Everyone is interested in understanding the state of the job market, including me. With unemployment in the double digits, we all want to know when employment will turn around. So I thought I’d check the numbers and see what I could find. Here is some data on the temporary employment market:
• U.S. temporary help payrolls rose by 33,700 jobs in October, according to seasonally adjusted preliminary numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• The temporary employment category actually started adding jobs in August when employment increased by 3,200, according to revised numbers from the BLS. September also posted an increase in temporary employment of 7,200.
• In total, temporary employment added 44,100 jobs since July. However, temporary employment had fallen by an average of 44,000 jobs per month between January 2008 and July 2009.
• The temporary help penetration rate rose to 1.4% in October from 1.3% in September.
• The employment services industry as a whole added 36,000 jobs in October after adding 10,100 in September and 6,100 in August.
This data is consistent with what we’ve seen at STRe. We’ve seen an increase in orders for temporary talent, but there are still a lot of people still looking for assignments, but the cutbacks seem to have abated.
Here’s some numbers provided by public companies in the staffing industry:
• Kforce Inc., a Tampa FL-based professional staffing firm, reported third-quarter revenue fell 9.0% to $228.3 million from $250.9 million in the third quarter of 2008. However, third-quarter revenue rose 1.0% from the second quarter.
• Kforce’s finance & accounting division fell 19.3% to $41.3 million. Third-quarter finance and accounting revenue rose sequentially, from the second quarter, by 0.5%.
• Randstad Holding NV, the world’s second largest staffing firm reported third-quarter revenue fell 28.2% on a pro forma basis. However, the company cited positive signs in several markets. “It is encouraging that the revenue trend has become a little better through the quarter on average, a trend which has continued in October,” CEO Ben Noteboom said. The company’s professional business is stabilizing while other staffing is gradually picking up, he said.
• Spherion reported revenue per day in the first three weeks of October was up about 5% higher than in the third quarter.
As we enter the traditionally slower time between the holidays it’s encouraging to see improvement in the numbers. There are still a lot of people out of work, and the job market is adding jobs much slowly than we need. But at least the charts are moving up and to the right!

The Landscape has Changed
I was struck last week by how many articles I read that were upbeat and positive about our economy. Everywhere I looked a vendor, partner, company, was reporting “slightly improved activity”. And this week Seagate raised its outlook for the current quarter as did Brocade. So what does this mean? Are we getting back to business as usual? I don’t think so, but the outlook is definitely improving.

An article in the NY Times a couple of weeks ago entitled “In Silicon Valley, the Jobs Picture Has Changed” talks about the industries that have been winners and losers since the dot com bust. Keep your eyes open for opportunities in new industries and be prepared to explain why your skills are transferable!

I know…your mother gave you this advice when you were growing up, so how does it apply now? It just reminds me of the simple truths that permeate our lives. Simple advice, simple truths. Let’s talk about some examples.

• You really never know when you’ll run into a potential hiring manager, candidate, client, significant other, just fill in the blank. One of our account managers was walking his dog on a Sunday afternoon when someone jogged by and stopped to admire his dog, because it was similar to the jogger’s dog. Lo and behold they struck up a conversation, and the jogger was a venture capitalist. Now we recruiters would pay almost anything for an introduction to a VC, but when dog walking! You just never know.
• Last week my partner and I went to visit a potential new client. They are not a Silicon Valley icon, in fact they are a central valley family owned business. And what a first impression they made! Before we arrived we had an agenda (and remember, we’re trying to sell to them!), clear directions, and plans for a tour. Everyone we met from receptionist to tour guide was professional, knowledgeable, and polished. They ran a comfortable, but precise timetable. The tour was fantastic, humor mixed with story telling and history. After 2 ½ hours with the team I knew that ANY candidate I sent to this client would get the “royal treatment”, because if they treat their potential partners this way imagine how they treat potential employees! Simple stuff, but BIG impressions.
• But sometimes impressions can inadvertently go awry. Take one of our clients trying to close a candidate for a “hard to fill” position. The candidate had a great interview experience and really enjoyed the people on the team. There were high expectations on both sides. And as sometimes is the case, the salary discussions became a little uncomfortable. Our client wanted to participate in the “offer dance” and despite our best efforts, the candidate’s salary expectations were just a bit high. Unfortunately the client pointed out that the candidate was “unemployed” so their current salary was zero, which implied the candidate should be happy with any offer. In this case the client had a point, and the candidate did come to realize this, but the message was perceived to be delivered in a blunt, hurtful way that changed the candidate’s impression about the company and questioned their perception of the people. Five hours of interviews and endless hours of reviewing candidate and resumes gone in a 15 minute conversation. The message is, even if you are right, impressions still matter.

So what’s my point? Twofold, it’s that no matter what situation you’re in, whether it’s business or pleasure or both, remember that even the off handed, non-consequential comments you make can leave a big impression, and have a bigger impact, both positive and negative. Second, always be alert because you can never make a second first impression. Especially in today’s social network environment where the lines between business and friends overlap, it’s best to always be aware of the impression you’re making.

