Archive for June, 2009

Well they say bad things come in threes: first Farrah, then MJ, and now Billy Mays. Entertainment will never be the same.

Billy Mays was the center of gravity when it came to selling Magic Putty, Oxy Clean… even ESPN. Now that he’s gone, there is a giant hole to fill in the universe. God knows the ShamWow guy isn’t up to the challenge, especially after he lost that fist-fight with a prostitute.

“The power of the air you breathe and the water you drink,” Billy used to say enthusiastically as he dissolved earth’s toughest stains in a tub of Oxy Clean. Genius. Today I overheard the following confession: “Man, Billy was the one who convinced me to buy Magic Putty!” Undoubtedly a life-changing purchase.

Billy Mays, you have left big shoes to fill. Fortunately, with 13 or so million people looking for jobs, I have all the confidence in the world that someone with big enough feet will rise to the challenge. But one final caveat to his successor: while you may be able to take Billy’s place in the world of telesales, his place in my heart is not up for grabs.

Rest In Peace, sweet sweet Billy Mays.

Kiplinger has the answer. Each of these six companies, five of them large retailers, are hiring new grads in 2009:

1. Container Store: 401(k), comprehensive health insurance for full- and part-timers
2. Starbucks: 401(k), comprehensive health insurance for full- and part-timers, tuition reimbursement, discounted stock options
3. Target: 401(k) matching, comprehensive health insurance for full- and part-timers, tuition reimbursement
4. UPS: comprehensive health insurance for full-timers, discounted stock options, tuition reimbursement
5. Wegman’s: 401(k) matching, comprehensive health insurance for full- and part-timers, tuition reimbursement
6. Whole Foods: comprehensive health insurance, discounted stock options

They may not be glamorous, but the article claims that each of these six employers offers “decent pay, good benefits, and employee-friendly cultures.”

After announcing intentions last week to return $10 billion in TARP money to Uncle Sam, Goldman Sachs has since hinted at record bonuses for employees this year. According to the Guardian, Goldman will set aside $600 million in first-quarter profits to fund bonuses.

Says the Guardian:

These banks are intermediaries in the bond markets where governments and companies are raising billions of pounds of new money. There is also a lack of competition that means they can charge huge sums for doing business.

I expect that many readers at TheCanned.com will find this news nausiating. I would personally rather see the i-banks earn their way out of this rather than earn receive more money from the government. This lack of competition will be short-lived, as will the windfall profits from stimulus-bound sovereign debt isuance.

It’s tough to stomache, but it may just be another step in the right direction.

I’m a music addict. I like to think that every micro-phase of my life, year, day has its own soundtrack. Hell, I’m writing this post to the rhythm of the Gipsy Kings. Judging by the abundance of people who have white earbuds permanently grafted to their ears, I’ll assume that I’m not alone. 

So I wondered: Does anybody out there have a a soundtrack for unemployment?

A quick YouTube search yielded some promising results. The Dance of Unemployment shows two grainy cut-outs bumping, grinding, jumping, and spanking to a dance beat. In The Unemployment Blues, a dude makes a lot of hysterical faces while singing in sweats from his couch. Then there’s C.H.A.Z.Z. performing his original R&B song and music video Laid Off. Rhyming about his ex-boss, C.H.A.Z.Z. sings “hold me back, oh i punch eyes and break jaws, i’ll blind him, shoot him in the face with a paint ball, then i’ll hold up the office…” You can probably imagine where it goes from there: he decides to get a government job. 

Still looking for a suitable soundtrack, I turned to 8tracks.com, where people share virtual mix tapes. 8track gets around copyright laws in a similar way to pandora, where all the music is streaming. There were two unemployment soundtracks on 8track, neither of them quite right. So I made my own: The Lighter Side of Unemployment. 

If anybody else takes five minutes to make an unemployment mix, post it in the comments! Even if you don’t have time (who are you kidding?) to construct the full monty: Does your unemployment lifestyle have a soundtrack? Is there a song that rings especially true with your job search, unbound travel, or general listlessness?

