Candidate Pipeline Development™

My Linkedin groups

2008-09-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Linkedin implemented a change in the number of group an individual could join on the network. I was a huge proponent of joining groups as a way of attracting new invitations. But with the policy change I've had to make some decisions on which groups to remain a member of. So I culled my original member list of 480 groups down to the 49 you see below. The criteria was simple; a) group had to relevant to my interests and or needs as an owner of HTC Research Corp b) had to have at least 1000 members and c) had to have at least some activity in the discussions area

I chose the above criteria for the following reasons:
a) the group had to have relevance as there's no need for me to be a member for a group called "Friends of Uzbeckistanmonia" even if it has 3000 members as I probably have no interest in what they would be talking about and I don't speak the language:-) (Unless of course I was getting a ton of invties from other members of this group)

b) I want the group to have at least 1000 members to increase the chances of receiving invites from other members. This is still a great way of building your network with very little effort. I get at least 15 invites a day from people who say they are a member of xyz group and they want to connect. Of course I accept, as I accept all invites.

c)had to have activity in the discussions group. If you have 10,000 members and little/no discussion that tells me something. Most likely the group moderator has multiple groups under the similar names and he transferred membership from one of his "more popular groups" to this group. Activity and discussion will ultimately prove the value of a group. Also I looked, albeit briefly, at the content of the discussions if the first few were request for connections of job postings I deleted the group as I feel the moderator was not actually moderating the content which can make a mess of a group in short time and kill relevancy.

My Groups (49)

Candidate Pipeline Development ™ (click to join) Members: 2,655
Court Time

1 Big5Hire - Passive Recruiting Search Engine User group
2 Blue: The DallasBlue Business Network (23,000+ members)
3 Deloitte.
4 ERE.net
5 Fans of Mashable
6 Indeed.com
7 Innovative Recruitment Forum [6500+ members]
8 Integrated Alliances
9 Invites Welcome! (Open Networkers)
10 J.D. Edwards Professionals
11 Leading International Open Networkers (LION)
12 LI Recruiters Network
13 linked PMP (www.linkedpmp.com)... 9000+ members!!!
14 LinkedHR: #1 HR Group (55,000 members)
15 LinkedSEO
16 LION500.com (Open Networkers)
17 MyLink500.com (Open Networkers)
18 Networked Recruiter (18,000+) 4th Largest Recruiting and 3rd Largest HR Group
19 Open Networkers
20 OpenNetworkers.info <>
21 Openreq.com (Recruiters & Staffing Professionals)
22 Plaxo.com
23 PricewaterhouseCoopers employees and alumni
24 Real Estate Open Networkers
25 Recruiting Animal Show
26 Recruiting Professionals Network
27 RecruitingBlogs.com Group
28 Recruitment Consultants (14.000+)
29 Recruitment Process Outsourcing
30 Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo
31 Search Marketing Salon
32 SHRM Networking Group
33 Sourcers Guild
34 TalentBar: HR and Recruiter Network
35 Techmuch.com; your daily tech-news presents; "Online Advertising"
36 Technical Recruitment
37 TechSoup NetSquared
38 The Executive Search Group (10,680+ members)
39 THE GLOBAL SOURCING COUNCIL (GSC)
40 The Recruitment Network
41 The Talent Buzz
42 Top Secret Candidates
43 True Wealth Creators' Network
44 Tweeple
45 Wireless Telecommunications
46 Worldwide Management Consultants (10,000+ members)
47 XING.com

Recruiter friend in Africa doing some charity work for OneMama. Her email diary back to friends and family.

2008-07-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

So Siobhan has been an amazing friend, collegue and business partner of mine for close to 8 years now. A few years ago she got hooked on this idea of going to Uganda to help out in a birthing clinic. She quickly realised that the people in this village were lacking basic necessities for life let alone for giving birth. When she came back to San Francisco she put together a non-profit organization called OneMama with the intention of providing basic healthcare needs for mothers in the region.

Here are her emails from her latest trip. They remind me of a diary or journal that you would read in a novel from 1920. We are so far removed from that reality and reading her emails make me very happy to be living in the USA. More on OneMama

Give if you can and forward if you are moved by what she has to say.

Dearest Family and Friends,

I have now been in Uganda for about 4 or 5 days days. I have lost track of time here. It is taking a some time for me to adjust back to this life here with no real access to the outside world. It is like being completely unplugged from any kind of life we know in our part of the world.

A few thoughts...
The smell of night jasmine fills the air, my skin is semi permantly tanned by the red clay dust.... And the kids follow me everywhere I go singing and dancing with me...

I am sleeping next to Jamira the midwife for OneMama in her room with her right next to the birthing area.
I have to admit the first couple nights were a little rough getting use to. Jamira gets up at all hours of the night to help the local woman give birth when they come calling at all hours of the day or night.

The conditions are in great contrast to what we are use to in the states. Even though I have been here before it is still hard to adjust to living like this. There is no running water but I do get a bucket to bath with hot boiled water everyday.
There is also no power sources of any kind to utilize for lights or to power electronics or lights. We use fires ,candles or solar flashlights. I have brought a solar generator and solar panels from the US, but they have not yet proved to be successful. It is suppose to take up to 48 hours to charge. So we will see....

I am going thru technology withdrawals. I am usually on the phone about 8-9 hours a day with work and talking to friends. Then there is the internet the closest connection is about 2 hours away by car. Right now I am driving with a friend late at night to go find a power source and internet.
I hope you get this at some point since the first email I sent letting everyone know I was going to Africa still seems to not have gone out for some reason. Data ,,,,I need data and to speak in English....UGH!

Jamira... She is so sweet she was so happy when I showed up with supplies and showed her the work we have done so far. She just grabs my hand every chance she gets and says "webale" over and over... This means “thank you”...
I really don't know what to say back so I nod and say it back and smile.,,

I meet with all the local officials in a couple days to get all the paperwork in place.It really is hard to put into words the way things work here. It is just a different way....Hmmmmm

I will send pictures when I can....i hope to have more stories soon..
Love and Light Siobhan

Siobhan Neilland | Founder OneMama
866-485-1447
415-863-7648
sn@onemama.org
“We are all OneMama on this OneMother Earth!
We all want to feel like we are loved and we matter in this world!”

OneMama Donations:
Your contribution will benefit the women, children, and men of this community.
If you have any questions about your donation, you may contact OneMama by phone at 866-485-1447 or online at OneMama

You can now donate online with a credit card!

We now need volunteers in US and in Africa.
Please contact us if you want to get involved and feel like you are making a difference in the world!

Your donation of time and money is going toward a great cause!
Please be assured that you have made a direct impact on the people of Kirindi, Uganda, where OneMama begins its pilot program

We hope you will remain involved as we continue to grow and accomplish our mission.
Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.
Siobhan

Sent July 10th
My Dearest Family and Friends,
We just came back from Jinga today to go use internet and computers about 1.5 hours away. That is when you got the last email from me. Everything concerning technology is so labor intensive. It took me 2.5 hours to get out just a few emails and do a little research.

We got some supplies, went to banks and ran errands.

We got to see Jessica and Wilfred who are an amazing local married couple who do are working with us on this project. I have not seen them since I was here last time. They are both interpreters for another NGO in Jinga. Jessica and Wilfred are the first ones that really helped do all the initial work on this project. They are just wonderful!

We also drove up to Bugagali falls before we left to get a chapatti that I was craving and for me to say hello to a few of my local friends that live up there. I could not believe how many people remembered my name and everything about me with out seeing me for 2 years. It was so endearing. I will be staying there a few days before I leave to come home.

Then we stopped to meet Jeremiah's uncle who owns a local hotel spot in Jinga. They were a lovely couple and excited to hear about the project..

Then the very long drive on crazy bumpy roads back to the village....
We did not get back till very late in the pitch black in our our borrowed vehicle. At least it was not a boda boda(scooter) this late in the rain and crazy road....which usually we ride 3 at a time... Not so safe but quite an adventure..
Till more adventures..
Love and Light
Siobhan
...............................................................................

Sent JULY11
Today was one of those days that you start to look back on and see how things change the way you think. Living here and doing this is changing how my brain works..HMMMMM

All week Jeremiah and I have been trying to get everything in place to meet with community & village leaders and the community as a whole to present the whole OneMama Vision.

In case I did not mention it Jeremiah is Jamira's son who is now going to be the director of OneMama Uganda which is a Ugandan based and run organization. They will work with OneMama USA to create the best solutions and partnership to make this project a success.
That is the ultimate vision is to assist communities to start their own OneMama organizations that can be self-sustaining in what ever countries that we are needed. We helped them see that all the legal paper work and documentation is now now in place and is an established organization.

