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How to Increase Sales during a Slow Down in our Economy

December 25, 2008

Article Title:  How to Increase Sales during a Slow Down in our Economy
Author Byline:  James Furness
Author Website: http://www.searchlogixgroup.com

Tough times are here, what to do now?

When the going gets tough the tough get going! We have all heard this at one time or another and for many of us it holds very true. We have long been a country of coming together and working with one another when times get lean. Unfortunately times are indeed tough. I have had numerous conversations with clients of mine that are worried about the current state of our economy and candidates that have also decided to stay put where they are and ended their respective new job search. What are we to do?

I find during these times that I simply have to work harder, increase my volume of new connections and reach out to older clients that have not been active for a while. Even the leanest companies are hiring at some type of level. Some are trimming the fat while others that perform contract work for outsourcing may actually benefit from a slow down of the larger companies. Bottom line: increase your output and you will see success.

I also try to bring a value add when pitching a new client company and try to have some type of strategic info on their current state while initially engaging with them. You really need to know how to help your clients and what will benefit them not only in the short term but also over a long period as well. If sales are down, introduce a candidate that may bring some new business to the table or ask some probing questions as to why they feel things have slowed down. If there is a problem, do your best to help them fix it.

No matter what business you call your own, it is imperative that you stay visible and open to the changes of your client base and adjust to their needs. I am hopeful that all of us will prosper in ’09 and working together will be the key. Are you willing to work a little harder? If you do, you will absolutely benefit in the long run.

About the Author

James Furness joined The SearchLogix Group in 2007 and came to us with 7 years of diverse recruitment experience from one of world’s largest recruitment firms. James attended the University of Massachusetts at Boston and has been an Atlanta native for the majority of his life. James has an excellent reputation of establishing long-term working relationships with both his clients and candidates. James’ primary areas of focus are as follows: Supply Chain/Logistics, Transportation, Manufacturing, Sales and Business Development, Distribution, Marketing, and Medical Devices. You can contact James at james [dot] furnesspr [at] searchlogixgroup [dot] com or 770-517-2660 x 15.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Written by bradley · Filed Under Employer Updates, Engineering News, Featured Article | Comments Off 

Hire-Engineers.com 2.0 Coming Soon!

July 7, 2008

We’ve been working hard here at Hire-Engineers.com to bring you a shiny new version of the site and we are getting close to release! Not only will the site have a fresh new look, but also a ton of great new features including:

  • For Job Seekers:
    • Candidate Profiles – Upload your resume and tell us what your dream engineering job is!
    • Enhanced Job Search – An easier way to find jobs on Hire-Engineers.com and across the web
    • Job Applications – Apply for jobs directly through the website
  • For Employers
    • Candidate Profile & Resume search
    • An easy to use job posting interface and management dashboard
    • track job views and applications
    • Manage resumes for applicants
    • FREE job postings every month!

These are just some of the great features we will be introducing over time here on Hire-Engineers.com! Register your email with us to receive updates on the launch of version 2.0! For employers, there will be a limited number of 100% free accounts available to those who register with us ahead of launch.

Employer Email Registration:

Email Address:

Candidate Email Registration

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Written by bradley · Filed Under Candidate Feature, Employer Page Featured, Engineering News, Featured Article |  

How to Measure Job-Search Success

June 24, 2008

By: Kevin Donlin, President of Guaranteed Resumes and the creator of GetHiredNow.

Yesterday, I was reading the book, “Make Success Measurable,” by Douglas K. Smith, and it reminded me of a management mantra they have at FedEx (and other innovative companies): You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

Which got me thinking about job hunting …

Here’s the thought: What parts of your job search do you measure?

If you’re thinking, “Huh?” or “I don’t measure anything,” you are like a dieter who doesn’t own a scale — how can you know if you’re succeeding?

The answer lies in questions. Specifically, if you ask the right questions, you’ll get the right answers needed to measure — and improve — your job search.

So, to get you started, here are three questions to ask yourself at the end of each day … Read more

Written by bradley · Filed Under Engineering Commentary, Featured Article |  

Guy Kawasaki’s Top Ten Lies of [Software] Engineers

June 5, 2008

I stumbled across this old blog post from Guy Kawasaki…

1. “We’re about to go into beta testing.” This is a meaningless statement because it doesn’t matter when you go into beta testing–what matters is when you come out of beta testing. (The only hard and fast deadline for coming out of modern-day beta testing is “before you run out of money.”)

In the good old days, “alpha” used to mean “all features are implemented though not necessarily working properly.” “Beta” used to mean “there are no more repeatable bugs.” Nowadays beta means “we’ve gone as long as possible past the shipping date that we promised our investors.”

