Kathryn Ullrich Associates, Inc. ended 2004 with a bang and started 2005 with new searches. Reporters often call to ask me ‘What is happening on the street in the job market?’ as a real world indicator of what they are hearing from the expert market predictors. In this newsletter I’ll compare what the experts are saying about the 2005 job market with the early indicators and predictions I foresee based on my experience in the recruiting industry here in Silicon Valley.
Experts Say
Summarizing experts*, the California job market in 2005 is expected to see solid growth though not dramatic increases. In 2004, job growth in general increased in the nation, California and Bay Area -- though job growth typically lags other signs of recovery. The overall 2004 recovery included cautious hiring and individuals taking jobs outside traditional payroll statistics categories, which has been referenced as the “informal employment.”
These modest increases are expected to continue in 2005. In a recent ExecuNet survey of executives, 39% are confident/very confident and 48% somewhat confident that hiring of executives will improve during the first six months of the year which is an improvement over expectations set the second half of last year. Experts’ opinions for increases in the job market mirror my experience in executive recruiter services.
2005 Early Indicators
After “election jitters” somewhat affected recruiting in the fall, Kathryn Ullrich Associates, Inc. ended 2004 by closing three searches in the last weeks of the year – a Director of Engineering, a Director of Sales and Marketing, and a National Account Manager. In all clients, the companies were eager to have someone in place by year-end. The National Account Manager search closed within 20 days in order to have the successful candidate on board and up-to-speed for a sales kick-off meeting in mid-January.
The 2005 job market in Silicon Valley is starting off with many companies expressing a strong desire to hire executives though being somewhat cautious about contracting executive recruiters. Overall the trend is for increased openings at companies. Another positive sign, staffing firms are also citing an increase in the need for in-house recruiters for corporations.
2005 Predictions
Kathy Ullrich predicts the following hiring trends for 2005:
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Merger movement. Attorneys and investment bankers would say it’s safe to predict that with the PeopleSoft/Oracle and Symantec/Veritas mergers there will be more to come this year. Companies are eager to hire the strong talent displaced or disenchanted with the mergers. For example, SAP, Siebel, NetSuite and others have expressed publicly their desire for displaced PeopleSoft talent and are in some cases are helping with outplacement efforts.
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Sales improvements. Companies are continuing to improve their sales talent, wanting seasoned individual contributors with specific industry target market experience and an extensive Rolodex who can cold call, build strong relationships, and close deals. Examples: a software ASP requires a sales executive who can target publishing or a networking company who wants someone selling into local government.
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Product Manager SMEs. Companies are developing specialized applications and require deep Subject Matter Experts to define customer requirements. For example, subject matter expertise in workforce analytics, health insurance, or international tax.
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Hosted application/ASP experience. Companies have increasing need for employees with hosted application and high availability backgrounds in engineering and operations.
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Sarbanes-Oxley. Corporations continue to implement financial systems and processes for compliance and have human capital needs in replacing financial officers, adding compliance experience or hiring consultants. In addition, start-ups focused on compliance solutions require experienced product management and salespeople.
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Internet Security. With one in 16 email messages in 2004 carrying a virus and 80% of companies reporting infiltration by spyware, companies will continue to need resources in IT to battle this spread, as well as expert product management and engineering to build products that defeat increasing spam, spyware, and adware threats.
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Payments/Billing. Historical studies show that the real growth and wealth from a landmark transformation like the Internet is created after the initial boom and bust. One of the components to Internet growth will be vehicles for further monetizing the Internet. These billing and payments companies will require domain expertise and industry partnerships for mass acceptance.
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Retention. Companies have increased concern around retention of key employees as job opportunities and start-up investment continue to open up solid options for employees.
To a prosperous 2005!
Current Searches
Kathryn Ullrich Associates, Inc. is currently working on a number of searches that may be of interest to your friends or former colleagues. For more information, go to the Contact Us page of www.ullrichassociates.com.
- VP Engineering – Hosted contact center company
- Product Manager, Workforce analytics – Leading enterprise software company
- Product Manager, Health insurance – Leading enterprise software company
- Product Manager, International tax – Niche software company
- Associate – Boutique executive recruiting firm (Dallas)
- Manager/Senior Consultant, Process/IT - Financial services consulting firm
Kathryn Ullrich Associates, Inc. continues to focus on VP, Director, Manager and individual contributor executive level hires across the functions of Product Marketing/Management, Marketing, Sales, Engineering, and Consulting.
News
Kathy Ullrich was a Distinguished Speaker at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management Executive MBA program on January 21. Kathy and other recruitment experts from Spencer Stuart and M-Squared commented on the job market heating up and how executives should use, but not rely on, executive recruiters as one prong of a job search during career transition.
Upcoming Events
Some coming events that may be of interest:
- Feb. 24 – “It’s Not What Happens – It’s How You Bounce” featuring Sally Crawford, President of ATW Silicon Valley.