The Perfect Fit

Employment Opportunities Will Improve in 2012

The headline in the New York Times this morning:  "U.S. Economy Gains Steam As 200,000 Jobs Are Added "!  It seems that finally, we have some momentum starting to build on the employment front.The Times' article went on to say:

"The United States added 200,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department said Friday, in a sign that the economic recovery has built up a head of steam.

The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent from 8.6 percent in November, the government said. The employment report built on a flurry of heartening economic news in December, when consumer confidence rose, manufacturing came in strong and small businesses showed signs of life. It was the sixth straight month that the economy has added more than 100,000 jobs." 

Obviously, that's great news and it comes on the heels of other interesting statistics (thanks Ted Konnerth):

• "The NEMA Business Confidence Index is solidly positive at 56 (greater than 50 is considered a growth condition)
• Anywhere from 40% to over 75% of current employees are ready to leave their current employer for a better or simply different job. (Multiple sources)
• Employment hiring stats have been positive for 13 consecutive months (BLS)
• And in the 'curious' category: 2/3's of HR employees are female, 92% of HR employees are white, their average age is 47 and 72% earn more than $90,000 (household). The very bastion of power for ensuring and developing diversity within our companies is in fact... very homogeneous, and relatively young.
• Education is highly correlated with employment. High school dropouts have over 15% unemployment, HS diploma is roughly 10%, some college is 8% and college degree (all) is under 4%. (BLS)
• And, baby boomers have officially begun their slog to retirement."

One of the things all these statistics indicate is that there's likely going to start to be a rush for employees looking for new opportunities.  For any number of reasons, they're unhappy with their current employer and will start looking for that new job.  At the same time, there continues to be a paucity of

Thank You!

This is my 10^th Thanksgiving as a recruiter.  Please indulge me as I think about, and give thanks for the people around me and the career I enjoy.  If not for the people, nothing else would really matter.  I live for my family and friends first, and then for my career.  I’m thankful to be surrounded by a healthy, happy and caring family.  I’m most thankful for Barbara, who’s stuck with me when times were very stressed.  Her strength, understanding and perspective have all (thankfully) contributed to our company’s success.

I’m also thankful for the health of this career as a recruiter.  I’m thankful for all the clients and candidates and colleagues who have trusted me over the years.  I’m proud and pleased to have been able to help clients grow, while helping professionals advance in their careers at the same time.  It’s very satisfying.  I’m thankful that many of my clients and candidates remain friends.

I’m thankful (and proud) that REBUS has grown into an organization that has earned a place of value in the St. Louis advertising community.  I’m thankful for the dedicated and tireless group of volunteers who are really the ones that make REBUS what it is and without whom REBUS would cease to exist.

I’m thankful (and proud) that another organization I was involved with founding is growing slowly, but surely.  Ready and Willing is in its second (public) year and has embarked on its journey to help those St. Louis regional non-profits receive marketing support.  Without r+w  that marketing support would otherwise not be available.  We’ve completed our first project with the St. Louis Special Olympics, the St. Louis Track Club and the Clayton Police.  We’re getting ready to facilitate more contributions from the advertising community to the St. Louis community of charities.

I’m incredibly happy and personally proud that I’ve been elected to the Board of the International Photography Hall of Fame . . . acceptance to that position is one significant achievement for my 25 years as a photographer.  It’s almost incomprehensible to me that I would be a part of such an historically significant organization in the medium I love most.  I’ll be challenged and enthusiastic about supporting the opportunity to bring the headquarters of the IPHF to St. Louis’ Grand Center.  You’ll be hearing more from me regarding that effort.

I’m a lucky guy.  I love my wife, and we’re both healthy.  My family is healthy . . . my business is healthy.  I’m very thankful.  Thank you for allowing me to share my thanks with you.

I wish you, your families, colleagues and those close to you all the very best for a happy and relaxing Thanksgiving Holiday!

New St. Louis Marketing Career Opportunity

We're starting a new retained search for client in Clayton.  Our client LaserBand, is very successful and has consistently grown, year over year since their founding.  They're now expanding from the US to International markets and need an experienced marketer to help lead that growth.

Senior Marketing Manager #11114
Location:  Clayton, Missouri

General Description:
Our client is looking for the person to anchor and grow the marketing department.  Our client is a technology driven manufacturer of a consumable product used in the healthcare field.  They have the premier product of its kind in the US and are now growing globally, consistently returning more than 20% revenue increases annually.  We’re looking for a senior marketing manager who is fluent in database analysis and targeted marketing campaign and metrics development.  Our client knows who their customers are and how they go about their business.  The marketing manager is responsible for developing an introduction and build product awareness as a basis for a conversation with our client’s sales representative.

