talentline411

Dear Recruiter, The Social Web is Not Your Cookie Jar

2009-11-15T17:51:00.008-06:00

Over at AIRS, I noticed a training course for a Certified Social Sourcing Recruiter. Wow. I've got to wonder to whom this course will appeal. If you're already a recruiter who uses social media, you are well aware of how these technologies are enabling you to find and meaningfully engage with talented people. If you're not, I feel like this course description may give a somewhat skewed impression of the principles social media is fundamentally about.

If you read the description, there seems to be this undercurrent of somehow using the social networks to get more "passive" candidates in your hiring pipeline by finding them with Boolean searches, tips, and tricks. You have to really dig down through a lot of language about "name sourcing" and something about creating a "viral funnel of talent" (I get what they are saying, but the phrase sounds disgusting) before they say anything about using these tools to create a favorable employment brand for your company.

Significantly, the course description uses the words "leverage" and "create," but nowhere does it talk about engaging, interacting or contributing.

Isn't social media about building relationships and adding value to the networks? I truly don't mean to give AIRS a bloody nose here--they are a fine company and I only use them as an example--but these tools are not a cookie jar for recruiters. If you're just using the networks in a one-way fashion to source names or leverage networks and are not giving back to the community, then you're sooner or later going to be outed as a leech.

I hope that most recruiters get that by now. I am sure that many do not. On LinkedIn, for example, still a bastion for much recruiting activity, I continue to receive the "stupid recruiter trick" message in my Inbox asking me to send an invite so that he or she can connect. If you're so interested in connecting with me, then why in the world aren't you sending me the invite? This manipulative tactic is employed by individuals who wish to grow their networks but either no longer have invites of their own to send or else they are so close to reaching that limit that they are jealously guarding the few remaining ones they have. (The idea here is that the larger your network is on LinkedIn, the broader your ability to "see" everyone within the user base.)

My other favorite misuse is the recruiter who wishes to connect with me to see my network, but does not open his or her own reciprocally. These behaviors are driven by a fundamental misunderstanding of the how's and why's of social networking and proceed from nothing less than fear.

We have nothing to fear but social media itself...

I had the chance to watch a recent video from Clay Shirky and listened to him talking about how social media has upset institutions like newspapers. During the interview (forward to about 8:30 to hear what he says exactly), Shirky talks about how newspapers have struggled mightily with social media because it has shattered the old cost structures and made it harder to collect money for print advertising.

Sound familiar? I firmly believe that this is precisely what's happening to recruiters and why we're seeing all of these bad behaviors.

Third party recruiters are feeling pressure from fewer and reduced placement fees, a commoditization of the profession that I attribute directly to the democratization of information and cheaper cost structures of social media. Corporate recruiters are worried that their already misunderstood and maligned ability to find talented people for the company will be further denigrated and eroded by hiring managers who believe that they can just as effectively recruit for their own open positions using social media tools. Fear drives strange and desperate actions.

Recruiters can try to pretend (for a little while longer at least) that the social web is just another evolution of the rolodex full of business cards, but ultimately we'll be taken to task for misusing networks by breaking trust with those who are legitimately there to interact and contribute. Unlike a static database, your participation in a social network implies a social contract that you will be present to contribute interesting, helpful ideas to the community for the betterment of all and not simply to fatten your wallet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against making money from what I do. However, I do care about how hiring professionals represent themselves in the social web. Do we want to keep creating the impression that recruiters are nothing more than sharks milling about the social network waters for fresh meat? There is a better way: participate in online communities and become a trusted advisor to the pool of talent you wish to recruit. But this way requires presence and commitment and contribution and there are no shortcuts.

The Recruiter is Dead. Long live Facebook?

2009-11-13T09:19:00.006-06:00

This week, the Globe and Mail site published an article talking about how recruiters, "head hunters" in particular, are being sidestepped by employers who are using social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn to recruit directly. By leveraging their personal social networks and posting a need out on Twitter or other networks, these hiring managers can avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of placement fees.

The love-hate relationship that old school recruiters have with social media is something that has been with us a long time. On the one hand, it makes it so much easier for a recruiter to learn about a company and find people for their requirements. It's quicker and much more targeted than the days when recruiters would have to use their rolodexes or, worse, dial in "cold" to a company with any of a variety of ruses like "I was referred confidentially to you as someone who has an excellent professional background in [fill in the blank]."

Has the day of the recruiter passed? Has social networking obviated the need for the recruiter who turns over rocks until the perfect candidate is uncovered? What happens when all the "rocks" have been removed?

Recruiting Has Changed

I have for a long time said that recruiting will be less and less about the ability to turn over a database with good search terms. And while I don't think that the recruiting profession is going the way of the dinosaur any time soon, I firmly believe that it is being eroded.

Let's face facts. Most hiring managers barely have the time to set aside to manage a few interviews. An increasing number will grow savvy about leveraging social networking tools to grow their business, which will increasingly damage the profits of contingency and retained recruiters. This pressure will change how recruiting works and will almost certainly marginalize recruiters who take the view that their networks should somehow be protected and private hunting grounds.

