Job advice, video interviews, and ten ways tech annoys

Anyone who has ever worked on a complex and lengthy software development project knows that the involvement of a business analyst can mean the difference between success and failure. And that involvement starts at the very beginning of a project.

Really? Yep. Here’s some more insight on what a business analyst REALLY does and why they add value.

There’s a lot of talk surrounding social media these days, particularly from boss to tech-savvy underling (see seesmic clips to the right). Here are some ways to up your sales cred, your thought leadership cred and your social media standing (that is, if your audience cares).

TechRepublic has done it again. Devising a marketing strategy and thinking about using Flash, Adobe Reader or Java to allow people to view it? Think again. Here is TR’s list of 10 most annoying programs on the Internet. Yeah RealPlayer, we’re lookin at you!

Great article for job-seekers on theladders.com. Abby Locke points out that building your personal brand, networking and defining your target are all ways to ensure that you don’t end up spinning your wheels. Of course, she saved the best advice for the end of the article. Find a great recruiter!

Before you go, check out my interview with industry great (he likes it when I say that) Gerry Crispin over on RecruitingBlogs.com.

Also for recruiters, check out John Sumser’s article (courtesy of ZoomInfo) on multigenerational recruiting. He’s a genius!

Using Video to Promote your Brand

Well, there’s a lot of ways to get your face out there. Here’s is Bill Vick’s Extremerecruiting.tv interview of me. One kind gentleman told me I looked like I just woke up.

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For those of you unfamiliar with Bill or his ExtremeRecruiting.tv, you should visit the site. It’s an excellent resource if you are just starting in social media, recruiting OR if you want to take your firm to the next level.

IgnoRANT

As some of you may be aware, I recently returned from my second recruiting/HR conference in so many months. It was amazing and I learned so very much. The issue that leaves me scratching my head is one that John Sumser brought up in his speech about Bringing Home Online Networking. I can’t remember his exact words but in explaining why the Recruiting Roadshow came to be, he mentioned that it had at least a little to do with the fact that there is no “recruiting college.”

Please don’t write and tell me about your HR degree. I will slap you silly. I don’t know much at this point but I am fully aware that HR and Recruiting are BOTH (yeah that’s right) subsets of the larger umbrella of talent management. Now, mainstream colleges are admittedly good at prepping you for a whole lotta not much. My degree in communications has been spun into jobs in PR, Marketing, Journalism and Business Development.

I guess, if you wanted to, you could spin a comm degree into recruiting. I have. But the deal is, where is the actual education? In a country rife with talk of recession and soaring gas prices, wouldn’t now be the very BEST time to put our education weight behind a career that can be done virtually, is fairly “green” and is bent on making the right connections so that as few people are unemployed as possible ? Yeah, I know it’s an oversimplifcation. I also know that there are some incredible industry greats, books, seminars and some awesome conferences. But do these address the complex subtleties that new recruiters face? Are they available to those doe-eyed young guys and gals that want to grow up to be recruiters? (okay wishful thinking. . ) Is there a curriculum that can keep up with the ever changing landscape of talent and the technology that has begun to drive it?

I’m no ivy-leaguer and I don’t believe every strength needs to be degreed. I get that going out and finding the info on our own makes us a scrappy and formidable bunch. I was just going on a rant. . .

Headed to Vegas

Well, that’s a bit misleading see, I just got back from Vegas and I met so many British people that perhaps you might want to pretend you’re reading this with an accent. That’s how I’m writing it anyway.

I (Saturday) returned from Las Vegas and the Kennedy Info Conference. This was actually my (drum roll please) second conference and I feel that I learned quite a bit.

Since Jason of RecruitingBlogs.com and Dave of Sixdegreesfromdave.com once again played the incredibly gracious hosts, I would be remiss not to mention the awesome Sourcing Summit (hat tip Shally!) that was held afterward and the Recruitingblogs.com lounge.

The RBC lounge was completely wonderful. There were comfy couches (must have been a girl’s idea because “networking” in heels is a killer), several wifi equipped laptops (for us social media junkies) and live streaming feed featuring all of us RBC folk so the people at home could get a great sense of the energy and the fun at the conference.

Some highlights included the always sweet and funny Claudia Faust. But don’t let that sunny, gorgeous exterior fool you, this woman knows her stuff. A relative veteran (compared to me, everyone is) in the industry talking with a semi-newbie made for some interesting observations. As she put it: “There were all these technologies that were supposed to make our lives so much easier, that were supposed to be the silver bullet. But the truth is, it still comes back down to relationship.” Here, here Ms. Faust!