With the release of the 2 American journalists held in North Korea, it’s a day for good news, so let’s continue. In case you missed one of today’s top articles, there is certainly some good news on the job front. Almost half of workers who got laid off in the last 3 months have found jobs. And more good news, According to Careerbuilder, “Looking at workers who were laid off in the last 12 months and found new jobs, more than half (56 percent) reported they were able to negotiate comparable or higher pay for their new positions. Forty-four percent of workers took a pay cut, down from 49 percent in March.”

At STRe, we have seen a definite pickup in jobs that clients need help on, and pay has stayed fairly constant. This isn’t the time to look for a 10-15% increase when changing companies, but most companies aren’t expecting candidates to take pay cuts. The only area we’ve seen reductions in salaries has been in contracting. Both candidates and clients are putting pressure on rates for consulting positions. If you’ve been out of work for a while, hang in there, help is on the way.

A column in the Mercury News last week got me thinking about this topic that is near and dear to my heart. Chris O’Brien wrote a piece about the new VC start up that Marc Andreessen and Benjamin Horowitz founded. They are confident that they can crack the top 10 VC firms pretty quickly and O’Brien asked them why? The reply may not surprise you. They said they don’t have any dramatic new approaches, no “secret sauce” so to speak. O’Brien wrote “Instead, they think that too many in the industry are professional VCs, rather than former entrepreneurs such as themselves. It’s a kind of “back-to-the-future” mindset, hearkening to the early days of the valley when most venture capital flowed from entrepreneurs.”

And I agree with Marc and Benjamin. Experience does count. That’s exactly why I founded STRe Solutions. Because we are a team of former operating executives that have been there, done that. We’ve walked in your shoes. And our experience benefits both candidates and clients. We have a perspective that professional recruiters don’t have. And it works. But most importantly I love what I do, and so does the rest of the team of STRe. It keeps us engaged in the “real world” and allows us to leverage our skills and expertise.

I was on vacation last week and was catching up on email last night when I came across an interesting article that is a great follow up to the WSJ article “Only the Employed Need Apply.” Paul Boutin in Wired writes, if you’ve been laid off in Silicon Valley, don’t fret – it just might be a good thing. “[T]o start the next wave of opportunities, we need to revive the kind of wanton cross-pollination that got us this far,” Boutin writes. “That’s why being pushed out the door could be just what you—and the Valley—need.” Boutin says he’s been fired five times since moving to Northern California in 1990 and has bounced back every time.

While being fired five times might be a bit hard to explain on the resume, it certainly proves that resiliency and hard work can get you employed! Here’s a link to the whole article.

Bet you can’t guess what the topic of this article is from the title…..No, I’m not going to write about how you can log on and submit comments to my blog. But talk about creating a story that creates water cooler conversation (i.e. comments in today’s Web 2.0 world), the Wall Street Journal article entitled “Only the Employed Need Apply” was a lightning rod for comments!
If you didn’t see the article in the June 30th “Getting Ahead” section of the careers journal, you can check it out here. There are 144 comments and as I write this blog, the most recent comment was posted only 12 hours ago. And check out the “corrections & amplifications” note. Guess one of the companies featured in the story was getting overhelmed with calls from recruiters!

As I read the article I had mixed feelings. Sure, everyone wants to hire superstars, A players, best of breed employees. And of course they must all be working, not consulting, not out of work, because when would anyone ever let them go? Of course that’s just not reality. I don’t know the statistics, but particularly in Silicon Valley I have to believe there are a large percentage of A players that have been unemployed. If you’re taking a risk on start ups, there’s a risk the company won’t make it. And it’s not always well communicated to the team that the company is about to run out of money, or that they can’t raise their next round of funding because the market has tanked, or their niche has gone out of favor, or the VCs latest powerpoint slide presentation caused a tsunami of deep cuts at your company. And what about the fact that “success comes from being able to accept the risk of failure.” (1)

So, if you are in the unfortunate position of being unemployed in today’s market, here are a few suggestions:
• Focus your energies on your existing network of colleagues and co-workers. People who have worked with you before, seen you in action, will be your best referrals and references for your next position, even if you are out of work.
• Ask for recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. They do make a difference to recruiters who are sourcing candidates.
• If you take a consulting job to bridge the gap, UPDATE YOUR RESUME. We always recommend this to candidates in transition and I can’t tell you what a difference that makes. Same candidate, same skills, but all of a sudden they start getting calls when their resume says they are working.

And hiring managers, don’t always assume an unemployed candidate is a poor performer. Sure, a fair percentage of them are. We all know companies use economic downturns to cut out the bottom 10%. But a resume alone generally won’t indicate whose job was outsourced, which company cut a whole product line out and everyone with it, or which companies couldn’t get funding. Do your homework, do back door references, work with recruiters who thoroughly interview and assess candidates to understand if the candidate is the top or bottom 10%. If you do this, you can find great employees who will be totally committed, motivated and energized. It is well worth the time invested.
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(1) Daily Motivator email edition. June 19, 2009
Copyright (C) 2009 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.

