In the Onward Search booth at SMX East in New York City last week, Victor Pitts of WebmasterRadio.fm interviewed Jennifer Walsh, the director of staffing for our New York recruiting office.

Listen to the interview here.

Jen explained how Onward Search is the specialized recruiting firm that focuses on all things Internet Marketing. Onward helps companies attract talent in search marketing or the talent who support it via creative design and development.

Victor asked Jen for the #1 reason to come to OS booth: “Clearly it’s our magnifying glasses! ” she said.

We are a great partnership for companies looking to attract talent within the “search” space – we help identify somebody to fill a position or can offer advice on how the job market looks right now, Jen said.

Onward VP Josh Gampel was also interviewed by WMR at the show regarding his presentation on hiring an SEO Rockstar.

Please visit OnwardSearch.com to look for a local office near you:

• National
• Connecticut
• New York
• Boston
• Dallas

At the recent SMX East conference in New York City, Onward Search VP Josh Gampel discussed finding SEO talent to staff your organization. The SMX Theater presentation was well-attended and those who stopped by to listen also had many questions for Josh after his talk. Below is a summary of Josh’s advice.

Five tips to help you find an SEO Rockstar:

1. Re-write your job description – Does your job posting get the candidate excited about the job or does it read like a standardized job description?  Your job posting is often the first impression your candidates have of your company and the job.  Make sure it sizzles.
2. Sell the position – Show the candidate what your team is doing that’s exciting or cutting edge. Your job needs to appeal to the career-oriented search marketer. The reasons people change jobs are usually: increased visibility, new challenge, money, a new environment, greater growth opportunity. Sell your position as a solution to one or all of these.
3. Use the phone - Talk to people and tell your story.  You can’t get the best candidates from social media alone, you need to talk to people.
4. Learn how to interview – Interview questions must change based on the role. Are you asking the right questions? Some useful questions to consider asking: What are some techniques used to __ ? How do you track results? How do you prove success? Have you ever had to present in front  of clients or internal stakeholders?
5. Learn to close – Once you’ve found the right person for your job, learn how to get that person to actually accept your job. Hiring managers may assume that the candidate will want to work for their company but that’s not always the case. You may need to sell your company a bit and convince the candidate that your organization is the right fit.

Josh was also interviewed on Webmaster Radio about this topic.

For assistance with finding top SEO talent that’s right for your job openings, please contact Onward Search via www.onwardsearch.com.

Onward Search offers jobs in SEO, SEM, and related Internet Marketing specialties. Staffing and recruitment services are also available for employers.

Webmaster Radio recently interviewed Onward Search vice president Josh Gampel on the topic of the 2009 job outlook for Internet marketing.

Josh and many from our team were attending the SMX East conference in New York City. Onward also exhibited at the event and put on a SMX Theater presentation.

The interview is under 5 minutes and a quick listen. Webmaster Radio’s Debby Bookstaber speaks with Josh about topics such as how the job market looks compared to last quarter and last year. josh also provides some excellent advice for those looking to hire and some of the best interview techniques to employ.

Please click through to WMR to listen to the show.

For more information about the latest trends or advice on find the ideal talent, please contact us via www.onwardsearch.com.

Onward Search offers jobs in SEO, SEM, and related Internet Marketing specialties as well as Creative Design. Staffing and recruitment services are also available for employers.

Are you in New York or headed to the SMX East conference next week at the Jacob Javits Convention Center?  If so, we hope to meet you in a session, at our booth or at one of the after-hours events.

The Onward Search team will be in attendance, including members from our New York office and our Executive Search Team.  We will be exhibiting October 5th and 6th at booth #413, where you can discuss possible Internet marketing career options, as well as any staffing needs you may have.  If that’s not enough reason to stop by, you can also enter for your chance to win a Nintendo Wii.

In addition to exhibiting, our VP of Staffing Services, Josh Gampel, will be presenting the topic, “Too Many Resumes? 5 Tips to Help You Find an SEO Rockstar,” at the SMX Theater on Monday October 5th, from 2:20pm-2:40pm.  Josh’s presentation is open to all expo attendees, so don’t miss out.

