Posts by jsumma:
- Traffic egress from the Big Game was flawless after the home team’s win! Was it just luck?
- You’ve saved 15 minutes each way in commute time since ORT was implemented on your route! This one is fairly obvious, I am thinking.
- You can change your travel plans effortlessly because your phone tells you about the traffic congestion coming up ahead! What can’t your phone do?
- visit a water or sewage treatment plant (what an eye opener!),
- receive lessons on their state’s most complex contemporary public works/infrastructure project, preferably inclusive of a field trip guided by an engineer-educator, and
- witness in-school demonstrations of the engineering disciplines that touch their lives on a daily basis – civil, mechanical, electrical – so they understand exactly how these skills apply to the world around them.
The Fallacy of “Social Recruiting”
March 26th, 2012
Everything that can be counted doesn’t necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. ~Albert Einstein
This is a post for the recruiters among us, or those interested in what we do. It is relevant to both internal corporate recruiting professionals and third-party search consultants. It is relevant to managers who need to hire. It will probably bore the heck out of the rest of you, so move on if you are so inclined.
Today I’d like to discuss this concept of “social recruiting.” This term has been the rage for a couple of years now, and is meant to describe the act of harnessing the power of web-based social networks to identify and woo talent.
Social media is a powerful force. It reconnects people from far corners of our lives and can help keep us connected to them. It makes a very big world seem much smaller and manageable. Some have even credited social media with toppling dictatorships and fostering democracy because it so successfully unleashes the voice of a people that heretofore has been suppressed. At its worst, it provides a distraction we don’t really have time for and it feeds our voyeuristic tendencies by transforming us into bystanders of others’ lives — people we may not have seen in eons.
In recruiting, social networking is leveraged as a platform to reach out to people relevant to a career opportunity. Twitter, Facebook, BeKnown, Branch Out, LinkedIn are all places where professionals congregate to own a piece of the web. Employers wisely use these platforms to distribute messages about their hiring needs. It’s fabulous because a user can target his message to a very relevant subset of people. These networks are also used to disseminate information relevant to one’s firm, the industry and the professions. It’s all very useful information. However, social media is just another distribution channel for your marketing message, and that is all. When people are listening, it can be useful. But how long will the audience listen before it tires of the endless stream of self-serving messages? For how long will your addressees embrace the dopamine drip of perceived “connectedness” before it becomes a pathetic annoyance?
Some of you may not be old enough to remember, but once upon a time Monster.com was anointed THE platform to end all recruiting woes. In the mid-1990s it was “early adopter” territory. Early adopters were the people I wanted to connect with back then, and it was a great tool for my needs. But did you know that by the time Monster.com reached critical success the #1 search term on the web site was “part time?” Yes, by 2000, Monster.com had jumped the proverbial shark. It became, due to its Super Bowl ad campaign and mass marketing, about as effective for strategic recruiting as the newspaper employment ads of yore. Add to this the fact that the market quickly became saturated with online job boards which merely replicate postings from other web sites (a practice which endures today), and you have not only a targeting problem but a credibility issue.
What happens when the world discovers the truth about the social networking platforms? The truth – besides the fact that they are a major time suck – is that there is little that is truly “social” about social networking. Because it is FREE, everyone who hasn’t already adopted it soon will. Suddenly, what you already think is an unmanageable influx of information will multiply by tenfold at least. On social network platforms that are segmented for the professional set, this will be especially salient as the economy heats up. How much longer before end users tune out the incredible volume of self-serving messages littering virtual in-boxes? If you are BUSIER THAN YOU HAVE BEEN IN YEARS do you honestly believe anyone else has the time to listen to your marketing?!? How long will it take your followers to realize they have opted into nothing more than your advertising?
Let’s talk more about the ‘unsocial’ networks, shall we? How many of us are guilty of being connected to people with whom we have never spoken? I don’t know about you, but when I reach out to someone in an effort to connect personally it’s with the intent of making that a real connection at some point. I invite them to call me. I mean well; but is there enough time to truly nurture ALL of those relationships in the day/week/year/lifetime??? I lament that I probably have too many shallow connections on these sites…. I know I am not the only guilty party. This is precisely the type of promiscuous connecting behavior which will ruin the format for all of us.
