Quantcast
Subscribe!

 

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

 

E-mail Steve
This form does not yet contain any fields.

    free counters

    Twitter Feed

    Entries in LinkedIn (15)

    Wednesday
    Feb082012

    Picture Yourself Here

    Have you seen any of these kinds of targeted job ads on LinkedIn recently?

    I am not sure exactly when these kinds of personalized ads started popping up on the professional networking site, but over the weekend while I was scoping out who had viewed my profile, connecting with like minded HR and Technology professionals and contributing to industry discussion and dialogue, I noticed the ad to the right. Like a moth to a flame, or a bargain-hunting performance car shopper to Ashley Schaeffer Imports, I couldn't help but notice my own mug staring back out at me from LinkedIn's right margin.

    Picture Yourself with this New Job, the tag line reads, (interesting use of BOLD and capitalization), and with the addition of my profile picture to the company name, logo and position title, the ad attempts to make me feel somehow connected or even invested in not just the job, but of me having the job.

    Which are entirely two different things. 

    And since LinkedIn is a modern, social, Web 2.0 deal, Apply Now and Share Job buttons come along for the ride. Confession - I did not think to click either one when I first encountered the ad, and now I can't seem to convince LinkedIn to show it to me again. But let's assume, for now, both buttons work as expected, for the purposes of this post, it doesn't really matter. 

    What does matter, at least what I find interesting about this kind of targeted and personalized job ad, is the way it attempts to use information about me, (in this case the information is primarily where I live, as M&T Bank is a Northeast regional bank, with lots of presence in Western New York), my actual image from the site, and some suggestive copy to make me think more about inhabiting this role, rather than just simply clicking a link to a sterile, impersonal ad (that I was not searching for in the first place).

    What the ad immediately made me think of are the recruiting tactics that are often employed by major college athletic programs and coaches in their pursuit of targeted top High School athletes. Often these athletes have lots of options in their choice of college and team/coach to play for, and to help make their case the competing colleges frequently employ custom videos of imagined highlight packages or simulated stadium scoreboard displays or PA announcements that include the recruit's likeness or name. These videos, announcement, and other strategies are designed to make the high schooler think not about being a star Quarterback generally, but being a star Quarterback at that school specifically.  

    Trish McFarlane had an excellent post earlier in the week about recruiting needing to be an individual process, and I think these kinds of personalized, targeted ads, (while admittedly still kind of crude), will eventually serve as an important first step in what becomes the custom, individual process that Trish describes.  It is not hard to imagine the LinkedIn ad getting way more intelligent about what roles you could realistically picture yourself in. Using insight from career paths from similar profiles, career history of members you are connected with, and macro analysis of jobs, industries, or locations that are 'hot', pretty soon I'll bet LinkedIn can map out a realistic and reachable career path for anyone.

    Interesting times for sure. Meanwhile, have a look at a bit of a takeoff on the college recruiting tactics, courtesy of ESPN, (email and RSS subscribers will need to click through).

    Wednesday
    May112011

    Whoworks.at - See your LinkedIn Network as you browse

    Whether you are a job seeker researching organizations that you would like to work for, a recruiter seeking talent from competing firms in you industry or region, or a sales professional examining the websites of customers and prospects - one thing is for certain - it sure helps to know someone at the target company. Having an 'in' of some kind, some kind of plausible way to connect with an actual person inside, as opposed to filling out a generic 'contact us' web form, or submitting an anonymous resume into what can sometimes be the black hole of the ATS.

    No doubt being able to connect, most optimally by leveraging an existing and hopefully trusted network seems to offer one the best opportunity to get the job application noticed, to find a potential candidate to recruit, or to connect with a real decision maker in a sales process. But sorting out who you might know, or might be connected via other friends and colleagues, typically meant a scan through email contacts; a local CRM or ATS system; or, increasingly, a trip to LinkedIn to perform a quick Company search. Kind of tedious process, but necessary.

    This week a new Google Chrome browser extension called Whoworks.at launched, that makes the entire 'Who do I know that works here?' question much easier to answer. After you download and install the Whoworks.at extension, simply click the extension icon just to the right of the Chrome toolbar, and immediately you will be presented a pop-up window displaying all your LinkedIn contacts and extended network that connects you to whatever company whose site you are currently browsing.

    Here is a screen shot of my Whoworks.at information for Oracle Corporation:

    And here is the view of my LinkedIn network connections at the NBA, (sadly, my network there is not nearly as robust):

    I still can't believe LeBron has not accepted my LinkedIn invitation yet.

    From within the Whoworks.at pop-up, you can also browse LinkedIn data for recent hires and promotions at the target company, and click on any LinkedIn profile name to be taken directly to that person's LinkedIn profile page.

    Whoworks.at is a really neat and useful tool to add to Google Chrome and that makes the task of seeking and reaching out to connections at companies of interest that much easier. And it does get kind of addictive after a few minutes, there is a little bit of a curiosity factor that sets in as you browse around on the internet, sort of wondering if you know anyone at a given company.

    Check it out and let me know what you think, simply go to Whoworks.at and provide your email address and a beta invite link should show up in your inbox really quickly.

    Happy stalking!

    Tuesday
    Mar012011

    You're asking me? Did you check LinkedIn?

    Maybe the job market is heating up.

    In the last three days I’ve been contacted by three separate recruiters; two agency, and one corporate, inquiring about my interest and availability for opportunities they wanted to present. That’s pretty cool - and probably equals the number of cold calls I have received in the last several months combined.