Primary Responsibilities:
•    Work closely with the CEO to develop the marketing strategy and metrics necessary to improve the tracking, analyzing and managing of that strategy.
•    Be an organized, proactive project manager of everything related to marketing communications including campaigns, timelines and budgets.
•    You’ll be responsible for the marketing plan development, concepts, writing targeted communication, web updating . . . in short, this is a “hands on” position.
•    Manage outside vendors and creative resources effectively and cost efficiently.
•    Be the strategic lead for marketing communications, the principal  writer of long and short copy, attend trade shows and be comfortable and effective presenting to Senior Client executives.
•    Work closely with and in support of the small, motivated and effective sales team.
•    Manage and grow the marketing department’s contribution to the overall sales success over time.
•    Travel as necessary in support of the position . . . perhaps 15%

Experience:
We’re looking for candidates with a related degree and at least ten years of mid-sized, privately held client (>$500MM) experience.  We’re looking for a smart, ambitious, self-directed starter who is a “doer”, not a “supervisor”, someone who understand a sense of urgency and entrepreneurship.   While writing skills are essential, we want someone with a broad range of marketing and diverse channel experience (including CS5).  Candidates with international experience are strongly preferred, working abroad or multi-national marketing experience will serve our client’s global expansion goals.  A second language (European) is strongly preferred.

The 50 Best Recruiting Blogs!

I received an email this morning from Alissa Alvarez, telling me that my blog had been selected as one of the 50 best recruiting blogs in the country!  I'm very pleased, and humbly flattered! I'm re-publishing Alissa's blog in the hopes that many of you will find some valuable tips in the blogs of other recruiters!

With many qualified people out of work and looking for jobs, you might think it’s one of the easiest times to be a recruiter. Yet finding potential employees with the right talent, skills, and drive is never easy, regardless of the size of the pool of applicants or the type of businesses with which you work. Knowing what to look for and how to match the right person to the right job is something that can take a long time to learn and a lifetime to perfect, something most recruiters know all too well.

Whether you’re new to recruiting or an old pro, there’s always something new to learn about the profession and ways to make yourself better at what you do. One of the best ways to do that in today’s world is through the help of recruiters and HR experts who share their skills on blogs, both independently and through their agencies. Here, we’ve compiled a list some of the best recruiting blogs out there, in no particular order. Take a look — you may just learn a few new tricks that can help make you a standout at your job, helping not only you, but also your company and the people you hire, get ahead.

I think Alissa Alvarez missed an excellent site.  My friend Jim Durbin at The Social Media Headhunter is an excellent blogger and recruiter.  I thank Jim for his advice and help in getting this blog started!

News

Make sure you stay in the loop when it comes to industry news by following these blogs.

Here's the rest of the article and the listing of 50 Best Recruiting Blogs.

Reviews, HR, And/Or Government Humor . . . !

It's Friday and it's Veteran's Day.  With a respectful nod to those who wear the uniform in support of our freedom, both past and present, I though a little humor is in order.  I received these "quotations" in a heavily forwarded email yesterday.  These are ostensibly from the Australian government, but most of them could easily he heard in the HR Department of any company!

THESE ARE "ACTUAL" QUOTES TAKEN FROM AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS.
 
1) "Since my last report, this employee has reached rock-bottom and has started to dig."
 
2) "I would not allow this employee to breed."
 
3) "This employee is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definite won't be."
 
4) "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap."
 
5) "When she opens her mouth, it seems that it is only to change feet."
 
6) "He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle."
 
7) "This young lady has delusions of adequacy."
 
8) "He sets low personal standards and  then consistently fails to achieve them."
 
9) "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot."
 
10) "This employee should go far, and the sooner he starts, the better."
 

Cardinals Host REBUS at Busch Stadium on November 15th!

The REBUS Quadruple Play Client Panel

On Tuesday, November 15th from 6PM-8PM REBUS is ecstatic to visit the home of the 2011 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals for the REBUS Quadruple Play Client Panel!

Boasting a set of St. Louis brand icons from companies such as Monsanto, The St. Louis Cardinals, Stereotaxis and one other to be named, the Quadruple Play will allow attendees to get an insight into the work of senior marketers at some of St. Louis’ most iconic companies. The Q&A panel will be chaired by Jennifer Simler, Account Director at Switch, and will give you a chance to ask these  representatives ‘anything and everything’ about working for well-known brands in St. Louis.

