I think that phrase has to be right up there on Kevin’s top most hated phrases, same for most executives or business owners! (Now my brain is off on a tangent thinking I could probably blog about a top ten list … but let me stay focused here!)

In any business your end goal is to be profitable … so that you can pay your staff, pay your suppliers, provide a return to your shareholders and continue to invest in the growth of your business. In order to be profitable your company needs to provide a service of value to clients and to compete favorably with competitors. Particularly in these hyper-competitive days of globalization this means a strong focus on quality, service and of course value.

Imagine your clients being told by your staff that they can’t help them, that it isn’t their job? Sounds totally ridiculous, and could never happen in your organization … right? What about internal clients? In our organization it’s the sales and recruiting teams that provide our clients with a service for which we get paid. The rest of our organization … including this “overhead” CEO … are here to help the “sharp end of the ship” look after our clients. Surely we should NEVER say “Its Not My Job” to our internal clients … would that happen in your company?

In the IT world the phenomena of offshoring has been a new form of competition that has forced all companies to look hard at their capabilities, and in many ways forced us to be better at our jobs! If our people are even thinking that hated phrase in this day and age, we are dead ducks!

I wrote a blog about attitude some time ago … called Walk Fast and Smile. I think this concept of “ownership” was missing from that blog.

Does your company have a culture that is truly client focused? Will your employees always step up and do “the right thing” even if it is not in their job description? If not, look out!

Voicemail is a fact of life, both in our personal lives and in business. If you are leaving a message to try and get a date you probably want to impress! If you are leaving a message hoping a client or candidate will call back then you also want to create a positive impression.

I came up with my thoughts on the subject and then did a quick Google search and found similar advice from Lethbridge University and from Carnegie Mellon.

Here is what I came up with:

1. Before you call you need to Prepare! What is the message you want to convey and what words will you use to most effectively convey that message? If you “wing it” you will not use the most effective words and worse you might find yourself stumbling as you search for the right words.
2. You should structure your message:
(i) Say your name and where you are calling from.
(ii) Convey your message, and give them a reason to call you back.
(iii) Identify what you want them to do. Usually return the call, however you may just want them to know you called and that you will call again. Be Clear!
(iv) Repeat your name.
(v) Give your phone number if applicable.
(vi) Repeat the phone number.
3. Some other thoughts …
(i) Speak clearly, concisely and not too quickly.
(ii) Speak with some enthusiasm, but don’t overdo it. A monotone can be awful but so can the other end of the spectrum.
(iii) Stand up … messages typically convey more energy when you are standing.
(iv) Consciously smile. The smile will be “heard” in the positive tone.

I know someone who has a very long cord on his office phone and he walks back and forth while talking on the phone. He is a high energy individual and that comes through … oh by the way he is burning calories while he talks! The same effect can obviously be achieved with a cordless headset.

Good luck with your voicemails!

The IT staffing market has been heating up for some time now. My blog of a couple of days ago highlighted just how hot things are getting in Canada. There have been forecasts of skills shortages for some time and now they are here with a vengeance!

What does this mean? In a hot market the dynamic changes significantly. Clients no longer have the luxury of taking their time to pick and choose which consultant to take. Contractors have more options and they are choosing the contracts with the best rates, longest terms and most interesting work. Clients who have been used to renewing contracts at the last minute are being unpleasantly surprised to find that their key contractors are not taking the extension, because they have been wooed away!

What is the message? If you are a hiring manager the golden rule to get you through the next couple of years is Move Quickly!

1. Move quickly! If you interview someone you want, then move immediately. Many smart clients are already making their offers right at the interview stage … this leaves those who want to weigh their options out in the cold.
2. Move quickly! If you have contractors on contract today then make sure their contract term matches the period that you are going to need them. Renewing short term contracts is going to cost you. So don’t wait until the last minute to get their extensions signed and locked down. You should be looking out at least 2 months (the contractors will be starting to look if they are within 4 to 6 weeks of a contract end date.

I was visiting Iqaluit last week … yes it was cold (-35 with the wind chill) AND I went of my own choice AND it was not a business trip! Iqaluit is 3 hours flight directly North from Ottawa and I believe used to be called Frobisher Bay.

I was struck by a number of things in visiting the area and getting to chat with some of the people who live there. Perhaps one of the biggest things that struck me was man’s (woman’s) ability to adapt and prosper in the most adverse of conditions. To live and work in this place that is so bleak and cold late in April is an incredible feat in the year 2006 … can you imagine it 200 years ago?

Sometimes I am a little hard when talking about failings of our modern society, but every now and then I am reminded that the human race will respond to adversity, and generally prevails. Maybe my new management technique should be to throw as many obstacles as possible at our people … surely they will grow and succeed faster that way!!