My gut instinct tells me that the more we allow shallow contacts and relationships into our lives, the more valuable the actual “real life” connections become. My ability to successfully get my job done for my clients requires personal contact that cannot be replaced by 1’s and 0’s slipping across the ether. The internet can be a good way for us to learn about each other. As Americans, we LOVE its efficiency for communicating, but it is no substitute for breaking bread and building relationships that exist even when we’re unplugged.
Turnover Tipping Point 4:
The Empty Nest
February 9th, 2012
I noticed that I dropped the ball on my “Turnover Tipping Points” series back in ’09. I never gave you the 4th in the quad. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that, in 2009, there was so much ‘turnover’ that was involuntary. It seemed almost crass to continue to talk about why people leave jobs. There was also a sense that the “rules of the game” were changing.
Managers, take heed: I have come to the conclusion my truisms are universal, economic context notwithstanding.
Today’s turnover “tipping point” discussion is about The Empty Nest. When the kids leave the home – to become independent adults, go to college or graduate from college – adults often take inventory of place.
Many professionals cannot consider a job change – especially one which requires relocation – when the kids are in high school. Elementary school? No sweat! The young ones make friends like they change sweaters. Middle school? Okay! What middle schooler doesn’t want a fresh start? High School? Not happening! If not deterred by academic considerations, then most will likely be waylaid by the utter hostility the suggestion of relocation evokes in a typical teen (as if there weren’t enough ruffled feathers already!).
As a result, there is often a pent up desire for change that stirs once the shackles of high school stability unlock. Motivations can be varied, ranging from desires to try something or somewhere new and different to very tangible needs for bigger paychecks to put the kids through college. I’ve spoken to more than a few people who are ready to leave the suburbs and get back to the city as a lifestyle choice — something they specifically avoided with adolescents in the home.
Bottom line is, as a manager, you should stay reasonably aware of what is going on in your employees’ personal lives to understand how and why it may affect the stability of your team. The behaviors outlined in this series are not necessarily scientific fact, but I see them happen often enough, anecdotally, to postulate a bona-fide pattern. Wisdom comes through experience.
Drew Carey 16 Miles, 1.5 hours and PPP
January 10th, 2012
Perhaps you socialize with more people in the public transportation industry than I do. For you, discussing matters relating to public transportation may not be the #1 way to end a conversation at a cocktail party. For me, such attempts usually end with, “Oh, look! Tom and Liz have arrived. Excuse me!”
You do a great job of educating me on the issues that affect your market space. But let’s face it, these issues are not accessible to the general public. I am always interested in how to communicate to the world the obscure issues you know about that affect all of us every day. Like anything that has to do with infrastructure, it’s only provocative when it doesn’t work. Since you do your jobs so well, it’s usually working, right?
In the case of highways, there are certain regions in which the system is generally considered “broken,” as defined by really bad traffic congestion. Funny thing is, you in the industry can determine when any given system is likely to “break” and plan for it. However, when the plan requires money, and funding options include toll roads or – gasp! – privatization, the public’s lack of understanding leads to an emotional uproar.
What is causing this unrest? Is it a market that has not reached its threshold of pain or is it a lack of information? Both? Would communicating these matters in a more accessible, non-politically-motivated way be helpful? These are questions which always interest me; can you tell me what you think?
What is your opinion of this video, produced by reason.tv and hosted by Drew Carey? Do you think it is too one-sided to be effective? Do you think it is successful in presenting its pro-privatization point of view?
ITS: What’s In A Name?
December 12th, 2011
I attended the ITS World Congress in Orlando several weeks ago to get up close and personal with an industry I’ve supported for several years. I enjoyed the opportunity to see some familiar faces, got to connect other faces to names and voices, and absorbed a lot of information about the state of transportation technology. As a special bonus, I got to see Ray LaHood deliver a pro-transportation infrastructure investment speech live and in person. That was cool!