Onward Search offers jobs in SEO, SEM, additional related Internet Marketing specialties as well as Creative Design. Staffing and recruitment services are available for Internet Marketing, Creative Services and Technology.

Next week at the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Conference and Exhibition at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, Onward Search’s VP of Staffing Services, Josh Gampel, will be presenting “Too Many Resumes? 5 Tips to Help You Find an SEO Rockstar,” in the SMX Theater.  The presentation will focus on helping hiring managers and executives save time, by providing them with the tips and tricks necessary to spotting the potential SEO Rockstar in a pile of resumes.

Josh’s presentation will take place on Monday October 5th, from 2:20pm-2:40pm, and is free to all expo hall attendees (Expo Passes are free if you register before October 4th).  If you are planning on going to the conference or expo, Josh’s presentation is a must attend for anyone inundated with resumes.

Is the SEO job market recession-proof?  How is the employment market for SEO trending in 2009? Will the industry continue to grow?

Onward Search’s co-founder, Ken Clark, will lead a discussion on the status of the SEO job market in 2009 this Thursday, July 30th, at 12:00PM / ET / 9:00 AM PT in the SEMPO webinar titled “The SEO Job Landscape in 2009 and Beyond.”

This webinar will detail the changes that have occurred in the hiring landscape over the past year, and will walk through some simple guidelines and tips for both active and passive job seekers who are working on their career plan, as well as hiring managers who are looking to source the best talent in the marketplace.

Additionally, Ken will also present five tips for both employers and job seekers alike to ensure you are winning in today’s career

Space is limited, so register now to reserve your spot!

Related: SEO jobs on Onward Search

Are you looking to get the latest info on how to find a job and locate talent via search, LinkedIn, and social media?  Tim Dineen, Onward Search's vice president of internet marketing, will be one of the featured speakers at SEMNE's Search Marketing Talent: Advance Your Career, Grow Your Business seminar at the Providence Marriott Downtown in Providence, RI on Tuesday, July 21.

In Tim's role as vice president of internet marketing at Onward Search,
he is leading our online efforts to promote internet marketing job
opportunities across the country.  Tim has over a decade of online
marketing experience as both an in-house SEO and as a consultant to
many small businesses.  Prior to joining Onward Search led the search
marketing initiatives for Indeed.com where he helped it grow into one
of the top employment websites in the world. 

Tim will join a panel consisting of John Nero, vice president for public relations and integrated services for Tiziani Whitmyre and Patrick O'Malley, of Patrick O'Malley and Associates.  We always enjoy all of SEMNE's events for both educational and networking opportunities, and I know this will be another great one.

Onward Search is offering a limited number of pre-paid guest passes to our clients.  If you are interested in attending, please contact us at 800-829-0072 or info@onwardsearch.com.

This week is chock full of networking events in the Boston and NYC metro area, and we are going to be very busy.  Here's a quick rundown of everywhere we will be this week and where you can find us:

Boston:

• Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) – Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA (June 15-18) – IRCE is always one of the best shows of the year, and we will have a full team there.  We're exhibiting at Booth #350.
• Pecha Kucha Night – Mantra, 52 Temple Place, Boston, MA (June 17 – 6:30pm) – Pecha Kucha is a fun gathering of graphics designers who provide short presentations on a variety of topics.  It is free and open to the public and always has great content, great company, and great food and drinks.
• AIGA Boston AFTA – Neoscape, 330 Congress Street, Boston, MA (June 18 – 6:00pm) – Onward's Sarah Wilkins will be attending Neoscape's first ever AFTA event at their studios.  It should be a great opportunity to see Neoscape and network with your contemporaries in the Boston area.

New York:

• DM Days – Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, NY (June 16-18) – Another "must attend" conference for marketers.  We're exhibiting here and you can find us at Booth #235.
• SEMPO NY – Digital Media for Search Professionals – Yahoo, New York, NY (June 16 – 6:30pm) – SEMPO NY always hosts funevents and this should be no exception.  Sign-up if you are in NYC and are not yet attending!

I hope we have the opportunity to see you all there.  For additional info and updates on these events, please follow us at @onwardsearch on Twitter.

