Do You have a 3 to 5 Year Career Plan?

By Daniel Parrillo  

Higher education has always paid off in the workplace, but in a technology-driven economy, the value of 'knowledge workers' has never been higher.

According to the Census Bureau, in 1975 workers with an advanced degree--that is, a master's, professional, or doctoral degree--earned about 1.8 times what high school graduates did. By 1999, those with advanced degrees pulled in 2.6 times the salary a high school grad could expect to earn.

Being the owner of a technical staffing firm, I often have the opportunity to make recommendations to technical talent in regard to career planning and developing a career path.  I often recommend to software engineers the continuation of their education.  After giving this career recommendation for about one hundred times, I took my own advice and returned back to school.

After surviving cancer in 2000, I read an article in HR Magazine about how someone should go about making a 3-5 year career plan.  Most people can easily make a 3-5 year commitment to a car payment, but have no idea what is involved in making future career plans.  I investigated the University of Phoenix Online for the bachelor’s degree program and signed up as soon as I could figure out the financing.  I completed the bachelor’s program in May of 2007 and decided six months into the program that I would continue straight on to the master’s degree program.

Realizing that I have been given a second chance at life, figure I have a life expectancy of 80 years total.  That means that I have another 40 years to do what I wish I had done in the first 40 years.  Going back to school was just the start of my career goals.  Eventually my hopes are to land a position internally within a technology organization (here in the Silicon Valley or San Francisco) as a significant contributor to the organization’s staffing, hiring and the bottom line.  In addition to filling my head with wonderful information, I believe that completing this master’s degree program is going to signify the end of my academic plans and the start of my new career aspirations.

References

Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI) www.hrci.org

Online Degrees – “Are Master’s Degrees Worth Millions?” Downloaded June 18, 2007 via MSN Encarta via: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/elearning/?article=mastersdegrees

Society of Human Resources (SHRM) www.shrm.org

"Appreciate" - A Bay Area Art & Musical Talent Showcase 

Hosted by Gypsy Love Production

Artwork and Performances by AnneKarin Glass, Linda Hughes Bakke, Gypsy, Troupe Tahiya, Catalina Quijano, Arlene Diehl, Funk Beyond Control and Yasmina Porter ~ Positive Influence   

Date: Friday May 9th 2008

Time: 6:30 - 9:30 PM

Location: Space Gallery

1141 Polk Street, SF 94109

Featuring an inspirational celebration of artwork, music and dance by some of the Bay Areas's Hottest Talent...

Advance Tickes: $ 8.00
Price at the Door: $ 10.00

For more information  & advance ticket purchase, go to: http://www.gypsytime.com/appreciate.html

I live in San Francisco – literally two blocks from Union Square – and often walk my dog down there.  Was walking my dog, past the Disney Store on Post and Powell – and just happen to hear a father reprimand his son – right in front of his sister…

I heard “Stop acting like such a girl” – and I saw not only the reaction on the boy’s face, but also the reaction of his sister standing right next to him.  I could not help by think – “Does not man realize what his words are doing his children?”  NOT to mention, what his daughter must think.

Does a young girl think that it is bad for a boy to act like a girl?

Is it bad for a boy to be a girl?

What’s so wrong –with being a girl?

(See my train of thought here? – so just think what those kids were thinking!!)

As a person who has heard the word “faggot” all my life – I know the damage people’s words can do to someone… society often thinks of “words” as being damaging – but really I think it is more context and sentences that are more damaging than the words themselves.

I’m often reprimanded for using an “adult phrase” or four-letter word by the same people, who would very easily say something like “stop acting like a girl” to their own child.  As business professionals, parents and fellow human beings – having to share the same planet - perhaps words like “retard” or “faggot” or “stupid” – and phrases like “stop acting like a girl” or “why are you such a tom-boy” or “that is totally gay” = should be removed from our vocabulary.

As business professionals, letting one of these words or phrases slip at an inappropriate time  during a conversation (on the clock or off) can lead to BIG problems – and now with social networking and employers encouraging this type of business interaction, we need to be much more careful of how we express ourselves (both online and off.)

