Your packages are in capable hands! Dawson IT team gift wrapping at Barnes & Noble from 5-9 p.m. Wednesday, December 16.

Donations made for the gift wrapping will benefit the services of Employment For Seniors, a nonprofit referral organization which helps adults age 50+ find employment. Contributions will be used to help purchase computers for the organization’s volunteer career counselors to utilize when working with clients.

“The equipment we now use was donated to us seven years ago because it was too old. Needless to say, we’ve worked those machines till the life is almost gone,” said Dr. Carol A. Ventresca, executive director of EFS.

With a wide selection of books, videos, calendars and music as well as games and toys, Barnes & Noble has something for everyone on your holiday shopping list, said Catherine Reynolds, IT division manager, and the Dawson IT team is well qualified and up to the task of gift wrapping.

Recruiter Jessica Owens’ first job was gift wrapping packages at an upscale shop in Chicago. She specializes in crisp lines and precision paper alignment. “I’ve never met a ream of paper I couldn’t handle,” Owens said.

Jennifer De Tillio, another member of the team, is the master taper. “The secret is strategically placed adhesives at the folds,” she said. “But not too much, or otherwise the recipient will become frustrated while trying to open the gift.”

Reynolds is the resident bow expert who once won a blue ribbon in gift wrapping at the Franklin County Fair. “Peel and stick bows are for amateurs,” Reynolds said.

This is the second year that Dawson IT has gift wrapped for charity. Elizabeth Lupfer, senior manager of web technologies & interactive media, had her packages wrapped by the Dawson team last year.

“As a reformed sloppy gift wrapper, I never understood the meaning of a perfectly wrapped present until I saw the look of wonder on my daughter’s face last year,” Lupfer said. “They are an OCD person’s dream come true. And that’s precision detail you can find just anywhere!”

Dawson IT, a division of Dawson Resources, is a full service information technology search and staffing firm based in Columbus. Other capabilities include office, engineering and accounting/finance placements. More information about Employment For Seniors can be found at http://employseniors.org.

Follow Dawson IT on Twitter!  @CatRey @ITJobsColumbus @JenDT

For working candidates, you must review your pay stub and understand your deductions so that you can negotiate an offer that will meet your needs.

How terrible would it be to make a job change thinking you had received an eight percent raise, only to find out on your first paycheck that the increased cost of health insurance wiped out your gain?

And, in some cases, the net result of a lateral to small increase in compensation can actually increase your pay if your out-of-pocket benefits costs decrease.

For these reasons, I encourage you to take a Compensation Inventory before negotiating a new offer. To help, I have put together a few questions to ask in the main benefits categories:

Health Insurance

Find out:  What is the cost of your current health insurance? What is your deductible, copay, prescription costs? Are certain treatments that are important to you covered or not covered?

Health insurance coverage typically starts right away or the first of the month following hire. However, if there is a 90 day wait, you will have to make provisions for interim coverage. If you are currently working, perhaps you can negotiate a signing bonus to cover your COBRA payments.  Make sure when comparing costs that you are looking at pay frequency as well.  There is a difference in total cost for deductions from semi-monthly (24 pay periods/year) vs. biweekly (26 pay periods/year), for example.

Occasionally, I’ve had candidates inquire about coverage for specific treatments that are important to them. In these situations, the company HR person either provided me with the coverage detail or put the candidate in touch with their benefits administrator.  Sensitive questions of this nature should be asked only after an offer is made and before it is accepted.

Retirement Plan

Find out:  What is your current plan? Are your contributions matched? What is the vesting schedule?

You will want to find out eligibility requirements for your new retirement plan.  Sometimes you may have to wait up to 12 months to contribute to a new plan.  If this is the case, you may want to make arrangements to contribute to a traditional or Roth IRA in the interim.  If you are fortunate to go to a company with an immediate vesting schedule on employer contributions, this is like an extra boost to income. A three percent profit sharing contribution on a $60,000 income is $1,800. This is a terrific benefit with real value, especially if it vests quickly. Keep in mind that employee retirement plans have to be fair to all; a company cannot change it just for one person.

Paid Time Off

Find out: How is your PTO allocated currently? How many holidays do you have?

Some companies break PTO into specific categories of Vacation, Sick and Personal Leave.  Others combine it altogether into one category of Paid Time Off. Do some research to find out how much time you have off currently so that you can compare it to the new company.  A caveat:  some companies start all employees the same when it comes to PTO while there is room to negotiate with others. Some companies allow you to “buy” extra days of PTO.