Is this a good development?

Milwaukee Employers: Please Support Professionals with Disabilities, Attend Thursday Event

2009-11-10T07:30:00.003-06:00

Of all the local groups I have been involved with AbilITy Connection has been the most rewarding. The group is sponsored by Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin and has been a source of employment opportunities for professionals with disabilities for many, many years.

The AbilITy Connection Business Advisory Council consists of professionals from throughout the region. A couple of times a year, we make a drive to raise awareness and find new participants for the council. This Thursday is one of those events. We'll be holding a panel discussion of opportunites in Information Technology, looking at the current market and what we may have to look forward to over the next year.

AbilITy Connection fills your diversity hiring needs
Simply put, if you are an employer and hire IT professionals, you should be here. No excuses. Many organizations have diversity hiring initiatives, but disabled professionals are a chronically underemployed and underrepresented group. You can sign up for the program here. It's free and no pressure. Come and see what we're about.

2009 AbilITy Connection Fall Forum

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Google Wave: Should Recruiters Care?

2009-10-27T18:26:00.005-05:00

Have you heard of Google Wave? Although the technology is still in its early development, it has been released in a limited fashion to those who have signed up. I was among the second wave of invites and have been using the technology for almost two weeks now.

There's lots of discussion whether it will catch on, but if you'd like a cogent explanation of what it is, I direct you to this article.

The question for me is how the tool might be applied to hiring situations. As the Daniel Tenner article points out, Wave is a significant improvement over email for a number of good reasons. Considering how much recruiters live out of their Inboxes, it's worth looking at for no other reason than that.

In addition, it might take the place of IM for chatting with candidates online, so it's got serious potential if I can keep all of those conversations confined to one tool and don't have to go hunting for logs.

I'm also intrigued about the capability of adding others to the conversation on the fly. Imagine having an initial conversation with a candidate and then inviting the hiring manager or future peers onto the Wave conversation. The continuation would be absolutely seamless. If the hiring manager wanted to catch up, all he or she would need to do is replay the wave.

Sharing work examples via pictures or attachments would be simple, making such documents available to all.

In addition, private messages to the hiring manager could be sent within the wave that could definitely help guide the conversation toward salient interview questions.

For the time being, I have to content myself with dreaming. Wave is still only available via limited invitation (sorry, I don't have any invites left!). Another downside that I hope will be addressed is that I don't get notifications when my waves have been updated. I just have to keep checking back.

The technology has tremendous potential and I look forward to seeing whether it receives broader adoption once it gets into full release.

ERE blogger Jeff Schwartzman gives some of his thoughts about using Wave for recruiting, too. I don't think some of the applications he mentions for recruiting are viable yet, but he does point out a few other possibilities.

Job searches need social media sherpas, too

2009-10-26T07:52:00.003-05:00

This weekend's business section of the Chicago Tribune included an article about how senior executives are finding junior employees as effective guides to train them in the proper use of social media. For those who have not been in the job search for a decade or more, it's equally if not more critical that they find someone to lead them into productive use of social media applications.

The best quote from the piece was "It's very easy to set up a social networking account. What's harder is figuring out the appropriate way to use it, something that will really help our business." Especially for older workers who have not fully embraced the web as a social instrument (Forrester would call them Inactives or Spectators), having someone who can easily show a way to participate rather than just set up an account can make a big difference in the length of a job search.

(Creative Commons image by ikerender)

Broken Hiring

2009-10-24T17:23:00.003-05:00

A friend from the Information Security sector shared this article with me this week. Of greatest concern to me was the painful statement about how the organization went dark on a candidate who was clearly a senior level IT executive up for a Chief Security Officer role:

In the weeks that passed, I sent the CIO two follow-up e-mails, I also e-mailed the HR director in California. All three were met with silence. I also left the CIO two voice mail messages -- one on his office line, the other on his personal cell phone -- and neither was returned. After three weeks, I received a phone call from the HR director telling me the CIO was unsure about the position. He was contemplating diminishing the role to a lesser grade and I was, of course, overqualified, and so were the other candidates.

Thank goodness for an HR director who at least had the courtesy for good follow up. Many companies do not even appear to have that level of common courtesy. Regardless of whether the position had been diminished to a lesser grade, the CIO should have taken it upon himself to get back to each of the previous candidates by email at least and explain that the role had changed. The fact that he and other IT leaders are being asked to do more with less is not surprising in the least. The fact that he left his "dirty work" for the HR director is just lazy. A few minutes to send of a personal email to each candidate for such a key position would make perfect strategic sense. Budgets may open up one day and one of those candidates may be the next CSO--better to keep the lines of communication open for the future than to create ill will.

My one hope is that executives who have found themselves out on the street as part of this downturn will take a moment and remember their own unpleasant experiences as applicants once they get back to a new position.

