Have you seen IT hiring from federal stimulus?

o you have an IT position in a company that has received federal stimulus dollars? I'd love to hear from you.

The reason I'm wondering is the recent report in Infoworld that only 21 IT jobs have been created or saved through $26 million in federal spending at technology companies nationwide. I waded through a bit of the data at recovery.gov to see if I could follow the money, but it would take days to recreate the trail.

So, I'm thinking I'd rather hear the stories from you.

• Did your company receive stimulus dollars and hire (or not lay off) IT employees? 
• Did you get new hardware instead? 
• Is your company one of those in line for funds but still waiting?
• Does this Infoworld article reflect your experience? 
• What's really happening out there? 

Geek gadgets galore

f you're still recovering from Thanksgiving and you managed to avoid Black Friday, maybe it's time for some shopping for your favorite geek or for your own wish list.

Take a peek at Infoworld's 2009 Geek Gadget Gift Guide. I'm pretty sure that Acer tablet is going to be on my list!

Is your target company stock forecast to yield 30% in coming year?

If you have any cash left after today's Black Friday shopping spree, here's something to consider. Find out if your target company (or those in your mutual fund) is among those named in The Wall Street Transcript's  new publication, TWST Investing Strategies Report, released today and offering a review of the IT Services sector.

The Wall Street Transcript provides commentary and insight for investors and researchers through verbatim interviews with CEOs and research analysts. This Report contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts, and Money Managers. It's pricey at $175, but director and C-level job seekers may find the perspective on the industry valuable. Please note that neither TWST.com nor I provide investment advice.

You can read an excerpt of one conversation with Alexander J. Roepers, President and Portfolio Manager of Atlantic Investment Management, Inc. AIM is a $1.5 billion global Registered Investment Advisor, with offices in New York and Tokyo.

The remainder of this 55 page TWST Investing Strategies Report can be immediately viewed by purchasing online. or by calling (212) 952-743.

Just for today, give thankfulness a try

If you're in the middle of a long and difficult job search, or if you're hanging on to a job you hate, it's hard to want to be thankful.

Try it anyway, just for today.

One of the paths to thankfulness is empathy. Try this on:

• Your boss is the biggest jerk you've ever met. There's a saying among my HR pals: People never leave jobs; they leave supervisors. Know that you have plenty of company. Know that many supervisors and managers have never been trained for that role. They were simply the best (or worst) at their last job, so someone in their great wisdom made them a manager. They may be at least as frustrated as you are.  Just for today, decide that you aren't the victim, but they are.

Try thinking about what you'd be thankful for if this awful thing hadn't happened:

• You were laid off six months ago, and you've been looking for a job ever since. I mean really looking. Your family is depending on you; your mortgage is depending on you; your retirement is depending on you. This is the most stress you've ever felt, and it's feeling heavier every day. Just for today, think of something other than your anxiety and responsibilities. If you are able to enjoy a nice meal with loved ones, feel the joy they bring. If you are healthy enough to go outside and throw a football around, feel your body move and your breath fill you with life. If you still have your home, notice how it surrounds you with warmth and safety.
  

Try being thankful for the good things that will happen soon:

• Every cycle has a beginning and end. A project has a lifecycle. Good things end. Bad things end. Just for today, think ahead to the way your life will be when this crisis has ended. Leave the worries behind, just for today. Think about the new job you will have and how it will feel to shake your new employer's hand as you accept their generous offer. Imagine your excitement as you walk to your desk on your first day. Think of your thankfulness when you start your first project. Spend a day there instead of worrying about what isn't happening.
  

All of these are steps along the way to gratitude, which is different from thankfulness, my friend and transformational consultant Jodee Bock said yesterday. She is absolutely right. Thankfulness is a response to a specific event. I am thankful that my pecan pie turned out. I am thankful that my husband vacuumed and dusted yesterday.

Gratitude, on the other hand, is the state of being. If I live in gratitude, my life looks and feels different. When I look for things to be thankful for, I begin to feel constant gratitude. When I am grateful, my life attracts more good for which to be thankful. Look at that, another cycle.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Align your life with your values

My friends and family tease me about being the most organized person on the planet. I have honed Outlook to a fine science. I carry my to-do and calendar with me in my smartphone. Technology is my friend. I generally get where I am supposed to be on time and with the materials I need. (OK, there was that one meeting...).

I have been humbled, and I'm really excited about connecting my organizational skills to the core of my life, reducing stress and being more inspired, productive, and proactive. I spent all weekend at a seminar named LifeWoRx by Design led by Don Cote and sponsored by my friend Jodee Bock from Bock's Office Transformational Consulting.

The take-home was the continuing process of connecting my core values to my everyday actions. I was good at making my list, prioritizing and getting things done. I had connected those actions to the needs of my business, clients, and myself. What I hadn't done was to take that big step back and define what was important in my life now.