With all the media attention on social networking of late, it is easy to forget that in-person events are probably the best way to build your personal and business networks.  The spring networking season is definitely upon us, and there are a lot of great internet marketing-focused local and national events that we'll be attending over the upcoming months.

This week alone Onward Search will be attending three events.  Here's where you can find us:

• Tuesday, May 12: Determining the SEO Health of Your Website – Boston Marriott Peabody, Boston, MA, 6:30PM – 9:30PM.  This event is sponsored by SEMNE and features Jill Whalen discussing what she looks for when performing an SEO site audit, as well as conducting some live site audits from the audience.  We're really looking forward to hearing Jill speak and will have several Onward Search team members at the event.

• Thursday, May 14:  Connstep Manufacturing & Business Conference – Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford, CT.  Connstep provides consulting and training solutions to Connecticut's manufacturing industry, and I will be presenting with Kathy Hokunson of Site-Seeker, Inc. on how manufacturing companies can leverage internet marketing to grow their business.

• Thursday, May 14:  SEMPO NY @ Google: Data Stories – Google HQ, New York City, NY, 6:30PM – ???  SEMPO NY, which hosts some of the best networking events around, has a great night planned at Google's NYC headquarters.  There is always great networking at SEMPO NY's events, and we will have a number of our team members there.

We're going to do our best to chat with as many people as we can, but please hunt us down if you're going to be at any of these events!  They should all be a good time.

Looking to the future, we have a pretty busy calendar and will be attending a number of other networking events in the upcoming months.  We will be posting updates on our whereabouts and where we will be via our @onwardsearch Twitter account as well as this blog.

Thanks and happy networking!

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to update you on some changes we will be making to the Onward Search Blog.  Going forward, we will be discontinuing our "This Week in…" blog posts and will instead be providing links to articles important and content through our twitter account so we can get them to you faster in a more real-time environment.

We will continue to write articles and tips for the blog to help you further your internet marketing career, but we felt the best way to keep you up-to-date on the latest news and trends in the industry will be through twitter.

Thank you for all your support to date and please feel free to give us feedback to help us provide you with the best content going forward.

Sincerely,

Reilly

This week our own Ken Clark, will be speaking at WebmasterWorld's first ever PubCon event in Texas.  Ken will be speaking on the panel titled, "Career Gut Check – SEM/SEO Employment Landscape." 
This panel will discuss the current employment trends in the internet
marketing industry and what you need to know to stay ahead in this economy.

The session will take place from 1:20pm – 2:30pm on March 12th in Salon B of the conference hall and will be moderated by Carolyn Shelby.  Ken will be joined on stage by Lyndsay Walker Bhalut, Joanna Lord, and Gary Swart to discuss the current search marketing career landscape.

PubCon South begins this week on Wednesday, March 11th and will run through Friday the 13th.  For its inaugural year, it is being held in Austin, Texas at the Norris Executive Conference Center.  The conference will feature highly anticipated keynote speeches from Guy Kawasaki and Matt Cutts, as well as three conference tracks offering a wide range of educational topics for both novices and experts.

If you are going to be out at PubCon this week, I would definitely suggest attending the panel to learn more about the state of internet marketing industry and how you should position yourself to further your internet marketing career.

In the world of creative design, your portfolio and accomplishments have the ability to speak louder than the names of the companies you have worked for.

If you are looking for ways to boost your creative design resume, one great way is to enter awards contests.  They add tremendous credibility to your portfolio, and depending on the size and scope of the contest, your work can be promoted worldwide with little effort.

Communication Arts is currently accepting entries for their 50th Annual Illustration Competition.  Entries will be accepted through Friday, March 6, 2009 for illustrations printed or produced between March 12, 2008 and March 6, 2009 in the following categories:

• Advertising
• Books
• Animation
• Editorial
• For sale
• Institutional
• Self-promotion
• Unpublished

If chosen by the awards committee your art will be published in Communications Arts Illustration Annual, which is distribute worldwide to over 70,000 people.

So if you are looking for another way to boost exposure to any illustrations you have completed in the past year, you should definitely consider the Communications Arts Competition.

Onward Search is now officially on twitter.

