On the Mark...The IT Market in Austin, Texas

Spinning the Facts on Job Opportunities

2012-02-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I'm a big fan of the sport of Boxing. As you know, Boxing is a dying sport. It holds nothing today of the status it held 100, 50 or even 25 years ago when championship fighters were regarded as the most famous of our athletes.

There are many things that have led to Boxing's demise. One of these contributing elements has been the promoters and their failure (or even worse, refusal) to match the best fighters with each other so that the viewing public can witness a truly special event that will crown a real champion. Promoters do their best to guide a boxer through their career where they are carefully matched against the right opponenets to look good and ultimately realize a big money fight against another named contender. Let's face it, you can't fault the promoters. They have invested time and money into these subjects and they want to get the absolute best rate of return.

Bob Arum is the most recognized promoter in Boxing and he puppeteers boxers like no other. When I see him refuse to make fights with some of his fighters, I get really angry and feel he is destroying the sport of Boxing. He protects certain fighters and throws others in hard fights all the time. However, when I see him on an interview and he is justifying certain fights and disregarding others, I have to admit, he is stating nothing but the facts. Is he twisting the facts? Yes he is. However, allow me to say that it is very, very difficult to say he is being deceitful or sincere in his interests.

This dynamic I'm describing is similar to recruiters representing software engineers to job opportunities.

When a software engineer works with a recruiter, the recruiter will market as many jobs as possible to the software engineer. After all, the recruiter wants the best possible shot at placing this software engineer and what better way to do this than get him submitted to every client that might hire him. There is nothing wrong with this. However, remember that this recruiter is also working with other software engineers and he is submitting these software engineers to a lot of the same companies. So, what you have are multiple candidates being submitted to multiple companies. To the recruiter, he will realize a scenario that will maximize the number of placements, hence commissions, among these candidates and their interviews. From this, a conflict of interest will arise, a moral tug of war for what is best for these software engineers and what is best for the recruiter's monthly production. Placing Candidate A with Company X will mean that Candidate B will most likely take Company Y. When such a chain of events are at play, how is information presented from the recruiter to the software engineer? Does the recruiter go from being a facilitator to an instigator to a disrupter? It's yet another lesson in greed and self-serving motives and how it comes at the expense of others.

I'm not going to be Mr. Good Guy recruiter and say I'm above such acts of professional selfishness. Each week, my associate and I run down our list of candidates and where we have interviews going. Every once in a long while, we can't help but realize the possibility of every domino falling in our favor. I will come right out to Jessica and say, "Wow, wouldn't it be cool if Joe took Company A and Rajesh rocked Company B and Susan locked in with Company C?". We sit there for a few moments and smile at the remote possibility that everything could fall in our favor.

How does this influence us, the recruiter? Well, as the interviews play out and software engineers come to us with feedback from the companies, we will slant our facts and views slightly so as to hopefully steer candidates in a particular direction to maximize the number of placements from all of this activity. Now, before I hear a ton of backlash from my reading audience about our firm being some evil influence and intentionally corrupting an engineer's career, please realize that this talk of slanting and spinning data works in very few situations. For the most part (95% of the time), we are at the mercy of a software engineer wanting to work at a particular company because he likes the work and he enjoys the people working there. No recruiter can stop that. However, remember that there are a lot of "facts" about companies and facts can either be positive or negative. Below are two honest facts about a startup here in Austin; one is positive and the other negative. Which would have more of an influence on your decision to work at a company:

THE POSITIVE:
Well this startup employs, from top to bottom, arguably the highest caliber of software engineers in Austin. Their work is really cutting edge but what is impressive is that their Software Development leadership team is comprised of top 1% achievers. So, getting on board with these guys gets you connected with arguably the next generation of software leaders in this town. And when these guys get further promoted, you follow in their footsteps or if they move on to another company, heck, you go join them as one of their early stage developers. You can't lose being around the best developers and being led by them.

THE NEGATIVE:
Well, the one thing you have to be careful about is that the Senior Management team and technical leads have been at the company for a while and you can make the argument that the company is at a point where there could very possibily be a "brain drain" and a mass defection of talent over the next six months. The result would be you getting on board and within 6-12 months, before you've had a chance to settle in, a lot of these guys leave and you are stuck with substitute leadership and incredibly long hours to keep the ship afloat. I've seen it happen before and the worst thing that can happen about joining a company to work with other brilliant developers is if those great developers leave before you've really had a chance to work closely with them. After all, have you really thought about why they even have these roles open now? I don't know for sure but it could be in anticipation that a lot of people are going to be leaving. These guys have all been there 5 years, are fully vested, and no doubt have to be getting a little itchy for a change.

As a software engineer processes these two sides to the story, the recruiter will listen VERY CLOSELY to his tone and his thoughts. If the recruiter wants this placement to happen, he will not even bring up this second scenario and will pound on "working with the best and what that means for your career". On the other hand, if the recruiter can place this candidate at another company for a larger fee, trust me, he will bring up this second point and he will do it in his most persuasive and caring demeanor. He'll bring up the commute and the potential for long hours even if those, at face value, aren't an issue with you. Should the software engineer express concern over these facts or say something like, "Geez, I never thought about that until now", it's not like opening a can of worms, it's like opening a vault to a nuclear reactor. That recruiter will pounce on that and drive that point home. Both are true facts above so is the recruiter lying? No he isn't. However, is the recruiter thinking of himself, the larger commission and his whole perfect board of dominoes? Of course he is. When a software engineer interviews at multiple companies, sometimes all the opportunities blend in together and the software engineer will lean on the recruiter and trust what he/she has to say and come to see this person as their confidante. After all, the recruiter has set up multiple interviews for this engineer, has sent him to good, qualified opportunities and has been very professional. What's not to trust at this point? Trust me, this is when a recruiter can really be at their most misleading and devious.

In the very rare moments where there need to be no spinning of the facts and everything is coming together, recruiters get their best opportunity to play Switzerland. "Hey Xiaoming, I'm just supportive of whatever decision you make. Whatever you feel is best, I agree with. Of the companies, X is my favorite because of the short commute and the work/life balance but whatever you feel is most important to you". We then go to the hiring managers and express our sympathies that we really don't have any idea which opportunity Xiaoming is going to take. The hiring manager might come back to us and say, "What can we do to get him?". We say, "Well, we will go and check for you and see what might make a difference". Remember that recruiters are really good at marketing and if we have the opportunity to be seen as these open and caring, neutral facilitators of job opportunities, we're going to make the most of it.

A company recently had some layoffs in town and I was working all 8 of their developers. They were all really good so trust me, I had my dominoes out! I had pretty much all of them talking to as many firms as possible. I presented them very compelling opportunities and given the layout, I didn't really attempt to spin any of the facts. Once again, software engineers are really smart guys and they can smell a lot of BS. In the end, I got offers for all 8 of them. I only placed two of the 8 offers. 6 of them took jobs at companies other than my clients through other agencies. In my mind, it was very far from ideal but I can say that every one of them took the job that was best suited for them. As a recruiter, I was happy for each one of them. Was it a disappointment? Yes it was but hey, it's what I do for a living. Was there the opportunity for me to spin any of the opportunities that were available? Yes, of course, but it didn't feel right. It just didn't feel right.

For the software engineer, when you are working with a recruiter and you're listening to him pitch you these jobs, work you to multiple companies and provide you with "trusted advice" for what is best for your career, really listen to "why" he is saying what he's saying and why it's important to you. If he starts addressing his "concerns" about an opportunity, make the judgement on whether it's a concern for you. If his concerns aren't your concerns, there's the possibility he has some dominoes out and he's hoping everything falls perfectly in place. For him that is.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com
@mhcrecruit

Some Salary Data for QA Engineers

2012-01-24T11:31:00.000-08:00

We did a few searches for QA Engineers in 2011 and I wanted to share some salary ranges and insight.

In a period that saw Sr. Software Developer salaries breakout to 150k+, Sr. QA Engineer salaries stubbornly stayed in the 90-105k range. While there are always exceptions, for the most part, this is the salary range I saw. The profile of QA Engineer I'm talking about is the following:

1. Does not necessarily have a CS degree. Most often did not.
2. Test Automation experience and is not just a manual tester.
3. "Software QA" experience and by that I mean someone who has experience with commercial software products. Doing QA on a web application or some IT process is now what I'm describing.
4. 7+ years experience.

An extension of a QA Engineer is the "Test Automation Developer". Those engineers often do have the CS degree and they are writing Java code or Python code and they can be really good at it. Last year, I had a QA/Automation Architect say the following words to me, "I build highly scalable test automation architectures in Python and these frameworks are used by our Development team". I can assure you that candidate was not trapped in the 90-105k range.

Here are some words from a hiring manager. The profile he is describing will fetch a salary to 110-115k, maybe 120k for a very senior lead: The QA profile for our QA Engineers is very technical. The Quality Engineers have to have strong Java development skills. Most of the QA teams do about 70%/60% development and the rest is testing (depending on the project). All this said, it has to be frustrating for good quality QA Engineers who are seeing their salaries top out at these levels. There are a couple of companies that will go to 115k for a really good QA Lead but for the most part, the ceiling at 100-105k is still in place.

As for Managers/Directors of QA, the ceiling for salaries is still anywhere from 120-135k. If you are at Dell or an established employer, your salary will be even higher and with the great benefits and bonus, it's going to be really hard to justify going back and trying a startup. For a good QA Engineer who is stuck in this range, I would suggest finding an atractive startup that you believe in, get your equity stake and hope that something great happens. We're at a stage where this range might be in place for quite a while.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com
@mhcrecruit

The Legend and the Lore of Software Engineers

2012-01-17T19:10:00.000-08:00

I recruit for a living. I've been doing it for 16 years and I love it. I really do. I have my hobbies. I like to play soccer, I like fitness activities and I like to watch boxing. But my love is recruiting. I recently went on a vacation with my family. We went to Key West and stayed at a nice hotel. I enjoyed it but I really wasn't happy because I wanted to be recruiting. I was so happy to get home and get back to work.

My subjects are Software Engineers and early in my career, I came to develop this high sense of respect for my subject matters. It started early and to put it bluntly, I was in awe of software engineers. I worked in a pod with other recruiters and others were like me but perhaps not as enthused about it. They would brag about where the candidate got their degree from, how big of a raise they got for them or how well they did on an interview. All recruiters did that. However, I took it to another level. I don't know if it's been good for my career but it has made my job more fun and it's something I'm sincere about.

This blog post is complimentary so I'm going to name names. In 1996, I pulled out a software engineer from MCI in Austin and placed him at a company called I-Link. His name was Stuart Duff. After the interview, the I-Link founders came to me and said, "this guy is really, really good and we'd like to make him an offer to be one of our Lead Developers". I got off the phone and told the nearest person to me, "Oh man, I've probably found the smartest engineer in Austin. I mean, he's a genius. Oh man, this guy is so friggen smart that you can't even register it." Whatever that means. After I placed him at I-Link, I went to their offices and dropped off a care package for Stuart. It was around 7pm and he was still there, coding. I don't know why or how I got to remembering it this way but I when I walked into I-Link, I heard a large pounding on a computer. It was like a very fast BAM, BAM, BAM. It was loud. Visualize a large rubber mallet and pounding it against a keyboard. I peeked around the corner and there was Stuart. He was coding and then turned to greet me. I gave him the care package, we chatted a little bit (conversation was choppy and awkward, as it often is with software engineers) and I left. For the next several years, when I would talk to people about some of the stronger software engineers I'd ever worked with, I told them that one of the best was Stuart Duff because when he coded software, it sounded like "he was pounding the keyboard with a large rubber mallet". He was that good.

Compaq Computer in 1997 had a WBEM group. WBEM stood for "Web Based Enterprise Management". I didn't know what that really meant and one of the engineers in the group told me that it would allow engineers to manage the enterprise systems from a web browser. Still not knowing entirely what that even meant, I quickly assumed that this was probably the most cutting edge work going on in all of America. The project the group was working on was put on hold and all the developers were looking for jobs. There were 5 of them and they were in Houston. I marketed all five to companies in Houston and my pitch to companies was, "This candidate is a senior developer for arguably the most challenging and most cutting edge project in IT today. He's a genius and he would ace any interview you put him on".

I know. Quite an embellishment but for the record, I did place all 5 of these developers and they all did have multiple offers. One was an intern under the CTO for Ascend Communications and was truly a gifted engineer. But leave it to me to say, "This candidate is arguably one of the top three software engineers in all of Texas". This continued through the dot.com boom. It was a little subdued through the dot.com bust but came back in 2004. A lot of times, in my defense, it was the excitement of my clients that propelled my fascination. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a hiring manager say, "John, he's unbelievable. He's a (insert expletive here) genius. He's the MAN". I remember Pluck once posting a job description saying, "We want software engineers who can bend code with their mind". I would just get a big smile on my face whenever I read that requirement.

I had many chances to rid myself of this fascination, this idolotry of my subjects. I remember being invited to a pool party by one software engineer. I got all dressed up because I assumed he lived in a mini-mansion. I brought over a really nice bottle of wine. Heck, he was making 95k in 1999 and even with a family of four his house in Leander had to have been huge.

Seeing his house and how small it was. Everyone sitting in the backyard, not saying much, wearing very modest clothing. Seeing that he was just working for a living and paying on a mortgage; tired from long hours and a probable lack of sleep. I could have stopped right then and realized that software engineers are just like everybody else. No different from anyone. Besides, I was getting older now. Going into my mid to late 30's and I was actually older than some of these developers. It was probably time to back off, settle down a little bit and treat recruiting for what it really is, a job. After all, most software engineers probably would feel a wee bit uncomfortable knowing that some recruiter was running around calling them a genius to companies in Austin and Houston. After all, who needs that kind of pressure?

But I didn't. I couldn't. These were who I represented and to me, they were special. They were geniuses and I strove to be among them and to evangelize them.

By 2007, I thought I had pretty much seen it all. I mean, I had been around all these geniuses and I was telling anyone and everyone that I had worked with the best. I then started working with Lombardi Software. At Lombardi, as I soon learned from a high ranking Engineering leader in the company, was the 2nd best Software Engineer in all of Austin. His name was Mike Nonemacher. For the record, popular opinion in town is that Shawn Smith is the #1 software engineer in all of Austin. In truth, you can take these two guys and lump them in with a bunch of other brilliant developers in Austin and collectively, you have the top 1%. But at that moment, that didn't matter. I was in the presence of arguably the best software engineer in Austin. This Engineering Leader was escorting me through Lombardi and introducing me to various people and he asked me to looked across a set of cubicles to an office in the back. He then said, "that is Mike Nonemacher over there". I looked at his office like Indiana Jones looked at the Holy Grail. I was told that if I found some really strong software engineers, Mike would do the technical screen.

So, there I was with my challenge. I had worked with the best so who could I present to Mike and get his thumbs up? For several weeks, I couldn't find anybody that warranted even submitting. For the first time in my recruiting career, from an Engineering perspective, I was in over my head. I often marketed candidates with several job changes, CIS degrees or a CS degree from somewhere that wasn't Rice, CMU or Purdue. Lombardi expected candidates from these schools and I didn't have them in my network. So, it was a bit taxing on me emotionally.

Meanwhile, I was doing a good job of not bumping into Mike. I just didn't want to see him because heck, I obviously wasn't worth his time. Unfortunately, I did encounter him as I was walking down the hallway to the bathroom just outside Lombardi's offices. Mike appeared to be leaving the bathroom as I was going there. I briefly glanced up at him and no words were exchanged but he smiled. I remember turning towards the towards the wall because I wanted to give him enough space to walk by. I can't remember but my chest might have touched the side of the wall. As anyone will remember, the hallways at Lombardi were wide enough for a normal sized person and an NFL Offensive Lineman to walk by each other. I'm just happy I didn't bump into him in the bathroom. You ever hear the saying that the big folks put their shoes on and go to the bathroom just like everyone else? I just wasn't ready to accept that kind of equality with someone like Mike Nonemacher.

Good news came in the form of a strong candidate that I could finally submit to Mike. This candidate was someone I had placed before and I remember one of his references saying that he had a photographic memory. The company I had placed him at loved him and said that he was one of their best developers. Plus, he was Russian and as any recruiter will testify, Russian developers are among the best. I could finally go to Mike with a qualified candidate. In fact, this candidate was one where I held my rarified sense of awe towards. He was a genius. After all, he had a true photographic memory and I suspected it to be true.

I made the trip to Mike's office a couple of times to discuss the candidate and confirm that he would speak with him. I got some times and for a short while, I got comfortable swinging by his office to discuss this and other possible candidates. No rapport developed and Mike never said anything more than "okay" or "yeah". I don't think he ever really said an entire sentence to me. He would just nod to agree or shake his head to disagree.

The time had come for the interview and I was excited and nervous. Mike and the candidate spoke and afterwards, I called the candidate to see how things went. I mean, surely they went well enough that the candidate would get invited to meet onsite at Lombardi. This candidate was getting several offers in Austin and I told him that if he got an offer from Lombardi, he was special. After exchanging greetings, the candidate told me that things "didn't go well" and he got tripped up on a couple of algorithm problems. All in all, he felt that he could have done better but still had hopes for an onsite. "Okay, okay" I reassured him and told him that I'd get him some feedback. I went into Mike's office and asked how it went. He didn't say anything. He just quickly shook his head and went back to coding. I just turned around and said "Oh damn" to myself. I was totally deflated and for the remainder of my contract at Lombardi, I did not set up another interview for software engineers. Disclaimer: After my contract was over, I did place a software engineer at Lombardi who didn't even have a CS degree and once again, someone that I ranted to everyone as a "genius walking amongst us in Austin". I also found a software engineer that pulled off one of the best technical interviews ever at Lombardi. He was a CMU grad and a semi-finalist for Google Code Jam when he was a senior in college. By then, Mike was gone to Google and my most vivid memory of this candidate was that I wasn't able to submit this resume to Mike.

These days, I have mellowed a bit. I still hold these software engineers in the highest regard. Akin to great athletes in the NFL, I now call them Beasts and Animals. I don't say that they pound on keyboards with rubber mallets but I still get excited and still "put my rep" on them. I recently became a fan of Norman Richards. I have seen him at work and he starts talking technology and he talks deeper and deeper and deeper and others just try to keep up with him. He's a beast. He one time told me that he sees himself keeping up with younger software engineers until he's in his early 50's. I have absolutely no doubt that he can do that. I call Norman a Beast. Not directly to his face or anyone else but rather to myself and my two associate recruiters. They have to listen to me rant about how brilliant all of these guys are. They must think I'm crazy but they are polite and merely say, "Geez you sure get excited about this technical recruiting!"

If you aren't a beast, you're an animal. If not that, you're truly, truly gifted, brilliant or yes, a genius. I have seen some of the problem solving questions that get asked software engineers and I wouldn't even know how to even start and these guys break it down easily. I don't care what anyone says. They are special and they represent such a very small percentage of the earth's population. When you encounter one, it's a special occasion and you treat it with a great deal of respect.

A few years ago, I had lunch with an old friend. He was a friend but wasn't a friend all in the same package. He was in commercial real estate and was a sharp guy and I'm a sucker for good conversation and talking with people who are connected in Austin. We were at Z-Tejas and while having lunch, 4 guys walked in. They were developers. I can spot developers from a million miles away. Frazzled hair, slightly protruding bellies with shirts untucked and behind thick glasses were tired eyes that had been over dosed with Cokes, Doctor Peppers and way too many bags of chips and snacks. Socially awkward, they walked past us and grabbed a table. For a brief moment, you could see how they struggled on which seat to take. In my mind, I assumed they were calculating in micro-seconds the most efficient seating arrangement for everyone to get their food and consume it as efficiently as possible. Any movement by a software engineer is a calculated effort driven by a mind that is genetically more gifted than the average human being. I suppose the same is said for Doctors and Lawyers but I don't recruit Doctors and Lawyers. They aren't a concern to me.

Back to the story. Upon passing us by, my friend took a glance at the group of engineers and quipped, "Wow, look at these guys". I chuckled along with him, deadpanned and looked him right in the eyes and said:

"Those guys? Those guys are my Idols".

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com
@mhcrecruit

Quick Salary Tip for Software Engineers

2011-12-22T12:44:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of ways to negotiate salary and this tip is by no means the best one. However, in the right situation, it could be helpful. If you find yourself engaging directly with a firm (ie. not using a recruiter) and things are going well and moving quickly, stay with the momentum of the interview until you get all the way to the offer stage and then SLOW IT DOWN!

Here's an example:

You passively started looking around and either a friend, user group colleague or a former boss reaches out to you about an opportunity. You interview one time and you nail it. You come back the 2nd time and you meet with the CTO. This also goes well and since you're a known commodity and your experience speaks for itself, the CTO is ready to move quickly and make you an offer. Since everything is moving so quickly and going so well, a lot of times the software engineer will not negotiate as hard on salary as he should. After all, who wants to spoil the party? I have seen so many times where a software engineer has told me, "Well, I really did like the people and the work they were doing is cool so I didn't want to make a big deal over the salary".

Well, if you think that way, you will leave a good chunk of money on the table over the course of your career. Most recently, I spoke with a really good developer. I don't want to call him "genius good" but he was damn good and a nice guy too. His salary he recently accepted was 90k. That same week I had another candidate take a job with a firm here in town for 105k. I would certainly put these two developers in the same zip code as far as their skills are concerned but one was making 90k and the other was making 105k. Ironically, the 90k guy had a CS degree and the 105k guy did not!

So, let me give you some magic words that might come in handy if you are faced with a situation like the one described above (or any salary situation for that matter). When the CTO or VP or HR director comes to you and asks you what you are making and what you are looking for, say this:

"To be honest, I haven't even thought about salary yet. I've been so wrapped up in this opportunity and meeting everyone that I haven't had a chance to sit down and think about compensation and what I'd be looking for. If it's okay with you, I'd like to go home, let it all sink in and wake up tomorrow with an idea. Is that okay with you?"

In doing this, you gently tap the brakes on a great opportunity just enough to slow it down and view it for what it is, a job. Don't kid yourself, the company you're dealing with is in the business of making and saving money. If they can get you on board as a happy employee for the lowest salary possible, they will do it. After all, it's only good business. The Delta on this might be nothing more than 2-3k but multiply that by 4-5 jobs over a 20 year period and you're talking about a new car or one year of tuition for your child's college education. I don't know anyone in my circle of friends who can afford to let that kind of money slip by.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com
@mhcrecruit

A Troubling Dilemma Facing "Top Tier" Software Startups in Austin

2011-11-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

I make it sound so dramatic, don't I?

But folks, if you take this Austin IT job market as seriously as I do, what I'm about to describe is indeed an issue. I'm going to discuss the job offers that are being made in this town and how these offers are being viewed by the software engineering community. I'm sorry but I can't name any names. However, I will try to get as detailed as possible. Below are 3 types of opportunities currently available in Austin:

Opportunity #1:
There is a small fraternity of "top tier" software startup companies. They are well funded, they have plans to do some really big things and they have some brilliant people working for them. There are only about 4-5 of these startups in town and in their own right, they view themselves as the envy of Austin. In the eyes of management, it's an absolute privilege to work at one of these firms. From an Engineering perspective, I will say that each of these "top tier" firms employ several developers that you would classify in the top 2% of their profession. In their eyes, success will be on a grand scale.

Opportunity #2
After these "top tier" startups, you have another class of startups. These startups are more established or "older" as you would say. Their VC funding has been through multiple rounds and their equity offering is diluted compared to these early stage, top tier firms. They still have dreams to do some big things and they still hope to go public or get bought some day. But make no mistake, they can't promise the huge equity payoff. To counter this, they pay higher salaries than the early stage startups that I describe in the above paragraph. I will say that these older startups can still employ many brilliant engineers that are every bit as strong as the developers for these early stage startups.

Opportunity #3
After these two classes of startups, you have larger, institutional companies that are not startups. They might already be public so if you were given options, you would merely exercise them for modest sums over the years. These companies have more structured development environments and are not as exciting as the startups described above. As a result, the technical bar of engineers at these larger firms are not as strong as the startups. Across the board, that is a fact. The developers are good but just not at the level of the startups. It's always been like this for as long as I remember. The only thing that makes these companies appealing is the pay and the work/life balance. You get very strong salaries, bonuses that are guaranteed in the neighborhood of 15% and you get a benefits package that costs less than what you'd have to pay at the startups. It is generally known that software engineers at these firms are not good enough to get an offer from these startups. Regarding these startups, it's usually a revolving door of engineers going from one firm to another. The engineers at the big firms usually are more caught up in traditional form of security and stability, ie. large salaries and the "perceived" security of working at a company with 5000 or more employees.

Here's the dilemma: These larger companies, the ones with the lower technical bar of engineers and the less exciting work, have been beating out the startups at attracting the top developers in town. These top 2% developers have recently been going for the higher salary, better benefits, easier work/life balance and turning their backs on the opportunity to "do something great" at one of these startups.

I'll do my best to explain why.

When you join an early stage startup, like I mentioned above, you do it for the chance to be part of something great. You're one of the first 20-30 employees and with that, you're in the position to capitalize on quite a financial windfall should the company be successful.

Or would you?

For these early stage startups, you will most likely take a cut in pay and work longer hours. No matter how you slice it, it's a double negative. You do get fresh stock options but you really have to break down what your amount is relative to the total number of outstanding shares. All I can say is that you would be surprised at how modest that offering can be. For very senior positions (Director level and Chief Architects), you get about 1 one basis point == 1/100 of 1%. 1 point is 1%. So you have to ask yourself if the risk/reward trade-off is worth that amount of equity.

I have a friend of mine here in to who is a VP/Executive Manager for a software company and is a startup veteran. He know this business well and he has been one of the fortunate few who has realized the success of an early stage startup. He knows the experience first hand and he commented on this very topic. Here are his words:

For a line level engineer or front line manager, I think the math has to look more like 50...%-100% kicker on base salary assuming a *reasonable* exit valuation within 4 years. (E.g. if you're a developer making $150K and the company exits two years after you join, then you need to make $150K-$300K on your vested options.) You are right -- if these companies aren't offering that they aren't going to beat BigCo.

I hate to say it but for some early stage startups here in Austin, I'm not seeing that kind of offering. I'm not saying the company can't grow to a level where one basis point can ultimately be worth ~200k for a software engineer. It's just such an ambitious assumption for someone to take on, especially when you have the kind of guaranteed money that a big company is offering right now. I wish I could name names but I can't. However, there are a couple of publicly traded firms in town that hire Sr. Software Engineers and on top of their generous salaries (115-135k), they offer:

bonuses in the neighborhood of 15-25%
matching 401k
health insurance benefits that can be 300-400/month less than a startup.

People take jobs to stay at them for 3-5 years so what would keep a top flight software engineer from taking a job at one of these bigger, established companies and making the same amount in "guaranteed" bonuses that he could only hope to make in stock options? I recently made an offer to a top 2% software engineer to work at an early stage startup. He had a competing offer from a publicly traded company. The difference between the startup's base salary and his guaranteed compensation at the established company was 23k. On top of that, he had a family of 4 and health insurance was 400/month cheaper with the larger company. In order for the stock options to make things even, we had to assume that the startup company would get bought for 500 million! Now, as a recruiter, how in the world am I going to go to a candidate and ask them to assume the startup gets bought for 500 million? And even if it did, that makes him only 100k! This is for an early stage startup.

So, you can see how it's a struggle for the numbers to work out for a top flight software engineer to consider one of these startups. You might be a little bored at these bigger companies but at least you're working 45 hours/week and having a life. Sure, you can be part of something great but what's great about your kick back? Your options aren't worth that much, you took a cut in pay and you worked close to 20-30% longer than the average employee.

Have I known some huge success stories in startups? Of course. I knew quite a few engineers and Product Manager who were sitting on 20k+ shares over at SolarWinds with the stock over 20/share. Not bad at all. I am familiar with the guys at MessageOne and Lombardi who did really well. There are many other stories. However, when you look at the backend pop an early startup offers and you have to assume the most ambitious valuations in order for it to break even with an established firm, it takes a lot of the fun out of doing the startup.

Regarding this dilemma, I'm having to sell really hard on all the brilliant, smart people that work at these early stage startups. I will defend that to the very end. They are brilliant and they are the top 2%. And as luck would have it, they got there at an earlier stage than everyone else. So, their bang for the buck is much greater than what everyone else gets. To that, people will say, "Well, network with these original founders and when the next hot startup comes along, you can follow all the original founders". That is a possibility.

Or, you can take yourself out of that race and park it at an established firm and do some easy living? Make a lot of guaranteed money, join a softball team and enjoy life for a while before making the big plunge. Most recently, it seems a lot of smart software engineers have been doing that.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com
@mhcrecruit

Interview Feedback for Software Engineers

2011-11-09T12:11:00.001-08:00

This post will address the unfortunate scenario of being turned down.

When a company interviews a software engineer and they want to move forward, the feedback is to the point and conclusive:

Bill did well on the call. He has a solid background in OO principles and his problem solving skills seem to be strong. He also sounded interested in what we were doing and the kind of problems we're working on. Let's get him in here

The feedback above really isn't that much but since the company wants to move forward, Bill isn't too concerned because the outcome is positive. However, what happens if the company doesn't want to move forward with Bill? The feedback in this case is even less:

We spoke with Bill yesterday and we aren't interested in moving forward. If you have some other candidates, please send them over.

In our world of technical recruiting, it's no big deal because we immediately go off and try to find new candidates. However, for the candidate that was rejected, he/she can have some hurt feelings. They want an explanation as to why the company doesn't want to move forward.

I hate to say it but you're not going to get one.

Unfortunately, you didn't do enough to impress the client and they don't want to move forward. You can even interview with them for 3-4 rounds and come down to the final meeting and STILL, if you get turned down, you won't get feedback on why. Granted, you might get the obligatory we really liked Bill but at this time, we're going to look for a better match spiel but you're not going to get the truth. In fact, in cases like this, the truth might be too much to handle.

So, if you get turned down for a job and you are left in the dark as to why, try asking yourself these questions:

1. Was the hiring manager just giving you standard acknowledgements to your answers? Words and comments like, "I see where you're coming from" or "Okay, I see your thought process".

If he's saying something like that, it can initially sound like he's in agreement but tracking back over the conversation in your head again, you can see how he's just going through the motions and gliding along, waiting for you to finish so he can move on.

2. Did you offer a solution to a problem and they had to help you a little to get all the way through it?

If that happens, you might think it's a small thing but they are probably wanting you to answer the question without any help at all. If they have to offer up a few hints and clues, that is what contributed to your removal from consideration.

It's tough to handle indeed. I recently had an engineer who went through multiple rounds of interviews and was rejected on the final inteview. No feedback was given. Just a straight rejection. He was upset and wanted an explanation. As it turned out, he had been turned down at a few other firms as well and of course, no feedback was given.

In such a case, all I can say is that you have to look at yourself, flashback to the interview, go over every instance where opinion could have gone one way or another. What were the reactions to your answers, your thought processes?

In the end, that will be your feedback and it's what you'll have to live with. After all, going back to the hiring manager and demanding feedback is very much like going back to that girl who went on one date with you and never took your call again. Are you going to send her several emails, call her 5-6 times or even go over to her house with a bouquet of roses demanding an explanation on why she doesn't want to see you anymore? I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT!

You'll probably have to look inside yourself, find where you erred and hope to learn from it in the future. After all, like everything else in life, the answer isn't going to be given to you.

Cheers,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com

The Risk Associated with Relocating Candidates from Out of State

2011-10-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

It's a real challenge when dealing with out of state candidates that want to move to Austin. I'm trying my best not to be negative but I can't tell you how many hurdles get in the way and how many times it will break a recruiter's (and company's) heart. The biggest hurdle is that the candidate simply backs out, claiming that it's not something they wanted to do after all. In doing that, I can't begin to tell you how much of your time and your client's time gets wasted. They don't do it on purpose, that's for sure. No one could purposely want to waste someone else's time so much.

I'm not going to talk about candidates that are single. Their situations are pretty straightforward. Where it gets complicated is when you have a married couple and it comes down to relocating a family. It comes down to the wife (or even girlfriend). If a candidate needs to relocate for any of the following reasons, trust me, you can rest assured that they are moving:

1. The wife's parents live here in Austin and they are getting older and she needs to be closer to them.
2. The wife is an Academic and her PhD Advisor relocated to Austin and she needs to follow him.
3. The wife loves Austin.
4. The wife's job got relocated to Austin.

These sound obvious and trust me, they are. However, in order for a family to really want to move here to Austin, it needs to be someting as firm as one of these. Anything less and you run the risk of these folks backing out.

The beginning of this ordeal actually starts quite smoothly. Your first step is getting the resume and the candidate will go on and on about how excited he is to get his family to Austin. The first step with the companies is a phone screen. That is no problem. In fact, the candidate will want to do as many as possible and then set up a trip to come out and visit these companies in person. This is actually where the first hurdle comes up. Despite the fact that Austin has a shortage of IT talent needed to fill all the openings in this town, companies are still hesitant to fly candidates in for interviews. Currently, only a handful of companies do so. They don't want to take the 1k risk (flight, hotel, rental car) of bringing the candidate in, going through the whole interview process only for the result to be one of the two:

1. The candidate comes out light technically and is not a match.
2. The candidate uses the flight from one company and extends his stay so that he can interview with several other companies.