Well we met in a tiny little room with about 25 men and woman. I would present and they would interpret this very big vision and dream to a group of people who are not use to thinking big. Then the local OneMama Directors presented their vision...

It went Great...
The meeting with the leaders of these surrounding communities went so very well. Better than I thought they would. They tend not to trust mazaunga's and really with good reason...There is so little ever done for these people and they see us come and consume with so much money and stuff and they have so little.
.....Hmmmm I sit here and try to write about how all these meetings went and I realize I have no language to really explain these amazing interactions...

I will try to get better at these descriptions in the days to come.....UGH!
Love and Light Siobhan
...................................................................
Sent July 15th
Hello My Dearest Friends and Family,

Well..... today Is July 15 here in Uganda.
Today was another amazing as everyday seems to be here so far...

Today I got a call from a man with an organization here working with HIV/AIDs prevention and he is very excited about OneMama and is going to try to arrange something I never thought possible. He is trying to get me in a meeting with the first lady of Uganda before I leave. How Crazy is that....
We will see.... but what It was exciting to even have such a conversation.

I have been taking a couple day break here on the Nile river to get my thoughts together so I can really get things done these last few weeks.

This place is called the Harry Lemon it is an island in the middle of the river that runs completely on solar. This place is mostly used by rafters and kayakers who are coming down the river. There is not internet and very little cell coverage but is amazingly beautiful. I have a wonderful private banda over looking the river. There is a tree snake living in my rafters of my room and one on the front deck. There are two monkeys that live in the tree above me and love to throw nuts at the roof.
There is this fascinating bird that sits on a rock in the middle of the rapids on the river that I look onto. He is there off and on thru the day with his wings stretched full spread for 20-30 minutes at a time then he rests and flies around a little then comes back. It is so sweet to watch. Man he has the life!
Swimming in the river and in the little rapids has been so refreshing and just what I needed to recharge.Makes me miss swimming back home at Ocean Beach...
I love my queen quarters here living in what feels like luxury compared to what I have been doing...however it still is not the same as all the comforts of home.

Took a walk back to Jamira's today to show a woman from Tasmania the work we are doing. She is a sweet lovely woman who takes people on overland trucks around Africa. She may want to work with OneMama. It was a lovely walk and adventure. The kids followed us off and on the 4 -5 mile walk and played games with us as we journeyed. I missed seeing Jamiria the last two days. I cant wait to get back and stay with her and the kids there tomorrow. I really feel like a part of the family. The two days I have been away she has sent messages from different people to let me know she misses me. So very sweet....

I ran into a UK friend I met here two years ago tonight on this tiny little island in the middle of nowhere..... So good to see him.. The world starts to seem very small at times.

I have been practicing for a dance performance that I have in August while here in my little banda. I will not have time to practice again until I get back home. It is a funny reminder how I live in two worlds that are so very very different.

Now I am off to sleep....Love and Light to all..

Siobhan Neilland | Founder OneMama
866-485-1447
415-863-7648

LinkedIn Joins the Billionaires' Club

2008-07-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

BusinessWeek Article Here

5 yrs old on May 5th 2008 and now valued at 1 Billion!!!!

Estimating 30 to 35 Million users by the end of 2008!!!!

On track to hit $100 Million in sales in 2008!!!

If you are not a member on Linkedin now is the time to sign up and be apart of the explosive growth.

LINKEDIN

AND Be sure to send me an invitation jeffweidnerlinkedin@gmail.com

Part I How Low can the Cost of Name Generation go?

2008-07-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

Link to Full Discussion on ERE

I get calls 4-5 times a week from outsourced providers all over the world offering their services to help me offset my internal sourcing/Name Generation costs.

They all promise the highest quality, fastest turn around and exclaim that their researchers are typically, BA, BS, MS, MA PhD's whatever.

What I'm amazed is that the cost of a Name varies greatly from country to country.

How low can the cost of Name Generation go?

When I started out, in 1995, we charged $10 a name (all phone generated by the way) and paid our researchers $5 per name. Then we went to $15, then $20 then $30 and today HTC charges $50 per name and we haven't raised our prices in at least 5 years.

I know there was a discussion on this forum a while back about how Name Generation has become commoditized, especially Internet Name Generation but at what point does the value of the candidate's name or access to it out value the cost to produce or the value a Company would get out of it?

At what point does quality outweigh the cost?
Do clients care, if they can buy a name for $5 or $50
at $5 does quality really matter that much?

Are Internet Generated Names inherently worth Less than Phone generated names due to the ease of generating them. And if so why aren't Internet Name Generators lowering their prices to be more competitve with offshore options.

FYI I have yet to see an offshore Sourcing company offer phone based Name Generation. Why not, isn't the fact that they haven't offered phone Name Generation so far a testament to how easy Internet Name Generation is and how difficult Phone NG can be?

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research Corp
jeffweidnerlinkedin@gmail.com
925 313 9005 X 200

Part II How Low can the Cost of Name Generation go?

2008-07-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

Let me make some clarifications on some of the comments so far.

Mary: Please re-read the original post. This is question about the cost of delivering a service. It's not about process. No matter how you slice it if Sourcing Firm A base in India/South America/Eastern Europe/Africa etc pays their people $200 a month and the US based firm pays $1280 (min wage of $8 per hour times 160 hours per month) then all the process in the world will not make a difference in the price the US firm can charge their client, it can not be lower that the cost to produce said service. My point was that Internet Name Generation can be done by anyone, anywhere in the world at any time. All you need is access to the internet and a few hours of training and off you go. (I'm over exaggerating the amount of training needed to make a point) But it was a nice plug for SGA none-the-less no matter how irrelevant I feel your comment was to the topic at hand.

Josh/Vipul - Great banter. Good points made and let me add that employee costs will climb for companies in those offshore locations. The more companies have to compete for experienced employees the more their employees costs shift. In the beginning these offshore companies will spend a lot of time and money training employees, as an employee base gains experience over many years other companies will attempt to recruit them away to reduce their training costs. By speaking with many RPO companies in India, SA and Eastern Europe I'm seeing this happening already. A few companies are in those three areas are in strategic battles with their competitors to keep employee costs to a minimum. In one area employees costs have tripled in the past 5 years and are continuing to rise. Inevitably, as the market matures and employees gain more experience, there will be more employment options for people with those skills and salaries in those offshore areas will rise. Disclaimer: As with any investment opportunity individual results may vary. These statements are not in any way a guarantee that you or your company will obtain any level of success should you decide to take part in this opportunity. Use of, being associated with or providing these services may cause fever, fainting, rash, sleeplessness, vomiting and in rare cases body odor and addiction to caffeine, chocolate or other substances. Sorry, I felt had to lighten the post up a bit

Cultural issues and language barriers will not be barriers for much longer. These companies will find ways to offset those issues, they will shift their training tactics from a "how and what to do to" to a cultural training and language training. Admittedly this is (from my understanding) is much harder to train for but the successful companies will hire people that were educated here in the USA or UK or Australia so that they will have less of a hurdle. In short, it is difficult but not impossible. There are challenges but they can be overcome with the right training and if they companies hire people with the right backgrounds.

Patrick: CPD-Candidate Pipeline Development(TM) is actually trade marked by my company HTC Research and so as not to confuse the market I'd like to state that the prices quoted in your comment were not HTC's prices or service offerings.

Also let's extrapolate Patrick's point a bit further. Instead of $8 a name what if a company opens up an office somewhere where the employee costs could be $1 USD per day. They would now offer their names at let's say 50 cents per name. And the quality is just as good if not better. This same thing happened to the data service providers when email addresses started being farmed on the Internet. Sales People and list brokers would sell names at a $5 per name not they are 50 cents, 5 cents, 1 cent per name and even lower for unverified Sales Leads. What force in the staffing market that will stop this from happening to Internet Generated names? AND if you can get a computer to do all of it for you that could reduce costs even further.

Stella: Time difference is not as big a problem as you may think. The fact that India is 12 hrs ahead of us makes little difference. India is not the only off-shoring country out there and SA is for the most part in the US time zone. The Internet is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Now verifying those names by telephone is more difficult at night but not entirely impossible with the right techniques ;-) I know of one offshore company that does the internet name generation in India then they dump those names into their DB for their group in Eastern Europe and Africa to call and verify and then they have their group in SA recruit the candidates for contingency fees and all their business development people are based here in the USA. Amazingly though, they still charge a full 20%-30% placement fee. So it's what the market will accept.

OK I didn’t mean to ramble on for this long so enough for now, replies/rebuttals welcome.

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research Corp
925 313 9005 X 200
jeffweidnerlinkedin@gmail.com

Is internet research enough?

2008-06-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

A question originally posted on ERE.

And this is what differentiates Research Firms. Everyone has their search methodologies and strategies. Moreover what may have worked in the past may not work for the next assignment.

I can try to explain to my client how we go about starting a research assignment but honestly they wouldn't "get it". If I have an hourly research client, we charge the same rate per hour for a Internet Name Generator or a Phone Name Generator or a Pre-Screener/Profiler. All I do is split up the 40 hour work week among the group of researchers.

When starting a project I might allocate 20 hrs a week towards internet research knowing there's a lot of low hanging fruit out there, 10 hours towards phone research to pick up the pieces and 10 hours for a profiler to screen the candidates. Another project I might allocate 1 hour of internet researcher time, realize it's a waste of time and stick 30 hours towards phone research and 9 towards profiling.

But 2 to 6 weeks into a project I'll end up flip flopping the strategy. 30 hours towards profiling and 10 hours towards phone or internet research. This is because hopefully the name generators have filled a pipeline of candidate up and it's now up to the profilers to resolve those candidates.

This is where experience comes into play and having a bench of researchers that can provide the depth needed to perform the task at hand. Whether that be Internt research or phone research doesn't matter. Bottom line is the client doesn't care where and how you found the top candidate, all they care about is that you did find them and in a timely and cost efficient manner.

Obviously, it behooves the client to understand how their research firm actually does the research. Are they a one stop shop, can they only do internet, can they only do phone or can they do internet, phone and profiling?

There's lots of different flavors of candidate research, I for one am glad that most research firms only try to sell chocolate or vanilla. Especially since I happen to love Mint Chocolate Chip.

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research Corp
925 313 9005 X 200
jeffweidnerlinkedin@gmail.com

Father's Play How games connect kids and parents: A Father's Day requiem for a gamer.

2008-06-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

A dear friend of my wife lost her 12 yr old daughter, Kaela, earlier this year to pneumococcal meningitis. This blog was written by Kaela's Step Father.

Reposted with permission
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3168188

On its top-10 industry-facts list, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) states that the average age of gamers today is 33 years old and that they have been playing videogames for 12 years now. As such, one would surmise that the majority of today's gamers already have, or are starting, families of their own, and that their deeply rooted pastime will be introduced to their children at some point or other. Meanwhile, everywhere you look, politicians and others seem to accuse games of having a horrible influence on people -- especially children. But can videogames really and truly be a positive influence in a family setting?

I'm here to tell you that the answer to that question is an emphatic yes! How do I know? Well, let me explain.... The nickname I gave to my 12-year-old stepdaughter, Kaela, several years ago was "K.K. Slider." I gave that name to her because of her fascination with the cool, guitar-playing canine character of the same name from Nintendo's Animal Crossing games. It started out as a silly joke, but she liked it, and it stuck.

Kaela and I shared a love of videogames, and she was about as hardcore a gamer as a tween girl could be. She was always playing something, whether it was on her Nintendogs-skinned DS, on the PC, or on one of the four consoles we own. In fact, she and I bonded through playing a videogame: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for the Nintendo 64. I remember it distinctly: My wife and I had only been together for a short while, and this whole concept of a "blended" family was still very new to us all. Kaela was about 6 or 7 at the time and was, understandably, having a rough go with some of the more difficult parts of Link's second N64 adventure. She came to me for help, and over the course of the next few weekends, I guided her to the final battle with Majora's Mask, which we beat together. From that point forward, K.K. and I always had something to talk about, whether it was who was the best character in Super Smash Brothers, who could create the crazier characters in The Sims 2, or who was better on the drums in Rock Band. Videogames had become our means for understanding one another.

Common ground

John Davison, former Ziff Davis editorial director and president of What They Play, agrees, saying that parent-kid gaming sessions are something children will remember for a long time. "It's not mom and dad imposing something on the kids, or the kids dragging the parents into something that they don't want to do," Davison says. "For us, there's equal interest on both sides, and that's what makes it really special. I know it's not going to be that way for every family, but there are more and more games available now that lower the barriers to entry and make this kind of activity possible."

I know from my own experience as a father: Nintendo, with both its Wii and DS, seems to have the pick-up-and-play/gateway-type games that Davison speaks of. I can't tell you how many impromptu games of Mario Party, WiiPlay, WarioWare, and Carnival Games I've gotten sucked into over the last year and a half that we've owned the Wii. As Derrick Schommer, father of two and proprietor of game site Tech Diversions, relates, "Nintendo has this area conquered. They understand how to make a game appeal to kids and adults at the same time without having to alter any difficulty levels or give either side a major advantage to equal each other. These are usually casual games with thin storylines -- my kids can't read anyway -- and lots of Wii-controller motion. My daughter cannot grasp the Xbox 360 controller as easily as she adapts to the Wii controller so these games work the best. Kids seem to have some innate abilities to controllers based on touch and motion."

Lovable losers

Another way of bonding with your kids thorough videogames: losing. Let me tell you, there's nothing quite as humbling as having your butt handed to you by one of your kids. I'll always remember the first time it happened to me (a severe thrashing in Sega Soccer Slam on the Gamecube by my oldest son, Kyle) because it reminded me of the first time I schooled my own father out on the basketball court. Now, I was a bit older than Kyle was at the time (I was 14; Kyle was 9) and the venue was different (a real court as opposed to a virtual one) but the sincere feelings and emotions that came through in those moments were practically the same: "It's OK to beat Dad -- in fact, it's kinda cool!" This sentiment is echoed by parent and renowned game designer John Romero: "When [my kids] were older, it was fun to play as a team or go head-to-head. There was nothing like smacking the crud out of dad to make them get excited."

Working together as a team to achieve a common goal, as Kaela and I did with Majora's Mask, is something that another celebrated game maker, Fable's Peter Molyneux, does with his five- year-old son, Lucas. "We play games like Ratchet and Clank and Zelda," Molyneux says. "We will discuss the problems together and work with each other to come up with the solutions. I think [videogames] are a great level playing field. Lucas is about as dexterous as I am and this means we can play together as equals. I can't think of any other activity that we could do together where this would be the case."

Fun and games

Psychiatrist and author of Video Game Play and Addiction, Dr. Kourosh Dini, sees great benefits in the "two-way learning" that videogames offer a parent and child. "Some of the best parenting I've seen occurs when parents are willing to learn from their children," he explains. "A parent is still a parent, and guides and protects as necessary, of course. But, a parent in wonder and support of watching a daughter as she makes it through a level...does several things [for the child]. It sends the message that the child is trusted by the parent to do things differently. The child discovers the capacity to do things differently. And, [thirdly], it tells the child that the parent may be willing to learn the ways of the child's world -- which will always be completely different from the one in which the parent grew up. Together, these sentiments can carry much value in bringing a family together."
Humor is also a great bonding element and that was always big around our house, especially when Kaela was involved. She just had a way about her that could make you crack up at any given moment. She knew this too, and she'd usually use this "gift" at a critical moment to make you lose whatever game you happened to be playing at the time.

It is a given: Kids do funny things while watching you play or playing games themselves. As TechDiversion's Schommer relates, "At one point we had both our kids trained to say 'Yeah Baby!' after we'd finish a Guitar Hero III song. It got to the point where they would be in the living room while I was playing Guitar Hero in another room, and after I finished the song I'd hear off in the distance 'Yeah Baby!' They knew the sounds of a successful completion and would scream 'Yeah Baby!' wherever they were in the house."

After their Zelda sessions together, Molyneux says that his son Lucas has become somewhat infatuated with that storied franchise's main character, Link. "This is all fine until you go out shopping and Lucas draws out his plastic sword from his back yelling 'Hi-yah' at passersby," he says. "The worst occasion was in a shopping center when a rather grubby old man was walking towards us. Lucas pulled out his sword and said, 'Look, Daddy, it's a troll!' I don't know if the poor old guy heard but thankfully he turned in different direction. We're rather relieved that the Zelda phase is staring to wear off a bit...it will make shopping trips easier!"

Unfortunately, all the humor and good feelings that this story evokes have to end here, for much like Ebenezer Scrooge, who foresaw a crutch without its young owner in Dickens' A Christmas Carol, I have Playstation, Wii, and Xbox controllers at my house that are collecting dust but are carefully preserved all the same. You see, pneumococcal meningitis claimed Kaela's life this past February. It was like she was walking down the street and got hit by a bolt of lightning. It was just that random and rare -- something that happens to other people or only on sappy television shows -- never directly to you. Honestly, I didn't even realize that people still got meningitis, or just how deadly a disease it can be. But, in a matter of hours it rendered her comatose and then, ultimately, brain dead. Yes, it was a shocking and most undeserved end because of her tender age, but also because you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who could, or would, say a bad word about K.K. And, in turn, it was a very rare thing to hear K.K. utter a bad word against anyone else. This was a genuinely good kid who possessed wit, character, and charm in spades and wasn't afraid to let you know it. And that is what set her apart. It is a damn shame that we will not get to see this singular personality in the full blossom of womanhood.

Sieze the play

Videogames have always been a very good thing in my life and in the lives of my family. From the various interviews I conducted for this article, it's clear to see that games are an exceptionally positive influence on the lives of many other families, as well. Personally, I know that they've provided me with endless hours of entertainment, information and education. To this day, I have "real world" friends because of videogames. I don't care what any pundit, or politician, or overzealous nutjob tries to spoon feed me -- those facts will never, ever change.

And, best of all, videogames brought me closer to a special girl, who I miss talking and playing with very, very much. But, I know in my heart of hearts that I will see my K.K. Slider at the Roost Café next Saturday night, 7:30 PM sharp. And I just know she'll be playing my favorite song. So, all you gamer parents out there, pick up a controller and play with your kids if you aren't doing so already. Let's do our level best to prove the naysayers wrong. I cannot promise that you'll have the same experiences that I've had, but I do know it is something you will always cherish and look back on fondly when your children aren't with you any longer for whatever reason. Take this advice from someone who knows all too well.

Interesting article on Building a Social Network

2008-06-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.cheezhead.com/xtra/2008/03/18/social-networking-and-recruitment/

March 18th, 2008 -- by Susan Burns

When gas hits $5.50 a gallon will still be able to afford to drive to work?

2008-06-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

I originally posted this on Linkedin
Fact: In Europe and UK gas is avging about $8.50 a gal. and the US is at $4.00 as per AAA survey last weekend.

Last weekend I played paintball with a bunch of my friends and the group next to us was talking about high gas prices in the San Francisco bay area ($4.50 a gallon) now, though I found it for $4.31 gal this am. He said that he has a job where is has to drive all day and pays his own gas, about 60,000 miles per year. His car get 20 miles per gallon, and at $4.5 a gallon that's $13,500 a years in gas... at $5.50 a gal (which is approx equivalent to $135 a barrel) that's $16,500. He said that he can barely afford gas as it is, and is stuck in his current car cause he's upside down so his solution is to go get a desk job.

Have you seen this as a staffing trend in your area of the country yet?

Do you think this will be a bigger concern for long distance commuters?

Do you think it could have a ripple effect on the housing market as people would want to move closer to public transportation or work in general?

Could this be the coming of a mass migration back to the cities and out of the suburbs?

Jeff Weidner
jeffweidnerlinkedin@gmail.com

Clarification added 23 hours ago:
Well I'm glad this is getting so much attention and replies. Thank you all for participating in the discussion.

A few points I'd like to make for those out of towners (international responders)
A) The United States is very large and since the industrial revolution and WWII Urban populations have been moving to more suburban areas. This makes biking to work next to impossible. 30-50 miles one way commutes are common place so walking or riding a bike is not practical.
B) In Northern climates it quite cold during fall and winter and snows and rains all the time. This further contributes to the difficulties of riding a bike to work or walking even if you are only 5 miles from your destination.
C) The gas prices in the US have been historically low because we're a huge producer of oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels. Especially in comparison to say France or Spain which produce virtually no oil.
D) There has not been a significant increase in production, mostly due to lack of available oil fields ready to be tapped into for the past 10 years. But demand has increased exponentially especially overseas in places like India and China.
E) Is not just cars that use oil. Every manufacturing facility uses some type of oil or oil based lubricant for their machines. Think about all the petroleum based products you use each and every day; plastic, ink, paper, shoes, glue, clothing, paint, sporting goods, you name it and it probably involves a petroleum based product in some way shape or form.
E) Lastly, I live 5 miles from work but again it would be next to impossible for me to bike to work every day as there are a lot of foothills and one big one in between me and work. Not that I couldn't bike it, as I have but it takes about 45 mins to 1 hour depending on how hot it is. Not to mention it would be very hazardous as the road I'd have to drive on is a major artery in and out of town and it has thousands of cars.

Latest Buzz from JigSaw

2008-06-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Jigsaw Insiders,

Well, June 4th has arrived and I can finally spill the beans as to what Jigsaw has been up to for the past few months. Today Jigsaw announced the Declaration of Data Independence in the face of the traditional data companies that charge for company data. Put simply, we are giving away every one of our 1 million+ company profiles for free.

As an Insider and Jigsaw expert, you may at first react with a “big deal” type response, since you know that all of our company profiles (which come complete with company URL, HQ address, main number, revenue, industry and number of employees) have always been readily available on the website and included in a contact list delivery.

Watch as we declare
Data Independence Day

However, according to a project we’re calling the Open Data Initiative; now anyone can download any or all of the company profiles they wish for direct import into the corporate CRM system of their choosing. We might not have quite as many companies as the Data Dinosaurs (yet!), but we’re betting that we have plenty to run your prospecting and marketing efforts. And besides, what other data company out there can compete with free?

This is a win for all segments of the Jigsaw Community. Individual users or small companies can now populate their CRM systems with the same number of target companies as big companies. Large Companies get the benefit of the updates from the almost 500K Jigsaw members. The Play and Free members benefit from a large influx of new members interacting with their data, gaining royalty points and increased accuracy of the contacts. Jigsaw still makes money selling specific contact info, subscriptions and cleaning and maintaining the CRM databases. Only the dinosaurs lose, forced to leverage their relationships and distraction techniques in order to continue selling a product for a price that the market will no longer bear

Check out the revolution at www.jigsaw.com. You can see the full length video of Jim and me, dressed as the founding fathers, as well as see the CRM partners and other information about the Open Data Initiative.

Best,

Garth
VP of Community and Co-Founder
garth@jigsaw.com
650.235.8383

Hmm I wonder what JigSaw is up to

2008-05-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

Huge proponent of Jigsaw and HTC has been a member for a long time.

I wonder what they are up to with this announcement.
Dear Jigsaw Insiders,

Since we started leaking hints about the big Jigsaw announcement on June 4th, I have received an unprecedented amount of calls from members and friends of Jigsaw trying to get the inside scoop. I still have my (rapidly fraying) muzzle on, but Marketing has allowed me to send you all this one minute preview of the promotional video that Jim Fowler and I taped a few weeks ago on Haight Street in San Francisco. Despite my fears to the contrary, the full length (3 minute) video actually turned out to be pretty funny and still gets our point across.

Please do us a favor and don’t steal our viral thunder by forwarding the trailer- save that for the finished product on June 4th, when it will be available for download on our home page. If all goes well, we might double traffic to our site- and get many more people to start contributing to Jigsaw like you have! Thanks so much for your support of Jigsaw to date and for joining us in our quest to make the data dinosaurs obsolete!

