It’s fun to sit back and watch things evolve.
A little over a year ago, I published some random thoughts about perspective. A little historical romp through ITinTheD.org’s past, as well as where we were at the time and where we thought we’d be.
Well, sitting here as July of 2011 is winding to a close, it’s interesting (to me at least) to see where things are with the group, with the economy, and what’s going on that we think you might be interested in. And I’ll get to that in a bit as we dive in to this week’s updates. We’ve also got our next couple events setup (yes, including our next Pink Slip Party…), we took part in the Shifting Gears event out in Lansing, and of course we’ve got jobs and discussions taking place in our LinkedIn group. Let’s start with things evolving, though.
Back in May of last year…
…we were sitting at about 1500 members in our LinkedIn group. The job market still sucked. Companies were taking months and interviewing dozens (if not more) candidates for even analyst positions, let alone senior technical roles. Job seekers were emailing us constantly asking when our next Pink Slip Party event was going to be so that they could get face time with recruiters. Things just didn’t look all that good.
We did our last Pink Slip Party event for 2010 in October, and had a really great turn out. October is typically when we do the last one of those for the year, since that’s usually your last chance to land somewhere before hiring freezes and “wait until next year’s budget” kick in.
Funny thing though…it never slowed down. We’ve heard from countless recruiters that November and December were nuts hiring-wise. Moving into 2011 it continued, and still shows no signs of slowing down. Hiring times have dropped – companies aren’t taking months and interviewing tons of people. They’re taking weeks, maybe only days, and interviewing a handful at most before pulling the trigger. Why? Because the job seekers don’t have to wait for them any more – there are jobs to be had, and the tables have turned.
Now we’ve got recruiters showing up in our inbox asking when our next event will be taking place so that they can get face time with people they can hire. We’re up over 2600 people in our LinkedIn group these days, with a ton of folks that have joined in the past year – new recruiters, new job seekers, and new people that are just looking to branch out their networks a bit and get to know people in the industry out here in metro Detroit.
It’s been an interesting year so far, and with little doubt it will continue to be so for the balance of 2011.
And speaking of wanting to meet people…as I mentioned earlier, we’ve got our next two events scheduled.
The first is one of our casual networking events, and it takes place on Thursday, August 18th at Penny Black in Rochester. Details can be found here on our site at http://www.ITinTheD.com/index.php/event/ITintheD-org-august-happy-hour-networking-for-it-professionals-in-metro-detroit/ or on LinkedIn out at http://events.linkedin.com/ITintheD-org-August-Happy-Hour/pub/707335.
The next is one of our Pink Slip Party events, and will take place on Thursday, September 15th at the Post Bar in Novi. Details are on our site at http://www.ITinTheD.com/index.php/event/sept-detroit-networking-pink-slip-party/ and out on LinkedIn at http://events.linkedin.com/ITintheD-org-PINK-SLIP-PARTY/pub/727777.
Please take a moment to read through the Frequently Asked Questions about our events out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/meet/faq.
So, the reason that today’s updates are getting out so late is that I’m physically incapable of planning ahead to have things publish automatically at a certain point in time, and Bob and I were out at the Shifting Gears event in Lansing giving a presentation on the 10 Commandments of Networking, as well as answering questions about networking in general, our events, and a whole range of other topics. “Hi” to any of the attendees that happen to be popping by and doing their homework (aka “stopping by and reading through our site”), and we definitely enjoyed our time there. Some great questions got asked (and hopefully answered effectively), and we had a great chat with Faris from TechTown and Maria from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation about partnering up with those two groups and perhaps expanding the reach of our events and what we do. Again…should be interesting to see what evolves throughout the rest of this year. We’re absolutely looking forward to the possibilities.
On the topic of networking and jobs, that leads into our LinkedIn group out at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/ITintheDorg-Detroit-Networking-Events-IT-91763. We’ve got quite a few great conversations taking place, everything from hints and tips on how to manage geeks (and non geeks) to chatter about Google+, salary negotiations and more…so you really should hop on in and add your two cents.
Oh yeah…and jobs, of course. Here’s few of what’s out there currently:
Matt Glynn
Direct Hire IT Delivery Lead – Troy, MI
Looking for a well-rounded technical project lead. Must have experience with both back-end programming and consumer facing websites. If interested, please email me at mglynn@smartworkforce.com.