    Each call went more of less exactly the same - (Aside: I shockingly answered my phone for all three calls, which for me is some kind of record):

    Recruiter : Hi Steve - this is Joe/Mary/Sue from XYZ Company - how are you today?

    Steve - I am fantastic, how are you?

    Recruiter - Very well.  Steve, I came across your resume on (choose from the following: Monster/Careerbuilder/Dice/ ‘my files’) and I wanted to talk to you about an opportunity I am working on.

    Steve - Sure.

    Note - I don’t bother with the silly ‘How did you find me/get my phone number?’ questions. It is their job to find people.  I am pretty easy to find. And I am sure there is a ‘Steve’ resume out there on all those sites, I bet some of them have been floating around for years.

    Recruiter - So tell me, what are you doing these days? Are you working full-time? Are you contracting or consulting?

    Steve - Well, I sort of do a number of things, I'm keeping very busy.

    At this point I am basically stalling, because I genuinely want to know if the Recruiter really doesn’t know what I am doing, or they are using Recruiter jedi mind-trick #7 and attempting to see if what I say matches what they ought to know about me, (that's assuming that since they are calling me about an opportunity, they should know something about me).

    Recruiter - Aren’t we all?  Ha-Ha-Ha.  So let me tell you about what I am working on, it is a contract/position/engagement at …..... Is this something you may be interested in?  Can I send some more information to you about the position?

    Steve - Sure, send me the information, you have my email don’t you? No? It is steveboese@gmail.com. If it is something I am interested in, I will get back to you.

    Recruiter - Great, I will and thanks.  Have a nice day.

    Steve - You as well.

    And Scene.

    Three recruiting cold calls, each essentially following the same script. Sort of indistinguishable from each other, with all three marked by (at least the expressed) lack of awareness by the recruiter of anything about me other than what they have learned from whatever source information or document, some certainly several years old, that they were working from.  Did you take a minute to ‘Google’ me? Scope my profile on LinkedIn?

    Again, I have never been a recruiter, so maybe that feigned ignorance is a standard trick to feel out a prospect, and to get them talking about themselves in hopes they will reveal some insights that will help the recruiter make a quick decision whether to engage or to cut and run and move on to the next call.

    But to me, the ‘prospect’, it just seemed lazy.  In a world where information - updated, real-time information at that, is everywhere; the notion that a prospect should have to update a cold-calling recruiter as to ‘What they’ve been up to’ seems almost archaic.

    These days, and certainly for professionals that are candidates for the kinds of jobs I was called about, shouldn’t the recruiter have told me all about me? Are my eyes really blue?

    Heck, I am the last person you should ask if you want to know what I am up to.
    Tuesday
    Jan062009

    Facebook and LinkedIn for Recruiting - The students speak out

    So if you are a breathing, upright HR Professional in 2009 I know you have read countless blog posts, articles, or attended webinars exhorting you that you need to be mining social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn for recruiting purposes.  Whether it is to network with and uncover passive candidates, (the primary use of LinekdIn) or research and background check prospects (primarily what recruiters are doing on Facebook), you have been told over and again that you need to be leveraging these tools in your recruiting efforts.

    This post isn't another one of those 'How to recruit on Facebook' pieces.  If you are interested in that sort of thing, check out the HR Tech News blog which ran a fine series of 'Recruiting on Facebook' posts early in 2008.

    In my HR Tech Class for this week's discussion assignment I asked the class to offer comments and observations on this new trend in recruiting.  These students are quite likely in the target demographic for many recruiters, mostly young, educated professionals working on an advanced degree.  And they are almost all on Facebook and LinkedIn.  So what do they think about recruiters and employers 'snooping' around their social networking profiles?  Here are a few of the best comments from the class:

    The general consensus was 'beware what you post online':

     Even though we might not like it, we have to realize that employers are going to be googling our names and we have to be careful about the type of information we put online, because if we put it there it is fair game for anyone to see. - 'S

    On the usefulness of Social Networking in onboarding and relationship building:

    If employees can be 'friends' with their manager on facebook then that could help them to have a mentor. It's a safe and informal way for the employees to interact with their managers on a social level where they can learn from each other. - 'A'

    One student astutely observes ways in which the progressive organization is starting to leverage these social networks in a more positive manner:

    For example, companies and organizations have taken up these social networking sites to create their own business networks as a motivation to maximize interaction and networking among their own employees, even with the CEO. It not only limits to the networking connections, but to more job opportunities. For example, I have noted one CEO posting on Twitter about job opportunities. - 'V'

    There were many other comments and observations in the discussion, some students really wishing that their Facebook information would remain strictly personal and never be used in a professional situation. But realistically, they realize that the horse is out of the barn, and anything they post on any site is likely ot one day be scrutinized by employers and recruiters.

    A really good discussion, any one have a recommendation for the next HR Tech issue we should discuss?

     

    Wednesday
    Oct292008

    LinkedIn makes a major move

    Today LinkedIn announced support and integration for third-party applications like SlideShare, Wordpress, and Amazon.

    Why is this important? 

    LinkedIn is generally considered the 'professional' networking site.  Only serious business is done on Linkedin; recruiting, searching for opportunities, networking for decidedly commercial reasons.

    The ability to integrate your SlideShare presenations, blog posts, and Amazon reading lists into your LinkedIn profile can only enhance and augment your LinkedIn presence.  It allows you to leverage content you spend long, hard hours creating in a new and very important space.

    I tell my students in the first class, you absolutely need to be on LinkedIn. 

    In the next class, I will also tell them you need to take advantage of the full capabilities of these new application integrations.

    Well done, LinkedIn.

    Subscribe!

    Page 1 2 3