In the case of #2, who would want to sign up for that deal? Other companies are piggy backing on the one firm that decided to step up and fly the candidate in. It sounds trivial but it is unethical and it's not fair to the company that has arranged the travel.

So, in light of this, a lot of times the burden will fall on the candidate to purchase his own ticket and visit on his own dime. More often than not, the candidate won't do this. He doesn't want to do the investment in this relocation effort and why, I don't know. It might be a "penny wise, pound foolish" thought process and with all families, expenses are tight and spending 1k of your own money is always a gamble.

For this article, let's assume he eventually makes his way down to Austin and gets an offer. If this happens, here is where some real problems can come up. I will explain it now.

If the candidate gets an offer, he will often explain to the client that the family will stay behind while he comes down first and gets situated. He will then bring up something that he didn't think about at the very beginning. In fact, a lot of times no one thinks about it. The candidate will request some type of temporary living assistance to cover a couple of flights back to the family as well as temporary housing in Austin. This is where it gets sticky and what happens is that both the company and the candidate realize that there is a big variable cost at play and this cost includes the flying back and forth to the family, the gradual moving down to Austin, the selling their current home and of course, the ongoing temp housing in Austin.

So, you start to add all this up and this is where the candidate says, "Wow, I didn't know everything was going to snowball and all the costs associated with this move were going to be so much". Because I 'll tell you now, these startup companies are not going to get into a 20k relo plan. At best, you'll get 5-7k and that's AT BEST!

So, who absorbs all the costs of this painful transition? The candidate does. If he has kids in school and it's January when he gets an offer and we're looking at July before the family can get here? What if they can't move until the wife has a job? These sort of things will put a major dent in this passion and drive to get to Austin. A lot of times the turnabout will come in the form of the following email:

"Mark, after talking it over with my wife and looking at our current situation, I've decided to put the move to Austin on hold for now. It is something that we will definitely consider in the future but for now, we've decided to stay put. You've been a great help throughout this whole process and I want to apologize for any trouble we've put everyone through."

This email usually comes after some very extended deliberations on the offer and a lot of back and forth about relocation, working remotely and getting modified offers signed by Executive Management. The scenario screams "hindsight 20/20" but how do you know. Often times, the candidate is really, really good and is someone worth taking these risks on. On top of that, the candidate sells you on his sincere desire to move to Austin. Rockstar candidate, swears on his Mother's grave he is moving to Austin? How can you say no? It's a high risk game that most likely falls apart.

So, if you're a recruiter and you have a candidate that has a family and they want to move to Austin, all I can suggest is to start asking lots of questions and whip out your own crystal ball. You will need to look into the future for anything you feel you should already know.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com

A Dilemma with Marketing Strong Candidates

2011-10-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we recruiters try a little too hard...

I was recently working with a QA Engineer who was really good. He had a CS degree (a rarity for QA Engineers), came up as a Software Engineer in Test and was now a QA Manager. He only oversaw a team of 2 at his current employer so I wouldn't call him a full blown QA Manager. However, he was at the very least a QA Lead.

He was in the process of leaving his current employer, a startup that wasn't doing well. When I spoke with him on the phone, he made the following statement very clear to me:

"I only want to consider QA Manager roles at this time with the slight exception that I would also consider QA Lead roles. I am not interested in individual contributor roles at this time".

I could tell from his tone that he was firm about this demand. Here was my predicament: I had three companies, all first class firms, that would want to speak with him. Only one firm, however, had a QA Manager role open. They other two only had technical contributor roles. I wanted him to speak with all three of these firms and I had to think of something.

Through a stroke of luck, the two firms that didn't have the QA Manager role were starting up their QA departments from scratch. All they had at the time were QA Directors and with that, I thought up my words to come back to this candidate with. Here is what I said about the other two companies:

"Bill, I know you were looking primarily for QA Manager roles at this time. However, I have two other first class clients (and since you're new to Austin you'll have to trust me on my words regarding the quality of these firms) that are building up their QA teams from scratch. I can't say for sure that they have management positions for you but I do know that they only have QA Directors at this time and they will need to build out these teams and if you ask me, that will include QA Managers. While I don't know this for sure, I can have them confirm it with you over a phone conversation?

He agreed with me and I was really excited. This scenario fell in line with one of my mission statements of "matching up great candidates with great companies". I set up a phone conversation with the 2nd company and it went well. They said that they have some QA Leadership roles coming open and he would be considered. For the 3rd company, however, before the call was even scheduled, he canceled on me and he didn't want to move forward with the call.

Was I guilty of doing a subtle bait and switch? At face value, yes. However, what about my mission statement above and my steadfast belief in that? Below, in italics, is what I emailed Bill after he told me that he didn't want to interview with the firm that had the individual contributor role:

Okay no problem. However, please understand that a lot of these startup companies won’t have a hard and defined role in mind. Does ******* have a lead QA Engineer position or a QA manager role open right now? No they don’t. However, they don’t even have a QA team in place yet and with your qualifications, I was merely offering the chance to talk about this with their Director. I hope the fact that the first step was going to be a phone interview gives the impression of being a “bait and switch” type deal. This particular firm happens to be one of the highest profile startups in Austin and this was a chance to get connected with their Director who is regarded as one of the best QA guys in town. You would be the 2nd hire in the QA team since the Director came aboard and the opportunity to become a Lead or Manager would be a good possibility. To me, I saw this as a connection I was providing for this company and the hopes of what might come from that connection

To address the cynics, if this candidate weren't such a promising QA prospect, I would not have made such a move with this third company. Heck, I probably would not have submitted him for any of the roles. But when you're good, you get doors opened for you. In this case, that's what I was trying to do.

We closed with by cancelling this last client and this candidate is now interviewing with two of my clients. What to glean from this story? Well, if we work together and you are good, really good, I'm going to do whatever I can to stretch the boundaries of opportunities for you. If something is out on the periphery and on paper, is not a match, I'm at least going to try. However, I run the risk of marketing opportunities that you, the candidate, won't be interested in. When a candidate says "no" to a job opportunity, 95% of the time they want that to be their final answer.

So, if I could say anything to defend my actions, I politely say to chalk it up to being a little over excited. We love great candidates and we love to match them with great companies. In that quest, we sometimes lose sight of the details.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com

Software Engineers: Embracing an Opportunity or Remaining Loyal?

2011-10-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

I had spoken recently with a software engineer who had been presented with an opportunity for Director of Development at a newly funded startup in town. He really liked the opportunity and it was in a really hot space. His entire career had been spent mainly as a Sr. Developer/Technical Lead so this was a good chance to move up in his career. The only roadblock was an ethical one, I suppose. His concerns were coming down to loyalty and the impact his resignation would have at his current employer. You could say that he was torn between his professional pursuits and his obligations to others.

Recently, this software engineer (I’ll call him John) was part of a startup software firm that had been purchased by a larger firm. He did pretty well on the stock buyout but now was at this larger company and needless to say, that didn’t thrill him and he got eager for the next opportunity. Along came a smaller software company that offered him the chance to be a Director of Software Development. They weren’t a high profile firm and finances were a struggle for them. However, they had a good product offering and John had the chance to be in an Executive leadership role, something he’d always wanted to do. Coupled with the mundane experience of rolling into IBM every day and a big step up in title, he took the leap of faith and joined the company. From a stability standpoint, it was a risky move. The company made it clear from the beginning that there would be a struggle for finances and growth.

John settled into this role nicely and being a Director came naturally to him. He oversaw Development, QA, Support, etc. And being this was a small firm, he had visibility into everything. You could call him a front lines, hands on Executive. He excelled at the role. However, as expected, there were financial issues. I don’t think it had to do with meeting payroll and stuff like that. I mean, the company had money. However, when it came to scaling and taking the company performance to the next level, it wasn’t going to happen. For any new hires, salaries were below industry average and new employees were offered the usual pitch of “Well, we can’t offer you a competitive salary but we will offer stock and a chance to be a big part of this company’s future as we grow”. So, a lot of the company’s prospects were wishful thinking. In this day and age, you’re not going to get the best employees by offering that “low salary/high equity, we’re going to make the impossible happen” package. You get candidates who simply aren’t the best QA Engineers or Developers and you end up building a marginal team that ultimately won’t be able to take the company where it needs to go in order to be successful.

So, these companies bump along the bottom and hope for a miracle. John, having his new Director title, saw this but hung in there and was doing the absolute best he could. Then something happened. Through his personal network, a friend told him about this new company that was here in Austin. Hot space, good funding; there were no worries about money with these guys. They had their act together. John goes to meet with the two Founders (I think they all met for lunch) and after the meeting, they offer him the role of Director of Software Development! John had no idea this would happen and while he was flattered, he was also completely caught off guard. After all, he wasn’t emotionally in the mindset of looking around (and often this is when we interview our very best) and he was already a Director at another company. Sure, his company wasn’t doing well but he felt a sense of obligation towards them and he had never been the kind of guy to just jump around. He locked in on opportunities and committed to them. He had only been with this company for seven months and as luck would have it, they now actually needed him more than ever. Leaving his firm would really put them in a bad situation and hey, you never want to burn bridges and when you’re really good at something (and John is a great software engineer), your reputation is something that you protect greatly.

But the facts were very clear:

1. This move would represent a significant step up from his current role.
2. His aspirations for an Executive Management career in Software would be locked in for the next several years.
3. Could you really allow an opportunity like this pass without taking it?
4. How would he react when he saw another person take this job that he turned down, all the while staying at his current, struggling, employer?
5. Could John, at this point in his career, not follow the golden rule of “looking out for yourself at all times and doing what is best for you?”

What do I say about this? To me, it comes down to the league you play in. Sure, John was a Director of Development but it was with a company, for lack of a better term, stuck in the Minor Leagues. This new opportunity was first class. First class Founders with brilliant academic and professional records. First class funding and the team they were hiring was first class. Finance were NOT going to be a problem. So, do you bang around with this other company and let something like this pass by? To me, I say “NO”. For one, none of these financial problems with John’s current employer were his fault. It was a situation he walked into and something that, to this day, has not changed. It was practically a culture going forward; a firm with limited finances, limited resources and a marginal employee base that would never make it. Now, perhaps I’m being a bit harsh but if that had been the results up to now, you have to assume the same and remain skeptical going forward.

To me, staying on that train is a difficult ride. If you’re a great software engineer and you get presented with a great opportunity, you jump on it. Sure, you don’t job hop. However, when you start to feel the ride is starting to slow, you look at the most advantageous exit point. When the company is successful, that comes when you cash out of your stock options. When the company is struggling, to me, the decision is even easier. It’s the exact moment a better opportunity comes along.

You take it and you don’t look back…

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com

Interview Data for Software Engineers

2011-08-27T10:06:00.001-07:00

This post contains a small but valuable snippet of information on interviewing, particularly for software engineers. As we all know, information on how to better interview for the job is always appreciated. How can we make a better impression? How can we close out the interview with a bang? How can we leave an impression that separates us from the others?

Each particular profession has different types of interviews. For Sales positions, especially for entry to mid level roles, if you go in there with an attitude of 100% energy and a willingness to bang the phones all day and master the company's product or service offering, 9 times out of 10, you'll get the job. For other professions (Accounting, Law and Engineering), different approaches apply.

In the case of software engineering, it is becoming increasingly evident that companies are assessing "how" you break down problems. They are looking for core Computer Science fundamentals and the ability to methodically break down a problem and arrive at a solution. A few months ago, I had a candidate who was a Sr. Software Engineer that I arranged a couple of interviews for. He was good but he came out light on 3 different interviews. After the third rejection, his frustration carried over to me and he commented that his results would probably be better if I, the recruiter, had done a better job of providing him more details on what the interview covered. I respectfully disagreed and told him that these companies weren't concerned about his knowledge of "keywords" or technologies. They didn't care about that. They simply wanted to be "blown away" by his CS fundamentals and how he used those principles in his problem solving skills. As a technical recruiter, there is little I can do to prepare a software engineer for that.

I've recently been working with a younger candidate who is razor sharp, a top 1% type developer. Regardless of who he talks to, they come away impressed. Since he is young, he's not a finished product yet and he has his rough edges. However, you can't deny the raw IQ and the passion for his craft. And it is this IQ and his problem solving skills that gets the attention of hiring managers. One of my sourcers found him by directly emailing him just as he was starting to look around. He's young and he hasn't even realized all of his potential yet. He is already at the stage where he interviews people at this current job and the other day, he commented on interviewing and what he keeps an eye out for when talking to candidates.

To me, his words below are valuable and they are consistent with what other hiring managers have shared with me. Hiring managers don't look for keywords and they aren't looking for the right answers. They are looking for the approach. At the heart of a software engineer's profession is the problem and it's their job to provide a solution.

The words of this software engineer are below and it sounded so good that I wanted to share with others.

Enjoy,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com

My take on those questions is that it's much more about thought process than it is about getting the answer right. I like to see that someone's hungry to solve something, even if it's trivial. And I like to see that a candidate can sort through the various intricacies of a problem in short order. There's something about a great engineer -- simplicity just reveals itself to the great engineer, whereas the struggling engineer chases complexity and winds up drowning in the details.

The two reactions that guarantee a thumbs-down on a candidate are (1) giving up and (2) complaining about the question. Any other outcome means I might still have a good opinion of the candidate, even if they don't complete the problem. One time I even had a guy complain about my interview while I walked him out. I was going to allow him to proceed even though he didn't do all that well on the tricky-question portion of the interview. He was a bright guy, thoughtful and methodical, but not particularly lightning-fast at realizing where the trick is and what he had to solve. I figured we'd continue and see how he did in the next round of deeper interviews.

But he had the nerve to tell me on the way out that I'd never hire good candidates if I interviewed like that! I almost told the guy he did fine and not to worry about it, but it's our policy that we discuss before we get back to the candidate. I gave him our policy and let him know we'd be getting back. He kept on -- telling me that he doesn't like solving those kinds of "pointless" problems.

I let my manager know that the guy wasn't capable of accepting that he might sometimes have to solve problems that aren't in his comfort zone and reacted very negatively to such a situation. We didn't continue.

Realistically, I base my decision on those questions a lot more when things go well than when they go badly. And before we hire someone, we always deep dive on resume and also do a big problem solving question that requires no code.

The Influence of Linkedin on the Resume Submittal Process

2011-08-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

Linkedin is a great tool for recruiters and I think IT professionals (and all professionals for that matter) take pride in updating their profile and making sure it properly reflects their education, responsibilities and accomplishments. Linkedin is also a great networking tool and it's this particular networking function that has gotten my attention lately and not in a good way. It's nothing major but I am slightly concerned. It has to do with candidates moving away from updating a resume and simply forwarding over their Linkedin profiles. To get started, allow me to explain briefly the service offering of staffing firms.

We staffing firms all have our own little mottos that we share with clients. If you go to any staffing firm's website, you will see it front and center. The wording varies but the basic theme is this: Providing quality IT resources, either on a contract or fulltime basis, that are available to meet your critical needs. Please read that sentence again and tell me what you think the most important word is?

I'll tell you. It's AVAILABLE.

After all, what good is it for a staffing firm to send over incredible candidates if they aren't available to start working at your company? In fact, presenting candidates that aren't available is probably the worst thing a staffing firm can do. It wastes a bunch of time and there is the possibility of some burnt bridges with everyone coming away confused as to why they were even talking in the first place. It's this issue of availability that is my concern about Linkedin.

My three recruiters use Linkedin a lot. We have memberships that include Inmails. Inmails allow you to send messages to people you aren't connected with and I'd be lying if I told you we didn't value that greatly. They help us extend our network to people we've never spoken with. And from these Inmails, we get replies from candidates stating that they are interested. Do they want to update a resume? Well, not always. A lot of them respond by asking if we could tell them the name of our client and then suggesting we send over their Linkedin profile to create a connection with the hiring manager. If there is continued interest beyond this, they would be available for a phone conversation.

I'm sorry but we can't do that because we're not sold on you being 100% available and committed to considering this opportunity and accepting an offer with our client. We just aren't going to risk exposing our clients to candidates who aren't ready to change jobs, ie. wasting people's time. Linkedin is a wonderful tool and its networking function allows us to uncover the "passive" candidate. That is critical in this business. However, we have to take that passive candiadte and turn him/her into an active candidate with a vested interest in our client. The candidate must make that transfer and to this day, the only proven way of doing that is updating your resume.

When you sit down to write your resume and send it to one of my recruiters, we are official and we are ready to move forward. We tell you who our client is and set some timelines on interviews and potential offers. You have all your initial questions answered and we're 100% on the same page. It sets in motion the entire recruiting life cycle that hopefully ends with an accepted offer. On the other hands, starting the process by having you ask us to check out your Linkedin profile and flip it over to the hiring manager is not how we do things. If that is your first step, we would speak with you on the phone and in that conversation, we would ask for an updated resume before disclosing the client. We ask you to commit to our process and move forward doing things our way.

All of this comes back to that one word: Availability. As a staffing firm, we can't get into the cycle of "hooking up" our hiring managers with Linkedin profiles of candidates who are passively looking and hoping the magic happens. In truth, I don't even think my hiring managers would be interested in reviewing a bunch of Linkedin profiles and talking to candidates who are interested in networking. They are interested in high quality resumes from candidates who are ready to change jobs. A lot of staffing firms out there are about the fast buck and the quicker they can make a dollar, the better. I know a few firms out there who are already flipping Linkedin profiles over to clients and then telling them, "a resume is on the way!". I don't know if this is a clever way to get recognition for sending over a candidate but one thing's for sure, it's a sloppy and incomplete way for a recruiter to do business.

I write this post because in the past 2 months, we've seen a noticeable increase in candidates not updating their resumes and asking us to review and submit their Linkedin profiles. On every occasion, we reply back that we need a resume before we can move forward and unfortunately, a lot of times we don't hear back from the candidate. In one case, we had a candidate who sent us a resume but did not have his current employer and experience on there. He only had his most previous employer and he left that company back in 2007. So, while his Linkedin profile was fully updated, he had a four year gap on his resume. He was good so I took a chance and sent it over to my Client with the understanding that the resume was not a complete body of work. The candidate was really good but the lack of an update was a red flag and combined with a couple of other things to consider, the hiring manager turned him down. I agreed wholeheartedly with the decision.

Adhering to this process of requiring our candidates to update their resume will, no doubt, cost us some placements over the years. Especially when we find a rock star "passive" candidate. Trust me, no one likes to create professional connections more than I. However, there is simply too much risk in setting up an interview with one of these candidates only to have them say, "Well, I'm not really looking but figured it would be cool to speak with you and see what you guys are doing!". That sort of conversation serves nothing and is best reserved for the Austin High Tech Happy Hour, not the staffing business. So, if you want to make a difference in your job search here in Austin, always keep your eyes open for exciting companies, take great pride in your killer Linkedin profile and keep your resume updated at all times. Doing so will confirm the kind of professional you are.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com

Interviewing for User Experience positions

2011-08-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

User Experience:

Fascinating profession and my understanding of the discipline is that it was spawned out of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Wikipedia mentions that the term "User Experience" first started to become mainstream in the mid 90's. Embarassingly enough, I didn't hear about User Experience until 2004. I was doing a contract at Avenue A Razorfish and they brought me onsite to hire all these Information Architects and User Experience Designers. I tell ya, I had to quickly learn on the fly. There are some great definitions of UX out there but this is probably my favorite:

"a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service".

In the past 7 years, I have learned a lot about User Experience and realized that practically every software company has to have one. Zilliant, Lombardi, SolarWinds, CoreMetrics, StoredIQ and Bazaarvoice have always had critical needs for people with strong UX design skills. Also, you can imagine that all these social media startups cropping up in town need UX talent. That pretty much goes without saying. What I wanted to write about in this post was, "How do you interview for these jobs?" "What do you need to say or do to get the offer?"

User Experience is probably the one skill set where you can wax poetically about the aesthetic of the design and usability and speak on principle and theory and really come away giving the impression that you know your stuff. And if you can show some screen shots that you worked on that are impressive, you can make the believer out of a company. That said, I have seen more than once where a Designer gets hired by a company and comes in with great expectations only to fall flate on his face. I hear this phrase all the time, "Man, he rocked on the interview and when he talked, he just nailed all points. His design skills were good and he made believers out of us that he could also do the technical side but damn, when he got in here, he couldn't deliver".

I recently had one candidate (about 4 months ago) who talked A GREAT GAME. I mean, he would come in to the interview and talked about his passions and beliefs about UX and on two occasions (at two seperate companies), he had the hiring manager sold on him. However, when he did the technical screen, here was the feedback:

"Well, he can design a UI but I don't think he has the ability to technically deliver it and we don't want to have to go hire some UI Developer to do that for us".

I marketed this candidate to five difference companies and EVERY TIME, this was the feedback. The last client (you think I would have learned by now) told me that when he came in and the interviewing team put him on the whiteboard, he just started talking and talking but wouldn't write anything on the white board. The interviewers sat patiently at first but 15 minutes into the interview, they finally said, "Hey if you don't mind, can you start solving the problem we've given you?". The candidate still didn't stop talking. He just kept going on and on and finally, they cancelled the interview! Walked the guy right out. When you look at this guy's resume and when you first meet him, you think rock star. After 45 minutes, you think "good bye".

I recently had another candidate who was interviewing for UX roles here in town. Resume was solid; he had worked at several of the higher profile startups in town. I was a little concerned when I saw some short tenures on his resume. Anyways, he's interviewed at 8 different companies and every time I'd check in with him, his reply was always the same, "Well Mark, I'm really close with this company. On my 4th interview so if you have a client, we might have to move quickly". Well, two weeks later, he's still looking for a job so obviously, I was thinking "Uh Oh, here we go again?". Since UX skills are at a critical shortage in this town, however, I gave into temptation and got him some interviews.

The feedback? It was good. Replies like, "He knows his stuff" or "good guy and I want to keep him warm while I meet with some others". But why wasn't he getting the offer? I finally found a client that was CRITICALLY DESPERATE for a UX Designer. When the hiring manager gave me the req, he told me "Mark, we'll pay anything to get this person and we'll make an offer on the spot". So I threw this candidate in there and they met. Here was the feedback:

Hey Mark:

Overall, he did well. I'd like to see a bigger portfolio. It seems his mockups are just screen captures from the site of the last company he worked at. He said he designed the look though. I can't disprove that at all.

He said a lot of the right things. I'm debating on whether to ask him to design something and send it over to me.

Do you have anyone else, just for comparison's sake?

Thanks,
XXXXX

Do you understand the severity of that feedback? Talk about close but yet still so far away. This candidate had this job but he couldn't back up his portfolio and because of that, my client walked on him. When my candidate heard this news, he scrambled and started justifying things by saying his portfolio was much more dynamic and thorough than what he originally designed and that he was working on really spiffing it up. With that, he asked if he could get another meeting with my client. The answer to that request? NO. In User Experience, you get one shot and if you can talk in theory about the beauty of UX Design and all of its principles and its contributions to the product, you better be able to back it up with a killer portfolio.

I recently had another candidate express interest in a UX role I had available. She had some good titles on her resume and when I asked her for a portfolio, her first reply was, "Well I have one but it is woefully out of date". Well, I can't work with you.

Some success stories?

I recently placed a UX Designer at a software company and here was the feedback on him:

I threw some very vague requirements at him and he turned it into something very defined and easy to use.

He drew up the UI’s and the graphical tools but he then he also did the wire frames and prototypes. From a technical perspective, he built out the web objects that he designed for us. He had all the skills in one package

He was strong both on his creative and technical abilities. He knew UX and its purpose but most importantly, he could implement.

Want some irony thrown at you? The more I hear about it in the marketplace, the more I start to believe that the most critical skillset for a UX Architect/Designer are his implementation skills. Go figure...

In closing, I recently had a candidate interview for a UX role. When he first reached out to me, I knew he was good. However, to protect ourselves as recruiters, I didn't want to assume he was a rock star. He had a good looking portfolio and he was probably an expert at "talking about UX", the principles and the theory of it. So, my client was impressed but he wasn't sold on him so he had the candidate meet with Product Management and the UI team.

The candidate passed those interviews with flying colors. Both groups gave him a thumbs up. My client (the CTO) was getting ready to make an offer but still wasn't sold on him so brought him back in again to go 1 on 1 over his portfolio. They talk for another hour about UX and this candidate is saying all the right things. Just nailing everything. So, they finally pull out the portfolio and start going over it. My client looks at the first design and asks him what his responsibilities were on the project.

The candidate looks up from the portfolio, looks my client straight in the eye and says the following:

"This project and every project in this book. I own every pixel in here!"

10 minutes later, he walked out of the company with an offer.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com

What Happened to Professional Services Divisions for Startups?

2011-07-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

Professional Services is still alive and well with companies like IBM, Oracle and Microsoft. In fact, you can attribute a lot of IBM's incredible profitability growth to their switch to a services oriented model. They have shipped a lot of development positions overseas and have beefed up their IBM Global Services division. Autonomy is currently trying to do the same thing. So, for established large cap technology firms, professional services is still very important.

In Austin, however, professional services has gone a little quiet and it mostly has to do with the majority of the startups in town being of the social media variety. A few years ago, you had the following enterprise software startups here in town:

Lombardi Software
MessageOne
Zilliant
StoredIQ
Initiate Systems
SolarWinds

All of these firms had a professional services division. They might not have been formally called Professional Services but they had salaried consultants that worked onsite at clients and helped deploy the company's product offering. In 2007, I placed one of these consultants while recruiting at Lombardi. He wasa BPM consultant and he had a Regional Manager and above that, there was a Practice Director. These guys made good money. They had to travel 50% or more but they had a technical background, could write code and interface with customers. It's hard to find these guys because of the travel requirements but when you did find one, you could usually place them pretty quickly. These senior consultants made a salary between 100-125k plus bonuses. The regional managers and directors made packages between 150-200k. Big money for these big enterprise implementations.

The companies I mentioned above have, for the most part, been acquired or have gone public. The new crop of startups include the following:

Bazaarvoice
Socialware
Spredfast
Tippr
Mapmyfitness
Best fit media
Sparefoot

These new startups don't have those high priced professional services consultants and they certainly don't have the vertical organizational chart that reports into an Executive VP. What they have are "Implementation Specialists" and these people report into a Director of Customer Experience or a Director of Client Success. These Implementation Specialists have a technial UI design coding background and their job is to walk the new customer through their application and allow them to take full advantage of their Social Media offering.

I use the term Social Media and I'm not ever sure if that is correct. Social Media and how it can help a company make money is still hard to define. These Implementation Specialists help you make sense of the company's product offering and their boss, the Director of Customer Experience, is the ultimate senior contact for support and technical assistance. The Director will also evangelize the product offering whenever possible.

What do these specialists make at these social media startups? The Implementation Specialists make anywhere from 55-65k and the Directors make around 100-120k. The Directors travel some but the Implementation Specialists don't travel at all. It's a leaner model and not nearly as expensive. What happened to all these Solution Architects and Sales Engineers? Well, they had to go join more established software firms. These social media startups don't have too much of a need for a technical Java developer with a services background and makes 130k and presents well in front of a client. New terminology has also entered the mix. Service Architect is now replaced with Partner Manager or Implementation Engineer.

Here in Austin, Oracle has a Development Center and it's housed primarily with travelling software consultants and regional architects. They are all looking but none of them have left for new jobs. They talk about how their bonuses are getting squeezed and how their profession isn't nearly as high profile as it used to be. They are dying to get out. I ask them what they are making and their reply is, "Well, I'm at a salary of 125k and my bonus is about 20% so my total comp is 150k".

All I can say to that is the following: If you are going to be in Austin for a next few years, I don't know where you're going to find a job unless it's IBM or Oracle. Run a Linkedin search for one of these new startups and craft an org chart off the names and titles at the companies. Notice how professional services, in the traditional enterprise software instance, is gone and replaced with this scaled down offering of Implementation Services and Customer Experience/Success. It's like "professional services light" compared to what used to be in place. I'm not saying it isn't as good as before but I will say it's more efficient and less costly. There will always be a need for a strong technical engineer who is willing to travel and can interface with clients. However, at the moment, social media startups don't appear to have an urgent need for these resources.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/
http://thebiddingnetwork.com

Defining a Technical Architect

2011-07-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

In the job market, there is a bit of a disconnect from the industry definition of what an Archietct is expected to do. By the way, this can also be called Software Architect or Principal Architect. The key word here is Architect. There is the definition of an Architect in the Software Engineering community and then there is the definition in the job market.

In the Software Engineering world, an Architect is someone who "designs the architecture" for major software applications. It is the first step in the SDLC (not counting the gathering of user requirements) and kicks off the whole project. It could be an Ecommerce retail application, an employee scheduling application or a gas transmission monitoring system. It could be anything. Just like an Architect of a house who comes in with the blueprint and lays it out for all the construction workers to start building, an Architect lays out the application that is then built by the software engineers.

In this hierarchy, the Architect stands at the top of the totem pole. So, in career progression, an Architect is something that most ambitious software engineers would aspire to. The totem pole of technical contributors (not counting Managers and Directors) looks something like this:

Principal/Technical/Software Architect
Technical Lead (this can sometimes also be the Architect)
Sr. Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Associate Software Engineer

So, wouldn't it be great to become an Architect where you just design architectures and not have to worry about coding or implementation anymore? However, when it comes to companies looking to hire an Architect, the closest you might get to this status is the title and little else. You see, here in the startup driven environment of Austin, companies need top tier software engineers that can do it all and this includes writing lots of code, implementing systems and leading teams. These startups need some type of designation to recognize these software engineers as their top developers so they give them the title of “Software Architect”. So, in title and actually in importance, you have arrived. However, in the day to day responsibilities of an Architect, the LAST thing you'll be doing is sitting around designing architectures all day. You will be deep into code all day, every day.

I have a candidate here in Austin who is stuck in a position that he is not happy with but won’t change unless he can do “real” Architecture work. He’s been looking for six months and still hasn’t found anything. How would he be perceived in the labor market here in Austin? Picky and a wee bit detached from reality. What I’ve tried to tell him is that I can get him an offer to be an Architect but what that really means is the following:

1. He would be recognized by the company as a very senior contributing member to the Engineering team.
2. He would have a salary over 100k
3. He would be working some long hours and writing lots of code

There are exceptions to every rule and there is to this one as well. One business model where an Architect does the true work of an Architect is Consulting Services. Whenever a consulting services firm lands a new client, they have to go in and build systems and applications from scratch. Or, at the very least they have to go in and redesign existing systems in different platforms and environments. The Architect would lead the effort and deliver on that system. So, I can see where a Consulting Services Architect would take issue with this post. For anywhere else, however, being an Architect is about being, pardon my language, a badass software engineer and little else.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Winning and Losing the Job in the Interview Process

2011-05-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

I had a candidate one time interview for a Director of Product Management position. He was going to have two reports and ownership of the company's flagship product. The interview process lasted 8-10 weeks and he went from being the leading candidate to rejection during that time. How did that happen?

Here goes:

He came in and interviewed first with the VP of Product and it went very well. They drilled down on Product Management fundamentals and philosophies of the profession. This candidate had those things nailed. Could speak of them very well and knew all the critical points. He also had 20 years experience and could communicate his knowledge in almost a folksy way, using quaint but effective real world scenarios as examples. He was seen as someone who could just as easily communice with the CEO as he could with a Junior Analyst. Companies love those kind of leaders. Confident and humble all in the same suit.

His next meeting was with the COO and that also went well. This company had the vision and strategy down pat. They needed someone who could lead the execution and "blocking/tackling" and this candidate knew that well. After these two interviews, my client was REALLY excited about this guy. Both the VP and COO said something to the effect, "the more I speak with ****** the more I like him and see him leading our team of Product Managers. I think this is our guy".

This was the peak of the interview process. For my client to make such a proclamation so early in the process was not insignificant. I had been looking for a long time for this candidate and this appeared to be the one. However, it was a slow decline from here. Here is a list of actions that sealed this candidate's fate:

From the beginning, the candidate was stretching out the interview process and making it clear that he wasn't in a hurry. Every time we spoke, he made this point clear. I asked him why he was doing this and he said his current employer was trying to get bridge funding to keep going. At face value, this sounded admirable enough. However, his company had already undergone some massive attrition and my client wondered aloud why this candidate was seeking to stay at this company. Anyone knows that when you are struggling to secure additional funding, it's pretty much time to pull the plug. This candidate was reluctant to do so. We initially viewed this as needing to go into sales mode and sell this candidate on what we were doing and why he needed to leave. Initially, it made us want him more but over time, we saw it as a red flag.

The second concern had to do with his current place of employment. His current employer had a lot of problems and it was clear that a lot of these problems pointed to Product Management. Now, this doesn't entirely indict the candidate but regardless, he was there when all these troubles were ocurring. So, was he the reason for the troubles?