Further, for a scant ten-dollar entry fee, you will enjoy an evening of delectable food and drink in the Cardinals Club, one of Busch’s finest spaces that is traditionally used only by St. Louis Cardinals green-seat season ticket holders.  Free Parking is across the street from Paddy O's in Parking Lot A

Unfortunately, attendance and free parking is limited to the first seventy-five registrants, so make sure to visit http://on.fb.me/sDv5Ry to reserve your spot today! Check it out now, you don’t want to have to “wait for next year”!

Want to get on the Q&A list before the event? Tweet us @REBUS_STL!

A Box You Want to Uncheck on LinkedIn!

I've been a fan of LInkedIn as a professional networking site and as a source for research and new business development.  I know many of you have too.  I hope what I'm about to share is more of an anomoly than a trend.  Even as a single incident, it's annoying (at the very least).

I came across this information today from another LinkedIn user, and thought you might like to know about it as well. 

-Basically, you should probably sign in to your LinkedIn account and change some of your preferences as noted in the article below. [I did go in and change mine]

August 10, 2011 by Steve Woodruff 397 Comments

Apparently, LinkedIn has recently done us the “favor” of having a default setting whereby our names and photos can be used for third-party advertising. A friend forwarded me this alert (from a friend, from a friend…) this morning.

Devious. And I expect that you, like me, don't want to participate.  

This graphic shows you how to Uncheck The Box:

1. Click on your name on your LinkedIn homepage (upper right corner). On the drop-down menu, select “Settings”.

2. From the “Settings” page, select “Account*”.

3. In the column next to “Account”, click “Manage Social Advertising” .

4. De-select the box next to “LinkedIn may use my name, photo in social advertising” .

Nice try, LinkedIn. But, no thanks!  

*UPDATE: After you finish with Account, check the new default settings under E-mail Preferences (such as Partner InMails); and Groups, Companies & Applications (such as Data Sharing with 3rd-party applications). It’s a Facebook deja vu!

I suggest that you share this with your LinkedIn friends and colleagues!

Steve Jobs: From High Touch To High Tech

I received a link to this blog posting this morning from my friend and author, Richard Wollenberger.  His thoughts were initially posted on the Parents As Teachers Blog. I thought they should be shared!

"Steve Jobs died yesterday.

I never met him. I’m not sure if I’ve even been in the same room as him. I was at a product introduction speech at Macworld in 2003, but I don’t remember if Steve was the keynote speaker at that expo.

But Steve changed my life.

I was a senior in college when the now-famous 1984 commercial aired during the Superbowl. The next year I was working as a booking agent for small performing arts talent agency in New York city when our secretary sent the wrong contract out for a show and caused a huge ruckus.

I told the boss we should get a computer so we could keep track of all our stuff better. He sent me out shopping. My conclusion: buy a Macintosh. I was convinced that, combined with two other new things —desktop publishing and a laser printer—we could keep track of everything and even create some of our own marketing material!

(Side note: That boss told me he wouldn’t buy anything from Apple because his friend in California said they wouldn’t be around in 5 years. Today Apple has one of the highest market cap’s in the country and over $80 BILLION in the bank. I guess he was wrong!)

I worked with my first Mac in February 1987, and I was hooked. Next Wednesday will mark my 24th anniversary in the computer business, and I have loved it from the beginning. Steve Jobs is why. He had the vision that everyone could (and would) use a computer. But only if they were easy to use.

If you don’t think he was right consider this: how many of you either own or have owned an Apple I, II, IIe, IIc, IIgs, Lisa, or a Macintosh computer? How about an iMac, iPod, iPhone, or iPad?

Apple didn’t invent the personal computer; Apple just made it personal. And they didn’t invent portable music players, cell phones, smartphones, or tablet computers; they made them better than anyone else. And they made them easy to use.

That first time I used a Mac made me realize that there were a world of possibilities that I could grasp if I worked hard enough. 
Thanks in large part to Steve Jobs, even the smallest kids today are connected via technology to a world of information their parents could only imagine. Technology is part of our everday lives. Part of the job of Parents as Teachers is to help parents guide that connection in appropriate ways.

I’ve been fortunate to have some good teachers in the past 24 years, but the vision that drove Steve Jobs, and therefore Apple, allowed me to flourish and really enjoy the work I do every single day. Even the difficult ones.

Today Steve Jobs is being hailed as the Thomas Edison of our time.

So, thank you, Steve, for inspiring me to “Think Different” and to enjoy my life’s work."

Richard Wollenberger is IT Director at Parents as Teachers national office.

The Creep of (Employment) Expectations

The economy has changed . . . forever.  Expectations have changed . . . forever!

As a result of that change, employers have changed their approach to hiring and their expectations of employees' performance.  Employees are caught in the middle and not everyone will suvive . . . many have already been cast aside.

