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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Get Cloud Ready with Windows Azure

Windows Azure

!

The cloud is everywhere and here at Microsoft we’re flying high with our cloud computing release, Windows Azure. As most of you saw at the Professional Developers Conference,

the reaction to Windows Azure has been nothing short of “wow” – and based on your feedback, we’ve organized this special, all-day Windows Azure Firestarter event to help you take full advantage of the cloud.

Maybe you've already watched a webcast, attended a recent MSDN Event on the topic, or done your own digging on Azure. Well, here's your chance to go even deeper. This one-of-a-kind event will focus on helping developers get ‘cloud ready’ with concrete details and hands-on tactics. We’ll start by revealing Microsoft’s strategic vision for the cloud, and then offer an end-to-end view of the Windows Azure platform from a developer’s perspective. We’ll also talk about migrating your data and existing applications (regardless of platform) onto the cloud. We’ll finish up with an open panel and lots of time to ask questions.

Seattle, WA - Windows Azure

Tuesday, April 06, 2010
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Pacific Time

Microsoft Commons - The Mixer Building
15255 NE 40th St
Redmond WA 98052

Seating for the live event is limited, so register today. If you can't join us for the in-person event, register for the online event experience.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Mean People Suck

I think they should just stay home and not infect others with their nastiness. I could tell you the not-so-long, but mostly likely boring story that inspired this, but how about I don't, you just pretend to know the particulars. Or, better yet, insert your own story into the narrative and go from there? Regardless, mean, nasty people should just stay home. I mean, Clinton/Gore created this movement called the wonderful world wide web - certainly people could find a way to live in their house without ever coming into contact with the masses of humanity they hate?  I say, if you hate humanity- leave it and stay home all-alone. Become a recluse. And hope that someone finds your body before you turn into a zombie.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Videos, Blogging and Social Networking Oh My! Discovering My Own Geekiness: Part Two

SourceCon Conference 2010, San Diego California

Recruiters are turning out in droves to the online space, making their marks with videoing, blogging, social networking and other creative outlets. I was observing at this years SourceCon Conference on how the online venues have changed with the increasing prevalence of recruiters using blogs with photos, videos, social networks, etc raising interesting conversations around how we are to “behaving” (or “not behaving”) ourselves to the billions who comb through the internet.

The wave of the “recruiter new world order” has crashed down, and many of you are now swirling around in it of being overwhelmed by where to start and how to stand out from those who have been doing it for years? The question lingers in your head, “Should I have a blog with a picture of myself or videos of myself just talking non-script format of what ever comes to my head?” is it passé. Then the question, “Is it ethical for a recruiter to publicly engage in social networking when representing a company? Questions on rules of engagement? Right?

I’m a principal sourcer with a passion for social networking and a blog, video writer/maker. I have enjoyed cultivating my online presence for almost 10 years now, writing about topics that resonate with people and more than ever connecting with others via social networking. As this rapid change in the online space for recruiters is unfolding, I’ve been curiously observing and have taken mental note of a few things perhaps helpful to others who are considering jumping into the “swirl” with the rest of us geeks!

Here are some of my observations around the “upsides” and “downsides” to recruiters having the sort of online life I’ve described above:

Upside

The Perfect Topic For Blogging

               All you need is to take 10 minutes to set your choice of blog and connect it to your  social networks sites and you can clickity-clack away. Topics should be based on what you are passion about. We all have passion and it is HIGHLY recommended NOT writing about your job! People connect better when they can relate and with billions of folks on the Internet you are bound to have readers. Limit yourself to 1 paragraph, and you’ll be amazed on how hard it is to just write one paragraph! For me, I wanted to become a better writer so writing has been an enjoyable supplement to my profession. Be humble, accept people’s opinion and engage with them on your site!

