StlRecruiting

RehabCare College Recruiting Blog

It's not an official launch yet, but I'm bursting with pride with our latest client blog launch, the Rehabcare Campus Relations blog. 

The Campus Relations team at Rehabcare is a sourcing division for Rehabcare, a provider of physical rehabilitation services that hires occupational therapists, speech therapists, and physical therapists nationwide.  It's a tough job - healthcare shortages affect every company, and the lack of graduates often means intense competition for the 19,000 therapy graduates each year.

So when I met Barb Wallace at the Koppen Group back in June, it made sense to talk about how a student relations blog could help them maintain contact with prospective employees.  They are still in the infancy - the beta stage if you will, but I think of you head over there, you'll be more than surprised to see just how well they took to this blogging, Web 2.0 thing.

So be kind - and leave comments, if you would.  And of course link them, especially if you are in the college recruiting, medical, or sourcing space (they do reciprocal links, but only within reason), and  if you want to interview them, or e-mail them, or try something new - they're ready to say hello to the blogopshere.

http://college.rehabcare.com  And yes, it's a Typepad site. All of my sites are, these days.  If you're curious how social marketing media is done -  pop on over to http://durbinmedia.com.

New Position At iBridge Solutions

Jasen Morisaki has a new position he's trying to fill - it's not a straight recruiter position - and it was interesting enough to post.  It's called a consulting manager, and they're looking for a recruiting or salesperson whose tired of making cold calls, but happens to be really good at candidate management.  The position will basically be a liaison between the company and the contractors.

It's a salaried position:  $50,000 plus bonus - so less than hotshot recruiters make, but a different job.  I know a lot of people who might jump at it.  The description is below the fold.  Interested people can apply at iBridge.

Carnival Of The Recruiters I

Welcome one and all to week one of the Carnival of the Recruiters.  The theme this week is a perennial favorite of Adam Sandler fans, and  for anyone who learned the secret to getting the extra chicken strip or free tater tots, well, this should bring up memories. 

Today's posts come from around the Recruiting Blogosphere, with some new voices who entered at the CotR homepage.

Next week, the carnival will be hosted by Paul DeBettignies, so make sure you're sending in your entries by this Friday to the MNHeadhunter. And as a special surprise, if you finish off all of your tasty lunch, there's a special video dessert at the end for you.

For with no further adieu, I present your carnival.

Tator Tots and Fish Sticks: Jason Alba  spends his time at the deep fryer, deep in thought on what he wishes Recruiter knew.  Lots of people responded to that one.

Pizza (Cheese pizza that is):  Joel Cheeseman continues his Sysiphean effort to bring to justice all companies with -ster in their name.  In this case, Joel questions the privacy settings for Jobster.

Spaghetti and Meatballs and Garlic Bread:  Mike Tiffany delivers a solid meal beloved by all with his description of the differences between selling projects and selling staffing.

Branch Manager And Recruiting Positions

Got a call from Brent Gobrecht  - he's a staffing recruiter with two St Louis positions, and he was curious about referrals in the St Louis area.

1) He's looking for a senior IT Recruiter to work with an established firm.

2) He's looking for a non-selling branch manager.  No quotas for you, but they do expect you to go on sales calls with your AM's as part of your job duties. This is a fully staffed team - not just two or three people.

Looking for a Non-producing Branch Manager to oversee both a recruiting and sales team for a $100+million dollar national IT staffing firm.  Person will be responsible to oversee an established branch in St. Louis.  Person should have 5 + years sales experience within the IT industry with at least a year of management or mentoring.

If this fits you, give Brent a call (215) 795 0220 and tell him where you heard about the job: 

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Find high quality Bilingual jobs at LatPro.com.

Carnival Of The Recruiter Deadline: Today at 7:pm CST

The Carnival of the Recruiters deadline is coming.  I have about a dozen submissions so far.  These are the best of posts, mashed together into one big meaty stew of bloggy goodness.

The theme will be The High School Cafeteria, and I'll be categorizing your posts as those favorites from the lunch lady.

If you're still interested, send me an e-mail with the link to our favorite post of the week, your name, and your blog title.  The e-mail link is up there on the right.  Alternately, you can submit here to the Carnival homepage.

The Carnival debuts Tuesday morning.

