Does 2009 mean a tougher "reach" for the summit? Work and plan smarter and let us help with some key resources for you: our Net Nights.

Tigers: Is your career plan ready for the future? Do you have one?
Our Job Board gets updated regularly. The "Starter Kit" gets refreshed often. Track these items as you plan ahead.  Our full jobs page is for CURRENT PCW members, a value-added Member benefit. On it, you see openings both locally and elsewhere. AND: If you have job posts at your site, send them: webmaster@pcw-dc.org.  Career Contacts? Go here....

JOB DETAILS are Members-Only benefits, and there are many.  JOIN your Princeton Club for MEMBER benefits (click to join), with complete job post details.... 

SEE ALL JOB POSTS at PAGE BOTTOM (ranked most-recent-first).

TIRED OF "SAME-OLD" NETWORKING FARE?

TRY OUR MIDSUMMER'S EVE for NETWORKING
July 21 - A Princeton-Harvard Networking Night

WHEN: Tuesday, Jul 21st, 2009 at 6:00pm

IF YOU TRULY WANT to BROADEN your network, join our
joint Tiger-Crimson guided networking + career ideas night.
It's a JOINT NET NIGHT with Harvard alumni.  In it, you will
expand your network, get to hear the latest on hiring trends
and meet a great many Ivy alums. Stay tuned to regular PCW
Newsletters.  FOR DETAILS now, GO HERE.

FOR MORE on Princeton Net Nights, go here.
Think about it: MANY Tiger (and Harvard) colleagues..... 

PLAN ON IT -- TICKETS on SALE now (at the PCW website).

...............................................................................................................................

TRENDLINES: U.S. Companies Moving Work Back Home
[From siliconindia news]....

[quote] Bangalore: In the U.S., top outsourcing customers such as
Bank of America and several local governments are asking
vendors such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro to deliver more
projects locally. These outsourcing customers are also
canceling job offers to foreign workers in an attempt to
address anti offshoring sentiments and cope with legislative
requirements of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). [snip]

For more on this article go here....

...............................................................................................................................

New Study Zeroes in on Top-Paid IT jobs in Recession
-- says a report in CIO.com....

Times indeed are tough (and loss of jobs has not stopped), but a
Foot Partners study shows light at the end of the tunnel. Its latest
survey shows the IT skills and certifications that rose in value in
recent months (thru 4Q 2008).

Non-certified IT skills, says Foot, rising in value in 4Q 2008 include:

    1. NetWeaver Portals (SAP EP)
    2. PHP
    3. Apple OS X/Tiger/Leopard
    4. ITIL
    5. Java/J2EE, SE, ME
    6. NetWeaver PI (SAP XI)
    7. Master Data Management
    8. Unified Communications/Messaging
    9. Database Management
    10. Microsoft SQL Server
    11. Oracle Developer Suite
    12. SAP Solution Manager
    13. NetWeaver BI (SAP BW) 

For the CIO.com article on this, go here ....
...............................................................................................................................

Food for Thought Department:

"HOW TO ACE THE PHONE INTERVIEW"

[quote] By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN - Wall St. Journal
Job seekers, beware the telephone.

For years, the phone interview was a preliminary step that
allowed an employer to give a candidate the once-over and
schedule an in-person interview. But these days, many
recruiters are using the phone interview to pose the kinds
of in-depth questions previously reserved for finalists. What's
more, job hunters say the bar for getting to the next level has
been raised much higher, catching many of them off-guard...[snip]

For more of the article, go here (requires subscription)....
...............................................................................................................................

How Laid-Off Workers Used Social Networks
to Land New Jobs
OR:  Using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn Productively....

Useful examples offering quite a few lessons. Read it in full....

[QUOTE ...]
May 07, 2009 — Computerworld — Although the total number of IT jobs is
shrinking due to the recession, some companies are still hiring -- and using
social-networking tools can help you land those jobs. In fact, being in the IT
industry just might give you an advantage over the average laid-off worker.