I will never forgot when a friend arranged an interview for me – for a recruiting position… and with the sincerity and care only a good friend can have – he turned to me and said – “try not to be too gay – in the interview.”  Perhaps he knew something I did not, but how can someone be anything less – than what they are.  For someone to say something like that to me – before going into an interview… Well – that’s just simply stupid!

What is the distinction between meritocracy and pay for performance? 

By Daniel Parrillo

In its simplest terms, meritocracy means providing employees with better compensation and opportunities to advance as they do more for the company. Typically, meritocracy is referred to as pay for performance. Unfortunately, this misses the mark a bit, although there are very few resources for true meritocracies, other than case studies.

Setting goals and communicating them is a key to any successful organization, but the two most important components in true meritocracy are company culture and the efforts made to manage and recognize performance.

The company's culture is essential, since it is impractical to list every small goal. It is even more impractical to list the "extra" contributions a truly great staff member can make.

If a company has a culture of rewarding a job well done, its employees naturally will be more highly motivated. "Meritocratic" organizations most highly value those things that might never have been documented, but that trigger a revolution in how the company does what it does.

It is expected that people will to their jobs well. It is the "more than well done" effort that enables a company to truly fly. The highest performers at the highest-performing companies carry a sense of responsibility for moving their organizations forward. They hold themselves accountable for projects they start.

As for performance management, it doesn't matter whether you are running a fast-food restaurant, a professional baseball team or a high-tech firm. Attention to the small details, quick rewards for jobs well done, ability to be flexible when a staff member shows they are a star, and consultative discussions when they are doing poorly—these staples of performance management work in every environment. Most of your managers should be managing their people, not their businesses. If they have the right people and tools, the business will be managed fine by the staff.

A meritocracy is more than pay for performance. It is an understanding between the staff and management that high performance and the rewards for it are a foregone conclusion. This requires a great deal of communication and sincere dedication to the concept by management. It only works if you watch over it carefully like a flame in a breeze.

SOURCE: Dan Walter, Performensation Consulting, San Francisco, September 19, 2007.

LEARN MORE: Please read a Workforce Management article that explores the role merit recognition plays in recruiting and retaining top performers.

 Reference: University of Phoenix Online Class.  Instructor: Brenda VanderMeulen

The Age of the Stay-at-Home Moms or Dads

By Daniel Parrillo

Eve Tahmincioglu, an MSNBC Contributor has stated in recent articles and morning talk shows about how stay-at-home moms may be committing career hara-kiri by deciding to dedicate a significant amount of their time to their children.  She has been so bold as to state that “Mr. Moms” of this country have a more difficult time trying to reenter the workforce than our traditional soccer moms.  I found this very surprising – especially coming from a female author.  She states that society sees stay-at-home dads as “unmanly” because they have decided to take the nurturer role instead of the traditional hunter and provider. 

Returning back to the public workforce is very difficult and scary for anyone – whether you’re a recently laid-off corporate middle management type with longevity in employment history and very little interviewing skills – or a veteran that has returned from recent conflicts abroad.  There are so many factors that have a significant effect on anyone’s employment search – things like your location and availability of opportunities for that type of work in your area – is a good example.  Finding software engineering opportunities are pretty difficult and competitive here in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley area – but it could be much more difficult to find software engineering opportunities in seriously damaged areas of New Orleans (in software engineering – working remote is always an option.)

As our society changes and the roles of moms, dads, males and females start to evolve into “parent” and “co-worker,” finding a family and work balance is imperative.  Business campuses are starting to provide support services like laundry and dry cleaning services, easily accessible local gyms, shopping and even personal assistant services for the busy executive for small business owner.  Companies are learning that if they help their employees find a family/work/life balance – they end up with more content employees with a higher level of job satisfaction. 

The “stay-at-home” parent should entertain developing some type of work-from-home solution that could involve starting a business – to temporary contracting role to bring in a little extra cash.  My ideal recommendation would be to work on a career-relevant certification program and/or pursue an online degree curriculum in between naps and diaper changes.  The University of Phoenix has a wonderful program that allow adults to communicate and interact with each other (via teams and online classroom participation) that really helps the stay-at-home parent to go from Barney, Tele-Tubies, diaper genies and “baby-on-board” window stickers – into a wonderful world of statistics, business analysis, technology, hostile corporate takeovers and declines sales for an aging product li (it’s almost like playing “Doom” with your kids on the Playstation – but much more adult – and cooler !!)  Doing some business analysis and turning in a paper that seriously criticizes C-level business members – is even better than dealing with the playground bully.