Next week's host will be Paul DeBettignies from MNHeadhunter, and after that, Jason Alba from JibberJobber.  Recruiting Animal will host on the 21st, which means we just need someone for the 14th.  These will appear on a carnival page, soon.

Get those entries in, so I can make them into entrees.

Where Did You Go To School?

It's a common joke/point of contention/useful social lubricant in St Louis to greet strangers with the question of where they went to school.  For those not native to the River City, this question is often perplexing, due mainly because the answer to the question is supposed to be what high school you went to.

That may seem quaint (and often annoying) to people from outside of St Louis, but it's a local question with a purpose. With one question, the questioner can determine your religion, socio-economic status and political beliefs.

How you answer the question matters as much as the question itself.  Your tone, your reaction, and your promptness in answering what high school you went to says volumes about who you are, even when the answer, is "out of state."

This piece should explain some of it.  St Louis is a town of neighborhoods.  It's always been that way. But for those nose in the air types from around the country, perhaps you ought to take a look at your own ways of branding strangers.

Los Angeles:  What's your area code? (and what kind of car do you drive).  Having a 626 phone number is like having a cold - no one wants to shake your hand until you've improved your situation.  310?  Nice.  818?  Ewww.

If you live further South, say in Orange County - you can tell where you live by how you answer.  Newport, Costa Mesa and you say Newport or Costa Mesa.  If it's Anaheim or Santa Ana, the correct answer is Orange County.

New York:  Are you a bridge and tunnel guy, or one of those yuppies in Greenwich?  When you say you live in NYC, do you mean Manhattan?  What number?  The 60's?  The 80's?   Are you in the Bronx or Brooklyn?

Tampa, Florida:  Tampa, or Clearwater?  Pinellas or St Pete, or Indian Rocks?  Brandon, or Hyde Park?

D.C.:  Republican or Democrat.  What kind of Republican?  Fiscal or Social?  Hawk or Religious?  Blue Dog or Union? 

The truth is that human beings label each other. In St Louis, for many years, they high school you went to was a convenient way of ascertaining what someone was like without coming out and saying, "How rich were your parents and do you like a Pope or a preacher?

Same questions as anywhere else, just a little less direct. 

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EmployeescreenIQ provides background checks to employers globally.

Clarifying The Carnival Of The Recruiters

I mentioned the carnival of the recruiters earlier last week, and wanted to clear up some misconceptions about what I'm looking for.

The Carnival is not a guest post.  It's a collection of links for your best post of the week.  You take a post you already published, and if you would like to see it get more attention, you forward it to that week's carnival host.

We link your post, with a clever hook, and put it in with the "Best of" posts from other bloggers.

If you are a host, you collect the posts and create  big link post.

Hopes that clears things up.  So send me your links for Friday's Carnival, and if you want to host next week's, leave a comment and your website.

Comsys St Louis Sponsors StlRecruiting.com

Comsys is one of the largest staffing firms in the country.  Their St Louis office, located in Chesterfield, has agreed to become the sponsor for StlRecruiting for the next three months.

What this means is they'll be headlining the advertising there to the left, and they'll have a landing page at http://comsys.stlrecruiting.com, and you'll see some of their jobs posted as in-text ads over the course of their sponsorship.

The objectivity of StlRecruiting will of course remain the same, namely my thoughts and opinions - but if you like the site, and you're looking for an IT position as a contractor or a permanent employee, you should consider clicking on the logo to the left and giving them a call.  They're smart enough to read and advertise on blogs - certainly that shows a better understanding of your world then the recruiter living off the internet job boards.

We'll do some posts, interview of the Comsys recruiters, and on their landing page, they'll post technical expertise from their contractors.  It's a brave new world.    

Telecommuting When Highway 40 Is Closed

SSE is sponsoring a seminar for small business on the challenges and logistics of telecommuting next Thursday, September 23.

Small Business Briefing: Telecommuting 101
 
Join us next Thursday and in 45 minutes you will learn what every small business owner needs to know to make informed decisions about telecommuting.
 
Hear first hand from St. Louis’ local computer and networking services expert, Vince Sechrest of SSE.  Sechrest was recently featured in the July 20 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article “Companies turn to telecommuting for Highway 40 blues.”
  