If you're wondering about a courteous period to wait for following up on interviews, here's a recent guide I found from Goodwill Industries:

Job Search for Social Media: Ideas From the Trenches

2009-10-21T09:04:00.004-05:00

Last week, I gave a talk to about 140 students at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, College of Engineering & Applied Science. I was asked to speak to the professional development seminar about some practical ways to use social media tools for the job search. Since I have had a few requests for my thoughts on the topic from people who saw my status update on LinkedIn, I decided to create this blog post.

Manage and Optimize Your Job Search Using Social Technologies

1. You should have a LinkedIn profile. Particularly of you're a technology professional, you should have one. It should be filled out fully because that's how hiring professionals find you--by searching for key words related to your experience. You should be connected to your friends. You should have endorsements and if you've got a blog its feed should be connected here (WordPress is particularly easy).

2. You should have a Slideshare account. Not only should Slideshare be used to upload white papers or presentations you've given, but also it should hold a copy of your resume in PDF or Microsoft Word format. Make it easy for someone to obtain your resume. If you're worried about getting spam in the form of phone calls or emails, you have remedies. Namely, a Google Voice number will allow you to screen callers and an email address dedicated to your job search can help defend your "good" address from would-be spammers.

3. Obtain a Google Voice account. It's free. Google Voice allows you to obtain a phone number in the area code of your choice. When someone calls that number, it rings all of the other numbers you provide for it. Yes, that's right. It rings your work phone, your home phone, and your mobile if you wish. It will even ring a temporary number if you're sitting at a desk that's not yours for the day. Even better, it sends you an email transcript of all voice messsages and can SMS messages to your phone. That part's still a little rough, but you can usually get a pretty good idea of what the call was about.

4. Expect that professional stalkers--recruiters if you prefer the term--will find you in unexpected places. Namely, they will look start looking for you more and more often on Facebook. Although this may cause you considerable discomfort, especially if you keep personal photos and have a crazy uncle who keeps writing embarrassing things on your wall, it's going to happen. While the majority of recruiters still do the majority of their talent hunting on LinkedIn, the number differential all but guarantees that we will see a migration of recruiters to Facebook. There is evidence that's already happening.

5. Save yourself the headache of browsing by setting up agents on Indeed and SimplyHired. These job aggregators scrape all of the job boards as well as niched professional sites and corporate career pages for job listings. These listings can be broken down geographically, by keyword, job title, and company name and delivered to your Inbox daily or weekly.

What tips do you have for just seekers to make the most of social technologies?

Ways to Set Realistic Expectations with your Recruiter

2009-09-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

The worst time to have to negotiate a salary offer is after you've had all of your interviews. There are few worse feelings a recruiter gets than extending what is believed (by the recruiter at least!) to be a fair market offer and to be met with a stunned silence.

Especially now, during a slow market recovery, companies are doing their best to balance fair offers with expenses. I know that may not be a very palatable thing to hear, but that's reality. However there are ways to avoid these gotcha scenarios earlier in the hiring process. These approaches will probably work best if you are being represented by a recruiter, whether third party or internal, but the ideas will apply to most hiring situations.

Build Goodwill After the "Money" Interview

Usually sometime after the first or second interview for a job, the question of money will arise. This is an opportunity to set expectations so that both you and the recruiter are proceeding from the same set of assumptions. During this early stage, a good recruiter will broach the subject in a non-threatening way. In past placements, I have said things like The interviews seem to be going well and the question of money is inevitably going to come up. Let's discuss your compensation requirements. During our early conversations you stated that you were looking for a base salary in the low $100K range. Now, since neither one of us would enjoy nasty surprises at the end of the interview process, let's talk about a few scenarios. I know that money is never an easy subject, but it's my job to make sure we understand one another. That understanding sometimes takes the form of me asking if it hurts when I poke you in the wallet. Let's say that all the interviews went well and you think that this is the right place for you to build your career, but the offer comes back at $95K. Would that be a situation in which we could still talk? What about 98K and we could get you an offer for an extra week of vacation? Negotiation begins early this way and can be approached without the high emotions of it coming at the end of the placement.

Be Forthright About the Offer

It's not a perfect world and sometimes having this up front conversation is simply isn't possible. In those cases, there are many appropriate approaches to negotiation that others who are far better at it than me could comment upon, but the one inappropriate, unhelpful approach is to clam up. When you're working with a recruiter and that recruiter is authorized to extend a verbal offer of employment, when the pit of your stomach makes you feel like you just stepped onto the down elevator from the Sears (Willis?) Tower, when that free falling sensation subsides and is replaced with simmering anger and resentment that you have been so insultingly downgraded in pay, let me emphasize again that shutting up is not the answer. Take a deep breath. Try to separate your emotion from the conversation and express your concerns.

Trust me, if you're getting an offer, that means that the company and especially the recruiter and you all want the same happy ending. It is in your best interests to be forthright and negotiate, even if that means you need to ask to call back in an hour after you've walked out to your balcony and practiced a primal scream.

