During his time with Jobster, Jason was able to define what he liked about social media and what he didn't like. He is a very fast thinker, fast talker, and fast worker. He is the ultimate, "get 'er done guy" without the obnoxious accent. RecruitingBlogs.com was born in July, 2007 and he loves talking about its early days. The explosion of membership has surprised Jason and the task of maintaining the site takes a considerable amount of time. Communicating with each member is easy but as his own friend base grows, personal interaction becomes more difficult.

When asked about RecruitingBlogs' recent evolution, Jason responded, "I don't ever think about what it's going to be. There are so many ideas. Every time we talk, there's a new idea. I was very proud of what it looked like and what it represented when there were only 300 people on the site." Imagine how he feels now. "They were all people that I knew had been involved with Recruiting.com. Dave Mendoza asked a number of times, "Do you want me to promote this to my network?" Jason said no every time, finally Dave just went ahead and did it. (Thanks Dave!)

Jason says that he is a specialist at starting sites and losing money, "I am not the turn-around guy." I have trouble believing this and interrupt in classic Rayanne form, "Your good ideas are the people you surround yourself with." He continues, "Yes, and I am interested in this being big. The flow of activity, the generation of ideas, the conversations are what I really like. It is a great resource..." That's what I always say.

Jason tells a story of Las Vegas, "When I first get there, all I really want to do is find my room and take a nap. But by the time I get there, I'm a $1000 poorer. Two reasons:
One, I didn't know what I was looking for and
B, by the time I got there, I had already spent too much time finding it."


This is sort of the reason behind the RBC re-design. "What if you only have three minutes a day to cruise through the site, can I give some kind of value to those three minutes?" The design shift has addressed that and the platform changes. Next up is Splits.org, "This will be tremendous. It will be re-launched soon with the authentication API built right into it. This will remove all barriers that are built into the recruiting space. These things that are called inefficiencies; I look at splits to use the inefficiencies to make placements." Jason and Miles Jennings of TalentBar have created this new tech playground for recruiters and twitter-ites. His hope for Splits.org, "I want to build a platform where recruiters say this is the fastest way to make a placement."

Splits.org focuses on getting the work done the fastest way possible. You still have to build your business in other ways: sourcing resumes, interacting with clients, watching press releases for department expansions or companies with force reductions. With splits.org, recruiters bring jobs or candidates here because they want to, it is about interacting. "If you have a robust system with thousands and thousands of recruiters using it, the intels of the world will say, 'look at all the deals being made.' The difference here is we want to communicate with you; it's not about an engagement request. There is no way for it to work unless you make a connection." This addresses the current state of the economy - it is a throwback to the bartering system of old.

"The only thing that keeps me awake at night is, how do members justify to their bosses spending so much time on RBC? I remember the same people posting on ERE all the time and thinking, 'How do they justify it?' I am moving down the path to build some interesting tools that recruiters can use and the destinations where these things can fit."


Don't let it keep you awake, Jason. We are here because class is in session, because the exchange is worth the time, because it shows commitment to our craft, because sometimes you gotta hash it out, and because we are part of a community. And it feels like home.

Read Part 1

by rayannethorn