Holidays typically aren’t negotiable as they are the same for all employees, but it is good to know which are observed. Most companies offer at least six standard holidays: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. If you are fortunate, you may get the day after Thanksgiving; and if you are really, really fortunate: MLK Day and/or Good Friday. If Columbus Day or Veteran’s Day is a vacation day for you, then you either work for a bank or the state and it’s unlikely you’ll get them off in your new job… unless you go to work for another bank. Or another state.

Bonuses & Overtime

Find out:  Did you receive a bonus last year? How much?

Some candidates tell me that they were eligible for a 10 percent bonus the year before, but they didn’t receive it due to market conditions. This isn’t really a strong point of negotiation.  Employers are more likely to be interested in W-2 of actual income earned. Don’t be surprised if you are ever asked to verify your past income in the form of your W-2. For a new position, you’ll want to know if there an annual or quarterly bonus.  If so, what are the criteria?  Was it given last year?

Regarding overtime, most professional positions are salaried exempt from it.  However, some consulting companies pay straight time for hours worked in excess of 40 per week. If you are going to work for a company like this, consider the opportunity for overtime income an additional incentive.

Dental, Vision, Life Insurance and Short & Long-Term Disability

Find out: Do you have these benefits currently?  What is the coverage and what is your cost?

You always can purchase these benefits separately, but it may be more cost effective in an employer plan. It is good to know if they are available.

Flexible Spending Account

The benefit of FSAs is that you can deduct medical, dental and vision related expenses pre-tax.   Without an FSA, there is no tax relief for these expenses.  In addition, you can save $1,500 in taxes for qualified childcare expenses if you are in a 30 percent tax bracket.  If you can use and manage your FSA, it’s more money in your pocket each month.

IN CONCLUSION

Chances are, if you are changing jobs, the benefits won’t align perfectly from one company to the next.

But not all career moves may be money motivated.  Smaller companies, for example, may not be able to offer the same level of benefits that more mature, established companies can offer. In these cases, the value in changing job comes from something other than what is found on a pay stub; perhaps it is the opportunity to build something new or to work in a more forward-thinking company culture.

No matter your reason, going through this exercise will prevent surprises and will give you the ability to negotiate on certain points that are important to you… monetarily or otherwise.

So get out that calculator and start crunching. Happy negotiating!

Well, yes… and no. It depends on the company and how critical their needs. Nine years of recruiting have taught me that December is a month of opportunity for both job seekers and employers.  Yes, scheduling interviews becomes more challenging amid the flurry of year-end deadlines and holiday parties. But winning companies keep an eye out for talent no matter what the season. Employers with essential business needs or those who want to stay ahead of their competition keep interviewing between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

Employers, too, sometimes assume it is impossible to hire after Thanksgiving. I have started hearing this as well:  “It is too difficult to interview and hire during the holidays.”

To those employers with real business needs to fill, do not be discouraged. Consider instead the following solutions:

• Develop a game plan. Determine ways to streamline your hiring process.  If your process normally takes three steps, coordinate schedules to combine your process to two.
• Know that the first three weeks after Thanksgiving are your most opportune times for interviews if you expect to make offers before Christmas.
• If your position is business critical, work with a trusted recruiting partner who can deliver qualified candidates ready and willing to make a change. (Hint, hint)
• Advance a candidate “up” or “down” through your process versus an approach of talking to six people over the course of a week, narrowing to two, and then offering to one. If the candidate you want is the first person you interviewed, he or she may have lost interest or found another opportunity along the way.
• Or instead, dedicate a day to first-round interviews. Pre-determine a second day within 48-72 hours for final interviews with your top candidates. And be prepared to make an offer within 24 hours.
• Many professionals have already scheduled time off between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  If you are planning to be in the office, this is a great time to schedule interviews without the demands of regular, non-holiday workweek activities.

“It’s too difficult to start new hires in December” – or – “This position isn’t budgeted until January” I’ve heard both of these statements this week as well!  Some solutions to consider:

• Timing is everything. If you encounter a great candidate, interview now and make an offer with a set start date in January.  In addition to meeting your constraints, this gives already employed job seekers a chance to continue with their holiday plans. Even unemployed candidates I’ve worked with have been surprisingly agreeable to January start dates.  They can relax and enjoy the holiday season more knowing their position is lined up.  And you have the benefit of starting 2010 with your new employee already in place. If you do set a January start date, make sure to communicate on a regular basis with your new hire.  Perhaps include a new hire in an office holiday party to make them feel included in your company.
• Remember the virtues of late December start dates, especially for benefits eligibility. Some health plans start on the 1^st of the month following hire, so starting a person in December would allow him  to enroll in health insurance January 1st.  If 401(k) eligibility is six months following date of hire with entry dates of January 1st and July 1st, a January 4th start date would require a person to wait a full year before she could contribute to the plan.