To address this, they brought him back in and directly pressed on the company troubles and how he might be responsible for them. The candidate scrambled for answers and instead of attacking each concern and proving his mettle, he was thrown off guard and felt like he was being accused. The feedback from the client was that he was defensive the whole time and was really thrown off guard. This was a harsh move by my client but I supported it 100%. I thought it was brilliant actually. After the interview, the candidate emailed me and was very concerned about the negative direction the interview process had taken. He seemed very concerned about "saving face" and wanted to make sure everything was okay. This move represented the first "dent" in the whole process.

After this difficult interview, my client was still interested in the candidate. They wanted to move forward, however, they wanted some references. I emailed the candidate regarding references. He did not reply after 3 days so I reached out to him again. It took another 2 days for him to get back to me and when he did, he replied with 3 peer references from the same previous employer of his. When they came across my email, I practically laughed. I was like, "wow, three friends". This caused even more alarm with my client. The candidate once again scrambled to find some more references but this hurt.

What was amazing about this interview process was the shift in momentum. After those first two interviews, we were very concerned about getting this candidate excited about the position and taking the job. By the 4th interview, this candidate was pressing us and doing what he could to get this interview process going in the right direction. My client had gone from giving this candidate the benefit of doubt to imposing a burden of proof. This burden of proof ultimately was too much for him to overcome.

My client didn't check the references because they had to act on a long running request from the candidate. The candidate asked to interview with the Director of Marketing and the VP of Business Development. He wanted to get a comprehensive feel of upper management across the ranks and he had been asking about that since the 2nd interview. My client wasn't avoiding this request but rather simply had not had the time to coordinate it. Partly because the candiate had continued to stretch out the interview process. The stars aligned and we were finally able to arrange a meeting with the Director of Marketing and the VP of Business Development.

We were now close to 10 weeks in to this interview process. The Director of Marketing for my client is sharp; she's one of the best in Austin and that is saying something. When she interviewed the candidate, she came back with this assessment:

Nice guy. Knows the fundamentals well but that's all he talked about. He was lacking an edge to him. My main concern was that after 10 weeks of talking to us, he didn't really comment at all about our company and what he had learned through this process. I thought he would know our model cold and we'd be able to talk about our operations and what he would do upon coming aboard here. None of that. He lacks an edge and I say we pass.

The VP of Business Development was much more brief in saying the following, "Nice guy and I like him but he's just not our guy to lead PM".

That did it. My client was done and asked me to notify the candidate that he was no longer in the running. They weren't and were actually grateful they did their due diligence. It was a brilliant case of vetting. What's even more amazing was that this candidate was good enough to have avoided this rejection. This job, after two interviews, was his. If you ask me, he just wasn't fully prepared to win this job. Here's a brief checklist of the mistakes he made:

1. Blatantly stretching out the interview was a mistake. This was not entirely his fault though. There was also some scheduling difficulties with the client.
2. Not being able to immediately counter all the accusations of faulty Product Management being the reason for his current employer's troubles. In other words, he couldn't prove, on point, that he wasn't the "bad guy".
3. Waiting five days to send out three references from the same past employer? Big mistake.
4. Requesting multiple times to speak with the Director of Marketing and then doing industry chit-chat after 10 weeks of engaging with this client? The final nail in the coffin.

In closing, interviewing is no joke. It is serious business. You come prepared and ready to win that job at all ethical costs or you go home. Do you want to be a leader and earn the big bucks? Be a player here in Austin? If so, there is a razor thin margin of error. This candidate had a chance. He had the equivalent of a 10 point lead in the 3rd quarter of a football game. He was in control and momentum was on his side.

He got comfortable, assumed he had the game in the bag and he lost it.

Plain and simple.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

During
2.

Startups, Stock options and Software Engineers

2011-04-22T04:34:00.001-07:00

When you leave to go to a startup, you might wonder what value there is in your stock options. What are they worth and what are you entitled to? Here is an oft mentioned complaint among candidates who receive an offer from a startup:

"Well, with practically no increase in salary, I just don't see how this equity component makes it worth the risk to change jobs. Why should I take this offer? If we get bought or go public, I make about 50k for the next 3-4 years. That doesn't seem worth the risk and all the hours that this position is going to require."

Well, I hate to spoil the party but that is about what you can expect from any VC funded startup. Here are some scenarios:

If you are at Dell making 110k base plus 401k plus bonus plus good benefits, you'll probably get the following from a startup:

115k with no bonus, no 401k and increased cost of benefits. You lose the soft money by leaving Dell (or IBM or HP or Intel). And the stock offering for a Sr. Developer is usualy a tenth of a point. That's right, a tenth of 1%. So if the company gets bought out for 100 million, you make 100k. For Sr. Managers, they usually get 2 tenths of a point and for CXO level people, they get anywhere from 1 to 3 point, ie. 1 to 3%.

Who gets the majority? Usually the VC's and the Founders. The Founders were the incredibly unique individuals who came up with the idea that was so hot they had people willing to invest in them. Along with this money came the Management team that was brought in to help execute the mission. So, to a degree, the Founders have to step aside and let other leaders take the reins. Marketing, Finance, Technology will often have new people brought in. There is always the exception of someone so brilliant that they conceive the idea and then run the company. However, to scale, you need money and unless you're super entreprenuer guy (or gal) who is just going to dump all of your own cash into your idea, you need money from external sources and with the money come contacts.

So these people are brought in at the Executive level and their percentages are set. After that, they hire the Software Engineering team. Why do Software Engineers end up taking the percentages they do? Well, the first couple of engineers hired are often so excited about the technology involved and the opportunity that they look at the options and say, "Well, it's not much but that's just the beginning and I can always earn more options along the way". Also, it's no secret that software engineers are seduced by cutting edge technology. I mean, you float something cool and exciting in front of a software engineer and he will almost begin twitching with excitement and he'll get all jacked up over the problem at hand. They negotiate some on the offer but then always pretty much accept. After all, if they don't accept, there is always the risk that another gifted software engineer will.

So, you now have the first few members of the Engineering team hired and after that, a precedence is set. So when you go to interview, get the offer and are disappointed with the amount of stock options offered, the company's reply is, "Well, these are the levels that everyone else came in at. We must be fair to them".

And that is true! Everyone else prior to you took the hit on salary and accepted the equity offering. Are you going to be the one that doesn't and you let this opportunity slip by? So, you accept and you work a lot of hours and if the company hits, you make a modest fortune. Yes, there were the days of Vignette where you had instant millionaires. But if we're going to bring that up, let's also talk about construction guys that were flipping homes just a few years ago making 300k a year. These were what you called BUBBLES! Dot.com and Housing to be exact.

These days, if you are a software engineer who gets hired by a startup that ends up being successful, you won't be able to retire. Sorry but that's how it works. Yes, there are exceptions and here are some:

1. You work at a startup that gets bought and THEN the parent company goes public. You get what I call a Double Whammy.

2. You work at the startup for 5+ years, accumulating a bunch of shares and lightning strikes in the form of an IPO or acquisition and from it, you make some good money. You would probably still have to keep working though.

So why the heck do it? Why work the long hours? No chance at really retiring and you lose all that great soft money at IBM. Here are the reasons why you join the startups and roll the dice:

1. You're miserable at your big company and the concept of "earning and saving" has grown so dull that you are starving for a challenge.

2. You get the chance to work, hand in hand, with some brilliant developers and other brilliant people in Product Management, Marketing and Business Development.

3. You get to work with some truly unique technologies and you do it in small dynamic teams.

4. You and your co-workers have a chance to do something great. You can build a company, make it successful and then take a quantum leap forward via acquistion or IPO. If you are bought out by another larger company, you get a pay raise and then you usually have to serve out 12-18 months to get your stock money. By the time you get that money, you are more than ready to do it again.

I've known software engineers who have hit on 2 or more startups. I know one guy who was fortunate to work at two "Double Whammies" (see above for definition). He's in medical school and never has to worry about money again. God bless him. I know a lot of software engineers who have never hit on a startup. They aren't crying about it, that's for sure. They are rock star developers who crave the glory. Not a bad way to spend a career.

I have some software engineers who say the following,

"Well, I'm either waiting to startup my own company or join at the garage stage level and that way, when it hits, I'm a millionaire and I don't have to settle for this one tenth of 1% deal".

Okay great, go right ahead. However, if you join an early stage startup where the guys are still working at their house or executive suite, are you ready to accept that heavy equity/low salary deal? 40k salary, no benefits and 1 million shares? I saw one company string their employees out for 3-4 years on that deal and it didn't hit! And if you do your own company, how do you know it's going to get funded? How hot is the idea? Are you really that unique entreprenuerial software leader who will start up up his own company and make it happen? I will say this: There's nothing wrong if you aren't that kind of guy.

My advice? I would do this:

If you're bored at a company and want to make a change, give a startup a shot. Make sure it has a very strong Executive Management team. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE STOCK OPTIONS! Just make sure you are getting the same amount as everyone else in your rank. The startup will make you better and while you may not be able to retire, you will take your career and your skills to the next level.

And who knows, maybe you will hit a Double Whammy :-)

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Working at Companies That Treat You Like Family

2011-03-31T15:28:00.000-07:00

I recently got an offer for a software engineer and he was really excited about it. However, he was really anxious about giving notice and the reason was that his current employer was like "family" to him. Everyone was really close and he was especially close with Executive Management and the Founders. Because of this relationship, it was going to be really hard to walk out the door.

To that, I had the following to say:

I’ve been recruiting for 15 years and I have worked at places that treated me like one of their own, where my relation with the Founders and Management bordered on a feeling of family. I have to say that 9 times out of 10 when I’ve heard of this type of relationship, it's the employee that suffers.

I am not questioning that your company doesn’t care about you and doesn't go above and beyond the call of duty to make you happy. I’m not questioning the significance of how you might feel by walking out on these people. Neither am I saying your employer creates this type of relationship on purpose so that you never leave. After all, you really can’t control it. The closeness just develops over time. It’s a sense of trust and a feeling that you are more than just a part of the company, you ARE the company. However, over time, I’ve seen several instances where salary and compensation will lag that of your peers and it can eventually affect your skills too. The sense of family creates a “settling down” mentality that is premature. Opportunities that arise elsewhere or even within the company can be overlooked because we don’t want to disturb or upset the “comfortable” feeling of family.

This example I’m about to give is an extreme one. When I worked at Pencom Systems (my first job in the Staffing business), the core values they stressed were family and it was true. After one year of employment there, I had had dinner personally with our President and I actually did Christmas Eve on a several occasions with our VP. I mean, it was a truly familial connection and it was sincere as well. I mean, the Executive Management really, truly cared about their employees and did what they could to make you part of the family. And I really valued it and took pride in it. The chance to be around very successful people and be personally connected with them was very fulfilling. There was only one problem:

I was very underpaid and I also had stagnated in my career.

Granted, this was in recruiting and not software development. If your career had stagnated at your current company, you would not have gotten this offer that you have in front of you. However, I’m sure you see my point. I tried to do what I could to grow within the company but ultimately, I realized that I had a very difficult situation and had to leave the company. And when I gave notice, they were very hurt and our family connection had taken a real hit. They offered anything possible to keep me but when I stayed firm, they were upset and while I don’t think we left on bad terms, I still haven’t spoken with them to this day. At the time I left, I was still a great recruiter but I know, without a doubt, if I stayed there, I would have suffered badly.

So, at issue are companies that value you as family. If leaving your current employer TRULY IS the best thing for you, then if you give notice and if they counter offer and you still wish to leave, they should be happy for you and wish you well. It’s weird but it comes down to professional selfishness. Do you leave for a better opportunity, a better company and to continue growing as a great software engineer? Or do you stay where you're at because of the deep connections and family ties? If you were to stay, it would not hurt you now and it would not hurt you one year from now. However, I can guarantee you that if you were to stay there for another 5 years, not only would your rate of growth as a software engineer diminish, I do not think you would even be the software engineer that you are today! It sounds harsh but it’s true.

I actually have another client here in Austin that is a software services firm. It is a family run business and a good number of their employees are viewed as family. And it is a great thing too. The feeling is very special and I do admire the sense of camaraderie that the Owner has established. However, I also can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that are particular employees at the company that are significantly underpaid. One employee has been there over 10 years now, has a Director title but a ridiculously low salary and practically no marketable skills at all. She also happens to be one of the closest employees to Sr. Management. It's odd how the ones that are most loyal and the biggest part of the family can also be the most poorly paid. Shee tried looking for a job one year ago and no one expressed any interest in her. The problem is that the security and the sense of family, over the course of 10 years, has completely eroded her professional skills. Once again, these are extreme examples and this is not always the case. However, you have an offer from my client and with their technical bar of engineers, it obviously confirms that you are a rock star developer. I can guarantee you that by staying at your company for another 5 years, in the name of family, you would not be the same rock star developer you are today. Family environments are great but like everything else, they come with a cost and it’s often in the name of money and professional progress.

You responded to my email and you went on these interviews because, despite being happy, there is something unfulfilled at work. There has to be because if you were totally happy, you would not have gone on the interviews or gotten all the way to the offer stage. If you give notice and they do counteroffer you, since they are very close to you and are family, aren’t you entitled to at least be a little disappointed that it took an offer from another company to get this extra money from them? And when I asked you what you were making, I thought you would be at or very close to 100k. You are what I call “slightly underpaid”. That’s not a big deal. The scary thing is that over time, staying where you're at will result in you being “overpaid”, just like the employee at the consulting company I referred to above. And if going to a new company makes you a greater software engineer and takes you to the "next level” then your current employer should be happy. Yes, they will miss you and you’re leaving will hurt. But if they really cared about you and your career, isn't this what they would want for you? I know it sounds crazy but in 15 years, I’ve seen TOO MANY rock star software engineers compromise themselves by staying at companies in the name of family.

In closing, I’ll leave you with this:

When I was younger, my mom brought home our weekly lunch meat from the grocery store. She became really good friends with the lunch meat lady and despite this, the lunch meat she brought home was always really tough and dry. My Dad would complain about the meat being dry to which my Mom would reply, “Geez, I’m good friends with her so I know she’s giving me the best cuts of meat. I don’t know what the deal is!”. My Dad would come back and say:

THE LUNCHMEAT LADY IS FRIENDS WITH YOU SO SHE CAN GIVE YOU THE WORST CUTS OF MEAT! AND SINCE YOU ARE “FRIENDS” WITH HER, SHE KNOWS YOU WON’T SAY ANYTHING!

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

The Most Effective Way to Present Job Opportunities to Software Engineers

2011-03-12T17:45:00.001-08:00

When you reach out to Software Engineers these days as a recruiter, most of it is done via email or some type of social media site (Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter). 10+ years ago, most of it was done over the phone. Sign of the times no doubt. However, there is one thing you have to look out for.

You can not get in a rut where software engineers (or any IT professional for that matter) take your job description and read it at face value. You do not want them combing the description for an exact match on every requirement before sending over a resume. Remember, the goal here is to start some dialogue, create a connection. When you send an email to a developer for the first time, you don't want him/her reading the email and then saying, "hmmm, looks like a decent opportunity but not an exact match for what I'm looking for. Please keep sending them over, however." Don't get me wrong, it's nice that you got a reply. However, when you send over an email with a job description, you want to follow that up with a much stronger message. What is that message? Well, here it is and it's most effective on the phone.

Rajiv, I realize that the position I sent over to you is not a perfect match for you right now. However, I wanted to propose this. If you are passively looking for new opportunities, can you still send over a resume? That way, I can learn everything about your technical background, how your skills have developed and where you are right now in your career. Those things WILL tell me what you are exactly looking for. I won't send your resume anywhere but rather, will keep it on my desk and in the event the perfect job opportunity comes along, I will let you know as soon as possible.

Doing this separates you from other recruiters who are just blasting out emails and, in a sense, order taking for software engineers. Recruiting isn't about that. It's about establishing relationships with brilliant developers and keeping an eye out for them. If you constantly send out emails to your network and you just wait to see what they say, your success will be severely stunted.

How do I pitch opportunities these days? I don't even use a job description. When I land a new client or get some job descriptions from an existing client, I reach out to my network (and even new contacts) with something like this:

"Hey Jerry, I hope your day is going well. I am not sure what your situation is but I wanted to reach out and see if you would be interested in a new job opportunity I just got in. My contact is the Director of Development for a startup here in Austin and they just engaged in a new product deliverable. I can get you details on the development environment a little bit later. For now, I can say that they have some brilliant software engineers working on this team and you would be working with some of the most cutting edge technologies in the industry. Are you available to speak further about this later today? I just wanted to share with you what these guys are doing."

Now this is not some fool proof way of getting positive responses every time and if a software engineer is not interested in looking around, he/she will say so. However, at least the message doesn't contain a job description with multiple requirements that the candidate can pick apart and leave you with a "burden of proof" that they would be interested in this opportunity.

As a recruiter, you provide opportunities that offer the chance to work on cutting edge technologies with other brilliant developers at fair or even above market wages. If you provide that here in Austin, what great software engineer isn't going to at least keep in touch with you? If you are just shooting out job descriptions without any real knowledge of the client, the hiring manager or even the person you're emailing, you'll be stuck in a numbers game with odds that are stacked against you.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Putting Your Trust in a Technical Recruiter...

2011-02-16T19:37:00.001-08:00

How can you do it? Especially with the general opinion of recruiters in the marketplace. A lot of us are seen as scumbags. Take that and add in the fact that we are in a commission driven business and when we place software engineers, we make money. So, what's going to stop us from placing a software engineer at a company that we know is not very good? What's going to stop us from trying to tell you that a commute from Leander to South Austin isn't that bad? Or that the company might be open to a salary review when we know that's not a reality. All of these things are moral breaches that recruiters have been guilty of on a regular basis.

So what do you do when you have an offer from two companies, one through your own network of contacts and one through your recruiter. Salaries are about the same, as is the commute and you're torn about which one to choose. What do you do when your recruiter starts to give you advice on both of the companies and tells you to take his offer. How can you trust this person? How do you know he's telling you the truth? To answer this, you have to look at a few things:

1. On all issues leading up to these offers, has this recruiter been honest with you? Has the information and advice he's given about his client been accurate. Does he know the hiring managers well. Do they indeed have smart people working there and would you feel challenged at the role? If he's been correct on all of this, that's a start. It can put you somewhat at ease that he has your best interests at heart.

2. Instead of trusting his instincts and listening to his sales pitch, how do you feel? What is your opinion of the people that work there? What about the environment? Are you jazzed about the work. Ask yourself these questions.

3. Getting back to the recruiter, has he said the "magic words" to you? The magic words, believe it or not, are critical. They exist, in their own way, in all professions where an agent/pricipal relationship exists (stock brokers, doctors, lawyers, real estate agents). When a recruiter says these words during your job hunt and he means it, it can sometimes give you a sense of trust that might be just enough to influence your decision. If you really are on the fence about your offer and if your recruiter has proven himself to be a trusted and reliable source of information, these words will make a difference.

Call em' whatever you want: Magic words, code of honor, etc. In Technical Recruiting, they are the following:

John,

I've been in the recruiting business for a while now and I'm very passionate about it. It's more than just a job to me; it's my career. It makes up a part of who I am. I take it very seriously. I've come to realize that the only way to be truly successful is by building long term relationships with both my candidates and my clients. I want to be your source for opportunities for a long time. If I were to tell you to take a job for the sole purpose that I could collect a commission, you would ultimately find that out. The lie would come out in our relationship going forward and you'd never work with me again. On top of that, you'd tell other engineers not to work with me. The damage from this one act would be huge and I can't take that chance. I have to act in your best interests. Yes, I get paid a commission if you take my job offer. However, I'm not doing this for the commission. I'm doing it to help you find the best job for you. If another offer were a better match than mine, I would tell you so.

I realize that I can only prove these words to you over time. However, I'm asking you to believe this right now.

Those are the magic words. I believe in them and I think it makes a big difference in building long term relationships with professionals in the IT industry. After all, it's the truth and it can't be any other way.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

My Experience Working with Candidates from India

2011-02-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

I was 25 years old when I started working as a technical recruiter. I was at a pretty low ebb and I needed to prove myself at something. I figured I would give it a shot. I got a job with an agency that was headquartered in New York with branch offices in cities throughout the US. I was to train in NYC for six months and then relocate to Austin, Texas. The training in New York was valuable because you were surrounded by these really experienced recruiters that worked right on Wall Street. They weren’t politically correct and they were NOT in the business of being nice guys and helping software engineers find jobs. They wanted to make as many deals and as much money as possible. Working in NYC will harden you and technical recruiting was no different. I learned directly from these professionals. I aspired to be like them.

We were given training manuals and other forms of collateral to succeed as a recruiter. However, most of the real knowledge of recruiting came when we were in the “pit”, working the phones side by side with these recruiters who were anywhere from 24 months to 10 years in the business. We learned everything: How to prospect, cold-call, and qualify candidates; what to look for in a resume and most importantly, not to waste our time with candidates that we couldn’t make placements with. That’s the official Cardinal Rule in Technical Recruiting: Don’t waste your time with candidates that you can’t make money on. It was this last rule that I was introduced to the rather harsh reality of how recruiters view, rank and classify candidates from India.

Mind you, I was from Texas and up to then, I’d had only a few encounters with Indians. At Florida State and Texas State, a few of my professors were from India. I had heard that they were really smart people, mostly in Math and Science. But I didn’t know any Indian people. I came from a small town and up till my late teens, I had interacted with only two other classes of people, African American and Mexican American. So, it goes without saying that I was pretty wide eyed upon arriving in New York City to work in this business. I don't even know all the different classes of people that make up India as a country. I just went under the elementary rule that people from India were Indians.

Anyways, when we first set out recruiting, we would call candidates that were in the company database. I just noticed tons of Indian candidates. I was like, “Damn, they’re everywhere”. I couldn’t pronounce their names and they were really difficult to understand. They were always open to new opportunities. They would always send in resumes and I was like, “Man, I had no idea this job would be this easy”. After one week on the phones as a recruiter, I had about 15 resumes. All Indians! I was ready to make a bunch of deals and on Friday, when we met with our Managers to do our progress reports, I was so excited. I mean, I was ready to get these candidates submitted to our clients, get some interviews going and make some deals. The result? My manager looked at them and harshly told me to throw all of the resumes into the garbage can. He said they were useless and I pretty much wasted my whole week on a bunch of worthless candidates who would never be any value to me.

Why would he say that? Why would my boss have no interest in marketing strong software engineers with Masters Degrees in Computer Science and strong backgrounds in software development? Well, all I can say is that this was the genesis of my experience working with and getting to know the Indian candidate and the road they travel. Like with everything, there are stereotypes and then there are facts. This article will reveal some old industry stereotypes but will also shed some light on the journey that Indian programmers and IT professionals take when coming to America.

In that first review with my manager and throughout my six months in NYC, I was reminded on a timely basis of the following “rules”:

1. Indian candidates mostly just care about money. They don’t really care about the work or the company. They just want the money.
2. If you get to the offer stage with an Indian candidate, he will ask for a salary that is too high and the deal won’t be made and you will waste a lot of time and have an upset client.
3. Indian candidates change jobs all the time. You will very rarely see an Indian candidate stay at one company more than 5 years.
4. Indian candidates will move anywhere. They always rent and never own so if a better opportunity comes along, they will move. They are not tied to any geography in the US.

So these are the stereotypes and trust me, the company I worked at was no worse than anywhere else. They weren't alone in this opinion. The funny thing is that after a couple of months, my mentors seemed to be exactly right. I mean, from that point forward, I began to keep mental notes about Indian candidates. It seemed like they would always first ask about money and they would want to change jobs only if they got a big increase in pay. They would also move anywhere. For a while, it seemed like some of these stereotypes were indeed the truth. However, with time and a little self-education, you see the picture and realize what the true facts are. From that, you realize just how ignorant these stereotypes are. To break down the stereotype, we have to look at where the Indian candidate has come from. You see, Indian candidates travel a very long road to get to a place of stability in the US labor market. Here is the standard diary for a large percentage of engineering candidates who come over from India. There are always exceptions to the rule but for a significant percentage of 1st generation Indian candidates, this is a general summary of their journey.

Indians candidates get their Bachelors degree from their homeland (at a university that is often not familiar with companies in the US) and then travel to America where they enroll in a university here in the States. Despite having excellent academic credentials, Indian candidates (compared to their US counterparts) won’t have the same access to the finer CS programs that America has to offer. I’m not saying that Carnegie-Mellon, Rice University and MIT don’t welcome Indian students. They do wholeheartedly. However, a lot of money is needed to get into those schools and for the most part, remember that India is a very poor country. And if the university in India is not IIT or a couple of other select institutions, it’s very difficult to get into the top schools over here. So, the Indian student comes here to America and enters Graduate school.

The programs they do attend are places like Mississippi State, Lamar University or Wayne State. These are honorable programs with good teachers. Moreover, these schools must be commended by welcoming the Indian students and giving them a chance to get their Master’s Degree. Unfortunately, these programs are not recognized as having an elite “Computer Science” programs. These Indian candidates finish their degree quietly and then enter the workforce. For the most part, they have two options: join a company at a very modest salary and begin the process of earning their green card or join a consulting company and perform project based work for clients throughout the United States.

The best option is always the first one. Indian candidates have moved to places like Huntsville, Alabama to work at Intergraph or Houston, Texas to work for Schlumberger. Believe it or not but these options aren’t that bad. They have to stay there for approximately 5 years while they get their green card. Before this, they are on an H1-B visa, basically a permit that allows them to live and work in the United States. 9 times out of 10, changing jobs isn’t worth disrupting the process of becoming a Permanent Resident. Upon getting the green card, they start looking around immediately because their skills are so much more valuable than the money they are currently making. Hence, one reason why an Indian candidate might ask for such a higher salary to leave the company they are working at. After all, if the greencard puts you on equal footing with the rest of your US software developers, you might as well get on equal footing with the money too. This is the absolute best way for an Indian candidate to get on equal terms with their American counterparts. Even with the green card, I do know hiring managers who have said this to me, “One profile of candidate that I am NOT interested in is the one with a foreign Bachelor’s degree from a university I am not familiar with and a Master’s degree here in America. Even if they have a green card.” That, my friends, is what you call an uneven playing field. Despite this, the best option for 1st generation Indian candidates that have to get their green card is this route. The next option is never a good one

For those Indian candidates who can’t find a fulltime position at a company as a software engineer, there is the option of joining a consulting firm. However, this is not a boutique, full life cycle consulting firm like Accenture, Perot Systems or IBM. This is a dressed up body shop, known in the IT world as “Staff Augmentation”. You basically are a commodity; a software resource with little value to the client beyond coding. Ironically, a lot of these firms are Indian owned and through their minority owned business status, are able to land on vendor lists of corporations where they loan out their consultants at an hourly rate. Bank of America, Walmart, General Motors and scores of other Fortune 100 firms have been using these software consulting firms for years. The Indian candidate’s skills are shopped to these clients at very competitive hourly rates in hopes of winning the work. If the consulting firm wins the project, the Indian candidate is flown out and started on the job that next week. The term can be for 6 weeks, 3 months or even a year. After this project is up, the Indian candidate is flown out to the next assignment and the process repeats itself. What about the green card process? All this time, the consulting firm is working on the visa for the Indian candidate to ultimately be a Permanent Resident. But let’s face it, 5 years can be a long time while you’re traveling 100% and relocating on demand. The consulting company gets quite a nice return for their commitment to provide Permanent Residence status to their Indian employees. Resolution finally comes in the form of the green card and only then is the Indian candidate free to pursue employment without the burden of needing visa sponsorship. But with these staff augmentation firms, nothing is guaranteed and a lot of times, the green card process is not completed.

Once the Indian software engineer has the green card, what do they have? In the case of those who have been employed at a staff augmentation consulting firm, they don’t have much beyond a bunch of keywords and contract assignments. Their resumes are very blotchy with big, bolded keywords designed to attract a hiring manager’s eye. Swing, ODBC, J2EE in bold every other sentence is overkill. And from an experience standpoint, it’s now very hard for these candidates to get jobs at more desired employers like enterprise software companies or some of these hot startups. Quite simply, no hiring manager at a respected software firm is going to be interested in hiring a first generation Indian candidate who has jumped from contract to contract all across the United States. Also, because of the nature of their work, they haven’t had the opportunity to deliver on a full life cycle software product deliverable. That lack of experience hurts the marketability significantly. For these candidates, their best option is to somehow get a job at a respectable institution (a bank, energy utility or even a software firm) and get the opportunity to work, for several years, on some challenging enterprise projects. Only then can they begin to chip away at the scarred first years that the contracting/consulting experience put on their resume.

Mind you, amid all of this, I make it sound like Indian programmers are enduring these terrible lives over here in America. They’re making 35-50/hour on consulting or 60-75k year fulltime salary (even more) plus benefits. Their expenses are low and no matter the economy, they are never struggling for work. In spite of the hurdles and the difficulties, their drive to get a degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or EE degree is very much rewarded here in the US and even though the playing field is not level for them, they succeed and do well. It’s a tribute to intelligence, hard work and a drive to achieve their own American dream. And they do this in the face of a very real cultural bias that still exists today. I know of a few Austin based software companies that have entire teams of software developers without any Indian engineers. Is it bias? I honestly don’t think so. I know for a fact the stereotypes I described at the beginning of this post aren't nearly as harsh as they were when I first started in this business. These days, not wanting to work with an Indian candidate is because of the lack of cultural/team match with the company. The Account Manager will say, "No, he's not a match for what they are looking for" and it ends there. And that is an altogether different topic to address some day.

What I’m looking forward to is when these first generation Indian candidates’ children begin to graduate from college here in America. Instead of having to attend some unrecognized university in India, it will be University of Texas. These kids love the Dallas Cowboys, the Houston Astros as well as hot dogs and apple pie. They aren’t going to have to endure staff augmentation firms and 100% travel or the frustrating process of getting their green card. These 2nd generation Indians will be US citizens and will be every bit assimilated to American culture as any other young adult will. The question, I wonder about, is what will happen to the stereotypes? My own opinion is that they are slowly going away. They'll always be there but so long as we keep everyone as educated as possible, we'll keep chopping away at this.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Software Engineers: Interviewing for and not getting the job

2011-01-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

How do you digest the results from a company that is not interested in moving forward with you? Even if you are a top flight software engineer, there are going to be times in your career when a company doesn't want to move forward with you. Rationalizing and accepting the verdict comes down to how good of a problem solver you are.

The most common way is to acknowledge a flub (mistake) that you made in the interview and then move on. However, doing just that almost cheats yourself. What makes software engineer interviews unique are that it often doesn't come down to the answer but rather the logic that brought you to the answer, ie. the methodology. Companies look for sofware engineers that are great problem solvers. They want engineers that "see the picture" and know how to deliver the solution. Also, they want someone that simply has a lot of IQ. Intelligence is shown in so many areas of the workplace but trust me, there is something really special about a truly brilliant software engineer. They are just on a different plane of thought. We worked with one about a month ago. We got him an offer from an equities trading firm in NYC. They reject over 95% of all candidates they interview. He nailed the interview and they made him an offer on the spot. He was a genius and his own words about himself were, "I simply approach software problems from a very unique perspective, unlike a lot of other software engineers".

So, what does a top flight software engineer do when he interviews at a company he likes and gets rejected? How does he find the answer "why" he got turned down? The post below is probably the most indepth analysis I've read in a while and the feedback is very valuable. In my opinion, the company that didn't hire him made a mistake. I know, tie that to the fact that I'm his recruiter but regardless, his insight below is impressive.

I've had to genericize the company for confidentiality but other than that, the post below is directly from the candidate.

Enjoy,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

If I'm being honest, I'm still very bothered by the interview outcome. I've never gone to an interview and then not been offered the job before but that by itself doesn't bother me. And I haven't really said anything about it because I think any comments I might make would sound like sour grapes, and at the end of the day they decided they didn't feel like I was a match and that's just that.

It's really the "pretty good, but not really good/great" comment really hasn't sat well with me. I talked to them for only 2 hours and we got started 20 minutes late because they were late getting back from lunch at 2 (I was told). I was asked, really, a total of 4 questions that included nothing about my background aside from "tell me about it" and nothing data/datastore related whatsoever. As I said I did try to remember the answer to one algorithm question instead of stepping back and thinking about it and part of that is that I struggle to think as quickly as I might otherwise in the interview process while I'm being watched. I don't really know why that is as I like getting up in front of a bunch of people I know and idea-ting.

Anyway, it's the notion that my entire career of experience spanning consulting on a variety of systems, cryptographic implementations, responsibility for financial transactions for billions in assets and then being "the guy" for one of my company's three products was boiled down to an algorithm question that you don't realistically see in the wild that really bothers me. Heh. Internally I've been to reconcile this cognitive dissonance thinking things like "So did Nationwide ask me to take over the Financial Transactions team and have me right that ship because I was pretty good, but not really good?" "Did Oracle put me in front of angry customers to help their solutions teams get headed in the right direction and was I brought in to every performance problem ranging from query performance to client-server communication because I was pretty good, but not really good?"

