Understanding How a Coach might help you By way of Greg Wilson I ran across a few of the Google Tech Talk "Coaching" series.
Among the many benefits Google offers it's employees (free lunches, fun work etc) is access to "career coaches" to help employee's reach the next level. So what you say.. how does this help me? Well as part of their program they invited several of their coaches to give presentations - which like most "tech talks" are recorded and made available to the rest of us.. (thanks Google!)
to see this series go to the tech talks page and add "coaching" to the list of search terms..
I've not watched all of these yet, but I CAN recommend a couple..
Coaching Series: Leading from Strength: Making a Difference
Coaching Series: Accomplishing More By Doing Less
and there is one presentation that will Help YOU improve your ability to communicate with those you interact with, the core of the coaching (and influencing) process.
Coaching Series: Impactful Communication
-- Which video do you like the best?
should we have a presentation like that for one of our meetings?
Have you worked with a coach before ? Can you tell us how that did or did not work?
Jonathan

Labels: career, employment, PACE

  ¶ Permanent Link to This Post 12:31 PM
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  Making the 360 review a tool for YOU

What if YOU could use the 360 degree review to help your own career.. rather than as a tool for your manager?

Jason pointed this out in his post today:

to Quote my favorite part..

Maybe you think you are a hotshot, CEO-type that excels in strategic planning and motivating the worker-bees.

And then you get your Reach 360 feedback and learn that most people think you are more reserved, very logical and detail oriented - perhaps you are better suited for a Project Management role right now.

Just knowing that empowers you to make a better decision for your career path, or can encourage you to get better training and mentoring to become that motivating CEO.

Of course, you can't build a career just with career management tools. You have to specialize in something. But if you are depending on your employer for your career planning, you're as bad off as depending on your mortgage lender for your home insurance. Their interests are not always aligned with yours. like the salary tools, job search tools, company research tools and networking tools.. these will all help, but its YOUR career, not your employer's.

Onwards and upwards..
Jonathan

Labels: career, employment, jobsearch, PACE

  Link ¶ Permanent Link to This Post 4:47 PM
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  State of Job Search Redux Back in August,
I did a comparison between a number of Job posting Search sites based on Keywords I would use if I were searching. IEEEUSA has one that I left out, the IEEEUSA Career Navigator.

Trying this one today, postings that match the keywords

• Analog IC design Mixed-Signal 1000+
• Analog IC design Mixed-Signal Verification 305
• Analog IC design Mixed-Signal Verilog-A 115
  

Ok, that LAST one matches "Verilog" as well as Verilog-A.

So what does this mean?

1. THIS search engine gives results quite in line with the others
2. Analog Mixed-Signal IC design is HOT.

I'll get back to #2 in a minute.

So This site finds all the same jobs the other ones do. Does it have features that would change my conclusion last time that Linked-In rocks? OK, linked in STILL rocks, but THIS site links to linked in (so you can can connect to someone you know there) , and to Payscale so you can research the pay. So, until linked in (which uses the same jobs data from simply hired) adds the link to payscale, I'll be recommending the IEEEUSA Career Navigatore. (Is Payscale better than the IEEEUSA Salary Service ? It does cover a wider range of industries, but with less refinement in Our specialty)

#2 doesn't help you much if you don't already have experience in this area. Education requirements tend to START at an MSEE from one of the handful of Institutions with STRONG Analog programs (Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, Georgia tech, Univ of Washington, UCLA, USC ...). Here is the TEST:

1. does your advisor have multiple, recent, ANALOG papers published in the JSSC or presented at ISSCC?
2. Has Their Advsior served on the SSCS ADCOM, or participated in the JSSC publication (review & critique of papers), or published an Analog Text Book?

OK, its a PRETTY closed community with High demand, but Many of my designer friends apparently DON'T ENJOY THE WORK. They keep talking about doing other things that would be more fun, and more profitable. Why? because MOST analog projects are Understaffed and behind schedule!!

