I can't believe that my first group (the first year I was an instructor at Douglass) of students at Rutgers University will be graduating this May!!! It's crazy to think of me (since I'm pretty close in age to the students) as having "former students" who are soon to be college graduates! Wow, it's making me feel old!!!
I can't officially announce any new position(s) yet, but I can say that I'm still conducting my "guerrilla-style" networking campaign on LinkedIn
(just click here for my profile on the site....if you know me feel free to ask to join via LinkedIn's site); however, if you don't know me (b/c you'd need my first name, last name & email address to add me as a connection on the site), but you feel as though you may be able to contribute and or benefit from my rapidly expanding network of super-talented former undergraduate students, friends, and family members, just post a comment here and I'll email you with an invitation if it looks like you'd make a good addition (please include your title, industry, business name if possible, and why you'd like to be added).
The networking project has been such a success that I'm refining my criteria for inclusion (as of now there are only 2 or 3 people out of the group that aren't people I know from in-person experiences--and it's because they're top recruiters who just might be beneficial to anyone in the 'work) and that's why I'm asking for the info if you'd like to join.
Oddly, recruiting has made a comeback in a way that I never thought I'd see (my dad dealt with recruiters and headhunters in the 80s) after the early 90s. Because I keep getting requests via email (yes, if you post your resume on monster or career builder, recruiters will contact you for just about any job on the planet...even if you're not qualified...some are legit others aren't...and most of them haven't read my resume...otherwise they wouldn't be emailing me about jobs in areas requiring high-level IT skills). However, there are plenty of legitimate recruiters out there and they are definitely looking for people (apparently it's not so easy to fill a "pipeline" w/ ready to go candidates for careers in a particular field).
This set of legitimate recruiters (FYI in-house recruiters tend to be preferable to staffing/recruiting firms, and hiring managers top the in-house recruiters when it comes to decision making power)* along with many specialized (field-specific or industry-specific) firms are part of my linked in network. So many companies are looking for "new talent" and I figured I'd just continue building my network (since the inception of any project is always the hardest...continuing this one is totally manageable) to hook up my "former-student-talent" with jobs!
However, I'm very protective of my former students! I have an unbelievable group that will be graduating in May 2007, 2008, & 2009 (and former students who haven't joined yet, don't think I forgot about you, I just haven't had time to get to every spreadsheet from every semester I taught--plus a lot of email addresses bounced--just get invited via the link above and use the same email as you did when you had me for an instructor :). Plus, as I continue to teach (I'll say more about that topic later), there will be more years w/ graduations to come!
* Hahahaha... I had to invoke the asterisk! The deal with the in-house vs firm based recruiters is going to vary depending on your field, industry and the size of the company. A small company won't have an in-house recruiter or "Talent Development Specialist" (one of the many synonyms for their job title); additionally, if you're specialized in an area that isn't conducive to employer-related recruiters, there are recruiters out there that specialize in just about everything and anything, so finding a reputable one could be the key to your job search!
Internet Recruiting
