I plan on surfing this wave for one hell of a ride.  My mission is to spotlight Women in Technology in New York City and create a meet-up for us to connect as peers, mentors and friends.  As Marlo Thomas put it on the new Women’s Page of the Huffington-Post that launched this past August; “You need to lift up many women, not just one woman.  For women there’s safety in numbers.  If you have only one woman at the table, she’s a pest.  Two women? That’s a team. But three? Now that’s a coalition.”

This past December Caroline Turner wrote in her article, Why women abandon the C suite-and how to get them back, “Women now represent about half of the hiring pipeline, entry-level positions and total workforce.  But at each level of management, women represent a lower percentage.”

The 2011 Catalyst Census showed women representing 47.6% of today’s workforce; in the 2011 Fortune 500 women represented only 14.4 percent of executive officers, and only made up 7.6% of top earners.  The good news is that Prior Catalyst research also revealed that advancing women to leadership positions is good for women and good for business.  The census found companies with more women in top leadership positions, on average, far outperform those with fewer.  Another new Catalyst release, The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards (2004–2008), indicates that sustained gender diversity in the boardroom correlates with better corporate performance―and not by just a little. Companies with three or more women board directors in four of five years, on average, outperformed companies with zero women board directors―by 84% return on sales, 60% return on invested capital, and 46% return on equity.

My research has shown me that women even if they don’t literally leave, they disengage or just quit climbing.  As women in leadership roles, we need to strive to inspire our people and inspire our fellows.  Helping and connecting with other women in the NYC Tech frontlines will produce high level support in turn re-engaging ourselves while simultaneously making us more confident leaders

Our Time is now and these women are doing it.  Let’s take a look into who they are, where they work and what they’ve accomplished.

Arianna Huffington is the president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of thirteen books. Her news blog site has become the most widely read, linked to and frequently cited media brands on the internet.  She has been twice named to Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. 

Heather Harde

Vice President, TechCrunch

Heather Harde has help bring TechCrunch from her boss’s living room to being acquired for a reported number between $40-50 million by AOL.  Heather spent the previous decade at News Corp., where she learned much of the discipline and skills needed to turn a group of bloggers into a media powerhouse.  In Fast Company magazine Harde says, “I had an appreciation of how difficult it was to create a brand in media. TechCrunch had become a brand. It now needed to scale into a media property.”

Chloe Sladden

Media Partnerships, Twitter

Sladden is responsible for partnering Live tweeting during media broadcasts.  In 2010 she brought “Live Tweeting” to be a key part of the MTV Video Music Awards which resulted in over 11 million viewers, the highest rated show since 2002.  Sladden also pioneered the first time a major news organization partnered with Twitter during the 2008 election.  She had a call to action to vote in the morning via twitter, and then journalists followed up with a live chat in the afternoon.  She is currently working to bridge Twitter’s API and TV, news and entertainment platforms.

Rachel Sterne

Chief Digital Officer, New York City

Sterne started GroundReport in 2006 and has become the Web’s best real-time-news portals according to Fast Company Magazine.  The role has led her to be the Chief Digital Officer in New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration.

Jessica Kahn

Vice President of Engineering, Disney Mobile

Jessica Kahn is the brains behind the Tap Tap Revenge which is the most popular iPhone game.  She manages engineering, operations, and strategy.  Kahn thought she’d be a lawyer, until she took a coding class her senior year at Dartmouth.  Kahn was also an Apple software engineer for almost 10 years.

Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss

Co-Founders, Rent the Runway

This duo’s e-commerce company Rent the Runway allows women across America to rent instead of purchasing luxury designer dresses and accessories.  Hyman and Fleiss are on track to revolutionize the fashion industry.  The pair met at Harvard Business School and is taking a customer behavior of buying to renting.  Converting those I’ll only wear that once purchases into rentals.  The site works as a hotel reservation site and women can rent a dress for an occasion starting at $50 receiving the dress for up to eight days. 

Enter W.I.Ny.C;)

Let’s take action and impact ourselves and support other woman.  I present to you,  Women, Inspire, New York City – W.I.Ny.C .  A technology based meet up for Women in NYC. 

