Vacuum

Jobs in Ann Arbor, a list of links to employer web sites on Arborwiki

As part of my search for work in Ann Arbor, I've been compiling a list of employers who maintain lists of open opportunities on their web sites. You can see the list here

http://arborwiki.org/city/Jobs

As of this writing there are about 60 employers listed, though not all of them have open positions at this time.

There's a wide variety of online job postings systems being used by employers, ranging from the simple web page listing one or two positions to the unimaginably complex setup when an HR organization has hundreds of positions to fill worldwide.

Quite a few positions are filled without going through online job boards, of course - but it never hurts to see what's posted and available.

FOIA jobs: looking for all of your ideas on #FOIAchat

I wrote a weekly FOIA Friday column for AnnArbor.com for about a year. The position that I had was eliminated in layoffs in March 2011, as the Ann Arbor Chronicle's story History Repeats at AnnArbor.com describes. Ironically, I was laid off the week before the newspaper industry promotes Sunshine Week, though I am certain that was just coincidence.

What do you do with all of this experience in dealing with the Freedom of Information Act? Here's a quick poll to generate some ideas. Feel free to add your own, if the one you want isn't listed or mentioned.

The poll is from the Princeton based All Our Ideas, which is much niftier than any other survey research tool I've used.

Edward Vielmetti writes the Vacuum weblog, which started in 1999, and organizes the FOIA Coordinator weblog as well. Reach him by electronic mail at edward.vielmetti@gmaill.com.

17th Annual College of Business Career Day Conference, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti MI, October 5

I'll be on a panel at this event, hope to see you there.

The conference held in the College of Business (COB), is free for EMU students and alumni, free parking in the parking structure behind the College of Business. There will be panel discussions (professionals will discuss their companies and expectations of new hires) for each COB major from 9:30-3 p.m. and approximately 50+ employers will be on hand to recruit students and alumni from 3-5 p.m. for a variety of business related internships and permanent positions.

Recruiter list will be updated early fall.

For more details:
Students/Alumni go to www.eCampusRecruiter.com/emich to sign up
Employers call 734 487 4099 ask for Lorraine McKnight or
email lorraine.mcknight@emich.edu

Technorati Tags: ypsilanti, michigan, emich, cob, jobs, recruiting, conference

a2b3 meeting non-summary 8/23/07

Thanks to everyone for coming.

I circulated blank 4x6 cards at the meeting, and encouraged people to write something on them. This turns out to be a good way to write up a meeting summary, and so I'm going to be ultra-lazy and just transcribe the interesting bits from them rather than describe what actually happened.

If you want something in next week's non-summary, make
sure you write it on a card. thanks!

Ed

notes:

Welcome new lunch member Joel Vergun, who among other things
is a pilot for Spirit Airlines.

"I didn't expect a quiz" - Jose

How do I get Google Earth free?
free download at http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

"Norp snadt queednop!
Goobnatz fracknyerp?
Spliz grobnitzger." - dcb

"I've never gotten a job thru any way but my personal network. I got my last job thru emailing Ed. (While that's not scalable for Ed, it worked great for me.) - dunrie

New project for Ann Arbor: Turn 415 West Washington into a "Neutral Zone for Grownups" - drron

Arborwiki has a new, stable home at the Ann Arbor District Library. A great second birthday present. It means a shiny future, as long as Merit stays up. - mahatm

"I want to help keep our students current in the area of technology. Visions in education, trends to pass on". - susette

---

By my guess the cards were a success, and I'll repeat that next week. The next iteration on that is to provide something that's not blank, and for that I'll be looking for inspiration from the Hipster PDA:

http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official/hpda/

if you have any favorite, appropriate, or fun templates from that do let me know and we'll try to get some more cognitive artifacts for use then.

The missing link for the cards was something to write on them with. If your organization produces promotional pens, pencils, or other logo-inscribed writing materials, bring two or three dozen of them to the meeting and we'll
expand our inventory of user-generated media data capture devices.

thanks

Ed

Technorati Tags: 48104, warning:indirect-selflink, a2b3, annarbor, jobs, indexcards, hipster-pda, meetings, kids

Lemon Raspberry Flan (Moosewood) for Cinco de Mayo, 2007

Here's the flan I made for the Cinco de Mayo party we walked to today near Burns Park.

Lemon Raspberry Flan
from the Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts

1 cup milk
1 cup half and half
1/3 cup sugar (we used Michigan sugar beet sugar)
zest of one organic lemon
2 eggs
2 egg yolks (separate and freeze the whites)
1c raspberries (we used frozen store bought; preserve farmland, pick more raspberries)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Boil a kettle of water. Put a deep round baking dish into a lasagna pan; alternatively, put a bunch of ramekins into that lasagna pan.

