Why would a high caliber individual who has a great job jump ship?

I receive a regular email from Kennedy Information each week which has interesting articles on the Recruitment Industry including Trends, Ideas, Stories, etc...

This morning I received the email as normal and immediately clicked to the following article.

The link to the site is: Landing Talent: Keeping Focused on Both the Emotional and Analytical Elements

It is an article by Vicki Pachera and the title that got me immediately interested was the line "Why would a high caliber individual who has a great job jump ship?"

When I work with my managers we are always looking for the best people for our roles, and when I in turn talk to people this article reminded me that it is not just about $$$$ or Title of a role that gets people to change jobs. I think when approaching people about a potential role, you need to find out what a person's circumstances are and what the plan is for themselves from a work perspective and otherwise. In talking to people in detail like this it is then that you can see if a role may be of interest to them and see if your current opportunities fit what they are looking for.

There are so many opportunities at Oracle, the right one may not exist for a person today, but I cannot count the number of times I have called somebody back after 1, 2, 6, 12 months etc... as the ideal role has come up for them at a later date.

Finding a new role needs to be a collaborative effort. I think the role needs to fit the candidate as much as the candidate needs to fit the role and it is in talking to people that we get to put that fit together.

So if I am talking to you about work with us, don't be shy to tell me your aspirations, plans and goals - we may have a role that helps get you there.

Oracle Corporation is on Facebook

For those of you who use or are on Facebook, Oracle Corpoation has a group set up for anyone interested in sharing information or learning more about Oracle.

The link to the site is: Oracle on Facebook


Here you can join discussion groups and conversations about a range of topics from technical conversations to the business side of Oracle.

There is a lot of information in general about Oracle available, but let me know if you have any questions locally in the region and I can help where I can.

Are Permanent Roles more attractive than Contracts in today's market

I recruit for multiple business lines for Oracle and one trend that I have been noticing for the past while is that more and more contractors are approaching me for permanent work with Oracle.

This trend started late last year with a number of contract candidates with a specific skill set approaching me and again I have seen this happen this year over the past few months. I think that contractors are looking for permanent work now as an option due to a number of factors.

1) In the industry a number of large implementation projects have come to a close and I do not believe there have been similar sized projects requiring the contract numbers there was a few years back.

2) I think people are interested in working at Oracle to get the chance grow and develop their careers and get the opportunity to do some industry leading work. I think people have seen Oracle's success over the past few years and want to be associated with that. We have some great employees that really drive our culture here that attracts people to us.

3) I believe that to a smaller degree the economic uncertainty, rising interest, petrol prices, etc.... has caused some contractors to look for that stability that a permanent role provides.

I read a number of the job reports that are published in the market and while they give mixed results depending on whose reports you read, these comments above are just what I have seen in my role talking daily to people in the IT industry that I have noticed mover the past 6-9 months more than in previous years.

Is Twitter (twitter.com) the new LinkedIn

I started using LinkedIn just over two years ago and it was one of the first of the social networking tools that I started using regularily in the day to day responsibilities of my job. LinkedIn now has over 20+ million using the site and the number is growing exponentially. It seems LinkedIn is mentioned in almost every conversation about online networking and in ANZ it has become a much more widely accepted recruitment tool than it once used to be.

Since LinkedIn, we hear more and more about Social Networking Tools and Web 2.0 technology. Over the past few years I have been invited to join countless networks (plaxo, spoke, facebook, myspace, oldfriends etc.......) and I find that it is too much to try to be on every network that is out there. Outside of regional networks (for example oldfriends.co.nz in New Zealand) I tend to use 3 main sites which are:

1) LinkedIn - usedmainly for work and professional contacts
2) Facebook - used for work, professional, family and friends
3) Spoke - used as a tool for performing targetted search and selection.

I find many of the other sites available replicate the information provided from these sites. One site however that I have been hearing a fair bit about lately is Twitter (twitter.com). A number of people I have spoken to think that Twitter is the next generation of Online Social Networking sites. I have signed up for it earlier this week and while I have not had an in-depth look into it, from first glance it looks very similar to the other sites out there - so I am not sure where all the hype is coming from.

I think it partially maybe due to the fact that the uptake of these sites in ANZ is usually 12-18 months behind the US so it may be that this site is not as widely accepted or broadcast yet locally - but if anyone is using Twitter or has comments/suggestions about it, I would love to hear your thoughts.