I think that was the tactic of the Ottawa Senators, who just wanted to make it hard for themselves by letting Tampa Bay back into the series (hockey talk for those uninitiated).

The following is a write-up from Eagle’s three General Managers representing a look at the job market from coast to coast … plus a little plug for Eagle!

Western Canada – is it possible for the market to keep going ?? Statistics recently released, show that the average housing price in Calgary went up $20,000…yes $20,000…in the last MONTH alone !! From an IT labour market perspective, just as it appeared that some organizations in Western Canada had peaked in terms of their IT resource plans/needs, there has been another strong rally in late March and early April that continues to keep pushing the boundaries of finding and hiring the right people for these organizations. Specifically, there has been a surge of open full-time positions across every major city in Western Canada (Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and Winnipeg). Skills in demand for these roles include: Data Architects, Application Architects, Senior Business Analysts, QA/Testers and Junior/Intermediate Level .Net Developers. On the contract/project front, hot skills in demand in the West include: Agile Project Managers, JD Edwards Experts, SAP Resources, QA/Testers and .Net Developers.

In the GTA, the unemployment rate is at a 32-year low. This is clearly reflected in the activity level that the region has been experiencing since January. For the past several months, companies have been feverously hiring not only a multitude of contractors but also full-time resources. In March, there was a huge upswing in the number of full-time candidates being interviewed at organizations across the region. This is not anticipated to slow down any time soon! The purse strings also continue to loosen for contractor dollars. The contractor market remains competitive and candidates are still enjoying multiple offers.
Many organizations have started to plan new projects that are anticipated to reach peak contractor hiring in the early summer timeframe. The financial sector continues to be one of the busiest sectors with the Ontario Government following close behind. In-demand skills in GTA include: Project Managers, Technical Writers, and Senior Testers. This pace is not expected to let up anytime soon and we are looking forward to a “hoping” spring and “sizzling” summer.

In Eastern Canada, there were some interesting developments with significant players in the technology marketplace that could have ramifications in the recuperating Canadian telecom scene. The Alcatel-Lucent merger is seen by many as the first in what could be a new round of consolidation in a marketplace with too many vendors. The resulting new company, by sheer size alone, will no doubt make Nortel sit up and take notice. Certainly Nortel’s expertise in wireless and optical technology would make it a prime target for possible suitors, accounting woes aside. Ottawa-based Corel Corp., once a high flying symbol of the boom years in technology announced plans to go public as the NASDAQ closed at a five-year high in recent weeks, perhaps sparking visions of some of the heady years of the past. Both these developments will bear watching in the weeks and months ahead.
From a Federal Government perspective, all eyes have been on the newly installed Harper government and its highly anticipated Accountability Act. IT vendors are anxious to see what priorities the Conservative government bring to bear as they overhaul the way Ottawa does business. Contracting rules and a procurement auditor were key features of the Act; however, it’s safe to say most hope that another layer of added bureaucracy does not bog down on an already cumbersome process. The expected federal fiscal year end rush was seen by most as far less frenetic than in years past, with most citing the uncertainty of a new government as the reason.
Hot skills in demand across the Eastern region included Java, J2EE Developers, SAP Resources – both technical and functional, Senior PMs with financial backgrounds as well as Application Architects and Helpdesk/Tech Support roles .

We continue to enjoy tremendous growth and were recently named among the Top 20 Best Small and Medium Employers in Canada. If you share our positive, bullish outlook on the future, Eagle is looking for enthusiastic, committed team players for our own team in both Sales and Recruiting in offices across the country including: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Join a dynamic company in an exciting industry of the future and share in our success!

My name is Stine and I am a Proposal Writer out of the Ottawa office and today I am writing the blog while Kevin is away. I’m just going to talk a little about what I do…

When people ask what I do for a living, and I say “Proposal Writer”, they usually get a confused look on their face and they usually say “oh, that’s nice – but what do you do?” My response is usually… As part of a proposal team, I help Sales respond to municipal, provincial, and federal government requests for services/proposals (RFS/RFP). OK, so maybe the confused look is still there! Let’s just say the job entails much more than just ‘writing a proposal’…

To have an effective proposal, here are some tips:

1. Don’t be passive; sell your company & services.
2. Provide what is asked for … don’t miss anything.
3. Follow the client’s format.
4. Restrict the validity period of your bid… so they can’t say “Yes” two years later and hold you to old pricing.
5. Run spell check!
6. Put yourself in the evaluator’s shoes to truly understand what they want.
7. Be price conscious – be competitive!
8. Be precise, don’t “waffle”.
9. Be professional; don’t use slang, jargon, or abbreviations.
10. Don’t bore them with pages of your corporate accolades; tell them what matters to them
11. Use presentation wisely … the proposal should be pleasing to read.
12. Try to protect proprietary information from being available to others.
13. Tell them why you are the best; and why no one else will do this for them.
14. Make it easy for them to award you points and award you the contract!

