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8/29/2006 American Idol-Type Tip to Help Niche Job Board Blog Hybrids SucceedI'll add a constructive and (hopefully) creative suggestion and challenge to those who think this is a viable business: There's been a lot of buzz lately about blogs becoming the new niche job boards, or niche boards adding blog components (see Joel's post, for example). I see merit in this, but only if the related entities aggregate their traffic, share sponsorships, etc., AND figure out what kind of content is going to make them engaging (what was called sticky in the Web 1.0 days). As we've seen in various web enterprises, the most engaging online communities appear to be those where the members/users create the content, create it in quantity, and don't require direct compensation in order to do so (e.g., MySpace, YouTube or to a lesser extent in our own industry, ERE). However, I realize that one must have some incentive to post, and the barriers to making one's first post must be eased, or they won't start blogging in the first place. So my particular idea along these lines occurred to me last week when a recruiter (who also happens to be a job-seeker because his contract is ending) started spouting off interesting insights about what was flawed with the corporate recruiting world's selection process for their own new recruiters. I proposed that he write this up as a guest blog post for my blog (which is forthcoming, after he makes some tweaks I suggested to him) and to feel free to reference his own strengths as a counterpoint to the complaints he raised. That's when I realized, if these niche board blogs want to start creating some interesting content, why not effectively create an American Idol-type system on their niche job board blogs? Here's how it'd work: individual job seekers (preferably in the same industry niche, so it's easier to compare them) are encouraged to create blog posts that talk about themselves, but that's secondary to the post's main thrust being their viewpoint on a particular industry issue or how they solved a business problem that illustrates in a meaningful way what their talent is. You could call this a variation on the Lou Adler one-question interview, but I'll be more flexible by giving the option to talk about a broader industry issue instead of their own work. In either case, you're getting insight on the person beyond the resume. (Of course, the blog host is also welcome to link to their resume -- which I imagine would be part of a niche board's offerings, even if it is a blog.) Then you let the blog's online community post ratings of the five candidates who guest-posted that week. (Ideally, you'd pick people who work in the industry of the contestants, in addition to recruiters who handle that industry/function.) Hopefully some functionality that would allow for auto-tabulating and prevention of multiple votes/user would be embedded, rather than the primitive comments system currently in place. The winner gets their info forwarded to all the recruiters who have registered with the niche board as being interested in candidates of that type, in a format calling special attention to them (e.g., starred first result in their candidate search results alert), and perhaps some other sponsors would kick in prizes of value to job-seekers. If this got any momentum, however, I bet all five finalists would be called in for interviews before the blog even sent out the winner's acknowledgment! Anyone want to take this project on?
8/25/2006 I’ve looked everywhere; where else can I find some leads?This guest post is part of the Recruiting.com blogswap.
Q: I’ve looked everywhere!!! Where else can I find some leads?
A: Try the encyclopedia…
Have you ever considered adding the Encyclopedia to your sourcing strategy? Perhaps you should as it can sometimes be a great place for leads. For example, do you know who invented C++? A quick search on MSN Encarta lead me to an article on the most popular Object Oriented Programming language – C++. The article explained that the C++ programming language was the brainchild of Bjarne Stroustrup. (Interesting…) I then hop over to MSN and perform a search on Bjarne Stroustrup. The very first result was Bjarne Stroustrup’s homepage. (Thanks MSN!)
I read through Bjarne Stroustrup’s homepage and discover Mr. Stroustrup’s contact information, links to the homepages of other C++ experts and significant information on Bjarne Stroustrup. For example, I learn that he is an Engineering Professor at Texas A & M University and that he is a member of AT&T Labs – Research in the Information and Research Lab. Should I contact him, I may potentially get his interest in my opportunity and/or gather referrals deriving from his peers out of AT&T Labs and/or talented alumni out of Texas A&M.
If this is intriguing to you, why not look up who invented other programming languages, invented competing products and/or are luminaries in their field? What you find may surprise you and (possibly) lead to a hire.
Happy Hunting!