Best,

Garth
VP of Community and Co-Founder
garth@jigsaw.com
650.235.8383

List of Social Networking Sites and resources for Social networkers

2008-05-21T11:30:00.001-07:00

Other Social Networking Sites

43 People : social meeting
people online
Asoboo : social networking
with events/places (japanese)
Blogtronix : social
business networking ; blogging
Blue Dot : social networking
site
Bolt : video/photo/music sharing
service
BrightFuse
: business networking
operated by CareerBuilder
NEW
Cingo : social family-based
networking
Collective X : group
calendar, discussions, email, sharing
Couch Surfing : CouchSurfing
is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers
and the local communities they visit.
dodgeball : social networking
with mobile phones
Doostang : social professional
networking by invitation only
Facebook : social student
networking
Faves :
Build your own Social Network based on templates NEW
Favorville : social
networking doing favors
Friendster : social
networking
hi5 : Find friends in your
hometown or other parts of the world; upload music, videos, photos
HooversConnect:
Business, Find the people you want to meet through the people
you know
iKarma : social business
networking with recommendations
imeem :
social network where millions of fans and artists discover new
music, videos, and photos, and share their tastes with friends.
Jambo : social networking
Jigsaw : business card
networking
Jookster : social networking
Jyve : skype networking and
tools
Kaneva : social networking
service
Konnects:
Make connections: Locally, Internationally, in your Industry Post:
Events, Classifieds, Jobs, Questions
LightStalkers :
social journalists network
Linkedin : social business
networking
Map Mix : mapped social
networking
Meetup : localized interest
group meeting
MyMapSpace : social
networking site with maps
MySpace : social networking
Ning : Create
a Social Network site of your own
openBC : social business
networking
opinity : social networking
with testimonials
Orkut : social networking
PeerProfile : social
info / bookmark / photo sharing
Popist : social networking
site
Rabble : mobile phone blogging
and social networking
RecruiterRockStar
: A Talent Generator and Social Network for Candidates and Recruiters
NEW
ShoutCentral : social
networking site; blogs, photos and fun
TagWorld : social networking
+ blog + music + storage
the black stripe
: social photo sharing
The Well : Welcome to
a gathering that's like none other — remarkably uninhibited, intelligent
and iconoclastic.
Tilika : online calendar
TownCrossing : online
communities
Tribe : social networking
service
XING : business
social networking; powers relationships for the world’s
business professionals
Ziki : social networking
site

By resending invitations on Linkedin you can add a lot of connections!

2008-05-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

Real quick wanted to add another tip on how to get more connections on Linkedin. And FYI I'm over 5100 now so these techniques work. That's about 1000 connections in the last month and I've only sent 250 invites out. And another 100+- resends.

Old Invites can be a Gold Mine.
Yea I know you already sent them one invite but somehow it either got ignored or lost or forgotten.

I started going through my old invites and resending the invites to people and they started accepting them. Many replied back and stated they didn't know how they missed the first one, so something at Linkedin might be loosing invites or people aren't clearing out their invite box regularly and it gets archived/lost.

So go to your invitations then go to your Sent invitations.
Sort by click on the Status column you will see a bunch of invites that have a "blank" status. Then RIGHT click on each "subject line column" (this is where is says "Invitation to connect on LinkedIn" or "Join my network on LinkedIn") and open in it up in a new tab or new window. Then I click on a tab and scroll over the person's name and it will pop a little java window with a summary of their profile, I double check to make sure their are not already on my first level and click the Resend Button. I then type in a more personal note as to why I want to connect and hit send.

If there are any invitations without an email address or LI says they can't be delivered you can Withdraw the Invite. But, from what I've noticed, "Withdrawing" the invite does not necessarily put it back in your pool of available invites.

Once you go thru all the ones with "Blank" status, use the page numbers at the bottom and find the ones with a "Sent" status and do the same thing, Right Click and Click the Resend button and write a more personal note then hit Resend.

This will change both the Blank and the Sent status to a Replaced Status.

After a few weeks (3-4) you can go back thru all the Replaced and Resend again. I'm not sure how many times you can send someone an invitation before Linkedin won't allow you to send any more and my guess is that if after 2-3 Resends they still have accepted they either aren't going to ever accept or are just not active on Linkedin.

Also be fore-warned that if someone gets let's say 2 invites from you (one original and one resend) and they IDK both invites then Linkedin counts both IDK's against you. And with the 3 strike rule they will put your account on restriction.

Reference: An IDK is and response by the person receiving the invitation of (I Don't Know "Sender's Name") which not only declines the invitation but also puts a negative "mark" on your Linkedin profile. After 3 IDK's you will no longer be able to send someone an email without knowing their email address and Linkedin will not release additional invitations to you after you use up your initial 3000 invites. On a first offense of 3 IDK's they ask you to read the rules and agree to abide by them via email. Second offense they won't release more invites until you re-read the rules and "clean up" or explain your IDK's and third offense it's off with your head:-) just kidding same thing, you have to re-re-read clean up the IDK's and they won't release more invites to you =-( But the third offense they give you a much sterner warning and threaten to take away your account etc etc.

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research
925 313 9005 X 200
jeffweidnerlinkedin@gmail.com

And join my group on Candidate Pipeline Development(TM) on Linkedin at http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/44169/3ED8F804D9C7

A reply to someone ticked off at getting IDKed from another user on Linkedin.

2008-05-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

This was part of a long rant so I'll cut it and keep it anon to keep relevancy:

WHY JOIN A GROUP if you don't want to connect with the members?????

[Name]
I understand your frustration as I've had the same problem too. I even had invitations that I sent to people I know, declined and IDK'ed and IDK's from people I sent invites to from Mylink500 and themetanetwork lists(LION's) and they are supposedly Open Networkers. I've had my account "frozen" several times from LI as it's their policy to freeze accounts (they won't give me more invites until I clear up IDK issues) when you hit 3 IDK's

But what I realized is this;
A) I don't need their "stinking" invites to grow the network:-)(said in my best NY accent which is pretty good considering I'm from Jersey)
B) As a Sourcer/Recruiter I know why I'm on Linkedin, to get names, most people who join Linkedin have no idea why they joined or what they can do on it. That would take an effort on their part.
C)Once they join they don't know what or how to do "anything" let alone accept or send an invite. They don't read the fine print and take into consideration what will happen if they IDK your invite or decline your inmail they just do it cause they are inundated with junk and spam in every other site they've joined and don't need any more so they go into defensive mode and IDK or delete or mark as SPAm anything and everything.
D) Recruiters and especially those living in and around Silicon Valley give other people way too much credit as to other Linkedin Users level of understanding about technology/social networking "basic" rules of etiquette etc.
E) People just don't have time to "go figure it out" and tend to skim through for immediate relavance rather than "wasting" time trying to get to the bottom of it.

So to overcome all this. Keep it short, keep it sweet, keep it relavent and only send invites to those you know will accept:-)

Jeff Weidner
5000+
jeffweidnerlinkedin@gmail.com
I accept all invites, forward all requests, respond to all inmail, send lists of contacts for free for all candidate requests and have a tendency to exagerate and become a bit satirical from time to time.

Follow up to Building a Linkedin Network.

2008-04-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

I was asked a few questions so here is the follow up.
1) When is it big enough? Dunno haven't found out yet, I certainly do not see any downside from have a huge network. We find tons of candidates off Linked in every day. As HTC is a research firm it has become extremely valuable to us. I can't/won't day exactly how many candidates per week we are getting from Linkedin but I can tell you it is significantly more than it was a year ago. We have completely revamped our search processes internally in the past 6 months. We have found it to be much more cost effective to first locate a canddiate or two (Manager let's say) on Linkedin and the pull the group via phone or check a candidates profile before phone screening for a specific client. I can't say it's replaced any of my other techniques but I can say it's augmented them and made them much more efficient. But Linkedin isn't perfect either. There is a lot of "bad" and "old" information on there. Linkedin may make a better financial model for a research firm as opposed to a recruiting firm or staffing department. Also ,we just don't sell the names we find off Linkedin, we actually use it as a starting point, an easier way to get additional names out of the target.

2) It take about 5 hours a week to manage. I don't actually search for candidates as I have a team of people doing that. I did not pay for Linkedin until I needed another way to add connections. In March I purchased the 1 year subscription so I can add people using inmail and referrals etc. up until then I did it all for free so the ROI was infinite. Even with the paid subscription at $400 a year it paid for itself in the first hour after I bought the subscription.

3) I joined Linkedin about 4-5 years ago and did nothing until Sept 2007. Up to that point I think I had about 100 first level contacts, so a majority of my network has been added since the beginning of the new year. At the end of Dec 2007 I had about 2000 first levels and today I have 4300. Everyone's network will be different but at 1000 I had 2.5 million total, at 2000 I had 6 million, at 3000 approx 8.5 million, and at 4300 as of this am I have about 10,390,000.

I think the rest of your post really revolves around whether you should spend the time to build it or not. Will Linkedin implode? Will you loose value in connecting your candidates to your clients to your vendors? I worried about the same thing at first and then realized it was a moot argument at this point. One can not predict what will happen in the future but I know my company has benefited tremendously from having access to the information on Linkedin and next we're going to conquer Facebook and Myspace and on and on. Should you build your network? Overwhelmingly my answer would be Yes. Why cause the risk of not building and being left behind is too great, because my network also grows and we're connected on our first levels:-) and because it's a great resource of previously unavailable information that grow exponentially every month. By not building your network do you think that will stop your clients and candidates from connecting to others the only thing you'll do is loose contact with them. I could go on and on with examples but suffice it to say in my opinion as far as social networking goes, if you're not riding the wave now you'll be sucking on foam later on down the road:-) And if you only add 25-50 new connections a week that's still a HUGE network after 1 year!

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research Corp

How to build up your Linkedin network

2008-04-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

OK I've been getting a ton of people asking me how I built my network on Linkedin up to 4200+. I thought I would share some of my secrets on how I'm getting so many (which is relative) invites (about 100-150 per week). Though I didn't realize they were secrets.

So here's my basic routine.

FIRST
I started a group on Linkedin called CPD-Candidate Pipeline Development (TM) http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/44169/3ED8F804D9C7
This is linked to the HTC Research Blog located here http://htcresearch.blogspot.com which doesn't have that many readers as I'm not a prolific blogger but this get's me approx 30 requests per day M-F and about 10 per day on Sat and Sunday. Every request I send an email to thanking them for joining the group and recommending that they connect by sending me an invite. Of the 170 requests per week I'm getting about a 70%-80% positive response rate and those that don't send me an invite it's usually because they are out of invites so they ask me to send one to them, which I do.

I recommend either starting a blog on a free blogging site or a web site on Ning.com and adding some content focused around the group you want to start. You can't/shouldn't just start a group for the sake of starting a group to get more connections. My opinion is you have to add value, so keep that in mind.

NEXT
I joined other groups. This suggestion came from Steve Burda who I think has over 10K first level connections.
I'm joined up to a lot of groups (about 300+)and I try to add something to each group I've joined. I may not read or post every month to every group but I do make an effort. I estimate I get about 10 invites a day (tough to track) from group member invites. I'm basing this on what people say in their invite requests such as "Hey Jeff saw you just joined the ____group and I'de like to connect"

THEN
I utilize the Q&A section appropriately.
Ask relevant questions not transparent ones!

A relevant question is a serious question that you really need the answer to. For example we are putting together a training DVD and I needed some legal advice so I would know the right questions to ask an attorney before spending the $250 per hour or whatever so I asked a specific question to the Legal group and of course I mentioned I was an open networker and here's my email address. Or I had a specific question about content delivery and what format people would prefer, web, dvd, cd etc or we're looking at moving our blog site from blogspot to a different service so I wanted some advice on that. All legit reasons and questions I actually needed the answers to and the people who answered were really quite helpful.

A transparent question is one that was specifically posted to promote you or your company. It's one where it is so blatantly obvious that the only reason you posted it was to advertise something. Personally, I've chosen to just ignore those types of questions and they range from; "What is the meaning of life?" or "What's your favorite season and Why?" to "Are strawberries the only fruit with seeds on the outside?" I used to hit my head against the wall every time I saw a question like this but I was getting too many lumps.:-)

NEXT
Answer questions.
I find it easier to ask relavent questions rather than answering them and I've found that I get more invites when asking rather than answering.
A) you can ask a question on just about any topic and make it legit and relavent.
b) very tough to answer a question where you don't know squat and make it legit and self promoting.

Asking and answering questions also helps me build my blog site. It gets my creative writing juices going and if I find a question particulary interesting I sometimes choose to write a response to myself to see what my actual thoughts are. Sometimes I post to my bog site, sometimes I just hit delete. What the heck, it's only digital ink and paper it's not like I killed a tree or something.

NEXT
I highly recommend joing the following three immediately (and sending me an invite)
Toplinked.com
Mylink500
LION
Invite Me Network
RecruitingBlogs.com

NEXT talk with other Top networkers and ask them what they did. I'm all about ease and automation, I'm not about to slog through hundreds, thousand of names on Linkedin to find the ones that are open networkers, have a valid email address in their profile and are not already on my first level. Nothing, in my mind could be more tedious! I've got better things to do as I'm trying to run a Research firm in my spare time while not building a Linkedin network ;-) Seriously though I spend about 5 hours a week on Linkedin and the benefits have been enormous. So thanks Linkedin!

I have 4-5 more things I do but this post is getting long and I've got stuff to do so I'll post more later.

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research

Data Extraction Tools; High Tech Theft or Sourcing Automation ?

2008-04-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

An internet sourcer friend of mine and were talking and he was telling me that his employer, a large recruiting and RPO company, routinely uses a data extraction tool on some of the biggest resume job boards to pull down 10's of thousands of resumes every night. Now, I have no way of confirming this so I'll keep Company names out of the conversation but where is the line in the sand for these data extraction tools?

For those of you that aren't familiar with DE tools, imagine if you could program a piece of software to do the following;
1) Log into your favorite job board
2) perform specific searches for candidate resumes
3) Follow the link to each individual's resume
4) compare that resume/name/address/phone against other resumes you already have in your ATS
5) if it's not a duplicate then create a new candidate file and save the file

It's a way of automating the whole process.

Now imagine if you had 20 subscriptions and could pull 10,000 resumes per subscription per night. As you can imagine it wouldn't take long for you to have the entire job board database.

Now I'm certainly not advocating the use of DE Tools in this manner. It is blatantly wrong, IMO, to strip a company of it's most valued asset; that being the data it creates/supplies.

But putting that scenario aside. What if you used it on a more limited basis say on Linkedin. As anyone with a Linkedin account knows it's damn near impossible to extract Name, Address, Company name and a profile address out of Linked in. Try copying the info into MS Word and you get all the graphics, MSExcel- ugh nothing is formatted, notepad and forget about it completed unformatted mess. But the DE tool could can the search results of every page and extract only the information you needed/wanted and put it into an Excel Spreadsheet format making it easier to verify the information and manipulate the information by sorting the columns, do a global replace of a title or company name, etc.

So where is that "Line in the Sand" for Data Extraction Tools?
Are we as Internet Researchers solely responsible for their use/mis-use or are the Internet sites solely responsible for protecting their data?
How it is different from Google spidering a web site and cataloging the web pages a site, so they can sort for relevancy claiming it adds more value to their service and then sell advertising (a lot of advertising).
And you can't say "Well as long as you use it in a limited fashion." Define Limited. What you define as limited as a single research working from a Home Office may not meet a Corp Staffing Mgr's definition of Limited that has to keep 50 recruiters flush with names to call every day.

Jeff Weidner

Title HTC Research Corp

Watch out Hoover's Linkedin is nipping at your

2008-03-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

So last night I was just running through my typical end of day routine; a stroll around the office to say good night to everyone, check the coffee pot to make sure it's turned off, one last look at the next day's calendar and a quick check on my various email accounts. I noticed an email from Linkedin Customer Support concerning that request for more invites I sent in 2 weeks ago. Wow, they gave me another 500 invites! So I popped onto Linkedin and started going through the 1300+ contacts I have uploaded but haven't sent an invite to and used up most of my 500 new invites in about 40 seconds. Ahh one can never have too many Linkedin contacts:-). While I was toiling away at my contacts I noticed a new "beta" feature on Linkedin "the Company Profile".

Now when you do a search on LI, specifically for contacts from a particular company, on the results page will be a link to the Company Profile. "Check out the XYZ Company Profile". From first glance LI did a very good job organizing the page. They crammed a lot of information in a one page profile which includes the following:

Left column
1)A company Summary
2)Company employees in your network
3)New Hires in your network
4)Recent promotions and changes
5) Popular profiles

Right Column
1) Related companies
2) Key Statistics on top locations
a)Basic profile info such as Company Gross Revenues, # employees, Web site etc
b)Most common job titles, top schools employees attended, median age, gender
3)Job listings for the Company

The profile data is being supplied in partnership with Business Week and the statistical information is Estimated based on LinkedIn Data.

Linkedin just took step closer to being a one stop shop for corporate information. And best of all it's real time and most of the data is updated by the users. User updated content has it's drawbacks but if monitored can be incredibly valuable, especially to a savvy candidate researcher or recruiter.

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research Corp
925 313 9005 X 200

Is it possible to get only the Junior Sales Reps when sourcing names from a target company?

2008-01-24T09:15:00.000-08:00

OK, read this with a grain of salt tucked under a pillow. Or whatever the saying is.

Is it possible to get only the Junior Sales Reps? Yes, though much more difficult for an inexperienced phone sourcer. And without a doubt you have to use the correct ruse.

There are a lot of variables with developing an effective ruse, such as how large is the company you're calling into, is it the HQ or a small field office, what kind of sales rep (inside or outside) and on and on...

So I can give you a fish or give you a rod and some line and teach you to fish or I can teach you how to build a fishing rod and where to get some line and you can figure out the rest.

