I live in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, GA.  It’s a beautiful area; nice neighborhoods with clean, well maintained streets and houses.  The people that live here enjoy good education opportunities for their children.  The schools are for the most part new or recently modernized; the best teachers and the best facilities.   The area claims some of the best shopping available.   There’s lots of parks and recreational facilities available.  Someone once told me that the area boasted of the largest population of horses of any state in America.  Now, that’s a pretty big claim, but I can certainly testify that there’s a lot of black fences, horse farms (ranches for my western buddies), horse trailers and  saddlery stores around.  The whole area serves as evidence to a certain level of affluence enjoyed by those who live here.  Businesses, large and small seem to do well here.

I attend one of the area’s largest churches where I’ve been a member for 18 years.  It’s a friendly church whose membership is quite active.  It’s in this kind of church where you get to know a lot of people.  You meet them in various committees, in local mission projects, in fellowship clubs and local civic events.   You meet them and you come to know them and they all seem to be enjoying their life’s achievements.

But alas, all is not as it seems.  Unemployment and career uncertainty has befallen our wonderful community.  In order to help out our church has been organizing and holding monthly Career Networking meetings.  Not too surprisingly, several of the church’s members have lost their jobs and are actively seeking new jobs and perhaps new careers.  I understand that  most of the churches in our area are holding similar meetings.  I guess that unless you’re a Federal Government  or a healthcare employee your career may have become uncertain at the least .

I went to my church’s Career Networking meeting for the first time last week.  The purpose of the meeting was to give each attendee a chance to network with others in their field, share job leads, obtain resume writing advice and share the evening with others whose career circumstance were similar to their own.  On this occasion, there was an invited speaker who spoke on the interviewing process; specifically addressing the challenges that those who may be somewhat introverted must overcome.    There were several in attendance that were not facing a change in employment and whose purpose was to council and otherwise assist the attendees.

I didn’t know what I would discover at that meeting.  However, I was a recruiter and it was my church and they were my fellow members so it seemed like the thing to do.  So I went.

There were 50 to 60 people there.  Most were either unemployed or fearing unemployment as imminent.  Almost all were highly educated and well-experienced professionals; CIO’s, Ecommerce Executives, Logistics Managers, Marketing VP’s,  Commercial Real Estate Executives, and etc.  People who had until recently enjoyed the good life the area offers its residents.  And now, they live with uncertainty and the stress of unemployment.   I met several of the attendees and heard their verbal resumes.  And yes, I recognized several of the attendees.   Know them as I did, I was totally unaware of their job situations.   The evening took on a personal note for me.  You just don’t discover that sort of information in Sunday’s church pews or committee meetings.  I was inspired by the volunteers in attendance who were offering their services to these men and women.  I was in admiration of those in attendance who were seeking employment.  They were actively seeking a positive change to their circumstance and they were doing something about it.

Now, I doubt regular attendance at  this meeting will hold much in the way of financial rewards for me, but I just might be able to help these people through this challenging time in their lives.  Who knows, I just might even find a good job search candidate there as well.

January, 2010!  Just three months shy of ten years in retirement for Dale Carringer.  And, I’ve had a great 10 years!  My wife of 43 years and I have traveled a lot.  I did a lot of volunteer work.  I took up woodworking.   I played a lot of golf and most importantly, I slept late most every day (I’m a night owl).  I should note here that I’m much better at making furniture than playing golf.  But what I’m about to do now is likely to be the most challenging and exciting thing I’ve ever done.   To say the least, I’m raising some eyebrows amongst my friends.  Let me back up a little here and try to explain.

I started my career in Cleveland, OH as a second shift computer operator (trainee) in 1966.  I got that job with the help of a placement firm. Just out of school I really had no idea how to go about finding a job.  I saw their ad on a  window and I went in.  They sent me on but a single interview and I landed the job.  Then, I discovered there was a fee and it was to be paid be me!  But, what was I to do.  I needed the work.  I took the job, paid the fee and continued my employment with that first employer for six years, during which my career advanced to Programmer, Programmer Analyst, Systems Analyst and Computer Operations Manager.  It was a typically large “big blue” operation.

