Jennifer McClure`

Equipping people leaders to navigate change — and design the future — with boldness and purpose.

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Google, Goats and Recruiting – All In a Days Work

Google goats On Monday, June 15th, I’ll be attending the Social Recruiting Summit sponsored by ERE.net at Google HQ in Mountain View, CA – and I’m pretty excited about it to say the least! Here’s a brief rundown of why I’m jazzed:

  1. The Agenda/Speakers – ERE has done a great job of assembling a top-notch group of some of the sharpest tools in the box in recruiting and social media.
  2. Keynote by Reid Hoffman – CEO of LinkedIn. Apparently Reid’s going to make some special announcements about new features being introduced for Recruiters on LinkedIn. Maybe this will be one of those opportunities to say “I remember where I was when LinkedIn announced…” (or not)
  3. The opportunity to meet some of my “virtual friends” in person – many of whom have already been more than helpful to me by providing advice, tips and help via email, social networks or by phone. I’ve developed some great relationships with some really smart and helpful people in the “talent community” through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook & blogging. However, those relationships become even more solid when we’re able to connect in person.
  4. The Social Recruiting Summit will be held at Google’s Headquarters and part of our day will include a tour. I’m looking forward to checking out some of what makes Google the former #1 in Fortune’s 100 Best Place to Work.
  5. The Google Goats. Apparently, in an effort to be more “green”, Google has hired a herd of goats to keep their campus grounds neat and tidy. There’s just not much more in the world that this Farm Girl would want right now than a photo op with one of the Google Goats. (I’m a simple girl – really.)

For those of you that weren’t able to snag one of the 200 spots before the Conference sold out, ERE is graciously providing a live video stream of the Conference here. Also, if you have a Twitter account, you can follow @socrecruiting for updates or use Twitter Search and follow the hashtag #socialrecruiting here.

I’ll be taking lots of notes and likely have some good fodder for future blog posts. So stay tuned for the really juicy stuff…

Stand Off uploaded by Kevin

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Networking, Job Searching and Dealing With Recruiters… Oh My

Wizardofoz460 Today, I’m featuring a reader question (actually several questions in one email) that myself and other Recruiters get in some form practically every day. Networking and job search can be scary ya’ll. Networking and job searching in today’s economy can be even more scary. Throw on top of that confusion trying to figure out how to deal with scary Recruiters, and it’s a confusing and debilitating quandary for many. But it doesn’t have to be…

The Question(s)

Hi Jennifer,

I’m following you on Twitter and I’ve checked out your blog and company’s website. I’ve not looked for a new job in over 10 years – and I’ve never talked to a Recruiter, as I’m not sure how everything works. I’m employed full-time right now (in a good job), but I’m beginning to explore options. Do you deal mostly with companies or individuals – or both? How does a recruiter work? If I were interested in putting myself out there to search for a new opportunity, what’s the best strategy to go about that? Are there easy answers to these questions – or is it not so simple?

Thanks for your help in getting me started.

“Bob”

The Answer(s)

Hi “Bob”,

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step” (Lao Tzu) – so congratulations on taking the first steps toward finding your next great opportunity! (And thanks for connecting on Twitter/reading my blog!)

As for how our firm works – we are engaged and paid by the company (our clients) to find a specific type of person for a specific role within their organization. While some firms do specialize in certain industries, we don’t, but we do focus on leadership roles (typically Director level and above). We’re what’s called a “retained search’ firm – and we’re paid to search for, identify and recruit candidates that are an exact match for our client’s needs. There are also other types of Recruiters though and some will even take your resume and market you or call some companies where they have contacts to see if they may be interested in interviewing you. There aren’t many Recruiters who will do that – but there are some. So I encourage you to contact several Recruiters and ask how each one works/what their process is.

