How many people do you know who have gotten a job by sitting around and doing nothing?

None, right?

Getting a new job is all about action. As in taking action. To help you energize your job search, take a look at the five tips below:

1) Take a meeting with yourself and clarify what skills you bring, what kind of work makes you happy and what it is you want to accomplish in your next job and/or career? This will help you focus your job hunt activities and it will help make it easier for you to a) find a job more quickly and b) be the candidate chosen for the job you want.

2) Reach out to others. Get the names and contact information of the people who can hire you in the companies in which you’d like to work. For example, if you’re looking to move into IT management, find out the name of the IT director at your target companies. You’ll also want to get names of the movers and shakers in  your industry in your region and see if you can meet with them for an informational meeting. These meetings can help you stay up-to-date regarding hiring trends and potential job openings.

3) Organize your search. You’ll want to have all your job search materials such as the aforementioned potential employers, contacts, etc., as well as copies of your résumé, cover letters and so on in one place. Get one or more binders and folders to organize your paperwork. Use one of the binders to keep track of your progress.

4) See if you can find yourself a mentor, someone you trust who can help you with your job search. This person should have more experience in your field than you do and should successful in his or her career. Your mentor should provide you honest feedback about your skills and your career goals, as well as offer you tips for you job search. If you can’t find a mentor, consider partnering with a friend who also is looking for work. You can become accountability partners with each other, reporting once a week on your progress from the week before and coming up with the future action steps.

5) Contact The Wellspring Group. If you’re looking for employment as an IT professionals, we want to hear from you! Contact us today.

What is it that enables people to have a long lasting impact in their work, an impact that lasts for many years?  Some business researchers looked at these qualities.

To begin with,  those who found long-term career success looked for a job that was important to them, one that really mattered.  And then this pushed their thoughts to find ways to produce results, and then they acted on those thoughts.

Researchers stressed that finding what really mattered to people, finding real meaning in their work, was an essential first step to create and enduring impact.  Without the meaning, people might experience success for a while, but not for the long term.  It is the passion people have for their work, the importance or meaning they find in it, that sustains them when the going gets rough, when they encounter obstacles.

What the researchers learned is that no matter who you are, you are not going to experience lasting success if you are not doing what you really love.  If you don’t love what you do, you soon will be surpassed by those who do.  People who really care about what they do will outrun those whose heart really isn’t in the work.  To be competitive, you need to love what you do.

If you develop your knowledge and skills and love what you do, you are better prepared to take advantage of unexpected opportunities when they come along.  Moreover, having the passion for your job or career helps you overcome adversity.

When people love what they do, they don’t really think about success. When these people begin their jobs, what they focus on is being good at what is important to them.  When the right timing and situation develops, they get success.  But for these people, success does not mean what we usually define it as – power or wealth – but it means having an impact, an impact that will last. They define success as a commitment to something that matters.  And they don’t blame circumstances or anything else for failures they may encounter. They never see themselves as victims.

If you love working in the information technology sector, we want to hear from you! The Wellness Group can help you take your sought-after IT skills to some of the best companies in the country. Contact us today!

Luck. It is something we all would like to have. Most of us look at luck as something like chance, with the attitude that there’s really little we can do about it.

But two business authors have looked at luck, and have determined that there are certain qualities that help people make their own luck. They talked to people who considered themselves fortunate in life and tried to find qualities they had in common. They looked at people who were not only financially and socially well off, but also at people who had made significant contributions to society, people whose lives were characterized by creativity and self-fulfillment.

What they found is something that many already claim to know – we make our own luck.

There were five major qualities that these “lucky” people had in common.

The first was responsibility. Those who seem to have good luck are those who also accept responsibility for their actions. They understand that their actions have consequences and, if something goes wrong, they look at what they themselves have done that might have contributed to the problem, rather than casting about for someone else to blame.

If they have difficulties, they look at what actions they have taken that might have caused the difficulties, and what they can do to overcome them.

The second quality shared by so-called lucky people is a willingness to learn from their mistakes. They see their errors not as failures, but as an opportunities to learn.

Another shared quality of the lucky is perseverance. But it’s a perseverance coupled with an action-oriented mindset. These people get things done.. They don’t put things on a to-do list. They tackle a problem right away. They either solve a problem, delegate it — or forget about it.

Another important quality of people who make their own luck is confidence. They not only have confidence in themselves, but confidence in other people as well. It’s this confidence that helps them to persevere when things get tough. And it’s confidence that helps them to really picture their goals, to visualize their realization.

Finally, another quality of the lucky is the ability to cooperate. They are able to put their trust in others and to form a network of colleagues they can rely on.

Being lucky is a matter of attitude, the researchers said.  It is having an attitude that we create the conditions of our success.

Add The Wellspring Group to your “network of colleagues” on which you may rely. We can help IT professionals and companies needing top-notch IT talent connect with each other. Contact us today!

Yes, it’s true – it’s not what you know, but who you know.  But not in the way you might think.

Research supports the age-old adage, revealing that people who have particular kinds of networks are more successful.  They move up the ranks faster, earn more, find jobs more easily, and are generally thought to be model employees.

But the research also shows that, in this case, size does not matter.  In fact, it may do more harm than good.  Building up a huge network of connections is actually a drag on performance at work, and it negatively impacts health as well.

The secret of an effective network, according to researchers, is making connections to more isolated people.  This allows the person who is connected to get the jump on new ideas that have not yet made it into the mainstream, and to sniff out new opportunities better than others who are connected to the wrong kinds of networks.

This finding about the value not just of networking, but the right kind of networking, holds true for the social media world as well.  Facebook and Twitter have just as great a probability of hindering work as helping it, if they pull the worker into making more “connections” and away from other work.  Employees already are almost drowning in networking at work, with meetings, e-mails, and phone calls.
Recent research also has shown that the social media networks have w the same characteristics as those with personal, “offline” interactions.  Here too, it’s not the size of the network that counts but the isolation of the contacts.  In the study, the researchers looked at the number of website bookmarks and tags workers shared as a way of communicating new ideas and information.

They discovered that innovation was not related at all to the number of bookmarks a person looked at or even the number of people the person was connected to online.  The workers who were more creative didn’t have larger networks.  What they did have were connections to other employees who themselves had fewer contacts.

So, in looking at networks, you need to keep in mind to whom you are linking.  If the links are to people who are themselves busy networking a lot, you are not gaining much.  As in many things in life, it’s the quantity of connections, it’s the quality.

If you’re looking for a new IT position, one where the quality of your work is appreciated and rewarded, forward your résumé to one of The Wellspring Group’s recruiters. We have deep connections with companies across the country needing reliable and skilled IT professionals. We look forward to hearing from you.

Has your company cut or increased your budget for employee training during the recession? Whether it went up or down, you may be interested to know that recent reports have shown that most firms continued to spend on educational programs for their workers and about half said their firms were beefing up their education programs. In addition, the surveys found that those companies that cut back suffered from declines in sales.

About half of the companies surveyed did curtail travel, conference, seminars, and workshops budgets, but continued to widely use Web-based and other electronic forms of learning. In addition, companies focused more on “targeted learning,” in which courses cover less material but gear it more toward the specific needs of an employee.

In addition, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas recently confirmed that the more knowledge-based education a worker has, the more he or she will earn in a lifetime.

Over a 40-year career, the report shows, those with a high school education will earn about $1.5 million, a college graduate will bring in $2.6 million, a master’s educated individual will earn $3 million, a doctorate degree will bring in $4 million, while a professional degree (physician, attorney) will help an individual earn $5.3 million in that time span.

Several economists believe that workers’ lifelong learning (in formal, school-based settings as well as in less-traditional settings, such as online), is critical to the United States’ economic growth. The good jobs will be available here, but only if we have the qualified workers to fill them.

Technology is important, of course, but it’s individual bran that truly counts. Continuous learning throughout a lifetime means better living standards and more opportunity.

If you’re an IT professional looking for your next opportunity, contact a recruiter at The Wellspring Group. We look forward to learning more about your career goals!

Information technology companies need to be aware of the tremendous diversity of motives and attitudes of female workers when dealing with these employees, according to researchers, who based their conclusions on interviews with women from three countries.

The way women approach their careers, home life and motherhood (if applicable) can vary tremendously, according to researchers who looked at this issue. It would be a mistake to assume that in general all women look at work and home life the same way.  The career paths women take are influenced by a wide variety of factors, including gender stereotypes, other messages that society sends and family relationships.

Researchers at Penn State University’s School of Information Technology interviewed almost 200 women in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The woman came from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds.

Researchers said company managers should not simply assume a young woman will, as a matter of course marry, have children and drop out of the workforce. Human resource policies based on these assumptions may not apply to many women, who are motivated by different factors, such as salary, job security and work environment.

The researchers said women in the IT industry have developed many ways to handle their work and home life duties. Some rely more on work-oriented programs, such as flexible schedules, while others rely more on home-based support, such as spouses or parents. Because each woman may use different support systems and approach her responsibilities in a different way, it would be a mistake for companies to develop a one-size-fits all kind of program.

The researchers gave several examples of how different cultural influences could affect women in information technology. For example, in China, calling a woman a “geek” is seen as a compliment. In Ireland, people characterize information technology careers as “clean” work. And in India, exam scores determine whether a woman will be able to work in information technology or not. The researchers said cultural stereotypes may be part of the reason why there is a relative paucity of women in information technology in the United States.

When you’re looking for exceptional IT professionals, contact The Wellspring Group. We can source, vet and place skilled and reliable workers for your short-term, long-term and direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you’re looking for work, it’s critical that you stay optimistic.

Of course, we know how difficult that is, especially if you’ve been looking for weeks or months. But experts report that keeping an optimistic mindset is vital as you continue searching.

By optimistic we don’t mean constantly sunny and Pollyanna-ish. Rather, job search experts recommend an “intelligent” optimism, one that acknowledges the reality of your situation but which refuses to just give up and find life meaningless. This type of optimism — finding meaning and purpose in a world that seems to be working overtime against you — can be learned.

Here are some tips on how to do so:

1) Concentrate on the things you can control. Disregard those you cannot. For example, quit worrying about the unrest in Egypt, Wall Street corruption or the terrible weather in many parts of the country this winter. You have no control over these things. But you can write a letter to the editor of the New York Times regarding Egypt, you can remember that spring officially is less than seven weeks away and you can go out and do what you need to get a new job (network more, learn new skills, contact The Wellspring Group, for example).

2) Refuse to see yourself as a victim. Don’t start making your life a catastrophe (“No one has given me a job today or last week or last month so I’ll never work again!”). Focus instead on the things that are going right (“I talked with five people last week about my search”) and on what you can do (“I’ll speak with 10 new people this week!”).

3) Don’t whine. Just don’t. Stop if you do. You harm no one but yourself and it doesn’t help your situation one iota. In fact, it makes your situation worse, helping you go down that rabbit hole of negativity ever more quickly. Instead, focus on what you do have. Practice gratitude. Be thankful for whatever is going right with your life. You have a loving spouse, you have great kids and great friends, you’re in good health, a new episode of NCIS is on tonight. Take five minutes once a day and write down a few things for which your grateful, no matter how minor they may be. It’s a known fact that thinking of things for which you’re grateful keeps your mood up.

If you’re looking for a new position, send your résumé to The Wellspring Group. We have many IT positions (some of which aren’t even on our website yet) available with some of this country’s best firms. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you’re gunning for a leadership role in your company, you’re going to have to find the right balance between being too assertive and being perceived as too timid.

A study by researchers at the Columbia Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business found that being seen as having too much or not enough assertiveness may be the most widespread weak spot among those who aspire to leadership roles in their firms. This results in the potential leaders coming across as being less effective than those whom their colleagues believe to have the “optimal” level of the trait.

Researchers studies workers’ feedback about their co-workers’ leadership traits such as charisma, self-discipline and intelligence. Interestingly, colleagues perceived weaknesses as more than just a lack of a trait — many of those studied reported that they looked upon colleagues they perceived as too assertive as being less effective than others who weren’t thought so.

While many people might think a lack of assertiveness might brand someone as weak, many possible leaders were thought too assertive or not assertive enough by their colleagues. In one study of about 1,000 workers, more than half of those who described someone as having a weakness particularly referred to assertiveness. This finding was divided pretty much equally between the two extremes.

Interestingly, when a potential leader got the assertiveness quotient “wrong,” colleagues took instant note. When a potential leader gets the assertiveness level right, it’s not noticed as much. In other words, it’s taken as a given as to the individual’s good leadership qualities.

Your takeaway? If you aspire to leadership but are low in assertiveness (you have a hard time standing up for what’s important to you, for example), you may be ineffective (or at least seen as ineffective) at achieving desired goals and results. However, too much assertiveness can brand you as a blowhard. Which easily could have the unwanted affected of making it difficult for people to want to follow you. Instead, to be effective, it’s necessary to push hard — but not too hard to get results. You still want to be able to “get along” with co-workers and those you supervise.