Mix milk, half and half, sugar, and lemon zest in a saucepan. Scald but do not boil (heat til steaming), stirring all the while. Remove from heat and let sit 10-15 minutes for the lemon flavor to mix with the milk.

Crack the eggs into a bowl, and transfer to a blender. Using a strainer, slowly pour the lemony milk mixture into the blender while mixing on low. (Don't put the zest in, it's delicious but the wrong texture). It doesn't take much mixing, stop when frothy.

Pour the mixture into the baking dish. Add dollops of berries until it's beautiful.

Fill the lasagna pan with boiling water part way up the sides of the dish. Bake 40-50 minutes (until the custard has set). Remove from oven, remove the baking dish from the lasagna pan, and cool on a wire rack. Transfer to fridge to chill 20-30 minutes.

"Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts (Moosewood Collection)" (Moosewood Collective)

--

The party was a lot of fun. There were a bunch of soon to be ex Pfizer people there, talking about what was going to happen next - some folks leaving town, quite a few staying. Unlike the prototypical cafe-based Internet startup, a pharma startup needs wet labs and something approximating real money and resources to get going. Saul played on the swings, and Jonathan drank one too many juice boxes. We walked home and all fell asleep.

Technorati Tags: michigan, shadford, 48104, cincodemayo, annarbor, recipe, flan, dessert, pfizer, pfired, burnspark

Comerica moving its headquarters from Detroit to Dallas

In the "stick around Michigan" department:

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - Comerica Inc. (CMA.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a financial services company with $58 billion of assets, on Tuesday said it will move its corporate headquarters to Dallas from Detroit to be closer to most of its markets.

The move is a blow for Detroit, which is reeling from a difficult environment for automakers and a flight that has seen the city lose more than half its population since 1950.

The Detroit Free Press reports on this as a boost for Dallas:

Comerica hasn’t announced where its new headquarters in Dallas will be, but the move could prove a huge boon for downtown, the Dallas Morning News reported today.

“I'd be surprised if they didn't go downtown," Joel Pustmueller, a partner with Peloton Real Estate Partners in Dallas, told the newspaper. "I'm sure they will want a building with visibility where they could have their name in sight.”

Downtown Dallas already is a regional banking hub with major operations for Bank of America, Chase and others, the newspaper said in a story posted this morning on its Web site. Texas-based PlainsCapital recently announced that it was relocating its bank holding company headquarters and a retail bank to the Victory project on the edge of downtown.

Wondering, of course, what if anything is the impact on the naming of Comerica Park where the Tigers play.

Technorati Tags: cma, comerica, detroit, dallas

Grady Burnett to speak at Good Morning Livingston, Feb 13 2007

Quoted in its entirety; links are my own.

Google speaker set for Tuesday
By Jim Totten
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS

Those who want to get the latest update on one of the hottest companies in the nation shouldn't miss the Good Morning Livingston breakfast on Tuesday.

Reservations are still being accepted for the event, which will feature Grady Burnett, head of online sales and operations for Google's Ann Arbor branch, as the keynote speaker. The popular breakfast event is sponsored by the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce.

Pat Convery, chamber president, said Google's presence in Washtenaw County will affect Livingston County. She said existing residents might be interested in working at Google's Ann Arbor location, and those who move to Michigan for jobs at the Google offices might purchase a home in Livingston County.

Convery said residents are "interested in the success of this company and the innovation it's brought."

She figured those who attend the breakfast want to learn how Michigan can be more of a part of the company's success.

Burnett's talk will focus on Google's plans for its new location — hiring and recruitment, a description of what the Ann Arbor division will do and a segment on what Google does beyond its role as a search engine.

The monthly breakfast event typically attracts 100-180 people, and has featured politicians, economists and business leaders in the past. Convery said the program — organized in the late 1990s — is a popular networking opportunity.

Contact Daily Press & Argus reporter Jim Totten at (517) 548-7088 or at jtotten@gannett.com.

Grady Burnett, head of online sales and operations for Google's Ann Arbor branch, is the keynote speaker at the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce's Good Morning Livingston breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at Crystal Gardens banquet center, 5768 E. Grand River Ave. in Genoa Township. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door for chamber members, or $25 for nonmembers. Call (517) 546-3920 for more information on the program.

Pfizer psummit: PSWAT teams; Pfired T-shirts at Elmo's, Main St, Ann Arbor

Seen on the street: Pfired t-shirt's at Elmo's on Main St. in Ann Arbor.

Ann Arbor News reporting on the Pfizer psummit Tug-of-war on horizon over Pfizer employees?

More than 100 business, university and political leaders attended the event at the Michigan Information Technology Center to discuss the community's future without Pfizer's 2,100 jobs and its position as Ann Arbor's biggest taxpayer.

Attending the summit were elected officials such as state Sen. Liz Brater, nonprofit leaders such as Detroit Renaissance President Doug Rothwell, and education leaders including Washtenaw Community College President Larry Whitworth.

Numerous business executives also were in attendance, including Pfizer Senior Vice President David Canter, Rob Aldrich of office space developer MAV Development Co., Jan Garfinkle of life sciences venture capital firm Arboretum Ventures, and Richard Socha of software developer netXert Inc.

At a news conference, organizers of the summit, including Gov. Jennifer Granholm and University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, sounded an optimistic tone about the future and said they were bullish about the community's response.

They formed eight action teams to encourage job growth and economic development at the Pfizer site, among other things. They said interest in the Pfizer employees and the site is high. They said they have been contacted by businesses seeking to employ Pfizer workers and companies interested in the Pfizer property, which includes 177 acres and research laboratories off Plymouth Road.

Heard over an afternoon tea: hairdressers with a lot of Pfizer clients are uncertain about their future incomes.

Pfizer employees will get a booth from the state for retraining and other efforts to get them to stick around Ann Arbor rather than relocate:

State works to cure Pfizer loss / Sofia Kosmetatos / The Detroit News

ANN ARBOR -- The state of Michigan on Monday pledged $1 million to help Pfizer workers who will lose their jobs as the drug company closes its research and development facility here.

The money will come from a fund established with federal money to help dislocated workers in regions experiencing plant closings and mass layoffs.

The Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth will allocate the money to the Washtenaw County Michigan Works! It will be used to provide outreach services including entrepreneurial training and resources to help people launch new companies.

Technorati Tags: pfizer, pfired, psummit, annarbor, pswat, michigan, jobs, pfe

Pfizer Ann Arbor summit, closed doors session

From the Ann Arbor News, Pfizer summit set up:

More than 60 local leaders are being invited to a private summit Monday to begin a coordinated effort to respond to the decision by Pfizer Inc. to close its Ann Arbor facilities.

Invitations signed by University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, and Ann Arbor Spark CEO Michael Finney were sent Wednesday to leaders of local businesses, government entities and universities. Organizers expect representatives of Pfizer to also attend.

Key topics on the agenda are how to encourage the 2,160 affected Pfizer employees to stay in the area and what should become of the company's property, which includes 177 acres and significant laboratory spaces off Plymouth Road in northeast Ann Arbor.

Organizers are calling the meeting a brainstorming session, and expect to hold more in the coming weeks. It's not open to the public, though organizers will hold a news conference afterward.

U-M spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said the closed doors are necessary "to encourage frank discussion.''

The News didn't name the local leaders, but I'll print a list if anyone comes up with one.

I saw the Mayor at Sweetwaters Kerrytown, which is the Pure Visibility coffee shop of record. He didn't recognize me, and I didn't initially recognize him - he didn't have his usual smile.

"Summit" is in context an odd word to use. "Pfizer summit" on Google returns this news from Lee's Summit, Missouri, about another shuttered Pfizer facility (from the Kansas City Business Journal)

Pfizer Inc. said Friday that it has officially ended a two-year global effort to sell its Lee's Summit manufacturing plant and that it now plans to demolish the building.

The 271,000-square-foot building is east of Missouri Highway 291 and south of U.S. Highway 50.

Production at the plant will cease in December, the New York City-based company (NYSE: PFE) said in a release. The company said it then plans to remove the building's equipment and other assets early next year and demolish it by the end of 2007.

That site required some special treatment because of production of penicillin which, while not creating a classic brownfield situation, did make the place unusable for production of some drugs; they switched to all animal medicine manufacture at the end.

One of the topics at today's a2b3 lunch (weekly noonish at Eastern Accents on Fourth Ave) was an open question at the table on how the Pfizer closing was going to affect people personally. One person was job hunting because their contracting company did a lot of Pfizer work. Another was happy that they had gotten out of the real estate business. A few folks considered whether this might be something that would create some contract or consulting work for them in the short run as people who were pfired started up their own businesses and needed services.

Technorati Tags: annarbor, pfired, pfe, pfizer, summit

a2b3 for Jan 25, 2007: Pfizer, Google's new tubes, interview season

A reminder that this morning is the a2b3 meeting for the week at Eastern Accents. I'll put notes here after the meeting. Possible topics include the Pfizer Ann Arbor closing and the installation of a series of tubes at the new Google Ann Arbor office. (As viscous platypus notes, "All that traffic requires large tubes"). It's also starting to be Google interview season as spring graduation gets closer. See you there!