call and I wouldn't say it was the easiest role to fill, but what was needed was some headhunting - ringing some people whom were comfortable in their role and tempting them with an opportunity. This organisations approach was 'well there must be a lot of people looking for a job, we will be right', and they were correct on the quantity point, but not right when it came to the quality!
By no means am I absolutely against organisations watching costs in these market conditions, but all I ask is that they think seriously whether they are in the best position / have the best resource and know the people they need before commencing a process.
Recruiting Blind
In some instances we get put into a situation where we have to work off a JD, without a conversation or a meeting with the line / hiring manager. I have seen it happen with our team at 920. There are many reasons why a lot of the times it certainly makes the task at hand even harder:
- It is great to hear it from 'the horses mouth' why this is such a great role
- We can talk to people about the type of person they will be reporting too - this may persuade or dissuade individuals (either way it helps)
- A JD doesn't necessary tell you the top three 'absolute must have's'
- A JD doesn't talk about the the key projects that lay ahead for the person and what benefits being involved will have for them
From a line / hiring managers point of view a 15 / 20 minute investment is certainly going to assist as if not you may receive profiles which for whatever reason doesn't match your needs. My advice - make the small investment and save yourself some time and pain in the future.
- It is great to hear it from 'the horses mouth' why this is such a great role
- We can talk to people about the type of person they will be reporting too - this may persuade or dissuade individuals (either way it helps)
- A JD doesn't necessary tell you the top three 'absolute must have's'
- A JD doesn't talk about the the key projects that lay ahead for the person and what benefits being involved will have for them
From a line / hiring managers point of view a 15 / 20 minute investment is certainly going to assist as if not you may receive profiles which for whatever reason doesn't match your needs. My advice - make the small investment and save yourself some time and pain in the future.
Tom Peters and The Results Group
One of the two in the blog title certainly was worth going to see. Tom is a 66-year old guy with big energy, simple ideas and is an amazing story teller. The Results Group well - there are a few words I want to use but probably won't. I think they see themselves as "Business Coaches", but it wouldn't surprise me if many of these guys battled to get a job doing anything, got some 'business coaching' and then started coaching!
Back to Tom - he told a great Nelson Mandela story on how Nelson Mandela was able to get his way via his disposition and his smile, but while in a South African jail he couldn't click with the Head of the jail. So each time he went to meet with this guy to discuss the possibility of him leaving it was always a 'no'. So he did some research on this Africans chap and found out that he was a Rugby nut, so Nelson Mandela for the next 6-mths studied and learnt Rugby. He managed to find out which team this chap supported, who he played for when he played etc.
The next meeting between Nelson Mandela and the Head of the Jail was going as it normally did - poorly. He waited until 10-minutes into the conversation before mentioning what happened in the latest South African provincial game that this guy team played in. Nelson Mandela talked about the key moments in the game, made comment on the referee etc. Nelson Mandela had this guy. From that moment onwards the relationship changed and Nelson Mandela got treated like royalty while in this Jail and eventually got released.
A little long winded but it smacks of great planning and research - something that is sometimes missing in the Recruitment game. It isn't overly hard hop on Linkedin and find the candidate you are going to interview, the client you are about to meet etc
One last thing from Tom Peters - well it is actually from Wayne Gretzsky - "You will miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - I love this attitude and thinking
Check out more from Tom Peters on www.tompeters.com
Back to Tom - he told a great Nelson Mandela story on how Nelson Mandela was able to get his way via his disposition and his smile, but while in a South African jail he couldn't click with the Head of the jail. So each time he went to meet with this guy to discuss the possibility of him leaving it was always a 'no'. So he did some research on this Africans chap and found out that he was a Rugby nut, so Nelson Mandela for the next 6-mths studied and learnt Rugby. He managed to find out which team this chap supported, who he played for when he played etc.
The next meeting between Nelson Mandela and the Head of the Jail was going as it normally did - poorly. He waited until 10-minutes into the conversation before mentioning what happened in the latest South African provincial game that this guy team played in. Nelson Mandela talked about the key moments in the game, made comment on the referee etc. Nelson Mandela had this guy. From that moment onwards the relationship changed and Nelson Mandela got treated like royalty while in this Jail and eventually got released.
A little long winded but it smacks of great planning and research - something that is sometimes missing in the Recruitment game. It isn't overly hard hop on Linkedin and find the candidate you are going to interview, the client you are about to meet etc
One last thing from Tom Peters - well it is actually from Wayne Gretzsky - "You will miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - I love this attitude and thinking
Check out more from Tom Peters on www.tompeters.com
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