Recruiter publicly insults young female sales rep, falls flat on glamour shot

Note to bloggers, if you ever post a glamour shot of yourself on your blog and decide to publicly insult a young female sales rep...get your facts straight.

Unfortunately for Bill Branstetter of Abacus Solutions Group, this wasn’t the case when he picked on a young hotjobs sales rep in his post, ‘Hotjob’s Failed Attempt to Steal Me from Monster.’

His post fell short of calling the girl an idiot and giving himself a medal for knowing more about job board traffic than she did.

Since the girl, whom I don’t know has no way to defend herself as publicly as she’s been ridiculed. I figured I'd point out a few things that are wrong with Bill’s post.

First: He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

His original post (it has since been changed) quoted Google Analytics as a source for major job board traffic reporting. That’s wrong. Analytics does not track and report major job board traffic.

Second: He didn't admit he was wrong. 
I commented on his original post, pointing out that Analytics does not report on this traffic.

Rather than comment back, he edited the original post; erasing the error, never admitting he was wrong. Weak.

Third: Even his fix is wrong.
His post now references Google Trends as the source of job board traffic reporting.
Wrong again.

Google Trends does not report on traffic to any site, let alone major job boards.

It estimates the number of search queries for a particular term, which is in no way an indication of job board traffic.

My point is this…
If you’re going to insult someone publicly to prove how smart you are, you should

1. Know what you’re talking about
2. Admit when you’re wrong
3. Go after someone who can defend herself just as publicly

5 Simple Ways to Recruit Passive Candidates with Your Career Site

Is your candidate pool looking a bit shallow lately? If you want to recruit more passive candidates, take a good look at your career site. It is possible that a few minor changes could quickly increase your prospects. Below are just five simple ways to boost your employment brand and draw in those highly coveted passive candidates.

1.    Start Recruiting on the Home Page – Don't bury the career section deep within your official company site. You want to appear welcoming to those who otherwise don't realize you are hiring. If you do link to a career section from the homepage, make sure that link is visible and not placed at the bottom on the page in a tiny font size.

2.    Be Transparent – Are you using ambiguous terminology when leading people to the career site? Being clever here could actually hurt you, as people are scanning the page for the words "Job" and "Career." A link that reads, "Become Part of the Crew!" could be easily overlooked.

3.    Avoid Generic Stock Images – Do you have a stock photo of two businesspeople shaking hands on your career page? People are now design-savvy enough to spot a stock image when they see one. It looks insincere and can be a turn-off for candidates. You should use images of happy employees, but go the extra mile and obtain pictures of people who actually work for the company.

4.    Display Job Openings – Don't tease candidates with a career site and then fail to post available job openings. Passive candidates who are casually surfing your site need to be enticed with something tangible. Ensure that this section is regularly updated and does not go stale.

5.    Post Salaries – Never post a job opening without an accompanying salary range. This is quite possibly the best way to entice passive candidates to make a move. Companies often omit this bit of information, perhaps in hopes that they will negotiate for a lower pay scale. However, top professionals demand to know what they are getting into and will often ignore a job posting without a salary.

* This post was contributed by Heather Johnson, who is an industry critic on the subject of becoming a pediatric nurse. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

An interesting perspective on Milennials, a dark one. Or is it?

REVIEW: ERE Expo Spring, 2008

Dave Manaster and team once again put together a great conference.

ERE’s Expos are hands down the best recruiting conferences for a number of reasons. They always have a great mix of people in attendance, engaging content and entertainment.

It consistently has the best ratio of recruiting professionals per vendor. So it’s rich with opportunities for recruiting professionals to network and learn.

For vendors the well attended conference offers opportunities to engage new prospects and win business opportunities. This is contrary to the problem that OnRec faced last year in San Francisco.

CONTENT
Keynote speaker, Dr. Gene Stanaland was great.

The old-timer is an economics professor at Auburn. He speaks with a southern drawl and has a unique way of explaining economics through storytelling. He supports the points he makes with jokes. His presentation was as fun as it was entertaining.