I'll be the first to admit that my key strengths don't stem from a pure CS perspective as much as they come from an ability to get a very large problem into my head, organize it, start dividing it into chunks that are solvable by myself and others taking into account all sorts of system constraints like runtime/memory performance, availability, security, etc... I will typically know that there is a solution to a problem without knowing right away what it is and no, I have no idea what that says about how my mind works.

I'm not convinced that I'll ever shine in an interview where the focus is on questions like "you've got a set of integers...tell me all the subsets that sum to 20 in the most efficient way possible" and in fact I used to tease my boss at Oracle that they would have never hired me in product engineering there whereas some folks who, uh, maybe didn't add as much to the organization nailed that crap. In my experience the fundamental CS, Google rabbit hole questions are a terrible predictor of the ability of someone's ability to deliver value to the organization in a software development role.

Overall, I don't think the guys there are idiots and my gut says that they had made their decision before I got in there and I would have to un-seat the current front runner who I might guess is another former Red Hat guy they knew. Or it could have been as dumb as the fact that I don't drink and it seemed to kind of weird them out when they asked me what kind of beer I like. I don't care if I'm around people who drink, heck I like being the DD which seems like it'd be useful, but it seemed to kind of throw a couple of them off.

What I do think is that their interview process is not serving the goals that it should in terms of identifying the best people.

Workplace Benefits for Software Engineers...

2011-01-25T19:35:00.001-08:00

To begin, I have the permission from this software engineer to post this email...

I heard recently that Google is looking to hire another 6000 software engineers and IT professionals of various disciplines. Great technology, brilliant people and very competitive salaries will be needed to get these engineers interested. And that might still not get the job done. After all, there are a lot of companies that are doing some incredible things with some really smart people. To differentiate themselves, Google (and a lot of other companies) have started to address the lifestyle of the software engineers they hire. What can be done to create a workplace environment that is the envy of its peers? Remember the internet bubble? Overly indulgent holiday parties, stacked refrigerators and meditation rooms. Those things aren't specifically making a comeback but the "luxuries" of the workplace environment are starting to show up again.

Between 2004 and today, companies have been able to hire brilliant software engineers and work them very hard. Sure, there was the "Beer Thirty" on Fridays and catered pizza for lunch and bagels for breakfast. But that was about it. For the most part, it has been about coming in early and staying late. After all, there are some critically important things that need to be done and there are some great things to achieve. Who has time to play pingpong, attend team building offsites at the lake or sit in a bean bag all day?

I received the email below earlier today. It was written well and gave me a chuckle. The guy that sent it to me is a really gifted individual and he's taking full advantage of the luxuries that come with being in high demand from a top tier employers like Google. To some software engineers, these things don't mean a damn thing. They are driven by the challenge. They thrive on the pressure and demands to deliver high quality software under very tight deadlines. To others, especially younger developers, it's about achieving a very unique and special lifestyle. In the case of this one software engineer, it's time to break out the dancing shoes.

Please read below...

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Hey Mark,

Interviewing for jobs is a random process, I guess. Sometimes you blunder, sometimes you get lucky. At least with Google, I got lucky. One of the reasons I chose Google was because they were OK with me going to Tango/Yoga/Hip Hop classes in the middle of the day. At Google, I'd show up at work at 10am, work til 12pm, then dinner, siesta, Tango until 4pm, then work until 10pm-11pm. Google were ok with this schedule, and that's why I feel lucky to get their offer. I doubt many other companies will be ok with this schedule. But anyway, my job is to graduate, impress at Google and we'll see what happens from there.

The Job Market for Technical Product Managers in Austin, Texas

2011-01-06T17:03:00.001-08:00

In my recent posts, I've commented about some startups who were either bought or went public. From this, we've had people make some good money but more importantly, they have achieved something really special. They've taken an idea, turned it into a tangible product and delivered it to a large customer base. It's a great sense of achievement for these people and trust me, they put a lot of hard work in making this happen.

So, what's next?

Now that these companies have either gone public or been bought, you have these professionals who are sitting and waiting for the next big challenge. And with that, let me talk with you about Technical Product Managers and the current situation that some of them are in. To begin, let me talk for a bit about Product Managers.

A Product Manager, in my opinion, is the most critical employee in a software organization. True, you do need excellent software engineers and you also need top notch sales people that can sell the product. And what would you do without Product Marketing and a well connected, proven Executive Management team? However, Product Managers bring it all together and truly make it happen. Let's start with their profile:

They have either a CIS or CS degree. Some of them came up writing code and would be qualified as a "very strong software developer". In addition to great technical skills, they also have strong people skills, can present to audiences and have a knack for being the proxy for a customer. So, they can take the user requirements from a customer, bring them back to Engineering and deliver the product to spec. If this isn't enough, they can work in concert with Marketing and Sales to make sure all departments are on the same page when it comes to a deliverable. In closing, they can communicate all of this to the CTO or CEO. The deliverable is on their shoulders and they know how to make it happen.

I know of about 7 Product Managers that are looking here in Austin and they are all damn good. One doesn't have a CS degree and in fact, didn't even finish his degree but he's brilliant. I mean, his IQ even comes through on the phone. Incredible communication skills and can see the big picture instantaneously. His presentation skills with clients are perfect; without fault. He's the whole package. I have another who has the classic, top tier education (Computer Science degree and MBA) came up as a software engineer and became a Product Manager at a startup that was bought by IBM in 2010. Their Director of Engineering one time told me that he would put this PM in with ANY customer and ANY technical situation and have 100% confidence that the problem could be resolved. I would put my rep on the line with this candidate for any company in Austin.

So, what's the problem and why am I writing this post?

I HAVE NOWHERE TO PUT THESE GUYS!

Here's the dilemma: All of them are making 130k and above. I have one at 120k and he's not ready to take a cut anytime soon because he feels (and I tend to agree with him) he is underpaid. Nobody wants to take a cut in pay but the current startup climate in Austin is that the new startups in town are not ready to pay the really big bucks to hire one of these guys to make the magic happen. Instead, they are hiring one rung below in experience; they are hiring strong technical product managers who are contributors and perhaps don't possess that extra dimension that can only come with another 5 years' experience. There might also be a deficit in strategic, visionary type experience. These "less senior" PM's are usually 5-7 years out of school and often, their title has not gone beyond "Product Manager" and that's it! They weren't a Director or even a Manager. They're really good; don't get me wrong but they don't have the 10+ years experience that these more senior PM's have. Right now, if you ask me, these startups don't need all that firepower. Perhaps their organizational structure doesn't warrant a true Director yet. Perhaps these younger PM's are right in the "sweet spot" of their careers and are able to capitalize on this critical point in their careers.

The consequence is that there are some brilliant PM's missing out on some early stage action. As a recruiter, however, can I say to a Director level PM that it's okay to go from 145k to 105k and 10k stock options? I can't do it. I've been telling these guys to stick in at their current employers and wait for a better deal. I have one candidate I've known for a few years. She is a young rock star. I got a backdoor reference within previous employer that she comes across as very polite and professional but in the trenches, she is a real pit bull. She gets things done, plain and simple. She was at her new, larger employer and had a nice salary and some bonus money waiting for her. When she got an offer at a startup here in town, she had to take a cut in pay and she had to walk away from some bonus money that was coming her way in 2011. However, after hearing what she got offered, taking the cut was worth it. She was young and the "one step back, two steps forward" principle is very much in place with this offer. For more senior PM's, that would not be the case.

So, if you are a seasoned, proven Product Manager and you have a high salary and you're not challenged where you're at and you want to give it a shot at another startup, what do you do?

Sit tight and if possible, try to talk to as many of these early stage startups as possible and hopefully you can "strike a deal". If you see one pop up on Linkedin and they say they are hiring, confidentially email the CEO or their Director of HR. If they talk about salary, please don't reply flatly with your huge salary. Instead, say the following, "Yes, I am being paid well but I want to make it clear that money is not the reason I'm looking right now. I want a new challenge and I'm ready to accept the near term monetary sacrifice that comes with it. I hope that at the end of the interview process, we can significantly close that bridge and make it easier to come to terms". Blow their doors off in the interview process and do everything you can to let them know that they can't make it without you. It might work, it might not. At least you tried and it's better than waking up one morning and seeing a colleague who has updated his Twitter status or Linkedin profile with a new role at an early stage startup. That kind of thing will knaw at you.

Another strategy is to wait until you cash out all your stock options or retention bonuses at your current employer, do your best Tom Cruise line from Risky Business and dive right in at another early stage startup. It's scary and risky but it won't be boring! And just like your stock options, you can also take that to the bank.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Recent Offer Made to a Software Engineeer

2010-12-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

This is a true story:

A Software Engineer just last week met with a startup in Houston and they wanted to make him an offer. He was presented the opportunity by a staffing firm. The staffing firm is the middleman here and is presenting the offer. Here is the breakdown:

Contract to hire for a 6-12 month term
100k salary
Medical Benefits
2 weeks vacation

For the first 6-12 months, he is not an employee of the startup but rather the staffing firm. The staffing firm will offer a salary/benefits/vacation and when he converts to an employee of the startup, he gets a lateral on the salary (perhaps a small raise) but then also gets some equity in the company in the form of stock options. This offer serves as a bridge to ultimately becoming an employee with this company. However, looking closely into this offer, you will see that the staffing firm is doing one hell of an exploitation job.

Here's the dissection:

Problem #1: The salary offer.

Since when do you accept a salary for a contract opportunity? Believe it or not but it happens quite often in this business. The Software Engineer gets lulled into thinking that an offer of an hourly rate and salary isn't much different from one another. 100k or 50/hr, what's the big difference? Well, if you are working at a startup and you average 50 hours a week then you have quite a difference. Not to mention, you lose the #1 benefit of being a contractor which is getting paid for every hour you work.

Problem #2: What the Staffing firm bills the client.

The staffing firm will be billing the client hourly. And do you happen to know what the hourly billing rate can be for a Sr. Software Engineer? The neighborhood range is 100-110/hr. Think about that. Even at 40 hours a week (and trust me, since this is a startup, a lot of times it will be more), the staffing firm will be invoicing the client to the tune of 4000-4400 a week.

The result? Over the course of one year, the staffing firm will charge over 200k to the client and pay the software engineer 100k. That's not a commission, that's highway robbery.

If you are a software engineer and you are put in the unfortunate situation of being offered something like this, here is what you can come back with. It might break the deal but after all, I would never suggest taking a deal that I just described. Here's what you can say:

I want to make this deal but I need to ask if it's possible for us to do a 35% markup on the spread. If that isn't enough, we can do 40%. Pay me 70/hr and you charge the client 110/hr. That makes you plenty of money and if anything, I'm being more than fair. I just know you are not going to pay me a salary and give me the impression of being paid market wages while you invoice the client on my total hours worked. That creates a markup rate of 100-150%. Also, I would like to convert after 6 months. If I'm going to do a startup, I'm going to do it to become a permanent employee and realize a stock ownership in the firm. Pay me 70-80/hr, charge your markup and let's make this deal and make everyone happy.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

How Technical Recruiters Pitch Job Opportunities to Software Engineer

2010-12-01T19:12:00.001-08:00

To begin, let me address the word "pitch".

When I first started in this profession and worked for an agency, I would come up to my Recruiting Manager and say, "Hey man, should I "pitch" this job opportunity to this Software Engineer?" He would correct me immediately and tell me that "pitching" a position to a software engineer was "cheap" and that it devalued the offering and the entire experience. He made it clear to us, the recruiting team, that we were in the business of "presenting excellent opportunities to qualified professionals to help them advance their careers and at the same time, satisfy our clients". He regarded "pitching jobs" as a flippant activity to a target audience that we had little knowledge of or respect for. Back then, I understood his viewpiont but I didn't agree with the significance of the distinction. I don't think the profession of technical recruiting is compromised by "pitching" job opportunities to software engineers. And I don't think software engineers are all that upset by such a designation. So, now that we have that out of the way, let's go forward and talk about pitching jobs :-).

When technical recruiters "pitch" a job to a software engineer, how do we go about getting them interested? Well, we have to come with the "hook" and that is the opportunity. Whatever it is that we say, it must be something that makes them stop and read. You must have something attractive about the opportunity that will get their attention and trust me, it's not about flashing a big salary their way. It's the technology that will get their attention. Here is an example of what NOT to say:

Hey Jim, my name is Mark Cunningham and I'm a technical recruiter here in Austin. I wanted to reach out and see if you would be interested in discussing some of the exciting opportunities that I have available with some select clients of mine. I've been in business for over 15 years and would love the chance to talk with you sometime and see if I can help you find your next opportunity. If you have an updated resume, please send it over and I will give you a call to discuss in more detail. Thanks and have a great day.

Okay, what's wrong with this? Well, for one, nothing exciting or intriguing was mentioned. And not to knock my profession but what software engineer is interested in a general "get to know you" conversation with a technical recruiter? The only reason Software Engineers are interested in talking with technical recruiters is because they potentiall have something exciting to share with them. They aren't intereseted in the "dog and pony" show about how ethical the recruiter is and the stellar reputation their agency has in Austin. In my 15 years of doing this, software engineers talk to me for three things:

1. They have started looking and want to see if I can help them.
2. They have a friend that is looking for a new position and want to introduce me.
3. Their company needs to hire some engineers.

All this said, how does my small team pitch jobs?

Please read below.

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

I wanted to reach out and see if you would be interested in a new position that we just got in from a client of ours. They are called **** and we recruit specifically for them. They are a social media startup that develops software that helps retail firms acquire new customers. That’s probably the most simplistic way to describe them but to learn more about them, please go to ******.com. They have a great Management team and their development environment is 100% open source technologies.

If you would be interested in hearing more about this opportunity, please reply and we can discuss in more detail. If you have a copy of a resume, feel free to send a copy over. I could then learn more about your background and I promise that I will not send it anywhere.

Thanks and please read below. I look forward to hearing from you.

Mark Cunningham

Sr. Developer
Venture funded internet company that provides technology that helps local merchants acquire new customers is looking for a Sr. Developer. We are hiring passionate, dedicated and brilliant engineers to join the core engineering team. As part of the core engineering team you will work closely with the product team in a fast paced, challenging environment to help shape the technology landscape and culture of the core product.

Requirements
- 3+ years developing commercial grade software in Linux/Unix development environment.
- Extensive knowledge of open source technologies. Experience with Python is a plus.
- Experience writing software that communicates directly with 3rd party software (payment gateways, automation scripts, API’s)
- Ability to work with technical and non-technical teams, in an extremely fast-paced environment
- Self-motivated and reliable and able to work in small teams with other top tier developers.
- Strong UI design sense with the ability to adapt, take critical feedback, and execute quickly on tasks
Pluses
- Knowledge of Django
- Experience or familiarity with cloud services (Amazon EC2 and S3, Rackspace, Linode)
- Database experience a plus
- Previous start-up experience

3-5 Year Track Record of Software Startups' Performance in Austin

2010-11-20T13:40:00.001-08:00

Austin's startup scene is pretty hot right now. Back in 2005, these "enterprise software firms" were the craze (Lombardi, MessageOne, Zilliant, StoredIQ). Since 2005, we've had a very healthy amount of both IPO's and acquisitions. Here's a quick rundown on some of the buyouts and IPO's over the past couple of years:

Lombardi was bought by IBM
Buildforge was bought by Rational/IBM
Initiate Systems was bought by IBM
Lifesize Communications was bought be Logitech
Convio went public
Solarwinds went public
Netspend has gone public
Performance Retail and 360Commerce was bought by Oracle
Permeo was bought by Blue Coat Systems

There have also been a lot of failed startups and companies that are still works in progress. I can say, however, that if you had been hired by any of the above mentioned firms 2 or more years before they went public or were acquired, you did WELL and the risk was worth the reward. If you ask me, a recruiter, I would tell you that the risk of joining a startup is worth the potential reward. I still advise, to this day, not to join a startup solely because it might become public and you could make a lot of money. For the record, here is why you join a startup:

1. The technology that you'd get to work with is really, really cool and it's something that very few other people are working on.

2. The people you'd be working with are really, really smart and you can learn from them.

3. There is something maverick about leaving a large, established firm where you have plenty of security and joining a company that could likely go out of business in the next 24 months if things didn't go well. You're a risk taker and it's a badge you can wear with pride.

4. You truly do have the chance to do something special and from that, you would get the spoils of victory. It's a special feeling that not many software engineers get to experience.

5. There is something special about going from an employer with 5-10,000 employees to one with 30. Something neat about the CTO's office being right down the door from you and having a beer with him/her every Friday. It's different.

So, these reasons are why you join a startup. If you have the singular mindset of "getting rich", you wouldn't even make it past the offer stage. I will address that in the next post. But if you have an offer from a startup and the points above are in line with your offer, it's time to give notice.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Respecting the Value Add of a Technical Recruiter

2010-10-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

My associate recruiter endured a difficult moment this past week here at work. Mind you, in technical recruiting, you deal with a lot of disappointment. Anything from candidates accepting counteroffers to companies asking for refunds after a failed placement(it's happened to us 4 times in 15 years). Even the small things can be irritating. Below is the actual exchange, over email, my recruiter had with a candidate this week. For privacy, names are changed:

Recruiter: Hi Joe - Sorry for all the emails. Have you ever applied at **** ****? I know that you prefer the software game industry....so I wanted to check in with you on that. I look forward to hearing from you!
Joe: I haven't applied there, but I have talked with the CEO ***** ***** and the rest of the team a couple years ago when they were just starting out. It does sound like a very interesting place to work, I've done some iphone development so I'll have to give them an email and see what openings they have.
Recruiter: Can we represent you there?
Joe: I'd rather approach them through personal contacts.
Recruiter: Good to know. Thanks

Okay, so there you go. Don't let the last note from my associate fool you. She was more than a little irritated about this exchange. I'm not going to say she was pissed off and threw a fit but we were both disappointed. Over 15 years, I've lost so many deals that I'm pretty much numb to the bad news. Which isn't a good thing because the only way you learn is correcting what went wrong and "learning from the pain".

So, if this candidate had caught us on a day where we were a little more sensitive about our profession and ultimately, how we support ourselves financially, we would have said the following:

Joe,

You might know enough about the recruiting profession to realize that you just cut us out of the relationship we were going to establish for you. Yes, you know these people from your past but as of this day, this very moment, you did not know about them and they obviously weren't on your "to do" list for contacting for jobs. Would you have tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Perhaps but as of today and every since your current company closed down, you had not thought of them. My job as a recruiter is to present opportunities to you that you "are not aware of". And let's face it, you were not aware of this.

Besides, I have to wonder why you would not let us represent you? It doesn't compromise you in any way. Yes, the company would have to pay a commission but our rates and fees are very reasonable and to find people like yourself, they have to pay fees to somebody, trust me. Even if they didn't pay fees, we would have then stepped out of the way and at least we would have been able to generate some goodwill with this company. You seem like a nice guy so I don't think you meant to cause such an issue but at least now you know.

Going forward, I can't help but be a little concerned. I mean, if this were to happen again, the fault would then be on our shoulders. So, do I first send your resume to a company AND THEN tell you about it? We don't work that way; it's unethical.

So here's what I'm going to do: The next time an opportunity comes up, I'm going to call you up and tell you about our relationship and how we represent you at companies that you don't know about. And how, upon learning of a firm, you don't go through your network to see if you know someone directly and then pursue them. We're not 411 On Demand. We're recruiters. What do we want to do? We want to place you at a great company with a great role. And guess what, we need your cooperation to help make that happen. To work for you, we need you to work with us.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Interview Techniques from Software Firms

2010-10-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

In my career as a recruiter, here's been the most traditional form of an interview for a Software Developer opening:

1. Introductory phone call or coffee meeting where the Interviewer (Hiring Manager or Technical Lead) talks with the candidate about the role and the opportunity that is availabe.
2. After discussing the role, the Interviewer and the candidate go through a Q&A about the technology that is relevant to this role. Gauged in this conversation are not only your technical skills but also your personality, overall IQ and ability to learn anything that you may not be 100% up to speed on.
3. After this conversation, you either move to an onsite interview or you learn that the company doesn't want to move forward with you.
4. If you move to an onsite interview, you continue to learn more about the position and you face a more indepth technical examination from a team of developers and managers.
5. If all goes well, you move to the offer stage and you potentially become part of the organization.

Throughout this process, the relationship is very give and take. You answer their questions but you also get a chance to ask questions. You learn about the company and you get to the point where you personally decide for yourself whether or not you can see yourself working for the company.

Well, right now, we're recruiting for a company that does things a bit differently. Here's how their process goes:

1. Non-techical conversation with the company about the environment. From a depth standpoint, just a brief overview is provided.
2. Code test that is performed in C++ or Java. And this is a doozy of a test. I had a candidate in California who took it. He had a masters degree in CS but when he took this test, he just left the exam in the middle of it. Just walked away!
3. If you pass the code test, your next step is an onsite interview. 8 hours of nothing but puzzles and quizzes. Heavy duty algorithmic recursion stuff. Just brutal.
4. If you pass all of this then they make you an offer and you start talking about the role and the opportunity.

So, as you can see, this process with this company is very one-sided and it's very much about what you know and how you express your knowledge. You really don't find out the specifics of what you'd be doing until after all the interviewing. You go on reputation and you go on the promise of what is being offered. What's the reward for such an interview process?

You would work on some of the most challening technologies out there and you would receive full relocation, the highest salary in the IT industry and the opportunity to work with the smartest people around.

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Software Engineers and Salary Negotiation

2010-09-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

This post is not something that applies to all software engineers. This information is relevant to only a handful and unfortunately, it's not a group that anyone would aspire to be a part of. I'm going to write about quality software engineers who earn less than what they should be making.

Now, to some degree, you can make an argument that all quality software engineers are underpaid. I mean, so you make 100k but your part of a product team that brought in 40mm for IBM? Or, you make 145k but you and a team of 8 built a real-time trading system that brough in over 100mm. There has to be another 10k in there somewhere? That's a lot of profit, after all. However, I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about software engineers who have:

1. Stayed at a company for too many years because the technology was cool and because of that, got sleepy and realized a little too late that they weren't getting paid very well.

2. Changed jobs but whenever it came to the offer, they merely took the first offer and did not attempt to negotiate for fear of creating any bad feelings with the new employer.

3. Sacrificed salary for creature comforts such as a 40 hour work week, shorter commute or simply enjoyed being the "top dog" of the development team.

Hey, these things happen and its nobody's fault when it does. However, let's say you have now woken up and you want to look at new opportunities. You're not exactly content with just sitting at your company and marking time. You want to join a dynamic startup or trading firm and you want to make something happen. You want to be challenged. And for that, you want to get paid for it.

YOU ARE AT 85K AND YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO LEAVE FOR ANYTHING LESS THAN 105K.

As a recruiter, I need to let you know something:

Unless all the stars align, I can't guarantee that kind of raise and more than likely, you might want to reset your expectations to something less.

I'm not saying you won't get a raise because you will and from an industry standpoint, it will be a material one. However, it's not the new company's responsibility to make up for your past. I'm sorry to say that but that's the truth. If they want you badly enough, they will make you the best absolute offer they can while also being fair to themselves and staying within market conditions. They are wanting to hire candidates who are not only smart but also team players that genuinely believe in the product and its people and will do whatever it takes to make that company successful. Getting to the offer stage and then asking them to make up close to 5 years of salary lag doesn't neceesarily fit into their mold of a "team player".

And from your end, if you don't get that big raise, what monetary value is it for you to stay at your current employer? For example:

You started at this company 5 years ago at 80k
After a couple of years, they bumped you to 85k but with the recent economy, there has been a freeze and you've been stuck at 85k
You get an offer from a company that you really like for 95k
You turn down the offer because you wanted 105k. In your mind, it just isn't worth leaving this firm for a raise that doesn't get you caught up to the industry. And besides, you are comfortable where you are at and there is a premium that comes with that.

However, next year, if there are any raises, it will probably be around 2-3k and given the current forecast, with your current company, you'll get to 95k in about 3-4years. However, even that is not a guarantee.

Now does that make any sense to stay?

What has developed is that your career has been hi-jacked to a slight degree. You tolerate your current position and endure your profession rather than capitalize on it. And you stick around waiting to get "caught up". And, in the back of your head is that mantra, "I'm not going to take another new job without getting paid top dollar for it".

To that, there is nothing I can say. It stinks but you know what? You can't make all that money and lost salary back in one swing. On the rare occasion, software engineers have hit that homerun and made up all that lost salary. However, that's exactly what it is, a homerun. And when you swing for the fences, the majority of the time you are going to strike out.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

the Austin outlook for software engineers who are passively looking

2010-08-22T18:36:00.000-07:00

I am writing this blog post for software engineers.

Let's assume you are a software engineer and your own situation is best described as:

"I could be happier but I don't want to go somewhere and work 50% more hours for a nominal raise, a longer commute and a big cut into my personal time (family, exercise, travel). I would leave for any "outstanding/can't miss" opportunities:

In the past 18 months, these startups have either gone public or were bought out:

SolarWinds
Lombardi Software (bought by IBM)
Initiate Systems (bought by IBM)
Lifesize Communications (bought by Logitech)

If you had asked me in '06 if there were any "outstanding" opportunities, I would have given the same answer, "I don't know". I mean, it's hard to really predict which company will hit and which one won't. So, as a recruiter, all I can do is hopefully present an opportunity where the technology is really cool and the people are really smart. Of course, there are dream opps like working at Google but you have to look at the reality of landing something like that.

Here's what I can say about the market in Austin now. There are some cool, smaller companies. If you were going to really dive in and try to crank out some money and work with the best developers in town, I love RGM Advisors. But, that's C++ on Linux. What about Bazaarvoice? You could work there but here's the deal, you would have to hope that you get the dream role over there. Bazaarvoice has some brilliant developers and what if they had a role where you wouldn't be part of the core Engineering group? What if you had to work in Technical Services/Support as a developer? It can be long hours and you would have to ask yourself if the extra hours, the different role and the cut into personal time is worth the opp? All that said, I would talk to Bazaarvoice if given the chance (and if you are curious, they are a client of mine and I could let you know if you meet their criteria).

A lot of it also comes down to whether a developer can "take it anymore". Over the past 3 years, there has been a corps of developers, solution architects and product managers at IBM who could not take it anymore. They were all really, really good at what they did and they simply had to move on. The drawback of extra hours or cuts into personal time did not add up to finding great work outside IBM. They had to get out! You might still be at the stage of not "running out the door" but if you get closer and closer to that feeling, would outside opportunities at Bazaarvoice or elsewhere become more and more attractice. As for those people who left IBM, all of them made 100% the best decision for their career.

Cool startups in Austin? Yes, they are out there. There are also small consulting firm where you could make some good money, possibly work some from home and learn some cutting edge new technologies. If I had to offer any advice, it would be to start talking to companies and get a feel for what's going on. It could help you determine which way the pendulum is going to swing (to stay or to go). A few things to remember:

1. You are not going to get big money for leaving your job.
2. You have to hope that you work in a small team that kicks ass and works on really challenging projects.
3. You are going to have to prove yourself.

If you're still not sure, no worries and time will take care of that. Contact me whenever you are ready and we can discuss further.

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Top CS programs in the South

2010-08-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

I'm on a bit of a roll so figured I'd make my way across the South. By South, I just don't mean Dixie land. We're cutting a swath pretty much from Virginia on down and these are in nor particular order (although I do rank by my familiarity and history with the program).

1. Vanderbilt University
2. Rice
3. Georgia Tech (Mostly Computer Engineering/Electrical Engineering)
4. University of Arizona
5. Duke University
6. University of Texas
7. University of Virginia
8. Virginia Tech
9. University of New Mexico
10. Tulane University
11. Trinity University
12. Texas A&M University
13. University of North Carolina

My ranking of Computer Science programs in Texas...

2010-08-17T19:59:00.001-07:00

There aren't many CS programs in Texas but here is how I rank them. I will recieve a little heat from folks but trust me, it's not personal. I went to Florida State and I can that our CS program is laughable at best. Here are my rankings:

1. Rice
2. University of Texas
2. Trinity University (tie with UT)
3. Texas A&M
4. University of Houston (downtown and Clear Lake)
5. Texas Tech (I have one candidate that graduated from there who is solely responsbile for this high ranking for TT. His name is Britt Poulsen.)
6. Baylor

After all these, the following schools are all pretty much clumped together: Lamar, TCU, SMU, St. Edwards)

Some technical semantics for software engineers

2010-08-17T19:49:00.001-07:00

If a company has a Java Development position open, they will not interview a C++/Windows developer for the role. Even if the C++ developer is strong in OO, they won't speak with him/her.

If a company has a Java developer position open, they "might" interview a C# developer. C# and Java are similar and very strong C# developers can pick up Java in a matter of 1-2 weeks.

If a company has a C# developer position open, more often than not, they will interview a Java developer for the role. I see this quite often.

Even if a software engineer has a strong "open source software" background, a company still might not interview him/her if they don't have specific experience with an open source tool, eg. flex, drupal, joomla. So, you could have a rock star Python developer but if he/she hasn't touched flex or only knows it in a fundamental sense, no dice...

If you want to get familiar with some core open source technologies, ramp up on drupal and php. I never figured how critical some companies considered php experience.

If you are a linux systems administrator, it is just as important that you know how to use scripting languages as well as you know how to administer Linux OS. Know your shell, perl and python at an expert level!

Yes, I've heard a lot to the contrary over the years but what I'm seeing more and more, among your absolute top tier employers, the ones who pay 100+ to candidates just 2-3 years out of school is that you have to have a BS/MS or even PhD in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering from one of the top programs in the country.

Thanks,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

You own a company and now you want to become an employee somewhere...What do you do?

2010-08-05T20:31:00.001-07:00

I have a friend of a very dear friend of mine who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. For the past ten years, she has been running a small web development firm where they do website design/development, custom software development and internet marketing services. She has been the Founder/COO for many years and she has run this company well.

Although she loves her firm, she has started to feel like it is consuming her and the need to wear so many different hats (Accounts Receivable/Payable, Administration, Sales, HR) has left her longing to simply be an employee at a company. Believe it or not but this sort of thing does happen. One of the great things you can achieve professionally is running your own company and "being your own boss". However, it's not all that it's cracked up to be. Sometimes we are good at a particular skill but not great at running a company. In my own case, I can say that I'm a remarkable recruiter; I'm really good at what I do. However, what about my business skills? Or, how good of a boss am I? Well, that's a different story. Let's just say that there is room for improvement. In the case of my friend, she is at the point in her life where she has decided to gradually scale her own firm down and start looking for a job.

Well, before she looks for a job, she has to put together a resume. And that is the subject of the words below. I speak with this successful business owner about the steps necessary to get her resume together and how to profile herself. When reading below, please realize that the companies I reference are specific to her industry, ie. other boutique consulting firms that specialize in web design/development, user experience and internet marketing. The industry in question here is project managed, full service consulting firms.

Enjoy,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Well, to take the leap of leaving your own company and becoming an employee somewhere, you would have to find a role that you really love and one that is specialized to your best attributes. If I could offer one critique of your resume, it’s that it reads like you’re running your company from an operational/administrative point of view. Nothing, in particular, is specialized. You’re paying the bills, hiring employees, collecting on accounts, etc. And don’t get me wrong, companies are impressed with that but they struggle on where to place you in their organization. You're seen mostly as a Cost Center as opposed to someone that could be billed out to a client. What we need to do is downplay the "Owner" role and instead, highlight how you are an expert at your company's service offering, which happens to be web services and internet marketing.

How do we do that? Well, if I had to suggest one thing, it would be to change your title. We need to project you as an Engagement Manager, Project Manager or Team Lead for your own company. Prospective employers don't need to see the title "Owner/President/COO jumping out at them (at least not right now). There are places like Avenue A Razorfish, Schematic, Smiley Media, Optaros that would be great places for you to land. We would have to gear your resume from “running a company” to “yes, I own this company but in reality, I’m the Project Manager, Engagement Manager, Team Lead for a group of Design professionals where we focus on delivering cutting edge solutions aimed at building User Experience, marketing and branding presence on the web, with a little bit of Social Media thrown in there”

Regarding title, we'd have quite a few options to choose from: Project Manager, Engagement Manager, Consulting Services Director or Practice Director. Regarding the responsibilities like doing payroll, securing office space, signing off on hires, etc., I would try to minimize those. It is great experience, don’t get me wrong, but it would be experience that won’t be relative to whatever position you’re applying for. Granted, there are employers that hire Director of Professional Services who want candidates to have P&L experience so we don't want to eliminate it entirely. You would want to let the company know that your experience running a company is very much similar to overseeing P&L of a consulting services group.

As far as money goes, I would set a salary based not too far off whatever compensation you were pulling from your firm. I have two buddies here in Austin that co-own a C#/ASP.Net consulting firm. They only have 6 employees and staff augment their consultants (make money off the spread of their pay rate to the consultant and their bill rate to the client) and make their own hourly rate. They pay themselves ~120k a year and put the rest towards the company…If they were to ever look for a job, they would use a range of 110-145k depending on the job…

Mark

How important is educational background for a software engineer?

2010-06-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

Very important.