On the last Thursday of every month we will meet up and have a selected speaker lead a topical round table discussion.  W.I.Ny.C.;)’s meet up will be a place for women to share their story, future goals as well as current challenges.   Our first meet-up will be February 23, 2012 at my office, located at 11 East 44^th Street, suite 1200.  We will start at 7pm, please let me know if you would like to join us.

I can be reached at troelser@talener.com

I look forward to meeting you.

The Project Management team worked closely with Jesse for several weeks, building a close relationship and getting a better understanding of where his background would be a good fit.  He was always honest with his feedback and prompt with communication.  Working with accessible, straightforward, and affable candidates always makes our job so much easier.

One company we were working with, Offerpop, had been searching months to find someone just like him.  They wanted someone who had his industry experience, but more importantly- his demonstrated interest and passion for their product.  After meeting with managers at Offerpop, it was clear that this was a perfect match on both sides.  The company immediately put out an offer, and Jesse couldn’t have been happier to accept.  He will be their Director of Product, a critical position in helping the growing company expand.

We wish Jesse the best, and can’t wait to see how Offerpop evolves in the coming months.  Check out Offerpop at www.offerpop.com, and Jesse’s self-penned book The Secret Peace: Exposing the Positive Trend of World Events.

• NYC was $16,933
• LA was $16,143
• SF was $27,416

That means that the average salary for candidates:

• NYC was $84,665
• LA was $80,715
• SF was $137,080

If I were a Software, Web, Mobile, JAVA, Microsoft, Open-Source Developer, Architect or Manager, I’d sure want to check out what’s going on in Silicon Valley.

Sorry NYC and LA.

With a very aggressive job market for Software Engineers, it is easy for a candidate to confuse interviews, companies, jobs, etc.  Here’s a series of questions that we ask our candidates after they complete interviews from us that we hope you find it a useful tool.

Immediate questions to answer after the interview

1)      First impression of the interview, how did the interview go?

2)      How did you do in the interview?

3)      How long were you there?

4)      Who did you meet? (Names and Title)

5)      What did you talk with those people about?  What questions did they ask you?

6)      How did you handle the questions?

7)      How did they describe the job to you?

8)      What questions did you ask them?

9)      What technical questions did they ask you specifically and who asked you those questions?

10)   How did you leave things off when you left?

11)   What do you think of the job, people, company, technology?

12)   If they are interested in bringing you back for another interview, would you be interested in going back for another interview?

13)   What questions do you still have about the job, the company, the team, the technology, the future?

14)   Do you want the job? What did you like specially about the position

Comparison Time:

Activity: Keep a List/Spreadsheet.  Activity can mean interviews, places you’ve sent your resume to, friends who you’ve given your resume to, etc.

Past, Present, Future (Not yet schedules, but companies that you are interested in and have received some level of response)

What other positions have you interview for past and present? What are the interviews do you have scheduled?  What other companies are you waiting to hear back from?

Rank: What’s your #1 Job and why?  What’s your #2 and why? Etc.

1)      How do the new jobs compare to your current role or the prospect of staying on the Market?

2)      Compare:  $, Location, Technology, Growth path, Team, Company, Role

Process:  

1)      How many interviews have you had with each company?

2)      What needs to happen to schedule another interview?

3)      What needs to happen to make an offer?

4)      Do you have your references?

5)      Will you pass a background check, drug test, pre-employment test?

6)      Have you spoken to your significant other about your new job opportunities?  How would a new job affect your life? (Benefits,  Working Hours, Commute Time and Cost)

Offer:  More is always better, but:

1)      What is your ideal offer?

2)       How are you going to negotiate with the client to get to that number? 

3)      What is acceptable? 

4)      What will you definitely turn down? 

Check it out here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tech-career-guide-20120130,0,7208981.story

And feel free to share it.  Enjoy!

The IT talent shortage has gotten a lot of attention in the media, etc., but how hard is it to get a job in IT if you have only (re)training with no actual work experience?

If you are trying to enter the IT world then you have to enter at the right level, which is either as an intern or at the entry level help desk or desk top support level or administrative assistant in the IT Department.  Certification programs/advanced training is a great start! But individuals will still need to start at the bottom, which may mean taking on an un-paid internship, which allows the individual the opportunity to prove to the perspective employer that this is the field they want to be in. Additionally, employers love to hear about outside passions and hobbies, so it’s critical to discuss your tech hobbies if you don’t have any actual work experience.