Embrace Social Networking

              It can be fun and educational for all. I have met some of the most wonderful and interesting people from all over the world this way, including many sourcers like me who are doing “their thing” online. It’s like a collective knowledge base of helpful links, interesting ideas and thought provoking quotes that make you go, “I did not know this…”

Downside

 Watch out for the BLACK Holes

              Most of us know just by having internet access that there are endless potential “black holes” while surfing. They can serve to distract and take you away from more important tasks such as work or family obligations. Social networking in and of itself can be the worst of them all with so many interesting people to check out, exchange information and tweet with!

What’s Really Important

               Recently, seeing a number of friends struggling with being consumed with social networking, blogging, videoing and being “out there,” it’s clear that there is great potential for any of us to let it consume our lives in an unhelpful manner. My first love is networking face-to-face.

Though there’s much more options for recruiters than there ever have been TRUE this isn’t for everyone. There are likely many traditional recruiters “old schoolers” as most call themselves who want nothing to do with all of this “waste of time.” Like in life, different things resonate with different people. I’ve enjoyed the synchronicity of the two parts of my recruiting-related world, distinct yet connected.

It works for me.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Friday, March 19, 2010

Bing Recruiting Event in Mountain View, CA!

We are holding an event in Mountain View, CA

For Local Candidates Only!

If you are interested in a challenging role, working with cutting edge technology, and innovation, please read on!

If you meet the skills criteria and are open to relocating to Bellevue, WA

send my totally awesome recruiter your updated resume to: eugenia.sawa@microsoft.com.

Relocation services to Bellevue, WA are provided upon hire.

 We are hiring for numerous positions all of which require these skills:

A Minimum of a Bachelor's Degree in CS or a related field
At least 5 years of solid and professional development experience
Strong Coding and Debugging Skills

With Expertise in one or more of the areas below:
 - Solid experience in designing and developing infrastructure, tools and automation
 - Aptitude in performance, validation, availability, capacity verification, recoverability,

   and reliability analysis of complex large scale distributed systems and online services
 - Experience with the design and development of online services, web service integration,

   or online/web API development
 - Data Analysis, Statistics, Data Mining, Web Mining, Data Warehousing, OLAP, Business Intelligenc

   Customer Intelligence (CI),Databases, User Modeling, or Information Retrieval
 - Experience with Statistical Tools such as R, SAS, Tableau, or SPSS

Download now or watch on posterous
Bing Recruiting Event.mp4 (4020 KB)

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

And I Thought I was A Geek: Part One: Discovery Of Geekness

Over the weekend I attended and was one of the Speakers at SourceCon 2010 Conference.

What is SourceCon?

It was becoming an urgent need in the recruiting industry to have a conference that was focused on the art (some say science) of Sourcing and Researching – SourceCon was born and launched in 2007. In today’s challenges a growing need in specialization of identifying and attracting talent. This specialized skill is no longer a solely owned function of the full lifecycle recruiters NOR considered only a junior role in both Agency and Corporate Recruiting departments.

The Sourcers, Researchers, Name Generator sand Candidate Developers have emerged as the new subject matter experts (SMEs) to help find talent in varies places out in the world wide web.

 They are the industry’s new heroes whose skills and expertise can no longer be confined to a side conversation at some of the national recruiting conferences.

SourceCon intentionally set out to be different from all the traditional conferences. They wanted a venue where you don’t have to feel like you are constantly being pitched and sold on a slide deck or discussion by the latest and greatest ( although this could be worked on, because we still have this happening, a hard habit that is being gradually broken). It was and is our intent that you spend your quality time and money on a conference that is bursting with opportunities to learn, share and collaborate with your peers, luminaries and industry leaders.

There is a lot to share, so I have decided to break it out in a few sections

SourceCon Tools  I Love & Discovered

 

  TokBox - Free Video Chat and Video Messaging  www.tokbox.com Free video chat and video mail to anyone in the world without downloads or hassles. Video call your AIM, MSN, GMail and Yahoo buddies. Send video mail to any e-mail address.

The answer to your interview questions • VoiceScreener: Improve your hiring process voicescreener.com  VoiceScreener lets you use your phone and a simple web-based dashboard to create and distribute custom, recorded phone interviews.