I think it is wonderful that men want to stand around the playground – watching their children and talking sports with the other guys.  I think that is just great but my advice to anyone who decides to take on the role of the “stay-at-home” anything is to find a relevant online career program that will keep your skills sharp and make your more marketable once you’ve decided to start the process of returning back to the workforce.

Reference: Tahmincioglu. E., (Aug. 30, 2007) Return to work not easy for stay-at-home dads.  Viewed via http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19977348/

Social Trends:

• Demographic Shifts
• Days of the Account Executives in the designer suite and expensive sadden are LONG GONE
• Companies are limiting the amount of money vendors and suppliers are allow to spend on lunches and gifts with hiring managers
• Smaller technology centers are struggling; technological companies are moving back to Silicon Valley, San Francisco and California in general – after the mass-exodus after the dot-com demise.
• Although the technology is denominated by males, the number of females entering the technology industry is increasing.
• Significant amount of technology workers are recent green card holders, H1-B Visa students or F1-VISA students from a foreign country (significant numbers from India and China.)
• English is often a second language to 50-60% of prospective workforce
• With looming economic issues, prospective technical talent is less likely to consider changing employment

• Cultural Changes
• Technical talent is much more hesitant to talk with recruiters (headhunter syndrome.)
• Significant amount of recruiter inquires are generated by recruiters in call centers in a foreign country
• The colleges in the United States produce a third of the college graduates from China and India.
• Communication skills and abilities (both verbal and written) is a significant issue when deciding on hiring a prospective candidate as an employee. 
• Technical talent wants to be sold on the technology and career growth opportunities – and not just on a job description.

Economic:

• Macroeconomic Conditions
• Bill Gates has asked Congress to increase the number of H1-B VISAs
• Media expectations of future recession
• Increasing number of mortgage foreclosures
• Prices of oil is expected to hit $400 a barrel
• Although property values may be losing value in other parts of the United States and Northern California, values in San Francisco and many areas of Silicon Valley keep decent values even during difficult times in other parts of the country
• Bay Area technology salaried positions are some of the highest paid in the country – if not the world.
• California is working hard on enticing software and technology firms back to the State

• Consumer Income
• Sales of computers is done; computer companies like Yahoo!, Intel, Dell and others have announced layoffs; others have reported inability to meet sales records/projections or huge declines in sales
• Hiring companies are looking to reduce hiring expenses and are demanding a smaller margin from average staffing agencies or firms.
• Hiring managers might end up being a candidate instead of being a paying customer

Technological

• Changing Technology
• Windows verses Linux/Opensource
• Phone costs have reduced significantly recent – due to VOIP and mobile technologies
• Most applicant tracking systems (ATS) provide all the same options – ranging in price and number of employees the system supports (otherwise, they are all pretty much the same – accept for the price !!)
• Major ERP manufacturers (SAP, Oracle/Peoplesoft, ADP / Virtual Edge, etc.) are all trying to seduce small firms (both hiring companies and staffing agencies) by providing ERP, ATS, VMS (vendor management systems) and enterprise solutions that help them run their business – and bring in new customers
• Opensource solutions can often provide the same applications as very expensive systems

• Technology’s impact on customer value
• Customers utilize technology – so expect a reduction in the margin and fee
• Following recruiting strategy and proven procedures increases your rate of placement and quality of customer services provided

Competitive

• Alternative forms of competition
• Utilizing recruiting exchanges at ATS and VMS (Vendor Management Systems) helps to organization constant recruiter and agency inquires, while providing technical solutions/reports and a system of reducing costs and getting more exposure to your employment requirement
• People can be sourcing and recruiting for your requirements 24 hour a day, thanks to call centers and recruiters located in India and other parts of the world.
• Hiring companies often compete with agencies and staffing firms on the same employment websites, user groups, technology social networks, etc.
• Start-up technology companies are often very cautious – because of the rumors of what happened during and after the dot-com years and Year 2K
• Small business working from home-based offices are causing new competition for major staffing firms and agencies (allows recruiters to work whenever they want; hiring managers pay less !)
• Staffing firms are able to make more placements even though at a small, reduced rate and margin

