WSJ: Silicon Valley Jobs Surge as Major Metros See Rising Employment

The economies of big U.S. cities are improving.

Employment rose in all 51 metropolitan areas with a population of 1 million or more in February compared with a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Silicon Valley’s San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro saw the biggest surge in employment, with area payrolls growing 5.4%. Regions anchored by Atlanta and Louisville, Ky., followed with gains of 4.6%.

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Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Sunnyvale, California.

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GoPro Shares Jump 31% in Debut

June 26, 2014 -- (WSJ) -- GoPro Inc.'s stock-market debut showed the promise of consumer-electronics companies but didn't quell skepticism about the video-camera maker's longer-term prospects.

GoPro makes a wearable high-definition video recorder that first appealed to surfers and cyclists looking for ways to record cool tricks. It is now the top-selling camcorder in the...

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Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Sunnyvale, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Elite Colleges Don’t Buy Happiness for Graduates

May 7, 2014 -- (WSJ) -- A word to high-school seniors rejected by their first choice: A degree from that shiny, elite college on the hill may not matter nearly as much as you think.

A new Gallup survey of 30,000 college graduates of all ages in all 50 states has found that highly selective schools don’t produce better workers or happier people, but inspiring professors—no matter where they teach—just might.

The poll, undertaken this spring, is part of a growing effort to measure how well colleges do their jobs. This survey adds an interesting twist, because it looked not only at graduates after college; it tried to determine what happens during college that leads to well-being and workplace engagement later in life.

The poll didn’t measure graduates’ earnings. Rather, it was rooted in 30 years of Gallup research that shows that people who feel happy and engaged in their jobs are the most productive. That relatively small group at the top didn’t disproportionately attend the prestigious schools that Americans have long believed provided a golden ticket to success. Instead, they forged meaningful connections with professors or mentors, and made significant investments in long-term academic projects and extracurricular activities.

To read the entire article, go to the Wall Street Journal...

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Sunnyvale, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Mimosa Networks Raises $20M To Push Global High-Speed Wireless Networking

May 21, 2014 -- (WSJ) -- Investors are pouring another $20 million into Mimosa Networks Inc., a stealthy Silicon Valley startup whose technology aims to make fiber-speed wireless networks a given around the world, the company told Venture Capital Dispatch.

The investment, which comes from insiders New Enterprise Associates and Oak Investment Partners, takes Mimosa’s total funding to nearly $39 million as Mimosa prepares to launch its first products in mid-June. Valuation is not disclosed.

“We’ve got a 1,000-to-1 mismatch between what we’re supplying [in wireless technology] and what we think the demand will be at the end of the decade. That’s the big backdrop,” said NEA Venture Partner Greg Papadopoulos, a Mimosa board member.

To read the entire article, go to the Wall Street Journal...

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Sunnyvale, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

AT&T Says Software-Based Network Starts to Go Live by June

May 7, 2014 -- (WSJ) -- The telecom carrier, which is replacing its hardware-based network with software, says that within the next month it will offer the first cloud-based products based on the technology, which will allow big corporations to manage and configure services on their own.

To read the entire article, go to the Wall Street Journal...

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Sunnyvale, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Math and Science Pay, But High Schoolers Care Less

April 23, 2014 -- (WSJ) --  Math and science are the peas and carrots of the jobs market: great for a career future, but resolutely unpopular with the young.

Even amid a relatively weak jobs picture, fewer U.S. high school students are taking up fields of study with proven earnings potential than was the case a decade ago.

That has translated into a chronic shortage of workers schooled in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, according to research released Wednesday.

The STEM Index, developed by U.S. News & World Report and RaytheonRTN +0.81% Co., found the number of American jobs requiring math or science knowledge increased to 16.8 million last year from 12.8 million in 2000.

Yet during the same period, U.S. high-school students’ interest in those subjects declined—and now stands below 2000 levels.

To read the entire article, go to the Wall Street Journal...

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Sunnyvale, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Chinese College Graduates Play It Safe and Lose Out

March 26, 2013 -- (WSJ) --  BEIJING—Xie Chaobo figures he has the credentials to land a job at one of China's big state-owned firms. He is a graduate student at Tsinghua University, one of China's best. His field of study is environmental engineering, one of China's priorities. And he is experimenting with new techniques for identifying water pollutants, which should make him a valuable catch.

But he has applied to 30 companies so far and scored just four interviews, none of which has led to a job. Although Mr. Xie's parents are entrepreneurs who have built companies that make glasses, shoes and now water pumps, he has no interest in working at a private startup. Chinese students "have been told since we were children to focus on stability instead of risk," the 24-year-old engineering student says.

Read entire article here...

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Sunnyvale, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Social Seal of Approval Lures Talent

As companies compete to lure young, socially minded talent, they are stepping up their B game.

More companies are touting the B Corp logo, a third-party seal of environmental and social credentials, to attract young job seekers who want an employer committed to both a social mission and the bottom line. As a result, the B Corp logo—a circumscribed B—has been popping up on everything from company websites to office signage to shopping bags, even as some question whether the designation means much.

Read the full story here...

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Startup Aims to Reinvent Wireless Communication

Kumu Networks Says It Can Double the Use of Radio Spectrum, Easing Congestion

A small startup is challenging one of the long-held precepts in communications, that mobile devices can't transmit and receive data on one frequency at the same time. An unusual technology proposed by Kumu Networks Inc. emerges as telecom carriers ponder what's next after today's fourth-generation cellular networks to cope with a flood of new smartphone users and data demands on wireless networks.

Read the full story here...

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Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

A Smart Investor Would Skip the M.B.A.

