Well I was almost out the door today when I happened to stumble across this article. It seems that Santa Clara County is going to see no new jobs this year. This whole article is about how the situation in Silicon Valley with respect to employment is not a great one. I do have to leave now so lots more on this later.

I can't believe how much stuff I get sent to me on a daily basis that claims to solve the problems of recruiting. Here are some of the slogans of today's email blitz:
1. Try Before you Buy - This was sent from Recruiters Network on behalf of Dice ( I thought they were in financial trouble)
2. Something from EGRABBER I get stuff from these guys all of the time.
3. Another email. Actually the same email again from EGRABBER
4. Something from deals4recruiters on behalf of Candidate Seeker It claims to be "The ULTIMATE Candidate Sourcing Solution!" Hmm.... I will try it and let you know if it is actually "The ULTIMATE Candidate Sourcing Solution! Maybe if it is, I can get rid off all of the recruiters at my company and make way more money.
5. Deals4recruiters again. This time it is on behalf of Jessie Han Enterprises. He claims to have a system that eliminates the need to ever have to make a cold call again. Wow!! I would think if a system like this really worked, it would cost more than $49.95
6. Job.com sent me a note as well. 25 free postings, unlimited candidate database access. Maybe if I had 25 Real Bonified Poitions I would be interested.

I can't finish this right now. One of my recruiters just wrote an order for a VP of Software development - 25% fee. Someone Please Please Please send me an email right now with the person's name who is ready and able to accept and start in two weeks. I promise to pay much more than $49.95

This is an article written by my good friend Gary Fowler who runs a search fiirm called Analog Solutions. He has been in the business a long time and has a reputation of being one of the finer more effective recruiters out there. If you want to see a picture of him, here he is

The name of this article is Analog hiring trends: From good to bad to really ugly It appeared in Planet Analog on Feb 4/2003

"The dramatic and unprecedented meltdown in the semiconductor industry has induced many bad feelings within our unique space! Companies have continued to cut costs through hiring freezes and layoffs. While the more junior individuals are taking the brunt, a number of very senior people have been displaced as a result of companies canceling projects and dropping major programs within saturated spaces like 802.11.

A major digital semiconductor company engaged me to build an analog team for their communications projects, only to cancel the entire effort within two months. During my search for an engineering director, several prospective candidates expressed concern about this company's reputation starting and then canceling projects. Rumors of this behavior spreads fast in our industry - adding to the prejudices many analog professionals may have about working for a digital company.

Another ugly trend recruiters see are with companies attempting to create a sense that “all is well” with bogus hiring requisitions. They'll send me on a hiring mission, interview anyone and everyone, and then reject everyone they talk with. One major analog/mixed signal IC company encouraged their design centers to interview a massive number of experienced people over the last year but remained ambiguous about when and who they would actually hire. Consequently, this company has a hugely negative reputation within the analog labor pool. Almost everyone I speak with has felt jilted (or knows someone jilted) by this analog kingpin. When the market begins to grow again, this company will have a huge hurdle to overcome to expand their design teams.

Company politics do not help. In some companies, the Board of Directors (or the VC financers) may be looking to replace high-level executives - in some cases, early Founders. But these actions can have severe consequences and ripple effects all the way to the lowest levels of an organization. In one company, a Founder who had served as both CTO and VP of engineering was under pressure to separate the roles, and give up the latter. He was “less than enthusiastic” and wound up sabotaging the recruiting process for his replacement by failing to show for interviews with prospective candidates. But this conveyed a very politically charged internal environment to the candidates.

Even in difficult times companies must be especially careful to follow a process in recruiting that will not shoot holes in their own feet. Horror stories move extremely fast within our small niche! We can only hope that profitability in 2003 will put an end to the hiring stalemate, and provide a better recruitment environment for us all."

I saw a thread on erexchange talking about if there is a better system than dtsearch for indexing resumes. Someone suggested Choosing the Right Resume Search Tool I checked it out and there are a number of different programs that compare functions.

I wonder if we would all be better off using the old 3 by 5 card system. We never had the illusion of being very busy on the computer. I knew who I had to call, I knew who I had to bug, I knew who I needed reminding about sending a resume. It was so easy then.

Having said that, I use DT Search and I can tell you it's great. I used to use Eliyon but they now charge a thousand bucks a month and I won't pay it. It's a great product though.

See Ya