Recently, Bullhorn (a global leader in On Demand, front office staffing and recruiting software, and integrated solutions for staffing and recruiting firms) conducted an industry-wide “Tools of the Trade 2007″ study on established and emerging websites, online social networks, job boards, professional development sites and blogs.
"The Survey Says"
(free download here)
"The majority of staffing and recruiting professionals (68 percent) listed LinkedIn as the online social network they use most frequently, followed by ZoomInfo (12 percent) and Electronic Recruiter Exchange (ERE) (9 percent). Just 4 percent use Jobster most frequently. Only 1 percent and 2 percent of respondents, respectively, reported using Facebook and MySpace most often."Not surprising, considering the following:- Recently, I attended an information session on LinkedIn thanks to the kind folks at Challenger Gray & Christmas and Baker & McKenzie. During the presentation, Sherman Hu, Regional Sales Manager for LinkedIn commented "People who have >20 connections are Thirty Four times more likely to be approached by a recruiter than people with <5".
- Early in 2006, recruiting/sourcing icon Jim Stroud interviewed Konstantin Guericke, co-founder and former VP of Marketing with LinkedIn (now with Jaxtr). Jim captured the interview as a podcast in his Recruiter's Lounge. During the interview, Konstantin Guericke describes how LinkedIn has become an essential tool in the recruiting tool kit and mentions that over 100,000 of LinkedIn's paying customers are "Recruiters".
- Master Cybersluething Pioneer Shally Steckerl knows the importance of LinkedIn. Shally is helping recruiting and sourcing professionals learn cutting edge tips and techniques to leverage LinkedIn through JobMachine's LinkedIn Cheat Sheet which provides excellent insight into advance searches in LinkedIn.
Now Consider this....
- Internationally recognized speaker, Gerry Crispin of Career Crossroads determined that based on his recent source of hire survey, Employee Referrals are Fifty Four times as likely to result in a hire than all the job boards put together. (see blog entry).
If you are networking for new opportunities do you want to be....
LinkedIn or Left Out? You decide. Here are some resources to help you:
- The unofficial users guide for executive and professionals - published by the Global Human Capital Journal.
- Virtual Rolodex video tutorial - Detailed tutorial on LinkedIn by Otis Collier.
I've met many people in transition that search for opportunities on the web by visiting a variety of major job boards and running search queries each time they visit a site. Additional time is spent visiting company sites, checking often to see if positions they are interested in have been posted.
This can be very time consuming and can take time away from more important activities such as networking. There is a technological solution that can help. The web has become more interactive through Web 2.0 applications.
Job seekers can leverage the power of these applications to help reduce much of the "heavy lifting" involved in online job search.
The strategy here is to use vertical job search engines that "scrape" jobs from all the major job boards as well as many company sites. The results show up in the search engine with links that will take you to the actual postings. A few of the top rated vertical job search engines are (in no particular order) Jobster, Indeed,or SimplyHired (my favorite . Also, websites such as Craigslist and Google Base should be utilized.
Upon running a search query at any one of the sites listed above the user is typically afforded the ability to get automated email alerts for specific job search queries on a daily basis. This is helpful but it can quickly overload an email in box. The answer to this problem is to utilize the power of XML or RSS feeds to bring relevant content (specific job leads) directly to a user's desktop.
Before running a job search query at any of the vertical search engines or other sites mentioned, an RSS Feed Reader or Aggregator should be set up. There are many out there including IGoogle and My Yahoo! - both of which are free
If you are going to use either of these you will need to register and set them up. Just follow the directions. Once your account is set up, visit the vertical search engines mentioned above. Next, run a search query and then scan the page for a link called RSS FEED, XML or click on the little orange box.
You will be asked if you want to add the feed to a feed aggregator. Various feed aggregators will be listed, including My Yahoo! IGoogle or Favorite Feeds in Internet Explorer (version 7.0 or better). Follow the onscreen instructions to add your search query information to the feed aggregator that you have previously selected and set up. If you are using My Yahoo!, change your internet browser homepage to My Yahoo or IGoogle and let them serve as your launch point. Now all the position postings that meet your search criteria automatically come to you. No more heavy lifting! Here is an example of what your homepage can look like:
I've had the great fortune of seeing Conor Cunneen, C.A.S.H. - Consultant, Author, Speaker, Humorist make presentations on several different occasions. His presentations are high value offerings of both humor and substance.
A favorite of mine is one in which Conor crafts a wonderfully inspirational and humorous presentation called "SHEIFGAB The World". (video clip)
"SHEIFGAB"? Conor's pleasant Irish brogue and quick wit may lead you to assume that the term "SHEIFGAB" has some mystical Gaelic meaning but he is fast to point out that it is a memorable acronym he created to help explain eight powerful building blocks designed to get and keep a person motivated during their career transition.
The Eight Powerful Building Block developed by Conor are:
S - Structure (your life)
H - Help (others)
E - Environment (change it)
I - Improve (yourself)
F - Family (communicate with)
G - Goals (set and achieve)
A - Attitude (determines your success)
B - Boss (Bruce Springsteen anecdote)
Conor will be presenting "SHEIFGAB The World" on
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Immanuel Lutheran Church
200 N. Plum Grove Road
Palatine, IL. (map)
Program - 9:00am - 10:30am
Informal Networking - 10:30am - Noon
Conor's presentation is made possible through St. Hubert Job Ministry (contact Bob Podgorski for any event questions at 847-925-6005).
Don't miss this one.