I’m always amazed at how the simplest, most basic things can be SO critical and important. Like when someone comes up to you and says, tell me about you, or your company? And who better to speak about you than you? NOT…If you ask me some of my best referrals have been from other people who are a reference for me and can wax eloquently about what I do. Which brings me to the subject of today’s blog, the infamous elevator pitch. I know…everyone is always talking about it and sometimes the phrase seems overused, but I don’t think the reality of the importance of an elevator pitch is overstated. It seems straightforward, but how well does your personal elevator pitch roll off your tongue, especially when you aren’t prepared for the question?
I was very impressed when I received a cold call from a candidate I didn’t know. He left me a voice message that was so compelling I called him back, even though his skills weren’t in our target market. I just had to tell him how perfect his elevator pitch was. So, what impressed me? His message was clear, concise, and complete. It was everything I needed to know. Here’s the message (with the names and data changed):
This is Jim Smith and I was referred to you by my friend, Sally Jones. I am now looking for a new position and I need to determine if you recruit and do placements for a [insert appropriate position types] with 20 years of background in silicon valley. I am currently leaving a VP position at a small company [insert company name here, if appropriate] in Campbell that develops and manufactures subsensors. I also have medical product development experience and have interest in clean/green tech. Please give me a call to do a brief screen to see if I am a candidate who should begin to work with you. My cell phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx and my home number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.
If everyone left a voice message, or sent an email like this to people in their network, recruiters and adapted it to hiring managers they would increase their successful “contact ratio”. Even though STRe doesn’t recruit for positions in “Jim Smith’s” area of expertise, we connected and realized that his brother-in-law and I worked together years ago and Jim is definitely someone I will refer if I learn of any appropriate opportunities.
Here are a couple of links to articles and clips I’ve reviewed recently on elevator pitches. Remember, tailor them to your audience, don’t oversell, and be sharp, concise and crisp. And practice, practice, practice.
Harvard Business Review
Wall Street Journal

One of my colleagues forwarded me an interview with Bill Gurley of Benchmark capital. As a former early stage CFO myself, I’m always interested in reading advice on how to pitch to VCs. It is a quick read, just 10 questions. Question #4 piqued my interest so I included it below. Here’s a http://www.ansanelli.com/blog/?p=1118″>link to the full article.

4. On the “qualitative” side of things, what do you look for in a entrepreneur or startup CEO? and what turns you off as well?On:
• Intellect
• Salesmanship without being overly promotional
• Pragmatism
• Resourcefulness
• Confidence
Off:
• Overly promotional
• Doesn’t listen
• Unwilling to focus
• Lack of appreciation for finance/economics.

As I read the responses it struck me that this advice can be applied to job seekers as well as entrepreneurs. Too often candidates and clients forget the salesmanship element. Candidates need to have their own elevator pitch and it should be tailored to the position and/or company that you’re interviewing with. And don’t assume your HR contact or the hiring manager can connect all the dots and understand how your particular skills and experience are perfect for this opportunity. Help paint the picture for them yourself. Be careful not to oversell. I know it’s a tough market right now, but don’t be overly promotional and don’t come across as desperate to get the job, because it often backfires.

Introducing the STRe blog. And since this is the inaugural edition, let’s follow basic journalism and get the facts. I am a former CFO and fact based decision making is right up my alley. This way you can make a decision on whether you want to follow us or not.
Who: That’s me, Sue Salvesen, STRe’s CEO. For now it will just be me. Not sure what will happen when I’m on vacation, but stay tuned and we’ll let you know.
What: That’s about content. I’ll primarily be blogging about topics focused on staffing, because that’s our business. Topics will vary from client perspectives, candidate advice to industry trends. I always tell clients and candidates if I knew then (as a hiring manager myself), what I know now (as a boutique staffing owner) I would have been a much better informed buyer of staffing services.
When: I’m going to blog twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Where: The blogging will be at www.stresolutions.com/streblog.
Why: Because everyone else is doing it? Yes…and to share knowledge, information and commentary on a timely basis. And I’m not ready to tweet in 140 characters yet!
How: Well, that’s a long story. The blog was created on our website by our web designer, but she said, “I’m not a WordPress person so you’re on your own.” And then something that I thought was simple, was not so easy, so I went out looking for help. As I was reading “WordPress for Dummies” and talking to other owners that had set up their own blog, I sent out an email to one of my yahoo groups and my partner sent out a message to her marketing group and before we knew it we had some great recommendations. And two of the people were referred by multiple sources. Bingo, exactly what I was looking for. That’s what made it simple.
And the moral of the story is—ask for help, and ask for it from the right, targeted resources. In this data driven world it’s easy to get lost in the forest. Even a Google search turns up too many responses. The same is true of staffing. Getting too many unqualified resumes or candidates can actually be a roadblock to a successful search. But if you target the right audience and can get referrals and recommendations from the right source, you can focus in on the right candidate. The same is true for job seekers. Don’t chase every single opportunity. Focus on the industry or segment you are interested in. Use targeted networks and resources. It will lead to success.