Ask Yourself If It's Always About the Money

Nobody wants to get an offer that they feel lowballs or undervalues their skills. But if you give yourself a little time to think about it, maybe the cash isn't the be-all and end-all of what you need. Be sure to examine the entire offer, including the benefits and paid time off. One of the points on which many organizations are willing to negotiate is paid time off. And it's during the offer stage that companies should hear about it. Other considerations may include a signing bonus, potential overtime pay, and incentives. A creative recruiter will help you to work out these details and get you to where you need to be.

Remember, though, at the end of any negotiation, there needs to be a compelling enough reason for you to take a new position. If you have doubts about some aspect of the job, whether it's people or requirements, any company worth its salt should be willing to talk to you about your concerns.

Wisconsin Professional Recruiters Resource

2009-09-23T08:00:00.004-05:00

If you're a recruiter based in Wisconsin, you should consider joining the Wisconsin Professional Recruiters Resource (WISPRR). Started back in 2000 as the Wisconsin Technical Recruiters Network, the group has always provided great opportunities to network, hear great speakers and have fun with professional colleagues. Recently, we started up a new online network on Ning and it's growing every week.

If you have a colleague in recruiting who might be interested, please consider forwarding this flyer. We hold live events in the Milwaukee area quarterly.

About Wisprr

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Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin Economic Outlook ... Current Downturn Masks an Alarming Talent Shortage

2009-09-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

Last week, the Wisconsin Professional Recruiters Resource was fortunate enough to have Betsy Falk, labor economist for southeastern Wisconsin, present to our group an economic update and outlook for Milwaukee and the seven county region. Betsy had fascinating information for us, dispelling some common misconceptions about unemployment and offering a picture of the labor workforce that looked kind of grim to many of us--especially for Milwaukee.

Check out the statistics on workforce age segmentation as well as the graduation rates and I think you'll see what I mean.

Betsy Falk Labor Market Review Sept 2009

View more presentations from Todd Nilson.

What's your view on the current economic situation here in Milwaukee? Across Wisconsin and elsewhere? I'd love to hear from you.

Farewell SonicRecruit, Hello JobScience

2009-09-21T08:00:00.004-05:00

October is going to be a bittersweet month. After seven years of great experience using Cytiva's SonicRecruit as my company's Applicant Tracking System (ATS), we finally made the difficult decision to move to a new one.

Like many companies that went through the tough economy, my firm looked hard at all of its expenditures, including the technologies we use for hiring. While SonicRecruit gave us what we believed to be great pricing, I was directed (along with a colleague) to investigate what else was out there. We reviewed a number of ATS solutions and, to SonicRecruit's credit, there's not a lot out there that offers anything compelling.

However, in the end, after reviewing about twenty ATS's, we decided to try Jobscience. Our reasons? I won't lie that price was a consideration, although it was less of one than one might think. No, it came down to the fact that Jobscience fully integrates with Salesforce.com, which our sales team uses. For years, we heard unhappy mutterings from the business development team about having to enter new job requirements in a different system. Now, we get to be one big happy family, in theory at least. In addition, Jobscience offers integration with social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter--functionality that exists with SonicRecruit but which we never used with our instance of the ATS.

In any case, welcome Jobscience! I bid a fond farewell to SonicRecruit with no ill will. It's a great SaaS ATS and one which I would heartily recommend to anyone. I maintain that it's still one of the most straightforwardly usable ATS softwares out on the market.

More on Jobscience in future posts. We're still going through implementation and I'll be posting a full review of our experience soon.

Job Hunting on Facebook

2009-09-19T15:51:00.005-05:00

Facebook occupies an odd place in the social media spectrum when it comes to finding a job.

As someone who talks about social media technologies often in public forums, I regularly hear about how reticent they are to open up their Facebook profiles to recruiters for searches. Due to the nature of how Facebook grew up as a personal and truly social site, the reaction is completely understandable.

However, it's also unrealistic to believe that recruiters aren't going to gravitate here. They can and will use Facebook to recruit for the following reasons:

Compare the 45 million users on LinkedIn vs the 300 million on Facebook. If four out of five adults in the US use social media once a month as Forrester says, that's a much wider net of active users.
It is in Facebook's interest to broaden its appeal in the professional space since it will attract more mature users. At present, Facebook's fastest-growing demographic is individuals 35 years and up.
Facebook serves up a younger demographic than LinkedIn. The average Facebook user is about 31 and the average LinkedIn user is 41.
Although it's easy enough to skip, Facebook allows you to fill out your work history just like LinkedIn
A recent CNNMoney.com article points out that Facebook's friendships are more authentic and therefore more reliable than the more narrowly focused LinkedIn platform. The stronger the relationship, some recruiters reason, the better the chance for a warm referral to your next hire.
A recruiter who finds a viable candidate for a position on Facebook stands a better chance of connecting with him or her immediately via messages, pokes, SMS, or live chat--all built into Facebook. LinkedIn only supports message updates.