Every now and then, you do get some really brilliant developers who are Java experts but did not finish college. And I'm not going to lie; they do well for themselves. However, for the absolute most part, here are the criteria for getting a great start in your career as a Software Engineer:

1. CS, EE or any "hard science" degree from a well respected university.
2. GPA of 3.5 or greater. If you are 3.2 or greater, that is still okay. A lot of times that means that you goofed off for most of the semester but then nailed the exams when you had to.
3. Graduation in less than 5 years.
4. MS in CS or a "hard science" is a big plus.

I have a client that is based in New York and they also have an office in Houston. They will only consider candidates from the following schools:

Caltech
Stanford
UC Berkeley
Rice
CMU
Cornell
University of Missouri - Rolla
Purdue
Vanderbilt
MIT
Univ of Maryland
Univ of Texas (top quartile only)

There are a few other schools but I'm sure you get the point. And if you have changed jobs more than 3 times in 8 years, you are removed from consideration. Regardless of the reason. It's not necessarily fair to someone who lived/died through the dot.com boom/bust but such is life. If you have a CIS degree or MIS or Mechanical or Industrial Engineering degree, they will not talk to you.

Those that qualify on all the points above will get pay packages that are well above what they are currently making and will have the opportunity to work on the most challenging technologies in the industry.

So for all those CS students at UT and Rice and even Trinity who are thinking about blowing off that final and scraping by with a 3.0, think again. The decisions you make now will make a difference in getting just a "job" or getting an opportunity to work on Wall Street or with some of the top startups in Austin and the Bay Area. Your GPA, your degree and where you got it make all the difference in your career. I've never been more convinced of this than the past 3 months in working with this client of mine.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com

You're an awesome software engineer but what are you entitled to?

2010-06-24T20:03:00.001-07:00

My recruiter recently found a candidate through a job search. He was highly degreed from a top 5 school here in the US and after 4 years at the most prominent search firm in the world, he was unofficially a technical lead. His title was not Technical Lead but he had led some projects. He was really good and incredibly bright. We got him an interview with a Quantitative equities trading firm. They had a position open for a Technical Lead and we submitted him for the position.

The initial phone screen/code test lasted 2.5 hours so it did take up a big chunk of his time. The candidate didn't mind it and did well on the test. Mind you, this entire time, he was very polite and he warmly received our compliments about "how awesome he was as a software engineer" and "how well he was going to do on the code test".

So, my client came back and said the following, "We really like him and we'd like to move forward but we are not going to offer the Tech Lead role. He would have to start out as a technical contributor and then work his way into a Technical Lead". Despite how brilliant this candidate was and his incredible educational background, I agreed with my client. I didn't think he had the experience overall to just walk right in to a Wall Street trading firm and be their leader. My client was even more blunt. They said the following, "Our CTO is a lifetime achievement award winner from Unix. And another of our Tech Leads was one of the leads on a major Operating system. These guys would chew up Mike (name has been changed for protection) and spit him out. He's good but around here, he's just a regular technical contributor.

I spared our candidate these grisly details and very politely informed him that while the client wanted to move forward, it was only in the role of a technical contributor. The result? Our candidate was quite upset and was personally upset at our client for wasting his time. I mean, he was not happy at all! He was (and always will be) under the impression that his education and his current role entitles him to be able to walk into any company and serve as a Technical Lead. In a lot of ways, I agree with him but you simply can't do it with every firm out there, especially one that is as successful as our client is.

There's no lesson from this and there's no final word from me. All I can say is that this is a classic case of a candidate and a company having a disconnect on their "perceived" value in an organization. This candidate would have received a 20% increase in pay and there was the very good chance that he would be working with a technical bar of engineers that is higher than what he currently has. However, the role and title would have been a step back.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

You get a promotion while interviewing for a new job...

2010-05-13T19:28:00.001-07:00

What do you do?

Let's say that you are scheduled to do a phone screen on Wednesday with a company. The day before, Tuesday, you get a promotion from your current employer and you are happy with it and you decide, right then and there, that you are going to stay at your current employer and there is no way, whatsoever, you are leaving for a new job. And the last thing you want to do is that phone screen tomorrow. Here's a piece of advice:

Do the phone screen anyways.

No matter how good the promotion is, backing out of a phone screen at the last minute sends a message that you were never taking the new opportunity seriously at all. If you are going through a recruiter, there is the chance that he/she will be upset and think that you completely wasted their time. And with lesser recruiters, this frustration will be passed on to the company's hiring manager, trust me. The message would be something like this, "Well, Larry backed out of the interview at the last minute and I'm really sorry about this. If you ask me, he was probably just using us to secure this promotion all this time. My sincere apologies and in the future, I'll be sure to screen better on these types of things". So, there would be this impression that you were never seriously looking in the first place and this would stay with you if you to ever engage with that same company or recruiter again.

So, here's what you can do.

1. When you get the promotion, let the recruiter know about it and how that has potentially changed your thoughts on looking for new opportunities. Tell the recruiter that you are still going to commit to doing the phone screen but unless the opportunity is truly a "can't miss", you see yourself staying at your current firm rather than leaving.

2. Go through with the phone screen and blow their socks off. Use the new promotion at your current employer as a reason to speak with 100% confidence and show them why you are so good and why you got this promotion in the first place.

3. After the phone interview is over and after the recruiter calls you up to tell you how well you did, tell them the following, "I also enjoyed the conversation and I really enjoyed learing more about this opportunity. However, I have really thought about it and in light of my promotion and the committment that my current employer has shown me, I have decided to take myself off the market. Please pass on my thanks and appreciation for their time and should I look again in the future, I would very much like to connect with them again".

You have closed the loop and you've done it professionally. No one feels like their time has been wasted and at the very least, you have made a positive impression on another company here in Austin. The recruiter might be a little bummed but don't worry, he/she will get over it :-).

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

One strategy for Social Media recruiting?

2010-04-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

Okay,

So, I talked about Social Media in my last post. How can we apply it practically? Let's assume that you are a staffing manager for a software firm here in Austin. Would it be time well spent to do any or all of the following:

1. Set up a Facebook fan page specifically for jobs at your company. If you have 5+ jobs or more available, it could be worthwhile. Become a fan of "Stratosphere Software Jobs" on Facebook. Anyone who became a fan would be updated on all jobs that came available.

2. Set up a Twitter account and post updates for any and all new jobs that come available.

3. Become "friends" or "fans" of IT user groups on Facebook and post your jobs on their profile page. Linux, J2EE, C# all have user groups now on Facebook.

4. Linkedin. Set up a very openly and public Linkedin profile where all candidates can reach out to you directly.

5. Target all universities where the CS and EE programs are top flight and post on their FB pages or follow on Twitter.

6. Signup to job directories social media plays like Jobing.com and have your positions distributed through them.

If you did all of these strategies and kept up with them, how far would it take you? If you ask me, it would help out a little and over the course of a year, could make the difference in making a couple of placements. However, what about how the elite tier, the upper 95% of all IT talent? They, even moreso than anyone other group of people, are sharing their lives on FB and Twitter. As a company, how can you get connected with them? How can you make sure, through social media, your positions are being circulated in their neighborhood?

As a recruiter, I can request friend connections of Linkedin connections with these contacts. That gets me 1/2 way there. However, as a company, they might not be as receptive.

These are just some thoughts on all of this. I still don't know the answers. Our current model is very old but still works: My recruiter pounds out calls and emails all day and she hopes for a good hit ratio. Her biggest utilization of social media comes from contacting engineers on FB that can't find on Linkedin or have left their employer where she last made contact. Our next project deals with Twitter and we're working on that this week or next. I will keep you posted...

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

The Impact of Social Media on Technical Recruiting

2010-03-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

I've been recruiting for 15 years and as a recruiter, we face the inevitable threat that one day, companies won't need to use us anymore. After a while, you begin to realize that your services will be in use some kind of way. But, we're middlemen and there's always an interest to cut us out. So, every once in a while, there is a new phenomenon that comes along with the promise of eliminating the fees that we, technical recruiters, charge our clients. The first big threat to us was Monster, the online resume database that HR Managers could use to directly contact IT professionals. Today, it's laughable to look back and think that there was a fear that Monster could replace staffing firms. But back then, the idea was so novel that your first impression would be to ask, "Hey, why use a recruiter when you have Monster?".

Monster (and Careerbuilder) came to be a reliable site where IT professionals could post their resume and hope they get contacted for IT openings in their city or geography of choice. As effective as Monster was, it didn't solve the problem of "finding and uncovering a great software engineer or IT professional". Monster was the tool but you still had to have a technical recruiter to recognize the IT professional as being great, good or average. The talent was provided by Monster but you, the recruiter, could tell whether or not that person was good. So, we were still in business :-)

To better address the problem of "recognizing" quality IT talent, you then had the development of ASP's (Application Service Providers) who offered a "resume filtering system" designed to route candidates' resumes to the appropriate hiring manager within a company. This service was meant to make sure that the right resumes ended up in the right place. Upon submitting a resume to a company, the candidate's qualifications were routed to the appropriate contact, based on their keywords, education and experience. It was a different service from what Monster offered but the threat was there. In Austin, there was a startup in the late 90's/early 2000's that offered such a service. They were called Hire.com and there was a lot of hype about how they offered a revolutionized service offering for enterprise talent management. We recruiters looked at a service like this and realized that our value add of qualifying the candidate was under threat. I mean, here was an enterprise app that could do the qualifying for us. Why would an agency need us?

But once again, this threat was put to rest. After all, this system did nothing to reach out to candidates. It was only of use when a candidate submitted his/her resume to the company. Well, part of the value add of a recruiter was our "marketing and evangelizing of openings to IT candidates who were passively looking". Your best candidates never even looked for jobs because their friends and recruiters often approached them about opportunities. Hire.com turned out to be not much more than a qualifying service which, while valuable, hardly solves the whole problem that is staffing/sourcing, especially in the IT market. Hire.com actually wound up becoming a client of mine and I made a few deals there. They could not have been very happy about that but hell, they needed help finding quality IT resources :-).

Fast forward to the present and we recruiters do have a new threat. It won't eliminate us but if some company (or HR manager) is savvy enough, they can take a big bite out of their agency fees and they can do it at a much cheaper cost than what Monster.com or Hire.com charges. Through utilization of Social Media, companies can now, more than ever, reach out to the best talent out there and present them with opportunities available in their company. And, they can do it by simply "joining the neighborhood". I will try my best to explain how. If I try to address everything, I'll be typing forever but here goes:

I. The Market
The most sought after and desired IT professionals are the young ones, ie. the ones under 35 years old. And folks, they live on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and these sites do not go one day without updates on their lives. All of their friends are also on these sites and together, they share pictures, stories and yes, employment. They are fans of their employers (who have fan pages set up on Facebook) and follow their Tweets on Twitter. So, imagine if you can an entire community of young IT professionals living on Facebook and Twitter and having their lives openly displayed among all their friends. Seeing this community grow and develop online, you come to realize that searching for a job is about as easy reaching out to this online community and asking what job openings a friend might have at his/her company. So, you have a market of desirable IT resources and they coexist on social media sites. Companies, now more than ever, have direct access to them and trust me, they are not hard to find.

II. The Company
How do companies find candidates? Traditionally, they post jobs on their website. That's nice but how are the candidates going to find your company? You could post on Monster but at 400 dollars a post, that's pretty pricey. In this day and age of social media, why don't you do the following:

A. Create a Facebook fan page where all newly updated jobs are updated on your status.
B. Create a Twitter account where all company business events are tweeted, including jobs.
C. Create a Linkedin Profile where all jobs are updated on your profile.
D. Become friends with college and business alumni like Extreme Blue, Carnegie Mellon and Purdue.
E. Utilize these social media outlets for invites to company happy hours, job fairs and specific high profile jobs within your company.

III. Who Can Set a Company Up with a Social Media Presence?
You'd be surprised at how easy this is to set up. You don't really need a hot shot HR/Staffing Consultant to get this set up. You just need a social media expert and that person can be a newly graduated Liberal Arts grad. You can explain the target market, job postings and the online presence you are looking for and from that, your modestly paid consultant can do the rest. You are setting up a presence/environment, not looking for a specific skillset so the advanced skills of a recruiter aren't needed right now. It's a classic "build it and they will come" play.

IV. Closing
Does Social Media solve it all? No, it doesn't. And I'm sure there are a lot of counter points to my words above. And, if you have urgent positions that come up immediately, then you will have to move more quickly than social media will allow. After all, you are still posting jobs albeit in a very active community, more active than Monster can offer. However, by setting up fan pages, tweets, Linkedin notifications and reaching out to target online groups where these IT professionals are residing, you will go a very long way in making your company more interactive in its job offerings. And in the process, you will be full embracing a new dynamic that is here to stay.

I could have written more about this but folks, it's a Sunday and I needed to get this first post out the door. As more thoughts come in, I will post them on here or even my Facebook site or Twitter :-)

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

What is the highest salary/compensation in Austin?

2010-03-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

I just recently spoke with a software engineer here in Austin. He's now at the Director/VP level with a software company here in Austin. The company is not a startup. He is "very" good at what he does and has 5+ years at the Director level. He came up as a software engineer and grew into a Technical Lead, then Manager and now a Director/VP. CS degree and just a great software engineer...

I asked him recently what his current compensation was and his reply is below. I'm providing this information simply to give you a gauge for some of the "higher paid" IT professionals here in Austin.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Hello Mark. Thanks for thinking of me. While the technology is right up my alley, this seems to be a professional services type of architect position. If I took another architect role, I would only be interested in product development.

As for salary, unfortunately I am well north of this range. I am at 190k (have been for over a year) base + 25% bonus, along with options vesting each month. I will be over 200k base if I elect to stay but I really want to see what else is out there.

I am not expecting the same level of pay for my next position in Austin. I would guess that most VP Eng positions are not quite this high and Sr. Director/Director positions are probably 150 - 160k (let me know if you think this is not realistic). But I will probably be looking for something that is 150k+, unless there was a significant equity package.

Thanks,
xxxxx

My Difficult Scenario posted below and a Candidate's point of view

2010-02-19T07:13:00.000-08:00

Below is a reply from a candidate I've known for a couple of years. Really smart guy and is probably among the top ten developers in the state of Texas. Please don't ask me how I come up with these rankings but if there were one, he'd probably be there :-).

Below are his thoughts on my blog that is two posts below.

Enjoy!

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

You are in a tough situation. However the solution is simple (which doesn't mean easy). Do right by your candidate and connect him with that non-paying company as well as other paying companies and let him have the best chance of landing a position. Your strength as a recruiter is based on how many super star candidates like and trust you and refer other super stars to you. A company that doesn't pay should not get dibs on any candidates that come to you. However, in this case, it's okay to serve the candidate because he has expressed an interest in the non-paying company (and presumably could have applied on his own, since he found the posting). By connecting him you are cementing your relationship with him (a top-5 candidate in your books). This will pay dividends in the future even if he goes to the non-paying company.

M#

Does a Security Clearance Mean Anything for a Software Engineer?

2010-02-15T14:26:00.000-08:00

Or, does having a Security Clearance get you a higher salary?

Here in Austin and Texas, in general, it does NOT...

The importance of a Security Clearance, more often than not, comes down to the particular industry (and geography) that you are doing software development in. For instance, the Virginia, DC, Maryland area has a lot of companies that work on big government projects that often are aligned with our nation’s military operations. And in those environments, you can be sure that Security Clearance is very important. IT professionals must have a Security Clearance in order to work on various government IT contracts. In those regions (and in other places where government work is done), Security Clearances are more a “requirement” and don’t necessarily dictate/warrant higher salaries…

Here in Austin, Security Clearances for software developers mean very little. The most critical variable that dictates one’s salary in this town is their mastery of a particular language or methodology and experience working with startup software companies. I am currently working with a software developer who is a near expert at Java and C++ development. His is 8 years out of school, is 29, and is making 130k.

So, unless you are in an industry that demands a security clearance, there isn’t really a premium in salary over and above just being an authority in your particular language and methodology. At current, I don’t work with any firms that require Security Clearance. There are at least three companies in town that have developers with Security Clearance and they are Ultra Electronics, 21st Century Technologies and Overwatch Systems.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

A Difficult Scenario for a Technical Recruiter

2010-02-11T19:33:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone, my apologies for the delay from the last post. Things are busy and that's never a bad thing.

Okay, I was presented with a difficult situation the other day. It involved money and a candidate of mine. Trying my hardest not to reference that God awful reality show on MTV, Jersey Shore, here is the "situation":

I have a candidate that I'm representing that is arguably one of the strongest software developers in Austin today. I mean, he is good and he's among the top five candidates I've ever worked with in my career. In his own right, he is a genius.

Armed with a stellar educational background, he is working at a startup that is not doing well financially and with his wife due to give birth to their second child, he is actively looking for a new position. He has never had "to look" for a new position before because, quite honestly, companies and people come to him. I'm serious, for as smart as this guy is, he's never really had to look for a job before.

So, when I got his resume, he let me know of his situation and from that, my responsibility was twofold:

1. To help him get interviews at my clients.
2. Over and above my clients, do some work to help find new companies for him.

So, that meant calling old clients and potential new ones in order to see if they would be interested in talking with my candidate. The process of doing that is easy (you call up the company's HR Manager or Director of Engineering and introduce yourself and the candidate), however, the hard part is whether or not the company can pay the Agency fee. Yes, the dreaded 15-20% commission. That fee can get in the way of a company wanting to hire someone.

So, here is the "Situation". I will itemize the points for easier reading:

1. My candidate dug up a company online that he was interested in. They had a position that he was a good match for.
2. He asked me if I knew anyone there.
3. As it turns out, I do. In fact, I have even made placements at this company and have some good relationships with some of the hiring managers. I tell my candidate that, yes, I can create an introduction for him and will submit his resume to the company
4. Since this company has paid me Recruiting fees in the past, I contact the company and reconnect and inform them of the candidate I have. My hope is to get a new fee agreement signed up and start the interview process.
5. The company responds promptly to my email and exchanges the requisite pleasantries. After that, however, they are very firm in saying that they ARE NOT paying agency fees at this time.
6. I know sit in a potentially unethical situation where my candidate might be hired by a former client of mine for NO FEE and while I do help out in getting him hired, I now run the risk of sacrificing myself financially. But at the same time, I also am potentially comprimising my candidate by not exposing him to all relevant opportunities. And, I didn't even bring this position to his attention. He brought it to mine!

So, here I stand with my awesome candidate. I have three companies that are willing to pay a fee for him but now have another company, a firm that my candidate is very interested in, that does not want to pay a fee...

What should I do?

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Stability or Money? Which one do you choose? Surprising answer below

2010-01-04T20:23:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, let's have a great 2010, okay?

Below is an email that I got from candidate that's actually a good buddy of mine. I've had to change names and companies. But he's moving to another city and has two offers, both of which would allow him to telecommute for these Austin companies. He is moving to Houston and would telecommute from there for one of these two Austin companies. His current employer is very unstable but they offered him great money to stay. The other company with the offer is more stable but the money is not as much. If you read from the bottom, you can read his original email and above that (right below these words) you can read my reply.

All situations offer up different answers...My answer below flies in the face of more traditional routes to take when considering safety/security vs. pay...

Enjoy,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Hey Randy, great to hear from you.

I know you're worried about the stability but I would stay with ****** because of the extra money and let's face it, ever since you've left Motive, things (as they by nature are in IT) have been unstable but it hasn't affected you yet and it never will. Yes, the reason ***** offered you the extra money was because, if you walked out now, it would really hurt them and in all honesty, they probably will fold in six months...just last month, a startup called ***** went kaput...4 months ago, their developers were about to walk out but the CEO offered them a pay raise and HUGE backend dough if they got bought...they all stayed around and they went under...the same "might" happen with *****...

But if they do, you'll get a job in no time...The starup I mentioned above, their engineers were picked right up by other startups and they were good guys...you're league kind of guys...One kid, with an MS in CS from BYU (a program I love) was hired the very next day after they closed their doors...

And perhaps I'm biased about your Rice degree but I think you find work immediately in Houston...Now, will it be ten miles from your house? Only if the energy firms in North Houston scoop you up...I have contacts at Halliburton but they have moved all their development to their Alief office :-(...

Plus, the 130k salary gets you TOTALLY caught up in the salary market which, for a couple of years, you were behind...Not any longer...so when you look for that next job, you do so from the higher salary level...that makes a huge difference...also, the very nature of working remotely "might" wear off on both ***** and ******* so you ultimately will be looking for a job in Houston REGARDLESS of what happens to either one of these Austin firms...

Soooo, stick with the money, don't sweat the stability (or lack thereof) because dude, you're not going to go more than a month without a job...this "massive" recession did nothing to hurt the employment prospects of top tier software engineers...

So you're good brotha :-)...

Just my .02

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

-----Original Message-----
From: Confidential
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 10:05 PM
To: mhc@texas.net
Subject: Decisions decisions

Damn so ***** offered me 20% raise and no problem to work remote if I stay. Catch is the company is far less stable than ****** so I may end up looking for a job in 3-6 months....what r the chances of finding a good job working in north houston mid year? I'm still thinking stability is better but damn 130k working from home is nice.

-Randy

The similarities between dating and technical recruiting

2009-12-29T20:50:00.001-08:00

The similarities have to do with the middleman, ie. the recruiter for the jobs you interview for or that good buddy of yours who set you up with someone. On the surface, this is a light hearted post. However, anyone can see the the similarities. Here goes:

EMOTIONAL/PERSONAL COMMITMENT:
You have to be personally and emotionally ready to date. It has to be a contract with yourself and if you aren't ready, the whole experience will not be a pleasant one. The same thing goes with changing jobs. There has to be this mental/emotional commitment to write the resume, go on the interview, accept the offer and walk down that hall to give notice to your boss. You have to be ready for a change and commit to the exercise on a daily basis. It takes discipline and maturity. In one case it's a job and the other, it's another human being. You have to put your "best face on" and let everyone see your best attributes. Only after you've settled down in a job or with another person do they learn "everything" about you; the good and the bad.

THE PITCH
I, the recruiter, pitch you the company and for the most part, it's almost all positive. Same thing when two people are potentially set up to go on a date. Here are two quick examples:

1. Hey Bob, I have someone that you should meet. She's attractive; she's got a good job, she likes football and in general, she's just a cool chick. I know you pretty well and I think you two would get along well. And who knows, it might turn into something. At the very least, the two of you will get to meet each other and a connection will be established.

2. Hey Bob, I have an opportunity that I thought you might be interested in. There's a company in South Austin and they are looking for a Sr. Developer. Great technology, commute isn't that bad and the company is doing really well. At the very least, I can get you a conversation with the CTO and you can learn all about their environment and the kind of work that is going on.

THE QUALIFICATION:
What can I, the recruiter, do to make sure that this "connection" is successful? It's more than just introducing the two of you. I need to share with you everything I know about the other party. What do I know about my friend who I want to set you up with? What do I know about my client that has the job opening? How can this information benefit you and help ensure the meeting is a successful one.

1. Hey Bob, just an fyi that Susan doesn't drink much so I wouldn't meet her at some bar. She keeps it pretty healthy. She also is big on eye contact so when you talk with her, just look her in the eyes. Not all the time but you know what I mean. Just a cool, confident look in her eyes when you talk with her. She also likes the casual, t-shirt, blue jeans look so you don't have to worry about dressing up around her.

2. Hey Bob, now this company is not too big on methodology in their development process. When you answer their questions, don't preach too much about adhering to Agile or any particular methodology for that matter. They tackle development problems from all different angles and like someone with an open mind when it comes to developing solutions. Also, they are a casual dress environment. I wouldn't worry about wearing a suit.

MONEY!
1. Hey Bob, Susan is really laid back and she's not into power/money hungry guys who talk about making money all the time. She likes ambitious guys, which you are, but if you go in talking about money and material stuff, she will really be turned off. Granted, she wants to be with a successful man but she doesn't want to get with someone who puts money/material items above thing like friends, family and life in general.

2. Bob, now this company can pay well but they are wanting Engineers who are committed to developing great software and helping the company grow. I will be able to get you a good offer but if you go in there asking for a lot of money or talking about how money is the most important thing, they are going to pass on you. Just do your part to excel on the interview and I'll get you the money you are looking for. And even if I can't, I will present you with their absolute best offer and that's all that really matters. You're going to have to want this job for the important reasons like technology, the people and the company direction over just a paycheck.

THE FEEDBACK (WHAT BOB SAYS ABOUT SUSAN AND THE COMPANY):
1. Well, I think things went pretty well. She's really cool and we had good conversation and had a great meal. I met her over at Makado, the sushi restaurant. I think it went pretty well and I have to admit, I like her. I think she's cute. I asked if she were free next week and she was going to look at her schedule and get back to me. She had to leave kinda early because she had to let her friend's dog out for a walk so we didn't order a full meal. We just had appetizers.

2. Well, I felt it went pretty well. I met with 3 developers. I was supposed to meet with their tech lead and Dev Manager but they were tied up in a meeting and said that if we go to the next round, I will get to meet with them. I think I did pretty well; I wasn't able to answer all the questions but I did answer most of them to their liking, I think. I like the company and if they wanted to move forward, I would definitely be interested.

THE FEEDBACK (WHAT SUSAN AND THE COMPANY SAY ABOUT BOB):
1. Hey Mark, yeah we had a pretty nice time. Bob is a really, really nice guy and we had fun. I like him but I'm not like attracted to him in a romantic kind of way. I mean, once again, he's a super nice guy and really polite! I think it would be hard for us to be more than just friends. I hope he understands. I'll keep in touch with him but if he asks me out again, I'll say to him that I just don't think we're a match. But he's a nice guy and would be a great catch for someone. I hope he doesn't take it the wrong way. Oh well, is there anyone else you know??? :-)

2. Hey Mark, we met with Bob on Friday. Good candidate; pretty smart but does not have the level of development experience that we are looking for. Nice guy but just not at the level we need to move forward. Can you please tell him that we're still meeting with other candidates and that we'll be back in touch if we want to revisit. But at this time, we're going to pass. Who else you got???

BOB'S REACTION TO THE FACT THAT NEITHER SUSAN NOR THE COMPANY WANT TO MOVE FORWARD WITH HIM:
1. Whatever! Oh well, she probably thought I was trying too hard to get her. She seemed kinda high maintenance anyways and whatever guy she gets with is going to have to bend over backwards to keep her happy anyways. Whatever. Don't worry man, I'll be cool if I ever bump into her. I mean, yeah, she's a cool chick but the more I thought about it, I wasn't really that interested in her anyways...

2. Well, no worries on my end. If they are looking for someone to answer all those questions, they are looking for Superman when it comes to a software developer. I honestly don't know anyone that could answer everything they were asking. The place looked like a sweat shop anyways and after thinking more about it, I probably would not have been happy working there after all. I'm kinda glad it didn't work out and good luck to those guys even finding someone that fits everything they are asking for. Kinda unrealistic if you ask me...

CLOSURE:
So there you go...Things didn't go too well for Bob both in dating and job interviewing. In this hard lesson, we can see how the two engagements run hand in hand. The pitch, the qualification, the feedback and ultimate closure. Now realize, it doesn't always end on a bad note. If a date goes well, it can result in marriage and we all know how that can last a lifetime. Such a deep emotional and physical connection can bind two people for an eternity.

With a job, however, the love connection often lasts about 3 years.

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

The Implied Risk of Looking for a New Job

2009-11-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

Just recently, I found a candidate for a position that I had available. He looked great on paper, had a solid education and a stable employment history. After the first round of phone interviews, he performed better than anyone else. However, there was one red flag on him and it did not come out until after I submitted him and after he did his first phone screen with the hiring manager. The problem was such an issue that he was removed from consideration for the opportunity.

What was the problem with this candidate?
Answer: He was too worried about his current employer finding out he was looking for a job.

Now, that's a concern that every candidate has (unless it's been mutually agreed upon that the candidate can look for a new job). A job search is something that is obviously conducted with 100% confidentiality. However, this candidate's concern was so evident that it eventually turned off my hiring manager. The requests from the candidate were so demanding that the hiring manager assumed that such a "risk averse" personality would result in rejecting the job offer. And, personality wise, it just seemed "weird". I mean, this candidate was overbearing about confidentiality and it came off as distrustful of me and the client.

Here is what this candidate did that ultimately led to his disqualification:

1. Upon learning who the client was, he performed several Linkedin searches and through connections, had me confirm with my client that none of my client's employees were connected with employees from his current company and they were no existing relationships going on.

2. Had me confirm with the CTO of my client that he was not connected with my candidate's boss at his current employer.

3. When I had to confirm onsite interviews (he did very well on the phone interview), this candidate sent me his availability via email. In his email, while sending me his times, he made comments like "well, it's best that I'm available in the afternoon because, after all, I don't want to risk my employer finding out that I'm looking". Another one was, "Well, I need to be sure to not get caught looking around because a definite job is better than a "maybe", ya know what I mean?".

Every correspondance with this candidate included some reference to confidentiality and this concern came to define the candidate. I mean, I was like "Oh here comes an email from the RISK AVERSE guy".

To remind me, the recruiter, several times about confidentiality serves no purpose. While it does need to be explained sometime to candidates, it is universally understood in our business that scheduling interviews with candidates is done so under the most confidential measures. I have nothing to gain by leaking your job search to others and most importantly, it's just unethical to do so. I mean, I'm here to help you and broadcasting your search to particular parties is not part of that equation. My clients also understand to keep this as confidential as possible.

So, after my client saw my candidate's third email with his interview options and another, needless reminder to stress confidentiality, my hiring manager dropped him and removed him from consideration. I was surprised by this because, of all the candidates that interviewed, this candidate did the best. And, I'm still not 100% on board with the decision but I'm here to support my clients and not argue with them. At the end of the day, this candidate pushed the hiring manager too far and the result was not a good one. For what it's worth, here's what my candidate missed out on:

1. Shortening his commute from 25 miles to 8 miles and removing one of the most heavily congested routes in Austin from his daily commute.
2. 5-8k bump in salary
3. Similar title
4. Company that has, on average, much stronger technical staff than his current employer's.

However, most significantly, he missed out on the intangible achievement of being "the" candidate that was chosen over everybody else. And that is a great feeling. Instead, he learned a hard, albeit not entirely fair lesson about labor markets these days and how picky companies can be. I tell you; this job was his for the taking.

I wanted to share this story with you so that you understand just how much is scrutinized when engaging with employers. Stay 100%professional, personable and very technical when talking directly with companies. And of course, you can be safe too and get assurances that things are confidential.

Just don't over do it!

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Regards,

How long does it take for a Technical Recruiter to qualify a Software Engineer?

2009-10-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

The answer is 3 minutes.

Assumptions:

1. You and I don't get caught up in talking about industry gossip, a particular company in town or a 3rd party that we both know well.
2. You already have a copy of the job description that I emailed to you.
3. You have sent me your resume
4. You are genuinely interested in the opportunity that I have available.

So, with these above assumptions, it doesn't take me long to tell you about the company and the process. I tell you about the opportunity and any specific questions you have (development process, specific technologies, what your role would be) are addressed on the phone interview. After all, the principal is the one that has all the information, not the agent.

So, in three minutes, I tell you the company, refer you to their website and get your salary/compensation so that I can share that with the client. The next step is emailing your resume to the client and waiting for feedback.

AND PLEASE DON'T TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY but if you want to talk about your history and everything you've done, for the most part we aren't interested. Your resume tells us everything. And besides, if you are really strong, you aren't interested in telling about your history either. Why? Well, your resume does that. Your degree(s), your work history and your technologies tell us everything already. If you want to talk to us about what you've done, it might even be perceived as trying to justify concerns or red flags...And for rock star developers, there are no red flags and there are no concerns. The only agenda is getting your resume submitted to our clients as quickly as possible.

So, when you send in your resume and speak with us, the recruiters, you can expect a short and sweet conversation. It won't be long because we're both busy and we both have our jobs to do.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

SolarWinds

2009-09-29T18:23:00.000-07:00

If you live here in Austin, Texas and you are in the IT industry, you already know that I'm not talking about an alternative energy play. I'm talking about an enterprise Network Management software company that went public this past summer. It was the first IPO of an Austin based startup of any substance since Vignette went public back in the late 90's. As a recruiter, I'm going to share my experience with SolarWinds and what I know about some of the people that work there.

Before going into the history on this company, let me first briefly speak to the importance of their success. Austin's IT market is largely built upon the promise of an IPO. And that's ironic because, over the long haul, there haven't been too many IPO's that have stood the test of time. In the dot.com boom, there were only four that I knew of:

Vignette (barely hung on after a huge opening)
PC Order (crashed)
Garden.com (crashed)
Motive (delisted and now bought by Alcatel-Lucent)

*Please note that I am not talking about acquisitions/buyouts from larger firms. That has been more active but obviously it will be; it's not the significant achievement that an IPO is.

So, for all the hype and excitement, joining a software startup is really just a big gamble with really LONG odds. I've said in many previous posts that you join startups for the chance to work with complex technologies and other very smart people. You do NOT join them with the possibility of them going public! You'll die a frustrated death if you do that. You just don't count on it.