When you don't survive at one place or your looking for that next career opportunity, the bar for hiring qualifications is being raised.  In this era of multi-tasking, "smart" phone ubiquity, client/customer expectations soaring, work-family life balance barely existing, hours increasing and professional "fun" decreasing . . . Employers (rightfully) want premier, stand out from the crowd employees. It's no longer sufficient to simply be "qualified" and/or experienced. 

I ran across an excellent article on this point at B-To-B Magaine,in the September 19, 2011 edition written by James Rogers, VP of Marketing at Hoover's:

"I still remember the first time it happened. I was interviewing a candidate for a marketing position, asking fairly routine questions. It was a pleasant, efficient exchange. Twenty minutes or so later, after I had mentally checked all the boxes, I was satisfied that the candidate was perfectly qualified. As I shook his hand and concluded the interview, I felt a pang of uneasiness in the pit of my stomach. In that moment, I knew I wouldn't hire him.

This wasn't a simple instance of “going with my gut.” No, it was more than that. Something was missing ... something equally, if not more, important than an impressive litany of credentials.

The candidate was competent. That's why I decided not to bring him on board.

These days, competence is good, but it's not good enough. The world of marketing is drastically different than it was five years ago. Economic pressures are shrinking discretionary marketing budgets and forcing accountability and traceability to all programs. In addition, analytics tools, digital marketing programs and the social media explosion are constantly changing the landscape. So, yes, marketing success requires core competency, but it also demands innovation and agility.

 

St. Louis Search: Managing Director, Sr. Brand Strategist #11072

General Description:
This is a new position based on the ongoing growth of our St. Louis client. We’re looking for an experienced branding and marketing communications executive who commands the respect of the client with their attitude, talent, experience and brain. We need someone with agency leadership as well as account and operational management experience. We’re looking for someone who can help lead our clients through the nuances of strategic brand positioning based on research, and very smart thinking resulting in exquisitely executed creative. We’re looking for indefatigable energy, enthusiasm and an entrepreneurial spirit . . . We want you to help nurture the existing staff and help grow that staff and the company.

Primary Responsibilities:
• Act as primary client liaison through the development of client strategy and resulting appropriate project executions, including budget and timeline oversight.
• Be responsible for managing the activity of account teams. This activity includes generating sales, project design (creative), administration, presentations and cost control.
• Monitor and mentor performance, capacity and growth of client service teams and be responsible for each client’s business to manage revenue, profitability and organic growth targets.
• Increase the level of agency services and provide key marketing advice to internal brand managers and top client management.
• Increase the visibility of agency and its services among the key prospective client categories and executives.
• Conduct and/or supervise research and deliver sales presentations; write proposals, brand positioning statements and the occasional brief.
• Develop new business acquisition strategy with agency Principals to expand client base and consistently continue agency growth.
• Participate on Executive Team for planning Company initiatives and growth strategy.
• Travel as necessary in support of client activities (~20%)

Experience:
The ideal candidate must have a superb track record with at least 15 years of senior level client management experience and internal executive level operations experience in an agency and/or client environment. We need specific experience with research based brand positioning, identity creation or refreshing for both B2C and B2B category leading clients, including non-profits. We expect a degree in marketing or closely related field, and we would prefer an MBA. We need a person who has successfully managed teams of employees, if not entire offices or companies. The candidate will have experience working across all forms of media: print, broadcast, promotion, online, direct and environmental design and have experience working closely with creatives.

The ideal candidate will possess keen analytical skills, is a strong decision maker and is results oriented. Strong interpersonal skills along with both written and verbal communication expertise are required. It’s essential you be team-oriented and proactive, as these attributes are intrinsic to the overall culture and success of the agency. We need a strategic account professional with personality and style, and who understands “thinking big”. You’ve always lead by example and have more of a global perspective and awareness of best practice branding and marketing communication tactics.

Compensation:
Compensation will be commensurate with experience and designed to attract premier candidates. There is no “glass ceiling”! The compensation is based on a salary, with performance based bonus and additional incentives possible. That base compensation is coupled with an outstanding benefits package including medical, life and disability insurance and a 401K with a company match. This is an outstanding opportunity for significant financial success, career longevity, and ongoing professional and personal growth. There is no relocation package being provided.

About Our Client:
Our client started with one employee 18 months ago and now has six. They are consistently winning new business, because they are smarter in their strategy and insights, while delivering best in class creative for their clients’ benefit. They are creating a collaborative culture based on smart thinking, the highest quality execution and a company culture that values collaboration and respect for colleagues, clients and family. The diverse client base includes category leaders in entertainment, construction, education, healthcare and non-profits. EOE