Amybeth Hale - Research Goddess


MySpace Sourcing….creepy?
February 20, 2007, 11:04 pm
Filed under: Cool Tool Alert, Networking/Social Media, Recruiting, Research

I have been working on a search for which I’d run out of conventional methods, so I decided to try something different. This might be old news for some of you, but it was a new thing for me:

site:myspace.com keyword keyword keyword

What this did was bring up MySpace profiles of folks with the keywords I specified somewhere in their profile. I was amazed at the results I got. One of the keywords I used was “AIM” so that I would find a method of contact for these people. The reason I am writing this is because I got two completely different reactions from those I reached out to - one of total suspicion, and the other of real curiosity. In each instance, I introduced myself, my company, provided information for them to verify my credentials, and told them what my purpose was in contacting them. Here are two examples:

Suspect: this individual used the word “creepy” when I told him how I’d found him. He told me “Well, I have no idea who you are, and I could not possible take you seriously what so ever.” Even though he chatted briefly with me about a college co-op program he was in and about some political things, he obviously was suspicious of my sourcing method and told me that he “wouldn’t recommend going down this path.” I ended our conversation by letting him know that I would not contact him again, and wished him good luck in his co-op.

Curious: this person was a little sketchy at first, asking me if I was a spammer, but remained intrigued by encouraging me to “go on” with what I was asking. He said “what the heck” in response when I told him I’d found a way to contact him and thought what the heck? At the end he was asking what he needed to do to be considered for the opportunity, and I asked him for his email address and told him the name of the person I would be passing it to. That recruiter has since reached out to this individual and I’d love to see a placement come out of this.

Here’s the issue: where does one draw the line on privacy? Both of these individuals had put contact information on their accounts. (incidentally, I have my AIM name on our company MySpace account for people to freely reach out to me). Also, how would this be any different from sending an email to someone who listed it on their profile or on their webpage?

If you put your AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, etc. screen name on a public profile, it would seem like you would welcome someone to contact you. Now, someone who abuses this and sends messages requesting dirty webcam sessions or assistance in moving money from foreign accounts, that’s not right. But in my case, I presented myself, gave my contact information and profiles for verification, and stated my purpose immediately.

I would be very interested in some feedback from anyone on this. Please let me know your thoughts on this search. Thanks!

Disclaimer: check with legal department to know if this would apply to the SPIM/spam laws



Research Goddess radio show…coming soon!
February 20, 2007, 8:37 pm
Filed under: Podcasts, Recruiting, Research

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by Recruiter Life Magazine, inquiring about an interview with them. I of course jumped at the opportunity and returned the message, only to find out that they did not want to interview me; they wanted me to host a radio show on their website! I said YES - and the Research Goddess podcast on Recruiter Life Magazine will be going live in about a week. The interviews will center around research topics - how research benefits a recruiting office, techniques, advice, and I am looking forward to having some of the brightest minds in research as guests. Please tune in when the shows go live! I will be posting the links as soon as they are available, but I wanted to make this announcement so you can keep your eye out for this. I am obviously excited about this opportunity and looking forward to learning a lot from the experience!



You know you need to call it a day when…
February 17, 2007, 5:52 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

…you reach this.



Be Careful What You Ask For…
February 13, 2007, 7:09 pm
Filed under: Thoughts

…because you may not understand the ripple effect it will have on others around you! Dave, thanks for your posting on this topic. Ever since it passed here in Ohio, I’ve been waiting to see the fallout from this short-sighted decision. Check out the original article that Dave linked to here.

What lots of people may not realize is that in raising the minimum wage, you’re actually jeopardizing the employment status of those to whom the new min wage will go. I am not claiming to be an expert at this by any means, but any intelligent person can follow trends. Check this out:

Cincinnati has a lot of industrial manufacturing companies. For those who are unfamiliar with AK Steel, they have had a lock-out of their union workers since February of last year. I don’t know the specifics of the contract terms, but one of the inclusions was an increase in wage. Now, making more money is something we’d all like to do. Anyone who says otherwise is a big fat liar. But think about this: just simply increasing minimum wages is going to have a tremendous effect on every aspect of that business, including its workers and customers, not to mention the community impact which is already being felt.

Increasing minimum wage will drive up the cost of production. This in turn will force the company (which exists to make a profit and NOT to take care of its employees (YOU), regardless of what you may think!!!) to increase the cost of its product in order to cover overhead costs while maintaining profitability. This would probably occur regardless of marketplace demand. With the delicate balance of supply/demand tipped due to the increased cost of production, demand will most likely go down. Guess what happens next? Not as much product is needed and bought in the marketplace, which in turn causes LESS product to be produced by the company, which ultimately leads to decreased need of manpower and reduction of the workforce. Less raises, less hires, more layoffs, and guess what? More expensive products. This virtually cancels out the nickels and dimes that came from raising the minimum wage, because the people can no longer afford the products, or perhaps don’t even have an income now due to layoffs.

Look, I’m not writing this to offer up a solution. What’s done is done; the “people” have spoken. And I won’t even pretend to be some political or economic expert because I’m far from it. All I can do is offer up my personal thoughts on this issue. I personally do not work for minimum wage, though I did when I first entered the workforce. I can’t put myself in the place of someone today who is trying to support a family on minimum wage. But please, think about what you want before you ask for it. The long term implications might far outweigh the short-term fix.

Folks, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Somewhere along the way, someone’s got to foot the bill for everything. And you know who that someone is going to be in this case?

YOU.