And trust me, by 2004, most people had adopted this mindset. They weren't google eyed over 10,000 stock options. They weren't in awe of some new blazing technology that was taking the industry by storm and they weren't chomping at the bit to work 80 hours a week. They started to value and treasure something called "real money", ie. competitive salaries, bonuses and matching 401ks. And just when everyone pretty much gave up on Austin software startups having IPO's, along came SolarWinds.

AS A RECRUITER, THESE WERE MY EXPERIENCES WITH SOLARWINDS:

1. In 2006, Michael Bennett became the CEO of SolarWinds:
Before Mr. Bennett joined SolarWinds, he was CEO of a startup company here in Austin called Permeo. For a period of about 10 months, I recruited for Permeo both on contract and contingency. A friend of mine was the Director of Staffing there and she secured me an onsite contract with Permeo and while onsite I learned about Permeo's Executive Management. My friend, who headed up HR and Staffing, told me about each Executive and then she got to Permeo's CEO, Michael Bennett, and this is what she had to say:

"This is our (meaning Permeo's) White Horse right here. He's got the Midas touch. Mark, I worked onsite at Mission Critical Software and he was CEO there and orchestrated the buyout by NetIQ. Mark, he's awesome and he's going to get us acquired or take us public. It will be a short play. Inside of one year, we'll be bought or we'll dissolve. It's the only way to do this. He will get us bought out". By 2004, I had recruited with my friend for 7 years and through all the companies she worked at, she had never come across so confident as she had when describing Michael Bennett and what he would do for Permeo. She spoke in the context like it was a "done deal".

I bumped into Mr. Bennett a few times in the hallways at Permeo and he was always a really nice guy. He looked each person in the eye and valued everyone, regardless of rank. My impression of him was the he was a very self-assured about the mission Permeo was on and where the company was heading. He had a game plan and he was making sure everyone else was stuck to it. The result was that Permeo was bought out by BlueCoat Systems and despite some ups and downs, it has been regarded as a very successful acquisition.

2. In 2006, Mark Szygenda joined SolarWinds as their Director of Quality Assurance.
As a recruiter, I have had only one chance to work with Mark Szygenda. I had known of him since the late 90's. He had worked at a slew of software startups; he was the perfect example of a dot.com employee. Very sharp, young and very ambitious and my impression is that he really believed in the business model of a startup going public.

Well, in 2005, I had a client that was (and still is) my primary, #1 client in all of Austin. I practically work on retainer for them. Their CTO is my contact and from the very beginning, he has always had problems with Software QA. It's just always been a major headache. To address this, I had hired a couple of QA Managers for the CTO and this only put a "band-aid" on the problem. Long story short, he came to me in 2005 and said, "Hey! I want/need you to find the best QA guy out there. I don't care what the money is. I can't take these problems anymore. They are driving me crazy!". Trust me, his words were a little spicier than what I just typed. I reached out to Mark Szygenda and happen to find him at a time that he was looking. I arranged an interview for Mark with my client. After the interview, this CTO, the one who had QA problems from the very beginning said the following words, verbatim:

"I'VE BEEN HERE IN AUSTIN SINCE 1995. THAT WAS THE BEST QA GUY I'VE EVER SPOKEN TO".

As it turned out, we weren't able to make a deal. Mark had to stay on with his current employer at the time because, if he had left, the company would have completely crashed. As it turned out, he was also the greatest QA guy his current employer had ever seen too.

To this day, my client still talks about Mark. His words are usually, "Who was that awesome QA guy; the best I ever talked to? The one with the funny last name?"

3. Patrick Hubbard joined SolarWinds in 2007 as a Sr. Product Manager
The story about how we found Patrick is pretty cool. I was really busy and needed a part-time recruiter to make outbound recruiting calls. I posted a Craigslist ad and this young woman from Guam applied for the job. She was a former Budweiser Model and had just moved to Austin. I used to joke with her that she needed to have an internet camera attached to her phone so the engineers could see what she looked like when talking to her. She was a very naturally beautiful woman. And she had the coolest name. Her real, birth certificate name was: Tisha Bamba.

Anyways, Tisha Bamba called Patrick Hubbard up to pitch the Sr. Product Manager position. He said "yes", he was interested and sent his resume over. At this time, I was on contract with another software company in Austin. They were regarded as having the "highest technical bar in Austin" and also regarded as Austin's most successful startup. At this particular time, I firmly believed this. I'll keep this short and cut to the chase:

Patrick breezed right through the interview process with my client and we got to the offer stage in about 7 business days. Including a personal email from our CTO, I was feeling pretty good about things. Patrick then shared with me that he also had an offer from SolarWinds and his decision was coming down to my client and SolarWinds. As this decision making process began to evolve, I noticed all the alarms going off that Patrick was going to turn down my offer and potentially accept SolarWinds. I'll go through these alarms in another post but for now, Patrick was giving all of them to me. I was incredulous. Mind you, I wasn't upset because I learned long ago that you can't control the candidate. And in this particular case, I could not control Patrick. But I was thinking, "How could he possibly turn us down? We, the company that turns everyone else down. And, we're being turned down?

So, I began to assume the role of "third party lay it all out on the table guy". Patrick was one of the few candidates where, as a recruiter, I could not bring any value add to the vetting process. He saw everything already and didn't need my "objective" information. He was an incredibly bright individual; he came up as a software architect and then moved over to the business side of software and emerged as this really gifted Product Manager. And as far as both offers were concerned, he already saw the whole picture.

I still tried to offer insight into the two opportunities and obviously, tried to spin things in a manner that made my client's offer look more compelling. Without even telling me, Patrick let me know that he saw everything already and any information I was offering was only redundant. In the end, it wasn't even close. He went with SolarWinds. When he made the decision, I congratulated him on it and wished him the best. When someone like that makes a decision, you don't question it; only support it.

4. From 2005 to 2007, I noticed SolarWinds hiring many talented engineers, both in Development and QA. David Perdue, one of the best Windows developers I've ever known, is their Director of Development. Mark Wilkserson, a true veteran recruiter of Austin's IT market and someone I've known in this business since the mid 90's, heads up their recruiting efforts. Chris LaPoint, Biren Shah and the list goes on and on. Great people were joining this company and no one was leaving. I have a Monster account and I would periodically run searches on SolarWinds candidates (like I do all companies) and there would be "zero" hits.

5. A good friend of mine sells software for Compuware. He's good and knows the enterprise software business well. He has lost deals to SolarWinds and this is what he has to say about them:

"They are everywhere. Every damn company I call into, SolarWinds is on their network. They are a "good" product. They are also very competitive on price". Please note this quote. My friend didn't say "awesome" or "great". He said that SolarWinds was "good". That could be out of professional jealousy (which, to me, is a good sign). They are also very competitive on price. He didn't say "cheap". He seemed to be speaking of why SolarWinds is hard to beat:

It's a good product that is everywhere and very competitively priced. To me, that sounds like a winning combination.

A couple of years ago, I was talking with a VP of Technology and he was commenting on SolarWinds. He had asked me who some of the hotter companies in town were and I listed off my usual suspects. Of the pack, I mentioned SolarWinds. He began going down the list of each company and, in differing ways, listed how his company's technology stood out as superior. When he got to Solarwinds, he made the following comment:

"Well, if you are a salesperson and you're selling SolarWinds' product, you call the IT Manager. When you are selling OUR product, you call the CTO".

Well, with his company having gone through a round of layoffs in 2008 and currently in idle mode and SolarWinds closing trade today at 23/share, my thought is that SolarWinds would heartily agree with him. :-)

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Examples of Skells Discussed from Previous Article

2009-09-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

NOTE: BEFORE READING THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE BELOW THIS ONE. THIS IS A TWO PART ARTICLE SO FOR THE PROPER UNDERSTANDING, PLEASE START BELOW.

1. SCENARIO: THERE IS A COMPANY WHERE YOU HAVE NO CONTACTS AND ARE ATTEMPTING TO FIND THEIR ENGINEERS:
Victim of this skell: Office Manager or Administrative Assistant
Hi, this is Tom Michaels and I'm an independent Marketing rep for an upcoming technology trade show called OOPSLA. It's the leading technology trade show for software developers and QA Engineers. Tickets cost 25 dollars but I have a set of free passes to give to some of your engineers. I'd like to start with your Development Manager. Do you know who that might be?
Result Desired: Admin or Office Manager provides the name of the Development Manager.

2. SCENARIO: FROM THE ABOVE SKELL, YOU NOW HAVE THE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER'S NAME. NOW, YOU WANT HIS ENTIRE TEAM.
Victim of this skell: Office Manager or Administrative Assistant
(In a somewhat nervous and very polite tone) Hi, I am in a huge jam and I was wondering if you could help me out. I am a recent graduate of University of Texas Computer Science School. One of my Professors used to go to school with your Development Manager, William Jenkins. Through some networking, my professor told me that he referred me to William and that they might call me because they have some hiring needs come up.

Well, yesterday, I was hanging out at my apartment and my phone rang. It was Mr. Jenkins from your company and he was on a conference call. He had about 3-4 others on the call and I was caught off guard and we started doing an immediate phone interview. I think I did okay but it all happened so quickly that I can't possibly remember who I spoke with. I was wanting to send out some "thank you" notes for the interview.

I know Mr. Jenkins name through my professor and I have excellent memory recognition and was wondering if you could just quickly sound off a couple of the other engineers in his group? I should know who I spoke to then and I can then send out some thank you notes. If you could help me out with this, I would forever be grateful (said in a mildly desperate, pleading way)
Desired Result: Admin or Office Manager proceeds to list every software engineer in the organization. I one time got 45 engineers from this skell.

3. SCENARIO: YOU HAVE THE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER'S NAME FROM THE FIRST SKELL ABOVE AND YOU CALL HIM DIRECTLY.
Victim of this skell: Develpment Manager himself.
Okay, now this skell takes pure cold blood in your veins. You are calling a technical person and attempting to dupe him good. Here it goes:
Hi Mr. Jenkins, I'm sorry to bother you but this is Bill Quinn, I'm a short term contract for Melissa Miles, the Director of HR. She wanted me to call you. They are updating the org charts for all the IT departments and she told me that you oversee Development. Since I'm a contractor, I don't have an email address set up yet. Can you quickly just tell me everyone that's underneath you? I'll make this as quick as possible.
Desired result: Mr. Jenkins, without thinking twice, gives you every developer underneath him

The three skells above can be done in a broad variation of skillsets and disciplines. I can do these for QA Engineers, Technical Documentation, DBA's and Systems Administrators. You just change the trade show or technology conference! Once you get one name, you are Golden!

HERE ARE SOME BOLDER AND SOMETIMES VERY EFFECTIVE SKELLS:

SCENARIO: NEAR THE HOLIDAYS OF VALENTINES DAY, CHRISTMAS, THANKSGIVING, 4TH OF JULY.
Victim: Development Manager or IT Administrative Assistant.
Hi, this is Bill Quinn and I'm a short term contractor over here in HR. I don't have an email set up yet. Sorry to bother you but Mellisa Miles is having us print up some Valentines Day cards to all employees. Just a little something fun we're doing for the whole company! They are going to be put in everyone's boxes in the next week. I'm down here at Kinkos getting them made and I left without getting the org chart for the IT department. I'm sorry to bug but can you fax that over to me right now?
Desired Result: Admin faxes over the org chart with no questions asked.

SCENARIO: YOU FIND OUT THE CIO OF THE COMPANY IS OUT OF TOWN. YOU CALL THE COMPANY, ACTING AS THE CIO!
Victim: CIO's admin assistant or Office Manager
Hey Mary, hey it's Bob, I'm sorry to bother you but I'm stuck at the airport and my flight is delayed. I'm trying to update my org chart on my laptop and I don't want to enter all the names in manually. Can you fax over the IT org chart to this fax number please? Thanks!
Desired Result: Once again, the confidence with which you speak and present yourself makes the admin assistant fax the sheet right over.

How effective were these skells? Well, sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn't. I can tell you, when the victim was thinking that something fishy was going on, it could get really uncomfortable. You just went with the flow until you obviously knew it wasn't working out anymore. After a while, you just got thick skinned and when the companies would catch on, you'd almost laugh it off and them hit another unsuspecting victim in the company. I guess that's when you knew you were a veteran. You were just numb to the how dubious an act this was. I don't know whether to feel proudly about that or ashamed. I think a mix of both would apply.

In my four years with Pencom, I built a Skell book of over 100 pages and 40 different companies. I built an entire picture of IT departments both in Houston and Austin. I made over 50 placements through names I've skelled and I've also developed very strong clients through names I've skelled. One particular client in Houston, Schlumberger Geoquest, I Skelled the CIO and he faxed me their entire Software Engineering department. From that list, I pulled 9 developers out of the company and placed them elsewhere in Houston. I also got friendly with the Development Managers and made 4 placements for the company. I developed a very strong friendship with one of their engineers who now owns a consulting company. He always calls me to ask how the market is going and when he and his wife and had triplets, he emailed pictures of the girls to me. Every time I'm in Houston, we always try to get together and meet up. I think he's a great guy and a very trusted partner in my career. We've given each other lots of business and our friendship is now starting on its 2nd decade.

I got him through a skell.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

A Dubious Means to an Honorable End...

2009-09-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

What does this title mean?

Well, for it to mean anything, you first have to assume that what we recruiters do for a living (finding jobs for software engineers) is an honorable service. When we place you for more money, better technology, a shorter commute and smart people to work with, it is an honorable thing, right? It's a win-win-win situation. So with that said, what is so dubious about that?

Well, it deals with how we found you and that's what this post is about. It's about a very dubious, clever and downright mischevious tactic that recruiters employ when they are trying to find the "perfect" candidate. There is a word for this tactic and it's called "The Skell". It can be used both as a noun (Hey, I just pulled off this awesome Skell) or a verb (Hey Joey, I just skelled the Office Manager over at Tivoli).

When I'm talking about Skelling, I would like to offer up this formal definition:

The Skell is an act of misrepresenting yourself and presenting false scenarios by which you attempt to uncover names of IT professionals within a particular company or organization. In other words, you are trying to trick employees of a company into giving you the names of their employees so that you can call them at a later date and present job opportunities to them. This effort is mostly used via the phone and you attempt to retrieve these names either by having the company fax you an organizational chart or give you the names over the phone.

This act, in present times, is a lost art because we now have tools like Linkedin, Jigsaw, Google and Facebook. You don't need to impersonate yourself and call into companies to get the names of software engineers anymore. And that's a shame because these tools, while making recruiting much easier and effective, have taken away from the true art form of recruiting. There are many recruiters who are very good at their craft who have never heard what a Skell is. But History is always so critical because it tells us how far we've come right? Well, the fact that we recruiters no longer have to skell is a testament to how advanced the profession has become and how difficult it once was.

Where did I learn about Skelling? Well, from my first recruiting employer Pencom Systems. Pencom Systems was a staffing firm that was a true pioneer in the IT industry in the 80's and 90's. They were based in New York and had offices throughout the country; all of which were located in respective IT hotbeds: Boston, San Jose, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta.

The founding recruiters of Pencom were probably the greatest recruiters in the industry. There were these legendary stories (and I assume Legend to be true) that with nothing more than a phonebook, the founding Pencom recruiters were making 40+ deals a year. All of the founding recruiters were expert, expert Skellers and upon hiring us youngsters in the 90's, they strove to fully educate us in the art of Skelling. Pencom had over 80 recruiters at its height of operations and on any given day, 90% of us would be skelling at the same time. Imagine that for a second. Hundreds of outbound calls to companies all in the attempt to uncover names. Our fax machines and machines of the nearby Kinkos would be jammed for 10-20 minutes receiving faxes from unsuspecting companies.

To be a great Skeller, it didn't hurt if you were a devious type of person to start with. You know the type. The kind of guy where you would shake his hand and immediately start to check your wallet just to make sure he didn't steal it from you? Pencom had a load of 'em. That's the kind of person that was a great skeller; someone that could call into a company with a cold heart and smoothly begin to tell some fabricated story so that the unassuming party on the other line would begin coughing up names. At Pencom, we had a couple of recruiters who had MULTI-YEAR relationships with the people they would skell. I'm serious. People that they called year in and year out and proceeded to dupe them over and over again in the name of an org chart or a verbal update on the software engineers in their company.

Okay, enough of the banter and let's get to some examples of the Skells we would use. Now, please scroll above to find examples of some skells. Some are easy and some are rather detailed. Above are absolute true stories and examples that recruiters would use when calling Office Managers or even Software Engineers to get the names of all the IT people in their organization.

And for the record, I AM KNOWN TO BE A VERY POOR SKELLER :-)

Enjoy,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

How do Technical Recruiters Find Software Engineers???

2009-09-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

So,

You're a Software Engineer (or QA or Product Manager for that matter) and you're working one day at your office/cubicle and you get a call from a technical recruiter. The recruiter introduces himself/herself and starts doing a pitch. You're listening to the job but in the back of your mind you're thinking, "How did this person get ahold of me?". You ask them and you get a reply that is somewhat universal in our industry:

"Well, you have been in our database for quite sometime. I'm not exactly sure how you got in here but you were entered a few months back and I merely wanted to call up and introduce myself".

Okay? Entered into a database? Well, if you press, you can ask how you were entered into the database, the recruiter's reply will be, "Well, you were entered by our Research Department. There isn't a name associated with the entry. So, I can only say that it was by our Research Department and no one person in particular". By then, you kinda glaze over this reply and since you're busy and have a bunch of things to attend to, you don't inquire much beyond that. And with that, the call is over and you go back to work. Perhaps you give your email address and a relationship is started.

Well, how did you "really" get into that database? How did I (the recruiter) find out about you? How did we know you wrote Java or C++ or did QA? The answer to this question is very long and entails some storytelling about the old days of technical recruiting.

Computer programmers have been in demand since the '60s. However, its maturation as a profession and its growth as an industry really picked up in the '70s and '80s. Now, I'm not going to bore you with the prehistoric ways of recruiting back then. It's almost too far from reality and besides, I wasn't part of it. When I started in 1995, we had email and the internet but we didn't have Google, Facebook or Linkedin. So what did we do to find software engineers when there weren't the dynamic search engines or the social networking tools that are prevalent today?

Here are some ways how:

1. Technical Recruiters went to technology trade shows like OOPSLA (Object Oriented Programming Systems Language Applications), JavaOne, trade shows by Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft. At these shows, we would have hand-held tape recorders and would stand around in crowds while engineers walked by and speak into the recorder, "Doug Jones works at Sybase" or "Nimish Desai works at Microsoft". We would then call these engineers...Straight up "Cold Call" as they say in the business world.

2. In addition to the Trade Shows, some recruiter is always savvy enough to get the whole list of attendees that went to a particular trade show. If your agency was a sponsor and if you had the right contact and the right amount of chutzpah, you could get a list of all those engineers. And once you got the list, you start calling.

3. We would join user groups ourselves and visit the meetings...We would sponsor a meeting, sit out in front with a box of donuts and once again, collect names.

4. Identify software companies in the geography we were recruiting at and, at night time, call the company after hours and write down every name from the "dial by name directory".

5. The fifth way we found IT professionals is so unique and so dubious that it deserves a blog article all to its own. Trust me, it will shock you; especially when I describe in the detail that I intend to. I will write that in the next week or so.

Anyways, what do the above tactics get you? Well, it gets you a WHOLE BUNCH of names of random people in the IT industry. And once you get these names, you then need to start calling them. Many times, the people we'd call were office managers or sales people and once we found out, we would politely end the call and move on.

This whole process was what I have called "Shooting Fish in a Barrel"

What exactly does that mean? The general rule we lived by was to make enough phone calls to a broad group of contacts in the IT industry and from that effort, placements will happen for you as a recruiter. More specifically, if you call enough people (by this I mean an average of 50 outbound calls a day), you can't help but not run into the right people eventually! And hell, your pitch doesn't even have to be that great...It can't be horrible, mind you, it just merely has to be pretty good.

And in the old days, this was the creed that we lived by. You didn't have to be smart and you didn't have to be pretty. You just had to:

Make a million calls
Get a thousand resumes
Get a hundred interviews
Make ten placements

And that, everyone, is shooting fish in a barrel.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc

Exactly what is an "Awesome" candidate?

2009-08-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

Technical Recruiters are an interesting group. Sure, we help find jobs for software engineers and when it all comes together nicely, we come off with this angelic spin about how we're making the world such a more beautiful place to live. I mean, hey, we do the following:

1. We take an IT professional who is not happy in his current position and we get him/her more money, better technology, really smart people to work with and maybe even a shorter commute.
2. We help our client find the obscure talent that it needs so badly. The hiring, in turn, helps our client deliver on projects and make their customers happy, thereby helping them make more money and grow; hiring more people in the process.
3. Through #1 and 2, who knows what kind of intangible personal benefits are derived from this new connection. The additional money helps support a family. The additional hire helps a manager meet his quota for the quarter. Perhaps a software engineer meets his wife/husband at this new job?

Oh, just what would you guys do without us?

Well, when you peel away all this benevolence and goodwill, on a day to day basis, we recruiters are really nothing more than pimps. I'm serious. We're just pimps. I say that because the following sentence is something that we repeatedly say on a day to day basis. It strikes to the core of our profession and, depending on our reputation and experience, speaks to how well we know our craft. It is the following:

I HAVE THIS AWESOME CANDIDATE THAT WOULD BE PERFECT FOR THAT POSITION.

We're really proud of some of the engineers we represent. But, what is it that makes us say a candidate is "awesome"? To begin answering this, I'll tell you about a story of a software engineer I represented for a few years. Before I truly learned what an "awesome" candidate was, I would tell anybody and everybody about this candidate. Not knowing what I know now, I thought he was awesome.

He was a Java developer in the late '90s and he was just absolutely brilliant. He was Greek, double major of CS and Mathmatics. Through some connections, he was hired, out of college, at Ascend Communications and his title was "development apprentice under the CTO". In other words, this really sharp kid got to write code with Ascend's CTO all day. I mean, this kid was sharp and he earned the spot but what a great position to start out of college. So after a couple of years, he knew Java cold and since he was working at Ascend, he gained all this incredible server side, network protocol experience. I mean, he was an IQ monster and light years ahead of his time in experience. The Java experience was nice but it was the TCP/IP protocol experience that put him over the top.

Was he an "awesome" candidate? As it turns out, no, he wasn't.

Why? Because, the guy outgrew his salary levels almost immediately. By 2000, he was already looking for nothing less than 140k for fulltime positions and this was in Houston, Texas. What the heck can I, the recruiter, do with something like that? Additionally, he didn't want fulltime because he didn't like the idea of working variable hours for fixed pay. So, he preferred contract employment and his rates were extremely high.

My history with him was that I'd get him an interview and he would proceed to blow the interviewers out of the water so badly that they would come back to me and say, "Well, he's awesome but does he really even want to work here?". And then, this candidate would open up and start offering his incredibly high rates/salary demands and everyone would just walk. (Disclaimer, why would I submit a candiate when I knew the salary levels were too high? My clients had given me positions where they wanted to see "all comers" regardless of salary. They claimed they wanted the best of breed and to not worry about salary. I also would hope that my candidate would maybe fall in love with the company and come down 10-15k on salary). After having this happen for 3-4 times, I kinda started to realize that, as awesome as this candidate was, he wasn't helping my clients and we were both wasting each other's time.

So, this candidate wasn't an "awesome" candidate. He wasn't by far. I became good friends with him but in reality, over time, he grew into a totally useless candidate; a career consultant who never became a hiring manager that could use me and never referred me any business. Technologically and IQ, he was incredible. The value he brought to a recruiter? Nothing...

So over time, I finally learned what an "awesome" candidate is. Mind you, there are many different definitions of "awesome" and this profile is one of many. But just last week, I found a new candidate, through a referral and I think he's awesome. Here's a breakdown on him:

1. BS in Philosophy and worked the first five years as a teacher.
2. Took the pre-req courses for Computer Science and then got a MS in Computer Science.
3. First few years were spent as a Javascript/CSS Web Developer. Got really strong in JS but more importantly, gained a strong understanding of UI's and why they are so important in the software world.
4. Two years ago, moved into QA and is now this solid QA Engineer who still knows UI's really well. He does both backend test automation and UI testing as well.
5. Very personable guy that is a very good communicator; achieved through his years as a teacher.
6. Salary is 80k

So there you go:

12 years experience, excellent interpersonal skills, MS in Computer Science, strong Javascript UI web development and knows test automation/QA very well and is still at a very affordable price.

That, my folks, is an awesome candidate :-)

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Things Technical Recruiters do that Irritate Software Engineers

2009-08-12T18:17:00.001-07:00

Okay, so we'll flip the script on this post. Last post, it was things Software Engineers that irritated Recruiters. This time, what do we do that upset you guys (and gals).

1. WE ABRUPTLY CALL YOU AT WORK AND IMMEDIATELY LAUNCH INTO A PITCH ABOUT SOME JOB WE HAVE AVAILABLE...
Sorry but we sometimes lack manners and we're excited and under pressure to fill a spot. So, we call you up or even email you at your work account. I can understand how this sets you back and makes you feel uncomfortable. And if you happen to be in a bad mood that day and not in the mood to talk to people, you might be pretty rude in return. Understood...

2. WE BUG YOU NONSTOP TO SEND A RESUME AND WHEN YOU FINALLY DO, WE NEVER EVEN CALL YOU BACK.
Well, yes...This is not right. The best explanation for this is that we "thought" you would be a great match for a position but once we saw your resume and qualifications, we realized you weren't a match. However, we should call you up and let you know we don't have a match. It isn't professional to just drop out and not keep in touch...

3. WHEN WE QUALIFY YOU ON WHY YOU ARE LOOKING, YOU TELL US THAT YOUR COMPANY IS NOT DOING WELL. WHEN YOU TELL US THIS, WE START TO PILLAGE EVERY SINGLE EMPLOYEE IN YOUR COMPANY AND GET ALL OF THEIR RESUMES...
One time, back in the 90's, I had the resumes of 12 different software engineers at one company that was suppposedly having layoffs. Banter around the office was to the effect, "Oh, so you're working with Mark too?". Hey, we get excited and want to place everybody...Actions such as this can threaten the confidential nature of a job search...I don't recommend it, no matter how enticing it might be to a recruiter...

4. WE USE TRICKY AND DISHONEST WAYS TO UNCOVER ALL THE OTHER EMPLOYEES AT YOUR COMPANY.
I'll write a seperate post on this and explain what this is. The definition for this is called "skelling". It not nearly as prevalent as it once was but whenever a company has a directory of strong software engineers, we recruiters will do anything we can to find out the names of these engineers and once we do, we call them up and offer jobs to them. I'll provide details on this in a seperate post in a couple of weeks...

5. IF WE ARE REPRESENTING YOU ON AN OFFER, WE SAY THAT WE WILL ACT IN YOUR BEST INTERESTS BUT WE ACTUALLY COMPROMISE YOUR SALARY DEMANDS AND ACT ON BEHALF OF THE CLIENT.
Okay, so this is a biggie and I'm sorry to say, it is alive and well in our industry. For example, you tell your recruiter that you "really" want 100k but if the offer came in at 95k, you'd probably still take the job. With that information, there are some recruiters who will go back to the client and say, "Hey! you can get him for 95k so offer him 96k and he'll jump at it". It's not right but it certainly exists...I can offer more details on that as well if you like...

6. IF WE GET YOU AN INTERVIEW AND YOU DON'T DO WELL ON THE INTERVIEW, WE DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO CALL YOU BACK WITH THE FEEDBACK...
I'm sorry but this sort of stuff happens. There's no excuse for it. The one main remedy for this would be for you to continuously call us and leave messages and we'll eventually call you back or send you an email. The only justification for this action is that we are hustling to find the right candidate and perhaps we both understand that there isn't much value in discussing the obvious (that being you weren't selected to move forward in the interview process).

7. YOU WILL CALL US REPEATEDLY AND WE ARE AT OUR DESK AND SEE YOUR CALL BUT DON'T PICK UP THE PHONE...
Once again, no excuse for this action. In recruiters, you are dealing with people who sometimes aren't very mature and treat the almighty dollar as the #1 priority in their professional lives. So, maintaining relationships and offering customer service mean nothing if there is no direct monetary benefit attached. In other words, in recruiters, you're somtimes dealing with scumbags :-(

If you guys can think of any others, by all means let me know...Hey,we're human and in our efforts to make placements and make a living in this business, we sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. We forget our manners, we forget our ethics and we get too narrow in our focus. What does it take for us to wake up and correct ourselves? Just simply call us out on it and if we are made of good moral fiber, we'll straighten up and act right...

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Things Software Engineers do that irritate Technical Recruiters

2009-07-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

Before I start on this post, let me say that I'm not angry about anything. I chalk this up to improving the lines of communication between Software Engineers and Technical Recruiters. After all, almost all disagreements between two parties is the result of a lack of communication.

So, here goes. When these things happen, yeah, we get a little irritated...

1. YOU TELL US YOU'RE IN EXPERT IN A PARTICULAR LANGUAGE OR TECHNOLOGY BUT THEN YOU BOMB THE INTERVIEW.
A lot of technical recruiters are not technical, ie. we don't know the right technical questions to ask you to validate your expertise. So, we look at your resume and your job history and we then ask you directly, "How strong are you in Linux OS kernel programming?" "How well do you know .Net 3.0?" "How proficient are you in Javascript?" When you tell us that you are an "expert" in this area, you have got to mean a REAL EXPERT. Why? Because we go to our client and tell them that. We say, "Hey, this candidate, as far as we know, is an expert in Java or Python or Linux". So when you bomb, the recruiter bombs with you. Our reputation takes a hit and when that happens, we are all losers...So, if you are going to say you're a rock star in C++, hey man, you better mean it :-).

2. YOU DON'T TELL US WHAT OTHER COMPANIES YOU ARE INTERVIEWING AT.
On your end, I understand it's a privacy issue. But from the recruiter's end, it's nothing more than witholding information from us and in the big picture, that might hurt you. Why? Well, we might have some information on these other companies that may be of value to you, information that isn't a sales pitch from their employees. If you were interviewing at very strong, successful firms, we would say so. At least I would. If you put your trust in us and if you have a solid relationship with your recruiter, go ahead and divulge your other companies and you'll be pleasantly surprised at the feedback. At this stage, the more information, the better.

3. YOU WON'T TELL US YOUR CURRENT SALARY.
Like with #2, it's a matter of trust and witholding information. However, this is a bit more extreme than the one above. Ultimately, we have to share this information with the client and if you aren't willing to share this info, it tells me and the company that perhaps there is a red flag. This red flag might be you valuing the opportunity for money rather than more critical variables at play (technology, the role and the people behind the opportunity itself).

4. WE ASK YOU FOR A REFERRAL AND YOU SIMPLY DON'T KNOW ANYONE...
Okay, this is only a minor pet peeve but cmon', you don't know at least one sharp software engineer that I can talk to? Are you afraid that I would pitch them a multi-level marketing (MLM) program? In case you aren't sure how we introduce referrals, here's how I do it over email:

"Hey Rajiv, I was talking with Elron earlier today and asked him who is one of the top developers he knows and he mentioned your name. He also said you're a stand up guy and a great person to know and with that, I just wanted to reach out and introduce myself".

No sales pitch, no high pressure intro. Just a friendly introduction to stay connected when the time comes.

5. YOU TAKE A NEW JOB AND YOU WON'T TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE GOING?
Hey, I'm not going to raid your new company of all its employees. I'm not going to call the CEO and tell bad things about you. I only want to stay connected. With Linkedin, Facebook and Zoom, I'm going to track you down anyways so don't sweat it. I'm only looking to stay connected.

6. I PLACE YOU AT A FIRM AND SIX MONTHS LATER, YOU LEAVE BECAUSE YOU AREN'T HAPPY AND YOU NEVER TELL ME.
Do you know how much of a connection we made when we went through the hiring process? Do you remember that? Those were good times and perhaps things aren't working out now but dammit, come to me and tell me why. I placed you there so come to me and talk about it. Maybe I can bring it up to the manager and get things smoothed out? When you leave your company after a short period of time and you don't tell me, it means that perhaps you felt burned by me and that I might be to blame for what went wrong. Hey, I place engineers at companies and I hope they stay there a long time. When that doesn't happen, I am upset with myself more than anything and I want to find out what the solution is.

7. I CALL YOU UP TO INTRODUCE MYSELF AND YOU SAY THE FOLLOWING, "DON'T EVER CALL ME AGAIN AND REMOVE ME FROM YOUR DATABASE!!!"
Okay, with unemployment where it is and the very nature of our economy as a whole, do you really want to be removed from my database? I'm just reaching out and please remember, a strong, trusted recruiter is one of the best resources that a software engineer can have...Use us for a gauge on the current job market, current salaries and in general, a pulse on the hiring activity in your geography...We'll tell you anything and it's all free. So, please don't get all angry and ask us to remove you from our database...

