Dave Mendoza launched his Six Degrees of Dave blog this week with a solid post. He rightly complains about how many LinkedIn users trivialize the practice of giving out endorsements, illustrated with good examples/analogies, and what that does to the quality of the social network. Elaborated upon in a comment to that post, Shally makes the good point (among many others) that we should look at online endorsements as something akin to a letter of recommendation, which we would give out sparingly and carefully.

Here's another aspect to this question I'd like to raise: Ok, great, so everyone who respects their personal brand treats online endorsements like letters of recommendation, etc., and follows other rules that preserve the value and quality of the network. But the majority of LinkedIners will never see this thread, no matter how many bloggers join the discussion. So what leads to a change in the unscrupulous behavior of those who, as in Dave's example, blast a message to their entire LI network of thousands asking for an endorsement?

I think it resides with LinkedIn itself, and it ties into a bigger problem there. If they see a bad member practice, they say they will take appropriate action with the user to remedy the situation. (I actually spoke with Mrinal Desai, who was a business development manager at LI until early this month, who confirmed this while he was still there.)  But they depend on us to report problems. For example, you may see someone listing 15 concurrent employers on their profile (and you'd be surprised how many of those there are!).  So you know it's a scam just to get more people to connect to them.

I've reported a few of these individuals to LI's privacy officer. He's responded each time with a personal email saying they'll address it with the user. Guess what? Violations remain. Some people changed nothing on their profiles. Others did, so the problems are not as egregious as before, but some clearly inappropriate stuff remains on all of the reported profiles. Alternatively, the cases where I've clicked the Abuse button on the received connection invitation, which is also supposed to trigger an investigation of the person to see if they've broken rules and take action, yield no better results.

My point is that the only way the quality improves is if the policing and consequences are meaningful, because only with plenty of examples made of the violators will the message trickle down sufficiently. The scale of the problem already appears too large for LI to handle it all manually. Unfortunately, even if a technological solution could be devised to automate temporary profile disablement, it would probably have enough errors that would require a manual re-review that the scale would still be too large for LI to handle.

There are plenty of other social networks forming, some in direct response to this problem with very different approaches to network connectivity (some of which are completely open networks). I don't think they will solve the problem, either, but I wish them well. The ones that do it better will succeed; the Internet's brief history shows the others will die, be bought and/or morph to another business model.

I don't want LinkedIn to die, or to lose its focus. Fortunately, the complaints of active recruiting industry professionals like us can make an impact, if only by convincing the powers-that-be at LinkedIn to do what it takes to fix the problem by moving it up their priority list. Are there enough squeaky wheels among us to get them to give us the grease?

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This is a guest post by Asia Pacific Headhunter Steven Kempton, as part of the Recruiting.com blog swap.

Online recruitment is alive and kicking in Japan. In particular, for non-Japanese companies trying to break into the lucrative market, it is important to hire an experienced person who can bridge the chasm between your business and the Japanese paying customer. Often employees of foreign firms in Japan will have western style titles like Manager, and Sales Engineer. But Japanese titles are most commonly used when it comes to management levels.

If you are a Recruiter or HR Manager helping your company break into Japan, a quick primer on some of the most common titles will be very helpful for you in screening candidates. Below you will find the most common examples listed with their possible English equivalent. If you would like more information on Japanese honorific titles in general, there is a great article in Wikipedia here.

• Kaicho - Chairman
• Shacho - President - is a term that is very commonly used and more recently can also be used for the founders of smaller businesses.
• Fuku Shacho - Vice President for the Company (usually only one in the company)
• Senmu Torishimariyaku - Senior Executive Managing Director - This title and the two next "torishimariyaku" titles are normally roles that are found in large firms. Using the term "Director" will normally mean they are member of the Board of Directors for the company. Dropping the "torishimariyaku" should create an equivalent to Vice President for a function.
• Jomu Torishimariyaku - Executive Managing Director
• Torishimariyaku - Director
• Bucho - General Manager
• Kacho - Section Chief
• Kacho Dairi - Deputy Section Chief
• Kakaricho - Chief Clerk
• Ippan Shain - General Employer

Knowing these titles in order to undertake online recruitment in Japan is also very useful. Boolean searches using these titles and other target terms can produce excellent name-sourcing results. If you would like more information feel free to contact me through my blog.