The same can’t be said for the speakers that immediately followed him. Casting Director Miranda Rivers didn’t know her audience. Her speech was more of an insight into what it’s like on a movie set than it was rich with recruiting tips or best practice.

FedEx VP of Talent Acquisition, John Leech successfully acted out an hour long commercial for FedEx. I don't think very many people walked out with a better understanding of how they can build their own employment brands. 

A privacy discussion panel with Jigsaw CEO Jim Fowler and privacy activist Deborah Pierce sparked some mildly heated debate. ERE chose well to pit Fowler and his sterling silver puzzle piece cuff-links against the clearly liberal and well informed privacy activist.  I think Deborah got the best of him. The ERE’s expo blog has more on this.

Another cool session was the one on start-ups. The two start-ups that I thought were most likely to succeed were Path101 and VisualCV. JobScore’s CEO was enthusiastic and sweaty which I’m always happy to see in a CEO pitching his early stage venture but ultimately I think the sharing model is flawed.

ENTERTAINMENT
Last but not least…the charity poker tournament was a huge success. ERE raised over $13,000 for charity. Jason Davis and Dave Manaster did a great job pulling this off. I took third place.

Search engine optimization rap video

This is good...

I heart lou adler

I'm hiring a few people. Top priority right now is finding this sales recruiter.

As you would expect, I've been spending a lot of time interviewing. In preparing to do so I've learned a ton and have Lou Adler to thank.

Particularly for these three articles:

• The Best Interview Question of All Time
• How to Interview Top Performers
• How to Hire Better Salespeople

Thanks Lou. Maybe Ill run into you next week in at the ERE Expo in San Diego.

Best millennial whitepaper to date

With, 'Workforce Transformation: New Leadership for the Multi-Generational Workforce,' Brian R. Johnson and Hitachi Consulting have put together the best whitepaper I have read on the topic of Millennials.

Be sure to check it out. What was the best millennial whitepaper you've read?

Exciting news on the way...stay tuned

Exciting news on the way...stay tuned

This is clearly ridiculous...or just stretch

Some technology companies will do anything for a little press.

Case in point: Itzbig is trying to milk Mike Huckabee's dropping out of the presidential campaign for press.

In a press release titled,'       Presidential Candidate Laments the Lack of a ‘Plan       B’, Itzbig argues that, had Huckabee registered with the career matching service, he would have had a better job offer waiting for him upon his resignation from the campaign.

I think the money spent on writing and releasing the press release would have been better spent buying links or display ads on site like mine, cheezhead, recruitingblogs and recruiting.com.

Update, 3/8/08:
But maybe I'm wrong. What they have been doing seems to be working. Itzbig just announced they landed Logitech..

Sales Recruiter, New York (NOW HIRING)

I'm hiring a recruiter in NYC. Here's my well thought out job description. Please share this with anyone you think could be a great fit. Please have her/him call me and apply here. 646-237-3404 Btw, if you think my job description stinks feel free to comment.

If you’re passionate about recruiting and genuinely enjoy matching candidates to the right career opportunity this position may be a great fit for you.

We’re a technology start-up in New York City. We’re bringing to market a technology and process that matches sales professionals to sales jobs at growth companies. We work only with fast growing sales organizations.

The Job
Our sourcing teams, technology and process will generate leads and suggest matches between candidates and jobs.

As a recruiter, you will be responsible for making the suggested matches happen. You will be a professional matchmaker.

Responsibilities
-    Maintain existing relationships with sales talent and hiring managers
-    Establish new relationships with sales talent and hiring managers through cold calling, networking, creative sourcing etc.
-    Phone screen and interview sales professionals
-    Write career related tips and content for company blog
-    Train sourcing teams on new tools and techniques
-    Cold call active and passive sales talent
-    Research fast growing sales organizations and cold call sales management teams

Requirements
-    Talented and eager recruiter

Our technology and process can suggest the matches. Can you make them happen?