• Components of Competition
• Recruiting Exchanges
• Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
• Vendor Management Systems (VMS)
• Linux or Windows operating system – whole office system architecture and solution selection depends on the operating system and platform selected

Regulatory

• Laws Protecting Competition
• Privacy Act
• Equal Employment Opportunity Regulations (including consideration of H1-B VISA prospects)
• Individual State and City Ordinance and Laws
• Signed non-compete and/or non-disclosure agreements and contracts former employees signed with prior employers

• Laws affecting marketing mix actions
• In 2007, 133k Applications for 65,000 H1-B VISAs was received – the majority of them were from Indian-based consulting firms like Infosys and Winpro (others like Tata Consulting, Satyam, Cognizant, and Accenture were right up there as well
• A significant amount of college graduates coming out of US based colleges are foreign students on F1-B VISAs.

• Self-Regulation
• Industry was self-regulated prior to the 80’s, but the industry was de-regulated during the Reagan years.
• Organizations like the Society of Human Resources (SHRM), National Association of Staffing Professionals (NAPS), Electronic Recruiters Exchange (ERE) and others are working with government offices to bring respectability to the industry as well as regulations and input to changes in law. 
• Same organizations constantly preach ethics and moral business practices in an industry often associated with unethical and unscrupulous business practices.

In almost fifteen years of experience in technical recruiting, you would not believe the technical resumes I have seen from even some very senior members in our technology community.  Thought I’d remind folks of a few things that a technical resume should be.

Believe statistics should show:

*     Average hiring manager spends 10-15 seconds reviewing a resume (80% on the first page)

*     If you can keep someone’s attention on your resume for longer than 15 seconds, you increase your chances of some type of interview significantly (believe something like 80%)

What A Technical Resume Needs To Be:

*     A technical resume must exemplify the prospective new employee’s technical documentation abilities. 

*     Be Precise and Concise!

*     It should be an example of a person’s technical & business functionality documentation abilities, reflecting the business aspect/purpose of the position as well as the technical environment.

*     The only objective the resume needs to address is the objective of the hiring management.  View the resume through the eyes of the prospective hiring manager.

*     It should speak for that technical person in their absence speaks of the quality of that person’s abilities and business/technical abilities being the technical person’s sales and marketing material.  It “sells” the prospective candidate to the hiring manager.

*     Environment: listing technical tools provides hiring manager a chronological history of your experience using a particular development tool.  Include version numbers.  The latest version shows your skills are current but older versions document your length of experience (ex: Oracle 2.x - 9i)

The average person briefly glides over resumes the way you peruse your credit card statement or perhaps the contract for a rental car.  Each technical position or project had to have some type of business justification.  Companies just don’t hire techies without some type of business reason and purpose.

A technical resume must exemplify the prospective new employee’s technical documentation abilities.  Each technical position requires some type of documentation (both technical as well as business functionality).  A technical resume must find a happy medium between business analyst and technical expert.  All business and technical aspects needs to be documented and detailed for each position listed in the employment history section of the chronological resume without getting verbose.  Be precise and concise!

If you’re a hiring manager implementing a new architecture for your software development team don’t you think it would make sense to hire someone who can do the JAVA programming or the infrastructure implementation but also find someone who can document that work in a precise and concise way?  Isn’t that truly what your resume should be stating?

Beware of “made-up words’ or terms that may have been created on the job and used in that specific organization and environment.  Acronyms at one company don’t always mean anything to another or could mean something complete different.  The author of a technical resume needs to consider the person who will be reading the resume, quickly scrutinizing it and hopefully deducing that you’re the ideal match for their needs.

Director level and higher candidate resumes should definitely have the first few bullets of each position documenting both technical and business aspects:

*     Size of the staff and what type of positions it included multiple locations, offshore, etc.