For job seekers, continue your openness and diligence to seeking out new opportunities. Now is the time to seize them.  Know that if companies are interviewing, they are serious about hiring.

Thanks for reading my blog and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We use the web to research companies and find candidates’ LinkedIn profiles, professional associations, blogs and resumes. But that’s not all we find. As information addicts, there’s something else you should know about us:

1)      We Google you

2)      We look you up on Facebook

3)      And sometimes, we search your email address

Why? Because if we can find your online footprint, so can our clients. And increasingly, they are. (Click here for a related article on this topic)  If you’ve had multiple interviews and haven’t gotten the job for mysterious reasons, it may be time to evaluate how you manage your online presence.

I’ve discovered people flipping the bird in their Facebook profile pics and Picasa albums of spring breaks gone wild. I’ve found an online personal for a candidate looking for “a secret affair.”  I’ve even stumbled upon a video of a contact getting high on pot with her friends.

Do I run an online search on every person I meet? No.  What do I do with this information? Usually nothing. Obviously, I choose not to represent persons involved illegal activities. Otherwise, if warranted, I may advise a candidate of a potential issue, such as an unprofessional Facebook profile photo or poor choice of email address.  I do this for his benefit so that he can put his best foot forward when interviewing.

Once, a recruiter friend of mine Googled the clever “prefix” of a candidate’s email address.  This was a common word with a unique spelling. Turns out, the prefix was his “anonymous” profile for lots of sites he frequented. My friend was able to view the comments he’d posted, comments about pictures and advertisements for illicit activities that would make even Anna Nicole blush. For this and other reasons, he decided not to represent this person.

Some would argue that work should be work and a person’s private life should be private. That’s all fine and good– except when it’s online, it isn’t private.  Why give an employer an opportunity to base a hiring decision on something other than your abilities?

So how should you manage your online footprint?

• First, go to a site such as Pipl, enter your name, and see what comes up. Edit, delete or lock down questionable content. If something was posted by a friend, ask them to delete or untag references to you.
• Use a professional email address for your job search:  yourname@emaildomain.com (And not your personal domain if your personal domain also hosts a web site with above mentioned content).
• Set your Facebook or MySpace profiles to private
• If you use Twitter, make sure that your tweets communicate a message you would feel comfortable with potential employers reviewing
• Use discretion when sharing Twitpics, Picasa photos and other media
• Develop your LinkedIn profile to build your reputation and highlight your accomplishments
• Start a blog to showcase your professional expertise

When in doubt about the appropriateness of content, ask your grandma. She will never steer you wrong.

SQL SERVER DBA

The ideal candidate is someone who is rising to the intermediate level in terms of skill set and experience level.  This could be a strong SQL developer/analyst looking to grow into the role of DBA.  Will perform administration, backups, tuning and optimization responsibilities.  Experience with MS SQL 2005/2008 in a production/development environment.  Prior experience interacting with users or in a client-facing environment is a plus. Direct Hire.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

Software development firm with unique niche seeking intermediate level developer to join their organization.  Skill set C#, VB, VC++ and SQL.  Knowledge of GIS/mapping is a plus. Prefer bachelor’s degree in computer science or related area of study. Awesome benefits including 4 weeks of PTO (including shut-down week between Christmas & New Years), 401(k) with immediate company vesting; casual and flexible work environment.  Direct Hire.

SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

Growing Columbus company hiring Senior Developer to support their growing business. This position requires technical expertise in C#/.Net architecture and 5+ years of full SDLC experience. Senior developers are responsible for architecture and design, leading projects and mentoring more junior developers on the team. This position also requires strong client facing and communication skills. Casual, family-oriented work environment. Direct Hire.

C#/.NET DEVELOPER

This position requires 3+ years of C#/.Net experience. Will work on project team supporting new development and ongoing enhancements in both web and client server applications. Experience with Sharepoint is helpful. Great place to continue your career development with opportunity for further advancement.  Direct Hire.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT SPECIALIST – multiple positions

Does social media geek you out? Our client is looking to hire technical support specialists with a passion for Internet technology. If you surf, Tweet or blog, this job could be for you. Requires excellent communication skills – written and verbal – and the desire to deliver exceptional customer service. Multiple shifts – 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd available. Direct Hire.

