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Most of us are aware of the news over the last few days about the spurt in growth of the U.S. economy. This has created a sense of optimism that we are finally emerging from the recession, which is now being referred to as The Great Recession. There is presently a lot of confusion for everyone in the marketplace about how the immediate future is going to pan out. Is the recession really officially over? Are things going to get better? Is it going to be like the end of any other recession? When are the jobs coming back? Why do things still seem lousy? We must bear in mind the fact that historical data shows us that jobs take anywhere from nine to eighteen months to bottom out after a rece...

The unemployment rate continues to climb. Now approaching 10% in the US, it is also increasing across Asia-Pacific and Europe. Numerous training programs have been set up in the US to help job-seeking people re-equip themselves for a new line of work after being laid off. Based on what I’ve seen and read (here’s a link to an article in the NY Times), these programs are not very helpful unless you already have a strong foundation in education. So, one of the lessons I’m hoping the recession is teaching us is that those of us in a position to acquire more education should definitely take advantage of it, especially those who have recently embarked on their careers, where the ...

One of the areas I was somewhat concerned about as recently as 6-9 months ago was that if China were to go into recession of some sort, there would really be very little hope for the world to get out of its existing recession before the end of 2009. Having been to China in the recent past, I can say that I do believe that China will not go into recession. There is a special amount of stimulus and interest in the eyes of the various parties from which I do believe that our country and the world will benefit tremendously as we get out of the “recession.”

Nothing in life is all good or all bad—everything has some positive and some negative aspects along the way. If you reflect about different facets of your life, you will realize that when life deals you a particular hand, it’s entirely up to you what you’re going to make of it or what value you will create out of it. When I was reflecting about the advantages of this downturn from a personal standpoint, I was immediately able to identify a couple. One was that it made me a lot more focused about what was important to Kenexa, and the result was that our business model became tighter. We will continue to maintain profitability through the downturn and continue to grow the bus...

I have been traveling quite a bit of late. My last trip was quite interesting in that I spent more of my time with government officials than with clients as I usually do. And I found that from Dubai to China, India to Saudi Arabia, creation of new jobs was uppermost in the minds of all the politicians and leaders. And with that level of single-minded focus that exists in all these countries I do believe that this current job crisis, while very vicious, will be much more short-lived than originally thought. The fiscal stimulus, the high degree of awareness around the social costs associated with job loss, and the genuine level of comfort around jobs that emanated from various leaders that I s...

I commented in a recent blog post that about four and a half million jobs were created in the US during the first quarter of 2009. This New York Times blog post talks about how the big issue with the current recession might not be the number of job losses but the lack of creation of new jobs. Having experienced various recessions during my career I can confidently state—based on personal experience—that there is a lot of truth to this. There are very few industries, if any, that are doing some net increased hiring. However, while on one hand it may appear that this recession is going to be extremely devastating for many years to come—or at least that’s what a lot...

As we continue with the drumbeat of bad numbers we must remember that the economy is creating new jobs even as we speak. In the first quarter of 2009, two and a half million job losses took place. What people don’t realize is that nearly double that number of new jobs was also created. Thus, the net effect is really not as bad as it sounds—it's not as though all those millions of people that have lost jobs are all jobless and have not found other jobs. What’s really happening is that even as the current economy is destroying some types of jobs, other new types are being generated. So be very creative and innovative and open to opportunity if you are looking for a job c...

The general trend over the past 6-8 weeks has been that every time you pick up the newspaper or watch T.V., all you see is a blast of bad news, either about banks losing money or people losing their jobs. This constant drumbeat is naturally generating a lot of anxiety. One of the questions that are frequently being asked is how to manage this anxiety; how an individual can cope with this sort of stress. I think the form of anxiety generated by the possibility of losing one’s job can be alleviated by one attribute: resilience. It is flexibility that gives us the resilience to cope and we are able to listen to and learn from the lessons life tends to teach us. If you lose your job, treat...

Every now and then, something happens that reminds me of and reinforces my pride at being a Kenexan. Today is one of those times. Kenexa has been ranked tenth by Forbes Magazine on its annual list of America’s 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies. I think all Kenexans can take a bow at this accomplishment. This ranking validates our go-to-market strategy, the Extreme Service we give to our clients, conservative fiscal management, great offerings and high quality employee base. Kenexa is the only company in our industry to make the list. Included on the list are notable companies such as Apple (which we outranked), Google and Salesforce.com among others. The complete list can be found at...

With financial bailouts, we are setting a precedent that could have huge unintended consequences. An example is the chip industry, which had been notorious for its ebbs and flows of massive amounts of capital and the price wars that emerged between a whole bunch of companies. That massive building and rebuilding of the industry created a technology boom that we all benefited from and is now going through its own form of bailout as the governments of countries like Taiwan and China are now protecting the chip industry by allowing it to continue. So while most economists talk about the downturn of the 1930s being exaggerated because of the trade barriers that nations put up, are we creating un...