What Language Should I Learn?

As a technical recruiter I often am asked about what language is in demand among employers in the marketplace. The answer to this straight-forward question is complex and worth discussion.

The short answer is "lots of them." The long answer starts with an understanding of trends in technology and how business is "consuming' technical services. To do that, I'll unpack the question beyond "what language" into a handful of categories that hit both core knowledge and trends in today's technology landscape.

Application Development

If you plan on developing applications you need to know an object oriented language. Software is not built in a vacuum so you need to understand design patterns, composition, inheritance, and delegation principles, polymorphism, class and object development and so much more. Some Computer Science programs still teach C++, but at this point C++ has more academic than enterprise value. Java & C# are the most prevalent "low level" OO languages in the marketplace today. I say "today" because Python, Swift, PHP, Objective-C, and even JavaScript support OO design & development principles.

Bottom line? Learn object oriented design & development principles and it will be easier to explore different languages and platforms

Mobile First Development

Earlier this year the number of "mobile only" internet users surpassed the number of "desktop only" users. We are not connecting to the internet via a desktop / laptop anymore. We've had smart phones and tablets for nearly a decade now, but mobile is reaching well beyond our phones. Watches, televisions, and a whole host of other "internet enabled" devices (including our homes, cars, and appliances) are hitting the market at an astounding rate.

Developers MUST learn mobile first development strategies and the core HTML5 / CSS3 /JavaScript tools that make this possible. Today angular.js, node.js, Bootstrap, LESS, SASS, and a host of other technologies are in the marketplace.

If you're familiar with the Gartner Hype Cycle you know there's a never-ending cycle to supplement (if not outright replace) these tools. Keep an eye on what Google, Amazon, Twitter, and other technology leaders are doing in this space.

Bottom Line? You need to know how to develop applications using a mobile first strategy, and you need to stay on top of the technology & tools that enable mobile first development.

Service Oriented Development

Why re-invent the wheel over and over? Service Oriented Architecture allows developers to take advantage of systems and data that is already in place. Developers need to be versed in web services and service oriented architecture within the ecosystem of an individual company.

In addition, developers need to follow IaaS and PaaS trends (ahh, the "cloud.") Amazon has a complete development platform where processing power and storage can be turned on and off with the flip of a switch. Microsoft has Azure, Google has their cloud. More and more enterprises will be moving to these platforms as processing power becomes cheaper and human capital to run the infrastructure and platforms becomes more expensive.

Bottom Line? Traditional means of developing and delivering software are changing dramatically & software developers need to be on top of it.

Data Development

Data is the lifeblood of business. Decisions are based on "the numbers." The technical team is expected to store & retrieve, manipulate & move, scrub & clean, slice & dice, and present data to the user via desktop apps, browser, Excel & Access, phone/tablet, and coming soon to a refrigerator (you know some mucky-muck C level guy is going to look at that screen and wonder how they can get the day's sales forecast delivered to the Viking double door.)

Traditional RDBMS platforms (SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc...) aren't going anywhere - it's especially important for everyone developing software to understand basic relational data structure. However, today's technology has opened a floodgate of tools business has embraced to leverage their data. There's a plethora of EDW / Business Intelligence tools (OBIEE, MSBI, Informatica, SAPBI, etc...) and the currently very hot "BIG DATA" / NoSQL movements (Mongo, Hadoop, Gemstone, HBase, etc...) What language should you learn? SQL. What else do you need to know? Depends on where you want to specialize. It would take a lifetime to become an expert in all areas of data development. Find something you enjoy and specialize.

Two bottom lines here.

One: Software developers need to know how to get at the data they need which means they need to know how to write SQL triggers & packages, complex queries, and maybe even some stored procedures.

Two: If you're going to eat, sleep, and breathe in the data you need to focus your attention on a piece of the puzzle - when your employer has petabytes of data you can't do it all.

Simple question. Complex answer, so complex one post can't cover it all (ERP for example.)

Bottom Line? Languages are important to understand, but understanding trends in technology is how you will move your career forward.

Tolstoy never wrote a resume

I received a 10 page resume today. While not unprecedented, it is unusual. I get 6+ page resumes at least once a week, but pushing into the double-digits is something that happens only once or twice every three months. The worst offender in my 15 year recruiting career was a 26 page resume complete with a Table of Contents.

I have to review dozens of resumes a day. Without getting into the finer points of how to get my attention, I will tell you a 10 page resume gets enough attention to deserve a post. I won't read it, but I will give you some pointers.

One: A resume is not going to get you a job so you don't need to regurgitate every experience you've had since you were in junior high school.

