StlRecruiting

Jason Golberg Out Of Jobster? Rumor Or Fact?

WARNING:  The following is idle speculation.

ValleyWag, which is about a reliable as the Drudge Report, is reporting a rumor that Jason Goldberg may be leaving Jobster for the east coast. Or at least his partner is.

Sources say that Goldberg's husband, Thomas, has been telling friends of their upcoming move to New York City and, on his last day at Seattle advertising firm Wong Doody, sent out a company-wide goodbye email indicating that he was leaving for geographical reasons, not personal or professional ones. Goldberg glosses over the rumor, telling us "My husband Thomas is applying to graduate-school programs in a number of cities. We currently have no plans to move. And no, I am not leaving Jobster."

Now, I want to stress a couple of things.

One:  Goldberg denies this.
Two:  Valleywag is a rumor site.

I have no independent knowledge of this, and have not called Jason to find out.  Take this with a grain of salt.  But we've seen denials from CEO's before.  Interesting that it even comes up.  We all know that Jason was involved in the first Clinton Administration.  Could he be making plans for the second, if Hillary wins?

Videos From OnRec And LegoLand

Jim Stroud has video of big names doing God Knows What at OnRec.  Cheezman, Gerry Crispin, Jim and Kevin Wheeler (who will be returning to St. Louis in December) and Mark (missed the last name) are headed, somewhere.  When asked about having this many Staffing guys in a single car, Jim Stroud replied, "This is how we roll."

I looked for my own video, and couldn't decide if I wanted to show you Family Guy Numa Numa, Superman in Grand Theft Auto, or this one. 

I went with Legoland, in honor of K-Fed. 

Working With A Client In Madagascar

I just got a phone call from 011261330794247......

For sure I thought it was  telemarketer - and then I realized, it was a client!  One of our clients, eworkforce.com, about whom we have remained very quiet above, took a trip to Madagascar to finish development of their application.

There are reasons behind the trip that I can't share, but it's one heck of a story. Imagine leaving the States and living in a place without phones or internet connections for several months while working to finish a grand entrepreneurial project.

It's the type of story that shows up in the front page of the Wall Street Journal. 

Employment Software Takes Safari:  Write Code, Dodges Lion.

Expect to hear a lot more about these guys.  One - the application addresses an overlooked piece of the ATS/JobBoard/CRM software world, and it's wicked cool.  I have confidence in this team.

More to come later in the year.  I just thought that was cool to share.
 

ERE Job Feed For St Louis

David Manaster sent me an interesting feed. It's a list of jobs posted at ERE for the St Louis area.  That link takes you to a map that shows you the jobs, but it's also available as a feed.

There are only three, but that's because you folks aren't posting jobs at ERE.net like they are in other cities.  It's a neat feature, and closer to what I imagine will be the future of job posting and map aggregation.  ERE.net is a place for recruiters and HR folks, so the jobs that you see are targeted, just like the audience of StlRecruiting is targeted. 

The RSS Feed, to put in your reader.

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Experience.com provides opportunities for internships and entry level job seekers.

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COMSYS Recruiter Interview: Tera Hockaday

COMSYS is a sponsor of the StlRecruiting Weblog, and so I thought it appropriate to introduce some COMSYS recruiters to you, in the hopes that candidates finding their way to this blog looking for technical or IT recruiters in St Louis will call them and see if they have positions that fit your skills.

What is your specialty at Comsys?  Placement Manager/Recruiting

What is your strongest area of expertise?

Java, SAP, COBOL, Testers, Project Managers. Good knowledge of COMSYS benefits, history of the company and excellent understanding of the market and career growth opportunities. My background includes a good understanding of immigrations including visa transfers and green card processing.

Using no marketing speak, why should a candidate choose you and COMSYS over another recruiter? I have been working for COMSYS for the past 13 years in multiple roles including Human Resources, Consultant Liaison and Recruiting. I have a unique perspective that allows me to understand the candidate's needs and communicate them effectively to COMSYS and the client. My knowledge of the industry and the trends allows me to help job seekers understand the market and increase their marketability.

Top 10 Resume Mistakes

Alan Hay, the Managing Director of the COMSYS Technical Staffing brand here in St Louis, went on visits with his account managers to seek feedback from clients.  Some of the information he received, he has compiled into a list for use by his recruiters to share with candidates.

This is an unscientific poll, a snapshot of client attitudes, but what's interesting is how closely it dovetails with lists we could create without asking clients.  Every recruiter knows this list by heart, but it's nice to see that clients and recruiters are on the same page with concern to resume errors.