Don's program is based on Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. If you haven't read this book, click on the title and order it now. Then, take Don's course. Think and Grow Rich outlines the process of setting goals based on our values and true desires. LifeWoRx by Design takes it further. Don calls it paint-by-numbers Think and Grow Rich. He's right.

In the three days since the seminar, I have further clarified my values and goals, taken steps toward reaching them, connected them to my everyday commitments and actions, and understood more about how to keep doing that.

That's the real secret. Everyone has come home and shelved the three-ring binder or stayed excited until the reality of another work week squeezed it out of you. This seminar shows you how to keep using the process. Don has made the inspiration and commitments difficult to abandon and impossible to forget.

Who's hiring techs

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 11/23/09.

Total Job Openings
Business Services remain among the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards. SAIC, IBM, Accenture, and CSC Deloitte continue to be in the top hiring firms, partiallysupporting federal government and DOD contracts. Raytheon was among firms leading defense hiring.

Total Job Openings by direct advertisers (Recruiters and Staffing Companies not included):

SAIC
AT&T
Raytheon
IBM
Accenture
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
Sun Microsystems
Verizon Wireless
Quest Diagnostics

Job Openings Added This Week
Telecommunications was among the top industries with new job ads based on a survey of recent advertisements from the nations’ top job boards added during the past seven days.

Defense continued heavy hiring with Raytheon included in the top new employment advertisers this week. Consulting firms companies continue to expand with SAIC, Accenture, and IBM as top hiring business service firms.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters and Staffing Companies not included):

AT&T
SAIC
Raytheon
RadioShack
Accenture (Corp.)
Verizon Wireless
IBM
Apex Systems
Quest Diagnostics

Who's firing techs this week?

Top tech layoffs were announced and rumored for the week ending 11/13/09 in the Telecommunications, Technology, and Business Services sectors. Inclusion in this list does not mean the entire industry is circling the drain as the "Who's Hiring Techs" list of 11/09/09 included some of the same sectors.

For those considering government positions, federal hiring is on the rise, but a number of state and local governments have continued to cut back over the past month.

Technology companies announcing significant layoffs this week included AOL, Electronic Arts, Applied Materials, Adobe, First Data, and Sun Microsystems.

Telecommuncations companies cut jobs as Sprint Nextel, and Nortel announced layoffs, even while Sprint's competitors have been on the top hiring lists for the past six weeks or more.

Technology organizations announcing or rumored layoffs (and the number of workers affected) during the week ended 11/13/09:

Sprint Nextel, National (2,000-2,500)
Electronic Arts, (1,500)
Applied Materials, Santa Clara Ca (1,300 – 1,500)
AOL, NYC (up to 1,000)
Adobe Systems, San Jose CA (680)
Relational LLC, Rolling Meadows IL (118)
First Data, International (250)
Current TV, San Fransisco CA (80)
Sitel, Longview TX (270)
Sun Microsystems, Broomfield CO (128)
Nortel Networks, Richardson TX (56)
Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Clark Summit PA (64)
Serco, Inc., Warrendale PA (93)(118)
Sykes Enterprises Inc, Milton-Freewater OR (336)

Source: Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week by Recareered.

Who's hiring techs this week?

Despite the recession, these technology companies are expanding, as documented for the week of 11/16/09.

Top Tech Hiring Companies
Business Services and Telecommunications verticals remain among industries hiring, based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Business Services firms IBM, SAIC, and CSC continue to be in the top tech hiring firms, largely supporting federal government and DOD contracts. Raytheon was the technology firm among those leading Defense hiring. Other top technology hiring companies included HP and Sun Microsystems.

In the survey, the following companies topped the technology hiring numbers:
IBM
AT&T
SAIC
Raytheon
Verizon Wireless
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
HP
Sun Microsystems
Quest Diagnostics

Job Openings Added This Week
The Business Services and Telecommunication verticals are also among the top industries with new job ads based on a survey of recent advertisements from the nations’ top job boards during the past seven days.

Defense continued heavy hiring with Raytheon included in the top new employment advertisers. Consulting firms further expanded with IBM, SAIC, and CSC continuing to hire.

Technology firms adding job opening ads this week(Recruiters and Staffing Companies not included):
IBM
AT&T
SAIC
Raytheon
RadioShack
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
Hewlett Packard
Apex Systems

Source: Who's Hiring is a weekly survey by Recareered of companies showing the highest hiring activity.

Passion and the right job: Which comes first?

 Here's a little exchange from one of my Linked In groups:

Information Technology: Networking, Forum and Jobs

Kathy A. Walton  PMP, an IT Project Manager, asked:

 "Do you need to have a passion
before you can find the right job?"