*     Size of budget (regional, district, etc.), sales quotas (budgeted, accomplished, etc.) and make sure that you clearly state that budgets were met, sales quotas exceeded and that projects were brought in on-time, etc.

?     Be Precise and Concise! - without being verbose.  If not, there’s probably a 99% change that the reader will presume something incorrectly.

A technical resume IS the marketing and sales material for that technical person.  It’s what is going to be representing that YOU when YOU are not there to speak for yourself.  If you are a well-educated, successful, productive professional = why shouldn’t that person’s resume reflect that? 

If you are a QUALITY person, present a QUALITY resume! (and I’m not talking about putting it on pretty letterhead or an extremely expensive bond of paper).

This may seems all to obvious when you read it but how many people actually have a presentable resume that can be quickly tailored to represent their candidacy and qualifications for their ideal opportunity

View the technical resume as if you’re using the eyes of the hiring manager.  You just might see the technical resume in a completely different way? - the way that’s going to lead to the hiring manager quickly deducing this person’s qualifications are ideal and lead to an interview.

Whether you’re a recruiter, internal HR person or a technical professional reading this article, a technical resume should be more than just a resume or an e-mail note received.  By including both the business function as well as the technical aspects of past employment history, demonstrating your technical documentation abilities and the ability to document the technical business perspective of past projects you will be demonstrating to prospective employers that this technical professional has the vital skills necessary to achieve the business objective or deliverable.

Thanks for reading!

Your partner in placement,

Danny!

Daniel Parrillo

President - Sr. Technical Recruiter

Strategi LLC

Phone #: 415-695-1600

E-mail: dparrillo@strategi.biz

In this day and age of politically correctness, I often find myself scanning the words flowing in a discussion for (what I would consider to be) little improprieties that come up.  I often find myself asking fellow co-workers and personal friends not to use a particular word around me or express the opinions that I feel are offensive to my ears or what I consider to be politically incorrect. 

The word “retard” was a word I often used as a child to refer to someone weird or just-not-right-in-the-head.  It is now a word that I would prefer not to hear.  Demeaning comment about women, race, religious preference and homophobic references are definitely not tolerated in my work place and discussions about religion and politics can be like walking on eggshells.  Once corrected someone for using the word “renege” – believing it had some type of negative history or connotation to it, only to have my coworker do a quick internet search and prove me wrong.  In my attempts to be politically correct – I was limiting myself and my coworkers – and that is pretty much as damaging to the workplace as political incorrectness.

So – I have come up with a new personal strategy – Profanities, exclamations, invectives, vulgar language and phrases will be replaced with names of CANDY BARS or just CANDY in general.

A few friends of mine are definitely some real Goobers and there are Good & Plenty of Jujyfruits, Big Hunks and Marshmallow Puffs in a wide variety of assorted fruit flavors here in San Francisco.  I definitely can be a Butterfinger and Texas is full of many Jolly Ranchers.  Certain business situations can most be very Twix or Fifth Avenue and a Payday is always a good hair day.  New people at the gym could be referred to as Gummy Bears, Jelly Belly-s or Rolo-s (in a loving and kind way.)  Both men and women could be referred to as a Babe Ruth without any misinterpretation; your own team could be called Musketeers and other departments could be referred to as Nerds, Skittles or a bunch of Mike & Ike-s.  Someone whom it seemed had a REALLY good time in the 60’s or 70’s could be referred to as a Star Burst, Abba Zabba or a Lemon Head (Zagnut is one I particularly use often.)  Bean Boozled is another I’m playing around with at the moment.

I hope what this article brings to light is everyone’s own ability to select your words when in a conversation.  I have found the best thing to do is live a principle that tries not to demean or devalue someone’s contribution to the workplace, community and/or country.  It is important to try to eliminate words in our vocabulary that are derogatory and uncomplimentary to coworkers, friends and prospect new acquaintances – if anything – simply to be respectful of others around you.  Being frank with your opinion and sharp with your words is one thing, but using certain stereotypic words and/or phrases is just simply retard.

Update to Politically Correct Candy Policy:

The following references to candy and/or candy bars are not permitted: