Venteon’s 2012 Salary Guide is now available. It’s our way of helping you pay the right price for the right talent in the right job classification. According to Staffing Industry Analysts, demand for Accounting and Finance Professionals will continue to grow in 2012. Our salary guide provides ranges for financial and accounting positions and is compiled using data from hundreds of placements made each year.

Venteon is strategically positioned to provide employment services in some of the fastest growing professional sectors. Please contact Ben Kohns today to receive your 2012 Salary Guide at bkohns@venteon.us.com. Let us provide swift, top-quality service for your needs.

There’s no denying that social networking sites like LinkedIn can prove extremely beneficial to job searches today. The problem is that few people are actually utilizing this incredible resource in a way that can have a positive impact on their job searches. There is a right and a wrong way to use LinkedIn and any social networking sites to further your job search efforts. Here are a few mistakes you’ll want to avoid as you make the most of the tools technology has to offer today.

Don’t Dive Headfirst into the Job Search

You shouldn’t just dive right in and start spamming the site with requests to help you in your job search. It might seem like your most desperate hour but that’s not the face you want to present to potential allies in your efforts to land a new job. Social networking is all about developing relationships and making connections. Take the time to get to know people or to reconnect with the people you already know.

You’ll gain a lot more respect by showing a little restraint and have much better results. LinkedIn, at its heart, is still a social network. While it is one that has a more professional and business-like atmosphere there is still a certain protocol or system of etiquette that is expected.

Do Take Advantage of LinkedIn Groups

Becoming an active and contributing member of the right groups can help you share your knowledge and gain a reputation as a leader in your field. However, joining the wrong groups or using the groups for blatant self-promotion is likely to backfire. It’s a fine balance and one that needs to be carefully walked.

You’ll gain a much better reputation and build more good will by acting as your own good will ambassador and using your knowledge, skills, and talents to help others than by trying to promote yourself or asking for jobs.

You should also make an effort to join groups that reflect well on you and your intentions to gain employment and not those they may not show you in a favorable light to potential employers.

Do Venture Off the World Wide Web

LinkedIn is a great tool for making contacts. But, you’re going to need to take those contacts off line in order to build stronger relationships. The “Know, Like, Trust” ideology is one that is heavily promoted at LinkedIn and many groups host events offline in their communities in order to connect with people who work in specific employment fields, live in certain communities, and/or who share common interests.

It’s attendance at these meetings that makes all the difference in the world. Join. Contribute. Attend.  Get to know the people in your network and who may have job openings you qualify for or be connected with someone who does. It’s the “five handshake” rule in action.

It’s easy to feel all alone when you’re in the market for a new job. It’s definitely hard to be patient. But, if you take your time and go about networking with sites like LinkedIn the right way from the beginning you’ll enjoy a much greater reward for your efforts in the end.

Be sure to consider Venteon for your job search needs, and get a head start on finding a great career.

There are many fields that have been stagnate, or shown no signs of growth, over the past four years – during what is being called the Great Recession. The accounting field is one that isn’t among that number. In fact, this is one field that is experiencing significant growth. In the final quarter of 2011, there were more than 64,000 jobs listed online for accountants and/or auditors in the US. While that may not seem like earth shattering numbers, it does represent a growth of 25 percent over the same quarter one year before.

Believe it or not, larger cities that have the largest number of job openings for accountants and auditors also often have the smallest pool of talent from which to draw.

Why is that?

It’s the result of the fact that so many people assume the larger cities will produce a greater number of qualified applicants. This means that a greater number of advertisements are made for these specific cities. It results in a lower number of applicants for each position that is advertised rather than a greater number.

What’s the solution for recruiters and hiring managers?

Think outside the big cities. You don’t want to look too far outside the cities but you do want to go to slightly smaller talent pools within easy commuting distance in order to attract a greater number of applicants for the jobs that are available.

In New York, for instance, there may be well over 100,000 accountants who are actively seeking work. But, there are nearly 8,000 positions listed in the area. This dilutes the talent pool to the point where the average number of applicants for each available position would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 12. However, if you look outside the city and consider nearby areas such as Syracuse, Utica, Kingston, or Poughkeepsie you face fewer competing advertisements and a larger pool of potential candidates for consideration.

It might seem like this is a long-winded way of saying that accounting positions will be hard to find this year. But that really isn’t the case at all. There are excellent candidates available you just have to step outside of the largest concentration of candidates in order to truly cast a wider net.  It defies conventional wisdom to some degree but once you put the numbers on paper and think it through; it makes perfect sense.

We are fortunate that there appears to be a great deal of growth within the field of accounting. The goal is to keep the numbers in this and many other fields growing in coming years. The bottom line is that it isn’t necessary to look long and hard to find qualified accounting candidates for the open accounting positions. You just have to think outside the big box a little bit.

By today’s standards, men and women are thought to be equals, but in the technical field, there are far fewer women. The risk here is if there are not enough women in this field, there may be a significant shortage of the talents and skills that women uniquely bring to the market. Those are skills this industry may be lacking in, some believe. What the IT field needs is more women working with it.

What’s the Shortage?