 Xobni - Outlook Plugin to Search People, Email, and Attachments Instantly www.xobni.com Xobni is an Outlook plugin that helps you search and organize your inbox. Download Xobni's Outlook plugin instantly.

Welcome to HootSuite - The Professional Twitter Client www.hootsuite.com HootSuite is the professional Twitter client. With HootSuite, you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, pre-schedule tweets, and measure your success.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Bing Recruiting Event in Mountain View, CA!

BING Recruiting Event

check it out

Watch the video and leave a comment!

We are holding an event in Mountain View, CA

For Local Candidates Only!

If you are interested in a challenging role, working with cutting edge technology, and innovation, please read on!

If you meet the skills criteria and are open to relocating to Bellevue, WA please send my totally awesome recruiter your updated resume to: eugenia.sawa@microsoft.com.

Relocation services to Bellevue, WA are provided upon hire.
Skills: We are hiring for numerous positions all of which require:

-A Minimum of a Bachelor's Degree in CS or a related field
-At least 5 years of solid and professional development experience

With expertise in one or more of the areas below:

-Experience with online services, web service integration, or online/web API development
-Strong passion for quality and Unit Testing/TDD
-Data Analysis, Statistics, Data Mining, Web Mining, Data Warehousing, OLAP, Business Intelligence (BI), Customer Intelligence (CI),Databases, User Modeling, or Information Retrieval
-Experience with Statistical Tools such as R, SAS, Tableau, or SPSS

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science. It doesn’t matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about – everyone is invited. Just sign the pledge below (click ‘pledge’ after you have completed the reCaptcha) and publish your blog post any time on Wednesday 24th March 2010. http://findingada.com

I know really awesome women who should be participating and if you know some yourself! Spread the word! This is a great opportunity!

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

AFTER THOUGHTS: Twitter 140TC Seattle March 8th, 2010

I am just saying………

I was so excited about the Twitter Conference here in Seattle! I went to the first one in California last year.

The Seattle Conference started at 8:30am and ended about 6:00pm. If I were to grade it I would give it a C+. Now I know most people might think that is pretty harsh, but for me and experiencing the California one, I am sorry, but it wasn’t as good. I certainly appreciate the efforts on bring it here, but the information, format, conversations, and yes even the keynote speakers were weak.

I tried to find something good to write about it and really struggled with what stood out for me and honestly I couldn’t really find anything. I was hoping to hear about more tools, developers to showcase their apps, branding ideas, and with the cost of the event and taking a full day off work it was a big disappointment for me.

Although it’s cool to see that I tweeted the most during the conference, I just wish my tweets were more about what I was learning instead of what I wasn’t learning.

http://blog.20dbs.com/140-twitter-conference-seattle-recap-140tc-analysis/2010/03/

What I DID Enjoyed:

 

Afternoon Discussion Panel: The Media Panel: Social Media Stories from the Front Lines

Panelists and Handles: Monica Guzman, Linda Thomas, Cliff DesPeaux, Jenni Hogan, Moderator: Sean Demery

Keynote Speaker: Dom Sagolla helped create Twitter while working for Odeo in 2006 and the Author of “@thebook  140 Characters”

The location was awesome Bell Harbor International Conference Center

The Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Drinks was very good.

The speakers/discussions felt more as if it’s was a “coffee chat” and honestly the energy was low and less exciting, maybe because there was reports of snow outside.

The most exciting part of the conference was when #Mashable RT #HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes announced that its popular Twitter application will be integration with both #MySpace and #Foursquare.

It was amazing how fast it took off, but at the same time… it was very annoying to have it take over the conference conversation, luckily it was at the tail end of the day!

There was a “tweet-up” (a afterhours twitter social, for the 2 who never used twitter before) after the conference, but I decided not to go based on what I experienced at the conference it felt already a tweet-up but without the alcohol.

At the end of the day, I was bummed out, although I am hoping for the 2 people who never used twitter before, got something out of it and joined.

Question? Will I stop going to Twitter Conference 140C – HELL NO, I just hope that the bar will be raised to meet the demands of the experienced twitter users out there!