Finally, if you should happen to lose this one, ask for a debriefing! This is a back-door sales opportunity that is not used to its full potential…

Debriefings give you:

1. A reason for your client to meet with you.
2. Opportunity to learn more about your client.
3. A heads-up on future opportunities.
4. Opportunity to learn how to improve your future bids.

If used correctly, proposals are a great sales tool to help win government business. Just ask a proposal writer!

I asked our recruiting team to give a few pointers to independent contractors to help them increase their probability of success in job interviews. Here is what they came up with …

1. Learn a little about the company you are interviewing with. Your agency should give you some information, but you can take a look at their website, read their annual report and perhaps some of their recent press releases.
2. First Impressions Count! Know all the details about whom you are meeting.
3. First Impressions Count! Be sure to know where you are going and get there on time … or even a little early.
4. First Impressions Count! Dress appropriately for the occasion!
5. Bring your resume. Some contractors have a “long form” resume that gives more detail about their work. This can be useful to an interviewer.
6. Prepare for the interview. What questions might they ask you?
7. Prepare some questions for them. About the role, the team, the project, the environment etc.
8. Be confident (but not arrogant) and answer questions directly. Don’t try to avoid questions, if you don’t know the answer then “fess up”!
9. Try to relax, smile, hold eye contact and be friendly with your interviewer.
10. Be aware of annoying habits that you may have when under pressure … tapping or clicking your pen, scratching your head, sniffing etc. and avoid them!

Contractors typically will have hundreds of interviews in their career and a little preparation goes a long way!

Whether you are applying for your first job or that next big move, you may find yourself in competition with many others at the application stage. What can you do to improve your chance of getting to the interview? Assuming that your experience is good for the job, here are 10 tips for the job applicant …

1. Develop a Cover Letter Specific to the job, don’t use a stock cover letter.
2. Always spell-check and proof read your resume and cover letter.
3. The cover letter should highlight the most pertinent parts of your resume for this job.
4. Your resume should be long enough to convey the information your evaluator needs, but short enough that the reading will not be onerous!
5. Create a Positive Image … people like positive people.
6. Be Complete and Truthful. Don’t have gaps in your resume and be honest about your qualifications and experience.
7. Make your resume stand out … colored paper, distinctive font, personalized headers are some ways that people differentiate from the “resume crowd”.
8. If Responding to an Advertisement then follow the Guideline provided.
9. Make it Easy for the Employer to Contact You. Provide several means of contact.
10. Get your resume in on time … don’t miss the deadline!

Communication is a wonderful thing! Have you ever explained to someone what you would like … and what you get is something entirely different? What’s up with that?

When I say “keep it simple”, your version of simple is different than mine! When I say “a little to the left” you might take a step left … and that could be nasty in certain situations!

If you would like to get better at communicating, then you need to understand something about the different personality types and how they hear and process information. Are you talking to an Analytical, a Driver, an Expressive or an Amiable? Is the person an introvert or an extrovert … and do you really know what that means? There are many sources of information about the different personalities and how to deal with them … here are some for you to check out.

Who knows … you might even begin to understand your spouse a little better!

The bottom line … don’t assume that the person you are talking to, thinks like you. When explaining something, be as unambiguous as possible and try to understand if they really HEARD what you think you SAID.

One of my contentions is that being organized is a big part of being successful in any job. That means being organized with time but also physically organized. Not everybody will have the luxury of being to implement all of these tips … but even using some of them will make a difference.

1. Keep your work surface available for the task at hand (even if it means piling stuff on the floor behind you).
2. Create (and use) a basic filing system. This will change and evolve over time, but basically put stuff in files!
3. Don’t keep paper copies when it exists electronically.
4. Keep notes in an organized manner … preferably in chronological order in a notebook that can be referenced later.
5. Throw out everything you possibly can.
6. Keep a reading file. Clip articles and keep them here for reading when you have time.
7. Have regular clean out times … and a big one each year!
8. Keep your most active files close … some people like them in in plain view rather than in the drawer.
9. Use a headset when on the phone … allowing you to still type and write.
10. Have a way to let people know you are not to be disturbed right now … a sign works, as long as (a) you don’t overuse it and (b) make clear to people that it is serious.