Here's where I teach you how to build the rod; you see most sourcers approach the problem of how to penetrate the company from their own personal point of view. You need to change your point of view and think about “what would the target company need to provide to the target job title (employee)”. You see, companies are support systems for their employees and visa versa. Find out what each side needs and develop a ruse to provide it to them. Put another way you have to think strategically not tactically.

Most people think;
How can I get the names of these sales people?
Where are these sales reps located?
What are their titles?
How do I get the junior sales people and not the senior sales people?

What you should be thinking is;
What do junior sales reps need that senior sales reps don’t?
What does a company provide to its junior sales people that it doesn’t to their senior sales people?
How are junior sales reps different than senior reps?
If I were a junior sales rep just starting out a new company I wish I had FITB (fill in the blank)?

Then develop a list.
Sales tools such as software (CRM) access
Training
Mentoring
Introductions to established accounts
Phone skills seminars
Etc

Then develop a short script for each item on the list and see how it fits. Does it sound credible? If you were on the other end of the phone would it make sense?

Of course the other option is to just pull the entire list of sales people and profile everyone on the list. Usually, if you have a list of 10 targets it'll be about 50/50 as to which tactic/strategy we use here at HTC.

I hope this helps and good luck,

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research
Copyright 2008

FIVE RULES of SUCCESS with HTC RESEARCH

2007-12-05T10:08:00.000-08:00

FIVE RULES of SUCCESS
Our objective is for the Client to make a hire off each and every project that they initiate with us. For a Client to use our research successfully we have laid down some rules to follow. We have found that if these rules are followed our Clients have a much higher success rate, as high as 90%. If a Client does not follow these rules then failure is more likely.
RULE #1- The 72 Hour Rule Clients (the Hiring Manager or Recruiter) have 72 hours to contact a Qualified Interested Candidate. After 72 hours a greater percentage of Candidates will drop out of the running. For one reason or another they lose interest.
RULE #2- Sell the Opportunity, Company, Product or Service FIRST. When a Hiring Manager or Recruiter calls the Candidate for the first time, the first 15 -25 minutes of the conversation should be selling the opportunity, Company, product or service. After the "pitch" is completed and all the Candidate’s questions have been answered there is nothing wrong with continuing with the phone interview and qualifying the candidate for experience and background. This portion of the process will allow you to determine if a face-to-face interview is warranted.
RULE #3- Passive-VS-Active. HTC Research Corp. specializes in both Active and Passive candidate research. A Passive Candidate that is someone that is not necessarily looking for a new job but if the right opportunity were presented to him/her at the right time they would be willing to pursue it. An Active Candidate is someone who is actively seeking new employment. Since a Resume is what an Active Candidate uses to market themselves, they usually have a current one readily available. However, since the Passive Candidate is not actively looking they usually will NOT have an up to date Resume. This does not mean they are any less qualified than the Active Candidate. This is why we provide a Profile of the candidate. A typical Profile will include most of the pertinent information needed to conduct a phone interview with a candidate regardless of their status.
RULE #4 - The Follow Up Rule - Our Clients must provide us with follow-up on all candidates we send to them in a timely manner. Follow-up in the form of a phone call or e-mail to the sales representative is acceptable. Feedback on every candidate is crucial to the success of the research project. Researching the passive candidate market is an imperfect science. If our research staff is off target for any reason the feedback we get from you will help us get them back on track quickly. The longer it takes to get us back on track the more costly it is to do the research. Be assured that as a Client you will never pay for a candidate that is not Qualified and Interested in new opportunities as per the job specifications which were outlined in the original job order.
RULE # 5 - HTC Research is a research/sourcing company, not a recruiting firm. We provide passive candidates that are Qualified and Interested in new job opportunities. We do this very quickly and at a reasonable price. At this time, we do not perform background checks, drug screens, set up interviews or negotiate contracts with candidates.
Copyright HTC Research Corp 1995 thru 2008

What changes would I like to see in the Contract Recruiting and Strategic Sourcing arena?

2007-12-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

Question was originally posted by Josh LeTouneau on Linked in
my reply is below.
Contract Recruiters and Sourcers: What Changes In The Current Model Would You Like To See?

Good afternoon, Contract Recruiters and Strategic Sourcers! I wanted to briefly reach out to ask what kind of changes you'd like to see in the contract recruiting and strategic sourcing market (particularly the U.S.). Would changes be compensation related, process related, recruiting architecture related, etc.?

Joshua Letourneau
Managing Director
LG & Associates Search / Talent Strategy
jletourneau (at) lgexec.com
www.lgexec.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jletourneau
My Reply

What changes would I like to see contract recruiting and strategic sourcing market?
1) Staffing needs to be removed from HR. Most High Tech companies have done this, especially those on the west coast but other industries need to catch up. Staffing is not an HR function any more.
2) Pricing models for strategic sourcing will be completely revamped. (The market will do theis naturally) This is because the skills needed to be an internet researcher are easily duplicated across organizations and there has been a plethora of companies, individuals creating training seminars on the subject. There will be a huge influx of internet researching talent which will flood the market as the market goes through it's next phase of growth, (baby boomer replacements etc) this influx will drive going market rates for internet researchers down. Additional pressure from offshore companies from India and other locations will also force US providers to become more efficient and reduce pricing models for the same services. Pricing could fall below $1000 per month for a researcher as competition heats up as there are few other market deliniations and variations in the range of services offered.
3) Pricing models for Phone Based Candidate Sourcing will remain at current levels as the talent pool for doing this type of work as not increased as more and more researchers have taken to internet based research. Additionally, when internet researchers are not successful in finding enough prospects Employers/Clients have few alternatives.
4) Hiring Managers need to be more in tune with the current and future staffing market. As the staffing model becomes more and more of a "low touch" model. In an effort to reduce costs the marching orders for staffing has been to get the candidates as far along in the recruiting process as possible before someone has to speak to them. In some cases the first person to have a real relationship building conversation with the candidate is the hiring manager. Unfortunately, few hiring managers are prepared for this especially in the high tech arena and don't know how to build rapport, yet alone close a candidate on the position.
5) Much of the disconnect starts with the writing of the requisition. Left to their own devices many Hiring Managers either make the requirements so restrictive that the potential pool of candidates is a water droplet and others are so nebulous that there is little direction other than I want the best that I can find that does this___.
6)The current battles between Internet and Phone based researchers need to be resolved. When internet researchers started coming on the scene a rift began to open between them and the war of words on ERExchange etc started to come to a head. What researchers on both sides of the coin need to realize is that the client doesn't care one way or another where/how the candiadte was sourced. The client just wants the end result, a hire. The process should always be, find low hanging fruit first then move up the tree. And low hanging doesn't mean more or less qualified or more or less interested. Low hanging means it was either cheaper, easier or faster to locate, identify, pre-screen that candidate the method or tactics don't matter. All methods should be implemented by a good researcher/research firm. Process matters very little to the hiring manager and it doesn't come in to play when making a decision on whether or not to make an offer to a candidate.
7) The Semantic Web, adding context to internet search results will dramtically change how companies locate and identify top talent. Right now Internet search engines are missing the mark on quality.
8) There need to be some rules/boundaries on candidate online privacy especially for people that will be entering the workforce in the next few years and that were early adopters of social networks. I think we've all heard of a candidate or two that hasn't been hired because of what was on a personal MySpace or FaceBook account. It would be a shame if a few indescretions that a "young" person made on-line were to be immortalized in digital cyber space forever.
9) Companies need to better define the staffing and recruiting models within their own organizations. Staffing strategies take time to implement, strategies are not faucets you can turn on and turn off. I see company after company, create a strategy, implement it only to abandon it 2 to 3 months later and create and implement a new strategy which lasts for 2 or 3 months. This is not only poor planning on the part of the executive staff but also of a colosal waste of time and resources.
10) I agree with Rob McIntosh's # 7 about "More effective use of competitive and business intelligence (both internally and external) to better map the size of the realistic talent pools" but feel that this process should start before a requisition is even opened/approved and that aqualified recruiter or recruiting manager should work with the Hiring Manager to identify those talent pools. If it's decided that the talent pool is too small that would give better direction to writing a better job description rather than having a req that's going to remain open for upwards of 6 to 9 months.

Thanks
Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp
HTC Research Blog
Top 10 resources to build target company lists
LinkedIn Jeff Weidner

OK from time to time

2007-11-30T07:14:00.001-08:00

I get a bite from the satire bug and write articles like the one below on Hill Deer. Please don't call about making a donation to the HDAA, it's fictional, as are the deer. I posted this on erexchange.com early in the week and actually started receiving calls from people concerned about the plight of the Hill Deer and either wanting to make a donation or wanting to take in a few deer as they have a "huge piece of land with a great hill on it". I'm sure the deer would be very touched by their generosity, if they existed.