Mike Ward
Systems Administrator Position In Sterling Heights, MI
Position Overview:We are seeking a Systems Administrator to be part of a highly energetic business applications infrastructure team. Individual must be well-versed in technical and architectural aspects of Linux, Unix and…
Sr. Data Analyst Position In Bloomfield Hills, MI
Purpose of Position This position is responsible for ongoing analysis of financial institution information, obtained from a variety of sources, including banking, financial, and lending data. It involves development and…
Sr. Oracle Data Warehouse Developer Position In Bloomfield Hills, MI
Purpose of Position Position will be responsible for supporting the expansion and support of an Oracle enterprise data warehouse solution. The Data Warehouse Developer is responsible for interpreting, organizing,…
Oracle Data Warehouse Architect Position In Bloomfield Hills, MI
Purpose of Position Position will be responsible for supporting the expansion and support of an Oracle enterprise data warehouse solution. The Data Warehouse Architect is responsible for interpreting, organizing,…
Laura Rosen, PHR
Know a .NET developer in metroDetroit looking for a new full-time opportunity? IPS is hiring. Contact me for more info.
Rachel Bass, CIR
Social Media Specialist opportunity available in Van Buren! Excellent opportunity to support a Fortune 5 organization and carve out a…
We are searching for a Social Media Specialist responsible for the day-to-day management of our customer’s (Fortune 5 company) social media effort. The ideal candidates will handle a wide range of Social Media Activities for…
Lindsay Czerniak, MBA
Changepoint Marketing Manager – Detroit, MI. Full-time, salaried with benefits.
Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company, provides software, experts and best practices to ensure the world’s most important technologies work well and deliver value. Compuware customers include 46 of the…
Davina Beh
Web Developer with PHP and UI Development. -Must be a Superstar. please email me if you are interested. davina.beh@jrdsi.com
Jason P. Sullivan
Technical Project Manager 18+ Month Contract Troy, MI Fortune 10 Client (Not Auto)
Description: As a Technical Project Manager, you will provide program management and oversight on the delivery of complex business solutions in a complex, geographically dispersed matrix organization. The project management…
Shiva Polavarapu
Sr Java Developer for Ann Arbor, MI,and seeking a new opportunity in the Ann Arbor area, contact me immediately! Email:…
Looking for Web Engineer – Maintaining websites, Unix shell scripting, SSL, Ldap, SSO, Ann Arbor, MI. Resumes to shiva@eitprofessionals.com
Melissa Lecznar PHR
Infrastrucuture System Analyst e-mail me your resume: melissa.lecznar@global-itech.com
Expert knowledge of Microsoft Lync Server. Experience with Citrix and VMware.
Heather Sandrick
Decision Support Analyst for a 3 mo Contract to hire position in Detroit. Shoot me your resume ASAP!…
Matthew Holtz
Windows Platform Engineer (72211-1) Location: Auburn Hills, MI
Duration: 7/31/12 Requirements * Well versed in Windows patching 2000, 2003, and 2008. * Experienced with Blade Logic * Willing to work some evenings and weekends * Provide Support for Windows Systems including OS,…
Senior Application Developer (72711-1) Location: Auburn Hills, MI
Duration: 8/22/12 Position Responsibilities * Identify potential issues, quality improvements and develop solution(s) for resolution * Perform programming, unit and integration testing for code changes. *
Eric Bates
If you have exp. with .net 3.5/4.0 and seeking a new opportunity in the Detroit area, contact me immediately!
Email: ebates@kforce.com or call 248-351-3813
Monica VanScyoc monica.vanscyoc@experis.com
Oracle Backend Developer, Health Care company, Southfield,MI. Manager will interview quickly!!! Will pay up to 45/hr for a well qualified…
Title of position: Oracle Developer w/Oracle Reports knowledge Here are the skills in order of importance: 1) SQL (Oracle version 11g ideally, but 10g is ok) 2) PL/SQL 3) ksh (Korn shell scripting) 4) Oracle…
PERM JAVA Developer, Farmington Hills, 85K plus 8% bonus!!! Great company.
SENIOR WEB DEVELOPER (JAVA) Under general direction, participates as a high level technical expert in design, development, coding, testing, and debugging of new software or significant enhancements to existing software.
Deena Wiltsie
Senior Project Manager for Detroit Detroit
Opportunity for a Sr. PM who has managed software development teams, along with previous hands
So, that’s about it for this time. As always, further details, more jobs, contact information and more can be found out in the LinkedIn group.
Look forward to catching you in the LinkedIn group, and at our upcoming events!
Regards,
Bob, Dave and Jeff
ITintheD.com
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.org
On LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=91763
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