Search Results - imagine

Blog Post: Top 4 Virtual Event Platforms for Your Next Virtual Career Fair: For the event industry, especially career events, 2020 has not been a kind year. Instead of a catastrophic regression, however, the industry has found a new way to…; Added by Ngan Pham at 6:59am on July 13, 2021

Blog Post: The Net / Net of Net Geners

The Net Net of the Net Geners

Presented by: Doug Douglas – National Engagement Manager at…

Added by Doug Douglas at 5:01pm on May 9, 2012

Blog Post: An interview with VisualCV.com: I don't know how many of you have had a look at VisualCV.com yet? In a word: cute. Great idea, great networking capability, great future. We're all…; Added by Paul Harrison at 7:05am on August 18, 2008

Blog Post: Forget Big Data. Recruitment Has a Huge Data Problem.: Whenever I see an article on Big Data and how it's going to revolutionize HR from…; Added by Joel McLean at 5:13pm on August 14, 2015

Topic: Meet Jeff Newman, Empathetic Eccentricity: Passion in Recruitment, Punjabi Cooking To History of Baltic Republics: thenticity. My friends, rarely has someone been so transparent in his quirks, been so effusive in his passion in our trade, and so in love with candy, wife and gaming ... but within it all ... a love for his fellow man. He identified the 9/11 perspective, one I share ... a crisis which taught lessons. We found the inner core of what drives this business for not only successful people but also successful human beings. Jeff is one of those successful 'human beings' because he has been shaped, by circumstance, to view his own personal mortality. Even so ... its also part of who Jeff truly is as a person to pull himself forward, look his client in the eyes, and be driven to know what he can do for his fellow man. He is the embodiment of the reality our friend Steve Levy often speaks of ... the People skills 1.0 few people pay mind to, preferring a run from basics and onwards to all things 2.0 We know that without people skills 1.0 we have fads and gimmickry. In Jeff, we have someone who can count 1.0, 2.0 and so forth and having lived them before they were terms. A 'people' person in a people 'industry' - imagine that. Jeff reflects the conscience of Industry Leader, Don Ramer and his themes of bringing empathy, transparency and love to our passion for humanity and I am esteemed to have observed this in his own words. We have authenticity as a driving force in a veteran recruiter like Jeff, not for love of dollar alone, but for love of looking in his reflection and valuing what he represents. It matters to Jeff, it matters to me and it should matter to all of us. It isn't a value that is fait accompli in this industry regretfully. I see talent in Jeff, his colleagues at the office do as well. but today my friends, it is important all of you see it as well which is why I take great pleasure in introducing a valued contributor to our community today. Meet Our friend .... Jeff Newman. Jeff Newman, Senior Technical Recruiter at Genesis10 • RecruitingBlogs Profile • Linkedin Profile • Office Email and Personal Email • Office Number: 212.688.5522 ext. 20 Q&A with Jeff Newman Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. Jeff: One of my strongest recruiting traits is that I really am not much of a game player. I am the same guy at home, as I am talking with a candidate, talking with a peer or making friends with someone in Human Resources. My essence, the core of Jeff Newman, is to take everything with a smile, good and bad, and remember that this too will pass. I do this at the office, at home and occasionally at the Gym (to know me is to hug me). I am married 11 years as of January 18th. The key to my marriage is communication, being friends first, and nodding, leaning forward, and looking right in her eyes while saying “I agree”. It is kind of cool that that works in Sales relationships too, eh? Senda is my wife’s name and she is an MSW/CSW who specializes in HIV/AIDS. She works as a Senior Social Worker for St. Mary's in Harlem http://www.stmarysharlem.com/jsp/. I figure that her good work might make up for some of the things I've done while, what’s the word the hardcore ethicists use now, “rusing”? When I started, we called it Pirating...kinda like the folks in Somalia but without the heavy weaponry. Most important in my home life is the fact that Senda knows that recruiting often has lot more failure then success. We get hung up on more then we get to hear “AWESOME, I have been WAITING for someone to call me at work who I never heard of!” I had a boss once say to me that this is a Business of Failure. What do you call a baseball player who only succeeds three times out of ten? Very rich. The trick is to try and take that home as little as possible. At least in NYC, non-corporate side recruiters (especially in IT) are looked at better than muggers but still worse than building contractors, in terms of social status. You can't behave like that or you will start to believe you are that. Most of all, you cannot take the fact that out of 75 calls you made that day, 70 amounted to nothing. You take home the 5 that were successful and leave the negative ones in the office. I also am the pet human of 2 of the coolest cats in the world. Cleo has had Senda and I for 11 years, she is all black and she has had us since she was still taking milk in the bottle. She likes to lie in our bed and she sleeps with us every night. Goofy, our tabby, is about 2 years old and he is chock full of energy. Senda taught him how to play fetch with toy mice and he can do this for hours on end. He and Cleo are not the best of friends, however. Six Degrees: Tell us about the after-hours version of Jeff Newman Jeff: As anyone who has spent more then 10 minutes with me will tell you, I am quite unusual. If I was richer, they’d call me eccentric and I’d be on the front page of the NY Post. I feel that you can never have enough knowledge, learn enough things, and or try enough new things. I try to keep my span of knowledge broad, even if just to use as tidbits when forming a relationship. I genuinely am interested in everything from Punjabi cooking to the history of the Baltic republics. One thing unusual in our house is that we don't own a television. We watch DVDs through the PC and all the major networks post their shows through their websites so we don't miss much. At then end of the day, I think we only watch Lost, Fringe and 30 Rock, anyway. We watched the Presidential Debates streamed live through MSNBC.com and Meet the Press on the treadmill at the Gym. With the rest of the time, we talk, we read and we go out with friends. We'll play board or card games together and PC Games alone. My wife is an Everquest addict, she has been playing since 1999. In fact, I'll often call her by her EQ name. I'll pick up a new PC game every so often, from Spore (which stunk) to anything by Paradox Entertainment. Senda and I are also big Science Fiction fans, especially with Star Wars, but not limited to that. We go to I-Con every year and other Sci-Fi conventions when they hit NYC. As a Technical Recruiter, I have often made great connections through this world. Between us, I'd still be involved even if I was hunting for Admins. If that wasn't enough, I am also a StumbleUpon fan. If you are unfamiliar with that, check out the site. Make sure you have a good block of free time and don't say I didn't warn you. One more thing that I think really is important to understanding me is that I have Multiple Sclerosis. Go figure: I survived 9/11 yet was diagnosed shortly thereafter with MS. Nothing gives you greater focus and better understanding of whom you are that having a challenge of that nature. I usually don't mention it, or make a big deal about it but in terms of recruiting it has been very helpful. I can empathize and understand much better the unique challenges that everyone faces, even if I have never walked in those shoes. And it really does make for great stories. Every candidate has different and unique needs and helping them get through often means the difference between a placement and a turn down. Six Degrees: How many years as a recruiter? Jeff: I have been an Staffing Firm side recruiter for 10+ years. I have always done technical/IT staffing, through the good and bad times. I have never hesitated to place a different skill set if that was what the client wanted from me however. In recruiting you can specialize but you should never limit yourself. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Jeff: Ahh, I wish I could say I was embarrassed to admit it, but, another thing that people who know me will tell you is that Newman doesn't really get embarrassed much. I graduated Columbia University http://www.columbia.edu/ in May 1998. I was married for 6 months and had spent the majority of my college career enjoying myself as opposed to studying. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up but I knew I needed a job. I sent out 200 plus resumes. A Technical Recruiting firm, Recruit Dynamics, had called me in because I had JAVA on my resume. I had JAVA there, because I was pumping that resume as much as I could, and once I had read a book on JAVA. They had a 6 month contract in Rochester, Minnesota for an entry level programmer. I replied that I really wasn't a developer I had applied for the recruiter role. You know, the one with no experience needed. The lady who brought me in came out and said the boss would meet with me, but not until lunch. It was about 8:30 AM at the time... I said no worries and was it OK if I waited here. I waited 6+ hours, to finally interview with the President of the firm. After an hour or so, he said, “Jeff, you know nothing about recruiting, in fact you know nothing about business. I do like the persistence of someone who will wait hours for an interview. Let's try it for 30 days and see what happens.” The irony is what kept me in the office wasn't truly persistence. It was the air-conditioning, free coffee and a bunch of magazines. I had no money and no place else I had to be. That's why I stuck around. 10 years later. I think it was a good decision. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Jeff: For me, it was the Death of COBOL following Y2k. For the year leading up to Y2K, COBOL developers were naming their rates. People who had taken a class in COBOL in 1978 and had been driving a cab ever since, were getting high paying contracting gigs. Everyone needed COBOL/MAINFRAME experts, they were paying for them through the nose and you couldn't find one not booked up to save your life. It was fun, the money was great, and I was very busy. Then came January 1st, 2000. The world didn't end, the machines stayed A-OK and I had to fire 50+ contractors. Developers, who a year ago wouldn't take your calls, were calling everyday. There was nothing we could do to help any of them. This taught me two very important lessons. First, it said don't focus your recruiting in one area or skill set. Diversity is the spice of life and to spread out as much as possible. The second thing it taught me was to keep your skills cutting edge or you could wake up one day and find yourself as obsolete as a Blacksmith after the invention of the personal automobile. A close runner up is the .Com bubble. The lesson I learned there was do not take commission payments in stock. Speaking of which, if anyone is interested in shares of Flooz, I have PLENTY! Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Jeff: I cannot name one specific person who I model myself on, but I have taken many different pieces from people over the years. The Big Boss at APS-Botal was a guy name Steve Sayetta. He had arranged for me to attend an 8 hour NYATS seminar. I complained as it was really focused on Admin recruiters and I only did IT. He said, “Newman, if you learn one thing, it will have been worth the time you spend.” I really believe that and have applied it to my recruiting career. I have worked with some amazing people over the years. TK Sheridan, Tom Sheridan and Paul Sheridan at E-Claro taught me the basics of the industry, from how to calculate a bill rate to the best way to close off a call without hurting someone’s feelings. Peter Elia, from APS-BOTAL (now Infinity Staffing), got me to better appreciate the importance of details. Peter is also one of the best relationship managers out there. He was also the best boss I ever had, because he had served “in the trenches” and knew what it was all about. Darren Greif, the IT Staffing Director from the Bachrach Group, is the best closer you have ever seen. He could see all the problems in a deal that would need to be gotten over before anyone else. As a manager, his policy of helping you to do better without interfering with what was working was amazing. Lately, I have been introduced and begun working with Steve Levy. I had read his blog, seen his comments on recruitingblogs.com, his blog and ERE and then I got to meet him in person. At first I was a bit star struck. But then I got to work with him and I thought, “And I got all veklempt of this?” Kids may admire and want to emulate sports heroes and guitar wizards, but since I started reading their works, for me it has been guys like Glenn Gutmacher, Shally Steckerl and Steve. What I have learned from him has just been fantastic. I try to learn as much from everyone I work with as I can get. Your talents can only get better through knowledge and practice. [I had other things to say about Steve but he knows where I live and work] Six Degrees: Tell us about your day in the life at the office Jeff: Well, right now I am with Genesis10. Genesis10 is one of the largest privately held business and IT staffing firms in the nation. The company was started in 1999, and has grown, on average, at a rate of 44%. One of the main reasons I chose to join Genesis10 is founder/CEO Harley Lippman. His bio really impressed me. Every company is a sailing ship and much can be told about how it will travel if you know her captain. Personally, I am a senior recruiter on a team dedicated to supporting one client in midtown NYC. The client has an awe inspiring need for excellent developers, especially in C++/UNIX. The process is one of the most difficult hurdles I have ever seen candidates need to get through, including two technical screens, a code review and then a final interview. It does ensure that our client is only getting the crème de le crème of the industry. This was the first time in about 6 years that I have ever been just recruiting, as opposed to a full desk. It is also the first time since the start of my career that I have been just supporting one client. With Genesis10's depth of resources and it's commitment to providing the best people, both technically and personality wise, I feel very comfortable in this role. It was an adjustment for a bit however. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Jeff: I am mainly acquainted with the firms in NYC. Our business, especially in IT, all seems to be 6 degrees of one another. I have heard buzz about many of the firms in our sphere, good and bad. Recruiters and sales people tend to gossip. Based on my second sentence in this paragraph, I will go with discretion being the better part of valor. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Jeff: The way you can wake up and have the market give you a surprise, I'd be uncomfortable guessing anything at this point. I don't just think our industry will change, I think the United States is changing. I couldn't even hazard a guess as to where we will be in a year. To quote myself from above, all you can do is “take everything with a smile, good and bad, and remember that this too will pass.” Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Jeff: While at the Bachrach Group I helped to train a number of Junior recruiters. This was one of the most satisfying experiences of my career. It was a talent I didn't know I had and I really enjoyed it. At some point, I'd really like to be able to that again. Past that, I'd like to retire at 50 but if you look at my 401k.... To get there, you just need to work hard and get lucky.…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 12:34am on January 19, 2009

Blog Post: Top 5 cash making marketing tips for your recruitment business: In my blog …; Added by Rhys Jones at 11:58am on March 7, 2023

Topic: Transcript - Talent Talk Cafe: Week of Nov 17th - Lance Haun on Background Checks: es. Here's an overview of his topic follwoed by the Chat transcript. "How Invasive is Your Background Check Process?" With the Obama administration opening up application for appointed positions, they have also opened up one of the most invasive application processes in history. 63 questions that delve into the contents of your online activity, financial information and even contents of personal diaries. How appropriate is this for this particular situation and how much should you be going into? You can also find Lance online Here and connect with him on Twitter as @thalance! 12:00pm Lance Haun we'll go ahead and get started 12:00pm Tina Huckabay at show or online Maren? 12:01pm Maureen Sharib Hi - good crowd Lance! 12:01pm Lance Haun So today I wanted to talk about background checks 12:01pm Lance Haun Thanks Maureen for coming!@ 12:01pm Lance Haun and how I wanted to start talking about it is something from the news 12:02pm Lance Haun basically, the incoming presidential administration has released its application for appointed positions and it is a 63 page monstrosity 12:02pm Lance Haun 63 question 12:02pm Lance Haun not pages 12:02pm Maureen Sharib Yup 12:02pm Lance Haun but it is still huge 12:02pm Maureen Sharib Read it- could any of us get away w/ that?? 12:03pm Maureen Sharib Some of those questions? 12:03pm Lance Haun well, has everyone read some of the questions? 12:03pm Maureen Sharib Yup. 12:03pm Maureen Sharib allof them with great interest 12:03pm Lance Haun Here is one that might be of particular interest: Writings: Please list and, if readily available, provide a copy of each book, article column or publication (including but not limited to any posts or comments on blogs or other websites) you have authored, individually or with others. Please list all aliases or "handles" you have used to communicate on the Internet. 12:04pm Maureen Sharib LOL 12:04pm Maureen Sharib TMTM 12:04pm Maureen Sharib (Too Many To Mention) 12:04pm Lance Haun as a blogger, I have written hundreds of pages and I am sure you have to Maureen 12:04pm Lance Haun over the course of how many years? 12:04pm Julia Stone but under how many handles lance? 12:04pm Lance Haun so far, only one Julia :)12:05pmMaureen Sharib It'slaughable and if you forghet tolist something? I 'magine all hell will break loose... 12:05pm Julia Stone so it is an easy question to answer, right? 12:05pm Lance Haun well, collecting all of my work might be a bit more difficult 12:05pm Lance Haun as well as getting it to them in some readable form 12:05pm Lance Haun that's hundreds of pages of text for a single question 12:06pm Maureen Sharib Please list any (yadda yadda) your OR YOUR SPOUSE... 12:06pm Maureen Sharib ...there's a bugaboo. 12:07pm Maureen Sharib you OR YOUR SPOUSE 12:07pm Lance Haun the question that I posed on my blog on crimcheck is who is checking all of these things? what kind of staff would you need to even vet this many applicants with this many questions? 12:07pm Maureen Sharib Is that s'posed to be for a package deal? 2for1? 12:08pm Maureen Sharib Buy 1 Get 1 free... 12:08pm Lance Haun it is if your name is Clinton, right Maureen? 12:08pm Maureen Sharib Spose. 12:08pm Lance Haun they are vetting Bill Clintons connections right now 12:08pm Maureen Sharib Thats'what Bill offered way back when 12:08pm Julia Stone it was my understanding they are doing it to make sure they are sticking to their lobbying rules. 12:08pm Maureen Sharib He knows a deal when he sees one. 12:09pm Lance Haun certainly Julia! Obviously there needs to be vetting 12:09pm Lance Haun I think we all expect that from the President 12:09pm Recruiting Animal Same old faces 12:09pm Julia Stone and not to put a damper on the conversation, but haven't like 150,000 already completed the application process? Sounds like they have their hands full already 12:09pm Julia Stone you talking to me RA or the conversation? hello 12:09pm Lance Haun Hi Animal 12:09pm Maureen Sharib Have any members of your family...been arrested... 12:10pm Recruiting Animal talkin' to you. who said i was talking to you. hi hr guy. 12:10pm Recruiting Animal is there a class or something here today? 12:10pm Lance Haun schooling people on background checks 12:10pm Lance Haun a subject you should be familiar with 12:10pm Recruiting Animal k. i'll shut up. didn't know i was late 12:10pm Recruiting Animal (no maureen, never been arrested) 12:10pm Lance Haun Julia, you bring upo a good point 12:10pm Julia Stone thought it was a conversation, didn't realize you were schooling us Lance, I will shut up too 12:11pm Lance Haun no, that was a joke 12:11pm Recruiting Animal no julia you talk you know something 12:11pm Lance Haun if they have so many applicants, than who cares what questions they ask? 12:12pm Julia Stone I think that we are talking about a procedure that only affects a small % of high ranking officials. If you have gotten to that point in your career & haven't watched your online presence, time to retire anyway 12:13pm Lance Haun My understanding is that this application covers the 7,000 appointments Obama will have to make 12:13pm Lance Haun that's high and low it seems like 12:13pm Julia Stone no 3000 of those will be covered from my understanding 12:13pm Julia Stone Those under consideration for high-ranking positions must answer a seven-page questionnaire with 63 questions about their personal and professional lives. Applicants will have to provide significant details about their jobs and those of their spouses, their financial status and personal associations. 