Alan's Analysis:

IT consultants looking for permanent or contract work do themselves a disservice when they send out resumes with more information than they need. Most managers today don’t have the time or patience to sift through the irrelevant details they are looking for the person with the right skills and work experience background. Here are 10 things a resume could do without.

1. False information (the biggest no-no)
2. Spelling or grammatical errors
3. Unexplained gaps in work history
4. Outdated information
5. Opening objectives these tend to be too generic, “How do you differentiate yourself from another candidate”.
6. Details of every task you have performed in every job
7. Resumes over 5 pages (if your resume is over 5 pages look at ways to reduce it)
8. Personal attributes
9. Interest and hobbies
10. Excessive bragging

So the question comes to mind. How many of these errors are in your resume? 

In Which I Take Canada By Storm

For those of you in the habit of reading Canadian newspapers, you might have received a shock today - or been confused.

Yes, that's me in the Toronto Globe and Mail, having a little fun at the expense of the office birthday cake party.  Yes, it says Jason Durbin, but that's because I told the reporter about Jason Davis, and after talking to me, he must have confused the two.

The ceremony itself might only take a quarter of an hour; it's what happens afterward that drags down output. "You get all that frosting in your belly and it basically puts you in a coma," said Jason Durbin, a St. Louis, Mo.-based recruiter. "I hate sheet cakes. But I don't have much willpower. You put one in front of me and I'm going to eat it. And then I'm going to want a nap."

By the way - the call came to me, as they often do, when reporters read something in one of my blogs, or are referred to me by a blog reader.  I've been in about a dozen media publications in the last 18 months because of my blogging, and can trace over $100,000 in revenue to those appearances.  It's one of the measurable aspects on the ROI of blogging.

For those that are counting.  And yes - sometimes they're silly - like birthday cake, but you know what they say about publicity.

CareerBuilder Still Using Old AdAgency Ads

CareerBuilder is the number one job board in the world.  They got there on the strength of an ad campaign developed by Cramer-Krasselt. You all should remember Monk-Email, which if I understood correctly, was partly a St Louis creation (a woman who worked on the account was at the latest St Louis Interactive Community meeting).

Cramer Kesselt and CareerBuilder had a bit of a falling out when CareerBuilder decided to put the ad account up for review after the SuperBowl, purportedly after a snap poll on a website failed to give the Office-Jungle Wars theme the top spot.

Cramer Kesselt was so angry at this, they told CareerBuilder to get bent, and fired their client.  Since then, Cramer Kesselt has been doing quite well (as reported by Jeremy Mullman in AdAge).

Careerbuilder, who apparently has no shame, is still running the commercials.  I just saw "Performance Review" on Fox for the St Louis/San Francisco NFL game.

The "It's A Jungle Out There" commercials are all at the Careerbuilder website.  I personally like them, and they've really grown on me for their cleverness. It's another brilliant take on the brutal nature of client/employee relations.

I'm just surprised that Careerbuilder is still running them.  I know they paid for them, but what kind of agency is going to work with them in the future?  And kudos to Cramer Kesselt.  Firing clients who don't appreciate your work is a sign of strength.   

Electronic Recruiting 101: ERE And Shally Steckerl

I've been remiss. Scott Baxt of ERE mailed me out a copy of the 2007 Electronic Recruiting 101, the latest and greatest recruiting training tool written by Shally Steckerl and put out by the Fordyce Letter.

That was about six weeks ago - maybe longer.

The thing is - I actually read it - and was floored by it - but have neglected to do a full write-up, in order to be able to really, truly do the manual justice.

Well - if wishes were fishes...Here is the link to buy this superb manual.  I will be writing up not one, but several reviews on the book - and if you are a recruiter, or a trainer, or a branch manager, may I highly recommend you pony up the cash and buy this book for your office.

It's like a Krell Mind Machine for Recruiters.  And yes, Shally's a sourcer, but he writes about much more, including interviews, job postings, and blogs, and computer tricks.  Please buy it, and tell them you came from StlRecruiting.com, and apologize for not buying it earlier as I was slow in posting this.

More reviews on all of my sites later. 

Sr Recruiter in Chicago

One of my clients is looking for a Sr Recruiter in the northern suburbs of Chicago.  You should have some extensive experience in Applicaiton Development, as that's what you're working on.

Shoot me an e-mail if you know someone or if you are that person.

You'll be paid well.  none of this Salary commensurate with experience nonsense. 

-Jim