We have decided to take advantage of this great service to bring you real time updates on hot internet marketing and creative jobs, as well as to inform you about top talent in the industry who will not be on the market long.

Start following us today so you don't miss any updates.

Are you addicted to twitter, MySpace, and facebook?  Did you receive a Harvard education?  Any chance Womanizer is on repeat in the background right now?  If you answered yes to all these questions, then maybe you should look into becoming Britney Spears’ new media manager.  Apparently the pop princess is looking for someone to manage her online presence and keep her current comeback in full swing.  The job posting, which was originally posted on a private Harvard-only job board, calls for a social media addict to take ownership of Britney’s online identity and to engage her following.  So if you fit the qualifications, this could be your ultimate job opportunity.

Because of the short supply of SEO professionals, recruiting top talent can be very difficult.  Last week, Richard Baxter, of SEOGadget, posted a great article titled How to Recruit an SEO.  Richard describes how by being smart about each step of the hiring process, you can improve the candidates that you attract and be sure to lock down the candidate that fits perfectly with your company.  Richard focuses on four areas of the recruitment process:

1. Creating the job description and job advertisements
2. Placing the ads in the right spots and with the right recruiter
3. The interview
4. Salaries/Offers

It can be hard to lock down good SEO talent these days, so if you want to make sure you aren’t wasting time and missing opportunities, take a look at Richard’s article.

Maximizing your use of the internet, can really let you set yourself apart from others when looking for your next job.  Dan Schawbel, of Mashable, recently put together a good article on HOW TO: Build the Ultimate Social Media Resume.  By establishing a strong online presence, you can easily exhibit your strengths and skills to the world and attract employers to seek you out.  Dan’s process to creating the ultimate social media resume is:

1. Start with a website or blog
2. URL is key (think www.yourname.com)
3. Decide on the format and design
4. Enhance your resume with multimedia
5. Integrate your social media profiles
6. Make your resume shareable

If you are currently developing your social media resume I would definitely suggest looking at Dan’s post, which goes into detail about how each step should be tackled and perfected.

One of the best ways to strengthen your job security is to expand your skill set in order to make yourself indispensable.  Gino, of You The Designer, recently posted a list of the top 5 Complimentary Skills to Graphic Design.  By developing your abilities in new skills, you will be able to improve your job security, and will likely be able to demand a higher paycheck.  Gino’s list includes

1. Web Design
2. Illustration
3. Online Marketing
4. Search Engine Optimization
5. Blogging

With all these skills at your disposal, you will not only have job security, but will likely be sought after by a number of companies.

That's it for this week, check back next week for another update.

Happy New Year and Welcome Back to This Week in Search Marketing Staffing.

As we move closer and closer to a new president, everyone is making their guesses as to what President-Elect Obama will do in his first 100 days.  ComputerWorld believes that an economic stimulus package, expected early in the year, could create thousands of IT Jobs.  If funds are made available in the right places it is possible that the stimulus plan could create as many as 300,000 high-tech IT positions.  Professionals looking to take advantage of this situation should show their employers how their skill sets could be used in potential projects.  Many of the new jobs will require a combination of unique skill sets which will require expertise in at least one technical field.  While all this is still hypothetical, Obama’s “Pro-Tech Agenda” supports the thought that IT will continue to flourish in 2009.

Social media is quickly making it’s way into every aspect of our lives.  Whether it is staying in touch via facebook, getting the hottest news from Digg, or settling a friendly debate by looking something up on wikipedia, social media tools are helping us in new ways everyday.  If you are currently looking for a job, social media can also help with that.  Mashable recently published their 7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media.  Their 7 secrets are:

1. Conduct a people search instead of a job search
2. Use attraction-based marketing to get job offers
3. Be proactive on Twitter
4. Capitalize on Linkedin
5. Advertise Your brand using Adwords and Facebook Social Ads
6. Construct a video resume and upload it to YouTube
7. Subscribe to blogs that have job listings

Mashable breaks down the specifics of each of their “secrets” and how you can use them to successfully find your next job.

