How did this start?
Quick history.. In 2002 iLogos Research (now Taleo Research) performed research which illustrated that less than 30% of Fortune 500 companies’ jobs were listed on the big 3 job boards. This research validated what most of the industry already knew and our Association had already acted upon. The predecessor to JobCentral, DirectEmployers Employment Search Engine, was created to index/spider 100% of the job content only from corporate career sites providing job seekers a clean path to ALL of the original jobs, not just a small chunk. This pure job content became very popular among job sites soon after DirectEmployers started providing a series of company xml feeds at no charge. The feeds were initiated to provide better content to job sites everywhere, moreover better market penetration for companies everywhere. Many job sites receiving this clean job content would then mix it with their own making it seem organic to their site (cross pollination).

The War for Content Heats Up!
The job search engine model seemed to be reinforced when Indeed and SimplyHired sprang onto the scene, and was fully validated when many new search engine-like sites, hungry for more and more job content, were soon to follow. Job boards needed to find a way to receive more content to keep job seekers returning, while exploring ways to game the young upstarts.

The War for Traffic Strives Through Duplication.
More job sites everywhere started mixing the corporate feeds with their very own content, cross pollination was happening everywhere. Job boards were also providing this mixed, now majorly duplicated content, to SimplyHired and Indeed. Why? If you provide thousands of jobs as traffic accelerators, through verticals,
you will no question receive heightened traffic results. But if you provide the cross pollinated content of hundreds of thousands of jobs your traffic could be accelerated 10 fold, or more. Why is this problematic? Duplication, moreover job seeker experience.

Where things went wrong.
Well you cannot expect everybody to play by the rules when there really weren’t any. Although you do expect site owners and designers to think about job seeker experience, and the use of content that didn’t truly belong to them. Reports of sites using interstitial ads to capture job seeker information, required registration for application, and then repackaging the exact same, now highly duplicated, content and submitting it to other job sites as their own has become an issue for job seekers, employers, and many of the verticals.

End result, it’s gotta stop.. Terms of Service to come..

Will the answer to this problem be a popular remedy? Magic 8 Ball says “Outlook, not so good“..

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Continental’s John Whalin is ahead of most when it comes to understanding just what military brings to the hiring table, unfortunately most employers cannot relate to military experience unless they were former military themselves. So I started my time on the floor, in front of the wounded warriors, with Continental’s presentation and spoke to why they are GREAT candidates. I covered the following points:

Leadership:
In the military, when you propel through the ranks you are required to attend several leaderships schools and if you fail to attend or pass you are then stripped of rank, demoted. Leadership is not an option in the military because everyone is trained and expected to become a leader at an early age.

Understanding the Rules:
Military personnel are held to a much higher standard and are even governed by a more strict set of rules called the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Diversity:
The U.S. Army is one color, GREEN, and is the largest most diverse employer in the nation. In combat the color, gender, or religion of the individual to your left or right does not matter. What truly matters is the proficiency in their job. Are there cases of discrimination? Yes, but they are dealt with swiftly under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Team Players:
A single soldier cannot watch their own 6, or back. Meaning a solitary soldier cannot efficiently complete the mission, which is why on day one of basic training every trainee is issued a battle buddy before being issued anything else. Soldiers are trained to travel and work in teams and if individualism is spotted, well lets just say it’s frowned upon.

Educated and Tech Savvy:
Military personnel can attend college, when not deployed, and have Uncle Sam pick-up a big portion of the cost. When the soldier leaves the military it is common to have a degree or working toward one and will have ample opportunity to further their education with GI Bill and other funds which are readily available. The military also invests in and utilizes state-of-the-art technology and has close to a hundred technical positions. The Air Force and Navy are extremely technical and are extremely well trained in anti-cyber-terrorism and responsible for protecting America’s cyber borders, so to speak.

Performance under pressure:
Imagine doing your job everyday and knowing there are lives at stake, furthermore those lives are depending on your performance. The pressure of performing in a prospective grave situation is merely a part of everyday military life.

Drug-Free and Healthy
Military personnel are regularly drug and physically tested. The military ensures their personnel are drug-free and physically ready to ensure combat effectiveness and their ability to fight and win on any battlefield. Military personnel are accustomed to urinalysis once a quarter, daily physical fitness training in addition to physical fitness testing which includes upper body, core and endurance events at least once a quarter. Imagine what our health insurance rates would be if every company could implement these types of programs.

Security Clearances:
The military does in-depth background checks and provides security clearances to personnel who come in contact with certain levels of information. These personnel are cleared and vetted well before hitting the civilian market.

Quick Learners:
One of the words best describing military personnel is “adaptability“. To train for the war on terror soldiers are taught to be adaptable and think on their feet, unlike 20 years ago when soldiers were taught NOT to think. The battlefield has changed and so has the U.S. soldiers training which blends well into the civilian market.

Willing to relocate:
Military personnel are accustomed to moving once every 3 years or so, although this does not mean they are job jumpers. Uncle Sam has religiously rotated troops to provide them an innate ability to adapt and overcome in any situation or environment.

Everything listed above is merely just a handful of traits taught by the military, moreover what employers need desperately in any type of economic environment.

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It is HILARIOUS!!!

Thanks John

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CareerBuilder can..