About the blogger:
Jim Stroud
Recruiter-Sourcer-Blogger-Podcaster-Author-Cartoonist-Nice Guy 8/18/2006 Check out the updated Glossary of (Phone) SourcingMaureen Sharib just updated her free Glossary of Sourcing Terms. It probably should be renamed Glossary of Phone Sourcing, since very few online sourcing terms are included (understandable, as she admits her bias to phone sourcing). Nevertheless, it is a largely enjoyable read, as she puts her trademark anecdotal treatment on many definitions. However, since she obviously started down that road, I would have hoped for that treatment to be applied universally, and especially with more injections of humor. (But you'll crack up on her definition for Executive Vice President -- largely repeated for VP and Senior VP.) You will need to join the Sourcers Unleashed discussion group (also free and an active list) to access it here. I would suggest additions of these terms, which are fairly well-known among those in telesourcing circles:
All in all, a good effort worth continuing, especially since I don't think there's another one out there like it -- looking forward to the next update. Indeed, Maureen's initiative may have inspired me to create a comprehensive Internet sourcing glossary to complement my online sourcing course much as this glossary complements her phone sourcing one. The online glossaries I've seen like Taleo's are lame, and the ones in books like Donna Graham's and John Sumser's are 5+ years old, so maybe the competition isn't much greater than for Maureen's!
8/15/2006 Three Old-School Strategies for Phone SourcingThis guest post is part of the Recruiting.com Blog Swap. The author is Jim Durbin of StlRecruiting.com
I cut my teeth in sales the old way - on the phone selling mini-vacations out of Florida. This was my first job that wasn't in a mall or didn't leave me smelling like food at the end of the night, so I wasn't about to fail at it and go back to the kitchen for another night of scrape the cheese off a quesadilla sampler platter.
My job was to set up 30 minute appointments for outside salespeople to come in and sell marketing promotions utilizing 3 day/2 night vacations at premium hotels. You've probably had a hapless salesman try to close you on your mortgage or car with one of these beauties - you might even have been working on my promotion.
The job was equal parts cold calls and equal parts sourcing. We were required to make 125 phone calls a day, and the only way to do so was to build call lists at home out of available materials. We paid 7.5 cents for every lead from ABI, which included car dealerships, banks, wholesalers, HVAC, home improvement and furniture stores. The problem was we bought leads every couple of years, and the leads went bad, fast.
To compensate, I learned to source business owner names and numbers out of newspapers, phone books, directories, and advertisements. Referrals were gold in those days, as was on-the-ground intelligence derived from our outside sales reps who sent in "care packages" with phone books, chamber guides, local newspapers ads, and hastily scribbled lists of businesses written down by cruising through business districts.
Once we obtained the names of the businesses, we had to find the decision maker, which almost always was the president or the owner. To get that name, we employed one of three strategies.
Strategy 1: Come right out and ask.
If you want the answer to a question, oftentimes the best way to get it is to be direct and ask. Call the gatekeeper and ask one of the following questions:
Giving the respondent a chance to think about who is doing the asking allows them to put up their shields and deflect your questions. Some people prefer the polite approach, but as you're sourcing names to pull those people out of a company, the job of the gatekeeper is to prevent you from getting that information. Giving a gatekeeper time to think gives them time to wonder if telling you what you want to hear is a good idea or not. This strategy is good when you are under pressure and know next to nothing about an industry. It also gets you warmed up in the morning when 4 out of 5 people hang up on you.
Strategy 2: Give Them What They Want
A second strategy for sourcing names is to recognize the fundamental desire of the gatekeeper and help them achieve that desire. What is that fundamental desire? They want to get off the phone. This strategy works best when you have partial information or information you need verified.
The goal here is to give the gatekeeper an easy task they can accomplish, then let them get off the phone. They still haven't taken the time to think about why you are calling, and the task is easy enough to do, but it's a valuable first step towards cracking the company code.
Strategy 3: Misdirection
Sometimes gatekeepers have the experience to keep you away from the low-hanging fruit. If you have had particular problems with a company, try asking for a different department and moving on from there.
Each of these strategies is phone-based, and has the advantage of giving you 100% accurate information. More important, they sharpen your phone skills and keep you light on your feet for other calls. The internet is great, but every once in a while, let's remember the good old days of leafing through Phone Books late at night to build up our call lists. These kids today don't know how good they have it.
Jim Durbin is the Director, Corporate Communication for Durbin Media Group, an interactive marketing firm specializing in blog consulting. He blogs at BrandStorming for blog marketing, and StlRecruiting.com for online employment.
Editor's Note: We do not advocate rusing, which is misrepresenting yourself in the process of obtaining information (e.g., saying you work for the organization running a particular industry conference and asking which employees of the target company are attending) and can get you into legal hot water. Jim's examples do not do this, but if you are uncomfortable with any particular phone sourcing method you ever come across, trust your instincts and don't use it. Staying 100% ethical is the best policy for your career and long-term reputation, as well as for your employer's. There are plenty of third-party firms that will push the envelope, which is one of the reasons (besides time/cost/expertise) why many corporations prefer to outsource this work: In case someone violates any ethical guidelines, it's likely to have fewer legal repurcusions for the company if the violator is a vendor rather than an employee.
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