Then the lure of the homeland brought me back to Atlanta, GA where with the aid of another recruiting agency, I got a job with a company owned by Eastern Airlines.  It was a startup company with a big budget and an even bigger business plan.  We were going to build a bunch of warehouses around the US and sell warehousing and freight distribution services.  I joined a design and development team whose commitment to deliver the supporting software/hardware solution was exemplary.   But, alas, the big budget proved not big enough to outlast the recession that had ensued.

With the help of another placement agency I landed a job as the Systems Manager for a manufacturer and retailer of ladies hosiery.   That was great job and I worked with some wonderful and talented people.  That is, all accept for one.  As it happened I had been hired by a manager who lived in another state.  His organizational peer was the Data Center Manager in their Atlanta office and these two gentlemen didn’t care too much for each other. (My staff and I were tenants in his data center).  About three years later there was an organizational restructuring which removed my boss from the power structure.  You’ve probably figured it out already.  Yes, the Data Center Manager was promoted; making him my manager and he just didn’t like me very much either!  So I was fired!  Wow.  That was a shock.  I’d never been fired before.  I had the unfortunate experience of having to terminate others in my career, but I had never been fired!  My prevailing thought, “what do I do now?”

Fortunately, I was working in a good marketplace with a good economy.   I called a recruiter in an agency which I had used previously to help me hire several IT people.  He didn’t have anything for me immediately, but he did have a short term “contracting” assignment with a major bank.  It was basically a clerical job of populating a Data Element Dictionary.  Hey, it helped keep the mortgage paid so I eagerly took the assignment.  It was one of those assignments that the bank’s own employees didn’t want to do so they “contracted” it out.  That little assignment was a “no brainer”, requiring very little skill, but a lot of time.  They never told me, nor did I have the good sense to ask when I was supposed to have the assignment completed.  So, I just worked hard till I finished.  As it happens, the Bank client was ecstatic.  Turns out that little job was supposed to take me about six months to finish and I had managed to complete it in less than three.

I found out something about this job of   “contracting” – I liked it!  I really did. Just do your work.  “Stack the wood” so to speak and get paid very well for it.

Then a recruiter called me one weekend while I was still on assignment to the bank.  He wanted me to join his consulting company in Detroit, MI.   I did not hesitate to accept the job.  This privately held and rapidly growing consulting firm had a consulting engagement with an automotive client with whom they placed me.  That assignment with the automotive firm was the beginning of a most challenging and rewarding career.

While I was thoroughly enjoying my consulting career, my well satisfied client and my equally satisfied employer were conspiring to elevate my duties to include those of Recruiter and Account Manager.  I now had responsibilities for recruiting, personnel supervision and sales representation to this client.  The personnel supervision and recruiting duties were quite familiar to me.  However, this thing of Account Management (sales) was certainly a new wrinkle.  Turns out I had a gift for it and what’s more, I loved it!  From there my career in the IT consulting business took off.  I was extracted from the front line consulting ranks and given direct sales responsibility.

After a few years of great success I was promoted to Atlanta Branch, then Southeast Regional management.   It was that position in 2000 from which I retired at the age of 55.  You see, that small private company had grown greatly and when we went public my employee stock options were suddenly worth a lot – enough for early retirement.

The idea of early retirement didn’t just come to me overnight.  I always had the idea in the back of my head that the smart thing for one to do would be to retire early, travel around, spend a lot of time with the grandchildren then go back to work for the rest of their lives at  around the age 65.  The problem was, “what does one do at the age of 65 that an employer would seek to employ?”  That was foremost among my questions.

Once again, I was in the right place at the right time.  During the last six or seven years of my career (before retirement), I had a neighbor who was a “freelance recruiter” (a headhunter).  He worked out of his home and his territory was worldwide.  He did quite well and I always thought that his was the kind of career I should pursue should I ever choose to do something in my retirement years.  Among the many benefits are: flexible work hours, little overhead,  work from home if I prefer and there is no age limit ceiling.    I like working with IT professionals, therefore,  a career in recruiting IT management personnel seemed a logical choice in post-retirement careers.  For me, much better than a career passing out  shopping carts at Walmart.