My observations lead me to believe that the market described by the term Intelligent Transportation Systems, once conjuring up images of laying cable, signal timing, traffic cameras, and variable message signs, now seems to be covering a lot more ground. Examples like vehicle telematics, electronic tolling, traveler information services, probe data collection, parking management systems, and transit information services are just the tip of a very large iceberg.
If you’ve ever read previous blogs here or spoken to me directly, you might know that I am always interested in how to communicate the hidden world of what You do. This is why I was amused when, in one breakout session at the conference, it was suggested that the ITS professions do a lousy job of touting their own accomplishments to the users who benefit from their expertise and technology. Yes!
Does the end user know who or what to credit for this gift of time and fewer headaches? Do consumers know what is meant by Intelligent Transportation Systems or ITS? Would we all benefit from having an accessible term to embrace, one which clearly communicated the systems that make driving safer and easier?
With the advent of ubiquitous data, much of it captured wirelessly, the field itself is changing rapidly. Why is it so important for people using these systems to know what the technology is all about? Because consumers are the critical component to its success, not only through their willingness to adopt its usage, but by their understanding that they are actually — thanks to crowd-sourced data — part of the system.
It is important to get overt buy-in from the public (not hidden in EULAs tied to random, non-transportation-related apps), because taking information from users’ cars and phones in any way but an in-your-face opt-in manner will, at best, subvert interested participation. At worst, it will cause roadblocks to the continued spread of efficiency-driving transportation technology. If people know right off that a system collects their data and they understand why giving it permission to do so directly benefits them, the large majority will want to participate (of course, they should also be able to opt out). The end result is that we could all get more bang for the buck from our transportation system.
Getting back to how to communicate this wave of technological innovation on the retail level, FHWA once used the term ‘Intellidrive’ to describe this wireless wonderland of connected vehicles and infrastructure, but the term was recently retired. Because it never had to be adopted on the retail level, Joe or Jane Consumer probably never heard it mentioned or knew what it meant. Now that all of those unassuming folks need to provide the data which helps the systems work, it seems reasonable to put some effort into creating an easily recognizable and comprehensible name to describe what is taking place, even if it muddles the technical and specialty domains of which only those in the industry are aware.
What would you call the new data-driven driving experience?
My 2c On Fast Trains: A One-Act Play
April 21st, 2011
The scene: It is a steamy day in this Bold New City of the South. Our main character, a forty-something woman wearing bright, casual walking garb and wide-brimmed hat, is enjoying a tour of stately historic homes dotting the riverbank neighborhood of the city. While pedestrians and bicyclists meander from home to home with tickets in hand, children sell lemonade on the corner and porch fans spin. It is a scene frozen in time.
Our protagonist emerges from one “shoes-off-at-the-door-please” manse, and takes a seat on the spacious wraparound porch as she waits for the rest of her party to emerge from the home. She ponders which truth she should embrace: She Lives in a Hovel, or She is Incapable of Such Self-Indulgence?
Taking a seat next to her is a heat-weary gentleman with a cane. This nice, talkative fellow turns out to be the homeowner taking a break from his hosting duties, something he can do as he is blessed with a gracious horde of volunteers inside. The niceties move past compliments of his home and the fine taste of his professional decorator wife to the topic of work. A retired doctor, he travels the country speaking at engagements, which explains his facility for making new friends quickly. “The key to connecting with people,” he tells his guest, “is to speak at their level. You can’t elevate them to your level, but you can get down on their level to make them comfortable.” This will enable them to “hear” you better, he tells her.
She raises her eyebrows and smiles politely.
“What do you do for work, my dear?” he asks.
“I am an executive recruiter in engineering and planning consultancy as it relates to transportation infrastructure such as airports, roads, rail, transit and ports,” she responds.
He sits up attentively: “What do you think of this fast train they want to build down in South Florida?”
Her amusement that, in this part of the world, Tampa and Orlando are considered “South” Florida quickly dissipates as she struggles with how to respond to this question. Recalling that Southern ladies do not generally talk politics with strangers, she smiles and responds: “Of the proposed lines in the United States, the Tampa-Orlando project is the most shovel-ready. They could start building it today.” She thinks this is a nice, neutral response.
