My Favorite Posts
Filed under: Networking/Social Media
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I believe there’s a lot of untapped gold on Twitter when it comes to searching for job candidates. The thing you need to keep in mind is that there is more than one type of job seeker on Twitter. Here are the two types of active job seekers I’ve noticed on Twitter:
- The Deliberate Twitter Job Seeker
- The Situational Twitter Job Seeker
The deliberate twitter job seeker is the person who has written in their bio line that they are looking, whereas the situational twitter job seeker is one who might tweet that they dislike their job or want a new job after a frustrating day at work. The key is to run searches for both types of people. If you only search Twitter updates for job seekers, you’re going to miss out on the ones who have their job seeker status in their bio.
The deliberate job seekers most likely have other social network profiles elsewhere noting their status as a job seeker, and Twitter is simply a part of their ‘campaign’. As such, it would be best to use a tool such as TweepSearch or Tweepz to find these people. These two search engines search only Twitter profiles, not the tweets themselves. Here is a sample search string to use:
“looking for a job” OR “looking for work” OR “seeking employment” OR “need a job” OR “need work” OR unemployed OR “new opportunity”
Situational job seekers are going to be a bit more challenging to find, because they probably don’t even consider themselves to really be ‘active’ job seekers. Rather, these are the individuals that maybe had a bad day at work and are venting. For example:
When approaching these people, it’s important to catch them close to the time in which they expressed their disdain to their job. That is, if you wait until 2 days after they’ve expressed hatred for their current job, you’ve probably missed your window of opportunity. For this search, I recommend conducting a basic search through Twitter’s advanced search function and subscribing to an RSS of the results. This way, you’ll get fresh results for people who are having frustrating days at work. Here is a search string that has worked pretty well for me:
“new job” OR “need a job” OR (“looking for” job) OR ((want OR need) “new job”) OR (hate “my job”) OR “job sucks”
Another good resource to follow is the Twitter account @hatemyjobfeed. This particular Twitter account automatically retweets message that contain “hate my job”. While often just amusing, there are occasionally tweets that come through this feed that warrant a response from a recruiter with a good opportunity.
Filed under: Networking/Social Media, Rants, Recruiting, Research, Thoughts
“Research Goddess” is a silly nickname that was assigned to me nearly 4 years ago. The story behind how it came to pass is pretty interesting, so let me share with it with you and put to rest any notion that its meaning is anything more than completely fun and innocent.
When I left my first internet research job, which I held for 4 years, I also left a sizable internet research community via a listserv (numbering near 500 participants). As it was a proprietary listserv, I was no longer allowed access to it. I started my blog in order to stay connected to several of these researchers as well as to meet new people outside of that community. My first blog, by the way, was called “SPI Research” (now simply a placeholder), NOT Research Goddess. Research Goddess came about after I had conversations with Joel Cheesman and Jim Stroud. Joel informed me that I needed to create a memorable identity (as he did with Cheezhead), and Jim told me it would be in my best interest not to tie my blog directly to the company for which I worked at the time. He told me it would be hard to continue with the blog title “SPI Research” if I ever left SearchPath International, which I eventually did a year later.
Jim and I played around with some new possible blog titles on the phone one day, most of which I cannot recall now. In jest, I threw out “Research Goddess” and the line went silent. I thought at first I’d lost the connection, or that it was a horrible idea, but then I heard an enthusiastic “That’s awesome!!” from Jim. I chuckled, stating that it was just a joke, but Jim insisted that it was a great blog title and a memorable one at that. To this day, whenever Jim calls me or I call him, he always greets me with “Hello, Goddess!” It makes me giggle that he still does this, as it’s all in good fun.
As months turned into years, the nickname stuck. In fact, when I go to conferences now, I usually introduce myself and then throw in “I write Research Goddess”, and only then do I get the “Ohhhh, I know who you are!” responses. I am almost better known by my silly pseudonym than I am by my real name. What this tells me is 1) it’s a memorable nickname, but 2) I need to do a better job of tying who I really am in with the nickname. Working on that…
As a test to those of you reading this, here are a couple of other popular ‘nicknames’ of people you might recognize:
- The Sourceress
- The Searchologist
- Cincy Recruiter
- HR Bartender
- The Recruiter Guy
- The Red Recruiter
- Recruiting Animal
- MN Headhunter
While you may not know their real names off the top of your head, you recognize the names and know that each has a niche or a gimmick that is recognized and understood. That’s one of the important parts of creating a memorable identity for yourself. And one of the reasons “Research Goddess” has stuck to me.