On a personal note, one of my favorite placements of all time was with the Monster Board in 1998.  The Managers running the technology department were very young entrepreneurs.  They told me that they were looking for junior people, a certification was acceptable, however, they didn’t want anyone old to manage because they were so young.  I had them meet with 10 candidates in 1 day.  When the interviews concluded, they asked me, who I thought that they liked and who I thought they didn’t like.  Bottom-line, their favorite candidate was the older guy, who had just gotten his Microsoft Certification and he said something like, “I know this certification means nothing.  I want an opportunity to learn and given the opportunity, I will deliver.”

A follow-up question to that would be, if employers prefer to hire people who have training *and* experience, then how can you get experience?  Would a staffing firm like Talener have opportunities for would-be techies who’ve been trained but haven’t worked in the field (yet)? Or do contract/temp positions require experience as well?

Talener is the best friend to a candidate like this for a few reasons:

• We have established strong relationships with our clients at both the Management and Human Resources Levels, across industries who will interview candidates that we feel they would like, rather than only interviewing candidates for positions that might have the perfect resume.
• With such a shortage of Technology Talent out there right now, we are hearing more and more from our clients that they are looking for someone hungry, passionate and enthusiastic and you can’t spell hungry on a resume.  Our staff interviews the candidates ahead of time and gets to know them on a deeper level and therefore we do a much better job representing that candidate to our clients. We then take that information to the hiring manager and strongly suggest, and in some cases, insist on the interview.

An individual can gain the experience by joining a company at the right level or by joining the right type of company.If an individual has no experience and is passionate about wanting to work in IT, then join a technology company, even at the administrative level or in a non-technical function that you may be more qualified for.  From there, learn by listening, asking questions and engaging with your coworkers at every opportunity and make it clear that you are passionate about technology and you would welcome an opportunity to transition into a pure more technical role whenever possible.  If you can successfully prove yourself in your current role,  eventually a position will be presented to you.  You can expedite this internal transfer by taking advanced training classes independently and on your own time.  Share that with the Technology team and get some insight from them as to what you should be studying. It might take a year or more, but we believe that it will happen. 

There are a few other ways of working your way into a more technology role: Such as Project Management Office, Office Management, Pre-Sales, Professional Services and Support Contract positions at the entry level are a great opportunity, but few and far between.

Link to the article is here:http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/26/can-you-snag-a-tech-job-with-training-alone/?section=magazines_fortune

Enjoy!

Here is a link to the article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikamorphy/2012/01/22/6-new-job-titles-that-4g-will-deliver/

Startups can be defined as companies that have limited operating history, and typically have potential for high growth.  They attract investors based on their risk/reward potential and scalability.  Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur and adjunct professor at Columbia’s Business School has written extensively about entrepreneurship and has defined six distinct types of startups:

1. Lifestyle: These are businesses formed by people pursuing their passion and making a living doing what they love.  This could be someone who loves music opening a record store or someone who loves clothing to own a boutique fashion store.

2. Small Business Startup: These are small business owners who see their business as a vehicle to earn money and make a living.  They don’t have to necessarily be passionate about what they do or intend for their business to grow.  They just want their “slice of the pie.” Examples could be independently owned shops like restaurants and convenience stores.

3. Scalable Startup: These are companies whose founders intend for company to grow into a large corporation.  Unlike small business startups, the founders plan to eventually go public and make money in an IPO.  These types of companies tend to group together in innovation clusters (Silicon Valley, NYC, Boston, etc), and are very relevant to Talener’s business and the tech industry.

4. Buyable Startup: These are companies whose goal is to put out a marketable product, then be sold to a larger company.  These can include web and mobile app companies that hope to create popular apps, attract a user base, and get acquired by more established companies.

5. Large Company Startup: These are divisions within a large corporation created to capture market share of a current trend.  A large company can create these subsidiaries internally or acquire existing innovative companies to take over.  An example of this is Apple acquiring Siri for the iPhone 4S.