“Do you think the government should have to pay for that? Do you think we as taxpayers should have to pay for that?” One hand on his knee, one waving in the air as he leans in, she can tell he won’t be settling for her compact answer.
No calculations are required to determine this gentleman’s position on the topic, so she chooses to answer the question by explaining why the anti-high-speed-rail camp’s position is weak.
“People who oppose this project are not opposed to building it; they merely think it should be a privately funded endeavor, operating for profit. However, they are not measuring our current transportation network to the same standard.”
“The costs of our road system are widely distributed. We fund the building of our roads through tax revenue and selling of bonds, the latter of which is debt our taxes pay over time. This cost includes acquisition of the land for the roads. We fund the significant operations and maintenance activities of this road system through annual budgeted tax dollars, including security and safety such as the Highway Patrol. The drivers — you and I — pay for our own equipment and for the operation and maintenance of that equipment. We also pay for gas, tolls, our own liability through insurance each of us is required to carry and any parking costs at our destination.” She pauses for the grand finale: “Add to this the cost of defending our interests in oil-producing regions of the world, and suddenly driving doesn’t really look so cheap.”
“Assuming that the equation on the roadway side is now complete, there is no reasonable way to expect a private operator to pay for its land, track, equipment, liability, operations, maintenance, fuel, staff and safety, then roll that into an individual ticket price and actually compete on a per-trip basis. Why? Because the driving public cannot add all of the ways it pays to drive on the same per-trip basis; it’s not an apples to apples comparison.”
Her point made, she slides up to the edge of her seat. She can tell she has his attention. “We are here today because we obviously appreciate beautiful things. What we have to decide is whether we want to respond to a future requiring increased capacity by building 20-lane highways — and bearing the associated direct and non-direct costs of that decision — or provide a dependable and dignified alternative to travelers so that they develop habits that will mitigate a future overwhelmed by concrete and cars. That future is not only unsightly, it will continue to deceptively bleed each of us of our hard-earned cash. From a long-term perspective, we are painting ourselves into a very expensive and ugly corner by not grabbing the opportunity to build this project.”
Silence falls. He looks at her and squints, “You’re good, very good.”
He turns to her fellow tour-goers, who meandered into the scene as it unfolded, points to our heroine and says, “She’s good.”
They nod.
Curtain closes.
~~~~~ THE END ~~~~~
Let It Rain!
April 15th, 2011
Ten years ago, I was often tasked with search assignments that required identifying a “rainmaker.” A practice may have been thriving, struggling, or just starting up, but the need for investment was always crystal clear: Someone had to be there to “own” the sales funnel.
Interestingly, I seldom hear this term any longer. “Rainmaker” seems to have exited the consulting lexicon. In fact, it makes me bristle to just hear it, let alone use it.
If you aren’t in the agriculture business or involved in ancient Indian rituals, a “rainmaker” is defined as an executive who is very successful at bringing business to his or her firm. Doors open for individuals like this. They have established and cherished relationships with the client base, and are respected figures within the business communities they serve.
Relationships always matter, but was a rainmaker cultivating them or capitalizing on them? Were these capable folks truly making rain or catching it skillfully? In a world where the demand for their services far outstripped the available supply, part of the challenge was picking the right battles — i.e. knowing where to be and when. Just the image of rain says it all: It happens quickly, sometimes torrentially, and then it makes things grow. If you’re efficient and resourceful, you want to make sure you’re directly underneath the storm.
Lately, the landscape has not been abundantly lush. Your firm may be having success, but you certainly aren’t hubristic about it. The term “rainmaker” implies a brash confidence. If you were a “rainmaker” ten years ago, you operate very differently today.
As firms begin to recover from the drought of the last few years, I see new, strategic hiring in key roles with business development responsibilities. However, never is the term “rainmaker” invoked. Firms are no longer looking at the work being let around them and thinking “we need to hire someone to bring some of that our way” because the market is not in that stage of abundance. Instead, someone’s business development acumen is measured by his or her ability to plan, position and nurture while ensuring that everyone in the organization gets involved with the action. If executed successfully, there will be a harvest and food on the table.