In this career search we always seem to hear that we need to "follow your passion". For example, if your passion is to bake cupcakes and feed your friends, maybe you should look into opening a bakery.

What if it's really the opposite? What if my passion regarding the "right" job doesn't fit this model?

My passion is to love the job I have. I should like going to work almost as much as I like going away from work. Within that I can do all sorts of things, and I can do a great job! I could be entirely happy baking cupcakes as long as it supports my family and the people are nice. I can thoroughly enjoy being a project manager and putting in new infrastructure because I like to see that something that I am responsible for is completed successfully. I could love being a farmer or cowboy (cowgirl?) because it always smells so good outside and I think horses are magnificant.

So do I really have to define a passion and then find a job to meet that, or can I be passionate that I find a job that I really like doing, whatever the definition of that is? I think I can.

Here's my answer (I love it so much 
because I get to talk about passion to IT folks):

Wherever it is written that the secret to happiness is to find the positive energy and passion in whatever you are doing has your picture next to it, Kathy. Brava!

Unfortunately, many - I would venture to say most - of us have not reached your advanced state of peace and presence. We are still searching for something that engages our passion to give meaning and purpose to our lives.

When we find that object of our passion, that cupcake kitchen, all too often, we make excuses for why we can't do it.

•  It doesn't make enough money; the economy is bad.
•  It's not practical; nobody is buying cupcakes.
• Everybody else is satisfied being a project manager; we should be, too.
• Nobody else loves to bake cupcakes; we will be judged as not fitting into
• the world we fought so long to fit.
  

Rather than follow our passion or become passionate about our existing path, we stay on the path that has produced halfway happiness. Our performance level drops because we realize this is not our passion or we are not willing to give what is necessary to become passionate about our current position. Perhaps, we receive negative feedback which stokes the lukewarm coals of resentment. We burn out because it takes an enormous amount of energy to perform a job for which we lack passion.

Change is hard, but it is often in the difficulty that we learn about ourselves and our world. Recognizing our passion is an art that takes incalculable self knowledge. Following it takes even more courage. Understanding that it lies in accepting and loving our current circumstances is the ultimate challenge.

This week's top tech hirers

The Business Services, Defense, and Telecommunications verticals remain among the top technical industries currently hiring based on a survey by reCareered of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Business Service firms IBM, SAIC,and CSC are among top hiring firms – SAIC is largely supporting federal government and DOD contracts. Raytheon, Northrop are among those leading Defense hiring. Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job board aggregators, the following tech companies added the most job openings:

(Total Tech Job Openings by direct advertisers. Recruiters and Staffing Companies not included):

1. IBM
2. SAIC
3. AT&T
4. Raytheon
5. Verizon Wireless
6. Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
7. HP
8. Sun Microsystems

Tech Job Openings Added This Week

Telecommunication verticals are among the top industries with new job ads based on a survey of recent advertisements from the nations’ top job boards. Consulting firms companies continue to expand with IBM and SAIC continuing to hire, joined by Accenture.

These companies began heavy job advertisements this week:  Avanade (A Joint Venture between Accenture and Microsoft), Oracle, and HP.

Tech Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters and Staffing Companies not included):
1. IBM
2. SAIC
3. AT&T
4. Raytheon
5. US Air Force
6. RadioShack
7. Avanade Inc.
8. Oracle
9. Hewlett Packard

Beyond bitly

If you've run out of room trying to send more than one link -- even if they're itly bitly links -- on Twitter or another social network (and who hasn't?) here's a bunching tool that does it for you.
Bunch those links!

NY, MN job seekers got algorithm

The state of New York is looking for ways to reduce the time the unemployed spend looking for jobs, and it's turning to a mathematical formula for help.

The state's Department of Labor is touting the new tool as a major leap forward in the search for jobs. The formula is designed to direct resumes to the employers most likely to make a hire.

So far, Minnesota is the only other state to use this kind of fancy math to try to connect workers with jobs. There are no hard data, but a spokesperson for the state says the program has been working well.

If this is just a faster, gentler job board, I'm not impressed. If it can actually come up with positions people would not otherwise find or consider, then I'm ready to notice. How about it, Minnesota? How's it working for ya?

Read the rest on NPR

Technology Hirings this week

Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job board aggregators, the following companies added the most job openings:
Job Openings by direct advertisers (not recruiters and staffing companies):

1. IBM
2. AT&T
3. SAIC
4. Raytheon
5. Verizon Wireless
6. Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
7. HP
8. Sun Microsystems

Another company directly advertising job openings this week is General Dynamics Information Technology.

Source: recareered.blogspot.com

Search all the job boards with one click

See if this makes your job board search easier.

Search All Job Boards

This link will take you to a Google page where you fill in the name of the position you want.
Click the button.
Apply.