If you’re ready for a position that will allow your skills and knowledge to shine within the IT field, contact The Wellspring Group. We can help you access some of the most sought-after opportunities in your field. Contact a recruiter today.

If you’ve just landed a new IT job and if the position isn’t what you hoped it would be (or even if it is), you’re likely looking to get a promotion and raise as quickly as possible.

Here are some tips to help you.

The more you can show your value to your employer, the easier it will be to get a promotion. Obviously this means you’ll have to work for it. Not only should you do your job, you’ll want to do more.

Sit with your boss and ask him or her about goals for the coming year. What does your boss want and/or need to accomplish? Ask your supervisor how you can help or, better yet, suggest ideas as to how you can help your manager be more successful. If you help your boss be more successful, you will be more successful.

Document. Document. And document some more. That is, write down all of your accomplishments, no matter how small. You could keep these to yourself and then present them to your boss at your annual review, but since you want a promotion/raise quickly, you’ll need to do…more: send a “projects completed” or “tasks update” to your manager each week. Don’t be shy about pointing out when projects are completed ahead of schedule, under budget or otherwise were finished in a manner better than normal.

After you’ve had at least three major successes under your belt (see above) and you’ve been at your position for at least three to six months (three if your accomplishments truly were major, six if they were just better than average), then ask your supervisor for a meeting.

If you haven’t been sending weekly missives to your manager about your accomplishments, be sure to do have them handy for this meeting. Even if you have, bring a listing of your best accomplishments (and have a copy for your manager).

Then, you’ll need to point out all the things you’ve done that have gone beyond your job description and say something along the lines of “Boss, I’ve been performing at the level of assistant IT director consistently for X months. In that time, I’ve [list three big accomplishments] while also [mention three of your major day-to-day responsibilities]. Since I’ve been doing the job of an assistant IT director, I’m here today to discuss with you about my being promoted to the position.”

And then be quiet. Say nothing. Let your boss speak first. Chances are, you’ll see something positive come from this meeting. If not an immediate promotion, at the very least you’ll more than likely come to an agreement to discuss the issue again soon.

You’ve nothing to lose and quite a bit to gain by being assertive and asking for a promotion so long as you’ve shown you deserve it. And by showing we mean, doing the work as well as documenting it.

Good luck!

If you’re looking for a terrific new IT position in 2011, contact The Wellspring Group. We have forged strong connections with firms across the country needing top-notch IT workers. Contact us today!

If you’re a woman, follow this mantra when being offered a new job: negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.

Oh, and one more thing: Negotiate!

Most people believe women are more reluctant to negotiate when offered new jobs — or even at any time during their working careers. But a recent survey of about 500 businesswomen show that many do negotiate when considering a new project at work, new job or promotion.

What’s more, those negotiations ultimately led to greater success to these savvy women. They earned better performance reviews, had greater job satisfaction, and were provided more leadership opportunities.

The study found that women with considerable experience as leaders tendto take the time to look a new job over carefully before deciding to accept the position or not. They will check with people within the firm (they usually know at least one due to their good networking skills), and others whose advice and knowledge they respect regarding ideas about what issues they should negotiate.

Experts who study women and negotiation recommend that firms should work to encourage women to negotiate. If a woman can learn at the beginning what it will take to be successful in a new position from the get go, it will lessen the chances the woman will leave the job.

The study found that of those women considering a new position, 84 percent said they dickered for a higher salary or other perks, 62 percent negotiated a meeting to make their case for a new position, and 50 percent had negotiated for a different job description, title or to whom the position reported.

Most of the female negotiators said they were pleased with their jobs, compared to less than a third of those women who took whatever was offered to them. Most of the women who negotiated reported they subsequently were given more opportunities to take on leadership roles and that they also had outstanding performance reviews.

Our takeaway for female job seekers? Never be afraid to ask for more. Never be shy to negotiate. Done with panache and consideration, your future boss will respect you all the more, even if you don’t get all that you request. In fact, when you negotiate, don’t be surprised if you get at least something that you ask for. It’s rare indeed to receive nothing (and, if you’ve a hiring manager who won’t budge, you may want to think twice, three or even four times before accepting a position).

When you’re looking for a great IT position, contact The Wellspring Group. We partner with some of the nation’s most recognized and preferred firms, offering you access to sought-after positions. We look forward to hearing from you.