Two: A resume is designed to spark interest. Figure out how to get my attention, build some curiosity about finding out more about you, and leave it at that.

Three: LinkedIn & a Blog are excellent places to put additional content that can build interest in your background.

Four: If you're a fresh college grad your resume will have a different "voice" than if you have 20 years of experience.

Five: Most resumes are a recitation of tasks. I'm more interested in what you can do for us.

Six: Ditch the objective. They all sound like "Desire to use (talent / skills / background) to (add value / advance at / benefit) my next employer."

Seven: If you can't say what you need to say in 2 pages or less I'm out.

Eight: Ditch the business speak and use some of your creative writing ability. Read every sentence aloud - if it sounds off in the natural course of speech re-visit how you're expressing your thought on paper.

Nine: Spell check doesn't catch they're / their / there type grammar issues. Proof read it, have someone else proof read it, then proof read it again.

Ten: Challenge yourself to get a job without using a traditional resume. There's no rule that says you must have a Word document at the ready or there is no job for you.

Send a well thought-out and written one to two page resume targeted to the specific job and employer and you'll be amazed at the results.

KCDC, Hack the Midwest, and other event rantings.....

When I say "rantings" I really mean "ravings." I said rantings to get you to click (and it apparently worked.) There's no rant here - quite the opposite - our tech community is booming!

I was encouraged by the response of the development community at last month's KCDC. I don't know the final tally, but it seemed there were at least a thousand people who attended. I'm excited to see so many people engaged in the local dev scene outside their employers.

If you're not already aware, KCITP's "Hack the Midwest" starts a week from this coming Saturday. It's your chance to drink a gallon's worth of soda, coffee, or energy drink and stay up all night to take a great idea and turn it into a great product. Who knows - you might even make a lot of money or change your life.

This year I've been on a mission to bring new faces to the KC Java User Group. We have a fantastic series starting this week on the OGSI / Felix / Jackrabbit CMS stack presented by Bryan Stopp at VML. I suspect the series will run over the next 3-4 months. We'd love to have you join us for one (or all) of these great presentations!

For those of you who aren't into Java, there's plenty of opportunity to plug into the tech community outside of your cube. I keep an up-to-date listing of goings-on around the KC metro at the RiverPoint LinkedIn Group. Ruby, .NET, Mobile, SharePoint, Data, DevOps... you name it there's probably a group for it. Sure, you could go to MeetUp, EventBrite, and other places on the intrawebs to figure out what's happening, but why would you do that when I've put it all in ONE place for you? 

By the way, if you are the organizer of one of these groups and is looking for a partner to help you build a bigger audience let me know. We're always willing to sponsor, but this goes well beyond bringing pizzas and a dog and pony show. With our constant outreach to the developer community I can help you find people to present as well as new people to impact. 

If you don't have a MeetUp we'll pick up the tab. If you do have a MeetUp we'll pick up the tab next year. If you don't want to use MeetUp we'll help with whatever format you'd like to use to promote your group. Need a place to hold your meeting? We'll help find one. Want to start a new group? I want to help. The KC Java mission goes beyond KC Java - I want to help our community connect so we can learn and grow with one another.

Thanks for reading the raves - have a great week!

Move to KC if you want to be happy. I'm Serious.

Kansas City ranked Number Two on Glassdoor's 25 Best Cities for Jobs.

Cities ranking LOWER than KC on the list:

Austin (4th)
Seattle (5th)
San Jose (7th)
San Francisco (12th)
Los Angeles (No where to be found, this shocks no one in KC)

"A key takeaway for job seekers is that a bigger city doesn’t always mean better when it comes to finding a job, being satisfied in that job and affording a mortgage."

We're gunning for you Raleigh!

You Should Move to Kansas City

I grew up in West Des Moines, Iowa, but I've lived all over the place. I've hung my hat in places from Denver to LA and Seattle. Fun fact: the summer between my junior and senior year in high school I spent time out in timber country in central Oregon at an old hippie commune owned by Lenny Lipton. You've never heard of him but he wrote a poem about a Magic Dragon and Land of Honalee which Peter, Paul, and Mary immortalized in song.

I've traveled all over the country visiting nearly every major city from coast to coast - New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, Memphis, New Orleans, Miami... the list goes on. I've tasted the food, seen the sights, enjoyed the culture and history, and experienced much of what this great land has to offer. 

Living in and visiting all these places has given me a great appreciation as to why so many people are choosing to leave the interstate parking lots, crowded trains, and sky high cost of living to settle here in KC.