2. “I don’t know anything thing about marketing…” This is a lie of false modesty. The engineer is thinking, in totality, “I don’t know a thing about marketing, but how hard could it be compared to what I’m doing? I should run marketing and engineering. I just hope that the marketing the MBAs come up with is worthy of my code.” However, don’t worry too much about this lie because it self-corrects as the engineer misses deadline after deadline and comes to realize that he has bigger issues.

3. “I’ll comment the code, so that the next person can understand what I did.” This is a lie of good intentions. Really, the engineer did intend to comment the code but as the schedule slipped, priorities changed. The question put to management became: “Do you want me to comment the code or finish it sooner?” Guess what the answer was. Luckily, the lack of comments usually doesn’t matter because the code is so crappy that a total rewrite is necessary in a year.

4. “Our architecture is scalable.” This is the lie that I enjoy hearing the most. Typically, an engineer who has never shipped a product says this after creating a prototype in Visual BASIC. The whole conversation goes like this: “Google’s architecture isn’t as scalable as mine. They can support 25 million simultaneous searches. We will be able to easily handle a billion.”

Luckily, in most cases, the adoption of the product is slower than the CEO’s “conservative” forecast, so scalability never becomes an issue. Yeah, those clowns at Google, Yahoo, Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, and AOL don’t know anything about scaling compared to the engineer…

5. “The code supports all the industry standards.” This is almost a truth but for a short omission: “This code supports all the industry standardsthat I agree with.” The engineer has made a personal decision to ignore standards she doesn’t like–for example, those promulgated by Microsoft. It’s no big deal–customers will never know…

 

Read the rest of his post HERE

Written by bradley · Filed Under Engineering Commentary, Featured Article |  

5 Secrets to Fitting into the Workplace

June 5, 2008

- Article by Marcia Robinson and courtesy of BullsEyeResumes College Blog.

So you have executed a successful job search and landed a new job and you are anxious to get started building your new career in a new company. Once you get over your new employee fears and get oriented to your new space, you will find it takes more than smiles and kind words to fit in.

Here are few things to keep in mind as you make the transition.

Don’t whine. At least not to the people you work with at the office. Talk about any job challenges or work related issues with friends, family or trusted colleagues in other companies, and not with your new coworkers. Avoid complaining about too much work, too many assignments or too long hours at the office. The fact is, no one really cares how much you have to do since everyone else has their own work, their own assignments, and their own long hours to deal with. Avoid becoming too cozy with the established resident whiners in your new company as well.

Make your manager aware of what you are doing and ask for feedback. A colleague once talked to me about a new energetic recruit who showed a lot of initiative on the job. Although this new worker meant really well, as my colleague put it, “She was running a great race, but she was in the wrong stadium completely.” Make sure the work you are doing is relevant and critical to the department’s mission. Additionally, make sure your work is being noticed. It will take a while for you to get into your groove in your new office, and making sure you are not working contrary to the flow is good. Watch also that you are not inheriting assignments from those who want to hand off their jobs.

Show enthusiasm and energy for the job, business or industry you are in now. If you just got hired by the largest plumbing fixture manufacturing supply company, you need to get excited about plumbing fixture manufacturing supplies business. People who enjoy the domains they work in are interested in learning more and will ultimately tend to do better on the job. If you are not prepared to have meaningful conversations about your job or the industry within which your company operates, you will not be happy.

Stay on time. If you have a problem being punctual, work really hard to correct that behavior. Be in the office on time, if not early, be back from lunch on time and do not pack up twenty minutes before your shift or day is supposed to end. Arrive on time for meetings and work harder on your own time if you have to. Of course today’s workforce is more about productivity than time spent in the office, but it is still a good idea for to show others you respect their time. Once you understand the protocols and the routines of the office, schedules can change.

Limit talk about what you did in your old job, company or worse in a class. This one is pretty hard to do, but it is something you will master eventually. It is been my experience that people sometimes don’t want to hear new ideas if they came from your old job, old company or worse from a class. Of course your prior knowledge will show in your work, but limit talking about where your skills come from. Feel free to credit publications, the media or a conference, but not your old job, company or class for new ideas.

Of course none of these tips are cast in cement. In addition to the requisite due diligence to do your new job well, you just need to heed some of these other workplace protocols that could expedite or slow your assimilation in the new environment.

Article by Marcia Robinson and courtesy of BullsEyeResumes College Blog. Robinson coaches, trains, and writes on career, workplace, and education issues for students and career professionals.

Article via Recruiting Blogswap, a service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships.

Written by bradley · Filed Under Engineering Commentary, Featured Article |