If you are hesitant to believe that someone can actually land a job using social media, then you should take a look at Scott Orth’s Social Media Job Hunt Experiment on SEMpdx.  After being laid off, Scott set out to find his next job using social media; facebook, twitter, linkedin, and his personal website.  Initially Scott received the best responses using twitter, but was disappointed with his results using Linkedin and facebook.  Quickly Scott learned in order to successfully use social media lock in his next job, he would have to stay persistent.  By remaining vigilent Scott was able to make some great connections and eventually landed a new position within one week of beginning his experiment.  Scott summed up what he learned from his experiment in his final post, Living Under a Bridge – Final Wrap Up.

Looking for a new skill to help boost your professional stock?  Look into learning virtualization, which is quickly becoming one of the hottest, most demanded skills in IT.  The VP of Dice.com, reports that while overall the job count on their IT job board has dropped 12% since January 2008, the number of virtualization jobs has increased nearly 40% in the same period.  Currently Dice.com has nearly 1000 jobs requesting VMware skills, and another 600 looking for general virtualization skills.

Dave Harry, of Huomah and Reliable-SEO, recently put together a great list of SEO resources in his post, SEO Higher Learning.  In an effort to promote the concept of continued learning within SEO, Dave lists over a hundred different resources to help search marketers better understand some of the more technical aspects of search engines.  By understanding the fundamentals a good search marketer will be able to make more educated decisions when faced with new problems.  Dave’s list includes a number of books, free courses, research papers, videos, patents, journals, tools, and blogs.  If you can make it through all of Dave’s resources without learning anything, you are probably lying.

That's it for this week.  Check back next week for another update.

Questions are good.  They help you reinforce decisions, clear up confusion, and learn more about yourself.  When looking for a new job you will be required to ask a lot of questions of yourself and of prospective employers.  The more questions you ask, the better prepared you will be to accomplish your goals.

Asking Questions of Yourself:

Self assessment is very important to personal growth.  If you are in between jobs it is crucial to really know who you are and what you want.  In order to get a good handle on this you need to ask yourself a number of questions.  By knowing what you are good at and what you aren’t good at, you will be able to focus your job search on positions that play to your strengths.  If you are aware of the type of corporate culture that plays well with your work habits, you will be able to avoid companies that you might not mesh with.  When asking questions of yourself, think about your career.  Some sample questions you can ask yourself include:

• Where do I want to be in 5, 10, 15 years?
• Do the jobs I am looking at support my career ambitions?
• What separates me from other professionals? 

If you know what you want, it will allow you to put more confidence behind your decisions and drive yourself to achieve more than before.

Asking Questions in Interviews:

When going into an interview, always be prepared with good questions to ask.  The process of thinking of questions will allow you to evaluate what truly is important to you about the position you are looking at.  When you get a chance to ask questions in an interview, make the most out of it.   Some possible questions to ask in an interview include:

• What would be expected from me  in my first week, month, quarter, of work?
• Does the position function as part of a team or more as an independent collaberator?
• What growth potential does this position have?

By asking thoughtful questions, potential employers will easily be able to sense that you are sincerely interested in the position.

The more you know about yourself and prospective jobs, the more confident you will be to make decisions.  Asking questions allows you to uncover details that aren’t obvious on the surface, and will get your mind thinking about other topics you might have otherwise overlooked.  Having a complete understanding of your strengths and what you want to accomplish will allow you to take control and move closer to reaching your goals.

The analytics expert Avinash Kaushik recently provided some great analytics career advice in his latest post, Analytics Career Advice, “I am an Analytics God, I Want More $$. How?”  As someone who has climbed the analytics ladder, Avinash has some great experiences to pull from to help fellow analyst move their careers forward.  As always the most important aspect to advancing your career is self evaluation.  Avinash provides us with four questions to begin this:

1. Do you like being an individual contributor?
2. Do you like managing people?
3. Are your true “Analyst” skills your massive mastery of how to solve every technical problem with every tool and how to implement anything?
4. Are your true “Analyst” skills your understanding of your company’s business strategy?

Depending on how you answer these four questions Avinash details four possible career paths, their dollar potential, and their long term growth prospects.

