Archives For Recruiting

Social Media, Recruiting’s Evolution, And Talk Shows: My Q&A With The FIRM’s Gary Franklin

May 1, 2013 — 2 Comments

Earlier this year I was asked to join The Forum For In-House Recruiting Managers (FIRM) judging panel for their upcoming FIRM Awards. This event will recognize the best recruiting teams around the world in a variety of categories. I’m really looking forward to taking a closer look at these best practices, and will share some of the things I’m learning on this site later in the year.

I recently participated in a Q&A with The FIRM’s founder, Gary Franklin (@garyfranklin), where we discussed a wide range of topics covering recruiting, social media, technology, career growth, early adoption, conference speaking, taking risks, and hosting talk shows. You can check it out below.

How would you describe yourself (professionally or otherwise)?

I’m an optimist who doesn’t take himself too seriously and looks for the good in things. I’m an admitted tech/digital geek; curious about social media and new technologies. I enjoy travel and sports. I drink too much coffee. I’m drawn to interesting people and regularly seek out laughter.

How did you get into recruitment and why?

It was by accident, really. I was a Marketing and International Business major in college and always assumed I’d get into advertising. I grew up in Florida and knew I wanted to move to Los Angeles after graduation. There was only one company at our college career fair with an office in LA so I figured I’d interview with them. The company, Pencom Systems, was a technical recruiting agency. I knew nothing about recruiting at the time, but that meeting led to a series of interviews and ultimately an offer. I was the first in my class to make a hire and have been hooked ever since. Continue Reading…

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The ‘Busy’ Trap

April 24, 2013 — Leave a comment

“Things are great, just really busy.”

This seems to be my default response these days to the question, “How’s it going.” There are variations, of course, “really busy”, “crazy busy”, and on particularly brutal days, “insanely busy.” Sound familiar?

The reality is that the term ‘busy’ has become a crutch. It’s not that we’re not busy, it’s that the ‘state of busyness’ has morphed into something else. An automatic response, something we lean on without much thought.

If you work in a fast-paced role (or most any role these days), chances are you’re busy. You have a variety of demands on your time, and find yourself constantly juggling deadlines and deliverables. This ‘busy’ mindset, used as a crutch, can be detrimental to your productivity and well-being.

    • “I’d really like to spend some time mentoring my team, but I’m so busy on this project I’ll have to do it next week.”
    • “That white paper looks like it would be really helpful in my _____ project, but I don’t have the time to read it now so will get to it later.”
    • “I was really planning on going to the gym/for a walk/eat with friends at lunch today, but I’m swamped so eating at Chateau Le Desk…again.”

We’ve all been there. The truth is that ‘busyness’ is a self-fulfilling prophecy. While it’s true we have a myriad of responsibilities and obligations, we close ourselves off when we allow busy to rule our day.

In our quests to master our given fields, climb the corporate ladder, and/or add value to our organizations – we’ve lost sight of what balance means. We wear our ‘busy’ like a badge of honor.

I’m guilty of this, but I’m beginning to realize it. It took some introspection to come to this conclusion. I’m working to make a conscious effort to let go of my ‘busy’ crutch. That won’t mean lightening my workload, but it will mean finding new perspective – and letting go of my busy baggage.

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The War On The ‘War For Talent’

April 8, 2013 — 6 Comments

War For Talent

I have to get something off my chest. The term ‘war for talent’ is bullshit. It’s a tired idiom that’s been used and abused in recruiting vernacular for over a decade. It’s time for it to be retired.

Have you Googled the term?

202MM results. I’m not kidding. The term even has it’s own wikipedia page. It’s been attributed to Steve Hankin from McKinsey who coined the phrase in 1997. That was during the heydey of the first dot com boom. I suppose it was clever at the time, and I’m sure it earned him a few high fives from his fellow consultants.

I remember recruiting in 1998, working with clients like eToys who would hire and relocate technical talent based on a phone screen. It was a highly competitive market and you had to move fast if you wanted to compete – but it wasn’t a war. The tech hiring market is almost as competitive now. It’s still not a war.

The ‘War For Talent’ is everywhere

Books, conferences, across the pond, in healthcare, being taken on by CEOs, even searching for beasts?! Just when you think the white flags are out and it might be getting better, ‘McKinsey Predicts The War For Talent Will Go Nuts By 2020′. NUTS! We’re all screwed.