Bloghost Editor's note:  Thanks, Steven! I love stuff like this that helps expose us to new cultures. These are probably not great resume search terms on English-language search engines (at least from my cursory tests), whether or not you use the site:jp command, but they do lead to interesting results that give you insights on Japanese business culture/office politics as they relate to use of titles, such as this thread (read all the way down -- it gets more interesting as you go). It will also expose you to more variations of the titles that Steven indicated, such as for directors, you have jookin torishimariyaku for "standing director" and these variant phonetic spellings -- daihyou torishimariyaku or daihyo torishimariyaku -- listed for "representative director" as well as "president." And that's in addition to the comprehensive Wikipedia link that Steven gave above!  Clearly, this is a whole other world from America, and it just reinforces Steven's point in the first paragraph of needing an experienced, culturally-aware person to help navigate these waters. --Glenn Gutmacher

cybersleuthing, Internet Recruiting, Sourcing

I did not know Andrew Sudduth, but he was -- and will remain -- an inspirational icon for me and many, far beyond his New England roots. Both a champion athlete (in two forms of rowing -- crew and single sculler) and a patent-holding leader in Internet server technology, Andy did everything intensely and successfully. Though blessed with great genes, he made the most of it with unrivaled determination that manifested in his athletic pursuits as well as his intellectual ones. His mischievous reputation only adds to the charm.

The stories of others who did know him from his youth as a rowing legend, in his brilliant professional career, or among his friends (which, based on his personality, overlap the other categories) are all here.  It is clear that, even though he was taken from us all far too early, he has already given his daughters more than most children ever receive from their parents. Thanks to that deep love, imbuing great intellectual curiosity, and to the many friends and family who obviously care deeply, I'm sure they will end up fine citizens who excel in whatever they choose to pursue.

If you wonder about your purpose on earth, or seek inspiration about what one person can do in a short lifetime, the memorial website (which was his own personal website) is worth reading. Another complementary read is the extended obituary from the 7/19/06 Boston Globe.  (If previous link is no longer active, it will eventually be archived here if you select News Obituary.)

P.S.  I'm trying something new here to see what kind of feedback I get.  Disclaimer: No endorsement of any advertiser is implied.

Background Information Services (BIS) provides employment background checks to its clients.

Q:  Are you doing any more free sourcing presentations for sourcers and recruiters in the near future?

A:  I can finally answer this question that's been in my pile for a while:  Thanks to our sponsors H3.com and Microsoft, the following event is completely *free* to the New England area recruiting industry community. I hope to see many of you there, or if you're elsewhere but know someone in the area who might benefit, please refer them asap. When we did something like this with Shally last fall, we filled the rooms (160+ attendees)!  Here's the info blurb; please forward and help spread the word...

Tu. 7/25/06 - "What Shally Didn't Have Time to Tell You: Glenn Gutmacher presents Internet Sourcing at LightSpeed" - Internet sourcing guru Glenn Gutmacher of Microsoft presents the follow-up to last fall's acclaimed "Inside Secrets of Sourcing Professionals" seminar by Shally Steckerl, his boss at Microsoft. Chock-full of useful yet little-known sourcing methods (we promise you'll come away with something new :-) to uncover hard-to-find candidates at no cost, this new live presentation, pre-event networking and wine-and-cheese reception immediately following are all free and open to staffing and sourcing industry professionals who RSVP at www.recruiting-online.com/glenniscoming or via co-sponsor H3.com

(Kellie Buckley: 617-758-4117).  Event location/time:  Microsoft Corporation, 201 Jones Road, 6th Floor, Waltham, MA; 5:30 pm networking; 6:30pm presentation; 7:30pm reception.