HELP DESK SUPPORT

Our long-time Dublin client has an immediate opening for a Level II Help Desk professional. In this role, you will provide functional support for various business applications.  Assist users in the more unique application incidents in business applications such as SAP and Lotus Notes 7.  Interface with the user community to discuss and support detailed functionality of a system.  This position requires 3+ years experience in a quality-focused oriented environment.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT (contract)

Desktop, PC and help desk support for enterprise.  3 month contract position with possible extension

DIRECTOR of MARKETING

Columbus software company looking for a proven individual to be director of marketing, responsible for planning, management, implementation of marketing programs. This is a hands-on role that also involves working with the sales team.  The ideal candidate has  3+ years experience in marketing software-as-a-service and 5+ years of overall marketing experience including development and execution.  Also desired is experience in PPC, SEO and email marketing campaigns. Bachelor’s degree in marketing or related field required. Direct Hire.

DIRECTOR of BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Our software client is looking for a motivated, proven sales and strategic account management professional to drive their growing partner channel and B2B sales. The goal of the Director of Business Development is to identify and build revenue generating partnerships.  Requirements include: 5+ years in sales with 3+ years in a software sales capacity. Experience with CRM also desired. Consultative sales approach. Direct Hire.

IN ADDITION… We are working on other searches for Agile leaders, Web Content Developers, SharePoint Developers, Flex Developers and Java Developers.

For prompt consideration, please send your resume in confidence by clicking here.

* * * * *

Visit  TechColumbus and TechLifeColumbus to stay in-the-know with Columbus area technology events!

"You don't get hurt running straight ahead...three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense. I will pound you and pound you until you quit."

With all due respect to the legend, conservative playcalling does not have a place in today’s changing job market. Accepting contract assignments can help you “move the chains” as you continue your drive for a full-time position. If I’m QB’ing the job search, I submit that there are five things that can happen when you accept a contract position, and only one of them is bad.  Here are the good: 

1) You can gain new experiences while continuing to seek a longer term position. Perhaps you worked in your last job for 10 years. A contract position may give you the chance to experience a different industry or utilize your existing skills while gaining new ones. Yes, a contract may be less of a role than you had before, but there is value in gaining new experiences, which you can leverage as you continue your job search.  

2) Income is a good thing - We all know this is important. Contract income can make your mortgage payment, buy groceries and pay your gas bill. At this time of year, a three-month contract assignment gets you through the holidays. And, if you were so fortunate, it can allow you to pocket more of that severence. 

3) You are more marketable to employers while you look and you will have more options.  If you are working on a contract, let’s face it:  You can be more selective about the positions you will consider.  If you’re not working, and your unemployment runs out, you may feel compelled to take a position for less pay or responsibility.  If you are earning a good rate on your contract, you can use this to your advantage in salary negotiations.  You are negotiating from a position of strength vs. weakness.

Some assert that they feel their career will be tainted by having contract positions on their resumes. But for career-minded professionals, contract assignments between full-time positions do not hold the stigma they once did. On a resume, which looks worse? Taking a contract position and holding out for the ideal direct hire job? Or accepting a less than desirable “permanent” position and then jumping to a more desirable direct hire position six months later when the market improves?  Clearly, the former is more justifiable than the latter.

4) You may get hired full-time. Many companies give first preference to their contract resources. And, why not? Consultants are proven, known commodities. If you have approached the opportunity correctly, you have displayed good work habits, you know the systems and you’ve learned the business. 

I’ll close with a real story. A few years ago, we placed a candidate who had been downsized from a big corporation in what was supposed to be just an eight-week contract assignment.  Two other people, also unemployed, turned down the opportunity because they felt it was too short-term. Our candidate had been a manager in his previous position and he was way overqualified for the project coordinator role. But he wanted to work and keep more of his severance, so he accepted the position. In the course of completing the project, he demonstrated his value in such a way that the company actually created an IT Director position for him where there was no position before. And they offered him a salary comparable to his former role at the large company. He is still there today.

I hope I’ve given you some good reasons to consider contract opportunities. After all, it was Woody who also said, “Success – It’s what you do with what you’ve got!”

Click Here for more quotes from Woody Hayes!

In this role, you will will provide functional support for various business applications.  Assist users in the more unique application incidents in business applications such as SAP and Lotus Notes 7.  Interface with the user community to discuss and support detailed functionality of a system. 

 This position requires:

• Previous experience in a customer focused, process centered environment.
• 3+ years experience providing application or end user support, with an emphasis on technical support. 
• Excellent problem solving and analytical skills.  Excellent organizational and time management skills, the ability to multi-task and prioritize is a must.   
• Experience using Call Tracking/Incident Management tools is a plus.  
• Proficiency providing support on various applications such as Lotus Notes, SAP, VPN, Microsoft Office, etc.  
• Outstanding interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills. 