6. Social Startup: These are companies that are founded as a means to change or improve the world more so than just make money for founders or capture market share.  Someone could be passionate about a certain cause and start a company as a vehicle to help this cause.  An example is Tom’s Shoes- for every pair of shoes sold, they’ll donate a pair to someone in need.

Startup companies are primarily funded one of three ways: with the founder’s own personal money, seed money from angel investors, and venture capital.  Equity stake is often tied into compensation packages, but its value is tied to the success of the company.  Most large companies are publicly owned or part of a larger holding company’s collection of brands.  They are collectively owned through stock sold to the general public.

The structure of startups is very horizontal.  The founders are entrepreneurs who have invested heavily in their project and are involved in every aspect of the business.  The CEO and cofounder will also be a sales lead or hands on engineer.  Large companies can have staffs that exceed the hundreds or thousands; therefore they need to be hierarchical to maintain effective structure.  Some people will prefer the chain of multiple managers and organized meetings.  It can get bureaucratic, but offers security and a stable career ladder to pursue.

Culture is oftentimes the biggest difference between startups and large companies.  In a small company you have much more interaction with your coworkers, act as a team striving towards the same shared goal, and generally have looser administrative controls than the systematic makeup of a large company.  In these larger companies you won’t befriend everyone, but may have broader company pride.  Work life balance is an important factor for many people, and the perks and benefits will be different across.  Some are comfortable with the structure of a corporate environment, some enjoy the flexibility of a less restricted one.

Employees can have a demonstrable impact on a startup’s overall success and play a more influential role than in a larger organization.  They also have an opportunity for accelerated learning and contributing in ways beyond just their own job responsibilities.  People who have worked for startups will often say that “startup years are like dog years” because of the amount of skills and experience acquired in such a short period of time.  For someone young and independent, it could be a great fit in this kind of environment.

Entrepreneurs take big risks and are often gambling at critical decision-making points, with outcomes that can go either way.  The company offers excitement and potential for large achievements, but can also lose funding or make poor business decisions at any moment.  Startups usually take on much more risk than large companies.  They have to be aware of funding concerns, keeping up with market conditions, and protecting intellectual property. A large company with conglomerate backing can offer very steady career advancement for those who desire long-term security.  You have a defined path towards an end goal and stability with your work-life balance.

Employees of startups also like that they can see a company grow from nothing to a well-known name.  They feel invested in the brand and know the tangible impact they had in helping the company get to this point.  Startups always have the potential to evolve into large corporations though.  With rapid growth, strategy and leadership often changes. Founders who think a certain way aren’t necessarily always the right leaders from a business standpoint.

Because working with a startup is much different than working with a large company, you must also approach the job search differently.  Hiring managers of small and large companies will often have different priorities in what they find important in their candidates.

With startups, personality and culture fit are usually the most important factors.  Hiring managers are often cofounders who want to identify candidates that share their same passion and vision.  Therefore, the skill set could be great, but a genuine interest in the company’s product is just as important.  These hires are very important to them because they can significantly affect the company’s future and success.  These founders think much differently than a corporate manager and understand that their new hires will play a more impactful role.  Ability to mesh with current employees, character traits, and outlook matter just as much as ability to perform technical aspects of the job.

With large companies, a culture fit may be important but skillset and ability excel at the job usually are still the top priority.  With a larger and more diverse staff, individual behavior does not affect the company as much as it could in a startup.  A hiring manager at a large company usually won’t disqualify a strong candidate solely because of their personality the way startups often will.  The hiring process at large companies also tend to go through multiple rounds and need approval from several layers of managers.  This ensures selective vetting and a chain of approval.  Executives are rarely ever hands on in hiring midlevel positions.

There are not as many layers in a startup where the CEO/CTO/Founder is usually also the hiring authority.  Startups will often offer equity share, but its value is tied to the potential of the company.  Some like to be incentivized by this minority ownership of small startups. Others would rather have a signing and end of the year bonus with larger companies.

Candidates should keep these distinctions in mind when searching for new opportunities.  Strategy, structure, funding, culture, and hiring practices will differ between small and large companies, so they should consider their own interests and find the right personal fit.