So, there you have it. Four decades on the back of a napkin!  I’m not quitting retirement, but I am embarking on a new career.  As it turns out, once again I am most fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. Good friends of mine are well established in the online recruitment business. Check out Harry Joiner at ECommerceRecruiter.com. I am joining Harry’s organization to some extent.  I won’t be working for Harry, but I will be taking advantage of facilities and services he has already developed, not the least of which is an excellent high-tech recruitment business model. You may have heard of him; THE Marketing Headhunter.

So if you look at my background, you can see I have gained a broad exposure to IT management and the challenging it faces.  I have worked with a lot of companies during my career and I have a pretty good understanding of the diversities in business cultures and the pressures under which the IT department finds itself today.  Technology is advancing exponentially.  Businesses are placing greater demands on their IT departments to help place them in the best competitive position possible.  And, do all this with less people and in much less time.

So, there you have it!  I’m changing my retirement plan to include a whole new career.  Perhaps you’ll want to bookmark the AtlantaRecruiters.com website and watch how I do.  I’m really excited about my new career.

Atlanta, Ga.—My father said it best, when he warned:  “It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but only a few minutes to ruin one.”   By now we have all heard the stories of someone who was interviewing for a great job, only to be told they did not receive the offer because of their beer funnel guzzling Myspace party photos.

Even if you are not posting evidence of your latest debauchery or otherwise questionable activities on Facebook or Myspace, you have to be aware of your “virtual footprint”.    Snarky comments about your boss or co-workers on Twitter brand you as mean-spirited.   Belonging to online communities that espouse values or activities that you wouldn’t want to tell your mother about -  not a good idea.  Blogging is a wonderful tool for self-promotion and portraying yourself as an expert in your field, but try to keep the old minefield topics, religion, sex and politics out of it, unless of course you are a therapist, minister or political activist.

In this job market, you want to put your best foot forward at all times and you should actually pro-actively manipulate your online profile.  Every action you take on the web (aside for those that are completely private) should be specifically geared toward finding your dream job.

Here is a game plan for you:

1. Google yourself!   See what comes up. Recently, a candidate I was working with googled himself only to find that some man with the same first name took up the entire first page of google, because a tree fell on his house during a tornado and several tv stations and newspapers interviewed him for his fifteen minutes of fame.  This buried my candidate’s professional mentions  in the google rankings.  What can you do about that?  Google scours the web for most recent entries, so I told my candidate to join some online networking sites to fill out a new professional profile.  Sites like Naymz, Spoke, Linked In, Xing, etc. are free for a basic membership and will help refresh your google rankings.
2. Create your own resume site.  Depending on how technical you are, it can be as simple as creating a google profile, see  http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/create-your-google-profile.html, or you can build your own page.  This is a great way for us recruiters to find you, as we all use google search strings that specifically search for the word “resume” in the url or title page, along with our specific keywords.  Here is an example: (intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) online marketing (maine OR me) -service -”writing service” .  Try it and you will find the most web savvy of your compatriots in Maine. I also recommend a site called www.visualcv.com, especially if you are in the online marketing or graphic design  field, purely for the visual punch it packs.
3. Remain true to your personality.  This is not, by any means, a recommendation to pretend to be someone else.  Being yourself is your best selling point, unless you really are a crude, boorish oaf.   Show your sense of humor and wit where you can.  Twitter tweets lend themselves beautifully to that end, as does blogging.  This is also an opportunity to show that you are a master of your craft.  When, in our recent history, did we have the opportunity to sell ourselves with anything other than a paper resume and a cover letter?  Think of the  internet as a way to showcase yourself, your intellect  and your skills in a way that was never possible before.   No matter what line of work you are in, there is a way to exhibit your professional achievements.  If you are a baker, you could post photos to your flickr account and blog about your latest delectable creation.  If you are an online marketer, you could show snapshots of your website’s online merchandising successes or participate in online networking groups giving advice to others in your field.