Thanks,

Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp
HTC Research Blog
Top 10 resources to build target company lists
LinkedIn Jeff Weidner

The plight of the Hill Deer of California

2007-11-30T07:09:00.000-08:00

On a calm spring day just around sunset if you look out onto the hillsides of Northern California you will most likely see a familiar sight. The Hill Deer of California have captured the hearts of all those that come into contact with them. A close relative of the Whitetail Deer and the Mull Deer, the Hill Deer of California have developed special adaptations to allow them to walk in the hilly terrain more easily. One of the more predominant adaptations is that one set of legs is typically shorter than the other allowing them to walk around the hillsides in a circular fashion while grazing. Scientists have dubbed these deer either LSSL or RSSL Hill Deer. LSSL (Left Side-Short Leg) and RSSL (Right Side-Short Leg). Herds are usually self-segregating through out the Northern California deer population and very rarely do deer from RSSL herds intermingle with deer from LSSL herds. Scientists believe that this is a natural process rather than a chosen one because deer with the legs on the left side of their body tend to graze in a counter-clockwise pattern around hillsides while deer with shorter legs on the right of their bodies tend to graze in the opposite direction.

Complications in deer herds occur when a fawn is born of parents from opposite legged herds. If a RSSL male and a LSSL female have offspring there is a 50% chance that the fawn will have legs that are shorter on the opposite side of its mother. When this happens the fawn is usually lost or abandoned by its mother because it is walking in the opposite direction while grazing. Every spring, when the new fawns are due to arrive the volunteers from the Hill Deer Adoption Agency are out in full force trying to locate as many orphaned fawns as possible before a predator or starvation kills them. Last year over 230-orphaned Hill Deer were located and placed with foster families in the state. Because of an exceptionally mild summer, a very prolific rutting season and abundance in the deer’s food supply, this seasons’ number of orphaned Hill Deer fawns is expected to be nearly double.

Since 1968, the Hill Deer Adoption Agency has been placing fawns that have been separated from the mothers and the rest of the herd with foster mothers and family that have the same side of legs that are shorter than the other. In recent years however there has been an increasing number of deer that are left sided short-legged or LSSL and there aren’t enough adoptive mothers to place the fawns with. For now the Hill Deer Adoption Agency is asking for volunteers to hand raise these orphaned deer until a more permanent solution can be put into place. Interested parties can call the Hill Deer Adoption Agency at (888) HILL DEER or (888) 499 4482 X 200 All volunteers must have easy access to a hillside for the fawns to be raised on.

thanks,

Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp
HTC Research Blog
Top 10 resources to build target company lists
LinkedIn Jeff Weidner

Client Backlash to Social Networking candidates (Linked In, Jigsaw, Doostang etc)

2007-11-21T10:08:00.000-08:00

discussion started 4/24/2007, 10:00 a.m. by Jeff Weidner

With the growing popularity of these Social Networking sites, just as with the job boards 10 or so years ago we are beginning to see a backlash from clients rejecting candidates that we identify thru other means that also happen to be on the Social Networking flavor of the month. This month it happens to be Linked In.

Do you feel, as sourcers, that clients should be prepared to pay for candidates that are identified through other means but also happen to be in client's network on Linked In?

I'm hoping to open it up to discussion but HTC has taken the following stance on the issue:

At this time I have told my clients that because these sites are so prevalent and are becoming more and more ubiquitous there is no way for me to screen candidates for these sites for the following reasons;

A) We don’t use some of the sites and I don’t know what site everyone of my contractors use as they are not under my control

B) Just because a person is on the site doesn’t mean that is how we obtained their name

C) We can’t be expected to verify every candidate we source on a weekly basis against every social site on the internet, as is the case for job boards as well.

D) On some sites such as Linked in they may not have been in “our Network” so we may not have known about them (it is connection dependent)

E) My Name Generators are instructed to only use true phone recruiting and networking techniques to find candidates but there is bound to be duplication.

F) There are so many new members and connections being made on a daily, weekly, monthly basis that it is impossible for us to monitor every site and still be effective at what we do.

G) There are too many variables. As with most things in recruiting entering search criteria is highly human intensive. Only a person can type in specific combinations of skill sets and key words and apply a Sr Warp Core Engineer to a Sr DBA for Oracle position. It depends on the experience of the person doing the searching on their ability to find qualified candidates. Our clients pay for that experience.

Now, as with the backlash with the job boards 10+ years ago I fully expect this backlash to be a temporary inconvenience and that the issue will die down as they become more widespread but I thought it would make good fodder for discussion on the group.

I originally posted ERE.net Electronic Recruiters Exchange
So go there for other members responses to my post.

Thanks,

Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp

Top 10 Tools for developing target lists.

2007-11-20T14:03:00.000-08:00

So you and your crack staff of recruiters have decided to penetrate the passive candidate market to see if there are any qualified candidates out there that would rather be working for your company. Now what? The first step is to identify the list of target companies that you could potentially pull candidates from. But where do you start? What resources are out there to help you build a qualified target company list?

Here is a list of Top 10 resources that HTC uses to identify potential targets.

Hoover’s Online - Hoover's, Inc., delivers comprehensive company, industry, and market intelligence that drives business growth. Our database of 12 million companies, with in-depth coverage of 40,000 of the world's top business enterprises, is at the core of our business tools and services that customers find vital to their business operations. Hoover's editorial staff of some 80 editors and researchers bring vital business information and knowledge to their coverage, updating the site daily to bring our visitors and subscribers the most up-to-date business information in the industry. (From their web site www.hoovers.com)

CorpTech - CorpTech researches and publishes both high-quality private company profiles and public company profiles. This unique source of business directory information on the hi tech business segment allows you to perform in depth company research to generate competitive intelligence, business leads, mailing lists, and unique company profile data points for use in all your company research activities. (From their web site www.corptech.com)

Candidate Resumes – Review the resumes of candidates that interviewed but were not hired. Their current or past employers may provide another target or two to add to the list.

Hiring Managers – Most Hiring Managers can name at least a few candidates that are from direct competitors. They’ve worked with them in the past, met them at industry functions, heard them speak at conferences and read their articles in magazines. Tap into this resource because referrals are an excellent way to network your way into a company. Just ask, “Who do you know?”

The Marketing Department – This is an often forgotten resource. Not only does the Marketing Dept. keep track of who the company is trying to market to, but they also track who else is marketing similar products or services to your customers. They should have a list of direct and indirect competitors readily available.

Search Engines – Use the advanced search area of just about any search engine and type in your company’s name and the word ”competition OR competitors”. Unless you work for an obscure company you should at least be able to get one or two companies from reading the various articles. Then perform the same search with one of those company’s names.

Industry Sources – Symposiums, Conferences, Consortiums, Magazines, Trade Shows, Standards Associations, Testing Laboratories etc. We once were performing a search for a client that was entering into the PDA market. They wanted to target other PDA manufacturers but only the obvious top 5 companies came to mind. We added another 20 companies by doing a search on Google for “PDA Manufacturers and Conference” a sight came up which was a web site for a PDA Manufacturers Conference that had taken place a few months prior and it listed every PDA Manufacturer in the world and even sorted them alphabetically, by location, by price etc.

Online Retailers – This works great for companies that are in the consumer goods arena. Do a search on Amazon for makers of your same product.

Job Boards – Look through the job postings to see who else has posted similar jobs.

User Groups/News Groups - There are tens of thousands of news and user groups to cover every possible interest and topic. They tend to be a little slow in developing a viable list of targets but as a last resort they can be a valuable resource.

When all else fails, look for “Like/Kind” companies or indirect competitors to pull candidates out of. These are companies that are making or selling like/kind products or services. If you can’t get that Wireless Engineer away from that hot cell phone manufacturer maybe you could find them at a PDA company that uses wireless technologies or a pager company. Or maybe you could look at a completely different industry that uses the same or similar technology.

There are at least another 1000 resources available to recruiters but these are the ones we have found to be the most useful. Not every resource is effective 100% of the time so hopefully you'll be able to add one or two to your bag of tricks and be able to impress that hiring manager the next time he asks "Where else can we find qualified candidates?".

Thanks,

Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp
Top 10 resources to build target company lists
LinkedIn Jeff Weidner

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