Is the Great Recession Really Over?

Newspapers, magazines, and blog nationwide have declared that the longest-running recession known to the U.S. has technically ended as of June 2009.

What we seem to be forgetting is that this actually means that June 2009 marked the lowest point of business activity and turned towards recovery. The nation is still very much feeling the cold after-effects, and recovery efforts are making minimal positive changes.

According to Forbes, “Unfortunately, the recovery is what most people care about at this point, and it’s been lackluster at best. Since May 2009 unemployment has fluctuated between 9.4% and 10.1%. Federal Reserve officials have said in recent months that consumer demand, the housing sector and bank lending all remain weak. Congress has yet to decide what to do about expiring tax benefits, creating uncertainty in the economy. Even the NBER, the unofficial arbiter of recession start and end dates, says that “’economic activity is typically below normal in the early stages of an expansion, and it sometimes remains so well into the expansion.’”

“In other words, the Great Recession technically may be over, but in real terms it’s not–and it may continue for some time in the future.”

That being said, we at TriCom are doing our best to help people with Information Technology backgrounds find work. We currently have over 20 positions available, ranging from contract to contract-for-hire, to permanent placement. You can view our current jobs or stay connected with us through our LinkedIn group, Facebook page, and Twitter page. Keeping in touch with us allows you to be first to know about new jobs. If we don’t have a job listed that fits your current position, don’t worry, our needs constantly change.

Let’s work together to help improve the unemployment rate.

Quantity or Quality

Today I read a blog post entitled “R.I.P. Recruitment Search Agencies. Thank you for all your contributions but you will not be missed.”

Being that I work for a recruiting agency, I immediately thought “Hmmm, better give this a read,” and after doing so, I completely disagree with the author.

He lists several points as to why recruiting agencies are destined to disappear, much the way of the Thylacine – the Tasmanian tiger that met it’s fate of extinction in 1936.

Thylacinus

“A growing number of organizations are developing dedicated strategic sourcing teams to pipeline current and future talent needs. These individuals blend a balance of talent acquisition and marketing to develop processes around finding and attracting talent. Utilizing Boolean search string technology, developing and managing talent communities, adapting targeted email campaigns, CRM tool tracking, and cold calling, it is only a matter of time before the church bells chime and we mourn the passing of agency fees.”

He also mentions these organizations are becoming more and more tech savvy, utilizing tools such as Tweetdeck, Ping.FM, and partnering with web services that will post your job 1000 times over.

That’s all well and good, but he seems to be avoiding that recruiting agencies nationwide are doing the exact same thing, and specialized agencies (like ourselves) can often out-perform HR departments that are not familiar with the lingo and skill sets of particular jobs. This is particularly true for larger companies who’s HR departments have to screen candidates for multiple positions in several different fields. How could they possibly know everything they need to know in order to hire a quality candidate?

Before you go writing off recruiting agencies, think about what it’s all about – Quantity or Quality.

Educating Tomorrow’s IT Professional Today

The following guest post is authored by Steve Mallard, blogger at TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog.

Once every quarter our IT department meets to look at the future of Information Technology.  Educating students and giving them the much needed skills of a well rounded education in the IT industry is becoming more and more challenging.  With Cloud Computing, Security, Virtualization, Mobile computing and other technologies that are growing at an unprecedented rate, it becomes a challenge to look into the future.   In today’s world, educating tomorrow’s IT Professional today seems next to impossible.  With the recession still lingering and competition in a global economy; it becomes pertinent to give these students the needed skills to begin a career in IT.

Our approach is different from most organizations.   We spend 30 hours each week with our students by lecturing approximately 20 hours each week and spending the remaining ten hours performing labs and completing live work orders for our institution, non-profit organizations and government institutions.  We can no longer just focus on getting students certified in a vendor or vendor neutral certification; we have to give them the hands on skills needed to be successful.  In order to maintain retention and graduation rates, students need constant guidance and reassurance.  Because education can’t stop at our institution, we have articulation programs in place with other colleges and universities to assist with the professional growth of graduates and regularly conduct alumni surveys.

So does it take all of this to deliver IT professionals in today’s world?  Yes.   As technology grows and the role of the IT professional changes; so should educational institutions and programs designed for new IT professionals.  With a curriculum that is always changing; institutions have to find the educators that change as technology evolves.    Traditionally the basics never changed.  In this day and time the basics change faster than ever.  In the classroom, educators not only train students on the latest technology; they have to educate students how to think analytically, deal with customers, exhibit strong worker ethics and to make their future employers lean and competitive.

Steve Mallard is the IT Manager and Lead Computer Information Technology Instructor at the Tennessee Technology Center at Shelbyville in Shelbyville, Tennessee.  TTC Shelbyville is a member of the Tennessee Board of Regents, the University and Community College System of Tennessee.

Google Street View – A Blessing or A Curse?

It’s official – Street View is now available on all 7 continents. In the last 3.5 years, Google has managed to map the earth starting with U.S. cities and working its way out to the depths of Antarctica. – mashable.com

While the initial reaction may be stimulating (let’s face it – this is a really useful tool), some may come to grasp with the fact that this newly updated technology could be a potential security issue.

According to PCWorld.com, Street View has been under attack for its alleged privacy violations almost since its launch in May 2007.

Down and out ... pictured on Google's Street View mapping tool.

“It didn’t take long for the backlash against Street View to begin. Many people soon discovered that their faces were easily identifiable in Street View, and not everyone was too happy about the fact that whatever they were doing at the time the Google car happened by was now recorded on the Internet for perpetuity — especially one man caught exiting a strip club, and another woman sunbathing.”

Google image “Google Street View” for a more detailed look at photos caught by the Google vehicle.

Now multiply the distress and complaints by about a million as the Street View vehicle visited other countries to collect images for their service.

“Matters got even worse when it was revealed that Google’s Street View cars had been sniffing wireless networks on their journeys — collecting communications from non-password protected Wi-Fi networks.”

So what to do? Many people use this tool in an effort to better understand a landscape or even get directions, but is it worth the price of someone’s privacy?

Maybe the best piece of advice would be this: If you don’t want the world to know something about you or what you do, don’t put it out there, and don’t act on that behavior in public.

In the meantime, if you do feel your privacy has been violated, you can contact Google to have the image removed.