“Thanks to this outstanding partnership and groundbreaking proposal from Cornell and the Technion, New York City’s goal of becoming the global leader in technological innovation is now within sight,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “By adding a new state-of-the-art institution to our landscape, we will educate tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and create the jobs of the future. This partnership has so much promise because we share the same goal: to make New York City home to the world’s most talented workforce.”

–Mayor Michael Bloomberg

                The Cornell/Technion applied science & engineering campus on Roosevelt Island will be quite extensive. Plans include housing to accommodate 2,500 graduate students and 280 faculty members by 2043. This is projected to increase the number of full-time graduate students enrolled in NYC Master’s and Ph.D. programs by approximately 70%. An off-site campus will be opened in 2012 and the first permanent housing will be completed no later than 2017. By 2027 the campus will have been expanded to 1.3 million square feet. The New York City Economic Development Corporation projects that the project will generate $23 billion in economic activity over the next 30 years and $1.4 billion in tax revenue. The campus alone will create some 20,000 construction jobs and 8,000 permanent jobs. It is also believed that approximately 600 spin-off companies will be created as well, leading to an additional 30,000 permanent jobs. Cornell will also immediately be offering Master and Doctoral degrees in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Information Science and Engineering.

While the planned Cornell/Technion campus on Roosevelt Island has garnered considerable attention in recent months, there has been a plethora of additional strategic moves made by the City in the past 24 months to increase NYC’s standing as a global center for technology entrepreneurship.

The creation of the Mayor’s Council on Technology and Innovation is just one of such measures. The council will consist of NYC industry leaders who will seek to identify new opportunities for the City to cultivate success in its rapidly growing technology sector. It will also address areas of concern or risk that the technology sector may face, as well as identify joint action items for the City and members of the Council to undertake.

The creation of affordable and accessible incubator space has also increased NYC’s appeal in the eye of the budding tech entrepreneur. Highly lauded incubators like TechStars, are providing necessary resources and allowing for the kind of “shoulder-rubbing” environments so vital to the success of nascent tech companies. Co-working spaces like WeWork Labs, General Assembly, and Dogpatch and incubators like TechStars, Gramercy Labs Collective, and Prehype are experimenting with new ways to cultivate young companies in NYC.

“We are finally seeing the tech industry recruiting away from other industries in NYC, such as lawyering, banking, consulting, etc. And this is exciting because people, who previously were taking the safer financial road, are instead going for their dreams, starting great companies and creating a new ecosystem.” 

–TechStars’ Managing Director David Tisch

An early-stage investment fund, the NYC Entrepreneurial Fund, has been created, with the City setting aside $3 million and an additional $19 million being added by venture capital firm FirstMark Capital, totaling $22 million. An initial investment of $300k was made in MyCityWay, a mobile application provider and winner of the inaugural NYC BigApps competition.

The NYC BigApps competition, 3 years and running, has created an annual outlet for the type of technological innovation and creativity that Mayor Bloomberg hopes to foster. The competition entails the releasing of city information – property tax records, the city-wide tree census, Wi-Fi hotspots, where dog runs are located, etc. – to local tech companies to see what kinds of creative ways they can come up with to utilize the information.

A new initiative designed to ensure start-up companies are able to harness the talent that exists within the City’s immigrant community has been put into place. Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP, a top immigration law firm in NYC, will lead seminars covering immigration considerations for startups. The seminar will include an overview of the non-immigrant visa categories, requirements for eligibility for both businesses and employees, and employee/beneficiary issues. General Assembly – one of nine City-sponsored small business incubators – will host the seminars, which will begin later this fall.

                What this all means for the local technology staffing industry is quite clear. With a growing amount of venture capital funding flowing into the city – now second only to Silicon Valley – the number of tech startups and top-tier talent setting up shop here is rapidly increasing. New York City can now boast of having replaced Boston as the 2^nd-most desired location of choice amongst technology startups, with 86 venture capital deals worth $831 million being closed in NYC vs. 83 investments worth $710 million in Boston-based companies. And with an increasing number of well-funded startups taking root in the local market, there will be more hiring activity and a larger, more sophisticated, and ultimately more talented candidate base to recruit from. With a new state-of-the-art world-class institution on the East River, NYC tech staffing firms will now have the ability to recruit top-notch Computer Science talent right from its doorstep.