Does it mean I believe I am a goddess? Heck no. I’m just another girl in this game, trying to learn and grow just like the rest of you, while sharing my thoughts with this little community. And quite honestly, for those of you who know me, I mean REALLY know me, you know that pretentious, selfish, or conceited are not words that describe me. Opinionated, yes. You’ll never have to wonder where I stand on issues. But having an opinion does not equate to being full of oneself.
If you think that the nickname “Research Goddess” means that I think I am an expert or a guru of sorts, please talk to any of my peers and learn otherwise. I will say that I feel blessed to have had opportunities cross my path that have enabled me to learn and develop my skills. As such, I do believe I have a decent grasp on good research techniques as well as some application of social media technologies when it comes to sourcing. Also, I believe my peers will tell you that I certainly have earned any praise that I have received. I believe I’ve worked hard and contributed some value to this industry, and I hope I’ve done a good job of paying it forward as well. BUT… I know I still have SO much to learn, and you will never hear me say anything to infer that I feel I’ve ‘arrived’. EVER.
If after having talked to my peers you still believe there is a conceited, pretentious, or conniving underlying purpose for my blog and my nickname, I strongly urge you to leave a comment here. Or call me directly – (360) 389-3227 – and let’s talk. Give me your thoughts as to why you believe this of me, and make some constructive suggestions for alternatives. I’m open to all ideas if you think I should take another direction. All I ask is that you don’t judge me or my intentions until you get to know me.
In the end, you’re certainly entitled to think whatever you want to about me. But I believe my work, my track record, and my peers’ experiences with me speak louder than anything else. I hope this sheds some light on the whole ‘research goddess’ thing. It’s just a stupid nickname, but it helps people recognize and remember me. And in my book, that’s a good thing.
If you’ve got some cleaning up to do when it comes to the people whom you follow on Twitter, I highly recommend Tweepi. It’s not just a clean-up tool, it’s actually a complete Twitter account management tool. With Tweepi, you can auto-follow back new followers, auto-unfollow people who unfollow you, auto-reciprocate for those who are following you already but you’re not following them, and (my favorite) to a quick clean-sweep and bulk unfollow many accounts at once.
Example: I want to clean up the current people whom I follow. Once I us oAuth to access my account, I can pre-set targets:
…or I can customize the columns which I’d like to see in the results:
Once I choose what columns I’d like to see, I can then start going through the list of people I follow and bulk follow/unfollow them:
The only thing I don’t like about the sorting feature is that it only sorts what is on the current page. Meaning, you have to click through and re-sort each page; it doesn’t sort all the results, just one page at a time.
Give it a shot – I love that this is a one-stop multiple function account management site. Enjoy!
Filed under: Networking/Social Media
A couple of weeks after the beginning of 2010, I started attending a fitness bootcamp at my gym. This bootcamp is three times per week for a total of eight weeks. My goals attached to attending bootcamp are simple: I want to lose between 20-25 lbs. and be able to run 2 miles with no stops. I have aggressive goals beyond this, but for an 8 week program, I think these are ambitious, yet do-able.
On the first day of bootcamp, we worked out HARD. I had sore muscles where I didn’t think muscles existed. I was a little surprised by this because I’ve already been working out with a personal trainer a couple days per week to work on strength and tone. The bootcamp began revealing areas of weakness that I didn’t know were previously there.
Last night, one week into bootcamp, we did measurements and took photos. To date, I have already lost 2 1/2 lbs. and .5% of my total BMI. No – the “before” photos will never appear on this blog 
We’ll have to see about the “after”s…
I am learning some things about myself as I go through this bootcamp that I don’t particularly like. When you make a commitment to change, a true commitment, there are going to be parts of you that are going to be peeled back and exposed as weak. For example – I have incredibly weak hip flexor muscles. Those are the muscles that help you bring your knee up to your chest. But I am also learning about strengths of mine, such as the fact that I have pretty steady aerobic endurance. I used to be a competitive long-distance swimmer so it’s natural for me, but it’s been years since I last competed so I am pleased to learn I still possess this strength.
The kicker though is that strengths and weaknesses have to work together in order for you to operate properly. I can’t just focus on strengthening my hip flexors and neglect the quads or the calves. I can’t just work on my aerobic endurance and neglect sprinting activities. If I did that, I would be unbalanced as a whole. The whole point in working toward achieving this goal is to become more balanced in my fitness. And in order to do that, I have to go back to some basic movements to retrain my muscles on how to do things properly.