The best strategy for getting in the game is networking, meeting people, building relationships and making sure that the people you meet are clear on what you’re targeting/what you’re best at. If you’re searching confidentially, you can still do that well – just package it as you’re trying to develop your network/meet new people to stay current and grow your career. The ultimate goal is to get people to “like you” and remember you – so when they hear of opportunities that may be of interest, they’ll refer you or make you aware of them. Networking isn’t always easy, but it is truly the most effective way to find your next great opportunity. I hear from a number of people each month who’ve landed new jobs (companies ARE still hiring) and I always ask them how they connected with their new opportunity. Almost 100% of the time, their answer is through their personal networking efforts.

There are a number of studies out there on how people get jobs, and while the percentages vary a bit by the level of position, it’s typically something like 70% through networking, 20% through job boards and 10% through recruiters, so I encourage you to spend your time networking and searching for a new opportunity in similar percentages.

I hope that this information helps and I’m excited for you as you start the process!

Jennifer (the not so scary Recruiter)

More Networking Tips

Below is a link to copy of the slide deck from a recent talk I gave at a local Job Search Workshop that contains a few bullet points and tips for networking and interviewing success:

Cincy Recruiters’ Five Quick Steps for Networking & Interviewing Success on Slideshare

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback, and if you have any more suggestions for “Bob”, let’s hear ’em!

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Social Media for HR Professionals Beyond LinkedIn

Last week, I spoke to a local Human Resources Group (the Northern Kentucky SHRM Chapter) about using Social Media as an HR professional along with David Cohen, a Senior Account Executive from LinkedIn. David did a great job of covering how LinkedIn can be utilized by HR and Recruiting professionals – including some of the cool features available with their corporate solutions. My job was to talk about some other tools to consider beyond LinkedIn — in about 15 minutes. Fueled by probably one too many Diet Cokes in advance, it's entirely possible that I completed my presentation in record time. Click on the link below to view a copy of the slide deck:

Cincy Recruiter's Social Media for HR Professionals Beyond LinkedIn 4 16 2009 on Slideshare

Here's a brief summary of my recommendations in the presentation including links for you to check them out:

Read/subscribe to Blogs, News Feeds, etc. to stay current.

There's a ton of great, leading edge content out on the world wide web to make us better as HR/Recruiting/Talent pros. The best way to access it is via RSS using some type of Reader. The second best way – via email subscription. For an HR starter pack, I recommend:

  • Fistful of Talent – a multi-contributor blog where you'll get a variety of viewpoints in HR, Recruiting & Talent Management. (Added bonus – my ramblings appear of FOT every now and then too.)
  • Benefits Buzz – Kris Dunn (the brains behind The HR Capitalist and Fistful of Talent) recently launched a second multi-contributor blog covering all things Benefits. While it's tough to make Benefits exciting and interesting, these folks are doing a nice job of bringing a little sexy back to this corner of the HR world.
  • Compensation Cafe – Ann Bares' blog Compensation Force is where I go to get the latest news and thought provoking ideas about the world of compensation. Ann recently launched Compensation Cafe – where she and several other compensation pros will drop some knowledge on all things comp. 
  • ERE.net – The Columns and Articles on ERE are a fantastic resource for HR pros with Recruiting responsibilities. 
  • Alltop – For those who want to add more to their starter pack – find additional blogs of interest at Alltop, where feeds have been categorized and made available in a "magazine rack" format. You can browse several categories and check out what you like. A variety of HR and Recruiting blogs (including Cincy Recruiter's World) can be found in the Careers category.

Join Profession-Based Social Networks for HR.