With that in mind, you may want to reevaluate how you're using Facebook. While many of us may be uncomfortable with the thought of the world of work colliding with our goofy high school friends and all the embarrassing photos they have posted about you, the collapse of the personal and professional may well be inevitable.

You've got a few choices. You can continue to wall off your personal profile on Facebook and lock down the privacy settings for your account so that your profile reveals nothing about you. Creative recruiters can and will continue to find ways around this, but it may keep you inaccessible for a time.

You can blend your professional and personal profiles. This isn't always something easy to do. In fact, it may be impossible without 'rebooting' your profile (something more than one of my friends has decided to do) and being more selective about what goes up in this public space.

Finally, the least likely alternative but probably the safest if you really don't companies finding you in this venue is to simply delete your account and leave Facebook forever. It seems a shame that you'd be so worried that you'd want to kill your online presence for fear of an employer maybe finding you, but if your profile has something deeply embarrassing or inappropriate on it, that may be the only choice.

On the other hand, if you do want to be found, there's a lot to recommend using Facebook as part of your overall strategy to find a job. Fill out your profile, open up your privacy options to show information about your work history, and make it easy to connect with you.

Milwaukee JobCamp Video Posted by Jobing.com

2009-09-06T10:33:00.005-05:00

If you're not familiar with Jobing, they're a provider of employment opportunity posting, but where they really stand out in that space is how deeply they support the local communities in which they operate. Brian Weis, who runs the Milwaukee offices for Jobing, has been a friend for years and has again and again shown his dedicated support of community efforts within the employment community. When I told him about the second JobCamp event held in July, despite the tough economic times, he not only supported us as a sponsor but also volunteered to bring in Colin Bridgham, Jobing's amazingly talented videographer, to capture video from the event.

This week, I received the results of his work that day. The person being interviewed is Angela Harris, the executive director for the JobCamp events. Angela does a great job of talking about what the JobCamps are about.

How will Augmented Reality affect recruiting?

2009-08-22T08:12:00.009-05:00

I know that it sounds like a science fiction concept, but the idea of augmented reality, a way to overlay real-world objects with data, is not so far away as you might think. According to a recent BBC News article, "Via the video function of a mobile phone's camera it is now possible to combine a regular pictorial view with added data from the internet." Expect to see apps like this on an iPhone near you in the near future (or, a Palm Pre in my case!).

Imagine how such funtionality might impact the way recruiting happens. Recruiters have a tendency even now to say that they are always "on," or looking for talented people, whether at work, home, church, or the supermarket. An augmented reality application could help us in some amazing ways. Here are just a few scenarios:

A proximity detector set to look for data tags from individuals who are job seekers causes your phone to vibrate. You turn on the phone's camera to scan the area and find that someone nearby in the park is a software engineer who is actively seeking a new full-time position.
By holding up the AR app and focusing on a subject, with a touch of a button, you can pull up his or her LinkedIn profile and recommendations. With the touch of another button, you can send a message to that person's phone indicating that you are nearby and hoping to have a conversation about a job opportunity. Invasive? Perhaps, but if I'm a job seeker, I can probably opt to turn off the tags if I don't want to be bothered.
I can embed a tag at certain locations where I work and hang out to indicate that I am hiring for certain jobs, so that when a job seeker is interested, I can be readily contacted.
I can set the search settings in my AR app so that it will only vibrate my phone when specific job seeker criteria are met. Unless they are, my recruiter profile will not broadcast to any other job seekers unless I choose to be more sociable.
At a user group event, I set my phone to broadcast tags on me that indicate the specific jobs I'm hiring for. Although those present could simply walk up and indicate interest, others who wish to keep their search more anonymous could secretly ping me to start a dialogue online first. The upside would be that the job seeker could evaluate whether I seem trustworthy before making contact by observing my behavior at the event.
Data overlays at your place of business pull data from your recent job postings as well as links to video about what it's like to work for your organization.

I'm sure that there are dozens more options that we'll see in the next few years. It's exciting to think of the ways that this new technology will help enrich our interactions even more. What other scenarios for AR-enabled recruiting can you think of?

Openings and farewells can make or break job search e-mails

2009-08-08T11:29:00.012-05:00

This morning, I mined out a thread of links from Lifehacker about the importance of closing out e-mails by choosing the appropriate word:

How to improve your e-mail etiquette on Shine from Yahoo
Saying 'Goodbye' Is the Hardest Part of an E-mail from the Washington Post
‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations from the New York Times

Thinking about the many e-mails I receive each day at our generic "apply here" e-mail (careers@redpointtech.com if anyone's interested), I thought I'd amuse myself with an audit of openings and closings from the last two months of applicants. It's purely unscientific (a sampling of only 138 e-mails), but I was curious how job seekers were approaching blind e-mails. Here's the breakdown:

Other openers included: Dear Recruiter / Technical Recruiter; Dear SPR Inc.; Dear Recruiting Manager; To whom it may concern; Dear Sir (yes, more than one); Human Resources; Dear HR Executive; Dear Employer; Greetings; Good morning; Attn H.R.; and Dear Mr. / Mrs.