12:14pm Shannon Myers I know it's excessive but it can also be used as a deterent for people who really should not be applying. 12:14pm Julia Stone sorry, wrong cut & paste...Political experts say about 3,000 of the jobs will be awarded by Obama and his transition team to those who helped with the campaign or are well-known for their work in specific fields appropriate to the positions. 12:14pm Lance Haun Hi Shannon 12:14pm Shannon Myers Hi Lance 12:14pm Lance Haun good point, it can deter bad people from applying 12:15pm Julia Stone it can deter everyone from applying, right lance? except for the 144,000 who applied in the first 5 days 12:15pm Lance Haun In some cases, I think it can deter the types of people you want to bring into the administration 12:16pm Lance Haun quantity is great 12:16pm Maureen Sharib Names, addresses and phone #s of cohabitants? 12:16pm Julia Stone agreed. but if I got a call from Obama or Emmanuel explaining that this was a pain in the arse but I needed to complete it to be their secretary of superheros (or whatever) I would do it. These are high ranking positions. 12:16pm Lance Haun but if you need the best middle east analyst, do you know that they are willing to go through this process 12:17pm Maureen Sharib IMAGINE if members of our community asked some of these questions... 12:17pm Lance Haun Well, I don't know what HR positions they have available but if they called me and said we have this Deputy position available, maybe I am more willing to go through it than for a lower ranking position 12:18pm Julia Stone maureen, with all due respect, we are not running the country 12:18pm Lance Haun I worry about applying the same standards to secretary of state as we do to a policy advier 12:18pm Lance Haun adviser 12:18pm Lance Haun and it seems like policy wonks are covered under this application as well 12:19pm Lance Haun is that just a me concern? 12:20pm Paul DeBettignies We could all volunteer for a week to help do the background checks and not make a dent in them 12:21pm Lance Haun Hi Paul 12:21pm Paul DeBettignies (word) 12:21pm Lance Haun I guess that's my second question, what are the logistics to checking all of this information for 3000 people? 12:21pm Lance Haun well, 3000 positions 12:21pm Lance Haun probably will be doing more checks then that 12:22pm Paul DeBettignies that is the one that has me curious 12:22pm Julia Stone If it were me, I would want the info on file, not to check it but to have it on record 12:22pm Maureen Sharib Julia - do we have two standards here? 12:22pm Lance Haun me too Paul 12:22pm Lance Haun so is it just so they can reference it later Julia? 12:22pm Julia Stone you mean one for applying for a position to run the country and one to volunteer to run a group on RBC? yes 12:23pm Julia Stone Either to reference it later or to have a good NLP to sort through for potential conflicts of interest (lobbying types) 12:24pm Chalapathi hi everybody 12:24pm Lance Haun hi! 12:24pm Lance Haun okay Julia, I can see that 12:24pm Chalapathi i need sugestions in regards with DAYAK 12:25pm Lance Haun do you believe in the deterent value or do you think it isn't effective since 150k people managed to do it just fine? 12:25pm Chalapathi i have just signed in this portal and not yet started using this as my phone lines are out of order so i have not used this 12:26pm Chalapathi OHHHHHHHHHHHH 12:27pm Maureen Sharib No I mean for one applying for a job in govt and one applying for a job in industry. 12:27pm Chalapathi my email id is vtslchalapathi@yahoo.com 12:27pm Maureen Sharib Not sure where the applying to run a group here on RBC comes into this... 12:28pm Shannon Myers It still doesn't mean they are qualified, that they filled them out completely, just applied. 12:28pm Lance Haun Maureen, I think there are going to be double standards though 12:28pm Maureen Sharib Oh? 12:28pm Maureen Sharib I see. 12:29pm Lance Haun I mentioned this elsewhere but I worked for a company that did credit checks on janitors 12:29pm Maureen Sharib What's good for the gander in this country is not good for the geese. 12:29pm Lance Haun that didn't make much sense to me 12:29pm Maureen Sharib the janitor check or the goose remark? 12:30pm Lance Haun the janitor check 12:30pm Lance Haun I love goose though 12:30pm Lance Haun with a niceorange glaze that is 12:30pm Maureen Sharib Do you or any members of your family own a gun? COME ON! 12:31pm Lance Haun How about this one? Please furnish copies of all resumes and biographical statements issued by you or any other entity at your discretion or with your consent within the past 10 years. 12:31pm Maureen Sharib Please describe your overall health and any medical treatments you are receiving. 12:31pm Lance Haun wouldn't it be interesting to see how people have revamped their resume over the course of time? 12:32pm Julia Stone I am never happy when I walk out of an interview knowing the dosage of anti depressants they are on 12:32pm Maureen Sharib Pl include info abt any members of your family that might later be uh,,,errr....embarrassing to the President-Elect.n 12:32pm Lance Haun haha 12:33pm Lance Haun I don't want to know anybody's medical history :)12:33pmLance Haun not even my own 12:33pm Julia Stone me either, but a good recruiter often finds out more than they mean to 12:33pm Maureen Sharib I mean, come on, how many of these questions would be ILLEGAL to ask in an interview??? 12:33pm Julia Stone guess the supreme court will decide, lol 12:34pm Lance Haun well, it is interesting because the executive branch would be the one to enforce those rules...on itself 12:34pm Lance Haun I am guessing they let it go 12:34pm Maureen Sharib There is an intrinsic problem here - and nobody's really talking about it! 12:34pm Julia Stone In madison, they issued a local law which says that you cannot check peoples backgrounds further back than 3 years, unless it is superceeded by state or feds 12:35pm Lance Haun yeah, that's not uncommon these days either. Many states have limitations now and municipalities are cutting down as well. 12:35pm Julia Stone Last year I had my 1 and only case of something coming up on a background check in 12 years, it turned out to be nothing either 12:35pm Paul DeBettignies Seems to me anyone who could fill this out and be accepted would not be someone I want in there 12:36pm Lance Haun I think why this has become newsworthy is because of the level of disparity between what can be researched and done in the private sector and what can be done with White House positions. 12:36pm Julia Stone you are making an assumption that they have specific answers in mind to the questions though, Paul 12:37pm Maureen Sharib Insolvent in the past? Bankrupt? 12:37pm Lance Haun I don't have an issue with people getting extra scrutiny but I think the level this takes it to is really incredibly 12:37pm Lance Haun I am trying to think of the right adjective 12:37pm Lance Haun maybe just incredible 12:37pm Julia Stone I think that it is smart. if they don't want to be bogged down by news stories which take away from running the country. 12:37pm Lance Haun because there is a lot more information than there was 8 years ago 12:38pm Lance Haun now entire collections have been moved from offline to online 12:39pm Lance Haun and researching and accessibility is incredible 12:39pm Julia Stone maureen, have you finished your application yet? which position did you say you were applying to? 12:39pm Paul DeBettignies Let me try this again, anyone who can supply all this information, who can "pass" these steps, has had a career in D.C. Not sure how much "change" that is 12:39pm Lance Haun Paul, do you think that's the point though? 12:39pm Paul DeBettignies I don't know 12:39pm Lance Haun They want people who are used to being this exposed in the administration 12:40pm Lance Haun because that's what life is like there? 12:40pm Maureen Sharib Julia LOL 12:40pm Maureen Sharib No I'm workin' thru it - I'm struggling though... 12:40pm Paul DeBettignies See, I get the need to be transparent when applying and their need to do the background stuff. 12:41pm Paul DeBettignies But it seems the only ones able to jump the hurdle will be the ones alreay there 12:41pm Maureen Sharib When it's all over I'm gonna file a lawsuit...;) Unfair something-or-other. It'll make me rich beyond belief. ;)12:41pmPaul DeBettignies class action 12:41pm Paul DeBettignies we will all be rich 12:41pm Lance Haun well you better start applying Paul 12:41pm Paul DeBettignies or in this case lipstick on a ... 12:41pm Julia Stone sourcing czar? czar is a popular term this year, car czar, healthcare czar, etc 12:42pm Paul DeBettignies I doubt I could find all the stuff they want 12:42pm Maureen Sharib After all, this is easier'n working for a living...;)12:42pmMaureen Sharib I thought of it first. ;)12:42pmLance Haun I do think we need to change all of our secretaries to czars 12:42pm Lance Haun I think that is a more attractive position 12:43pm Lance Haun and secretary is so out moded 12:43pm Julia Stone madam czar, you have the stage? 12:43pm Lance Haun and I don't think assistant of state would work 12:44pm Maureen Sharib Admin Asst of State 12:44pm Maureen Sharib is the new title these days. 12:44pm Paul DeBettignies I have always been annoyed with the Under Secretary title. 12:44pm Maureen Sharib And for goodness sakes don't abbreviate it. 12:44pm Paul DeBettignies Who TF thought it was a good idea 12:45pm Lance Haun so I haven't seen any statement from the transition team about their application process but do you think they could have improved the process at all? 12:45pm Lance Haun or do you think it isn't a problem? 12:45pm Lance Haun or that it was done perhaps on purpose to limit the types of people applying? 12:45pm Maureen Sharib OFCCP suggests that it is best practice to only ask a question to ascertain Veteran's Preference status. Further, the OFCCP explained that it is "best practice" not to ask about type of discharge in the interview process as it can lead to equal opportunity type issues. 