I am just saying……..

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Total Recruiting Symposium: Seattle

Do you keep reading about great recruiting and sourcing industry conferences and wondered if they'd ever bring those world-class presenters and best practices to Washington? That way, you wouldn't have to deal with the costs and lost travel time. Not a webinar, but a real, in-person event. Well, it's finally here: the Seattle Total Recruiting Symposium.

What Will You Learn? Sourcing and Recruiting from Top to Bottom.

Join us for the only learning event that explores sourcing and recruiting strategy from the executive perspective, the management perspective and the individual contributor perspective. Learn the synergy between Internet and telephone sourcing methods working together to solve real, live, challenging requisitions. Get strategic insights and best practices to create an in-house research function for your organization. Learn more about this and other Total Recruiting Symposium events, and register today at: http://aces.arbita.net/symposium/2010/wa

Who Should Attend?

- Executives interested in forging a strategic connection between workforce planning and excellence in the recruiting and sourcing function.

- HR, Staffing and Recruiting Managers working to prioritize their sourcing and recruiting efforts.

- Sourcers and Recruiters hungry for professional development and information about tools and techniques that really work.

Place and Time

Starbucks Pacific NW / Seattle, WA April 6, 2010

Tue, 04/06/2010 - 8:00am - 5:00pm

Symposium Timezone: US/Pacific

Shally is offering my colleagues from Microsoft, Amazon, Providence, actually anyone who likes me J this discount code: [SYM4610NWRA] (or write back to Shally @ shally.steckerl@arbita.net about group rates). Simply enter that code at checkout and save $400 off registration at http://aces.arbita.net/symposium/2010/wa

Shally also writes a blog post about this event here: http://aces.arbita.net/blog/recruiting-game-changer-learning-event-coming-your-area-2010. He would love to know what you think about all this. Drop me or him a note and let us know or leave a comment on his  blog. Or just drop him a note if you have any questions, he would love to hear back from you!

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Top 8 Skills for Successful Partnering with Recruiters - Part 2

5. TransparencyRecruiters will ask straightforward questions, but are sometimes met with less-than-forthcoming answers. Why is this? Well, some say because candidates become shy about circumstances in their past that didn’t go so well. Here is some straight advice: better that the recruiter know what may have happened now, than having to do damage control later. If there’s a issues in your career, don’t hide it. Step up and discuss it with your recruiter; let us work with you. We can help you frame the situation for the hiring manager, if asked questions about it during your interview. Maybe you were affected by the economy and was terminated. Fine. But let’s look at what you learned from the experience. Have you improved as a result of it? Or maybe you walked out for a reason. Why? Or maybe it’s something else entirely. In any case, it’s better that we know upfront on a sensitive situation before your get too far along in the recruiting process, so that we’re not blindsided later if the hiring manager finds out about your history somehow before we do. It happens from time to time, and it’s feels like a pie in the face for us recruiters. Be Up Front!

6. Courtesy – When reaching out to us and you’re asking for our help, then please don’t treat us like “the help.” If you must, at least insult us behind our backs—not cool, but fine. Hiring managers come to us for a variety of reasons, and they know how best to work with us.  It is unacceptable for job seekers to display their annoyance that they have to “go through” a recruiter to be submitted for a position.  Ask yourself this question – “Would I rather have a recruiter do their best to offer me insight into the position that may not be found in the job description and have them give me feedback on my resume or interviewing prepping OR would I rather just take my chances by blindly sending a resume to into the database in hopes that someone will see my name on a piece of paper?" We are here to help you, so play nice in the sandbox.

7. Patience - It’s not personal, it’s the truth. Most recruiters are working on multiple reqs from 15 to 30 open positions or more at any given time, some may be new and others may be drawing to a close.  There are days we are instantly accessible to take your call and have a long chat about your desired career path; and other days we’re in back-to-back interviews or meetings from when we arrive until when we go home. Please be patient with us about getting back to you. Recruiters are not ignoring you, just working on many multiple projects. However, if you don’t hear back from us in a day or two, then please follow up with another voice message or email. You are important.