If you don't know much about Kansas City let me start by talking tech. We sit on top of several major carrier telecom backbones giving us a long history of being a tech hub. Western Bell (now AT&T) and our hometown telecom Sprint drove much of the early technical innovation. 

When the telecom backbone started carrying data instead of voice, that innovation shifted. Innovative technical hometown firms like Garmin, DST, and Cerner took advantage of what our community had to offer and have thrived. 

By 2011 the Wall Street Journal recognized Kansas City as a tech "hot spot" and that recognition certainly has not cooled down. We were the first city selected for Google Fiber. (You really should try a 1G up/down pipe - its like driving a Ferrari). We're also at the forefront of the "Internet of Everything" and spent $15 million dollars to stay there. 

Cerner just broke ground on a new campus and plans on hiring 16,000 people to fill the space. SIXTEEN THOUSAND jobs are on the horizon - most of them technical in nature.

I'm telling you - Kansas City loves technology. We have one of the largest local IT communities in the country (13,000 members and growing). We even have a group dedicated to convincing you this is the place to be if you're in tech.

We've had our fair share of famous residents. Rob Riggle is from KC. So are Paul Rudd and Jason Sudakis. Harry Truman grew up here. Satchel Paige pitched here. Charlie "Bird" Parker lived, played, and is buried here. 

One famous KC native you may not have heard of is Marian Kauffman, but you may recognize Marian Merrill Dow. Kauffman not only brought Major League Baseball to KC, he left a legacy and spirit of entrepreneurship that develops leaders and launches many new businesses each year, many of them in the tech space. 

We're also the hometown of mutual fund giants American Century & Waddell & Reed, Hallmark, Applebee's, H&R Block, and YRC Freight to name a few. Our history in pharma collided with our history in mutual funds when American Century Founder Jim Stowers opened one of the largest Bio-Med Research Institutes in the country.

Our vibrant marketplace has caused an issue being felt across the country - demand for talented technical people far outweighs supply. 

We want you to know about us and apparently you're listening - many people are coming from California, Florida, New York, Chicago, and from all corners of the globe to live and work our beautiful city. 

The New York Times is taking notice.

The Huff Post thinks you should live here. 

Even the Yelpers like us.

We have a rich cultural heritage with amazing food, music, and museums. 

Our schools are some of the best in the nation. 

You can own a 2500 square foot house for less than an efficiency in Palo Alto. With a yard and everything.

You can root for the American League Champions.

You can be anywhere in Kansas City within 30 minutes. If you live in the core you can take the new streetcar to work. If not call Uber - we have them too.

We may not have Google or Amazon, but that doesn't mean we don't have opportunities at a vibrant career in technology at a world-class shop. Who knows - the next Amazon might be down in Start-Up Village today. 

You should move here. You have no idea what you're missing.

Handling a Loss

Hall of Fame coach Rick Patino and his very good Louisville squad ended another chapter of UNI basketball yesterday. It’s always disappointing to lose, but looking back there’s a lot of positives to the past season and some great things to look forward to in coming seasons.

·         They won 30 games (THIRTY!) gaining them the highest NCAA tournament seed in school history.

·         They split the season with arch-rival (and new KU nemesis) Wichita State and finished just one game behind the Shockers in the regular season.

·         They won the Valley tournament on a 20+ point come from behind victory over a very tough Illinois State team.

·         They won another NCAA tournament game – convincingly.

·         Senior Seth Tuttle earned a spot on the All American team, the first Panther in history to be selected.

·         Matt Bohanan, Jeremy Morgan, and Wes Washpun will anchor a new starting five that will include several strong forwards to replace Seniors Tuttle & Buss.

·         There’s six years left on Coach Jake’s contract.

You just walked out of your interview and nailed it. The job is right up your alley. You answered all their questions effortlessly and had some great questions of your own. They were exhibiting all the “buying signs.” The job is yours – all you’re doing is waiting for the call. Two days later you find out you’re the bridesmaid.

It’s always disappointing to lose, but rather than focus on the loss focus on the positives.

·         You beat out a lot of qualified candidates to get to the final stage – obviously you know how to stand out in the marketplace and demonstrate value to an employer.

·         You have a new contact that knows you well inside a company that will have other jobs. Take advantage of that situation.

·         You have more experience to draw from in your next interview.

·         You have 3 other appointments and a list of 8 people to call this week.

·         There are 4 networking events before the end of the month that sound interesting.

·         There is another interview with feedback still pending.

If those last 3 bullets ring a little hollow be a little more engaged with the community. Look to your right and find a networking event, a workshop, and a job club to visit this week. Join one of the webinars listed.