It is evident that there are fewer women in the technical field. Many of them have less confidence in their ability to be successful as compared to men in the industry. However, in a study done by Standard University, men are no more likely to succeed than women are. Women are also more likely to switch careers in this field than men are. They do so because they do not believe they are a good fit. The problem is, evidence indicates that the skills women possess may be more important to this industry than most realize.

Many women have these negative views because of what has plagued the country for hundreds of years: stereotypes. Some have believes that this field is more masculine and therefore that it is something that culturally or stereotypically they believe men should do because, in some way, men are likely to be good at it. That is not necessarily the case, though.

What Women Bring to the Technical Field

Interestingly, in some countries, the job of computing work is thought of as women’s work. This is what happens in Malaysia, for example. More women take these positions than men do. About 20 percent of all engineering students are women. What do these women bring to the table? Women’s creativity, intelligence and problem solving skills are all talents that the industry could benefit from having access to.

It’s Not Recruiters

Recruiters are not necessarily picking a favorite when they hire men, though. Rather, the women believe that they do not have what it takes. However, those who work in this field do well in it. They love their technical jobs. Many women love the thrill of being able to solve a challenging situation. Others have impressive success stories that far outweigh those of men in the field.

Leveling the Playing Field

In order for these particular types of opinions to improve, women will need to develop more confidence in the area of technical work. Attracting more women will benefit the IT field as a whole. For recruiters, this often means offering positive comments and ensuring women that the business and field in general are the right place to be. Many are encouraging recruiters to seek out women for positions to help knock down the stereotype that women cannot do this work as well as men.

Accounts Payable Specialist
· Efficient and dependable professional with nine years of Accounts Payable experience available immediately.
· Areas of expertise include coding/batching, entry of invoices, disbursements, reconciliation, discrepancy resolution, vendor relations, and month-end close.
· Bachelors degree in Information Technology from Eastern Michigan University.
· Very analytical, excellent communication skills, and eager to learn.
· Open to contract, contract to hire and direct placement opportunities.

Staff Accountant
· Bachelor of Science, minoring in accounting. 
· Experienced skills through Financial Statements using Great Plains and Crystal Reports. 
· Possesses extremely strong Excel skills.  
· Very professional, confident, and articulate and a quick learner who is people oriented.
· Looking for a challenging opportunity with a stable company to contribute skills.
Financial Reporting/Technical Accounting Specialist
· 6 years of public accounting experience; Big 4 Audit Manager, CPA certification along with MSA.
· Manager on SEC audit client with experience in both GAAP and Statutory reporting requirements.
· Extensive experience in all stages of audits including planning, execution and reporting.
· Proficient in researching accounting issues.
· Experience in manufacturing, professional services and insurance industries.

Senior Finance Manager, FP&A
· MBA with global operational experience as well as performance improvement expertise.
· Superior analytical skills and solid track record in profit improvements, cost containment, and growth strategies.
· Developed strategic and financial targets for 17 business units of the company.
· Focused on planning, business modeling, profitability analysis, and risk management.

Could we still be in an environment where so many are desperate for jobs that there are some fields still struggling to find employees? That is exactly what is happening in some specific fields. In IT and engineering, there are certain positions that command a certain level of experience and training that are in short supply in the general market. As such, those companies hiring in these fields are likely to find themselves struggling to make ends meet. If you are a recruiter, you will likely find it hard to find well-qualified applicants.

Hard to Fill Positions

There are numerous positions that could become hard to fill in the short term. In the fields of IT and engineering, though, the following are the most difficult to find qualified prospective for right now.

1. Software engineers and web developers – demand is up and skills are not there in many instances. There is a growing demand in this field that education has not kept up with, though in the coming years, more applicants may become available as more students turn to these industries.
2. Creative design and user experience – a lack of talent in this very rapidly growing field will likely continue to hold back those companies in need of professionals. It, too, may see improvement as more candidates graduate school.
3. Analytics – always a challenging subject area, it is growing in intensity. A demand for qualified professionals is present in most areas and yet there are few candidates to fill key positions here.
4. Product management – it sounds like it would be easy to fill but chances are good recruiters will find a lack of talent and experience present.
5. Marketing – the ever-changing face of marketing is making it one of the most demanding fields right now. The scope of marketing continues to change at a rapid pace making filling these positions difficult to do at best.

What is making these positions so hard to fill? A number of aspects are contributing. First, there is the demand for more Internet-based focus in many of these fields. Everyone from individuals to small businesses, from large corporations to government entities needs websites and management of them. That demand is making it hard to fill positions. Over the next eight years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the fastest growing job category will be computer application software specialists. A 32 percent increase in professionals from the period of 2008 to 2018 is likely. That’s explosive.

Also contributing is the fact that technology is moving at such a rapid pace. It is hard to find professionals with not only knowledge, but also working experience in areas such as tablets and mobile devices – key applications for many of today’s biggest businesses. Without this knowledge base, many people cannot perform in the job. Yet, there are candidates working to enter these fields in the next years. The gap for the short term may be difficult for many employers to manage, though. Recruiters may find IT and engineering difficult to staff overall for these reasons.