 Walk away with hands-on information to:
 
 · Determine if telecommuting is right for your organization
 · Assess the technical options available
 · Understand the security risks and how to protect your data
 · Create a plan of action
  
Date: August 23, 2007
Time: 8:30 – 9:30 AM
Location: Microsoft, 3 City Place, Ste 1100, St. Louis, MO  63141
 
We look forward to you joining us at this briefing.  Every participant will be provided a step by step planning document, worksheets to help determine what kind of access to provide to whom in your organization, and an I-64 Employers Information Kit developed by the Regional Business Council. 
 
Please RSVP by August 22 to Rick Demko via email rick.demko@pretecht.com, or phone (314)439-4725.

For the complete Post-Dispatch article click here: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/workplace/story/F59DF3B98C3A15018625731E0007063F?OpenDocument

And to learn more about the upcoming Highway 40 lane closures visit www.thenewi64.org.

Announcing Carnival Of The Recruiters!

We've tried just about everything else in the recruiting community, but one thing I don't remember us sampling is the phenomenon known as the carnival.

A carnival, in blog terms, is a traveling weekly column, where bloggers send in their best story of the week,to be coalesced into a single steaming pile of, uh, goodness.  The idea originally came from Siflay Hraka, and was used to great effect in the early days of blogdom.

The premise is simple.  We write - a lot.  And with so much information free flowing around the net, sometimes are best work gets lost as it scrolls down the page.

The rules are simple.  The homepage for the Carnival is here.  I'll also be creating a Page here at StlRecruiting that lists the people who are hosts, and the available dates.  I have several of you in mind, but after about the first month, I'll open it up to anyone.  At that point, we'll have a sign-up sheet page where anyone who wants to host the carnival picks their week. The first week will be here at StlRecruiting.com.

So how do you run a carnival?
Step 1:  submissions are due by Friday at 5 p.m. for the week following.  Carnivals are posted on Tuesday, either as a large compilation of every post, or as a Best of Submissions, in which case the host picks the best posts and links those.

Each carnival has a theme, chosen by the author, and the author groups submissions in that theme.

Since we're starting this late - all of the posts you submit will have until Friday, August 24th at 5.p.m. PST.  The first posting will be August 28th, early Tuesday morning.

So if you want to be a part - forward me your best posts to jdurbin@durbinmedia.com with the subject, Blog Carnival, or submit them through the Blog Carnival, or send them by carrier pigeon.  And leave a comment if you want to be a host.

Let the Games Begin!

You're In Good Company

My computer may be shot, but Durbin Media keeps plugging along.

My address book is gone, but my list of St Louis Recruiters is growing.  We're at 296 right now, in the raw list, most with names and numbers. 

My intention, is to forward a personal - one-to-one email introduction to each of these recruiters and suggest they drop by and visit StlRecruiting once in a while.

The other cities on the list, are next, with over 123 names for Seattle already.  Let's see if we can't create communities of interest around local blogs.

Computer Crash Wiped Out My Address Files

My address files are gone, and so is most of my data. I have back-ups, but not for my Outlook files.  So, if you want to get ahold of me, you're going to have to do the writing.

Should be up in a week, but I missing many of your contact details - so if you would be so kind - shoot me an e-mail so I can put you in the new address book.

-Jim

St Louis Chapter Of The IIBA: Business Analysts

Jasen Morisaki of iBridge Solutions e-mailed me to let me know that a St Louis Chapter of IIBA, the International Institute of Business Analysts, is starting, and their first meeting is September4, 2007, from 5:30-7:30 at the Microsoft Offices at Cityplace.

IIBA Information:
Objective/Goals:
The St. Louis chapter of the IIBA hopes to provide local members and those who are interested in becoming members, the following:
-    Opportunity to learn more about the IIBA
-    Ability to network with your peers
-    Information on how you can influence and contribute to the Business Analysis profession
-    Opportunity to learn and share best practices

Getting Started:
The kick-off meeting provides an opportunity to ask questions about the IIBA and chapter formation and determine if we have at least 15 IIBA members or potential members who are interested in forming a new chapter. 

If you are interested:

RSVP:  Kurt Rolland at info@stlouis.theiiba.org by August 30, 2007.  Please include your Name, Title, Company, and E-mail.