Also, a great mind to watch, Josh Letourneau. His take on how to create efficient processes within the recruiting sourcing field, while retaining the full scope of relational recruiting is fascinating. And although he’s young, listening to him hold his own with great like Sumser and Ramer is pretty impressive. Plus, he plays with Legos.

For me, one of the most notable presentations was given by Nike’s Staffing Director Daniel Hanyzeiwski.

His non-nonsense, easy to understand talk on metrics may have turned me around on the entire subject. Usually, (to my chagrin) I am the last person to want to talk about numbers or figuring them or any subset thereof, but he made metrics, fascinating. Also I think there was a bit of a “wow” factor there when I found out he got his degree in fine arts (sculpture), identification you know.

I also loved Yves Lermusi’s talk on recognizing and growing talent. His insights into the way the mind works is often more philosophical than many recruiters want to get. But I loved it. Perhaps because I majored in Psych for a year or two, I find working within one’s strengths a necessity and I further believe that large employers, organizations and recruiting and staffing professionals, need to ensure that people are aware of their strengths and have the opportunities they need to grow in their areas of talent.

Tech Thursday

Sometimes I think I should call these “Tapped Thursdays”. Usually, by this point in the week, I am so tapped out that I can barely see straight. Hence my little out here! Fortunately, I receive so much great content all week long, that I’m rarely at a loss to get something out there that will interest people who dig the intersection of technology and talent.

A blog about stuff seems to have no real focus, although since writer Jeff is a young ‘un, there are a lot of neat tricks in the posts. Cooler? The cool widgets he has installed are easy to rip.

Hearing a lot of talk about Xobni but a dev friend of mine says it gives him grief. You decide. I’m too lazy! Supposed to make Outlook like Gmail but I already use Gmail, will not switch til something better comes along.

Xtremerecruiting.tv is exploring the depths of the wakeuporyou’llmissit coupling of recruiting and social media on a DAILY basis. Interviewer and industry rockstar Bill Vick started the channel (is that right) and the Ning group.

I was featured by Mr. Dave Mendoza at RBC this week. Please, please stop applauding. Like an idiot, I used NOT a permalink and now the blast I sent out is useless. Here is the link to the interview.

Not tech but a lot of the stuff here isn’t anyway. Network your way through the recession!

The job for the person or the person for the job?

As HCI continues to grow, we’ve found that hiring people for your own company can be tough. Consider the following, after finding several “semi-fits” for one of our open sales positions, we’ve started wondering if we should be approaching the whole thing from a personality angle rather than a skills angle. After all, it takes a certain kind of personality to work in a results-based environment that has no hub. Some people are meant to work from home (or at least not have to come into the office), others fail miserably. Some people, while incredibly skilled, need the constant managerial work that a decentralized environment, can not and will not provide.

So after seeing some pretty incredible resumes and screening them, we (duh we’re recruiters for heaven’s sake!) started realizing this fairly obvious fact. So now what? Do we search for professionals who have no experience in our specific field but who have proven experience with consistent but not omniscient management? The truth is, this is not skills vs. personality but skills vs. traits. If it were personality, our assessment would be more like this instead of referencing greasy tacos.

As I have debated this problem it occurs to me that the position open at HCI may be one of those crossover jobs. The one you never thought you’d love but ended up being your career path? Hmmmm.

So much can change in a decade

Just so you know this next post is a shameless suckup to Ryan Paugh’s (anyone know how to pronounce that? Paw? Pog? Poff?) recent post seen here. I love the title, the premise and that fact that he vaguely looks like that kid in High School Musical that makes me proud to wear the title of cougar (kidding!!).

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, what he’s really talking about is the actual shift that is happening between the old right and the new smart.

Some say: “yes but what does it do?”

We say: “Oh, I wonder what all this could do?”

See the difference? Another high note for me from this post is how being RIGHT isn’t as highly valued as it once was; transparency is being actively sought by large companies willing to pay big bucks for it and people who have always followed every last rule and procedure are finding it rather difficult to learn “new tricks”. Last time I wrote about this on FOT, I got a bit of flack, but that’s okay. I am NOT disrespecting any particular age group, simply pointing out that there are mindsets that are going out of fashion (how’s that for a old school phrase?).

The best and last part about this post is the big ol slice of humble pie at the end. We’re (he’s) young, we’re smart, we’ve got the world by the tail, but you can say we’re wrong, that’s cool.