Unlike the NCAA Tournament, your job search is not a “one and done” situation. Look toward the future and build on the success of getting the interview, regardless of the outcome.

Should Human Resources be Recruiting?

No doubt you've heard about "The War for Talent." The economy is rebounding and organizations are scrambling to find people to help keep up with a growing business. Some of you reading this may be wondering why these organizations aren't fighting to find you. My answer is simple: they are, they just have broken mechanisms to find you.

In most organizations the responsibility for finding people falls on Human Resources. This is the department that is in charge of ensuring that the company is compliant with federal, state, county, and municipal law; researching, negotiating, and administering increasingly complex benefit programs; developing programs to maximize return on employee investment; making sure employees are properly trained, that leaders are following prescribed procedures for managing & promoting people on their teams, that existing employees are happy, and that no one is being sexually harassed or discriminated against. They make sure the workplace is safe and (while they're at it) they're charged with attracting, screening, vetting, and on-boarding new talent (seeing as how they have so much spare time).

Job seekers generally give HR a bad rap. Some of this reputation is earned - when I see job descriptions that include requirements such as "While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear" it makes me question their understanding of how to attract talent. I'm fairly certain silly requirements like that come from legal, but just as bad is "must have excellent communication skills" which I'm pretty sure was included in a description 20 years ago and the HR team has never bothered to take it out.

The big reason they have a bad rap isn't their fault. People educated and/or trained in Human Resources have a LOT on their plate. Take a look at the required courses for a Masters Degree in HR Management at one of the top schools in the area for HR (Ottawa). One class in recruiting. ONE. It's not a priority. They have too many other pieces of the organizational puzzle to manage to be effective at talent acquisition. 

HR professionals are simply too busy to dedicate 100% of their time to recruiting. Frankly, I'd be shocked if they have 20% of their time available to recruit. They aren't effective recruiters because they simply aren't given the time necessary.

Here's the rub - to say recruiting is a full time job is an understatement. 

Recruiting is the only job I've had where I could work 24x7 and not run out of things to accomplish. Organizations that are effective at talent acquisition usually have two strategies. The most effective is a great referral program. Happy employees make great recruiters. They other strategy is having dedicated Talent Acquisition teams. These may or may not be people trained & educated in Human Resources, but their time is 100% dedicated to recruiting. Without one (or both) of those programs I have to question how much priority the company puts on hiring great people.

If it was up to me, recruiting would be a separate department under sales and marketing. They're already out there promoting the company brand, they know how to get the audience's attention and get them to act. Good customers like your company and trust you enough to earn their business. 

I'm sure some of them would like to be on your team.

Resume Missing Something?

People agonize over resumes – writing, editing, re-writing, proofreading, and starting all over again yet it seems like once or twice a month I get a resume that falls short in the critical information department. When I saw critical information I’m not talking about great content, or compelling copy – I mean CRITICAL INFORMATION.

This may or may not come as a surprise, but the most common critical information missing is a way to contact the person.  I’ve had applicants send me a great resume and I have no way of connecting to them. I’ve received resumes with a phone number where the voice mail isn’t set up. I’ve had emails kicked back. Folks, if it’s on your resume make sure you know we’re trying to connect with you!

Another piece of missing information is dates of employment. I’ve seen resumes that don’t include any date information. I can’t work with no date information – if there’s no date information at all I move on to other resumes. However, there is another common piece of date information missing: months of employment. Most of us want to see the start and end month of your employment (for me going back 5 years is fine) because 2013 – 2014 can mean you worked there a month, or two years. I immediately thing “hiding a gap” when I don’t see months listed on recent employment.

Another common piece of critical information is missing names. I get a LOT of resumes with just the first name – very commonly from people who are originally from India. Not sure why this is so common, but I have 1,000 Kumar’s in my database and adding another one doesn’t do anyone any good. I also see resumes with just the initial of the person. I’ve even seen a resume where the person used a pseudonym. Don’t send me a resume without your first and last name because it’s not going to get read.

Finally, I have seen resumes with absolutely no employment information whatsoever. I see the role and responsibilities but they neglected to list WHERE they worked. I can understand if you’re posting the resume to a public board putting “Confidential” if you don’t want your current employer to stumble across your resume, but it’s ALWAYS a red flag when I see that listed on a submitted resume. If a candidate isn’t willing to disclose where they work I can’t help them.

Missing information always makes me ask myself “What else are they hiding?”

I want your full name, a way to contact you, where you’ve worked, and the dates of employment. If my initial six second scan doesn’t hit those points I’ll find someone who does.