We are now all farmers.
The Rock Stars Among Us
January 28th, 2011
We see it in the news, and have discussed it here as well: the U.S. does not produce an ample supply of skilled workers in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines to meet future workforce needs. Two underlying reasons are most commonly cited for this shortage. First, our education system is not producing students with the skill set necessary to pursue STEM careers; second, our culture does not value leadership in these careers. Do you think the former is a function of the latter? I do.
Upon first recognizing the gravity of the STEM shortage and what it means to the civil engineering industry, I wondered why other countries produce so many students interested in studying engineering in the U.S. After an informal survey and some anecdotal discussions, I concluded that the supply issue has a lot to do with demand. Young people in the U.S. want to run after what we have taught them to value: the glamour of obscene internet riches, Wall Street largess, professional sports paychecks, and the superstardom of Hollywood and reality-TV.
In other nations, students learn the names of top engineers. These admirable men and women are regarded as heroes and held in high esteem in their communities, regionally and sometimes nationally. Engineers are celebrated in the press, by politicians and by the education systems for the admirable things they do, not how much they earn or their propensity to “live large.”
Can Americans influence today’s youth to value engineers and the contributions of civil engineering? We have a celebrity-obsessed culture, so maybe, with an audaciously creative outreach plan coordinated with school systems, we can generate some awe and wonder about our achievements and innovations.
How about a travelling tour of engineering wonders, coming to your city’s grand auditorium or convention center where engaging, playful engineer-educators with amazing props offer hands-on demonstrations to our little sponges about why a cable-stayed bridge doesn’t collapse or wash away, how high-speed trains stay on the tracks or how we decide where to build a road and why? Is this too ambitious? How about a video series of demonstrations by a team of appointed discipline-specific gurus that the kids could follow through years of instruction via a curriculum that builds in complexity with each grade level? Your ideas?
Is there anyone in the industry brainstorming this stuff, and is there anyone willing to fund it? (*see postscript)
Coming down to the ground, and with all seriousness, I suggest that, at the very least, let’s stop enabling a society that takes everything you do for granted! Every lower elementary school-aged child should:
If we open this generation’s eyes to the wonders of engineering that affect them every day, and celebrate those among us who are responsible for our infrastructure marvels, children will naturally choose to emulate what they gaze upon.
Are You a Contractor, a Job Hopper or Savvy Career Planner?
November 8th, 2010In the mid-90s, a loud buzz in recruitment was that “the future” of employment was going to turn contract — i.e. companies would primarily hire individuals for functional roles on a per assignment basis. The assignments could last months or years and would be negotiated at regular intervals. This new paradigm, it was thought, would enable corporations to hire the right expertise precisely when needed, eschewing long-term or open-ended employment commitments as well as pricey benefits packages. The press loudly proclaimed this pending job market revolution, telling us we ALL needed to prepare for it.
At the time, I remember thinking that constantly looking for your next gig sounded like an exhausting way to make a living. No benefits? No career development? Was this new model a good thing?
More than a decade later, how exact was this foretelling in terms of what actually happened in A/E? In our market space, the closest we’ve come to this scenario is outsourcing, and this occurs pretty rarely. Other industries are better-suited to effectively utilize outsourcing than ours is.
However, this doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been a change in the A/E consultant’s employment paradigm; change has certainly occurred. But, unlike the scenario proffered above, this change has been employee driven rather than employer driven.
Our industry generally hires talent for specific types of projects with the inherent promise that a machine is in place to continually “feed” the employees work as key projects pass through the funnel. While an individual performs a functional (technical) role, they simultaneously glean skills in maneuvering the team, office, organization and market as a whole. Functional skills and organizational skills represent two different axes on the career development chart.
As organizations have become flatter and “corporate ladders” have shed rungs, employees have adjusted the way that they perceive their careers. Employment tenures are shorter, as in the contract-for-hire scenario, but professionals’ demands for diversified experiences are what is causing this. We now look at each axis to find potential growth opportunities.