There are many ways to distinguish yourself and at the same time become immenently “findable” and I know this because these are some of the ways I have found some fantastic passive candidates.   So. please, go out there and create your best multi-faceted “online footprint”  and I look forward to finding and meeting you in the future.

ATLANTA, GA - Well, it’s here: Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. While you can read for yourselves Mr. Buffett’s sober predictions of the economy being “in shambles throughout 2009 – and, for that matter, probably well beyond,” job seekers can learn something about how to create real value for their current and potential employers — now and forever.

It’s no secret that stocks took a severe beating last year, and Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire holdings were not immune. Yet according to Mr. Buffett, “In good years and bad, Charlie Munger [his long-time business partner] and I simply focus on four goals:

1. maintaining our company’s Gibraltar-like financial position, which features huge amounts of excess liquidity, near-term obligations that are modest, and dozens of sources of earnings and cash;
2. widening the “moats” around our operating businesses that give them durable competitive advantages;
3. acquiring and developing new and varied streams of earnings;
4. expanding and nurturing the cadre of outstanding operating managers who, over the years, have delivered Berkshire exceptional results.

The proof of this approach is in the pudding: Over the last 44 years, Berkshire Hathaway’s book value per share has grown from $19 to $70,530, a rate of 20.3% compounded annually.

Question for you Atlanta-based job seekers: Specifically, HOW have you done these four things in your previous jobs? Can you quantify your contribution in each of these four areas?

You are making a terrible mistake if you think these things are “too high level and abstract” for you to impact! Over the last five years, I have made a small fortune pulling executives out of Dell Computer.

Why Dell? Because a long time ago, Michael Dell was smart enough to tie every Dell employee’s bonus to Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) — the single metric that mattered most to Dell’s customers, and therefore, to its stock holders. By aligning his employee’s behavior to the expectations of his customers and stock holders, Mr. Dell created a perpetual motion machine fueled by the self-interests of every single stakeholder. That’s not a bad thing. That’s a great thing!

According to Mr. Dell’s book Direct from Dell [which I strongly endorse] …

ROIC became a focusing device. We introduced it in 1995 with a company-wide push to educate everyone about the benefits of a positive ROIC, with articles in the company newsletter, posters, talks by managers, and “Messages from Michael” devoted to the topic.

We explained specifically how everyone could contribute: by reducing cycle times, eliminating scrap and waste, selling more, forecasting accurately, scaling operating expenses, increasing inventory turns, collecting accounts receivables efficiently, and doing things right the first time.

And we make it the core of our incentive program for all employees.

We decided to to reward employees around a matrix of ROIC and growth and higher performance directly attributed to higher ROIC — which came back in the form of higher compensation.

BOTTOM LINE: Dell executives know how to create value for ALL company stakeholders — both internally and externally, up and down the value chain — and that’s what today’s employment market will pay for. That’s what it needs now more than ever! You can stick a Dell executive in just about any company and they will find a way to organize their teams and activities around those things which create value. Atlanta-based employers LOVE this trait, and I have the check stubs to prove it.

So candidates, here is one job search rule that you must obey:

DO NOT TRY TO SELL ABSTRACTIONS IN A DOWN ECONOMY!!

Your value to Atlanta area employers has to be obvious. It has to be easy to explain, understand, and verify. Trust me, business owners are scared to death. They are afraid of President Obama’s approach to taxation, and they have NO idea whether the business environment will recover this year … or the next … or ever. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt dominate the current climate. Georgia business owners have a bunker mentality.

Accordingly, you MUST make Georgia business owners understand why they are better off investing their hard earned cash in YOU rather than keeping it under a mattress.

You are at great risk if you fight me on this one. This is the new reality. It’s a cold as hell world out there, and whether you work for a company or not, you are in business for yourself. It’s time you started thinking of yourself as someone else’s investment.