My Favorite Posts
Filed under: Uncategorized
Seriously.
And just for fun, here’s one of my all time favorite Stinkoman cartoons. Double Duuuuuuuuuukes!!!
The Video Resume, an article that hit my email this morning, seems to be the latest growing trend with Generation Y. Of course, how much can I say because I am not that far removed from this generation (I think I fall in the category of Generation X, but 1979 is right in-between so I guess I’m just confused). Yes, I too have a MySpace account and I do send text messages from time to time in liu of actual human contact.
The concern about this would be the obvious potential issue with EEOC regulations. If you’ve put a video resume together and your face and voice are seen and heard, the person you are sending it to is immediately going to know your gender, ethnic background, and other things on which they aren’t supposed to judge you. This opens up a can of worms that I’m not sure our society, which is often ridiculously overly-PC anyhow, is ready to tackle from a legal standpoint.
Post your thoughts on this! I’d like to see what others think about this emerging method of self-promotion.
Filed under: Research
I came across this post this morning on ERE.net and found it very interesting! I have found this happens quite frequently around the recruiting world – the thought that research is a piece of cake and that just anyone could do it. Sure – anyone can type a word or two into a Google search and look through the results that pop up, but I think most would agree that it takes a bit more skill to find a roofing/asphalt product manager in central PA who wants to work parttime – without using Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, or any of the other major job boards!!!
“For some reason there is a myth that internet sourcing is a task that a monkey can handle while it is sleeping. It is true on the surface there are a ton of candidates that are tapped daily by recruiters and researchers these candidates can be uncovered with simple search on google, jigsaw and linked-in. However there is a gold mine of passive candidates hiding in cyberspace that are being overlooked everyday because most people don’t know where to dig and they don’t dig deep enough. They hit the surface and stop when they ID 20 or 30 leads.
I use the first layer of candidates and information as a stepping stone and I dig deeper to locate the untapped candidates. There is an investigative process that involves identifying, utilizing and analyzing potentially hundreds of sources. You may find one piece of information that leads to another piece of information and with the click of the mouse you have uncovered the gold mine. In the end I am able to supply my clients with a pipeline of passive (more time than not the same candidates obtained by conducting sourcing calls) and active candidates, intelligence, market information and other valuable information that makes their job easier….”
Charles Hillman
Per Your Request Research
From my experience, the best researchers come from either a Library Science or a paralegal background. These people have been trained in the art of research, and chasing the proverbial ‘White Rabbit’. Of course, hiring an experienced researcher will cost you more because they will have accumulated a great deal of knowledge and connections over the span of their career. But if you’re looking to hire a brand new researcher and are curious as to what to look for, here are a couple of tips that I think might help:
- Library Science or Paralegal background
- Knows what Boolean Logic is – as a researcher, this is an essential tool!
- Meticulous about details – this person won’t mind making sure that the contact information they are finding for potential candidates is up to date
- Knows/understands basic web design (I’m talking your very basic HTML code) – this way they can check source codes and unlock email addresses and other useful information while researching
- Member of at least one professional networking site (LinkedIn, Doostang, Konnects, Spoke, vShake, etc.) – they probably already have several connections that can get them started
Hopefully this will help a few people out! In my experience, this combination of skills will assist your new person in becoming very skilled at internet research without driving them insane.
Just a quick little background on how I came to be interested in Internet Research:
I think it started way back in high school (mid 90s) when the Internet was just really taking off with public use. Back then, we used to ‘chat’ on BBSes and I was all about that. Guess I could have been classified as a bit of a nerd because of it, but I learned early on how valuable networking was!
In college, I was involved in a hit-and-run car accident late one night with a drunk driver who unknowingly left behind bits and pieces of his car after he drove off leaving me shaken in my car on the side of the road. I gathered the ‘evidence’ – a busted headlight cover with the Ford emblem, the baby blue paint that had scraped off on my rims, the boxy shape of the car that I determined from a brief glimpse as he drove off, and the fact that I knew the area to which he was heading. I went to the apartment complex down the road the next day and found an old baby blue Ford with a missing front headlight. Leaving an “I know what you did last night” note on the windshield, I took note of the fraternity Greek letters on the bumper sticker as well as the license plate number. I happened to have a friend who was friends with a guy in that fraternity, so after a few phone calls, I got the name of the guy who owned the car. Upon hearing that the girl he hit the night before in his drunken stupor had discovered his identity, he promptly called me 10 minutes later, apologized, and took care of the $2200 it took to repair my vehicle. I was now hooked on ’sleuthing’.
My first “real job” was as the Internet Researcher in an MRI franchise office in Cincinnati. I took this job back in 2002 and had very little upfront training, so alot of my learning came from getting advice and expertise from the established researchers I was introduced to. Over the next couple of years, I developed a love of finding the ‘un-findable’ candidates, and figuring out how to get in touch with that person who was impossible to contact. Through the MRI system, we breathed life back into a discussion group that grew to over 500 members – researchers, recruiters, owner/managers, etc. Through this group we shared information and tips on how to be better researchers.
Now, I am the Manager of Internet Research for SearchPath International. I am looking forward to developing a superior team of researchers to assist in the needs of our franchise business owners. Research is an integral part of a successful recruiting office. Tom Johnston, SPI’s president and founder, lists four key components to a great recruiting practice: Business Development, Recruiting, Process Management, and Research. One missing of these four leaves a gaping hole in the entire process and each one complements the others.
So here I sit, a research junkie to the core – diving for the first time into the world of blogging. I am excited to see where this leads and how I can help contribute to the recruiting research community!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Hi and welcome to SearchPath Internationals’s Internet Research blog. I wanted to create a place where I can share things I’ve picked up over the years from some of the industry’s best researchers and hopefully gain lots of new knowledge from those out there in the recruiting world!
