THE YEAR WE WISH...DIDN'T HAPPEN
 
I don't know about the rest of you out there, but 2009 is a year I'm glad is gone.

Think back to the end of 2008 as a recruiter. I was confident!  I walked into the office one September morning expecting to schedule ten interviews for solid startups in California. Focused on the details of scheduling a dozen strong candidates, I was ill-prepared for the day's headlines. The Dow plunged 650 points. Lehman collapsed. Market confidence plunged in tandem with the Venture money that backed my companies and my world - It happened quickly, shockingly.
 
Seven of my companies froze hiring in the next 24 hours. Silicon Valley Venture Capital money flow dried up like a Sahara drought. Candidates calling "looking" for jobs increased tenfold in the ensuing weeks, scared of impending layoffs.  Even my hiring managers were sending me resumes!  For staffing specialists like myself, it was the "great depression" of technology recruiting - and my business disappeared in a week.  
 
But that's yesterday's news. Fortunately, today's tech market is not only better and different but stronger.  Tech jobs are back. The big hiring picture is different than a year or eighteen months ago. My observation is this: Strong companies, solid talent and good recruiters have survived.  We've dusted ourselves off and are jump-starting talent acquisition. It's all coming back, but it looks different than 2008/2009, which could have been, the perfect storm.  
 
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