Simply Hired Blog

System Administrator Appreciation Day

Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day everyone!

If you’re like me, you might not know exactly what a system administrator or IT specialist does. You just know that it’s important, technical and anytime something goes wrong with your computer, he/she is the person who ends up fixing the problem.

Today, I tried asking one of our sysadmins exactly what he does, so I could be more appreciative of him and his work. Now, I’m not the most tech-savvy person by any means so his response went completely over my head, besides a few words that I caught: servers, managing accounts, and maintaining networks. It left me in an even more confused state than before.

What I do know is that no matter what the problem is, no matter how silly or trivial, our sysadmin can fix it (and usually doesn’t give me too hard of a time because of it). The time my mouse froze, he unplugged it and plugged it back in again and it started working. The time my password stopped working, he pressed the caps lock button and gave me a disappointed look. The time I got the blue screen of death, he set me up with a new computer. And it’s because of his work that the site is up and running and that I’m able to post to this blog today.

So thank you to all the system administrators and IT professionals out there. Without you, I would have gone Office Space on my computer a long time ago. And speaking of which, my computer thanks you too.

PC Magazine Names Simply Hired to Top 100 Web Sites

We’ll never turn down the chance to toot our own horn, but I’ve got to say, this is pretty cool.

PC Magazine has come out with their list of the Top 100 Web Sites for 2009 and Simply Hired has made the cut! SimplyHired.com is featured in the Classic: Info section along with sites such as Google Maps & Search, Wikipedia, Kayak, Mint and Yelp.

Talk about an honor! Don’t forget to check out the full list for the other 99 top sites.

[[UPDATE 08/04/2009] View the press release for more info!

Customer Service Most Searched Occupation

According to a release out today by comScore, the top occupation searched on career sites in the U.S. is customer service with 273,310 searches in June, followed by warehouse jobs (257,484 searches), and sales (216,784 searches).

The top ten list includes:

1. Customer Service jobs  -  273,310 searches
2. Warehouse jobs  -  257,484 searches
3. Sales jobs  -  216,784 searches
4. Receptionist jobs  -  178,787 searches
5. Medical Assistant jobs  -  161,232 searches
6. Clerical jobs  -  149,728 searches
7. Construction jobs  -  144,554 searches
8. Driver jobs  -  132,947 searches
9. Retail jobs  -  127,751 searches
10. Security jobs  -  107,219 searches

Overall, the category of career services and development sites had more than 65 million visitors in June 2009, a 10 percent increase since June 2008. Unsurprisingly, due to the current economic climate, job search and career resource sites have become one of the fastest growing categories online in the U.S.

Largest US Cities Trends

Though June’s unemployment rate increased to 9.6% in the U.S. according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there seems to be a shift going on in terms of where unemployment is increasing and where it is starting to improve. Looking at the top ten largest cities in the US, the west coast seems to be hit the hardest, while other regions seem to be stabilizing or improving. However, despite higher unemployment rates, the west coast still has a large number of open positions.

1. New York, NY – Over 110,000 jobs and a positive employment trend since the beginning of 2009
2. Los Angeles, CA – Over 60,000 jobs and a downward employment trend since 2009
3. Chicago, IL – Over 60,000 jobs and an upward trend since the beginning of the year
4. Houston, TX – Over 35,000 jobs and an employment trend with little change
5. Phoenix, AZ – Over 25,000 jobs and an employment trend with little change
6. Philadelphia, PA – Over 45,000 jobs and an employment trend with a slight increase
7. San Antonio, TX – Over 10,000 jobs and an increasing employment trend
8. San Diego, CA – Over 20,000 jobs and an increasing employment trend
9. Dallas, TX – Over 45,000 jobs and a slightly increasing employment trend
10. San Jose, CA – Over 35,000 jobs and a downward employment trend

New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, Chicago, IL, Houston, TX, Phoenix, AZ, Philadelphia, PA, San Antonio, TX, San Diego, CA, Dallas, TX, San Jose, CA trends

New York, NY jobs | Los Angeles, CA jobs | Chicago, IL jobs | Houston, TX jobs | Phoenix, AZ jobs | Philadelphia, PA jobs | San Antonio, TX jobs | San Diego, CA jobs | Dallas, TX jobs | San Jose, CA jobs

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Interviewing

With all the candidates a company gets for a given position, standing out can be difficult. But if you have gotten through to the interviewing stage, this is the perfect time to show your true colors. However, in order for to get the right kind of attention, here is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of interviewing:

The Good: You arrive on time for your interview, or a few minutes early to allow yourself to wait and gather your thoughts.
The Bad: You arrive 20 minutes late without calling to give the interviewer a head’s up.
The Ugly: You come in the day after the interview was scheduled saying that you just came back from Tokyo and you confused your days.

The Good: You bring in a few extra copies of your resume that is no more than 2 pages.
The Bad: You bring in a few extra copies of your 5+ page resume that includes every job since you were 15.
The Ugly: You bring in copies of your 400 page still-unpublished manuscript titled “The Incredible Me”

The Good: You arrive at your interview dressed to impress, with clean clothes, freshly showered and with brushed hair and minty breath.
The Bad: Your shirt could be ironed and you accidentally spilled some coffee on your pants at breakfast.
The Ugly: You just get back from a camping trip, where you haven’t been able to shower in three days, and arrive to the interview in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops.

The Good: You silence your phone or turn it off before the interview begins.
The Bad: Your phone starts ringing during the interview, but you turn it off quickly and apologize for the interruption.
The Ugly: Your phone rings, you tell your interviewer it will just be a minute, and proceed to talk to your friend for half an hour about how crazy last night was at his bachelor party.

The Good: You write a nice Thank You note to the people you interviewed with, thanking them for taking the time to speak with you and expressing your continued interest in the position.
The Bad: You forget to write any Thank You notes to your interviewers.
The Ugly: You accidentally send an email to your interviewers that is meant for your friend, which goes into detail about how arrogant you thought he was.