Oh the fine tradition of greasing the palms continues in the recruiting space. (insert deeply rooted sarcasm here)

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Stand alone job matching platforms do not have a chance against the more traditional models, no matter the economic climate.

Why?

In a job seeker rich market:
Employers have less budget and resources so unless the job matching platform can map the fielded data from an xml job feed into the system your rate of adoption will be extremely low. The process has to be automated and fluid, not hand entered and clumsy. That being said.. If the fielded data is cut down to merely what is available on the job directly from your career site then there’s probably not enough data to make an accurate match. You may see match platforms try this method to increase adoption, only to find it’s a double edged sword laden with bad matches.

In a job rich market:
Inverse climate, inverse problem. People have jobs and don’t need to jump through the matching system hoops. Most job searches, in a job rich market, are performed during the day from work so asking them to spend 10-15 minutes to set-up a profile is unrealistic. Plus, if a matching system says they’ve cut “streamlined” their process this means they’ve also cut the fielded data the system needs to make a good match. So they’ve cut the question process to try and drive more candidates into their system, although the process cut is what makes the system work well.

Another huge downfall.
Most job matching systems only return system matches, meaning you may miss many candidates if you’re a company or opportunities if you’re a job seeker. The only way around these “missed matches” is to offer a “Browse” functionality. Unfortunately as soon as a browse jobs function is offered no one will use the matching system. Why? Because we’re a race of instant gratification seekers and going through a long drawn-out process with little fruit at the end is converse to our wants and perceived needs. The short answer is plain old human nature.

Last but not least…
If a matching company touts their use of parsing I have only one reaction. Immediately run yelling and screaming the other way!

I believe the theory of match is sound until you introduce the biggest variables, employers and job seekers.

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Where am I getting this crazy notion? Well, one of the very first items a new trainee must learn and memorize when arriving at the Fort Benning Reception Battalion, even before officially starting Basic Training, is The Soldier’s Creed.

Here’s how it goes…

I am an American Soldier. HOOAH!

On the very first day this creed helps trainees (employees) understand what they must do to become a professional soldier in the United State Army. This creed is more than just a belief for it is a way of living, which includes expectations for all soldiers to live by after basic training, in combat or even after leaving the military completely.

What’s your company creed? Better yet… What’s your personal creed?

Graduation Day - Kannel Field Fort Benning, GA
The Soldier’s Creed is customarily led by the Soldier of the Cycle

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A few weekends ago I spent time at a local church where volunteers helped job seekers by critiquing resumes, providing interview consult and aiding in online job search. These people are looking for help everywhere and in any way possible.

Enter predators
In these situations certain types of people and/or companies automatically see opportunity to take advantage of the person in need by angling a product, service or elixir to sell them. I understand meeting a market need is necessary although charging the jobless is victimizing and is no different morally and ethically than banks approving home loans that could not be paid back.

For example, on several occasions this month I have answered call requests from vendors to chat about “partnerships”, which I have accepted. What I’ve noticed is the number of vendors trying to advertise to JobCentral job seekers for job seeker paid programs has more than doubled. I see moral and ethical lines being crossed by these companies in trying to monetize a situation instead of helping it. Needless to say I’ve opted not to agree to these types of partnerships even though lucrative revenue splits were promised and comments like “Monster and CareerBuilder does it and they make good money“.

When does helping the man or woman next to you take precedence over your revenue stream?

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First my flight was put into a holding pattern over Denver due to the weather and then reverted to Pueblo Colorado for refueling after holding for over 45 minutes. Arriving in Pueblo we were told refueling would take 30 minutes and then we’d be back in the air heading toward Denver. I called the airline and ensured I was transferred to the next flight to San Diego and then checked other later flights for contingency planning purposes. I was pretty confident that I’d be able to make the next flight and land in San Diego at 2pmPST, a slight change but no big deal..

Then it started snowing in Pueblo. No big deal, we’ll deice and move out swiftly right? Well Pueblo is a small actually not small; more a dinky commuter airport and they didn’t have the deicing equipment for large commercial jets. Did I mention there were four commercial jets sitting on their tarmac? So the pilot announced we would disembark the aircraft and then load buses for the 2 plus hour trip to Denver.

Seriously? Where are the hidden cameras?

The sun came out and the ice was melting, although a plan was put in place and anyone who didn’t have checked baggage on the aircrafts would load the buses and roll-out. I was on the last aircraft to unload baggage and then the decision was made not to unload baggage rather to load the buses and the baggage would meet us in Denver. The crowd was gathering and rather unruly at this time and asked, demanded, to get back on the aircraft and fly with our baggage to Denver.

It took us another hour plus to get back through the dinky one lane of security and then another 30 minutes or so awaiting deicing from the equipment that had just arrived. Twelve hours after I started my journey I finally landed in Denver. I was reassigned to a 6pmMST flight to San Diego that was delayed another 2 hours, departure 8:06pmMST.

Landing in San Diego at 9:15pmPST I then realize that my half day trip had turned into an almost 18 hour fiasco.

So was the journey worth it? Looking back over the week I have to admit that day of travel brought great angst, although finally getting back into the groove and seeing everyone in San Diego made up for it.. 

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I remember signing into my very first chat room in 1994 on theGlobe and actually chatting with someone in Australia and England at the same time! Oh the memories…

Enjoy!

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