The good news is that some of my colleagues get it, and are doing their part to stop the madness. See Lance Haun’s, “Lay Down Your Arms: There Is No War For Talent“.

Rather than vent about the problem, let’s find a solution

Let’s put our collective brains together and come up with something new and snappy for our recruiting, HR, and marketing friends to use. I’ll get it started…

    • Hiring, Get Some!
    • The Highly Competitive Market For Acquiring Skilled Labor
    • Take Your Company To Hire Ground
    • My Hire Is Higher Than Your Hire
    • Yo Quiero Talent
    • Your Development Team Is Quite Extraordinary, We Will Take Them Now
    • Or you can get defensive: This Is Not The Talent You’ve Been Looking For

Have a substitute for ‘War For Talent’? Leave a comment and share them.

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My Guru Will Disrupt Your Ninja

March 26, 2013 — 11 Comments

Help Wanted: Only Ninjas, Gurus, Jedis, and Rock Stars need apply…

Recruiting has a problem. In the crowded world of social media it’s becoming more difficult to stand out. 

I applaud most efforts to create compelling job descriptions, I’ve experimented with infographics and other formats myself, but I’m afraid we’ve gone a few steps too far in our efforts to compel clicks, likes, and RTs. Job descriptions have become so buzz-jargonized that it’s hard to take some of them seriously. In a world of ninjas and gurus, how does a regular job seeker know where they fit in?

According to Indeed.com, there was a 2,500% increase in jobs using the term ‘ninja’ from May 2006 to May 2012. The term ‘guru’ has seen a steeper climb, increasing from 6,500% from its debut around March 2008 to its peak around March 2011.

I’ve spent most of my career with at least a toe in the waters of technical recruiting, and assumed most of this buzzword abuse came from that sector. I was surprised to find that these terms have made the leap outside of tech, and now can be attached to anything. In a few minutes of research I found these terms applied to internships, grilled cheese cooks, coffee baristas and my favorite – fun guru. Continue Reading…

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A Preview Of #NPRTwitterChat On #TalentNet Live

January 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

NPRTwitterChat2As we approach next week’s #NPRTwitterChat event (Thursday 1/31, 5-6pm EST), our friends at #TalentNet will be hosting the voices behind the @NPRjobs and @JoinTheFlock Twitter accounts to share their experiences managing and building social recruiting platforms on Twitter. The event will be Tuesday 1/29 from 7-8pm EST and you can listen to the live broadcast at TalentNet Live’s BlogTalk Radio Page, and/or follow along on Twitter using the #TalentNet hashtag.

The one hour event will be hosted by TalentNet founder, Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs), and include Lars Schmidt (@ThisIsLars) from NPR and Anitra Collins (@anitra10) from Twitter. We’ll provide the background on #NPRTwitterChat, and share insights on building and managing a social recruiting platform on Twitter during conversation in the following areas.

Q1. What advice do you have for employers looking to leverage Twitter as a recruiting channel? Any lessons learned?

Q2. What are the most common myths or misperceptions about using Twitter to find jobs or candidates?

Q3. How do Twitter chats like #NPRTwitterChat fit in? What’s the best way to stand out on a Twitter chat?

You can also learn more about #NPRTwitterChat in this interview Social Media Club DC conducted with me and one of our #NPRTwitterChat guest experts, Susan LaMotte (@SusanLaMotte).

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NPR and Twitter HR Partner to Provide Social Media Job Search Tips

January 8, 2013 — 2 Comments

NPRTwitterChat2I’m excited to announce a new collaboration between the NPR and Twitter Human Resource teams aimed at helping job seekers learn how to use Twitter as a job search resource – #NPRTwitterChat. You can learn more about this project on the NPR.org’s This Is NPR blog here.

The event will be held Thursday 1/31 from 5-6pm EST. You can follow along by watching the #NPRTwitterChat hashtag through Twitter.com or a tool like TweetChat.com. I’ll be using Storify to compile the key highlights and recommendations from the event for job seekers I’ll share here following the event.

If you have questions about using Twitter as a job search tool you’d like us to cover, tweet them to us using the #NPRTwitterChat hashtag by 1/25/13.

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Amplify Talent: Year In Review, And A Look Ahead

December 28, 2012 — Leave a comment
SHRM

A collection of HR blogger Meet Meme cards and press pass from SHRM12

What a year. As I reflect on 2012, there are so many things I learned and experienced. Here are some of the highlights.

