IQ Workforce Blog

Over the past couple of months we have been polling visitors to our site on their near-term “career prospects”. We ask, “How do you feel about your prospect for career growth over the next 12-months?”

Given that we are just starting to recover from the MOAR (Mother of All Recessions): near-miss global banking meltdown, plummeting real estate and stock market values, record unemployment… the results seem to be pretty up-beat.

We have had 105 participants so far – presumably web analytics and search marketing professionals, since this is our audience (there is really no reason for anybody else to be on our site). Here is how they were feeling:

10% (11) reported feeling “Never better” about their prospect for career growth
30% (32) reported feeling “Pretty darn good” about their prospect for career growth
32% (34) reported feeling “So so” about their prospect for career growth
15% (16) reported feeling “Slightly nauseous” about their prospect for career growth
11% (12) reported feeling “Panic, despair or generally awful” about their prospect for career growth

It is not a huge sampling, but it is pretty consistent with our experience over the past few months. There are definitely some folks feeling the pain that the rest of the workforce is feeling (26% had “negative” feelings about their career prospects), but the web analytics and search marketing community is far outpacing the pack. What do you think the percentage would be of financial services professionals? Real estate? Pretty much anything outside the online marketing / eCommerce world? I would guess that the number would be closer to half.

To participate in the poll head over to IQWorkforce.com.

Posted in: Recruiting, Web & Marketing Analytics by Corry Prohens
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I got clearance from the wife and a green light from the tower. I am hitting the road this summer to spread the word: things are picking up. Time to think about the next step in your career… Time to think about your resource strategy.

It is still a buyers market, but the activity levels of the past eight weeks were higher than they have been in over a year. We had more requests for talent in the past twelve weeks than we had in the prior eight months.

You have to have a career strategy. There is an opportunity coming up shortly where there is going to be both supply and demand in the web analytics and search marketing talent marketplace. There are going to be a lot of people switching seats. If you have your priorities in order and a good understanding of the marketplace you will make better-educated career decisions.

I will be sponsoring and speaking at the Web Analytics Wednesday in Columbus, OH on August 12th. The new version of my “Career Management in the Web Analytics and Search Marketing” presentation includes topics such as: evaluating opportunities, marketing yourself, building your personal brand, proactive job search, state of the career marketplace, future of the career marketplace…

I am really looking forward to meeting this group. According to Tim Wilson, the group started in April of 2008 and they are already averaging 20-30 people per meeting. They take one of the back rooms at Barley’s Smoke House & Brew Pub. Makes me hungry just writing that. It sounds to me like they have the perfect format: 30-minutes of cocktails and schmoozing, order some dinner, hear the presentation while the food cooks and then some Q&A over dinner and drinks. Sounds awesome.

If you’re in Columbus on August 12th you have to come say hello. You can register on the Demystified site.

I also signed up for the X Change Conference in San Francisco September 9-12. This one is at the St. Regis (Starwood points!) and it is by invitation only for vendors (thank you Eric).

This year they added a day before the conference (the 9th) for education (Think Tank Training Day). It seems like a cool opportunity – you basically work through an analysis for the day with a group of top web analytics professionals. Zero theory – all hands-on working sessions.

I am hoping to add a WAW in July. Not sure where yet. Any ideas?

I am also going to do SES in Chicago in December. Would love to sponsor and speak at a WAW that week in Chicago. Anybody in Chicago that would like to help out and perhaps host the event please send me a note.

Stay tuned. Future tour dates to be announced.

Posted in: Recruiting, Web & Marketing Analytics by Corry Prohens
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I am calling a bottom. If you watch CNBC that seemed like the thing to do a while ago. I am actually calling that we passed the bottom about five months ago. I’m not sure if you are allowed to do that, but I don’t see how anyone can stop me. We passed the bottom five months ago. There it is again.

Just to be clear, the bottom that I am talking about is the lowest level of web analytics and search marketing hiring activity.

Companies definitely seem to have gotten back to trying to make money again. Not all of them - there is still some fear lingering out there that has some businesses clamped down, but it looks to me like the majority are actually focused on making money and growing thier business again.

We have had more inquiries for talent in the past two months than we had in the prior eight. I will grant you that a lot of it is still contract work, but there is also definitely an uptick in demand for full-time analytics and search professionals.

This has been my third recession in the recruiting field. What usually happens now is that there is a perfect storm of hiring activity that will take place for six to nine months. In this brief period there will be both supply and demand in the marketplace. I predict that this will start in three or four months, as it seems like we are building toward it now.