That's because social networking Web sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook
and Twitter are foremost among those new tools, and IT people are more
likely to be comfortable with them and with related technologies that can
help in a job search, such as automated scripts, customized search
engines, RSS feeds and the like, experts say.

Brennan Carlson ( Facebook and LinkedIn), a newly hired product manager
at e-mail marketing firm Lyris Inc., is an extreme example. He took a highly
organized, scientific approach to his job search when he was laid off from
Yahoo Video last winter..... [ENDQUOTE/SNIP...]

For more from this story, PLEASE GO HERE....

...............................................................................................................................

IDEAS for SHORT-TERM WORK (not for every job).....

From “The New Resume: Dumb and Dumber” (by WSJ
columnist Jane Porter)

[quote] Kristin Konopka sent out nearly 100 copies of her résumé in
January in search of receptionist work, but got only one callback.
That's when Ms. Konopka, a 29-year-old New York actress and
yoga teacher, took her master's degree and academic teaching
experience off her résumé.

The calls started coming in. The slimmer version of her résumé
landed in 30 in-boxes and earned her three callbacks and two
interviews. "It definitely picked up the interest," says Ms. Konopka,
who realized quickly that people don't "want to hire anyone who is
overqualified." [snip]

For more on this, see WSJ article here (requires subscription…)

...............................................................................................................................

SMART STEP CAREER-BOOSTER IDEAS for IT PROS ...
Having trouble finding tips as a beginner developer -- yet want to take
your career to the next level? Here's Justin James, an expert with guides
to fill this info gap -- offering clear-cut ideas for making that leap.

[quote] There’s very little information out there to help a developer
make the leap from beginner to intermediate. Here are 10 things you
need to do to make that transition.

#1: Learn 1 more language. It doesn’t matter which one you get to learn,
but learning another language (regardless of how many you already
know) will make you a better developer. Even better is to learn one
that is significantly different from what you already use on a regular
basis. In other words, if you are a C# developer, learning VB.NET or
Java will not help you as much as learning Ruby or Groovy...[snip..]

ED. NOTE: There are 9 more solid guides in this piece.

For more on this blog item, go HERE....

...............................................................................................................................

FOR A HELPFUL POINTER, see this from the WSJ ...

[quote]
FIRST, KNOW YOURSELF - By ALEXANDRA LEVIT
When it comes to career reinvention, too many people make a
fundamental mistake: They don't know themselves.
So when I talk to people about making a career change, I
always suggest first doing a few self-assessment exercises.

Career self-assessment is the process of getting acquainted
with what you like -- and don't like -- in a work environment.
[endquote]

FOR MORE on that Wall St. Journal piece, go here.

IN THE ARTICLE, one of the career coaches recommends
starting with free assessments from O*NET, which is the
online.onetcenter.org -- a source of occupational information,
and another from Rutgers University's assessment (found at
careerservices.rutgers.edu/OCAmain.html).
 

...............................................................................................................................

ONE BLOG TRACKS ISSUES of LAID OFF MBAs
[quote] "Laid Off and Looking" follows 8 out-of-work professionals as they
look for new jobs in a post-meltdown world. Each writes about his
or her own personal experiences with all of the ups and downs that
go into a job search in a difficult market. [snip]
TO TRACK THESE 8 MBAs and learn from them, go here....

...............................................................................................................................

SPRING '09: New PCW LAW Net Night - 4/07

NOTE: Our ever-popular Law Net Night -- Tell a Friend...
CLICK HERE for details -- BRIEF SUMMARY BELOW ....

For all lawyers and all top professionals -- both benefit from our ...
Net Night-4/07: Retooling, Refreshing Your Legal Career

PUT THE SPRING BACK in YOUR LAW CAREER STEPS ...
Spring means a fresh start. In this economy, many hardworking
legal pros want a fresh start, whether inside law offices, or in jobs
beyond those offices. To refresh your career, and help yourself get
ahead, take this option. Get fresh career guides, learn precisely
HOW to take your next steps.  LAW NET NIGHT: 4/7 at 6:30 pm.