Other closings included: Best Regards; Thank you; Yours Sincerely; Thank you for your time; Respectfully; and Cheers.

A few observations:

I found it oddly formal for so many people to opt for the opening address of "Dear Sir / Madam." Incidentally, many of the e-mails starting with this address opted for "madame," which is, strictly speaking, not an appropriate usage unless you are addressing married French woman.
I was equally surprised by the very large number of e-mails opening with a simple and perhaps too informal "Hi."
I attributed the large number of e-mails with no openers (21) and no closer (16) to laziness and the somewhat anxiety-producing fact that it was a blind e-mail address. I preferred the comparatively fewer e-mails that used "Dear Hiring Manager" or just generically addressed my company by name.
Tip: When I get an e-mail that says "Hello ," I can tell you're using a mail merge. Thanks for making me feel special.
I'm not one who has ever put much stock in mass mailing candidates. These same criticisms apply equally to lazy recruiters who want to blast out opportunities to their candidate databases. There are ways to craft a personalized e-mail and check your work that do not appear crass and feckless, friends.
My least favorite approach is to find a one-liner introduction such as the one I came across in the middle of July: "Please find my resume attached." No, I refuse to find it since you refuse to introduce yourself! The only thing you shall find is my recycling bin.
I also received one e-mail with nothing but a "Sincerely," and contact information. No preamble and no explanation of what you're interested in and why earns you a speedy deletion.
Here was another e-mail. This was the entirety of the text: I am an Excel VBA developer. Please review my attached resume and cover letter. Seeing that all of our position descriptions are for software engineers who specialize in Java or .NET, your completely mismatched and lazy introduction is hardly likely to even get your resume document opened. In fact, I did not and still have not. No offense. In fact, thanks for saving me the time.
But even this is better than getting nothing at all but an attachment or simply copying the position description. Thank you, but I already know the text of my position description.
"Looking for your response" was one of my favorite closers. The presumption of such a closing just made me chuckle.

Inexcusably, a large number of the e-mails that affect informalities like "Hi" and "Thanks" without knowing me at all are from third party providers of consulting services. I believe that much of this problem stems from many of the marketing e-mails coming from individuals for whom English is a second language. The firms that are trying to place their consultants would do well to hire marketing assistance--or at the very least an experienced communicator who understands the impact upon their organization's sales. I read a great deal about how informal Americans are, but the pretended intimacy I'm finding here completely overshoots an attempt at participating effectively in the cultural idiom of the United States.

E-mail is a wonderful medium for quick, meaningful communication, but abusing it in a business context can cost you opportunities.

Finding a Job in Linux

2009-07-24T14:22:00.005-05:00

This week, I had the opportunity to visit Madison and present to the MadLUG--Linux User Group--about finding a job in Linux. Knowing just enough about Linux to be dangerous, I (wisely) chose to speak more generally of the career and job search advice I generally give to technology professionals.

The presentation is pretty text-centric and not my usual, but here it is:

Finding A Job In Linux 4 Google

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Volunteering During Job Transition: Good Idea!

2009-07-11T18:59:00.002-05:00

I wanted to take a moment to say a word or two about volunteering during career transition. While it is not always feasible to give your time to unpaid work when you've been laid off, downsized or outsourced, it is something that you should consider carefully. As the organizer of the JobCamp event, I was helped by over 150 dedicated volunteers, foremost among them a group of twelve selfless individuals who put in an effort that any company would be proud sing about.

I could not tell you how many of the 150 interviewers and resume doctors and presenters are currently without employment (probably many of them), but I can tell you that many--most--of the core organizing team are unemployed or severely underemployed.

In other circumstances you may question the wisdom of why someone would devote so much time and effort to something that would not put a cent into their pockets. Granted, there is a certain amount of feelgood popularity that results from being involved in an event that benefits the community and that's enough reason for some to do it. But when you look at the resounding recommenation that it gives those individuals when they walk into their next interview and explain what they did when the chips were down?

Wow.

I challenge any area employer not to be impressed with the individuals who worked on the Milwaukee JobCamp team. They exemplified the very best qualities we seek in employees--dedication, belief in the mission of the organization, consideration and teamwork, communication, the ability to prioritize, diplomacy, and camaraderie.

Before dismissing any opportunity out of hand when you are in transition, consider the opportunity and adventure that it might provide. And consider the message that it sends to your next potential employer.

Twitter and Hiring: Back to Classifieds? It's About Time!

2009-07-06T06:49:00.006-05:00

I frequently hear hiring professionals debating the value of Twitter as a hiring tool. The space is replete with thousands of social media experts who feel you should tweet but are often maddeningly short on details when it comes down to the specifics.