The truth is that web analytics was a very good place to live in this recession. We beat the crap out of the rest of the economy. Granted, it was not really a fair fight since the economy was handicapped on every side (it still has some serious injuries). But I was really gratified to see that the field’s counter-cyclical rationale held true. Dollars flowed to analytics with the belief that data-driven decision making would yield far greater ROI and growth. Measure twice cut once prevailed.

If you lost your job during this downturn I hope that was not salt in the wound. I know that plenty of very talented people were in the wrong place at the wrong time this year. What I will say to you is that you are going to be fine… quite possibly better than fine. Your field has held up great, the overall economy is turning and later this year you are going to be in a much stronger position career-wise. If I was unemployed in web analytics or search marketing right now I would find a contract gig (post my profile on the Contractor Exchange) and enjoy the summer as much as possible.

I am taking my show on the road this summer and fall. I am going to be speaking at WAW’s around the country and meeting with clients to talk about their resource plans for next year. We are stocking the shelves with new contacts, renewing old contacts and getting in position to handle the needs of our clients.

Batten down the hatches! Momma said knock you out.

Posted in: Recruiting, Web & Marketing Analytics by Corry Prohens
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I was really moved when I read that Avinash Kaushik donates all of the proceeds from Web Analytics an Hour a Day (a long-time, best-selling book on web analytics) to two great charities. I was also a little bit ashamed because I have never really supported any worthy causes (outside my household).

Since I am not writing any books in the near future, I had to figure out something else to do…

To start with I had to choose a cause or two… much more difficult to do than I expected as there are so many that are appealing for so many different reasons.

Ultimately I decided to support one local and one global cause.

So for the rest of 2009 and 2010, IQ Workforce will donate 1% of our gross placement revenue to the following causes:

1. Schneider Children’s Hospital: My kids have received incredible care at this facility and my wife and I are convinced that having a world class children’s hospital in our community is an asset for all. So we are dedicated to supporting the development of their new $150 Million children’s hospital, which includes a world class pediatric cancer center, neonatal intensive care unit and children’s emergency room.

2. Save the Children: Feeding hungry kids? That’s tough to top…

Our grants will be made in the name of our clients’ upon collection of fees for placement services. We made our first grant to Schneiders in the name of Patricia Hallstein, VP of Customer Experience at The Economist, who recently hired a Director of Analytics from our team. Hopefully many more to follow…

Posted in: Web & Marketing Analytics by Corry Prohens
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It has been quite some time since we had great jobs to work on in the NY market. The web analytics community in NY is pretty large, but there have not been great job opportunities here lately.

Since it is our home town, I am pleased to report that there are once again some really cool jobs in NY – thanks to two of our blue chip clients.

The first is on the client side, where the company is building a global digital analytics group from the ground-up. These folks have never had any consumer-facing businesses or products before (for the past fifty years they have been selling B2B). Lately they have been on a huge buying/building spree – developing consumer-facing web and mobile products. The result is a start-up environment within a $50 Billion global company.

They have divided digital analytics into three disciplines: implementation, analysis and data visualization. This way the technical guys can focus on getting tools setup properly and continually optimized; the analysis guys can actually DO analysis and bring actionable recommendations to the business (they face-off with product development and marketing heads); and the data visualization guys can focus on dashboarding, scorecarding and continually updating reports. Very smart.

They are looking for talented people in all three disciplines – primarily at the player/coach level (someone that can be hands-on, but can also build a team under them over the next couple of years).

This company was named among the “Top 10 Companies to Work For” last year and a “Top 5 Global Consumer Brand”.

The second client is one of the top direct marketing agencies in the world. With $2 Billion+ in annual sales and 50+ global offices, this is one of the better brands in the ad world.

We placed the SVP of Analytics, the VP of Web Analytics and a couple of analysts there last year.

Like a lot of agencies, business has dried up elsewhere, but the web analytics funnel is still expanding…

As a result they are in the market for two key players – a Director and Manager of Web Analytics. These positions report into a very talented practitioner (yes, the VP is very much a hands-on practitioner). Agency experience is always a big plus at this level, since there really is a different pace and culture in agencies… That said, they would certainly consider a talented hands-on practitioner that has managed a team on the client side, as well.

In a world of contract and freelance jobs, these two companies are making life in the big apple interesting for our team once again. Let’s hope this becomes a trend.

Posted in: Recruiting, Web & Marketing Analytics by Corry Prohens
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