Seems like there should be niche here for someone who PAYS WELL for Talent and experience, Keeps the work environment GREAT, and can develop the raw talent.

Labels: career, employment, hiring, IEEE, jobsearch

  Link ¶ Permanent Link to This Post 4:52 PM
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  On the State of Job Search Recent discussions about the dire shortage of technical experts on the part of the industry, which werefueled by the government's failure to pass the recent immigration bill, started a discussion on the IEEEUSA - CWPC corresponding members email list about how to get the message out about the OVERSUPPLY of engineering talent, and how to cut back on the "production" of new engineers by the Academic industry.

Not wanting to deal with this highly controversial issue lightly, I got to thinking about what economists would call a "lack of transparency" in the current engineering employment marketplace. Given the internet and "instantaneous" job search, the fact that many Scholarly papers (often with contact info) are accessible by way of Google scholar and IEEE xplore, why is it so difficult to connect the right (local?) talent with the right employers?

Does the IEEE need to do something different to help our members land those jobs that are out there? Is there some better way to address this need?

To satisfy a Side interest in the state of Analog HDL in the IC design process, and "test" the IEEE job site, I tried some of the Search engines to compare the number of jobs needing Analog HDL expertise, to the total number of (open) Jobs in Analog IC design.

I used some typical search terms that I would use If I were actually looking to see what is out there, "Analog IC Design Mixed-Signal".. to see the fractions of jobs that might require more of my expertise, I added "Verilog-A" or "verification" for a total of 3 searches on each site. (limited to the USA)

Here are the results: Analog IC Design Mixed-Signal +Verilog-A +verification

1. IEEE job site 2 0 2
2. Hotjobs 195 3 52
3. Linked-In (exclusive) 3 0 0
4. Linked-In - simplyhired 680 97 167
5. Monster 145 17 31
6. CareerBuilder 56 0 16
   

I think its a good sign when the description the recruiter provides matches a company you KNOW is trying to hire. And to that end, Linked-IN provides a really nice way to connect thru friends and friends of friends to the people who are hiring to do your homework first.

The IEEE job site? - maybe it works better for Academia, or the power industry outside of Silicon Valley, but it seems NO one in silicon valley is posting their jobs there, in the hope that someone like me will see it. (the 2 jobs that it found were both out of state for me).

If it were up to me, I'd kill it, and partner with Linked-In/simplyhired.
If I were really looking, I doubt I'd even update the resume I uploaded there many years ago.

An idea rattling around in my mind is that maybe we need Agents. Like the Actors in Hollywood. Rather than recruiters, who get paid, a good fee, once when someone walks in the door.. the agent would be paid by me, based on how much he could get for my services... a fixed percentage over the life of the contract, and he'd be negotiating for increases based on who else was interested in my work.

Of course this would start to entail product based accounting, IP-reuse residuals and all similar features of the film industry which by some stories, mainly feeds the accountants and lawyers.

The payment ratio between the stars and the extras is also too big.

Then I think to the number of recruiters who call me, and the number of my friends who DON'T get called, maybe we are already in a similar boat?
I used to hate getting picked last for softball games at recess.
If you want to connect with someone like me, don't call me and ask if I can help you find someone ("heh, heh, maybe even yourself!"). After all, I am not really an Agent. Either have the name of someone I respect who told you to call me, or better yet, skip the recruiter all-together, write me an email, and let me know why my expertise intrigued you.

A call from someone who knows of, and can fully appreciate prior work will get a lot more attention than a cold call from a recuiter.

If you are still looking for work. Take heart. There are many people hiring these days.
If you are hiring, maybe its time to take a chance on someone with the right skills, and a good attitude, but not quite perfect experience.

We'll leave actually improving the job market to another day.
- Jonathan

Labels: career, employment, jobsearch, recruiting

  ¶ Permanent Link to This Post 12:36 AM
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