In my daily life, Twitter has been a tool that I use to promote myself, my company, my events, and thought leadership about recruiting and quality hiring. That's a lot of purposes for a 140-character-limit platform! Being a good citizen of the Twitter world seems to require of me (still feeling it out, of course) a balance between offering good information, responding to interesting messages and friends, and, yep, throwing out the occasional job opportunity.

I find that Twitter works especially well in the IT space, where a lot of engaged discussions go on with regards to open source technologies and programming languages. It's like walking into a room of experts who can probably point you in the right direction and announcing a need for help.

But probably the most intriguing thing about using Twitter--and status updates on LinkedIn and Facebook for that matter--is the space limitation. It reminds me a great deal of how classified ads worked--or still, work, I suppose, though I can't imagine anyone in the IT space still paying much attention to the printed classifieds.

One of the endemic problems of moving job advertisements to the online world was something that seemed like a huge benefit at first: the lack of limitations. Suddenly, it was five times more cost effective to write as much as you wanted in a job description and have it posted online. Isn't that great? Unfortunately, the lack of writing strictures has brought us to a place where economy of words and careful description has gone away. Look at any job board and you'll find thousands of horribly written position descriptions that are geared more toward Human Resources departments than the job seekers they ought ot be aimed at.

Position descriptions as they exist on the boards and on corporate web sites today consist of endless bulleted lists; obtuse, vague, trite or inaccurate descriptions; legalistic jargon; and exclusionary requirements. These descriptions have the effect of convincing the potential hire that a company is asking for too much specialization (a purple squirrel hunt is what it's called in the recruiting biz).

It's no wonder that hiring professionals are now looking at Twitter with a bit of a jaundiced eye. It would require us to get back to the business of writing a compelling, intriguing description of an available position along with a clear call to apply. It does not bore us with endless bullet points (like in PowerPoint, all bullets in job descriptions probably ought to be banned), nor does it exclude, nor does it stultify the company. Tweeting an interesting compelling position description that drives someone to my web site to apply or to ask me direct questions about my work opportunities is a welcome addition to the recruiter's arsenal.

I've Got A Job--Why Should I Attend JobCamp?

2009-07-06T06:02:00.004-05:00

The Milwaukee JobCamp this Thursday at Potawatomi's Conference Center will serve at least 1,000 people, a majority of whom are in an active search for a new position. However, there are compelling reasons why it's important for people who are currently employed need to be present that day.

The event is called a "day camp for your career" because we're bringing together some of the best subject matter experts in Milwaukee to help people think about the work they do (disclosure: I'm the organizer for the event along with about 150 volunteers from across southeastern Wisconsin). Work takes up so much of our lives, is there any good reason to not to afford it careful consideration whether we're in a job or not?

In difficult economic times, we do not always have the luxury of taking on work that is conducive to our long term career goals. You may have been forced to take temporary employment or even a full-time position that just pays the bills, in which case an event like the JobCamp could be a crucial place for you to go to remind yourself that the search for a new position is not over.

The old adage that it's easier to find a job when you have a job also applies. You may make important new contacts at JobCamp who will help you take your career to its next logical step--or maybe even an unexpected but more fulfilling step.

In any case, being open to new employment situations is something I always counsel job seekers to do. Your resume should always be up to date and you need to continue looking at and talking to people about new opportunities. Having a conversation with a potential new employer does not mean that you are going to leave your current job. In fact, it may confirm for you that you're in exactly the job that's right for you.

For too many individuals, the reactivation of one's professional network only occurs when you're in between jobs. That's unfortunate. It is far too tempting, especially when you take a job in a large company, to allow your active professional network to atrophy to the point where it's just the people inside your organization. True, those contacts can prove critical to your effectiveness, to getting a job done in a timely way. But what of all the people you used to know and work with at your last job? What of other professionals you met the last time you were in transition? Do they go by the wayside? A career management event like JobCamp, which doesn't necessarily trumpet that you're looking for a job is a nice way to stay connected to these individuals.

Networking often brings unseen benefits to your current employer in that you may learn new ideas and discover new resources that helps you to do your job in different or better ways.

Finally, and perhaps the most compelling reason for "the employed" to attend JobCamp is that those who are in an active search right now need hope. They need to see and hear from people who have recently landed a job, to know that their searches are not fruitless, that there are jobs out there. They also need to meet people who have kept their jobs to see that there are indeed stable companies out there that may have had to tighten their collective belts but are nonetheless keeping their employees. People who have kept their jobs are also important ambassadors to their companies and getting out to meet job seekers can mean winning new talent for your current employer. Plus, most employers offer some sort of incentive bonus if you are responsible for bringing in a new hire. Why not benefit from that.

The obvious excuse for not coming to the event is that you're working right now and simply cannot take the time off. That's why we're running the event from 11 am to 7 pm, though. Stop by over your lunch hour or after 5 pm. There is still an awful lot going on that day and I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it. Don't forget to bring along a non-perishable food item, too, that will go to the Hunger Task Force and feed needy families in the Milwaukee area.

I hope to see you there.

I'm a Recruiter: How do I fit in to JobCamp?