So – what does this have to with sourcing? Everything, if you ask me. In order to refine your strengths and strengthen you weak areas, you often have to go back to the very basics of your function. You have to return to developing basic Boolean search queries, or perhaps you have to go back to some basic phone skills to hone your style of communication. If you neglect these foundational areas, you will become unbalanced in all your efforts to better yourself professionally.
Discovering, and in particular owning up to, your weaknesses can be a pretty unpleasant experience and leave you feeling somewhat exposed. But owning your weaknesses and recognizing that you need to make some improvements can also be liberating and open up a world of learning opportunities. I was reluctant to admit that I needed help in achieving my fitness goals. I wanted to believe I could do it on my own. But finally realizing that I work harder in a group setting has been incredibly freeing for me. The same is true for pinpointing your professional weaknesses. Admitting them can be painful, especially if you’ve denied them for a long time, but it also allows you to begin the process of getting back to basics and retraining the way you approach things at work so you can be better balanced in your skills.
I have every intention on reaching my short-term goals during this eight week period. However, if for some reason I don’t, I know I’ll still be better off for having tried because I will have started a process of continual improvement and desire to achieve balance. So, when you apply these same principles to work, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get to where you want to be as quickly as you wanted. Just know that you’re better for having tried, and keep the end result in mind. You’ll make it there eventually!
I have a confession. Over the last several months, I have sucked when it comes to communicating. Phone calls have gone unreturned, and emails have been piling up in my inbox. Looking at my inbox right now, I have 1,480 unread messages just in the mail email alone, not to mention a few of the filters I have. I have a few other boxes with close to 100 unread messages. Sure, lots of the unreads are probably notifications or email subscriptions that someone signed me up for just because I gave them a business card at a conference (shame on you!) – but the fact remains that I haven’t done a good job at staying in touch.
I could use any excuse in the book – the move, the travel, settling in to a new place, new job, etc. But I’m not going to because I’m tired of making excuses for not achieving the things I set out to do. It’s a bad habit I’ve somehow picked up and has never been a part of my M.O. before, so I am losing it today. No more excuses.
I feel like a hypocrite talking about the importance of networking and developing relationships with people, when many of you reach out to me and never receive a response, or it takes several weeks at best. Networking is not just about friending someone, or leaving a note on their Wall, or accepting a LinkedIn invitation, or retweeting something they said. It’s about responding, engaging, and building trust. And it may sound silly to you but I think it’s hard to trust someone who doesn’t acknowledge your attempts at communicating with them.
I’m so sorry 
So my pledge to you today is this:
- No more unreturned phone calls. If you call me, you can expect a returned call within 48 hours. If you thought enough of me to reach out, I am going to return the favor right back to you.
- Personal emails will be responded to within 72 hours. I’m trying to give myself more personal time on the weekends, so if I get an email on Friday, it might be Monday before I respond, but I WILL respond.
To do this, I am going to need your support:
- Be specific – if you have a question you want me to help you with, be specific about it. Don’t just say “I’d like to pick your brain”; tell me how exactly I can help you!
- Be patient with me – we’re all human and we all make mistakes. I am not planning to slip up on this pledge, but it might happen and I might fall behind at some point. All I ask for is encouragement; be my cheerleaders! Kind words do more to motivate me than you may know…
- Return the favor – we all lead very busy lives. For some of us, email or a phone call is the only way to stay in touch any more. I miss a lot of my friends whom I used to talk to a lot; please call me back
I hope you will all hold me accountable to this pledge. I’m completely serious about this: I am drawing a line in the sand. The time for action is now, and I am excited about reconnecting. Look for me in your inboxes and on your caller ID!
Filed under: Cool Tool Alert, Networking/Social Media, Recruiting, Research, Twitter
This seems to be a great tool to find common connections between you and someone you follow or want to follow on Twitter. If you’re looking for a tool to help find great people to follow, give Twiangulate a shot.
“Twiangulate is a tool for discovering hidden tweeters, friends of friends (or friends of enemies), micro-influentials who only insiders follow… or sometimes just friends you haven’t yet realized are tweeting.” So basically, this is an automated discovery version of Twitter lists. But unlike lists, these groupings aren’t generated subjectively by individuals – the results are generated by algorithms and other complicated tech things designed by Henry Copeland, Kaley Krause, and Jessica Siracusa among others.