PLUS: Our Net Night exercises ensure you meet everyone in the room.

JOIN US to LEARN + EXPAND YOUR PERSONAL NETWORK.

Meanwhile, Elance, RentACoder, or Guru.com might be
good choices for established freelancers looking to source
jobs and market their services." - [endquote]
More ideas at www.itworld.com/career ...

...............................................................................................................................

RETHINKING YOUR ROLE in the LAW?  CONSIDER THIS --

[Quote] With the Downturn, It’s Time to Rethink the Legal Profession
By ADAM COHEN
Published: April 1, 2009
The economic downturn is hitting the legal world hard. American Lawyer
is calling it “the fire this time” and warning that big firms may be hurtling
toward “a paradigm-shifting, blood-in-the-suites” future. The Law Shucks
blog has a “layoff tracker,” and it is grim reading. Top firms are rapidly
thinning their ranks, and several — including Heller Ehrman, a venerable
500-plus-lawyer firm founded in 1890 — have closed.

The employment pains of the legal elite may not elicit a lot of sympathy
 in the broader context of the recession, but a lot of hard-working lawyers
have been blindsided, including young associates who are suddenly
finding themselves with six-figure student-loan debts and no source
of income..... [end quote]

See more of this piece in the NYT -- requires subscription to read...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/opinion/02thu4.html?em

...............................................................................................................................

HOW DO YOU PLOT YOUR COURSE as a CEO?
There are some tried-and-true ways ...
[quote] by TODDI GUTNER
A record 1,484 chief executive officers left their jobs in 2008, according to
Challenger Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement firm. And experts
expect those numbers to rise this year. CEOs joining in tough times must
act more quickly and decisively than usual. "But, leaders need to resist the
pressure to be a know it all, have all the answers and be the savior," says
Jim Citrin, a Stamford, Conn., senior director at Spencer Stuart and co-author
of "You're in Charge, Now What?" For starters, you'll need to "find some
people you can trust to really tell you the way things are and give you the
lay of the land," says John Challenger, president of Challenger Gray in
Chicago. Here are ...ways to smooth the transition....

- Do "environmental" scans to consider worst-case scenarios.
- Set an agenda and be decisive.
- Communicate constantly.
- Be aware of personal behavior.  [unquote]
For more of this illuminating summary, see the Wall Street Journal (may need
subscription) -- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123784743079118449.html

For even more ideas, keep an eye out for our "Net Night for CEOs" (in 2009).

WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL RE-ENTRY WORKSHOP - 6/09
The Woodrow Wilson School is offering a 3-DAY Workshop, Pathways to Public
Service, in June for alumni interested in re-entering the workforce.  Additional
information can be found on our website at wws.princeton.edu/pathways/.

This is geared for those who've "stopped out" for 5 years.

See PCW's webpage description of the workshop here.

DEADLINE to apply is April 1, 2009.

Further information appears below ....
Pathways to Public Service Workshop - Check this PDF file LINK.

Those considering federal agency work should grab a look at one
key management memo.  The memo provides guides to federal
managers on the approach and questions to use for job
candidate reference checking.  You can review it here.

...............................................................................................................................

FROM the "GOOD NEWS FILE"...

March 23: D.C. and New York area are the top spots for finding IT jobs,
way beyond Silicon Valley and similar tech regions -- according to the
Dice Report (a tracker of IT hiring trends). Silicon Valley just reported
10% unemployment, its highest since 1990.

D.C. remains very strong because the Obama administration is moving
to create transparency and relying on tech-heavy programs to spur the
economic recovery.

Dice executive Tom Silver called the D.C. and the New York metro
areas the "major technology job centers." And a security clearance is
like gold in the US capital, he added.... (reported in eWeek).

SEE MORE here  ….
THE WEBSITE SOURCE: www.thejobcure.com

...............................................................................................................................