• Technical Individual Contributor
• Business Individual Contributor
• Technical Team Leader
• Business Team Leader

If you are a web analyst and are unsure of where your career is moving I would definitely suggest reading Avinash’s article, he does a really good job detailing the differences between each individual career path and which skills support each path.

The 2008 Open World Forum in Paris recently concluded, but not before announcing the FLOSS (Free Libre Open Source Software) 2020 Roadmap (pdf).  The FLOSS 2020 Roadmap is a 78 page report that outlines where open source IT currently is, and makes predictions of where it is headed for the year 2020 based associated recommendations.  With the growth of several factors including cloud computing, green IT, and virtual organizations, the roadmap details how by 2011 27% of IT jobs will be related to open source, and by 2020 that number will grow to 40% of IT Jobs.  While these predictions are based on a number of assumptions, open source is definitely poised to grow in the coming year, and it will interesting to watch how closely it follows the latest FLOSS roadmap.

With the continuing stream of layoffs, more job seekers are turning to the internet for their next job.  A recent study performed by Jobs2Web revealed that in the month of October the search term “jobs” was search on average 151 million times, more than a 20% increase from the previous month.  This boast in search activity made “jobs” the sixth most searched for term in October.  In their research, Jobs2Web also noted that most online job searches were performed in New York, California, and Texas.  While the number of people searching for jobs online has increased over the past couple months, many companies’ job listings remain hidden to job seekers.  Because of poorly optimized career sites, many search engines are unable to index thousands of job listings and job seekers are forced to rely on paid job boards and social networks.  As companies adopt better search practices they will have an easier time filling many of their hard to fill roles

Based on employer job postings over a 120 day period JobFox has determined their list of the Top 25 Most Recession-Proof Job Candidates (pdf).  Within the top 10 of their ranks were two IT specialties.  As of the end of October, Software Designer/Developers and Network/System Administrators were ranked fifth and seventh, respectively, earning on average between $55k-$85k per year.  While most industries have seen a drop in employment numbers, IT actually added jobs in October.  Other IT professions featured in the top 25 were Technology Executives at 16th and IT Security at 20th.  While JobFox noted there have been less jobs posted in recent months, “there is still a lot of demand with 75,000 open tech positions.”

Looking for a new job is never fun.  Being rejected for job is even less fun.  These days companies are looking through so many candidates that you can’t get too caught up in rejection.  In the article, Job Hunting Realities: What ‘No’ Really Means, BusinessWeek writer Jeff Schmidt lists why companies might really be passing on you.  Recently ADP Research revealed that large organizations are reviewing over 20 applicants per opening, making competition fierce.  At the end of the day when a company makes a hiring decision it isn’t always going to be the best or brightest candidate, but the candidate who they feel is the safest bet.  As Jeff points out, “Job Hunting is Unfair,” and “Employers Don’t Always Act Like Professionals,” so if you have recently been rejected, shake it off and start sending out more resumes.

Josh Garner of SEO Factor recently got the opportunity to interview Todd Mintz to Talk Resumes and Job Searching.  Todd has been in the SEO industry for some time and understands many of the nuances associated with SEO job hunting.  Because of the technical nature of the industry, how you represent yourself on the internet is a big issue.  Managing your online presence can really allow you to stand out, so make sure your Linkedin profile is updated and you are aware what pops up when you “Google” your name.  One great point Todd makes is that the “job search is a numbers game and the more resumes you send out, the better your chances of landing an interview.”  You need to build a list of companies you would like to work for and blast out your resume to as many as possible.  Since only a fraction of open jobs are advertised, don’t hesitate to submit your resume to a company that isn’t displaying any openings. 

As more people begin to accept that we have been in a recession for the past year, they are looking for ways to allow their companies to thrive in the down economy.  The internet is the cost-effective answer that many of these companies are finding.  Nicholas Carlson, Silicon Alley Insider, recently noted how much sense it makes to invest in web design and SEO after over-hearing and questioning web designers at a business lunch.   In his mind the Recession Winners are Web Designers and SEOs.

