Chicago VP HR Market Heats Up

Recently, I had the pleasure of having a conversation regarding the Chicago Human Resources job market with Paul Schneider, partner with SSP, an outplacement and executive coaching firm with offices in Oakbrook Terrace, Chicago, Deerfield, Racine, WI and St. Louis, MO. Long recognized as an HR networking icon and HR market authority in Chicago, Paul seems to know where senior leadership is on the "Chicago HR Chess Board" at any given moment and what moves are about to take place. Consequently, our conversation focused on what the Chicago market looked like at the Vice President, Human Resources level.

Since 2002, Paul has compiled market data which he regularly shares in his newsletter,SSP Perspective.

Acccording to Paul,

"The Senior VP HR Market looks strong - It's up over 40% compared to this time last year - These VP openings are the bell weather of how the economy is growing."

The data indicates that there are 21 openings in Q1 2007 as opposed to just 15 at this time a year ago. This undoubtably will have a trickle down effect for positions reporting into the VP level. Good news indeed for those seeking senior level HR opportunities and networking in the Chicago market.

Job Search Hack - Client Is Confidential?

Several months ago I was contacted by a search firm that was conducting a "confidential" search for a client of theirs in Chicago. This happened late in the day on a Friday. The search firm indicated that they came across my name through the course of business networking. We had a brief telephone conversation and during the course of the discussion the search associate told me that they were not at liberty to reveal the name of their client. I asked them to send me the position specification so I could take a closer look and further evaluate the opportunity.

The specification came via email as promised, with an added bonus, the identity of the client company. Huh?? - By using the file>properties option on the Microsoft Word attachment, I could clearly see the name of the client they were working for. It seems that many administrative assistants who take formalized training in Microsoft Office Suite are instructed to complete these fields. Amazing yet simple.

Job Search Hack - Blind Posting?

I've seen this happen countless times. A job posting is placed on a site favored by recruiters such as Craigslist, Jobkabob or The Ladders. The recruiter describes the client but decides not to reveal the client name. This is a blind posting. Or is it? Well it just might not be.

Copy and paste is one of the first editing techniques people learn when working with text on computers. The process saves time, but in the recruiting world, particularly in the realm of contingency recruiting, the time saved may not be worth it.

Recruiters who want to maintain client anonymity should avoid using client fed job descriptions verbatim. Rewriting the position posting to avoid the use of unique verbiage or descriptors can help. Alas some recruiters prefer to copy and paste and fail to do this, not realizing the client may have previously posted the position elsewhere on a less effective medium or one that is less focused on the target market.

Savvy job searchers are leveraging the power of vertical job search engines as a method to expose blind ads. It does not work all of the time but sometimes it does. It is a simple three step process that involves:

1. Finding the blind position and (here is the irony) copying unique verbiage. In this case "appropriate mix of compensation vehicles".

2. Choosing your favorite vertical search engine and (more irony) pasting unique verbiage "appropriate mix of compensation vehicles" into "What": then clicking the gray Find Jobs button.

3. Reviewing the results and following the links to see detail and possibly who the company is. In this case, the company is Nicor, Inc. Note that "appropriate mix of compensation vehicles" is highlighted below.


As a reference, here is a listing (in no particular order) of some of the more popular vertical job search engines in the United States - Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, Jobster, Just-Posted.com

Inaugural Post - Chicagoland HR Transition Group

The inaugural post for this blog profiles The Chicagoland HR Transition Group, a networking group that has helped countless HR professionals in the Chicago metropolitan area in transition. The networking group is a virtual community. Membership is restricted to HR professionals in transition, group alumni and HR professionals wishing to network.

Currently the group, a Yahoo! Group, is comprised of 320 professionals seeking opportunities in the metropolitan Chicago and suburban areas. The group was formed upon the merger of two Chicago area HR networking groups (Northwest HR Group and JobNetworkILHR). Members contribute to the success of the group and support one another by actively sharing leads and providing feedback to information requests. This is accomplished by posting information to the Yahoo Group as well as by sharing information in face to face group meetings which occur weekly.

Information shared includes job leads and positions not typically posted elsewhere, networking advice, meeting notices, landing reports, requests for contacts at specific companies and other helpful job search information. The Chicagoland HR Transition Group alternates meetings between downtown Chicago at Scherer, Schneider, Paulick and suburban Rolling Meadows at Arlington Resources Inc.