HEADLINE ITEM ....
DATELINE MARCH 3, 2009: Economic commentary by Google CEO
Eric Schmidt (Princeton ’75) is grim. (This from a CEO whose company
reported record earnings this calendar year.)...

 “Everyone assumes 2009 is a tough, tough year” … He pointed out he
does not expect a rebound until 2010. “I view the situation as pretty dire...
The combination of everything that we have seen does not appear to
have a current bottom. We may be better positioned from an advertiser
perspective, but ultimately… the real pain being felt by corporations
worldwide will translate to our world.”

...............................................................................................................................

PEEK at a CIO's Job Search? Here's a "chron file"...

Mark Cummuta -- writing in a CIO.com blog -- reports (quote) ...

... I want to bring you up to speed on the progress of my job search.
To start, the economy has continued to make finding my next great
permanent position difficult. Finding opportunities and getting new
interviews does not seem to be an issue (it's quite possible to find
a job in a recession); it’s finding employers that are ready, willing
and able to move to actual start dates ... MORE HERE ...
...............................................................................................................................

Furloughs are more common nowadays in white-collar jobs.  Use the time....

FURLOUGHS - The Silver Lining .... (from WSJ)...
...Depending on the health of the industry you work in, a furlough
could be a good opportunity to make a segue into another field.
Roy Cohen, a career counselor for the Five O'Clock Club in New
York, says unplanned time off can be used to gather information
on industries that interest you .... "You can trip, have bad
interviews and experiment knowing that you have a safety
cushion," he says. "It's like a job-search laboratory." .....

From the Wall Street Journal/Career Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123543586300654375.html?mod=djemCJ
(You may need to subscribe to be able to see the rest of the article.)

...............................................................................................................................

A Solid Tip from Club Member Michie Hunt --
 
Alumni should be aware of Maryland's Professional Outplacement Assistance
Center, located in Columbia, MD. The website: http://www.dllr.state.md.us/poac/.

POAC provides free training for job seekers not only in Maryland, but also in DC
and Virginia.  Their core program is called "Jumpstart," and takes place over
three days at their center in Maryland.  Their staff teach networking, resume
writing, and interviewing skills to  classes of about 50 to 100 "students" at a
time.  Many people who have been through the program believe that it is better
than commercial programs costing $ thousands that purport to do the same thing. 

In addition, they have special 1-day seminars on applying for Federal government
jobs and using the internet to research and apply for jobs.
 
The head person there is Steve Gallison, with supportive colleague Nancy Fink. 
They are articulate and helpful, and know a great deal about the Washington job
market.
 
There is also a Careers in Transition support group run by St. Alban's Episcopal
Church, which meets on alternate Wednesday nights in the rectory next to the
Church off Wisconsin Avenue.  It is open to everyone, and is run by a man named
Andrew Ramsey-Moor, who has been facilitating it for some time.  Various people
from the parish also support the group by attending meetings and providing an
overview of the areas in which they work -- a lobbyist and a Senate staff person
recently addressed the group.  This may also help people who are either currently
out of work or fear they may be. 

...............................................................................................................................

DIGERATI: AN EMERGING FIELD to CONSIDER (NY TIMES)

(quote:) "WHEN the world entered the digital age, a great majority of human
historical records did not immediately make the trip.

Literature, film, scientific journals, newspapers, court records, corporate
documents and other material, accumulated over centuries, needed to
be adapted for computer databases. Once there, it had to be arranged
— along with newer, born-digital material ....

... people entrusted to find a place for this wealth of information are
known as digital asset managers, or ...digital archivists and digital
preservation officers.  .... [and] demand for them is expanding...."

THINK YOU'RE READY for BUSINESS DEALS in CHINA?

TAKE a QUIZ: Test your negotiation + "haggle-readiness" skills...

In a new working paper at Harvard Business School, "Etiquette and Process
Puzzles of Negotiating Business in China: A Questionnaire" (PDF version),
you'll find 36 multiple-choice questions of your negotiation-readiness for China.