Are you thinking about relocating?  Well BusinessWeek has just released their list of the America’s Most and Least Favorite Cities as a reference for people looking to relocate for work.  The survey looked at a number of factors and asked survey takers to choose which cities they would be interested/not interested in moving to and what three attributes about the city lead to their decision.  According to their results New York City was the number one best city to work and live because of its entertainment options, professional/personal opportunities, and the ease of transportation.  In they case of NYC though, people also ranked it as the number one worst city to work and live because of the high cost of living and health and safety concerns.  While this list shouldn’t be used to decide where you are going to move tomorrow, it can give you a nice snapshot of some places you may have never considered.

It looks like this year’s Super Bowl contenders have already been decided, Monster vs CareerBuilder.  After watching CareerBuilder showcase their commercials during the Super Bowl for the past 4 years, Monster plans to return to the year’s biggest game.  Recently Monster became an official sponsor of the NFL and during the Super Bowl they will be promoting a contest as well the new design of their site, which will be released in January.  In another four years it will be interesting to see how many people remember Monster and CareerBuilder’s commercials vs how many remember who won.

That's it for this week.  Check back next week for another update.

While unemployment rates continue to climb, IT professionals remain in high demand largely due to the growing role of computers in the workplace.  Ladd Egan of KRCG recently looked at how the IT job market is faring in his article, High Demand for Information Technology Jobs.  One interesting fact Ladd noted is that according to Beyond.com, nearly 13% of all jobs posted online are in the information technology field, second only to job postings in the Healthcare and Medical industries.  Thus we can feel confident in saying the IT field will continue to grow as more and more jobs are created to support tomorrow’s technology.

In other news, InfoWorld recently released their 2009 IT Career Survival Guide.  As part of the guide, they pooled a number of resources they had developed throughout the year, as well as additional content to round out their guide.  Some of my favorite resources from the guide are:

• The 30 Skills Every IT Person Should Have
• How to Change Tech Tracks
• Where the Job Demand Is

InfoWorld’s Survival Guide has over 25 IT Career resources, so if you have any questions about what to do next with your career, check it out.

Finally, while online advertising has continuously grown quarter over quarter for the past year, there has been a tremendous slow down in growth in the most recent quarters.  Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch, recently compared the online advertising revenues of the big four (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask) to find that Online Ad Growth Grinds To A Halt.  A year ago, online advertising was growing over 12% quarter over quarter, but in Q3 of this year online ad sales only grew 0.61% compared to Q2’s results.  This small amount of growth can be misleading as Google is the only company used in the analysis whose revenues increased from Q2 2008 to Q3 2008.  It will be interesting to see if there is any growth in Q4, as well as whether growth picks up when the economy stabilizes.

That's it for this week, check back next week for another update.

This week BtoB Magazine reported that Search Marketing Remains Strong. 
While companies are scaling back during uncertain times and removing
advertising dollars from traditional media, such as television and
print, search marketing continues to grow and remain stable.  For the
third quarter just completed, search marketing grew 32% year over year
according to a Corvario study.  The efficiency and measurability of
search marketing continues to provide companies with a safe way to
advertise during hard times.

Across the country unemployment rates are continuing to climb with a
large majority of the layoffs coming in the manufacturing and financial
sectors.   Despite continuous layoffs, demand is still very high for technology professionals.
After crunching an enormous amount of government data, Laurence Shatkin
came up with his list of the 150 Top Recession Proof jobs.  Based on
Laurence’s research, the top three recession proof professions were in
the technology sector:

1. Computer systems analysts
2. Network systems and data communications analysts
3. Network and computer systems administrators

While companies are looking for ways cut costs and improve
efficiencies, many are looking and finding the answers in improved
technology. 

After a successful first run, the University of California San Diego will be inviting SEO Inc. back to offer another course in SEO.  
UCSD first tested the 2.5 credit, 3 day course over the summer.  The
course is structured to help webmasters, business owners and corporate
marketers learn the essentials to using SEO and SEM to increasing their
online visibility and boost their brand awareness. The class will be
held in both the fall and winter semesters at UCSD.  The fall course
will be held this week November 12th-14th, and the winter course will
be held February 17th-19th, 2009.  Enrollment for both classes is
available on the UCSD website.

That's it for this week, sorry for the delay, PubCon called.  Check back next week for another update.