2009-06-19T07:33:00.003-05:00

The second Milwaukee JobCamp is just around the corner and it promises to be bigger and better (twice as big, twice as good) as the last one. On July 9th, we'll have a great number of job seekers, entrepreneurs, and, yes, hiring professionals coming through the door. The event is paid for through the kind contributions of employers who sponsor us in exchange for an opportunity to provide quality information to the community, perhaps identify some talent for their organizations, and position themselves as employers of choice via our many advertising, promotional, and event-based opportunities. Heck, sponsors will even get a filmed interview in front of a live studio audience about why their organization is a wonderful place to work.

As an individual recruiter or hiring professional, though, you may wonder just how to go about signing up for the event if your company is not sponsoring. Let me suggest a couple of courses.

First, if you're an independent, a third party recruiter, or a corporate recruiter and you're not a sponsor, then you have two options. A) You can attend and make a donation of $50 payable to GoIndigo, LLC, the event management company behind JobCamp; or B) You can volunteer a chunk of your time at the JobCamp as a resume advisor, an interviewer or in another volunteer role. That's the beauty of JobCamps being based on the BarCamp model. Contribution is at the heart of the success of events like this.

Second, if you are a recruiter who is out of work, we'd still love it if you could volunteer. It looks good on a resume and shows that you're involved in the community. But since you're in transition yourself, we're not charging. Just like any other job seeker, please bring along a non-perishable food item that we'll contribute to the Hunger Task force.

To sign up for the second Milwaukee JobCamp, point your browser to our Eventbrite site.

Twitter-Curious? Milwaukee Tweet-Up Tonight!

2009-06-17T10:30:00.004-05:00

The Milwaukee JobCamp is a sponsor for tonight's second major Milwaukee Tweet-Up to be held at Harvey's Central Grille, 1340 W Towne Square Road, Mequon 53092. I'll be there by 5 pm and will be one of the designated "twitter tutors" talking about how I use the platform to promote my business efforts.

There are no walk-ins, unfortunately, so you'll still need to pre-register here if you have not already. I hope to see you there with lots of good tips and techniques for getting the most out of this sometimes mystifying new social media channel!

Milwaukee JobCamp2 is coming!

2009-05-27T06:34:00.004-05:00

Looking to re-energize your job search? Attend JobCamp2 on July 9th, a day camp for your career. This time, we're holding the event at a larger venue, the Potowatomi Casino in downtwon Milwaukee where you'll have access to plenty of free parking, inexpensive eats, and a friendly, safe environment in which to network and improve your career search.

Registration for the event is free and simple. And, like the last JobCamp, all we're asking is that you bring a non-perishable food item or cash donation for the needy. We will be contributing these donations to the Hunger Task Force.

We have some great speakers already lined up and I'll be writing abou them here. Stay tuned!

Here's the registration link: http://ping.fm/9iBjF

eInnovate kicks off 2009 with panel of CXOs on the economy

2009-05-13T11:01:00.003-05:00

Today's eInnovate panel at Manpower garnered an audience of 50. Great discussion on how innovation is being driven by technology initiatives.

The panel consisted of the following people:

The panelists addressed questions about how the current economic difficulties had affected their individual businesses, how technology was being leveraged to make a difference and what concerns they had about surviving and thriving in this economy.

eInnovate is one of Milwaukee's legacy organizations devoted to technology. Its current mission is to promote and talk about how technology drives innovation from startups to global businesses.

Membership this year is free. To join eInnovate, sign up at our Ning social network site.

ResumeSlam! in Milwaukee

2009-05-10T06:39:00.002-05:00

Over 20 hiring professionals volunteered at last Thursday's ResumeSlam at the Iron Horse Hotel. The event was a follow-up event for the Milwaukee JobCamp earlier this year and was geared to put job seekers in the company of multiple recruiters who could review their resumes in a speed-dating style fashion. Within a span of about two hours, participants were able to get substantial feedback on their resume from at least eight recruiters.

A picture from the event appears in the Journal Sentinel story about job losses slowing by Joel Dresang.

Of course, a major component of the morning's workshop was...

I know that amped up the energy of the room considerably, especially since the coffee at the Iron Horse Hotel is, as far as I can tell, caffeinated using a process involving heavy uranium. In all seriousness, though, the Iron Horse was a great venue and the participants I spoke with seemed to have a great time and found value from the format of the event.

Milwaukee lost more jobs than most major cities

2009-05-08T17:09:00.003-05:00

Milwaukee lost greater percentage of jobs than most major U.S. cities... ouch: http://ping.fm/NoP0O

Sometimes you think it's just your imagination, but because I spend my time pretending to be a pinball bouncing back and forth between Milwaukee and Chicago, I kept feeling like Milwaukee was simply a dead market for the past year.

In fact, that seems to be something beyond mere perception. I have hopes that the efforts of the Water Council and other entrepreneurial efforts will reignite business here in Milwaukee. I am not seeing it happen with all of the risk-averse larger organizations.