SEE THIS AT -- http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-077.pdf

For a teaser, he's your starter question:

"Although you feel that the first meeting has gone well, many issues have
yet to be covered, and now Chinese hosts propose extensive socializing
and entertainment in the late afternoon or early evening."

QUESTION: What's YOUR move?

The authors stress that there are no rulebooks for negotiating in China....

.........................................................................................................

TECH PROS: News for January, 2009 & beyond...

Here's something by way of a "sunshine spreadsheet" -- to offset
the gloom and doom of standard business news bites these days.

It's CNET.com's list of outfits now hiring (as of Dec. '08). See it here...

.........................................................................................................

NEW YEAR's NEWS - Extra Edition for Jan. 8, 2009 ....

ALUMNI: After a tough year, are you satisfied with
your network? 

Can you easily tap a range of people whenever you
face an issue, need a contact, have a work question? 
Is your contact database -- your "social assets" -- as
rich and deep as you need it to be?

On Jan. 8, do a "deep dive" into turbocharging your
network. It's our annual "recharging" night -- stop by
to learn, stay to meet 60 future colleagues.  See all
the details at the link below (for JAN. 8th)....

WHAT: Building Your Social Assets for a Tough
Economy ... click for Net Night on 1/08/09.

We have more attractive Net Nights being announced soon...

2009 - Planning for the Challenges Ahead...

John McKee, a career coach, offers 4 simple and highly
useful steps for planning for a better future.  Here they are --

1. Write down specific goals. "Write down" means you commit
to the idea... and "specific" forces you to create actionable goals.
2. Create your SWOT analysis for your professional profile --
S - Strengths - elements that make you stand out in a crowd.
W - Weaknesses - whatever might hold you back ...
O - Opportunities - what helps you improve yourself.
T - Threats - what can derail any of your plans...
3. Plan with loved ones in mind as you review. You can create your career
plans, but you must still decide whom you want in your life over the long term.
Want your life to have a greater balance? Then take time to treat these people
as valuable. Make it worth their while to stay a part of your life.
4. Self promote. There’s no better way to stand out from the crowd than
by networking and tastefully e-mailing updates detailing your current
activities and plans (in ways that are relevant to each reader).  

..............................................................................................................

VETERANS: Key resource -- THE veterans' Survival Guide...

http://www.veteransforamerica.org/home/vfa/

The American Veterans and Servicemembers Survival Guide

It's WRITTEN for veterans by VETERANS for AMERICA.

Besides getting salary benchmarks from current job holders/headhunters
in the field, along with leading managers as well as the many highly
useful trade association sources - Greater Wash. Society of Assoc.
executives (GWSAE) -- consider these "quick-hit" sites.

NOTE: DO REMEMBER to check in on the "sources on the ground"
for this -- veteran librarians (including those on hand in corporate, law
firm or foundation libraries) -- and other professionals working in your
field.  (PCW's Net Nights also offer answers to salary questions.)

TAKE NOTE and click here for site...
According to INFORMATION WEEK, online job board JOB FOX launched
a feature that matches job candidates with employers in a new way.

The website uses a feature called Jobfox Intros: This gives job-seekers a
virtual “foot in the door,” so they can move on to getting their interviews.

HIGHEST-MATCH JOB SEEKERS go RIGHT to TOP of RESUME LIST
“With Jobfox Intros, high-match job seekers are immediately moved to the
top of the resumé stack,” says Rob McGovern, Jobfox CEO. “Rather than
submitting resumés into a black hole, qualified candidates are personally
introduced by Jobfox, so they can skip directly to the interviewing step...."

ADDITIONAL SALARY INFO SITES -- quality on these varies....

www.salary.com
www.indeed.com/salary
www.salaryexpert.com
www.glassdoor.com 

.........................................................................................................

JOB TIPS (here) & JOB POSTINGS (at page bottom) 

.............................................................................................................  

LATEST: JOBS in Industry, Government & Associations  ....

A REFRESHED PAGE of POSTINGS below!! .....

-- NEW: CEO for a Northern Virginia-based Non-Profit - High Profile (VA)
-- NEW: Associate Posts (DC and VA) -- several kinds of roles ...