Unfortunately, I see too many HR professionals who have isolated themselves from their peers and the outside world. Building effective professional relationships is critical for career development and some of the on-line professional networking options can be very helpful in that regard. These resources allow HR peeps to connect with each other, ask/answer questions, find resources, etc. Some recommendations:

  • The HR Net – a global on-line resource for HR professionals to ask/answer questions that is facilitated by Steve Browne – Executive Director of Human Resources at LaRosa's, Inc. Steve is a super-connected HR pro and sought after speaker whose goal is to put the "fun" back in HR. He shares an original HR themed song each week in an email summarizing recent activity on the Net. (Connect to the HR Net by emailing Steve here.)
  • HRMToday.com – Find blogs, groups, forums and other HR pros to connect with and become a part of the community. Recently started by HR bloggers Lance Haun, Laurie Ruettimann and Jenn Barnes, it's growing fast and becoming a great resource. 
  • RecruitingBlogs.com – Similar to HRMToday, RBC is the place where Recruiters of all types are connecting. With over 16,000 members, it's a great place to connect with the recruiting community. 
  • ERE.net – In addition to the content mentioned above that is produced by the writers at ERE, there are many different Discussion Groups to ask and answer questions on a variety of topics.
  • SHRM Connect – coming soon from SHRM – a new "social-network" for HR pros! I'm excited to see how this one turns out so stay tuned. 

Facebook and Twitter – HR Can Use Them Too!

We also talked briefly about using Facebook and Twitter as HR pros – mostly to wake people up after their food comas had set in. Of the 100 or so attendees, maybe 10% were on Facebook, and it looked like about 5 were on Twitter. There are huge possibilities for both tools in HR – and most definitely for Recruiting and Employment Branding. Hopefully, a few of the attendees were inspired to at least begin to try them out.

If you're interested in more of my thoughts on social media resources for HR and Recruiting pros – check out my recent posts on Fistful of Talent – 5 Must Use Social Media Tools for HR & Recruiting Professionals in 2009 and 5 (More) Must Use Social media Tools for HR & Recruiting Professionals in 2009.

What are your thoughts about how HR pros can effectively use some of the social media tools beyond LinkedIn? What did I miss? What are your concerns? I'd love to hear from you in the Comments!

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Spanning the World – Links You Can Use or Peruse – April 17th Edition

Blogging Each day, there’s an enormous amount of great content produced by people all over the world and put out on the world wide web. Sometimes it’s from a high-profile journalist or weblebrity, and sometimes it’s from a little known blogger who took the time to share their thoughts with the few souls who follow them that have taken the time to subscribe to their blog. (Ahem… you can subscribe to this little known blogger’s blog via email here or RSS here.)

As a consistently curious consumer of vast quantities of information in the areas of Recruiting, Coaching, HR, Leadership, Career Development, Employment Branding & Social Media, I’d like to share a few links to stuff I found interesting on the Interwebs within the last couple of weeks.

Recruiting

It’s almost counter-intuitive to think that recruiting top candidates would be harder in the current economic times, but Auren Hoffman does a really nice job of explaining why that’s indeed the case in Why Hiring is Paradoxically Harder in a Downturn. And he uses lots of charts, graphs and data to do it. We have ourselves a smarty up in here folks…

My friend Kelly Dingee – a Sourcing Ninja – published the April 2009 AIRS Sourcing Report. If your job involves sourcing candidates using the Internet, then this free monthly resource is for you!

Speaking of Sourcing Ninjas – the Boolean Black Belt (Glen Cathey) makes me dizzy with all of the ways that he can find potential candidates. Strap on your seat belt… Searching Social Media Requires Outside-The-Box-Thinking.

Times – they certainly are a-changin’…Good perspective for both Recruiters and Job Seekers on The Changing Face of Recruiting from Netshare, Inc.

I’m a serious fan of Chris Hoyt – Associate Director of Talent Attraction at AT&T’ – who is probably more widely known (on the web) as the RecruiterGuy. Chris is way out in front in terms of trying and implementing innovative ideas in the recruiting/sourcing space. In 360-Crazy-Sexy-Cool (Recruiting/Sourcing) Part I , he begins a series of posts on a completely mobile and cloud based boxed set of recruiting tools.