12:46pm Julia Stone I think it is much like many HR policies. They are designed with one purpose and end up with unintended side effects. In this case, they want to stick to their guns about lobbyist rules, but the side effect is turning people like all of us off 12:47pm Lance Haun Great point Julia 12:47pm Maureen Sharib http://www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/regs/compliance/faqs/emprfaqs.htm#Q34 12:47pm Maureen Sharib But Julia, WHAT DO THEY CARE? 12:47pm Lance Haun so maybe, in the end, they don't change a thing but they understand that to an outsider like us, it doesn't make sense 12:48pm Lance Haun so turning to your own background check process 12:48pm Lance Haun I think we need to be thoughtful too as to what questions we are asking or hoops we make people jump through 12:49pm Lance Haun and even if we do leave them in place, we need to understand we may lose people or possibly dissatisfy others with the experience 12:49pm Maureen Sharib Exactly. Because Big Brother does it doesn't make it okay for us to do it. 12:49pm Julia Stone 2 issues with background checks. I don't make the rules since I am an agency recruiter. 1 is setting expectations, the other is limiting the hoops. 12:50pm Lance Haun True Maureen, that's the case for many many things though :)12:50pmLance Haun so set the expectations that "this is what you will be going through" 12:50pm Julia Stone for example, my husband took a contract w/ an insurance agency. Before the process was done they had run 2 background checks and made him take 3 drug tests (all negative, just beauracracy) 12:51pm Lance Haun ouch 12:51pm Lance Haun that's a rocky start to a relationship too 12:51pm Julia Stone I think 1/2 of all probelms can be solved by setting expectations 12:52pm Lance Haun right, but you still might not be happy even if you know you have to do three drug tests 12:52pm Lance Haun but at least you'll be informed 12:52pm Maureen Sharib "...that's the case for many many things..." THAT is the problem Lance. 12:52pm Julia Stone don't you think? 12:53pm Lance Haun I do agree, it can certainly smooth over even a rough pre-screening 12:53pm Julia Stone now that I know I won't even get pretzels on most flights, I pack food. I am no longer the crazed woman on the 3rd aisle 12:54pm Lance Haun good point...but when you do get food on an airplane, it is a pleasant surprise 12:54pm Lance Haun so couldn't the private sector use this to their advantage? 12:54pm Julia Stone most of the time people just want someone to tell them, "yes this is a ridicolous process. thank god the rest of the company isn't run by HR!" 12:55pm Lance Haun nothing is as bad as the government's background check! 12:55pm Maureen Sharib So when the govt DOES THE RIGHT THING it's a pleasant surprise? 12:55pm Lance Haun would you disagree Maureen? 12:55pm Lance Haun I mean, unfrotunatley I think that's what many have come to expect 12:55pm Maureen Sharib There's way too much at stake, IMO, for surprises. 12:56pm Maureen Sharib How could the private sector use this to advantage? Interesting question Lance. 12:56pm Rayanne wow, sorry I missed this one. Great chat here guys, from what I have read thus far 12:56pm Julia Stone lively discussion for sure, hi Rayanne! 12:56pm Lance Haun Hi Rayanne 12:56pm Rayanne Hi there... 12:56pm Maureen Sharib I wouldbe remiss not to say Hi Rayanne! 12:56pm Maureen Sharib ') 12:57pm Rayanne Hi EVERYONE! 12:57pm Lance Haun Maureen, I think the private sector could say "Hey, we don't put you through fire to work for us. Don't let insane processes get you down" 12:57pm Lance Haun haha 12:57pm Lance Haun anyway, we are running out of time and I can't believe it 12:58pm Maureen Sharib Interesting. So the 63 Questions works as an example -see how BAD we could be? 12:58pm Lance Haun anybody have anything else to add? 12:58pm Julia Stone like a 64th question, lol 12:58pm Maureen Sharib LOL 12:59pm Julia Stone does your dog own a gun? 12:59pm Maureen Sharib "If you know what's good for you work for Industry and be thankful they'll have you!" 12:59pm Maureen Sharib What abt your girlfriend -does she? 12:59pm Maureen Sharib And her child - what abt him? 12:59pm Julia Stone um, not that I have anything against that, but I don't have a girlfriend 12:59pm Lance Haun oh 12:59pm Lance Haun but what about your dog? 12:59pm Maureen Sharib His girlfriend? 1:00pm Maureen Sharib And her offspring? 1:00pm Julia Stone I once had a gay dog, but that was a long time ago & no guns Do I get the job? 1:00pm Lance Haun sure 1:00pm Maureen Sharib You qualify for sure! 1:00pm Lance Haun alright everyone thanks for the chat 1:00pm Lance Haun Maureen and Julia keeping it lively 1:00pm Julia Stone thanks Lance, nice job 1:01pm Lance Haun Paul even said a few things 1:01pm Lance Haun and Shannon 1:01pm Lance Haun can't forget her too 1:01pm Julia Stone paul had a long weekend, slower than usual 1:01pm Lance Haun I heard he signed up a boatload of recruiters for his event 1:02pm Rayanne I will definitely catch it next time!!!…; Added by Susan Burns at 10:45am on November 21, 2008

Topic: Meet Chris Hoyt, 'Gadget Addict' & Dabbler; Associate Director of Talent Attraction at AT&T: itter link • facebook link • Chris Hoyt's "Recruiter Guy" Blog • Favorite Things: UFC, Music, Fitness, blogging, and French Bulldogs • Email Chris Chris Hoyt is one of RecruitingBlogs.com greatest cheerleaders, however in his day-to-day corporate leadership role, he will tell you he likes to 'dabble' in social media. He is being modest. He isn't merely discussing the social media as a phenomenon, but as someone who is leading its full scale integration within a corporate workforce strategy. At AT&T, Chris and his online personae, "RecruiterGuy" are pushing the boundaries of each aspect of the full-cycle model with a matured sourcing model that likewise integrates search engine marketing and optimization to his candidate development arsenal. He is one of a handful in corporate America who can speak with authority on the topic but here at the RBC Community he has always been that 'one in a million' who lives and breathes passing it forward and beyond for a profession he is passionate about. On a personal level, he is passionate about a great many things, be it his 'dabbling' or his earnest advocacy for charitable causes such as "Bowl for Kids' Sake Event." AT&T managed to raise more than $30,000 to sponsor kids taking part in the Big Brother Big Sister program. In just under two weeks almost $1,600 was raised through using social networks and blog driven communications. Introducing a Social X evangelist and self proclaimed "Gadget Addict" - someone we can all learn from and with ... our Community's friend and evangelist, Chris Hoyt. (Visualize a Kermit the Frog intro clap with Muppet Show Theme Song!) Q&A with Chris Hoyt, aka: RecruiterGuy Six Degrees: As the Associate Director of Talent Attraction at AT&T and a certified HR Professional, Chris I understand you have over a decade of recruiting and training & development experience. You lead the AT&T Talent Attraction teams with a focused concentration on Interactive Recruiting, Candidate Experience, and regionally based strategies. You are recognized as an expert at external recruitment of Occupational and Corporate Management candidates; e-Recruiting; Candidate screening and interviewing; Salary negotiations; Longstanding SHRM Member; HRCI PHR (Professional in Human Resources) Certification; and HTML, ASP, FLASH, Web Development. A lot of "Wow Effect", Chris - but today, we want to learn about what makes this "RecruiterGuy" tick. Chris its time we at RBC learn about your home world. Chris: I’ve been married for almost 15 years. We met in Monterey, CA where she was on vacation with her mother and I happened to walk by a store where she was trying on shoes. I was immediately lost in her. I went into the store and struck up a conversation with that somehow resulted in my helping her shop for shoes for over an hour. When she finally asked me where the cashwrap was I had to confess to her that I didn’t work in the store but was in reality just wanting to take her to dinner. (I still feel like the sales person owes me some major commission!) We were married 7 months later at Lover’s Point just blocks from where we met and now have two beautiful daughters ages 8 and 11. I'd be lying if I didn't say that much of my spare time during the week is spent trying to keep up with the latest trends and technologies that touch our industry. Outside of trying to keep my finger on the pulse of our craft I'd have to say that I enjoy golfing, flying, river rafting - almost anything that is outdoors. At least once a year my family takes a vacation where we try and embark on some sort of outdoor adventure. These are typically wonderful times together but rarely go as planned. Our previous trip to Lake Tahoe was when the fires forced an evacuation of the camp grounds the day we arrived. We ended up spending a week on Pismo beach riding four wheelers instead. Even our last vacation as a family might have been hard for some to deal with as we were rained on nearly the entire week. Problem for us? Not at all... we had a terrific time. Honestly I think we'd be surprised if a single outing went according to plan... Surprised and maybe even a bit bored! Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Chris: I’ve been doing recruiting or sales and recruitment training since 1994. It wasn’t really something that I’d planned on doing but was something that I found I was really passionate about and as a result of that passion, pretty good at what I was doing. Of course I think that's the way things are for most people... if you're really passionate about what you're doing, and hungry to always improve it - how can you go wrong? Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Chris: It's funny... I've never met a recruiter that said they knew from a young age they wanted to be a recruiter. It just doesn't happen that way. While at the time it seemed unconnected, I look back now and every career step to this date just makes sense. It started when I got out of the Army. I’m a veteran of the US Army – B Co. Rangers, 5/21 7th Infantry. My duty station was Fort Ord, CA and when my enlistment ended I had decided that I wanted to stay in California. I started school right away and took the first job offered to me – which was at a leather coat store. Within my first 7 months I’d sold over $1m in leather jackets and apparel so they quickly moved me into management – There's a Peter Principal joke in here somewhere. I’ve always enjoyed networking (translation: gift of gab) and it wasn’t long before the stores I was responsible for were staffed with the strongest sales persons and managers in the district. I soon found myself traveling from market to market to train recruiting and sales teams which later transitioned into self employment, speaking/training jobs and full-time contract recruiting. While I was a contract recruiter with a passion for process improvement it was obvious to me at that point that I wanted nothing more than to try and change the way most corporate or HR departments looked at the recruiting craft. One job led to another and I was recruited to AT&T in 2000 to be a contract recruiter responsible for North Texas. After 7 fun and challenging years I'd worked my way from being responsible for Northern Texas to leading the strategic and tactical recruiting teams across the country. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Chris: My embracing the Internet. I’ve always been a huge fan of networking and making real life connections. But when I really started to use the Internet for sourcing in 1999 it was a breakthrough for me. It was when I managed to gain two hires from digging through a company’s round robin call list discovered Online that I got REALLY excited about how the Internet could be used to change what I was doing. The idea then was the same as it is for me today - the Internet continues to be a powerful tool that can be used to create introductions that otherwise might not occur. Of course the real connection and relationship is up to the recruiter to forge - a high speed modem doesn't build a relationship. It's always really interesting to me how many recruiters or staffing people often miss that part of the puzzle and lately tend to treat the Internet and technology as though they are a complete solution. Being connected to the web doesn't mean you're connecting to your potential candidates. Anyhow... I’ve been pushing as hard as I can in a direction that leverages technology and online initiatives for recruitment and hiring ever since. Six Degrees: Tell us about your role and the staffing organization you oversee. Chris: I’m the Associate Director of Talent Attraction at AT&T. I lead both strategic and interactive recruiting teams and sourcers and have responsibility for our Interactive Recruiting Strategies (SEO, SEM, Social, etc.) various Recruitment Marketing initiatives, our new award winning Career Portal (www.att.jobs), and Job Board strategies. My teams are responsible for the sourcing and attraction of any job seekers for non-contracted external hiring efforts. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Chris: There are some really good ones out there.... but two that come to mind I guess would be Best Buy and Microsoft... I'm a fan of the Best Buy career site because I love the way they’ve embraced social media as a tool for recruitment with video, social bookmarking, and how it seems to be a pretty accurate reflection of their corporate culture. Of course if I'm not mistaken the career section of their site is driven by the Jobs2Web engine. So what I really love is the almost seamless integration of the SEO initiative into their brand. I'm big on SEO/SEM initiatives and think many employers are still too slow to embrace these powerful strategies. I'm still a huge fan of Microsoft's "The Changing Face" site (http://www.youatmicrosoft.com/) and it's because I think it's the absolute best job I've seen of pushing employee testimonials to active and passive job seekers. Microsoft is always a fun employer to watch when it comes to recruitment marketing online but I just feel they nailed it with the YouAtMicrosoft.com site - from the site navigation to the talking Polaroids to the direct contact forms... just awesome - top notch and something to keep in mind when reworking an employment site for sure. "AT&T 'Day In The Life' of a Corporate Call Center employee. Jobs video production by: www.maddash.net " Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Chris: I feel that I'm in a place right now that has taken some hard work and dedication to achieve and where it's sometimes overwhelming to take a step back and really take in the scope it's impact. Leading recruiting teams at a FORTUNE 9 employer is as challenging as it is rewarding - and I'm thankful every day that I'm here and able to make a difference. But I'd be a liar if I told you that I'm not always working towards a next step... taking recruiting and employer brand to the next level is my primary focus here of late. I know when people ask this question they often expect to hear a job title or scope of responsibility as the definitive career goal response. I don't think I've ever thought of my career planning in that way - for me it's been about setting an impact goal or evolutionary change to a process as a way to measure effort and success. In this case, I like to think I'm working towards the evolution of how large companies view the recruiting craft and the incredible impact that employment brand can have on various business initiatives outside of just talent attraction. “HOW DOES CHRIS DO IT?” Six Degrees: How many applicants at your present employer do you estimate are hired from your corporate website as compared to how many are hired through referrals? Chris: Employee referrals continue to be my favorite hiring source. We've seen our employee referrals account for nearly 90% of our hiring in some markets while on a national recruitment level see still impressive numbers of applicants within the 40% range. To be clear however - the real win with employee referrals for any company isn't typically just the volume received. If you ask various companies that have successful employee referral programs or processes in place why they love the programs, I think you'll get solid answers tied to reduced cost per hire and an awareness about the job or corporate culture that most referrals have BEFORE they even come in to apply. Even during times when we weren't offering any rewards to our employee body for submitting referrals we continued to see incredible numbers of referrals in locations we were hiring. When you love where you work and you believe in your company's goals and vision I think you want to share that - and I think our continued success with our various referral channels proves just that. Six Degrees: What is the source of your "LOWEST COST OF HIRES" - (least amount of invested resources for the easiest hires, regardless of quality) at your present employer? Chris: Employee referrals are always an awesome source for any recruiting initiatives to compete with. I'd have to tell you though that outside of employee referrals any company would be hard pressed to prove to me that they aren't showing an amazing amount of reduced cost per applicant through Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization efforts - if done well, of course. While we continue to see trends that show job seekers starting their job searches in search engines and social or professional networks it only makes sense to move initiatives in the right direction. Smart recruiting is like playing hockey in that your goal is to skate where the puck is going as opposed to it's current location. Wayne Gretzky was the person that originally said that about hockey, by the way. As a hockey fan I just love to fit it in whenever I can. Six Degrees: What types of training in sourcing/recruitment are available to you and have you taken advantage of? Chris: Our recruiters and sourcers are always on the lookout for new and innovative sourcing and recruitment strategies and tools. Various webinars are attended and as a rule each recruiter typically attends job board and applicant tracking software training courses as refreshers almost quarterly. I think that many of our teams take full advantage of blogs and newsletters from respected sources in our industry to try and stay on top of their game. Of course any chance to attend conferences with classes or sessions hosted by people like Susan Burns of Talent Synchronicity, Michael Marlatt for innovative recruiting trends, or Craig Silverman are always a bonus. It's great when a recruiter comes back from a session or webinar that really carried a powerful lesson or message and see how they share it with their teams. Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities; do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit? Chris: There's a basic answer to this that might be what most would be looking for as a response... Just naming our Applicant Tracking System and any applications we use to aid in search, right? It's no secret that by visiting the AT&T career portal you'll see that we've quite a few of our jobs posted in Taleo. It's also no mystery if you're a reader of my blog or have followed me on Twitter for any amount of time that I'm a fan of AIRS Sourcepoint for some of our sourcing initiatives. These are great... and yes, they're software tools - but they're really not where the true power strokes come from for some of our more impressive recruitment and sourcing. Want to know what the big hitters in our arsenal are? I'll tell you - and you might be surprised. The Yahoo! and Google search engines are powerful when we're rolling up our sleeves and sourcing tough titles. Mobile marketing initiatives like the AT&T Talent Network and our mobile shortcodes are showing really impressive results across the board. But when it comes to asking me what tools we use that really make a difference and if they're making a difference for recruiting regardless of where or who we're searching for... I'd say it's our use of our recruiter's professional networks hands down. We know that relationships and trust are the power behind any good network and we leverage that knowledge daily. Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career? Chris: My first filing technology was Franklin... A huge Franklin organizer with a smaller one to accompany me when I was "mobile" recruiting. Of course back then "mobile" recruiting was recruiting on the road or simply from office to office. From that I advanced to using a word processor and email - and upon the discovery of how to use email folders online I've been in love with the "cloud" based file folders ever since. The strongest tools I had in my toolkit when starting was a handshake, a business card, and the ability or willingness to listen to people in order to find out exactly what they were really looking for or where they might be a great fit elsewhere. When the internet really started to become part of my everyday recruiting activity it was Snap (will anyone remember that?) Webcrawler and Yahoo! although I'll admit that while I knew these would be huge in our industry I wasn't really sure how at first. Of course initially the content just wasn't there to source from like it is today. Six Degrees: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry, and/or at your place of work? If you started that process, outline the problem, your solutions, and the vision. Chris:I'm not sure that I expect to individually change our industry at all. I feel like I'm more interested in helping truly engaged recruiters and sourcers to simply think bigger about what we do and the tools we use to get our jobs done. If I can think of a way that a tool like customizable search engines or simple newsreaders can be used to make recruiters more efficient or mobile or collaborative - and share that - I know that it will be expanded upon. There are so many really smart people doing what we do that if given a solid idea or direction we can hope they'll run with it and as a result advance our industry. We see things advance from a good idea into a great practice for many. I think the biggest challenge is encouraging recruiters to find their 'voice' and share those thoughts and steps forward. I get 3-4 emails for every comment found on my blogs. It's fascinating to me how many great ideas or insightful items of feedback I receive that just don't get pushed to me publicly but instead come in via direct email. Think of your favorite social network and how many members it has versus how many truly contribute to the open content found there. Imagine how much faster our passions would develop - how much more efficient we might be - if just 20% more of each network's population chimed in and publicly contributed. Six Degrees: What are some of the frustrating aspects/obstacles to your day to day as a staffing professional and in general? Chris: The most frustrating thing I've ever run into within our industry is when a person or group of people has the unwillingness to think bigger. I want to be clear that I don't fault anyone that truly doesn't have it in them to try and think or operate outside of the box. What challenges me is when I meet a recruiter or manager that could do so much more or collaborate so much more effectively if they'd allow themselves to let go of that old "if it ain't broke" mentality. If we all thought that way nothing would ever change or advance and I'd still be lugging around a giant binder to scribble down names of people I meet. I'd probably venture to say that unwillingness to change or the lack of passion to drive change are probably the most common themes of strategic and/or tactical mishaps involving HR and Staffing organizations everywhere. Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, -- what inspires you as you continue in your career? Chris: When I run into people that are as passionate about our craft as I am. I'm inspired when I meet people that aren't so hung up on finding new technology as much as taking advantage of existing technology in different ways. It's not often that you run into an Amitai Givertz who can see what today's tools mean for tomorrow's recruiters - and facilitate that in a way that almost anyone can follow. Seeing someone like Jason Davis create a powerhouse social network as large as recruitingblogs.com because he saw a need and ran with it... These are the things that inspire me to keep thinking and moving forward. We need more of these guys - not just more of the great thinkers but the great do'ers. Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug? Chris: I suppose I'd plug the new AT&T Talent Network (http://att.jobs/talent.aspx) where people that sign up receive mobile and email updates about employment news and opportunities with AT&T as well as monthly prizes like Guitar Hero, a Flip Video Camera and mobile devices. VERY cool new program that's in it's second month. I'd also love if people would stop in at my personal blog, RecruiterGuy.net, and take part in the conversations or just connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn. I love feedback on everything we do and never turn down the chance to connect with someone whenever possible. Six Degrees: How Are You Going To Change The Recruitment Industry? Chris: With the help of everyone else... and one idea at a time. "Dennis Smith from www.wirelessjobs.com stops in on RecruiterGuy for a quick chat about RecruitingBlogs.com."…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 12:12am on March 23, 2009

Topic: Meet Simon Meth, A Contract Recruiter SittingXlegged in San Diego: egged • 619-303-7094 • simon.meth@sdcorprecruiter.com When I was first introduced to Recruitment Blogging, I entered through ERE blogs, venturing into Simon Meth's musings about contract recruitment, in addition to Shally's Cybersleuthing and then viewing outwards into Dennis Smith's Wirelessjobs.com. Simon has brought insights into the value proposition of contract recruitment consultants for several years now. We first met in person at ERE, San Diego in 2006 and I was fortunate to meet him again much to my delight at ERE San Diego a few weeks ago. After all these years reading one another I am honored to finally have the opportunity to tell the tale of this Australian expatriate who is passionate about our profession and has so consistently paid it forward since the blogosphere introduced us as fellow travelers. Simon was educated at The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia where he earned a B.S. (Honors) degree in Physical Geography. He began his professional career as a physical geographer writing environmental impact statements. He then started his technical sales career selling machines for Canon Copier Australia. He joined Triad Software in 1984 as a salesman where he developed a nationwide distribution company specializing in the Pick database operating system and related hardware and software. Triad Software achieved international recognition as one of the top Pick resellers in the world. Simon moved to the United States in 1987 where he provided coaching and consulting services in business management, technical sales, and marketing to Triad Software and several other clients. He sold his share in Triad to his business partner in 1995. Simon continued to develop his expertise in staffing, career counseling, and coaching. He has worked with industry leading companies including ViaSat, ENCAD a Division of Kodak, Bond International Software, Adecco , Stac now known as Altiris and Symantec, and Source Services now known as Kforce Professional Staffing. He is a Certified Independent Trainer for Competency Based Interviewing®. SittingXlegged is his blog on ere.net about Corporate Recruitment: what works and what doesn't plus other musings. Simon is an accomplished author of technical articles, a monthly news column, press releases, and company newsletters. He has been published internationally in print and on the Web. Simon lives in San Diego, California with his wife and two children. He is a passionate golfer who asserts that most of life’s lessons are available on the golf course. Q&A with Simon Meth Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. SIMON: The four of us live in sunny San Diego. Our daughter is off to college in the fall and then we’ll be three at home. Our son is a champion junior golfer and much of our lives revolve around golf. Fortunately I’m a golf tragic and hanging out at the golf course is just about the most fun thing I know to do. Life has been a little odd lately with my wife traveling to golf tournaments or to colleges with our kids. I’ve had more time alone than I’m used to or really quite enjoy. I’m very outgoing and prefer to be with others than keeping my own company. However, time alone at home gives me a chance to take care of a myriad of things and to exercise my obsessive compulsive tendencies. I’m pretty hopeless at goofing off and have always been that way. Doing nothing usually evolves into being productive and working on something. I do love watching golf on TV. Some of my favorite shows are House, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Mythbusters and Deadliest Catch. My guilty pleasures are Doctor 90210 and Nip/Tuck which I watch on Hulu. I listen to most kinds of music and usually do that on Pandora. When I’m driving I almost always listen to a book on CD and usually it is fiction. I just love Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. I’m also the resident PC Tech so when anything goes wrong with something on the network I get a call. Come to think of it that’s one of the few times when my daughter initiates conversation with me . Aren’t 18 year old girls just so much fun? Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? SIMON: Well it depends how you count it. I’d say since I started with Source in ’95. That would be about 14 years. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? SIMON: Funny you should ask. I started as a recruiter way back in my native Australia before I realized that was what I was doing! I was a partner in a software company and we sometimes placed Prime Information consultants at our client sites. Only the very seasoned readers will have ever heard of Prime Information. If you don’t count that then I got into recruiting in the U.S. by accident. After I sold the Australian company I was looking for something to do. There was a recruiter at Source Services Corporation, now Kforce, who had sourced Pick programmers through me for a couple of years so I called her. I figured that she could help me find a job. She did. Working for Source! Funny how often that happens. She made a nice little commission after I started. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? SIMON: I was consulting with a company called Stac that later became Previo and then went out of business. We worked with an industrial psychologist to evaluate candidates above a certain functional level. I got really interested in what he was doing and eventually read a lot of the technical literature and even became certified to teach his Competency Based Interviewing course. Doing that enhanced my innate ability to assess what people are good at and to predict their future success. Time and time again I’ve had clients tell me that that ability is something that distinguishes me from others. I’m always surprised by that because it seems so obvious to me. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? SIMON: Not really. I’m a great gatherer and processor of information. I observe and study everyone and every process and choose what works for me and what I think will make me and those who work with me more productive and efficient. Sometimes the best teachers are those who are failing and aren’t great at what they do. Six Degrees: Tell us about your position: SIMON: I typically work as an independent consultant. Currently I’m at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. Before that I spent 5 years at ViaSat. I work a full desk with typically 35 to 50 requisitions. Often it’s a mix of technical and non-technical positions. I’m an Applicant Tracking System nut and I love to learn everything that the tool can do and I do mean everything. I also document the heck out of everything I do. I look at every resume for everyone who applies and love to get lots of things going. One of my first managers always stressed the importance of activity. I find if I do lots of the right kind of activity then everything works out well. As I mentioned earlier, I’m pretty hopeless at goofing off so you’ll almost always find me doing something productive. Of course you can easily engage me in conversation and I’m likely to tell you more than you want to hear. I know this about myself and am never offended if people cut me off. In fact, with folks I work with a lot, I actually ask them to cut me off if I ever run on too long. Oh, and another thing, I return every voice mail I receive. Six Degrees: What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? SIMON: There are so many different ways to do it. I know one international company where the recruiters don’t review resumes. The hiring managers are responsible for identifying people of interest and the recruiters screen and work them through the process. I’m sure it works for them but that’s not how I’d do it. I’ve heard horror stories about how long it takes to get hired at some industry leading companies. I’ve worked at places where hiring by consensus is the way they do it. Everyone who interviews a candidate has an equal vote. I could never see the sense in that. Everyone should be listened to but some people will or should have a clearer idea about who fits the position best. I admire companies that treat applicants with respect, that have a fast and efficient hiring process, and that get back to applicants every time. I admire companies that have recruitment teams that are passionate about the company they work for and about their craft. I admire companies that embrace technology and that have recruitment systems that make sense and that work well. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? SIMON: It’s old news now but the whole area of social networking is absolutely where it’s at! I can’t predict where we’ll end up in the next few years but I see more and more transparency of information, I see everything linked to everything else, I see a time when we’ll be able to really understand a candidate and their background. Candidates will know what it’s like to work at your company before they start work. They will have the tools to accomplish that. If they don’t use those tools then don’t hire them. Six Degrees: Tell us about your broader involvement within the staffing industry: SIMON: I recently attended ere expo in San Diego. It was great catching up with industry colleagues both new and old. That’s an easy conference for me to attend since it’s in my home town. I haven’t ventured to other conferences but ere expo really piqued my interest. I’d certainly love to attend more. I started writing my blog, SittingXlegged, January 9, 2006. That’s been loads of fun. While I don’t get a ton of comments I do get the occasional reader who lets me know that they appreciate my writing. I’ve started cross-posting to several other sites to expand my readership. I’ve gotten the best results on RecruitingBlogs.com. RecruiterSpace San Diego is a local social networking site for recruiters that I started to help connect recruiters both agency and corporate. I post local opportunities and lots of folks have used the site as a tool to connect. Six Degrees: Can you detail how the recession has affected your particular industry niche? SIMON: I’ve been affected directly by the recession. After 5 years working as an independent consultant at ViaSat I could see that my requisition load was dwindling. I remember thinking that I wouldn’t pay me what they were paying me to carry that load. I talked with my Director and Vice President and worked out a separation. I feel very fortunate to have found General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc where I consult today. The economy seems to have been improving but I was getting lots of calls and emails from industry colleagues who were looking for work. I’ve also noticed that agency recruiters are more or less desperate for work. I get lots of calls from them too. There has been lots of downsizing of both staff and office space. Of course the strong will survive and will grow again when the economy turns around. Six Degrees: Given your own Trial and Error experiences as a Networker, what advice do you have for your peers on what NOT to do? SIMON: That’s a great question! What NOT to do? My best advice is don’t delay in trying out any networking opportunity. Early adopters have a huge advantage. If the particular site takes off then their own network will grow much more quickly than those who engage later on. Of course you may spend some time on some duds but that’s OK too. Learn what you learn and delete your account. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? SIMON: I don’t have one or at least I don’t have a goal to do anything differently to what I’m doing now. I love to recruit. I’m passionate about it and I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient and productive. So more of that! I’ve held management positions in the past and they can be extremely rewarding. I’d do that again if I could lead a team and continue to work a desk. I have limited interest in playing the corporate game and dealing with all the stuff that corporate managers deal with. I’m not saying that stuff isn’t important I’m just saying that I have limited interest in it. I can imagine working for a very well funded start-up where there is no process in place and there is a huge need to hire highly talented people quickly. I could build that and have fun doing it. “HOW DOES SIMON THEY DO IT?” Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit? SIMON: The Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that I use every day is smartsearch. I really like the user interface (UI) and have learned to be really quick and efficient with it. I used Kenexa Recruiter BrassRing at my last gig. I liked it too and it’s probably more capable for really large international companies. I also use TalentHook for sourcing. It’s a solid tool that is well worth the time investment to learn to use efficiently. I think that I have the advantage of having the computer “geek” gene that makes me really dig into any tool I use to get the most out of it. Other than that I use my various networks most days. Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career? SIMON: I remember wondering how to keep track of so many discrete events and all the paperwork. I talked with every recruiter in the office and found that everyone used some form of day planner. This was before Franklin and Covey merged and I used the Covey planner. Of course I’m almost 100% digital today but the lessons learned are still valuable and in use each and every day. Six Degrees: How did your expectations of being a recruiter compare to the actual, first time you got on the phone or in the cubicle? In your opinion, how do people's assumptions about our vocation differ from reality? SIMON: I don’t remember having any expectations. I didn’t know enough to have any! I also don’t know about people’s assumptions about our vocation. I do know that when someone is looking for work that we are all their best friends. Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience? SIMON: Ah! The million dollar question! The one that distinguishes the strong candidate from the exceptional candidate. I’d better answer it then . My first recruitment manager drove me absolutely nuts. I didn’t care for her and I amassed lots of evidence about why that was. I also gossiped about her with my colleagues. And despite all that I was successful there. I have no doubt that if my production had been lower I’d have been given an opportunity to work elsewhere. What I learned from the experience is that we all have different styles of working. I do my best to work in situations that are a good fit for me. If I work with someone who I find challenging I look for ways to work well together. Mostly that’s just finding things about them that I admire or that work well rather than focusing on the things that I don’t care for. Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, -- what inspires you as you continue in your career? SIMON: I just love it! That is all. Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug? SIMON: Not so much a plug as a request for everyone who has read this far to find a way today to give back to our industry. Find someone you can help and help them for no reason. Recommendations For Simon “Simon reviews every candidate we hire. His insights often point to attributes that we missed during the normal interview process. More importantly, Simon has uncanny knack for understanding how new employees will fit into the team. People are our most important asset -- thus Simon's services are a critical component to our ability to sustain growth at the superlative levels we have achieved under the leadership of our new CEO.” February 23, 2007. Top qualities: Great Results, Good Value, High Integrity Olin Hyde “Simon is a very savvy and experienced career coach and recruiter. I worked with him multiple times to help with my job search. Each time he provided me with invaluable knowledge that tremendously improved the response rate to my resume submissions and lead to successful employment.” November 26, 2006. Top qualities: Expert, High Integrity, Creative Ron Santschi “I've worked with Simon on a variety of web, marketing and staffing projects and have always found his input and/or direction of far higher quality and clarity than most top level executives. Simon's ability to look through the surface of a situation, to focus on the most important aspects and goals of an activity, promotes results that retain an enduring luminence.” June 9, 2006 James Metzger, Owner, Video Diamonds “I've worked with Simon several times since we first met in 1996. Each time he added exactly what was needed, and our busy employees interviewed just a few highly qualified candidates before we filled the postion. Simon adds a lot of value to the hiring process, from management to hands-on interviewing, screening, and making the offer -- and he's very focused