It's been a long time since I posted in the recruit-o-sphere. As many of you know, I left the industry in pursuit of bacon-flavored greatness about 2 years ago, not knowing whether this was a side road or permanent path. Turns out that the bacon business is in fact resistant to swine flu, so I'm still here turning out Bacon Salt, Baconnaise, and even Bacon Lip Balm - all of which has landed us on Oprah, ABC News, The Today Show, Good Morning America and several others.
While spending 12 years in the recruiting industry, I acquired some valuable online real estate. My thought was that one day when I made my triumphant return - either by necessity or by choice - I would have these domains at the ready for whatever I chose to pursue. But sometimes life takes you in a different direction.
3 weeks ago, my 4 year old daughter Ashley was a normal, healthy kid. Then our whole world changed, and quickly. While getting an MRI for an unrelated, very minor condition, they found some unusual spots on her spine. One bone marrow test later and she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The last couple of weeks have been an immersive education on chemotherapy, white blood cell counts, hematocrit, platelets and then some. In total, her treatment will last for the next 2-3 years - and maybe more, depending on how she responds to everything. Ashley's doing fine through it all, but something like this definitely changes your priorities in a hurry.
Around the same time this was all happening, I got a couple of inquiries about domains I owned in the HR space. Which got me thinking about how to take care of Ashley over the next couple of years of treatment and what I could do to make sure her life is as full of joy and fun as humanly possible. So I decided to sell the domains I still have in the HR and recruiting space. As much as I'm sure they could one day be useful and more valuable, the quick math on this is that Ashley is way more important than any potential future value for me.
Why are these domains potentially valuable? I see the potential to use them in a few different ways:
1. As a platform for an up and coming or
established vendor in the recruiting or HR space (consulting,
technology, etc.) to establish a thought leadership position around key
issues or targeted audiences. This website, for example - directorofrecruiting.com -
maintained the #1 slot on Google for the keywords director of
recruiting (which catches directors of recruiting when they search for
information or jobs), and is still #4 despite the fact that I haven't
posted here for 2+ years.
2. To build a large community or network of senior-level HR and recruiting professionals.
3. As a publishing platform for opinions, research or articles that are of importance to senior level decision makers - exactly the types of people that advertisers will want to target.
4. As a recruiting vehicle for HRO's, RPO's or a high volume employer of HR and recruiting professionals.
5. As a technology play or name for a product.
6. A charitable initiative.
The list includes:
If you're interested in learning more, please contact me at dave@talentsparkconsulting.com. Thanks for reading!
The newest entrants to recruit in Second Life may be missionaries from the Catholic Church according to Reuters. Read the article here.
I met with Tom Schmidt, the founder of Resumefit, a candidate-facing assessment tool, not too long ago. I was intrigued by the possibilities their business model presented, specifically the idea of candidates getting "pre-assessed" before they applied for a job. They're still pretty early on in their evolution, but I am still completely intrigued by the concept.
Competency-based and personality-based assessments today work for employers to help them weed through applicants, and cost them a pretty penny as you multiply it out over the large volume of candidates they often get. But what if candidates bore some of this burden? Could it solve a major problem for them, i.e. getting noticed for a position by providing third-party, objective data that shows how qualified they are?
This is exactly what Resumefit is focused on, helping candidates use assessments as a way to differentiate themselves when they submit their resumes. Imagine what a difference it could make if a candidate came to you and said "Here's my resume, and here's how well my personality and workplace competencies fit this job profile." That could be a marked improvement over a standard, traditional resume, which usually tells you absolutely nothing about how good a person is at their job.
Another problem out there waiting to be solved is the "firehose" of resumes that employers get - which might be reduced by using this type of approach to help candidates decide whether they should apply in the first place. An enterprising job board would be wise to check out the solution and see if there's a way to build it into their platform - the possibilities and value that could be delivered could be huge.
The challenge with the recruiting blogosphere for many is just keeping track of the sheer number of voices that exist within it. Many people just end up reading one or two of their favorite blogs and periodically link to interesting blog posts referenced elsewhere; some use a blog aggregator or feed; others ignore the blogosphere altogether. I'm somewhere in the middle - trying to contribute but not trying to get sucked in too deep.
So why are there so many recruiting blogs? I think I have a possible answer (perhaps not the only answer, but it's a working theory). It goes like this:
In short, I think that so many recruiters blog because they know that it helps them get jobs. Granted, some of the more inflammatory blogs actually might hurt peoples' chances of finding work at certain companies - not to pick on anyone, but The Recruiting Animal comes to mind, although it could be argued that even the Animal gets some gigs or splits out of his efforts. Or maybe he's just completely insane... who knows?
I believe this is a case of recruiters knowing their domain better than the rest of the general public, who may eventually catch on and start building more of their own blogs in other industries (lawyers, for example, already have a significant base of bloggers). What do you think?
Saw an article recently about General Electric's CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, in the Washington Post. An excerpt:
If globalization were put to a popular vote in the United States in the current political climate, it would lose, General Electric Co.. (GE.N) Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt warned on Friday.
"If you put globalization up for a popular vote in the United States, I think it would lose 60/40," he told the India Institute of Technology Alumni 2007 Global Conference, a Silicon Valley event attended by thousands of India's top academic and business elite.
Immelt's remarks came at the end of what was largely a corporate recruiting speech to attract top-flight engineers and managers to join GE.
What's striking about this is that Immelt has taken time out of his schedule to help GE recruit top flight engineers and managers overseas to join GE. And it appears that he was successful, as the event was attended by thousands of top academic and business elite.
When's the last time YOUR CEO hit the recruiting trail? The war for talent is on, and as Immelt proves, your CEO might be your best recruiter.