Choose Your Own Adventure
February 9, 2007, 9:45 pm
Filed under: Research

Being a young kind in the ’80s, I remember reading a bunch of books from the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series. For anyone who doesn’t know what these books are, they are stories written in second person where, at key points in the plot, you pick what action you would like to take, and that changes the course of the story. Example: after an introduction to the story, the reader is given choices of how the story should progress. For instance:
If you decide to start back home, turn to page 4.
If you decide to wait, turn to page 5.

So what happens is that you can read the same book multiple different times and always get a new story. There are over 100 books in this series and they’ve become one of the best selling book series in history.

Why am I writing about this? Because while I was chatting today with a fellow researcher it dawned on me that there are alot of similarities to these books and the function of research. You can give a researcher a search assignment (one of the books), and depending on what path that researcher chooses to follow (which storyline is chosen), they will get different results (different endings to the book). Go back and do the search again (re-read the book) and choose to follow a different source lead (pick a different storyline), and you will end up with a completely different result (brand new story ending!).

Also - giving 5 researchers the same assignment will result in 5 different search results. It just depends on their techniques, resources, and thought processes while conducting the search. If 5 different people were to read the same Choose Your Own Adventure book, they would each take 5 different paths and have 5 different adventures! It really just depends on the individuals preferences….search techniques, resources available, thought process, experience; they all play into which path a researcher will choose when conducting a search.


Active Vs. Passive Candidates
February 7, 2007, 4:20 am
Filed under: Recruiting

I swear I wrote my article first :) I found this great article on Recruiter Life Magazine - enjoy!

ACTIVE VS. PASSIVE CANDIDATES

by Milt Jensen President – Superior Search Consultants

In the competitive world of recruiting it is always a challenge to find the very best talent for your company. There are primarily two classifications of candidates that you will encounter when trying to fill your open positions, “Active and Passive”. The active candidate has already made up his/her mind that they are leaving their present company (or they have been laid off). They are reading the newspaper want ads, they are looking at the on line job boards, and they are networking with colleagues, etc. The active candidate will usually send their resume to not only positions that they qualify but also some positions that are a stretch for their skills and experience. The passive candidate is generally happy in his/her present position, is so busy doing his job that he has no time to look around for the next career move. The passive candidate in the majority of cases becomes the best employee.

You can attract the active candidate by posting on job boards and running news paper ads, but you spend hours sifting through the “Want a Be’s” and may end up with a hand-full of candidates to interview. When you find that good active candidate, you seem on many occasions, to be competing with six other companies to see if you can get them to accept your offer.

The secret to finding some of the best employees is to locate “open minded” passive candidates with the specific skill sets that fits your company. Sounds like a “needle in a hay stack” type task and in many ways it is. Many of the passive candidates will come through networking, leads from current employees, associations/company directories and from quality search firms. When you work with a search firm, whether on a contingency or retained basis, make sure the firm deals in passive candidates.

As a candidate passes through your interview process, it is important to know where the applicant came from. If the candidate is an active candidate meaning you found him/her on a job board, or he sent you his resume through your web site, then the majority of your interview process can be spent in screening his skill set. But if the candidate is passive meaning he/she came as a referral from an employee or through a recruiter, etc. then at least 25% of your interview process should include recruiting the candidate to your company. You need to spend this 25% of your time having the interview team explain the advantages of working for your company and their excitement to have the candidate be part of your team. If the 75% portion of the interview that was used for screening of skills and potential fit for the position shows the candidate is not qualified, then no offer is extended. What you don’t want to happen is to spend the whole day having your people grill the potential candidate to find out that he/she is a prefect fit and then have your offer turned down because the candidate doesn’t see any advantage of joining your company.
Happy recruiting and good luck in finding the passive candidates which will turn into the best employees.


What is it you do again?
February 3, 2007, 5:41 am
Filed under: Research
Jimmy does it again! Any researcher has had to or currently is dealing with trying to help friends, family, and often even co-workers to understand what they do.
Hilarious, and make sure you check out JimStroud.com!



Young Entrepreneurs are awesome!
February 1, 2007, 4:03 am
Filed under: Recruiting

I love ambition, especially when today’s younger generation exhibits it! From my viewpoint, a lot of Gen Y seem to be quite content with allowing their parents to continue to change their diapers and bottle-feed them well into adulthood. This is why I’m excited about SearchPath’s Young Entrepreneur Program! This program offers college-aged young adults the opportunity to take their first steps into being contributing members of society by owning their own recruiting firm while still being linked to a successful system that will help them hit the ground running.

One person in particular I would like to introduce everyone to is Paul Wolfe. He is one of our newest Young Entrepreneurs, having started SPI Green Search. Paul is currently a student at WVU studying Communication Studies, Entrepreneurship, and Spanish as a Multidisciplinary Study. Paul has been taking classes through our SPIU training system and has started networking to build his business. He just landed his first job order last week in the midst of writing papers, attending classes, and studying for midterms. He is well on his way to running a successful recruiting office even before he graduates!
Paul has taken his first steps to really getting out there and networking within his industry, which is green building. For those who don’t know what this is, Green Building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials, and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle. He has started his own company blog, SearchPath of Green Search, on which he recently posed a comparison of groups vs. networks. He has done this in an attempt to start building his own network and I think this is a great way to begin!
Please support this young guy’s new venture and pay his blog a visit - leave him an encouraging word or two if you like. Think how you felt when you first started recruiting; Paul’s already got a leg up and I am excited to see the good things that will certainly come from his discipline and hard work!