on getting the positions filled.” June 2, 2006 Tom Dilatush, CTO, FutureTrade “I worked with Simon in 2003 when I quit my job at FotoNation and was looking at new opportunities. Simon developed a special program for me, flexible in direction, intensity and duration. He was listening to me, helping me to discover and tackle issues I was suffering from. His help really made a difference in my life and my attitude. I would highly recommend Simon to those in need of coaching.” May 30, 2006 Boris Berkman, CTO and Senior Systems Architect, FutureTrade Technologies “I have known Simon almost 25 years. We have been business partners, played golf, and had many conversations. Simon has earned the title of my most trusted friend. I have found his counsel to be insightful, clear, and useful, time after time. I recommend Simon as a coach, consultant, recruiter, and friend. He's a pretty good golfer, too. " May 30, 2006 Steve Alexander, President, ENG Resources, Inc. “Simon is the only recruitment consultant we've worked with at Integrant since 1999. We always use him to evaluate potential hires and value his take on candidates highly. We have, on a few occasions, gone against his recommendations and we've always regretted it. I highly recommend him to you.” May 31, 2006 Ben Lacomble, Practice Manager, Integrant “Simon is a professional recruiter who has ensured the companies staffing requirements are met in all dimensions of qualifications, corporate culture and financial contraints. He was always an honest source of advice and coaching in building a high performance team in a challenging San Diego market.” May 30, 2006 Al Haddad, CEO, Indyme “Simon is a very thorough Staffing Consultant. I have worked with Simon for over two years now and he has brought a level of insight when considering potential candidates I would have thought difficult if not impossible to obtain in a 1 hour interview. Simon is a straightforward and direct person who can understand our business needs and help us qualify prospective candidates.” May 30, 2006 Jeromy Giacosa, Director of IT, Integrant, Inc “Simon is one of the best recruiters I've ever worked with. He stays on top of things. Reminds the team of what each has to do. He also has outstanding team skills. In a competitive and stressful environment like we're in it's paramount to have team leadership skills. My thinking is that strong recruiting skills is necessary but not sufficient. An outstanding recruiter must have those skills but must also have strong team leadership skills. Simon has those as well and that's why I consider him an outstanding recruiter. He's an excellent 'face' of the company for prospective candidates.” December 15, 2008 Chris Wren, Director, ViaSat “Simon is someone who is very knowledgeable in corporate recruiting, from screening applicants to selecting only those people with the right skills and personality to fit our high standards at ViaSat. He worked at ViaSat for years in a very fast paced, competitive time in the technology industry and produced great results. Sharing time in the same hall I can say he is very dedicated and put in the hours he needed to make things happen.” October 27, 2008 Bruce Rowe, Director, Marketing Projects, ViaSat Inc “I have worked with Simon at ViaSat, Inc. for almost one year. Simon was very helpful when I first started in getting me up to speed and answering all my questions in a thoughtful way. Simon is an outstanding recruiter, he thinks things through and understands the implications of his actions. He can read people extremely well and knows how to communicate effectively. He knows intuitively when to be assertive with candidates and managers and when to be more receptive. He has an excellent grasp on technology and his organizational and time management skills are some of the best I have ever seen. He prides himself on always being prompt. Simon is a strong, independent thinker and yet is amenable to constructive feedback. I have learned a lot from Simon during the time we have worked together and hope I have the pleasure of working with him again in the future.” October 24, 2008 Alana Martyns, Technical Recruiter, ViaSat, Inc. “Simon handled all the recruiting for the Corporate Accounting Group. Over the last couple of years we have doubled the size of the Corporate Accounting Department. Though this intensive hiring Simon played a key roll and only brought us the top candidates. Simon has a great understanding of what is needed in great Corporate Accountant and will not deviate from our needs. He has excellent organization skills, very professional and a great team player. He always did a great job and was great to work with. He will be missed.” October 23, 2008 Ann Grant, Corp Actg Mgr, ViaSat “Simon was a member of our Recruiting team for many years and in that time he brought a dedication to efficiency and excellence that's seldom seen. He brings a consistent methodology to the table that leads to finding precisely the type of candidate you're looking for, and he's is very good at reading the subtle "red flags" that less experienced and perhaps less perceptive recruiters may miss. Simon's personality and wit are icing on the cake!” October 15, 2008 Melinda Del Toro, Director of People Development & Employee Relations, ViaSat, Inc. “Simon supported our entire sales organization. He cut through the red tape and found ways to help us hire some great people who contributed significantly to the bottom line. He was always up-beat and positive. I'd characterize his style as consultative customer service. Highly recommended!” June 29, 2006 Tony Espinoza, VP, Operations, Kodak/Encad, Inc. “We had challenges recruiting and retaining key employees. Simon was constantly striving to understand the needs of the hiring manager and find people who would be the best fit. He was able to work at all levels. With his help, we were able to retain key people. In executive staff, he often provided key insight. Charles Sharp, Former VP Supplies, ENCAD President, Digital Image Technology” June 2, 2006 Chuck Sharp, Owner, Digital Image Technology, managed Simon indirectly at Eastman Kodak formerly ENCAD “Simon worked in my branch office for the direct placement division of Adecco. Simon's core strength and attribute was his ability to bring a consultative approach to our recruiting team that resulted in a more effective and streamlined recruitment process, better candidate screening, and higher returns on placement activity.” November 16, 2007 Eric Scott Hensley, Owner, Technology Search Group “Simon Meth is one of the best recruiters I have come across in my 28 year career. He single handedly helped me build up my 8 person marketing team while I was VP of Marketing at Stac, Inc. His pre-screening of candidates alone saved me a considerable amount of time and meant that I only interviewed top-notch candidates. John Bromhead, Former Vice President Marketing, STAC” May 31, 2006 “Simon was very dilligent, organized and exceeded his sales quota as a Sr. Technology recruiter at Source Services (now Kforce). Simon was a pleasure to work with and became a great working partner.” May 30, 2006 Rick Raimondi, Managing Director, Netsoft…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 2:36am on April 20, 2009

Topic: Some good fears we all have now.: longer open a bathroom door without using a paper towel, or have the waitress put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel. I can’t use the remote in a hotel room because I don’t know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels. I can’t sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed. I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking one’s nose. Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of Trans fats I have consumed over the years. I can’t touch any woman’s purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom. I MUST SEND MY SPECIAL THANKS to whoever sent me the one about rat poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing. ALSO, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die for the 1,387,258th time. I no longer have any money, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoftand AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program. I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s Novena has granted my every wish. I can’t have a drink in a bar because I’ll wake up in a bathtub full of ice with my kidneys gone. I can’t eat at KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes, feet or feathers. I can’t use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day. THANKS TO YOU I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. BECAUSE OF YOUR CONCERN, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains. I no longer buy gas without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer doesn’t crawl in my back seat when I’m filling up. I no longer drink Pepsi or Fanta since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put ‘Under God’ on their cans. I no longer use Cling Wrap in the microwave because it causes seven different types of cancer. AND THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face. Disfiguring me for life. I no longer go to the movies because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS when I sit down. I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me. I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually Al Qaeda agents in disguise. And I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore , and Uzbekistan . I no longer buy cookies from Neiman-Marcus since I now have their recipe. THANKS TO YOU I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big black snake could be lurking under the seat and cause me instant death when it bites my butt. AND THANKS TO YOUR GREAT ADVICE I can’t even pick up a coin dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting to grab me as I bend over. I no longer drive my car because buying gas from some companies supports Al Qaeda, and buying gas from all the others supports South American dictators. I can’t do any gardening because I’m afraid I’ll get bitten by the Violin Spider and my hand will fall off. If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, and the fleas from 120 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s best friend’s beautician . . . Oh, by the way..... A German scientist from Argentina , after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse.. Don’t bother taking it off now, it’s too late.. P. S.: I now keep my toothbrush in the living room, because I was told by e-mail that water splashes over 6 ft. out of the toilet :-/ …; Added by Slouch to Recruiting Humor at 1:08pm on January 14, 2011