Don't Manage Your Account, Sell It

Mike Tiffany has a sweet post on the difference between being given an account and actually selling an account. The difference between a manager and a seller is a different battle than the difference between a hunter and a farmer (hunter cold-calls, farmer just sits on accounts), but Mike does the industry a favor in explaining how to get the most out of your accounts, even if you're not the one to break them.

Some essentials:

Managing:
) Am I on a preferred vendor list that my company was on before I was assigned the account?

2) Do I take the job orders and respond with resume from a VMS or email?

Selling:

1) Do I actively influence clients to accept my candidates or projects when they were leaning the other way?

2) Do I push back to get higher rates every time I can?

The issue seems cut and dry, but the truth is that in places like St Louis, where vendor lists are the rage and specific rules prevent you from actually speaking to managers, there are times when even the sharpest salesmen have to learn to accept defeat.

Of course, the way to improve your standing is to have a good mix of accounts.  If your accounts all want you to be managers, consider opening some accounts that allow you to be sellers.

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Find thousands of Hispanic jobs at LatPro.com.

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New Recruiting Blog: PRP Partners

It's always nice to see new faces on the recruiting block, and today my referrer logs sent me over to Peak Performance, the new blog for Paramount Recruiting Partners.

The writing is crisp, the blog well-designed, and they had the good sense to link StlRecruiting.  Moreover, Paramount is a third party firm, which means they are using their blog to make money.

Hello ROI!

Glancing through their site, I also see an interesting proposition.  The fees they charge are based on the time it takes a company to make a decision.

In addition, we offer a fee structure that is unique to the industry. We listened to the complaints from both the employer and the candidate. Our innovative pricing model is our answer to those specific challenges.

In 2006, national rates ranged from 25% - 40%. Our approach is simple. The quicker you make a decision, the lower the rate we charge. You can pay as little as 10% for a successful hire, but no more than 30%.

By encouraging a timely response from the employer (our response to the challenges faced by candidates), we reward them with a lower rate for making a hiring decision sooner rather than later (our response to the challenges faced by employers).

That's an interesting fix to the dilemma of high fees and no responses.  So welcome them, one and all, and good luck PRP.  Keep track of the business you close from the blog.  We expect to hear from you soon.

Jobster And Facebook News

Jobster's new Facebook Employment Application is going to turn some heads.  A write-up over at Seattle Recruiting.com

My LinkedIn Database Is Huge

My LinkedIn contacts number over 1400. Most of those are recruiters, with a few business friends tossed in from when I was actively courting them.  The number is too large to effectively manage, but I've been planning on putting some time into making better use of it.

That time is now.  StlRecruiting.com has had over 47,000 unique visitors in the last year.  That's about 130 visitors a day, with another 130 feedburner subscribers.  It's a nice number, but I want it bigger.

Using the People Search at LinkedIn, I've identified over 500 recruiters in and around the St Louis Area, that I'm connected to by at least two degrees.  I'm going to make sure that every one of those people know about StlRecruiting, and over time, what I'll have assembled is the area's largest database of recruiters, all who have heard of StlRecruiting at least once, and hopefully are checking the site every week.

When I first started this site, I was just trying to connect with other recruiters to improve my craft, but I think I've reached a point where my goals are bigger.  My wife and I starting a blog staffing agency for our interactive marketing firm, but I believe there's a big role for StlRecruiting to play as well.

If you are a recruiter, staffing expert, HR manager, or are involved in employment in any way, and would like to know more about how blogging can improve your passive candidate flow, consider connecting with me on LinkedIN.  I'm easy to find - just check the e-mail up there on the right.

All Your Face(book) Are Belong To Us: Facebook Bans Recruiter

Harry Joiner sent me a note two days ago telling me he was banned from Facebook for uploading his addressbook.

I know that sounds crazy - but that's all he did, and his response was a notice telling him he had been banned, and then a second notice telling him the decision was final.

What? What kind of idiot company encourages you to upload your address book and then bans you for doing so?  Facebook, that's who.

Predictably, the recruiting blogopshere is coming to Harry's defense.  Here is a list of sites writing in support, and they include the Animal's research into other Facebook members who have been banned, and don't know why.