Why spend six figures on a business degree? Students would do better to train and network on their own

Imagine that you have been accepted to Harvard Business School. The ivy-covered buildings and high-powered faculty whisper that all you need to do is listen to your teachers, get good grades and work well with your peers. After two years, you'll emerge ready to take the business world by storm. Once you have that degree, you'll have it made.

But don't kid yourself. What matters exponentially more than that M.B.A. is the set of skills and accomplishments that got you into business school in the first place. What if those same students, instead of spending two years and $174,400 at Harvard Business School, took the same amount of money and invested it in themselves? How would they compare after two years?

Read the full story here...

Visit the Netsoft Career Center to read this article and more career tips.

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Recent College Grads Lack Professionalism

Entry-level workers are an entitled, unprofessional bunch.

That’s the bleak assessment derived from new research by the Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania, which offers an annual survey of whether employees are up to the job.

The researchers surveyed about 400 human resources professionals about their experiences recruiting and hiring recent college graduates in a variety of industries and roles. More than a third report that the level of professionalism among new hires has decreased in the last five years. Nearly 45% said that employees’ work ethic has worsened.

Read the full story here...

Visit the Netsoft Career Center to read this article and more career tips.

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Want to Kill Innovation at Your Company? Go Public.

Many tech entrepreneurs dream of taking their companies public, but they may want to think twice.

While public offerings raise cash, new research suggests that IPOs can also result in stunted innovation at technology firms.

In general, post-IPO companies create inventions that are less ambitious and valuable than do firms that remain private, found Shai Bernstein, an assistant finance professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He analyzed patent data from 1,500 U.S. technology firms that either went public, or intended to go public but called off those plans, between 1985 and 2003. In all, he examined nearly 40,000 patents awarded to the companies both before and after their intended IPO date. The two groups were similar in size, age and research spending.

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Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Now Hiring? Tips for Conducting Interviews

It's not always a candidate's fault when a job interview goes south.

Hiring managers can commit a litany of sins, such as interrupting interviews to answer phone calls, failing to take notes, acting bored or distracted, bad-mouthing their own companies, bullying applicants, or asking "gotcha" questions for no reason at all, say human-resources consultants. The cost of poor interviews ranges from bad hires to alienated job applicants. At worst, untrained hiring managers can open their employers to lawsuits by asking questions deemed illegal by federal nondiscrimination standards. Read Article

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Job Hunting - Make In-Person Connections - New Article in Netsoft Career Center

In 1938, Lillian Brownstein Chodash had already spent 15 months looking for work. One morning she rode the elevator to the top of an office building in her Jersey City, N.J., neighborhood and started knocking on doors. She worked her way down nine stories, fielding rejection after rejection.

Finally, on the second floor, Ms. Chodash found a father-and-son real-estate and insurance business. The duo had just fired their secretary that day. After a shorthand and typing test, they hired her on the spot. Read entire WSJ article here...

Visit the Netsoft Career Center to read this article and more career tips here...

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Your Co-Workers Might Be Killing You - New Article in Netsoft Career Center

Hours don't affect health much—but unsupportive colleagues do

The typical American will spend about 15% of his or her lifetime working at the office. Given this expanse of hours, it's not surprising that the details of our job can have a profound impact on our health. 

Traditionally, researchers have focused on the ways in which different kinds of labor affect the body, investigating the hazards associated with activities such as coal mining, truck driving and professional football.

Read entire WSJ article here...

Visit the Netsoft Career Center to read other articles and career tips.

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

New Article Posted in Netsoft Career Center

Small Firms, Big Options
Some High -Tech Executives Lured to Join Would-Be IPOs

A chief executive who boosted his company's stock price more than 50% in two years might be expected to trade up to a larger company as his next career move. Instead, Mark McLaughlin resigned last week from the top job at publicly traded Internet-infrastructure company VeriSign Inc. to join a Silicon Valley start-up.

Mr. McLaughlin has been tapped as CEO of Palo Alto Networks Inc., a closely held security-technology company widely viewed as a candidate for an initial public offering.

Read Full WSJ Article Here...

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

Netsoft Completes 3rd Placement at GoPro

GoPro is the world's leading activity image capturing company. GoPro produces the famous HERO® line of wearable and gear-mountable cameras and accessories, GoPro's products are sold through specialty retailers in over 40 countries. Netsoft has now placed 2 directors and a senior program manager with GoPro. Congratulations to John Wyatt, Quality Director.

GoPro is the world's leading activity image capturing company. Note this article about GoPro in the Wall Street Journal. READ WSJ ARTICLE

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.

GoPro, Already Profitable, Receives Funding from the same VC that Funded Pure Digital, Maker of the Flip Videocam

Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2011

Even as cellphones put video cameras into pockets everywhere, one company is seeing brisk sales of a rugged video camera that turns ordinary people into the stars of their own self-shot action movies.

GoPro's trick: a collection of mounts that allow its inexpensive cameras to be attached to everything from the tips of surfboards to ski helmets. The cameras have also started winning converts among professional cameramen, who have used the gadgets to burrow into cobra dens and shoot the insides of shark's mouths for television nature shows.

READ WSJ ARTICLE

Netsoft is a Technology Search firm, co-founded in 1992 by Randal J. Prout and Eric A. Thoreson and serving Silicon Valley from our office in Santa Clara, California.

Note our track record and the resulting success of our client companies!

Providing Retained Executive Search and Contingency Search

We are a boutique search firm specialized in attracting top talent for positions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. While we serve Silicon Valley networking and software startup company needs throughout the U.S., we also locate top performers for companies worldwide searching for California-based talent.