Coaching

Jason Seiden always has a way of getting in your face and daring you to take the actions necessary to grow as a leader or in your career – What “Color” Is My Parachute? Sh*t Brown – Thanks for Asking. I like Jason’s coaching style – a lot.

Human Resources

(From RecruitingBlogs.com) Anyone who can quote my favorite movie Jerry Macguire and use the phrase “up at dawn, pride swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about” to describe the (sometimes) life of an HR Director has me at “Hello”.

This week, I spoke at a local SHRM Group on the topic of How HR Can Use Social Media Beyond LinkedIn. Of the 100 or so in attendance, only about 5 were currently using Twitter. Workforce.com shares some of the drawbacks – and opportunities for HR in HR World Not Immune From Twitter Craze.

Leadership

Great leadership advice and summary of Tips from Tom Peters for Leading in Freaked-Out Times on The Practice of Leadership blog.

Career Development

From my perspective, the single biggest issue for many who are searching for a job is not being able to clearly articulate what they are targeting to best utilize their talents and experience. Couldn’t have said this better myself – To Get the Job, Get Specific.

Another famous Jerry Macguire quote is put to good use by Kathy Rapp on Fistful of Talent in Help Me… Help You. How Not to Play the Salary Negotiation Game.

Employment Branding

The writers and contributors at ERE.net produce significantly high quality stuff on a daily basis. This week, one of my favorites was Ryan Estis – Employment Branding 2.0 – The 8 C’s of My Web My Way.

Social Media/Social Networking

From what appears to be a relatively new blog with some very good content – The Social Executive – check out 9 Tips to Get Executives Started on Twitter.

Here’s an awesome post from the LinkedIn Blog about What Recruiters Look For in a LinkedIn Profile: 8 Tips. A similar post appeared on Mashable – with more good tips – Do You Pass the Social Media Recruitment Test? Of course every recruiter is different and these methods may not be applied by all, but it’s a good place to start.

Facebook isn’t just for poking “friends” and throwing sheep anymore… Check out these 20 Facebook Applications to Assist You In Your Job Search.

If you’re looking for some data to convince your CEO why it’s ok to allow employees to use social media at work – here’s your ticket – Facebook, YouTube at Work Make Better Employees: Study. But make sure he or she doesn’t see this – Does Facebook Make You Dumber? Study shows users of social networking site get lower grades. Just a minor detail in the pursuit of happier employees.

Bringing It Home

And finally, a CincyRecruiter shout-out to the social network for HR professionals – HRMToday.com! I was already a fan, but recently winning an iPod Touch for sharing one of my (too many) hiring horror stories has made me love them that much more. If you’re in HR – or work with people – join HRMToday and check out my winning submission on how a male stripper once tried to recruit ME during his interview. And you thought you had all of the fun in Accounting…

Until next time, take it away Len Berman

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10 Social Media Resources for Executive Job Search

Web2_logos I recently spoke at the Greater Cincinnati ExecuNet networking meeting for senior level professionals in career transition on the topic of 10 Social Media Resources for Executive Job Search. The group included a mix of executives – some familiar with many of the resources, some familiar with a few, and some who were learning about them for the first time. My goal was to provide a wide range of tools for the attendees to investigate, with the hope that each person walked away with at least three or four that they wanted to increase their involvement with or to implement.

My top 10 – in order of recommendation – are as follows:

  1. LinkedIn (duh)
  2. VisualCV
  3. JibberJobber
  4. Personal Website (buy yourname.com)
  5. Blogging
  6. Facebook
  7. Ning Groups
  8. Twitter
  9. Research/Automate/Consolidate (use RSS / read Blogs / set up Google Alerts)
  10. Job Search Engines/Aggregators (Indeed.com & SimplyHired.com)

I’d be interested in your thoughts and feedback as to additional tools you would recommend that were not included, or comments on my rankings. The comments are yours dear readers. Power to the people, Yo…

10 Social Media Tools For Executive Job Search 4 2009

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