Here’s how it works: you can auto-authenticate your Twitter account to get started, and then enter up to 3 usernames of people whom you follow or would like to explore. I chose to start with just one person whom I highly respect for this example:
Caution: if you choose people who are popular, you may have to run them one at a time or else you’ll get an error message.
As a result, this is what was returned – three people who are mutual connections of ours, as well as a long list of others that Twiangulate found to be the most influential people whom these folks follow. The provided list may be sorted by # of followers, # of people whom they follow, or by location as well:
While this is certainly a fun tool for finding new, interesting people to follow – think about it from a sourcing or recruiting standpoint. What if you were to plug in the Twitter account for say, an alumni group, or a professional association that tweets? You could then get a list of the most influential Twitter accounts followed by those people…
Example: @NACEorg- not a huge account, but one of interest to me, because according to the bio, “The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) is the leading source of information on the employment of the college educated.” So I plugged it into Twiangulate and here’s what I got – some pretty interesting new accounts that I should be following and interacting with:
Go ahead and give it a shot yourself. You might be surprised at the individuals who come up that you should have been following all along!
Filed under: Networking/Social Media
i.e. – DON’T GIVE THEM
Blankets are meant to keep us warm when it’s chilly. But blankets are not made for sending emails or making statements. I’ve seen a lot of my blogging colleagues write ranty posts about how impersonal a generic, blanket LinkedIn invite:
- Marian Sparks: Wrong way to Send a LinkedIn Invitation?
- Tony Faustino: 3 Reasons Why I Rejected Your LinkedIn Invitation
- Bill Ward: A LinkedIn mistake none of us should allow ourselves to make.
- Julia Roy: LinkedIn Invitation Etiquette
- Dan Klamm: Common LinkedIn Mistakes Among College Students
OK – so we understand the importance of personalizing a message via email. Blanket emails / invitations suck. The same can be said about resumes – customization of a resume to suit the job to which you are applying. You should never send a generic resume, and ESPECIALLY a generic cover letter. (“Dear Hiring Manager,” or “To Whom It May Concern” should be avoided if at all possible!) Tailor it to fit the position to which you are applying. Understood. We get it.
So, why isn’t this same concept of message personalization acceptable when making in-person statements? Why is it more politically correct to make sweeping, blanket statements in order not to offend people? No warm-fuzzies from this kind of blanket!
Case in point: it’s December. Hanukkah started this past weekend, and Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa all happen next week. That’s 4 holidays, each quite different from the other. Yet, political correctness, and the socially mandated idea that we have to please everyone, demand that we say ‘Happy Holidays’ now, instead of customizing our greetings and wishes of happiness to our friends and family based on what they observe. And in my personal opinion, when you try to please everyone, as is evident in the above examples with LinkedIn and resume submissions, you in fact don’t really please anyone. ‘Happy Holidays’ in my opinion is a trite statement, kind of like when you pass a co-worker in the hallway and say “How are you?” with no real intent to stop and find out, in fact, how he or she really is.
So, in the spirit of this time of year, and in the spirit of making people feel special, I propose that before wishing someone a generic ‘Happy Holidays’ this year, you pause for a moment and ask them which holiday they observe (if you don’t already know). They’ll most likely be surprised because people don’t typically ask that question, and will probably answer your question. You can then proceed to tailor your greeting based on what they celebrate. My guess is that they’ll be pleased that you took the time to find out that tidbit of information about them, and chances are they’ll return the favor to you. Not only will you have made their day by doing this, but you’ll be remembered for being thoughtful enough to care and to customize your greeting!
I have been doing this for years when I go Christmas shopping. (by the way, I celebrate Christmas!) When I step into the checkout line, and the clerk wishes me a ‘Happy Holiday’ since they’re forced to in order not to offend anyone, I smile and ask them which holiday they celebrate. The clerk is usually surprised by this, but if they respond, say, with “I celebrate Christmas”, then I’m able to say “Merry Christmas to you! I celebrate Christmas as well.” If they respond with Hanukkah, I will wish them a Happy Hanukkah, and so forth. I can honestly say I’ve NEVER had a bad reaction to doing this, and most times I get an extra smile out of the clerk, and sometimes even out of the people in line behind me.
So this year, put your online networking etiquette into practice offline! Customize your greetings to the people you encounter and make them feel special.