LINKS to ALL POSTS at PAGE BOTTOM (MOST RECENT FIRST)....

CARE TO SHARE IDEAS?  See our FORUM .... a "CAREER IDEAS Post-Its" Board...  

LOCAL CAREER RESOURCES -- See our "Career Area
Contacts" (under "Careers/JOBS" tab, at the navigation bar above) ...
OR you can click HERE ...  

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Visit a Net Night, and you immediately qualify
for a "Net Nights Career Contacts Guide." With 200+ alums, it offers
"quick outreach" for you + their career ideas (yours for joining a Net Night).

See "Networking"/"Princeton Net Nights," for help with the road
ahead for you, or click here.

NET NIGHTS target your work issues + offer a deep dive into networking.
You hear experts' views, and you'll meet EVERYONE in the room.
(6,300+ visitors at Net Nights-DC since '01 -- worth a visit to see why.)

RECENT NET NIGHT PRESENTERS have included:
- Ted Leonsis, Vice Chair of AOL - on Web 2.0
- David Maister, strategy expert - on professional services firm strategy
- Alex Counts, President of the Grameen Foundation - on global NGOs
- Shirley Sagawa, advisor/non-profit alliances & business-non-profit linkages

FUTURE NET NIGHTS on deck for 2008-09:
- William Ury, Harvard Negotiation Program
- Alexandra Cousteau, Earth Echo - on environmental non-profits
- Mia Farrow on responding to Darfur and Humanitarian crises
- Princeton Educators - Raj Vinnakota on Education and the Seed Schools - 4/14/09
- 40-year Veteran of Senior Exec. Service -- on Government Careers (10/23/08)
- Anne Weisberg (Deloitte) - NEW corporate careers paradigm (9/24/2008)

NEW & NOTABLE: Latest Net Night in the 08-09 lineup --

- Getting Value from Online AND In-Person Networking (JAN. 8, 2009)

WATCH for Net Nights schedules in PCW newsletters, and JOIN US.

ONE READY-MADE OPTION for you if you're a career “hunter” primed for
a next step: Set yourself up to get the Princeton Club’s Net Night/Career
Contacts Guide.  Attend one Net Night, and you’ll get the Guide.

For details on Net Nights: http://www.pcw-dc.org/article.html?aid=135.

THE PRINCETON CLUB JOBS PAGE offers postings regularly ...
See brief descriptions at our homepage. Please see separate articles
under “News” when we have new job postings.

KEY CAREER GUIDES: Career development, a pure form of
self-education, remains a lifelong process. Our goal is to provide
helpful guidance for you as you navigate the career management process
and wade through the maze of potential career transitions. There is always
a campus-based array of resources on hand for all Princeton alumni.
These key career services (both in person, and online) are available at
www.princeton.edu thru the Career Services office for Princeton alumni.

For a list of these services available on campus (and online):
http://web.princeton.edu/sites/career/home/services.html

KEY WEBSITE GUIDES - Preliminary List from the Internet …
The internet offers a number of national and international career sites,
many of which allow you to create and save custom searches to hone
in on opportunities matching your areas of interest. Beware, though:
At many of these sites, there is far less than meets the eye.

• CareerBuilder.com & Monster.com -- staples, but offer mixed results
• JobTrack.com -- the "best site for students and recent grads looking
for their first job or internship," says Forbes, and used by many
Fortune 500 and other firms, plus universities and MBA programs
• FinCareer.com - an "insider's" perspective on jobs, careers and
leadership in the global financial markets.
• Wall Street Journal -- especially CareerJournal website (great site)

NEW & NOTABLE: www.glassdoor.com -- salary profiles/company reviews 

LOCAL NETWORKING -- "PRO" GROUPS - Net Nights & Beyond
You'll find many organizations worth visiting, if you want networking in the
Washington region.  Among them (seachable on the web) --
-- FENG - Financial Executives Networking Group - great network/major cities
--