In addition to a competitive hourly rate, we offer medical, dental, vision, life insurance benefits as well as PTO and holiday pay.  For prompt consideration, please click here to send your resume.

My Columbus-based client is hiring technical support specialists who have a passion for social media such as blogging, Twitter or related interests.  In this capacity, you will deliver exceptional technical support experiences to clients of an international Internet company.  Interaction with clients will take place via phone, email and online chat.

The ideal profile is someone who:

• May have set up a web site for personal use or for another business
• Possesses excellent communication skills and customer service abilities
• Has a basic understanding of CSS, HTML, PHP or willingness and ability to learn

Other essential traits include:

• Accountability, enthusiasm, punctuality

In the course of interviewing, candidates may be asked to create a blog or provide samples of work already created.

This is a full-time, direct hire, 40 hour/week position. It is a fantastic entry-level opportunity for potential new grads or people interested in merging their blogging hobby with related work, or for tech savvy people interested in moving to technology careers.

For prompt consideration, please click here to send your resume to us in confidence.  Potential shifts include first, second or third. Depending on your shift, some weekends may be required on occasion. Individual preferences will be taken into consideration, so please indicate your work preferences when sending your resume.

**First interviews with the client will be conducted Thursday, October 8th.**

**Interested candidates must meet with Dawson recruiting professionals for screening interviews prior to this date.**

Sending Resumes to a Client

1999:  At my firm in Houston, we used white adhesive blinding tape to mask out candidate contact information. We applied an adhesive mailing label with our contact information in the top right corner. I went through rolls and rolls of that blinding tape. For the first few months of 1999, I distinctly remember standing in line at the fax machine to send resumes with fax cover sheets to employers. By that summer, we had all ditched the fax machine and made the transition to email presentations.

2009: Now, I am back home recruiting IT professionals in the Columbus, Ohio market. No more blinding tape, though I think there are still some rolls in our back cabinet and no one knows what it is used for. Email is still widely used to send resumes to employers. However, sometimes resumes are submitted through applicant tracking portals and vendor management software.

How Positions are Advertised

1999:  The Sunday classifieds were our main source for leads on companies who were hiring. On Monday morning, you wanted to be the first one into the office to get a jump start on the 30 other recruiters in our office alone who would be calling on those same ads. We also posted employment advertising in the Houston Chronicle. That year, the emergence of Monster.com and Headhunter.net changed recruiting dramatically as companies started posting their positions online.

2009: Today, the glory days of the Sunday classified job ads are long gone. Does anyone actually read them? And even traditional job boards such as Monster.com and CareerBuilder are not the only games in town. Aggregate sites such as SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com pull positions from a variety of sources, including the Big Boards, but also more niche sites. Companies also use social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter to promote their positions. But even though the fine print of most ads still reads, “No Third Party Recruiters,” we still call because third party recruiters are trained to view an ad as “a cry for help.”

Recruiting Candidates

1999: The Top Secret Book. This is one of my favorite stories. When Dot Coms were still “booming,” my recruiting firm shelled out Big Bucks for a set of 5″ three-ring binders containing complete org charts of the largest companies in Houston. Think Enron. Dynegy. Compaq. And many others who shall remain nameless. The purpose of these binders was to give us names of people to call and attempt to recruit. These Top Secret Binders were to be handled with the utmost of care and precaution. We could never photocopy them or take them off the premises. We were strictly instructed never to speak of them to those outside the firm. If questioned, we were to deny their existence. If someone asked, “How did you get my name?” well, that was classified.

2009: For stealthy recruiters everywhere, the “How did you get my name?” question is still almost always classified. But chances are we viewed a LinkedIn profile, or found someone in a ZoomInfo directory, or read a candidate’s blog.  Today, all of this information is abundantly and openly available on the Internet. Enter a name in the Company tab on LinkedIn, for example, and it’s all right there. New employees, former employees, promotions. No secrecy. It’s open. You can access it from anywhere. And for the most part, it’s free.

Yes, a lot has changed in recruiting over the last 10 years. As a recruiter, I have had to adapt to new tools and technology to do my job more efficiently and effectively. However, one thing has remained constant. It’s not just knowing the name of a hiring manager or having the resume of a great PowerBuilder/PFC developer with your adhesive sticker in the top corner. It’s the relationship. It’s always been the relationship. And as long as that relationship is valued, recruiting is here to stay… at least for the next 10 years.