8. YOU ACCEPT AN OFFER FROM MY CLIENT AND YOU THEN ACCEPT THEIR COUNTEROFFER...
I'm not going to go into detail on this one because I wrote a blog article on counteroffers a while back and here's the link: http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/2008/01/counter-offers.html

9. YOUR COMPANY IS ACTIVELY HIRING AND EVEN USING RECRUITERS BUT YOU DON'T TELL ME.

Hey man, this particular irritation is in the "Hook A Brother Up" department. You know I make my living as a recruiter. If you guys are hiring, let me know because I would like to help out and hey, I pay referral fees if I place someone. Don't worry, I won't become a millionaire off any of the placements but I will become a better recruiter and a more connected recruiter. And, in the long run, that only helps you even more.

So there you go...There's 9 irritations. I could have gone to 10 but I'm tired and besides, I was starting to get kinda nit picky. Remember, as a recruiter, I want my relations with my candidates to be as strong as possible. I want to be your trusted partner in change and my promise to you is that I will do everything in my power to present you with rock solid opportunities and when that right opportunity comes along, I'll help you negotiate the salary and the start date.

So work with me and my fellow recruiters, okay? If you have a trusted recruiter that you have known for a while and if any of the scenarios mentioned above presents themselves, help them out and don't leave them "irritated". Trust me, it will come back to you in spades...

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Do you remember when...

2009-07-13T18:40:00.001-07:00

In 1999, I emailed you about a dot.com that had just gotten their funding and they were looking to hire the absolute best of the best...They wanted young, sharp developers that had a CS degree and they were doing all this new, cutting edge J2EE stuff. You were working with Java at the time and knew OO technologies pretty well. You had only been with your company two years, however, and you felt good about the career track you were on. There was a chance you would be getting into Management. I was actually concerned about that but, whatever. I asked if we could keep in touch and you said, "Sure, no problem". You would have nailed this spot and being I was still kinda new to the recruiting profession, I was bummed over what was a slam dunk deal...You were that marketable.

In 2003, I emailed you about a Software Developer spot that was open...By then, you had been with your employer for 6 years and while you were kinda curious about the market, you were still pretty happy about things and decided that you weren't interested...We connected on Linkedin in case you changed jobs without me knowing. I don't blame you for not leaving because we were still in the midst of the dot.com bust. You made the right decision by staying put.

In Fall of 2004, we spoke about another Sr. Developer position that came up and once again, you were pretty happy and weren't interested...You would let me know if you knew anyone that would be interested...

In Summer of 2005, you did send in a resume but your total comp was 104k and you had 3 weeks vacation and you didn't want to compromise on any of those figures. Fair enough. No one should voluntarily give up nice benefits and $$$ when you don't have to. But that said, we interviewed with the company and they didn't want to move forward anyways. They felt that you were making too much money for the role...

We didn't talk in 2006 but we did catch up in 2007 and things were going well. Depending on how bonuses went, you were still around 105k. There was quite a bit of activity in the job market but nothing that was a good match for you. You emailed me in 2008 because a friend of yours was laid off from your company and you wanted to see if I had anything for him. I spoke with him and told him that I would do what I could but at the time, I didn't have anything that was a match for him. .

As for you and me, we never talked about it but somewhere in the history of our relationship, I realized that you weren't going to leave your company. You had a reasonable commute, the pay was good and the technology wasn't that bad. Nothing was great but everything was okay. You had the CS degree and you knew how to code well. You got married and started a family and with that, the paycheck and maintaining a sense of security became the #1 driving force in your career. Stability, at least at face value, started to become the driving force in your career. So, when opportunities came along, you didn't evaluate them as cutting edge technologies, smart people and a new venture. Perhaps I didn't stress enough that these are the things that keep you at the top of the food chain in the IT industry. And that sort of thing is critical in your profession. Instead, a new opportunity was seen as a change from your status quo. And when everything is going pretty good and you're happy and secure, why would you ever think about changing? In that context, I don't blame you.

Well,

I just heard from you last week. Your company had layoffs and unfortunately, you were affected. You get a one month severance which, for 13 years of tenure, is a big disappointment. Your salary is 105k plus bonuses and last year, you made 110k. You will get a resume to me by end of this week, possibly by tomorrow. You are now ready to look! After all these years, now is the time so hey, let's get this ball rolling. You're also checking with all your friends at their companies. It's been a while since you've been hard core programming and if anything, the past few years have been a mix of maintaining code and doing some project management. You noticed that I have a position open with a startup that is looking for an expert Java developer. You want to look into that position and even though your coding experience is rusty, you feel confident that you can ramp up pretty quickly. You want to get an interview with that company because you know you can nail that spot.

I want to take this time to say thanks for reaching out to me, remembering me and having confidence in my ability to get you a new job. We've known each other for over 10 years now and we finally have the chance to work together; to build on the trust and respect that comes with knowing one another for over a decade. If this painful experience of losing your job has taught you anything, it's the value that a recruiter like myself (or anyone else for that matter) can offer you at this time in your career; a critical moment where you need help in finding a job.

There is only one problem:

I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING FOR YOU...

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

What message do you want to send for an in-person interview?

2009-07-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

This is for the IT profession so before I talk about the impression you want to leave, let's remember the following:

For IT professionals and by IT, I mean Software Developers, QA, Systems/Network Administrators, nothing takes priority over having best of breed technical skills. If you nail the interview technically, the following things still wouldn't get in the way (granted there are always exceptions):

You could be really shy
You could be wearing clothes that don't match
You could be a late for the interview
You could even be a little smelly
You could be really nervous
You could say that you weren't even sure what the company does...

You could EVEN be a combination of everything mentioned above and if you nailed the interview technially, there's a good chance the company would STILL be interested in you and if they let you go, it would not be without serious thought...I mean, technical skills mean that much in interviews. I'm serious...

What is the only thing that will trump your technical skills? ARROGANCE...If you are arrogant in the interview process, no matter how strong you are technically, the company will pass. I don't mean cocky or self-absorbed. I'm talking about arrogance...Look up the definition again to remind you of how toxic a personality trait it is...

Okay, I got off track, sorry...Back to the reason for this post: What is the message, what do you want to convey on every interview?

Answer: It's three things. Remember, you don't say these three things! You must convey them and by that, I mean, when the interview is over, the interviewer(s) will say that you are these three things. So, we're talking about a very subtle and powerful form of communcation; nonverbal. Well, it's verbal because you're talking but you are not going to directly say these three things. Your words and actions collectively will lead others to believe that you are these three things. Get it?

And while they won't always make a difference in you getting The Job, it will contribute to a long term positive impression of you in whatever city/geography you're working in. Collectively, over time, your network of friends and associates will think very highly of you and will want to help you out when you look for a new job. They also will actively recruit you for new positions even when you aren't looking.

So here it is. When you interview onsite at a company and meet with hiring managers, here's what you want to convey:

1. You have a tremendous work ethic and you are known among your peers to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
2. You are a team player and people very much enjoy working with you.
3. You are a very quick learner and through some strong IQ, you are able to walk into companies where you can pick up on new technologies and adapt to new environments very easily.

If you can convey these three things, you're in the money...

Even if you don't get the job :-)

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

What is the Interview Prep?

2009-06-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

It is the most valuable service that a recruiter can offer you.

It is the background information you need before conducting a phone or onsite interview with a hiring manager. When a recruiter contacts you, he/she has a position available with a client, a company. This is obvious. You send in your resume because you are looking around and you match the requirements that were emailed to you. This is also obvious. The recruiter submits your resume and because you're a good match on paper, the hiring manager wants to talk with you. Like the previous statements, this too is expected.

But was is not expected and what can be a pleasant surprise is the extent to which your recruiter has worked with the hiring manager and knows what he/she will be looking for when they talk to you. This is critically valuable information and it's the greatest service that your recruiter can provide you.

Your recruiter will give you the requisite pep talk type stuff: Be professional at all times, answer the questions in prompt fashion, be familiar with the company and the background, etc. This is standard stuff and it's expected that a recruiter offer you this. As for myself, I don't even mention it because it's painfully obvious that these are things you should do.

What I try to offer is a brief overview of the hiring manager's personality and what to look for when trying to establish some kind of rapport with him/her. I'm a big fan of the following rule, "if someone likes you, they will enjoy working with you". Does this mean I'm asking you to get buddy-buddy, friends with the hiring manager? Of course not! That is actually a recipe for disaster. What I'm saying is that, as your recruiter, I'm going to do everything I can so you understand, from a personality standpoint, what the hiring manager is looking for. Now, you can never fake it but if you can answer the questions correctly, you show a good attitude and you present yourself in a manner that resonates strongly with the hiring manager, you're going to get that onsite interview. Remember, even if you answer the questions the right way and show a strong acumen for problem solving, the hiring manager might not want to move forward with you, simply because you aren't seen as the "right kind of candidate".

Ask your recruiter how long they have worked with the hiring manager? Ask them, point blank, what subtle characteristics the hiring manager is looking for. Ask the recruiter what "hidden requirements" does the job have. Actually, you shouldn't have to ask for these things; you're recruiter should offer them to you and this brings up another point. If this is a situation where your recruiter isn't able to speak with the hiring manager and it's the Account Manager that has the relationship, well, you're going into this phone screen somewhat of an unloaded gun. Because, it's the Account Manager that truly knows what the hiring manager is looking for, both in personality and professional requirements.

I'll cut this blog note short and for an addendum, please read the blog above on what to convey on in-person interviews.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Recent Developments in Austin's IT staffing scene

2009-06-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Something rare has happened to me from a staffing standpoint last week. It wasn't necessarily good news but it is certainly a sign of the times and an indication of how difficult things are for recruiters these days. So what happened?

A client of mine filled a spot on their own without the use of an agency.

As a reader of this blog, you're probably employed in the Information Technology industry and your first impression might be why this is such a big deal. I'll try to explain below.

Software companies have always had a challenge finding quality software engineers, QA Engineers and Product Managers. It's mostly because of how technically precise the requirements are for these positions. You must have knowledge of a particular programming language, be familiar with the operating system they use and probably have some experience with the the type of database they use. All combined, these things add up to what is called the "development environment". So, software companies look for candidates that have experience working in the same development environments as theirs. Obviously, this is not always the case but you get the point. And, this development environment experience is on top of all the traditional requirements that come with professional job openings: advanced education, stable job history, strong references.

Compounding this staffing problem is the fact that software companies often don't invest too much in Human Resources and Staffing infrastructures. To them, hiring is very much a reactive process and their first move is to either secure a couple of contingency firms or hire an onsite, contract recruiter. So, with everything I mentioned in the paragraph above and this lack of support for staffing, software companies often find themselves in a jam when needing to hire employees. And, this is often independent of whatever economy we're in. So, even in a very poor economy, software firms will continue to pay placement fees to staffing agencies when they help them find people.

This brings me to the interesting thing that happened to me last week:

I had a client of mine, a software company with one of the highest technical bar of engineers in Austin, hire two candidates on their own, without my help or the help of any other staffing agency. To me, this was an eye opener.

This company has such a tremendously high bar of hiring new talent that they practically always need to use headhunters to help them. Their aim is to hire nothing but geniuses and as we all know, those folks aren't just hanging around looking for jobs. Instead, they are busy leading projects at their current companies. Well, my client had one position open for 5 months and another position open for 3 months and despite my best efforts to deliver the highest qualified candidates, they found two other candidates better qualified than mine and made offers to them.
What does this tell me? It tells me a bunch of things:

1. Labor markets, in Austin and nationally, are in bad shape.
2. Even incredibly sharp people, ones that never really have to look for jobs, are becoming readily available for any opportunities that are out there.
3. Because of our poor economy, professionals (IT and other disciplines) are networking like never before. They are realizing that everyone is in this mess together and they are being true to their word that they will "keep their eyes open for their friends who are looking for jobs".

In the end, all of this is very healthy because labor markets are incredibly efficient right now and it' speaks to the following: "If a particular job is available in the market today and you are qualified for it, you will find it or it will find you. The only bummer for me (and all recruiters) is that sometimes we aren't part of this connection. The efficiency has ruled out a middleman who can generate a commission from the introduction of the job to the qualified candidate.

But hey, that's the nature of our business and part of the ups and downs that come with being an IT recruiter.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mailto:cellmhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Trading down in the IT industry

2009-05-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

So we're in this recession and "trading down" is a pretty frequently used term. Rich folks having garage sales is an example of trading down. A family walking on the mortgage and renting an apartment is trading down. Going from Nordstroms to Target? Well, you get the point.

In the IT industry, you can trade down as well. Here's one good example: You are a software engineer that is out of work and you say, "I'll just get a job as a QA Engineer".

Unfortunately, it doesn't work that easily.

The IT industry has had this unoffical yet widely acknowledged position hierarchy. From top to bottom, it goes something like this:

CTO
VP of Engineering (sometimes these top two are interchangeable)
Director of Engineering
Manager of Engineering/Development Manager/QA Director
Lead Software Engineer/Technical Architect
Software Developer
QA Engineer
Technical Support

Now, when you start to include other roles like DBA's, Data Architects, Build Engineers and Systems/Network Administrators, this hierarchy is not as vertical and simple as I make it appear. However, take notice how software developer sits on top of QA Engineer. Hisorically, software development has always been "higher on the totem pole" than Quality Assurance. This is a relationship that started back in the 80's and 90's and is woefully out of date today.

Why did it start back in the 80's and 90's? Where did we get this notion that software development was more important and held greater status than Quality Assurance? Well, I don't know the details but I'm guessing that 15-20 years ago software engineers knew complex programming methods like Object Oriented Design and QA Engineers were merely "button pushers", ie. manual testers. Automated Testing really hadn't made itself known and the relationship was such that Development would write code and then "chunk it over the fence" to QA; who then would beat it up. Remember folks, I'm not technical and I could be off on some of this but for the most part, I think this was the relationship between Development and QA.

This changed, however, and today, it's a totally different ballgame. Today, we have an entirely new definition of QA and it has evolved into its own art form, complete with its own vocabulary too. Automated testing frameworks that QA Engineers write themselves, web based testing using JSP and Javascript and QA Engineers that know C++ and write their own object oriented testing tools. Through this evolution, QA, in discipline, has grown to become just as important as software development to a company. Not everyone will agree with me on that but the leaders of this new generation of Quality Assurance will, as will their CTO's. Guys like Bret Pettichord, Tom Smith, Michael Tran and Mark Szygenda are every bit as critical to an Engineering department as their software development peers.

And, these guys will chuckle when they hear a software engineer break off the following comment, "Well, I'm having some trouble finding a Development position so I'm going to open myself up to being a QA Engineer!". Well, I hate to tell you the news but the QA brotherhood might not be too interested. They're too busy trying to find great QA Engineers; not software developers who think they can do QA. Salarywise, software developers still have the upper hand on QA Engineers. But with test automation being at such a premium and the skill continuing to be a shortage, this gap will only narrow.

As a recruiter, I will tell you this: Some of the most urgent needs my clients have ever had has been for top notch QA Engineers/Managers. And during this economic downturn, the one position I've still had openings for has been QA/Test Automation. Currently, I have a position open and my client says that it will be IMPOSSIBLE to find this person and that they are willing to do practically anything and pay any amount to get this candidate; mainly because it's currently causing major headaches for their deliverables in their Engineering department. They are paying a 25% fee for this candidate which, in Austin during this downturn, is incredibly rare. I am not having any luck finding this person...

What are they looking for?

A Sr. QA Engineer.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

I don't want to tell you what my salary is...

2009-05-13T19:54:00.001-07:00

That's fine but eventually it's something you're going to have to do. If not me, you're going to have to tell the company. What are the potential consequences? I'll try my best to share them.

I'm helping you look for new opportunities and I'm putting you in touch with my clients. These companies are going to interview you for positions that they have open and during that interview process, you and the company will be getting to know each other better. It's all part of the qualification process.

So, you're willing to talk about anything but you don't want to disclose your salary? They know the main reason for this is because the fear you are going to compromise yourself in the offer stage if/when you more serious with them. I respect your adherence to the age old theory that "less is more" in negotiations but there are some risks with this strategy. Here they are:

1. A perceived lack of trust.

If you aren't going to disclose your compensation, you simply aren't opening yourself up to the new company. No matter how you slice it, it's a trust issue and you don't trust them. Upon learning your salary, you aren't trusting them to make an offer comparable to what they would have made if they had not known your salary. And this lack of trust will appear early in the process (often after the first or second interview) and no matter how well you do on the first or second screen, there is already a small red flag that the company has about you. And trust me, they are talking about you on this.

2. Money is the #1 variable you are concerned about.

Hey, don't get me wrong. It is very important to get paid as much as possible for the work that you do. I'm not arguing with that. However, you first fall in love with the company, the technology and THEN you go for the money. It's not the other way around. For example, if you told a company, "I'll take this job for no less than 95k per year" without disclosing your salary or any compensation information to them, you're basically saying that you're a mercenary and only for the right price will you take this job. Now, there is some truth to that in salary negotiations. I mean, there are salary levels that you will or will not accept but that's much more understood and respected when you have actually told the company what you are making. If you don't say what you are currently making and set a price tag, you're basically telling the company, "Buy me". If the company has that perception of you, unless they are desperate, you won't be hopping on board.

3. You're expecting the new company to make up for past lost wages

So, you've been in the workforce for the past 5-10 years and although you're making good money, it's become clear that you are underpaid compared to your peers and the industry average. This happens and it's often a case of your skills outgrowing your salary bumps that you got at previous employers. This does happen in the industry and if it's happened to you, I'm sorry. However, I have news for you. It isn't the new company's responsibility to get you caught up in your wages and get you back to average or even above. If you are at 80k and your peers are making 95k, is it the new company's duty to give you a 15k raise in the offer? Why should they do that? After all, your CURRENT employer isn't going to do that. So, if the company offers you 87k, you're going to have a tough decision to make, especially if you are making it based solely on money.

These days, in such a shaky economy, it's standard in the job search for candidates to disclose their compensation. And if they are out of work, they have no problem taking a cut in pay. But every now and then, I get someone who recognizes great value in keeping this information confidential. I admire your intent to get that extra 2-3k more in your salary but let me finish with this: Using the strategy of not disclosing your salary to get a better offer most likely could result not only in no offer at all but also being eliminated in the 1st round of interviews. Prudent hiring managers (or recruiters) who smell this at the beginning will cut things off because they don't want to waste their time. They are already too busy with trying to hire smart, motivated employees who are excited by the work they are doing. And dealing with candidates who care only about the money don't fit into that equation.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

When the IT jobs come back, who will hire first???

2009-05-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

Answer:

Regional software consulting firms.

I say regional but it could also be Accenture (which is hiring in San Antonio now), IBM or HP. However, from a rate and service offering standpoint, regional software consulting firms have incredible flexibility and they can bend on their rates and the nature of their offering in order to win business and be profitable as well.

How might this play out? Well, when companies start realizing a substantial uptick in business, they are going to quickly realize that they need to hire additional resources. However, given that we just got hit with a very sudden and deep recession, they will have some trepidation about hiring fulltime workers. After all, it's very expensive to hire fulltime resources when there is a possibility that you might have to lay them off again in 6-12 months. So, to address this, they hire contractors and pay an hourly rate.

Who provides these contractors? Consulting firms and if it's IT, then it's software consulting firms. These consulting firms have already laid off some of their staff and that's unfortunate. However, they can turn right around and hire employees (sometimes the same ones they laid off) at an hourly rate and given this recession, the rates could even be lower than what they previously paying. So, if the client doesn't want to pay rates that they were paying one year ago, that's okay because the consulting firm isn't paying the previous rates either. Give or take a few bucks, the spread (hence the profit) stays the same! This is just Consulting Economics 101. It's very simple in theory and in practice.

Now, are consulting firms doing well right now? From my checks, no they aren't. I know a few of them here in Austin and as companies cancel projects, their consultants are the first to go. So, there is a dark cloud here. Consultants are the first hired but often, they can be the first fired. Unless the consultants possess some very critical technical knowledge that can't be lost, fulltime employees will take priority when it comes to keeping their job. So right now, as the labor markets continue to struggle, regional consulting firms are especially feeling the pain.

However, labor markets are a lagging indicator and the stock market is a leading indicator. To me, it feels fabricated but if there's any substance to this recent bull market rally, hiring could be 1-2 quarters away. And when that comes, consulting firms will be on the front lines. And if you want to be on the front lines too, start sending your resume to and making some contacts at these kind of firms. Some of my favorites include:

Optaros
Eureka Software
Blue Fish Development Group
Athens Group
ProAce
Avenue A Razaorfish
Schematic

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Two views on the Austin IT market: The positive version

2009-04-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

Note: if you want to read both versions, start with the negative version just below this post. I always like to get the bad news out of the way first...

Okay,

I got a few concerned replies from my last post because it came across as really depressing. Hey, I have to lay it on thick, ya know? We are in a recession and obviously, "doom and gloom" stories are thriving right now. And, if everyone else is going to have one, dammit, I'm going to have one too :-).

That said, I'd now like to offer why I think things might not be that bad after all. Don't get me wrong, things are worse than the time period from 01-03 and they are really dark right now. But, the point of my previous post was that I didn't think things were ever going to come back or, at the very least, they would come back differently from before. For every point, there's a counter point and I'll do my best to justify why my previous post could be wrong.

Regarding my words in the previous post, please note the following:

1. How do I, a technical recruiter, really know what valuation methods VC firms use to determine success or failure for their portfolio companies?

To answer this, let me start with a question: Does a software startup company have to go public and hit 50/share for it to be a success? My answer is "No". If, after receiving one or multiple rounds of funding, a software company is capable of generating its own revenue and building a strong brand name in its particular space then I call it a success. Have Renew Data, Lombardi Software, StoredIQ and Zilliant gone public? Have Initiate Systems or Acorn Systems gone public? The answer to all of these is "no". But does that mean they are failures? Of course not! At the very least, they could be labeled as "works in progress" and if that's so, I don't know of ANY software company with less than 150 employees that isn't a work in progress. So, the point here is: Have their been success stories, past and present? Of course, there have been several of them.

2. My previous post did not take into account that the Information Technology industry is made up of some very, very, very smart people who refuse to accept defeat and refuse to fail.

I mean, I can't even go into the proper detail on the IQ of some of these folks. They are young, smart, incredibly ambitious and intensely competitive. And in my life, I've never known people like this to fail. I've only known them to dream big and then execute on those dreams. They could be founders of software companies, they could be development managers at financial services firms or they could just be great, rock star software developers. In the IT world, they are our leaders and wherever they go, we follow. And while things are bad, they are thinking about new ideas and getting with their development teams to implement them.

What are these ideas? Well, they are things that our world needs. It could be business process automation software, it could be a new fixed income trading system or it could be a some new, cutting edge systems/network monitoring application. The ideas keep coming and with that, the work keeps coming.

3. Our economy is more global than ever and even if growth remains stagnant in the United States, what about emerging markets? Can High Tech service emerging markets?

I can't expand on this too much because I'm not an Economist or anything like that. But in this current global recession, I do hear that America is one of the strongest countries going right now. Moreover, I do know that our infrastructure is leaps and bounds above that of India, South America, Eastern Europe, and even China (although that is closing rapidly). Who will support the growth of these countries? The big rush right now is obviously commodities (steel, copper, oil) but what about technology? What about their needs in this space?

Are they are going to need software? Are they are going to need chips? Are they are going to need Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments, HP and Dell? I'm talking about growth prospects over the next 10-20 years. Some areas of these countries are nowhere near any position to invest heavily in IT. But one day, the need will come. And, I don't know what your political affiliation is but for a long time, Republicans have believed in "trickle down" economics. Whether you're a blue dog Democratic or a Republican, when it comes to large name Tech firms servicing these emerging markets, let's get that trickle going and let's make sure it flows all the way down to our major tech markets here in America: San Jose, Boston, Chicago and of course, Austin.

What are my true thoughts, long term? My honest answer?

I think we're going to be okay.

Yes, things might be different going forward but somewhere in this great country of ours, there are thousands of brilliant people thinking up new, fascinating ideas that are of true value to our economy. And you know what? They all involve software and technology. And, these ideas are being acted upon and implemented. It could be in San Jose, New York City or Atlanta, Georgia. It doesn't matter where. But, some brilliant, brilliant people are behind them and they're growing them right now and we don't even know it. And when we do find them, it will be in the form of new companies or new products within existing companies. We are going to apply for jobs at these companies, we are going to establish strategic alliances or we might even try to start up a viable competitor to them.

We don't know when this will happen and even when it does, it won't come in one magical moment. It will be gradual and we won't realize it until it's right in front of us. Until then, we get up every day and keep doing what we're doing. We keep our family and friends strong, we keep solid tabs on our finances and if we are spiritual, we pray for good things to happen.

And while we're taking care of ourselves, our leaders will be doing what they are meant to do; leading us out of this...

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Two Views on the Austin IT market: The negative version :-(

2009-04-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks for the delay in the latest post. I've been slacking lately but I hope to make it up with some pretty good posts going forward. For this post, I wanted to provide an outlook for Austin going forward. In total, I'm going to provide two outlooks: one positive and one negative. Let's get the negative one out of the way first and I'll follow up with the positive perspective in the next week or so...

As you know, it's very difficult out there. To put it bluntly, the job market stinks. I did a post for a QA Manager six weeks ago on Craigslist and I still get resumes from that. I know one software engineer; very sharp guy who has never had to look for a job. He's been out of work for close to six months now. He used to turn the phone off at work so recruiters wouldn't bother him. It's probably the other way around now. I've recently had three hiring managers, people I have received job orders for years from, take positions that are very much below their qualifications. These are just two examples of IT professionals who are either out of work or are taking jobs with big cuts in title, role and salary. And for now, they have no choice but to take these jobs because they have bills to pay. And, they have pride...

When will all of this end?

If you ask me, it's more like "when we will understand that things might not ever be the same?"

Austin's IT market (by this I mean software, hardware/semi, wireless, software consulting) appears to be turning out like a Boom and Bust kind of story. And, please note that all Boom/Bust stories end with a Bust. It never ends with the Boom :-(. Austin actually hasn't been known as an IT market for very long. Yes, we've had IBM, Texas Instruments and Motorola here for over 30 years. In fact, IBM did a lot of work on their particular flavor of Unix (AIX) here in the mid 80's. But, as far as Austin's "startup scene" is concerned, I really think its genesis was the late 80's/early 90's. And, I remember two events; two companies that burst on to the scene. To me, it was Tivoli and Trilogy. Tivoli was started up by some ex-IBMer's and I believe shortly thereafter, Trilogy was started up from some Stanford grads here in Austin. These two events played a big part in shaping the footprint for Austin's high tech startup market going forward. And as far as I'm concerned, both of these firms were very successful. Tivoli is now part of IBM and Trilogy, though nowhere near their past glory, is still rolling right along. And just as important as their success was the creation of countless other firms started up by defectors from these two companies.

So, throughout the mid to late 90's, there was this explosion of software startup companies, with nearly all of them looking to use the internet as a new age of doing business online. As you know, these were the dot.coms. I'm keeping this really simple because the point of my story isn't the technology at play but rather the business aspirations of these firms.

Anyways, despite all the dot.com's that popped up here in Austin, the success stories were few. We had Vignette but was that a success? In terms of riding the stock market bubble, it was a tremendous success but the fallout from that was terrible. Regarding Vignette, I was actually more impressed with their survival through '01 - present. Despite their crash, they were still able to endure and exist as a modest software company in their particular space. But other firms like Garden.com, Living.com, Agillion and Concero/PSW Technologies just evaporated. We did have some acquisitions of startups and a few others went public but by 2002, the IT economic landcape was barren...I remember it being a desert...

2003 was quiet but 2004 and 2005, Austin's IT market started picking back up again. Relative to the dot.com bubble, it was still very modest so we would be hesitant to say that things were good again. At best, we were cautiously optimistic. We had some acquisitions: Whole Security was bought by Symantec. Metreos was bought by Cisco Systems. Blue Coat bought Permeo, which might have represented the most successful acquisition from 04-08. Also, Performance Retail and 360 Commerce were bought by Oracle. And, we had companies either moving here from California (Borland) or opening satellite offices (Keynote, Google). The introduction of larger, more stable software companies brought a refreshing mix to what was normally a landscape made up of firms with less than 50 employees. The larger the company, the more stability to Austin's IT industry, right? Also, we can't forget about the strong emergence of interactive media plays. User experience consulting firms such as Avenue A Razorship and others made a big splash in Austin. In fact, that's probably been the biggest success story in Austin's IT re-emergence. So, we have certainly had some activity and some success.

Only when you look back to the Past can you see things so clearly. And looking back, once again things completely crashed. I'm talking about a time perioud between August of 2008 to March of 2009. 7 months. It seemed so gradual. First, some layoffs at one company and then the closing of another company and daily, weekly, monthly, it just kept adding up. In this time, we've had very established startups close down (Alterpoint, Blue Fish, Isochron) and those companies that didn't close down had layoffs, sometimes massive, scaling back to skeleton crews. Bigger, publicly held Tech firms, historically a protective cove from the economic storm, had some very deep cuts. IBM, Dell and BMC gave out pink slips to people that I NEVER thought would be laid off. And, most of them still can't find work. I wrote about it in an earlier post but the biggest and most alarming was the closing of Google's office. And just as scary as their closing was the speed for which they got out of town. This, after spending so much money on renovations of that new, swanky office. They're gone and they aren't coming back. And just today, I heard from a very reliable source that Cisco is planning layoffs in the next 1-2 months. So, the nightmare is here and even 8 months into it, I don't know where the bottom is. I'm not here to give opinion on "when" it might get better. I don't know when that's going to happen folks. What I wanted to do was ask something a little more discouraging:

Given we've now crashed two times in 7 years, do you see any reason why Austin's IT market would come back again? And by "coming back", I'm asking about software startup companies that are funded by venture capital firms and institutional investors. I mean, which VC firm is going to pour millions into new startups when so few succeeded and so many failed? High Tech continues to consolidate and like high tech industries from generations before (railroads, steel, electricity, automobiles), will software/hardware just be represented by these stable and stagnant firms; posting single digit growth and paying out a dividend for a stock that will never reach its previous heights? If you ask me, Microsoft already has, along with Intel, Texas Instruments and the PC firms Dell and HP. I guess that Google and Apple are our only hope? Who would these startups even have to aspire to? Go public and hit 40 bucks/share in two years? Are you kidding me???

The American ideal is to understand that we will persevere; we will carry on and move forward and through this, things will be better than they were before. And let us not forget that we live in one of the few bright spots in the entire United States; Austin, Texas. We're not in Michigan or Ohio where unoffical unemployment stands at close to 20%. Things could be worse. There are still over 90% of people here in Austin that are working and that is a very strong figure. The population that makes up our IT market is young, ambitious and highly educated in the business of software and the business of software. Collectively, we're an "idea factory".

But all this said, things are very dark right now. While not as acute and sudden, this crash has been more severe than in 2001. It's deeper and at current, is not stabilizing. We're going to be slow for a long time. And with that, thousands of the professionals that have made up Austin's IT market, including myself, may have to realize that the world we know and the world we've come to make a living in - the world of software startups, the publicly traded established companies, the wireless plays and the boutique consulting firms - may be changed forever.

And not for the better....

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

I can't tell you the name of my client until you send a resume

2009-03-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

I just emailed or called you to discuss a new opportunity that I have available here in Austin. You are polite enough to take my call and you listen to my brief presentation. I finish and pause for your reply and you ask, "What's the name of the company?".

I can't tell you. At least I can't until you send in a resume.

Here's the reason why:

My job opportunity is, at the very core, my income stream. I make my living through the commission I receive from the placements I make at my clients. When I get a new position in, I undergo the arduous process of phone calls and email to the appropriate target audience, ie. qualified candidates. For each spot, I usually call 20-30 people a day and the majority of them are "passively" looking, ie. not nor making a job search part of their daily routine. However, the candidates listen to me because they might have a referral or it might be a dream opportunity for them. In doing so, they will often ask me who the company is. And here is where I have to reply with the standard, "I'm sorry but I can't tell you the name of the client until you send in a resume".

It deals with networks and the flow of information. With Facebook, Linkedin and now Twitter, you can't even quantify how quickly information moves through networks. It moved quickly enough through phone and email and now it's even faster. That said, if I told 20 people a day the name of my client and the position and DIDN'T get a resume in, can you imagine how quickly my client's name would ultimately get to someone that knows the hiring manager at my client? Less than a week, if you ask me. And in that time, I would compromise not only my service offering but also my income. I wouldn't be a recruiter, I would merely be communicating very valuable information for free. And, that doesn't do any of us any good, except the two people who make the final connection.

So, don't take it personally if I don't tell you the name of the client. I understand and appreciate your curiosity and I can see how knowing the name of the client even helps with any potential referrals. However, my value add and my service to you, the candidate, is best earned and performed when you respect the confidential nature of my services.

Are you interested in the position? Great. Send me a resume and we'll talk :-)

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Lowering your salary requirements does not make you a more attractive candidate...

2009-03-14T12:47:00.001-07:00

Tough economy. A lot of people are out of work and they have great skills too. How can you differentiate yourself? What if you had lower salary requirements? What if you were cheaper to be had? I mean, the company gets a great resource and a chance to save some money. In a way, you'd be reflecting the whole economy in general: lower prices for the same quality service?

IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY...

Here is the way it's working right now: A lot of people are out of work and there are very few jobs available. So, a lot of people are applying for a handful of jobs. The person that interviews BEST for the opening is the one that will get the offer. Variables like offering lower pay, working as a contractor without benefits or any other creative angle isn't going to make the company more interested in you. It still comes down to how well you answer the technical questions and how much you impress everyone on the interview. If you nail all of this, then you will be the one that they take to the next level, which is salary negotiation.

And, despite this difficult economy, companies are still paying relatively attractive salaries. You're not going to get a 15% increase in pay and in fact, you're more likely going to get a lateral offer. But, you're joining a company that is strong enough to hire people at this time so the stability factor is high. And at this time, stability is what a lot of people are looking for.

I recently had a QA Engineer position open. I had submitted a lot of candidates and there was even one candidate who offered to work for 30/hr, which was a HUGE cut in pay for him. I finally submitted one candidate that did very well on the interview. Did my client make him an offer? No, not immediately. The wanted to take advantage of the large labor pool that is currently available and interview other candidates. Now, having gone through that entire pool, my client circled back and now wants to move forward with him. And, they chose him because he is the strongest technically and culturally. It was not a lower salary requirement that got him the job...

So, if you want to stand out on a job interview and if you want the best possible chance to get the job, nail the interview! Brush up on the company, the technology and have an A+ attitude going in. And by nail it, I mean 100%. After all, if the company wants you, they will want your 100% and that includes your salary :-).

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

The top lies told by Technical Recruiters...

2009-03-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm a recruiter and I have to confess, I've lied to candidates before. Not huge lies. Just little white lies but still, they are lies and I'm not alone. Every recruiter I know has lied to their candidates. Hopefully the context of the post below will better explain things. Yes, I have been guilty of some of these but hey, the root of it all is only because the work day was dragging on so long and I was too tired to fully explain my answer to your question.

Let's get to business. Here are a few of the lies we recruiters tell:

CANDIDATE: Am I the only person you are representing for this position?
THE LIE: Yes. I believe the client is talking with a couple of other candidates but I'm not representing them. You are the only person I'm working with on this opportunity. I couldn't find anyone else who matched up with this spot as well as you.
THE TRUTH: We're representing other candidates and if we aren't, we are trying are hardest to find other candidates. We want to flood the pipeline with as many qualified candidates as possible because we simply would not be at ease with just one candidate interview for one spot. If you are the leading candidate for the position, however, we will do what we can to ensure we get you to offer ahead of anyone else.

CANDIDATE: Is this company stable and will they be around for a long time, even in a difficult economy?
THE LIE: Yes, from what I know, the Executive Management of the company is rock solid and they have given the company their best effort to get this opportunity get off the ground. Now, nothing's ever guaranteed but I have to think you are in good shape for at least the next 18-24 months.
THE TRUTH: We really have no idea how strong the company and how stable the opportunity is. Granted, the strenth of a Venture Capital infusion and a known Executive Team (one that has delivered on previous startups) will make a difference. However, all we really see AT THAT TIME is a client doing just well enough to pay a placement fee in the event of a hire. We might have some reassurance from the CEO but for the most part, we're just going on faith.

CANDIDATE: I've been trying to reach you for a couple of days and haven't heard back from you. Can you please give me a status update on this position?
THE LIE: I'm sorry for being out of touch. I was out of town for a little bit and have been swamped with work since getting back. I haven't heard anything yet but I should have an update on your resume submittal in 1-2 days.
THE TRUTH: We never even sent your resume in to the client because you weren't a good enough match for the role. We thought so when we spoke on the phone but when you sent over your resume, we saw there was no match. And, we don't want to take the time to tell all of this to you on the phone. However, if you remain persistent, we will eventually take your call and tell you. I do, at least.

CANDIDATE: Do you have any contacts at this particular company (insert company name)?
THE LIE: Yes...As a matter of fact, I think I do. I think I know someone who can possibly get you an interview. I'll get your resume over there and I should have an update in a couple of days.
THE TRUTH: We don't have any contacts over there. If we did and if you were a great match for a position they had open, we would have called you about it already. That's not always 100% the case but for the most part it is. We want to get your resume over to the company before anyone else so that there is the remote chance we can make a fee off the deal.

And, one of the most famous lies of them all!!!

CANDIDATE: Enclosed is my resume. I ask that you do not send it anywhere without first talking to me about the company and the opportunity. I want to know where my resume is at all times.

THE LIE: No worries! Your resume will not leave my desk without first talking about the company and the role. You have my word on that.

THE TRUTH: If you are a great match for a position, a lot of times, recruiters will submit your resume immediately so we get the prior. The "prior" means we get the resume to the client before another agency and we get the commission if you are placed. It's a scummy thing to do and actually, just last week, I lost a candidate through this move. I qualified him and told him about the company. He said that he had never pursued the firm. I submit the resume and he is already in the company's system through an agency. This position is based in New York so this act is pretty common up there. They had pulled his resume off some old job board and submitted his resume without ever talking to him. How about that for ethics?

A lot of times, not much fuss is made of this. Very seldomly does the candidate call up the agency and tell them that they are scumbags. Why? Well, resolution is already delivered and as the old saying goes, it's never worth crying of spilled milk.

We also send your resume confidentially out to clients that we have a really close relationship with. Those extra close clients will get an email with your resume because it is understood and it doesn't go beyond the two of us. I would, however, consider this the benefit of working with a recruiter that is "plugged in" with top executives in town. Some of my closest candidates, the ones I've known for years, tell me to "just do it" and get them in front of CXO contacts. I try to oblige them whenever possible.

In closing, we're not being tricky or trying to manipulate people. IT professionals are way too smart for that. We're just trying to be as efficient as possible and cover as much ground in as short a period of time. We're here to find candidates for our clients. What do we do for you? We call you, we qualify you, prep you for any potential interviews. And if we get you an offer, we'll do our absolute best to get as much money as possible for you.

Unfortunately, we also lie to you.

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

What does the recruiter say about the candidate when he/she submits your resume?

2009-03-01T18:22:00.000-08:00

To answer that question, I don't really know. But, I know what I say when I submit your resume. You wanna know? Below are some REAL LIFE examples of what I have said about candidates when I've submitted their resume to the client.

Since I am submitting the resume, the majority of my comments are positive. I mean, I would not submit the resume of a candidate and speak badly of them. However, I do address sensitive issues, for example, nationality and communication skills. Don't be surprised by some of the words below. In some submittals, I have had to change names for confidentiality purposes...

Please read below!

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Here is a good looking QA Planner/Manager type. She has worked at some pretty good companies at least and has been a Manager/Lead for quite a while…Excellent communication skills…

Hey man, here’s that resume from the **** candidate. A letdown if you ask me. I have already emailed him asking what experience he has with QA and what, if any, experience he has with commercial software product deliverables, as opposed to services, which it appears to be what he is managing…I hate to say it but I think this guy is a false alarm. Thought he was great but am now ranking him below Ashara and Manjari…

I've know this candidate since '97 and he is a great programmer. No C# but very strong Java/C++. My only concern is the database knowledge. He's done plenty of work with databases but I don't know if there's enough depth for your requirements. But otherwise, he's rock solid. And great enterprise software product experience...

I am not as excited about this candidate as Tony but he does have a CS degree and he is a lead developer at his current company. He’s at 100k salary and claims to be proficient in server side development. I figured it best to send over and turn down than not send over at all. If interested, perhaps a phone screen first and if he passes that, do the coffee meeting.

The main reason I’m getting this candidate over is because he has a strong educational background. His development environment experience doesn’t seem to ideally match up with the opening so he might not be worth screening. But, he looks just good enough to get over. I haven’t done a full qualification on him yet but we are talking this afternoon to discuss your company further…

This candidate is someone I’m working with that gave me authorization to send his resume to Lombardi. Sharp guy, young (04 graduate from BYU) and impressive background already. He was doing C++ before C# so he isn’t a VB/ASP candidate moving into C# or anything like that. If interested, I can put you on the phone with him…Click Forensics is making arrangements to fly him in…

I have known this candidate for several years. His resume is nothing to scream over but as far as C++/C# is concerned, I don’t know of a better candidate looking in Austin right now. Just my .02. I’ve attached his resume, project summary (which is lacking detail) and a cover letter he wrote to me. Despite some of his titles, he is entirely 100% hands on and prefers it that way…Although he has recently been working as a consultant, he has extensive experience in commercial software product development.

Here is the resume of a good looking candidate. He lives in River Place so he’s convenient if you’d ever be interested in getting coffee with him. I was referred to him in very high regard. I am told that he was the one that makes everything click over there in his particular group. He’s a bit religious on the whole Agile thing but other than that, he’s a rock star…He has one bullet on there about an Automated Test Framework (which I bolded) that he developed so I almost want to pitch him the Junior Engineering Manager position…

Stop Gap Jobs - What are they and how do you treat them?

2009-02-25T07:36:00.001-08:00

To begin, what is a Stop-Gap job? I'm not using the most politically correct term and to be honest, I got the term off the British version of The Office. Everyone is all crazy about the US version of The Office but I'm a sucker for the original.

A Stop-Gap job is something you take because you are unemployed and you need some income. It's a job that, if gainfully employed, you would never accept. In the IT world, this is the definition of a Stop-Gap job:

1. You take the job because you don't have a job and need the work.
2. Technologically, you can do the work without being challenged. It's simple and not exciting to you.
3. The technology is not a "hot" skillset and it's something that doesn't enhance your portfolio of experience
4. Financially, it's a drop from what you used to make. At best, it's a lateral move in pay.
5. You are not able to learn anything from your co-workers. If anything, they all look up to you. Flattering stuff but once again, you won't gain anything from this.
6. The commute is a monster and something you would normally never consider.

Now, all the things I mentioned above are unfortunate circumstances. However, there is the BIG relief of having a job and having an income. I mean, nothing is worse than not having money coming in the household, especially when you have a family to provide for. This job takes a lot of pressure off you. As a result, you are now in a situation where you just have to "mark time".

Which begs the question, how long do you mark time for? How long do you stay at this job? Do you stay for an indeterminable period so that you don't look like a job hopper? Also, what about your integrity? I'm sure you don't want to burn this employer, who was so nice to give you this job when you were in a jam and needed the work? So, what do you do?

My answer is a controversial one and not everyone agrees with it:

You get the hell out of there as soon as possible.

Remember, you have to look after yourself and most importantly, as an IT professional, you must live by the following Golden Rule: To surround yourself with the most challenging technologies and the smartest people possible at all times. You can look at a sour economy and wonder what that can do to your career but the most damaging effect on you professionally is to not challenge yourself daily. If you were to fall behind in your skills, heck, you're going to get laid off in a good economy. And eventually, you won't even be able to get that Stop-Gap job that I'm talking about.

Yes, I'm getting a little carried away here but my point is that if you are not working on cutting edge technologies and working with smart people, you are simply damaging your own career and marketability and that is universal, regardless of what kind of economy we are in.

So, my advice: Take the Stop-Gap job. Do the best you can to stay excited and perform to the best of your abilities for your new employer. Make friends, build a good reputation and get everyone on your side. That way, when that new employer comes around and they offer the kind of work and people that you "truly" are qualified for, everyone will be supportive and understanding that it's time for you to leave again.

The only person that might be a little sour is the recruiter who placed you in that Stop-Gap job. We never like to refund our placement fees :-).

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

How does a recruiter "really" negotiate salaries for candidates?

2009-02-19T05:04:00.000-08:00

We tell you, the IT professional, that we will get you the highest salary possible and not one dime will be left on the table. By outsourcing the negotiations to us, you don't have to worry about the sometimes sticky issue of dealing with money. So, you leave it to us, the recruiter, to handle this. And in return, you get our pledge that we will get you the absolute highest salary that the company can pay.

Sounds nice but don't get too excited by this.

Remember, we work for the client and yes, we will take your very aggresive numbers to them and see what they say. But, there are two impressions that we don't want to give our client:

1. We are attempting to bid them up in an effort to get as high a fee as possible.
2. We are a proxy for a candidate who is merely in it for the money and the high salary is taking priority over everything else that is appealing about this position.

Remember, money is the last thing that is discussed in an offer. Before getting that taken care of, we have to make sure you enjoy the company, the technology, like the people you will be working with, can live with the commute and are happy with the role. If none of these things are in synch, money isn't going to make a difference in you being happy there. I mean, you might still take the job but this will be a short term fix, trust me.

Once everything is cleared up about the opportunity itself, it's my job to get you the most competitive offer my client can make. How do I know my client is making the most competitive offer? Well, they tell me and for the most part, I trust them. I make sure their top line figure is something that is indeed competitive in this marketplace. I feel out the client just to make sure they are being sincere about this and then I go back to the candidate and say, "This is the best they can do. So, their offer will be final at this amount". We might be able to negotiate a signing bonus or more stock options. However, for all the ambitions that come with getting a very attractive salary offer, a lot of times it just comes down to what the client can and can not do.

And, it's my job to find that figure out for you...

Thanks,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Arrogance and its consequences...

2009-02-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

I'm not writing this post because I was the recent victim of being in the presence of someone who was arrogant. I'm not angry about anything but I do want to write about this subject and for the longest time I couldn't because I needed a reason. Well, I finally got one. And since I write about Austin's IT market, I'm going to use a real example of how arrogance COMPLETELY RUINED a candidate's chance at getting an opportunity that he really, really wanted. Before I start, read again the last sentence I just wrote and think about that damage?

Okay, to first get started, let's define Arrogance. To do that, we take the definition of it and we really break it down. I'm not talking about being cocky. I've been around cocky people and they are pretty easy to handle. And to be honest, I kinda like someone who is young and has a cocky attitude. Life is going to beat them down over time anyways and if they are smart, you'll have a nicely developed young man/woman in 5-7 years. I'm also not talking about being self-absorbed. People who love to talk about themselves is whole different world from being arrogant.

What I'm talking about is an inherited, almost genetic sense that someone thinks he/she is steadfastly better than 99% of the population. They are smart, don't get me wrong. They often did well back in high school without even trying and talked about how college was a joke and how easy it was. They often could have gotten into medical school, law school or any other profession that requires an advanced education. But, they chose not to because it took a little more work than they would like to do. They love to win arguments by attacking the other party's position and use this as a testament to being a competitor. And, they don't really care about other people. I mean, they may show compassion but the most important thing for them is conveying what a brilliant, special, "one of a kind" individual they are.

What's the problem with all of this?

Well, no one wants to be around these people. And, no one wants to work with them, cooperate with them or be associated with them. Worst of all, no one wants to help them! Those who suffer from being arrogant often end up on an island, fighting a battle all by themselves. After all, when you are better than everyone else, who the hell can you partner up with? The only thing they look for is an adequate #2.

And, a lot of times, you're stuck with being arrogant for your entire life. And, that's just a shame because unless you go through some drastic personality change (which is possible) you're going to go through life with this terrible, dare I call it, disease.

Now, some arrogant people turn out to be losers but some do well. But, those who do well get nowhere near their full potential. And since I'm a recruiter, I define "potential" by "getting what they want in their careers and making the most of their abilities". They do well at their job but remember what I said about people not wanting to work with them?

SO, ON WITH THE REAL LIFE EXAMPLE:

So, we have Arrogance defined in real life above. I have a candidate I've known about since 2003. Very sharp guy. Has advanced degrees, knows software cold but has had the unfortunate career of having been at companies that have always struggled and his average tenure at each company here in Austin has been about 12 months. In 15 years of working here in Austin, he has worked, on average, about 12 months and NEVER, has he been happy in one of his roles. Imagine that! Has never really been happy once in any of his roles.

I've also had past problems with this candidate. He was walked out of one interview because he started talking badly about some of the employees that worked there. Said that because of their belief in a particular methodology, they would probably be difficult to work with. Hell, that could be true but I think it's a bit premature to say that in an interview. So, I've had my history with this guy. But, he's smart and good at what he does and he matched PERFECTLY a job that I had come open recently. Yes, I was seduced by his IQ and the fact that he nailed this position cold. So, I gave it another shot. I submitted him for the position. Here's the results:

1. After the first interview (a phone interview) with my candidate, client tells me that he is the leading candidate.
2. What are the Candidate's thoughts? Here you go: "Mark, this sounds like the first opportunity in my career that I would REALLY love. This sounds like the perfect position. I will get this job!"
3. Client sets up the onsite interview.
4. Client tells me that they are "really excited" about meeting candidate.
5. Candidate interviews onsite. Tells me the exact words, "If they don't want to hire me, they don't know what the hell they are looking for. I really want this job."
6. Client calls me up.
7. They are passing on my candidate.
8. Main reason: He came off as arrogant and we think we'd have a hard time working with him.

End of story! No second chances. Yes, he did very well on the technical portion but we just wouldn't enjoy working with this guy.

I'm not embellishing when I say this was my candidate's dream job. I mean, he really wanted it and he tried his absolute best to get this opportunity. We're talking the first time in 15 years, he really wanted something. And he didn't get it.

Why? Because of a little thing called Arrogance.

This is a true story...

Mark

I meet all the requirements for your opening and feel I would be an excellent match for this position!

2009-02-11T18:55:00.000-08:00

Well,

I ask that you don't take it personally if I disagree. The words above are very common right now in this economy. Candidates reach out to me with as much confidence as possible to introduce their technical skills and their relevant experience in hopes that it gets my attention. They tell me that they are a PERFECT match for my position. I'm going to tell you a very private secret in the Staffing industry. When you do that, it makes me AUTOMATICALLY think the opposite. When you tell us that you meet every requirement and are the perfect candidate for the job, we say, "prove it" and we don't compromise one iota on that.

Here are some areas where we get the disconnect. For an example, I'm going to use a position at a software company, say a Development Manager, which is actually something I have open right now:

1. The job requires a Computer Science degree or Electrical Engineering degree:

You have that. Okay cool. We have a match on that. But, you're matching a requirement that is an absolute necessity. If you don't have this requirement, we are getting off to a terrible start and I may have already moved on from your resume.

2. The job requires someone who can lead a team of Software Product Developers and you work for a semiconductor company or a consulting company:

Miss. Sorry, that's a big miss too. You're coming from a Hardware background or you are managing a team of software consultants. Or, you are managing a team of developers in Financial Services, building trading systems. My client is looking for someone that has led the deliverable of a software product.

3. The job requires a Development Manager and you are currently a Project Manager:

Big miss. Project Management is totally different from Development Management. If this is the case with you, there is no chance whatsoever you can get an interview for this spot.

4. You manage a team of developers but they are web developers or they aren't developing enterprise software products:

Miss. The client is looking for someone who has led the Deliverable of an enterprise software product. If you aren't overseeing this, no interview...

5. An unwritten requirement is that you manage/lead a team of developers at a company known in town as employing very smart people:

If you are at a company that is not recognized throughout the market of being made up of rock stars, then you aren't going to get an interview. In Austin and elsewhere, companies have reputations as to who has the best team of developers and qa engineers in town. If you aren't part of that crowd, you're not going to get an interview. That's almost condescending to say but I'm trying to be as brutally honest as possible.

6. The job requires someone who is a dynamic leader, able to get things done on time and deliver above and beyond expectations. Excellent communication skills and able to work and lead others in all environments:

You have this because you told me you have this. I can't doubt that. However, everyone tells me this. No one would tell me otherwise. So, there's no differentiation here and no chance to stand out. Are you going to tell me that you have poor communication skills, that you can not manage multiple releases, that you know nothing about offshore business models?

Other red flags:

Yes, you currently work at a software company for the past two years but before this, you worked at some state agencies and some companies where software isn't sold as a way of making money. If this is the case, you won't get an interview.

Yes, you work at software companies and even lots of startups. But, they were garage shops with names like "Hopscotch.com or Killer Bee Software or Panda Bear Software". Shops whose business models could not garner VC funding from high profile firms. And without that money from the VC firms, Panda Bear Software also didn't pull the Executive Management personnel that comes with that money. If this is the case, you probably won't get an interview.

I mentioned it briefly above but I'll say it again: You are a Development Manager but it simply is with Semiconductors, Financial Services, Energy, PC's (Dell). If you are any of that, more than likely you will not get an interview with a software company for a Development Manager position.

I don't like giving bad news by saying you aren't a fit for a job, especially in a difficult economy. But I can't compromise my service to my clients and let's face it, you wouldn't either. Please don't forget that my job is to fill my client's positions and not find people jobs. That very distinction means I spend more time telling people they aren't a match for a position than saying they are.

And either way, it's never personal...

Regards,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Product Manager, Program Manager, Project Manager: What's the difference?

2009-02-07T15:14:00.000-08:00

It's substantial and when I describe these differences, I'm speaking about the impression HR Managers, Recruiters and Hiring Managers have about these titles. It makes no sense for me to tell you the textbook definitions of these titles and what these people do. You can go to Google for that. My intent is to share with you the "very first thoughts" that run though my head when I see those titles on a resume. These titles have a lot to do with your marketability and your qualification for these kind of opportunities.

Let's get started on this:

1. Project Managers:

Compared to Product and Program Managers, the Project Manager is the most functional of the three. It's also the least marketable and least attractive of these titles. I'm not saying there's no value in being a Project Manager or they aren't important people. It's about the perception. Project Managers, as seen by recruiters and hiring managers, are those in charge of projects, people and systems with an end result geared towards streamlining internal business processes. The key word here is "internal". Be it cutting man hours on an industrial test automation framework, expediting a refund period for returned products or overhauling Customer Service, the Project Manager is the person in charge.

What's the problem with this? Well, internal projects do not generate profits for the company. Project Managers are focused on reducing costs and not generating revenue, ie. making money. Granted, there's always value in reducing expenses and Executive Management values that. However, the light always shines on those who bring the money in rather than those who try to minimize it going out. Project Managers, in a sense, are cost centers; their efforts help save money but they don't directly generate revenue. Also, their efforts and contributions are difficult to gauge strategically and often, are restricted to their individual departments. When layoffs come, Project Managers are often first to be found in the crosshairs.

2. Program Managers:

This is a little more difficult to explain but I'll give it a shot. Program Managers are broader and more strategic in scope than Project Managers. Program Managers often manage multiple projects as well as the Project Managers that run them. So, we spoke about Project Managers above and their departmental effect. Now, take multiple projects going on througout multiple departments, take their end results, quantify them through cost savings or revenue generation and you get the results of a Program Manager.

Program Managers will have a greater understanding of the strategic value of projects on corporations. They will have a greater ability to concurrently manage people and projects and while they might not have the functional, day to day process experience of a Project Manager, they will know "why" better than the Project Manager knows "how".

3. Product Managers:

The Product Manager, in my opinion, is the most critical employee in the company. And by companies, I'm talking about software companies 95% of the time, particularly those with less than 100 employees. Product Managers, traditionally speaking, are not found at consulting companies. They are not found at Financial firms, energy services firms, manufacturing companies or health care service organizations.

They are found at enterprise software companies and they are the person responsible for overseeing the deliverable of a software product to a customer. When a software company has to deliver a product to a customer in a fixed period of time, it's the Product Manager's job to ensure that the product is delivered, as promised, by a particular date and to specifications. He/She has their fingers deep into Engineering; deep enough to understand precisely the challenges that the software developers are facing. To execute on this, the Product Manager must have a very technical background and the foundation of this is, at the very least, a CIS degree. Most often, a CS or EE degree is a requirement.

Along with Engineering, the Product Manager has to be locked in with Marketing so that the proper message is delivered to the analysts and potential customers. The Product Manager ensures that Marketing has all the reasons "why" their product is better than the competition's and why you, the customer, needs it. And then, to cap it off, the Product Manager has a direct line to Executive Management and must be pinpoint accurate in communicating the expected release on the product.

So, Product Manager? You gotta be hard core technical, adept at Product Marketing and speak convincingly to Executive Management. In my opionion, he/she is the top dog in the organization...I coujld talk forever about Product Managers so I had to cut this short.

So there you go...These are three titles and their distinctions...

Thanks,

Mark Cunningham
Technical Recruiter
512-527-0408 work
512-699-5719 cell
mhc@texas.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhc
http://markcunningham91.blogspot.com/

Current state of the Austin IT market

2009-02-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

Folks,

It's pretty lean out there. There's a lot of ways to gauge this but I have a good way. In this current economy, I am getting lots of calls and emails from candidates looking for work. People I haven't heard from in a long time or people referred to me are calling me up and asking what I have available.

Folks: That is not a good sign and here's why.

When I talk to people who aren't familiar with the profession of recruiting/staffing and we talk about the current recession and layoffs, their first reply is often, "Man, this is great for you because you have all these people looking for jobs". Well, I wish it were like that but it isn't. As a recruiter, I don't really want people contacting me and "needing" me to get them jobs. Don't get me wrong, I do advertising and I post jobs to CL and Users Groups so candidates can reach out to me for jobs that I have available at the time. However, in the profession of Technical Recruiting, my core duty is to reach out to those who don't really need (or in some cases, even want) to talk with me.

These developers are gainfully employed and are best of breed in their profession and if they need a job, they have a network of former co-workers, bosses and even college friends that would hire them on the spot. They've never had to look for work and even if they have, the result has always been an offer, sometimes multiple offers from which they can choose the one to their liking. They use recruiters and they don't have a problem working with them. However, the only thing that will compel them to work with a recruiter is a very exciting job opportunity. And that's it. If you're lucky enough to find a job for them, the minute they accept the offer is the last time you'll speak with them for quite a while. It's a beautifully efficient process.

Now, I'm being a bit harsh on this and in reality, I've worked with some truly brilliant engineers who were referred to me and needed help in finding jobs. Great Software Engineers write great code for a living; they don't look for jobs for a living. And some of them enjoy working with a recruiter so that they can help out with salary negotiations, confirming interviews, prepping for interviews. There are a lot of services that we provide that are helpful. But in general, these engineers have no problem staying gainfully employed and their biggest threat is simply becoming bored at their current employer.

And these are the folks that I'm always trying to reach. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't want to help everyone. It's just this: I'm a Technical Recruiter and my job is the help fill my client's positions. Unfortunately, it's not to help people find jobs. To be honest, I don't really even know how to find jobs for people. I know how to fill them but I'm not too good at finding them. It's a subtle but still distinctive difference.

Sorry for the long winded explanation but therein lies the current state of Austin's (and the nation's) job market:

A lot of people looking for work and very few companies hiring.

Thanks,

Mark

How you, the candidate, should treat stock options...

2009-01-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

Treat them like exactly what they are, paper. Heck, they aren't even paper at this point. They are just out there and we hope that they materialize into something one day.

What can you ask about stock options offered?

If a company makes you an offer, you can ask them about the number of shares outstanding to the amount you are getting. There is nothing wrong with that. You can also ask about preferential shares. They may or may not offer this information. More than likely, they are going to stay firm on the number of shares granted. And if you are offered 15k shares, they might go to 20k shares but they aren't going to go to 50k shares.Stock options these days are merely icing.

Take the job for the following reasons:

1. Technology that you find exciting and challenging
2. People that you enjoy working with and can learn from; very smart people for that matter
3. You believe in the product/service offering of the company and you are genuinely excited about the work they are doing.
4. Money and the role are good.

As for stock options, if you can be assured that your grant is EQUIVALENT TO WHAT OTHER EMPLOYEES OF YOUR SAME RANK/TENURE RECEIVED IN THE PAST 6-12 MONTHS, then you are in good shape. Don't lose the deal and don't let all the goodwill built up through the interview process be ruined over disappointment about the stock options. Trust me, as far as the next five years is concerned, you're literally making a big deal out of nothing.

And that's exactly what stock options are worth until a bonafide acquisition goes through: NOTHING.

Thanks,

Mark

What are stock options worth on offers these days? (Part 1)

2009-01-26T15:09:00.001-08:00

Answer: Not much.

And, I'm not talking about stock options during this recession that we are in. I'm just talking about them over the past 4 years with startups here in Austin. Specifically, I'm talking about Pre-IPO stock options that are granted to you when you get an offer from a software startup company that is one day hoping to go public or get acquired.

I'm not some financial wiz who can provide specific details on this. I can only give you the landscape. Here goes:

In Austin, some of the more established software startups have outstanding shares between 30-70mm shares. And from those companies, you can expect equity grants (the shares given to you at the offer) between 10-50k shares. So, let's take an example of being given 30k shares with your offer. On the surface you're thinking, "Wow! 30k shares with my offer. Heck, if we can go public and hit 20 dollars/share, I've got 600k in 4 years".

Trust me, I hope that happens to you because I'd love to think I played a small part in making you rich. However, look at the numbers. More than likely, the company has 50mm outstanding shares. So, at a 20 dollar price, that's a valuation of 1BB dollars. That is either an incredible product or some incredible hype that has to happen over the next four years. And, I just don't see that kind of stuff happening again. I mean, it will happen again to some companies like Google. But, that's the only one I can think of right now.

Startup companies here in Austin have had to chug through a tough road to gaining independence from their Venture Capital firms. And, to their credit, a lot of them have gained independence and they now rely on their own revenues that they make from their product and respective consulting services. I think it's an amazing enough story that some of these Austin firms have come from an idea to a profitable deliverable in a time period of approximately five years. I love hearing about that. However, in doing so, they've had to go back to the VC firms to secure additional rounds of funding. And in doing so, they've had to pony up more shares and increase the total number of shares outstanding. And when that happens, relatively the shares you have lose value. After all, someone is giving the firm money and he/she wants their cut too and they have to be taken care of. This comes in the form of more shares being issued.

So, with the additional rounds, the number of outstanding shares has increased and the price tag for an acquisition has to increase proportionately in order for you to make the "big bucks" you were expecting. And, this is where you might encounter some disappointment. That company you have joined might not be worth 100mm in the market. After all, I haven't seen an acquisition like that in a long time and chances are, I won't anytime soon.

And even "when" the company is bought, there is now the issue of priority. Who gets their money first when the company is bought? That's called "preferential shares". Obviously, the VC's get their money first and a lot of times, it's the lion's share. After that, the people who do well are the Founders, Executive Management and then the earliest employees. So, if you are coming along in year 4 or 5, your piece of the pie won't be as significant as the earlier employees. Combining this with the realization that your company won't hit 100 dollars/share, you can see that you are not going to hit a homerun. Throwing a "strong" number out there, I'm seeing people make about 30-50k when their startup company is bought. This is deemed a "successful" play on a startup. 50k folks...

In 1996, I placed a kid as a Support Engineer at Vignette. As part of his offer, he received 5k shares. In 1999, he exercised 75% of them for a little over 100/share. Do the math. He made a cool 300k on the deal. What made that happen? The stock price of 100/share (actually 200/share when Vignette was all said and done with their brief, meteoric rise). God bless him. Unfortunately, I think all the money disappeared anyways because I placed him again in 2004 when he was out of work and needed a job badly. He took a 20k cut in pay from what he was making just a year earlier.

Here are some recent buyouts here in Austin:

WholeSecurity was bought by Symantec for 70mm in 2004 or 2005.

Metreos was bought by Cisco for 55-65mm, thereabouts in 2004.

Permeo was bought by Blue Coat systems but I forget how much. Permeo employees were granted Blue Coat stock options and inside 6 months of the acquisition, Blue Coat's stock went from 52 to 15/share. So, there was some hangover from that one. But, there were also some folks that made some $$$ on that deal.

To me, these are great deals. An Austin company was bought after being a startup. It's not a Vignette type deal but hey, it's still an acquisition where some money was made. Remember that Vignette came along in the dot.com period where there was a brief blip in history of excitement and emotions ruling the market and valuations going crazy. Some made out like bandits while others just saw paper. For the most part, that will never happen again.

Thanks,

Mark

An example that top tier talent is always in demand...

2009-01-18T19:44:00.000-08:00

We are in a very slow job market at the moment here in Austin. I know several sharp engineers that have now been without a job for 2-3 months. I know several software developers who have been sending their resumes out but can't seem to find a job. It's slow and my business has slowed.

However, there are candidates out there who are considering multiple opportunities and literally have the Austin job market at their beck and call. Companies are aggresively interviewing them and quickly making it towards the offer stage.

Why? They have advanced degrees from some of the top institutions in the country, they are incredibly smart, they know how to deliver software, they have built up small startup companies from scratch and they are connected here in town.

They are young (less than 35 years old) and just simply special.

Below is an actual email from a candidate who was recently part of an office closing here in Austin. I offered my services to him and his reply is below. He just started looking 3 days before this post was written and this is the activity he has already.

This is the kind of employment market that some IT professionals live in. All I can do is tip my hat to him. For confidentiality, I've had to take out the employer that closed down...

Please read below.

Mark

Hi Mark,Thanks for your note. ****** has offered me an extremely compelling relocation package, and while I very much want to stay in Austin, it's going to be very difficult for me to turn ****** offer down. As such, I've decided that I'm only going to consider executive engineering management positions in Austin. I've already gotten significant interest from two companies here, one for a VP role and the other for a CTO role, and I'm in early discussions with a few other places as well.If you do executive recruiting and are interested in discussing this further, I'm happy to talk to you. Let me know.

Thanks,
*******