So the policy of Facebook is to ban its members without warning, and refuse to tell them what they did to get banned.  Who made up that rule?  I signed in to my account, and I can't see anything that tells you not to upload your address book.  The Facebook website even encourages you to do so and tells you how to create a contact list. 

I wonder what that number is?   100 people in your contact list  equals banning?  1000 people?

Or maybe it's because Harry is a business?

In addition, it is a violation of our Terms of Use to use one's account for advertising or promotional puroses.

 

One - their employee needs to watch out for typos. Two, if you are in business, and you want to network with other people for business reasons, it stands to reason that Facebook doesn't want you.  Well, I guess they better cancel my account then.  And while you're at it, cancel the account of every other person I'm connected to.  We're in this to make money, and we wouldn't sign up to Facebook if we weren't.

I wonder how many of those 30 million members signed up because they wanted to make money, and heard Facebook was the next big thing?  If we can't use it, we'll leave.  And if we leave, the Facebook bubble pops, and returns to a social website for teens and college kids.  That's over half the users.  Yep - over half of Facebook Users are over the age of 25.  We're not on it to arrange parties or meet people.

Here's a scary thought.  Let's say you build your social network on Facebook instead of LinkedIn.  You speak to clients, and add them to your list as you grow.  You use the site to stay in touch with those clients, and then one day, you're banned.  No reason, no recourse.  Everything you built up is gone, and Facebook won't tell you why. 

Don't think it can't happen.  Lucky for Harry he was banned on the first day, and not after he invited his entire network to join.

This whole situation is mindboggling, and represents hubris of the first order.   Maybe when you have 31 million members, you don't have to pay attention to your actual users, but my hope is that reporters catch wind of this story, do some digging, and start poking some holes in the Facebook mythology.

Right now - every Web 2.0 company is rushing to build widgets to grab hold of the Facebook community.  I wonder what happens when one of them violates the Terms of Service while using their widget.  Many companies are planning multi-million dollar widget strategies.  With the kind of arrogance displayed in banning Harry Joiner, it won't be long before people start to question why they're investing time and money into a company that doesn't want them there. 

Marketing Professors has more on who owns your data.  In this case, Facebook does.

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You'll find physician jobs on TheRecruiter.com.

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Starting A New Management Position? What To Watch Out For

Harry Joiner introduced me to Sally McKenzie writes on ECommerce Consulting, and while reading through her blog, I wandered over to Peter Kretzman, who writes CTO/CIO perspectives.

That's the power of mixing social networking with blogging.  It gave me my post for the day, and introduced me to two bright new minds on business.

Peter writes recently on what to expect when starting a new position as a CTO, and I found his comments astounding, because most of what he writes, I've done - not as the CTO, but as an employee looking for new management to correct every problem that exists.

The first problem that a CTO, or any manager should expect, and avoid, is the Messiah Complex.

     You’re suddenly the anointed savior of a situation that it seems everyone was frustrated with.  Thank God you’re here.
All the “sins of the past”, however major they are in impact, are (consensus would seem to have it) nonetheless able to be cleaned up (yes, by you), in a jiffy (say within the first three months or so, unless of course you can do it faster). Get to work.

As an employee, my expectations of the new boss were usually, Thank God we have someone here to solve our problems, or My God, The new boss is the same as the old boss.  It never occurred to me that the problem was the structure of the department, and not the managerial acumen of the new boss.

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Find Diversity employment at DiversityJobs.com.

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Betsy Beard Has Her Own Blog

I didn't realize this, but Fleishman Hillard recruiter Betsy Beard is a blogger.  Granted, it's on Wordpress, but some of my best friends are on Wordpress.

What's more exciting is this is another St Louis recruiter who gets that the way to source is put your name in front of the audience you wish to recruit for.

My prediction:  In the next three years, most PR, Marketing and Advertising firms will have either full-time bloggers on staff, or blogging (and social media) will be a skill requirement like having Excel or experience posting to job boards.  Which means Betsy is positioning herself for success. 

And those recruiters who were smart enough to start now, will not only be in demand, they'll be better recruiters with better networks.

If you are a recruiter blogger - please let me know about it - especially if you're in one of my cities (St Louis, Charlotte, Seattle, Kansas City)