8. Humor – Yes, we’re asking a lot. Being friendly and having a smile in your voice goes a long way. It's important, not only in working through the understandably stressful career transition you’re undertaking, but also in making a positive impression with the hiring team. Everyone wants to work with happy co-workers. No one looks forward to working with ol' grump the next office. So approach us and our client hiring team with a smile and the ability to laugh at things.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Top 8 Skills For Successful Partnering with Recruiters

1. Realism - Recruiters are one way to get into your choice company when looking for a new job. However, they are not nor should they be the only way you take. My advice is that you work multiple recruiters and be honest about it, because the recruiters will find out eventually. Get involved and build your social network, and be active in professional associations. As recruiters, we’ll do our very best to find the best match and create that win/win scenario. Ultimately it’s up to you to make things happen.

2. Candidness & Prioritization - Discuss your priorities for a new role with your recruiter. Be candid. You won’t hurt our feelings. We’re not the hiring manager, we’re your partner throughout the process. If you had to make a choice today, what’s more important to you: money or location, title or responsibility, growth opportunities or work–life balance? If you don’t know, then we can’t help you on these choices, because everyone’s choices aren’t the same. However, we can ask questions to help you decide for yourself. This is one of the most important exercises to do when you first even think of looking for a job. Without knowing your own priorities, you may jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. That’s not what you want to do. So prioritize.

3. Open-Mindedness - Recruiters offer our best, most objective counseling and feedback. These may come in many different ways: 1. Advice on your resume for specific position. 2. How to answer questions effectively in an interview. 3. What’s the hiring team is really looking for in their ideal candidate. We’re trying to help you show the best version of yourself in the presence of the hiring manager. Take a deep breath and listen. When we give you suggestions, please listen and understand that we’re here to help you show your best side. Do not get defensive, and please do not show up to the interview and do the exact opposite that we counseled you not to do.

4. Responsiveness - Return your recruiter’s calls and emails. It really doesn’t necessarily mean drop everything and respond right away! I know we all have lives. Of course, if we’re talking about a job offer or salary negotiations, then yes, it’s pretty much drop everything. But if it’s more general, like seeing if you’re working or not, this is not a drop-everything communication. If a candidate is taking a lot of time to respond to something important — for instance a job offer or subsequent negotiations — it's a revealing sign that the candidate may not be all that interested in the position. Many times an offer has been rescinded because the candidate took too long to respond. Recruiters know that most job seekers are looking at multiple opportunities at the same time. For this reason once a hiring manager makes an offer to you and you're taking too much time to respond, the hiring manager (like it or not) assumes you must not be interested.  FYI - If you have to think about it more than a day or two then it’s too long by many corporate standards, and it’s a no-go in their mind. You’ve done your soul-searching, you’ve gone through the process, and now you have the offer: get on the phone to your recruiter and give your answer.

Check back for Part 2 for the final 4 skills for successful partnering with a recruiter.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log

Monday, March 1, 2010

Privacy Issues

This is part 2 of 3 on what you know about writing

and having a job-related blog or website. 

Should potential employers be reading your personal information? Probably not. However, if you put it on the Internet with it readily accessible, well then they can and they might. Some people list their personal web site or blog on their resume and most of us recruiters will look you up on any of the search engines. We're interested in knowing more about you as an individual. There's nothing to stop a hiring manager from doing the same, especially at tech companies.  If it's on your resume, the employer will look at it! Guaranteed! Hiring managers are more and more looking closely to what you have out there on the internet. Come on now, you have to know that! Some managers will try to find out as much about a candidate as they can, including looking up the person online before an initial phone call.  Your image speaks in volumes, and it's more than just your resume these days.

Even if you don’t put your web, blog, and profile on your resume, they will do a quick search via web and most cases they will find something about you.  People you least expect, and those that you certainly don't want reading it, may find it.  Not only your boss and prospective employers, but also your customers, colleagues and coworkers!

Look next week for Part 3 in this series.

Posted via email from Kay Kelison's Digital-Log