There were 2.5 million job openings in the US as of April Bureau of Labor Statistics data. This number is lower than months prior, but reflects three sectors that seem to have bottomed out in March and begun to increase:  Government, Restaurants, and Professional Services (likely led by accountants and lawyers).

Looking to the private side alone, a survey of hiring managers by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) shows that 18% of companies plan to hire this month. The number jumps to almsot 25% for small- and mid-sized companies. Where 30% of large companies (>500) are planning to lay people off, almost 85% of small- and mid-sized companies plan to at least maintain staffing levels.

The most interesting part of the SHRM survey, however, is the increase from 1% to 13% in the number of companies that are uncertain whether they will hire, fire, or stay the course. I think this is an optimsitic sign. They might not buy into the “green shoots of recovery,” but they’re no longer bearish either.

Things might just be getting better. Slowly.

We’ve covered the basics. We’ve even heard an outrageous success story or two. But the question remains: Does the average employer really use social networks to hire? 

According to a survey by Jobvite, 68% of employers use social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to support their recruitment efforts. Those numbers are likely even higher when you consider recruitment agencies and headhunters, the intermediaries that place many of the best jobs out there for experienced hires. Based on some independent research that we did at TheCanned.com, it looks as though start-ups and small companies are some of the biggest users of these networks.

Hiring managers use social networks to recruit in three different ways. To help job seekers, we’ve identified recommendations for how job seekers can put the odds in their favor. 

1. The Sawed-Off Shotgun Approach

As with personal networking, hiring managers would rather recruit people that they know or people that come with a recommendation. It’s a poor proxy, but “friend” or “following” status on Facebook or Twitter takes you one step further from stranger and one step closer to the “in” crowd. Some companies treat social networks as opportunities to blast out openings to a large pool of non-strangers. Given the anecdotes, it seems like they take responses from these networks far more seriously than unsolicited resumes or applications through Monster. 

Diana, President of procurement consultancy Design To Deliver, was bidding on a project. As part of the process, she needed  to demonstrate the expertise that her firm promises by providing the resumes of the consultants that would work on the case. But she still needed to hire one more consultant. She blasted out the opening on Facebook, where some business contacts asked for more information and then passed it along. Then she Tweeted and watched as several followers re-tweeted the opening. Lastly, she posted on The Federal Contractors Network. The quick turnaround was so encouraging that she plans to add LinkedIn, Plaxo, and GovLoop in the future. 

Jennifer, a Director at staffing firm Momentum Resources, blasts a variety of job openings out to Facebook by posting them in her status. That’s it. She comments: “Last week we staffed an operations research consultant for a recycler in LA and a mandarin chinese translator for a Kansas environmental firm, all by posting about these jobs in my Facebook status!”

Our recommendation
If you want to get hit by the sawed-off shotgun approach then you need a big network. Friend, follow, and connect with every person you can think of. On Twitter, extend that list to strangers with common interests or those who work in your field. On LinkedIn, connect with every person you have ever met in the course of business. Read the rest of this entry »

Even in a recession, USA Today points out that sex still sells:

Even as Starbucks shutters stores, some coffee shops in Southern California’s Little Saigon are booming with a formula that seems to defy recession. They are serving up strong Vietnamese brew, delivered to tables by young women in bikinis, spandex, fishnet sarongs or lingerie, displaying bountiful skin and cleavage. Lots and lots of cleavage.

Wal-Mart always seems to do well. When the economy grows, its core users spend more on Wal-Mart goods, offsetting the substitution effect that sends its noncore users to more expensive stores.

When the economy shrinks, its core users have less to spend but the substitution effect goes in its favors as noncore users can no longer afford more costly alternatives.

Ultimately global retail growth and its ability to control its supply chain determine profits. Regardless: Wal-Mart keeps the lights on in all scenarios.

That’s probably why it’s hiring 22,000 people this year (down from last year, but still…). These new hires will be concentrated in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia. Check out the article here.