  • Generosity is alive and well in the HR community. If you follow the basic social media (and karma) tenants of ‘give before you receive’, your network will be a constant source of knowledge, advice, and inspiration.
  • Social Media is a tool, not a strategy. It can enhance your recruiting efforts in many ways; but be sure to have an objective, measure it, and adjust as needed. If you want to champion social recruiting/branding strategies within your organization, you need to articulate the ‘why’ as much as the ‘how’.
  • There is value in failure. It may be hard to see it at the time, but every lesson in life shapes you.
  • It’s important to find ways to get out of your comfort zone.
  • Employment Branding keys – employee-centric content, authentic, frequent, minimize friction.
  • I have much to learn as a blogger/writer. There are so many talented bloggers out there who are really gifted writers. They serve as a constant reminder of what really tight writing can be, and a source of inspiration and motivation for me to be better.
  • Disappointment will happen in your personal and professional life. Holding onto the angst is toxic, and will sabotage future plans. Move on to move forward. Continue Reading…
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Are You (Candidate) Experienced?

December 19, 2012 — 8 Comments

candidate experience1

There has been a lot of buzz in the recruiting space this year about candidate experience. This is a good thing. Every interaction an employer has with a prospect, good or bad, can send ripples into the marketplace and shape perceptions about that organization.

In many companies, candidate experience is a low priority on their talent strategy list. These organizations are missing the mark – earning reputations as employers who are lazy at best, arrogant and disrespectful at worse.  Continue Reading…

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LinkedIn’s Top 10 Overused Buzzwords, And The Rise Of #Sociallateral

December 4, 2012 — 1 Comment

USA-LI - Buzzwords-2012LinkedIn’s 2012 list of most used buzzwords was published today.

Most of these terms are pretty common. I haven’t performed a self-audit yet, but it’s likely all of them show up in one area or another on my profile. Is that bad? No. The key to a good LinkedIn profile (and resume for that matter) is not to abuse these terms. When used constructively to illustrate specific examples of what you have accomplished, these terms can be valuable. When strung together to show your responsibilities include utilizing your extensive experience and effective track record leveraging innovative and creative problem solving solutions (six points!) – well, off to jargon jail for you. Continue Reading…

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Most Job Descriptions Suck. This One Does Not.

November 2, 2012 — 10 Comments

Update: a friend of mine, Susan LaMotte, commented below inquiring what sucks about this job. My first response was that as a non-profit, resources are limited. Unfortunately that point was reinforced today, and this position was put on hold – dreaded words for recruiters. So, for the time being this job is on the shelf. I met some great like-minded recruiters over the last month, learned how to create inforgraphic job descriptions, and had some great discussions and feedback on this post – so grateful for all of that. This post can now stand as a window into my personal views and perspectives on what it takes to be a successful recruiter in today’s market.

This is not your typical recruiting job. I’m looking for a progressive recruiter to partner with our team to lead and drive best-in-class recruiting and talent strategies at NPR. This infographic provides an overview of key areas of focus, the full job description below goes into much more details (it’s lengthy, but it’s worth it).

This Is Not Your Typical Recruiting Job

This is the job for you, if…

  • You’re a pioneer; a progressive, hands-on, roll-up-the-sleeves recruiter who would be successful with a landline and a phonebook if the Internet died tomorrow. You’re a natural networker who’s comfortable interacting at all levels – able to simultaneously woo the Executive Producer of a major newsmagazine while helping an intern with her resume. You understand how to leverage social media to expand your network, maintain relationships, and satisfy your unquenchable thirst for lifelong learning (and perhaps your penchant for cat videos and internet memes).
  • Solving big, complex problems excites you. The challenge of figuring something out sparks your competitive instinct. (We’re a not-for-profit, so scrappy resourcefulness and creativity is essential.) You cringe at the thought of reactive recruiting. You’re a team player who proactively shares your knowledge and expertise with coworkers. You have vision, not for what we can be tomorrow, but what might be five years from now; and you have the insight and expertise needed to help guide NPR toward that vision.
  • You’re driven to work at one of the premier multi-media news organizations in the world. The mission of creating a more informed public resonates with you, and you’re inspired and motivated to play a vital role in the hiring, retention, and development of a world-class NPR staff. Continue Reading…
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