For example, Mike can bring his functional skills – highway-centric NEPA planning — to a new employer, where he will apply his expertise to passenger rail corridors. The resulting experience serves to grow Mike’s functional domain. Karen can move on to hold the same function in another organization – that of Manager of Traffic Engineering – yet fulfill an additional organizational role of business development lead, a role that was very competently covered at her last employer’s operation by someone else.
Career paths are now plotted in this fashion: Employees set long-term goals and look for a mix of experiences that add to the figurative toolbox necessary to achieve those goals. Often, this means making the choice to change employers at each juncture rather than wait out the inertia of an organization which has no desire to shake things up.
The fact is, companies don’t have the infrastructure they used to…the ladder is often very short (and broad), and you can’t ascend it in a direct fashion. Consequently, professionals have adapted. No longer is your career defined by a ladder of progressive responsibilities as you “climb” the corporate hierarchy with an ever-increasing technical or organizational domain in your purview.
Your value today and your ability to contribute to any organization is better defined by the parts in your greater body of work. If we’ve ever talked, you know I call this your professional toolbox, and in it you hold skills developed while fulfilling a number of different — often lateral — roles that are technical, organizational, and sales related. Your objective in this modern-day game of life is to collect the right tools to provide you with the foundation to reach your professional goals.
Often, acquiring these tools requires you to change companies and jobs. From my view, this is the extent of “contract work” in the A/E consulting marketplace…Here YOU, the employee, are in the driver’s seat.
Because it’s entertaining….
September 28th, 2010
An Engineer’s Guide to Cats.
The producers of this video, engineers themselves, analyze cat ownership and care with hilarious results.
A Little Effort is a Good Thing
September 3rd, 2010I
often find myself repeating these words:
“If it’s too easy to get, it’s not worth getting.”
The context in which I utter this phrase has changed over the years. Five plus years ago, it was typically in the context of counseling a candidate not to buckle under pressure of an offer that came out fast and furious, before my client had the chance to fully qualify and get to know them.
As a recruiter, I am supposed to like firms which offer jobs to candidates at the speed of light (such as at the end of an interview – it happened!). However, this modus operandi always made me feel uncomfortable and distrusting. There are so many angles to making the right hire, it’s impossible for each party to evaluate each other in a single interaction. “A careful employer should understand that thoughtful candidates know this intrinsically,” I would say to myself. With a tag line such as “candidate + culture” I consider evaluating the “fit” to be an art form. I therefore counseled employers to be swift, yet prudent, in their pursuit of talent.
Today, I really don’t have to worry about shotgun offers so much. (Those of you who know what a supreme understatement this is are chuckling at this moment.) I do, however, continue to counsel EMPLOYERS that nothing worth getting is had easily.
It is easy to blow off the nuances and niceties of the recruiting process when our perception is that we are offering a “primo” job in a soft market. The flip side of this scenario is that “primo” candidates aren’t going to leave their comfy employment situations to accept just any offer. They are raising the bar on New Opportunity because it now means having to leave the security of established relationships, selling a home, or some other circle of hell as defined by the Great Recession.
In response to healthy candidate skepticism, the right thing to do is to continue to roll out the red carpet because getting the best talent is still hard work (“If it’s too easy to get, it’s not worth getting”), BUT this is not a one-way street. This adage still very much applies to the CANDIDATES as well.
The meaning this phrase conveys in today’s context is to empower your candidates in the interview process. Give them the basic tools they might need to prepare, and see what they do with them. Advise them in advance of the agenda, who they will meet, and a line or two about each person, and generally what to expect in the meeting. Throw in a thoughtful topic if you dare. Do you have some talking points you want them to prepare on a certain topic? Perhaps you’d like to see a short presentation on their crowning achievements, technically or professionally?
Some of you might think this is prepping the candidate too much, but you’re not telling them what you’re looking for from them; you’re just allowing them to put more thought into how they’ll use the basic information you’ve shared.
Give slightly worried or reticent candidates enough information so that they can “own” the meeting, and see what they do with it. It is my observation that the more a candidate has invested in preparation for a meeting, the more likely it is that s/he will accept an offer should it be forthcoming. This is because they actually did something to earn it.
Which reminds me of another adage….The more things change, the more they stay the same.
