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Blog Post: The Best of Both Worlds (IRM - Integrated Recruitment Model): I just wrapped up a webcast for SHRM today on a new recruitment model that I believe will allow all organizations to have the most effective and efficient recruitment strategy available. It's…; Added by Doug Douglas at 6:16pm on November 25, 2013

Topic: Meet Jerry Albright, RBC Regular & Staffing Software Innovator: roup.com Jerry is one of those people you instantly like and feel a camaraderie much akin to someone who has sat on a lawn chair on your deck with a beer in hand for many a summer night. From a chat discussion to live at RecruitFest, RecruitingBlogs.com keeps bringing people from across the country and the world together, learning, singing and laughing. With Jerry we get all three. A practicing recruiter with a high grossing contracting firm who also happened to submit his talents on guitar with vocals for the RecruitingBlogs video contest and, not least, his ability to have us laughing throughout dinner in Toronto at Recruitfest on the first night at an RBC feast. Avid Outdoorsman, Familyman, Recruiter, contracting firm owner, singer, musician, and staffing software innovator, he still finds time each and every day to contribute at RecruitingBlogs be in a forum or a chatroom discussion. My friends, - we have ourselves a Renaissance man and a familiar face in Jerry Albright, a family member within a tight knit community. Meet my good friend, Jerry Albright ... Q&A with Jerry Albright, RBC Regular & Founder of Verbal Summary Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world, Jerry. Jerry: Nikole and I married in 1994 and have been enjoying our lives together for nearly 15 years! We have 3 children – boys Reagan (7) and Reed (5) and our little girl Hannah (3). Our home is in rural Northeast Indiana where we enjoy gardening, swimming in the pond on hot summer days and being actively involved with our kids! Nikole works at Oak Farm Montessori School where our children attend. In the summer we really love getting away in our camper. Venturing to new places and seeing how much the kids love exploring is a perfect way to get away from the desk. I’m an avid outdoorsman – so our family enjoys a varied menu depending on the season! Walleye, morel mushrooms, venison and pheasant are some of our favorite meals together. Six Degrees: How many years have you been a recruiter? Jerry: My recruiting career began in June of 1987. I remember seeing an ad in the Fort Wayne paper with the following headline: Human Resource Consultant. Are you enthusiastic? Motivated? Influential? It then listed the phone number to call. I was certainly motivated, as at that point in my life I hadn’t decided on a particular direction. Enthusiasm has also been a part of anything I do. So all I needed to learn was how to be influential which sounded great to me! I called the number and have stuck with it ever since! Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Jerry: I haven’t thought about that before…..It would most likely have to be the impact of my first few placements. The “big picture” of recruiting really sunk in. I remember feeling like I had really accomplished something. . I had been in sales roles before recruiting but something just felt completely different. I fell in love with it! Since then I have never taken any placement for granted. I can remember the names and companies of nearly everyone I have placed. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Jerry: I have been fortunate in my career to have several mentors – each of whom gave me invaluable insight into the fine art of staffing. Richard Pulse is the one who hired me and gave me my start in 1987. His training and guidance was fantastic. It’s really hard to quantify just how much impact he had on my career because if it weren’t for him I’m quite certain I would be doing something entirely different with my life. My other mentor in the recruiting world was Bruce A. Bone. He was the one who showed me the absolute necessity to personally visit each client your represent. That is one of the things that have stuck with me over the years. If you are going to invest your time and effort with someone (clients) – you simply MUST meet them and build that relationship in a way that only face to face meetings can do. Six Degrees: Tell us about your Day Job, Jerry: Jerry: I am the owner of Professional Search Group as well as Verbal Summary. Professional Search Group was founded in 1998. Since that time I have developed clients throughout the Midwest. We are a small group of independent recruiters working together to fill our client need within the I.T. and Engineering community. We have a focus in I.T. and Technology and also recruit within the Engineering world for several key clients. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Jerry: It would be foolish to not recognize the economic landscape we are all dealing with. It is refreshing for us all to be reminded of the true nature of our work and the focus and discipline success requires in the staffing world. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Jerry: Next for me is to continue developing the presence of Verbal Summary in the marketplace. Having been a successful recruiter for many years is allowing me to shift gears just a bit and follow an idea all the way through. 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? Jerry: I really can’t say enough about Verbal Summary. If you can just picture how many times each day recruiters make marketing call into every company in the marketplace. They have absolutely nothing NEW to present to the clients. Faster? I doubt it. Better? Really. Lower Fee? Please….. When all is said and done there is nothing new taking place for our clients. They are getting resumes in Word format the same way they always have. So it all gets down to providing a truly different (absolutely unique) service to them. Verbal Summary is a tool which allows you to add targeted audio right on top of the resume. So when your client reviews a candidate you have introduced they just click the play button and LISTEN to the candidate describe their particular background for that position. Clients love this. Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career? Jerry: About the only tool we had was the telephone. What I learned during those days was the importance of listening. It seems that with the overload of internet tools we use now – there isn’t much “listening” going on. In fact there is more silence that anything. The process has shifted from “conversation” based recruiting to a more question/answer/email format. I don’t see as much investment in getting to know your clients and candidates as much as we use to. So the tool that has stuck with me is the good old telephone. (Rumor has it the phone is making a comeback!) 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? Jerry: Well – for me I had never heard of such a thing. It was all brand new for me and it felt quite natural. Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience? Jerry: I’m all about learning from mistakes! Luckily I haven’t made too many big ones. After deciding to “do my own thing” in 1998 I did make the mistake of hiring people based on reasons other than what I knew from my previous 10 years in the business it takes to be a success. I made the mistake of assuming the people I hired had the same desire for success that I did. It cost my some real money and lost opportunities to figure that out! 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. Jerry: It has been quite apparent to many of us “old school” recruiters that the general level of service provided my many agencies has become stagnant. Find a candidate. Send the resume. Start again. Our clients are getting resume after resume in the same boring fashion they have for years! I am personally committed to changing the way recruiters make presentations to their customers. As mentioned I have developed a tool for very easily combining audio with resumes. This tool is saving clients considerable time by being able to hear highlighted parts of their interview with the recruiter. The benefits of using it are endless. It is also used to capture your discussion with the client and add that to a written job requirement to be sent to your candidates. They love it. They get to hear the CLIENT describe the job – not just the recruiter’s interpretation. Candidates can very easily refer jobs to their associates just by forwarding the link you send. It’s amazing. Six Degrees: What are some of the frustrating aspects/obstacles to your day to day as a staffing professional and in general? Jerry: Clients now hide behind a wall of voicemail and email. It had been getting harder and harder to reach out to potential clients that had not worked with me before. Up until developing Verbal Summary I had nothing new to offer them. 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? Jerry: What inspires me are the goals and dreams we have as a family. My lovely wife Nikole inspires me! My children inspire me! Recruiting has always been a gift I feel lucky to have received. I am inspired when I drive down the highway and see names of our clients on the trucks. It makes me feel in some small way a part of the big picture. There is not a single profession I can think of which offers such a balance between life and work. Recruiting for me is simply a way of life! The flexibility is something which few careers offer. I can take my work with me – leave it at the office – let it consume me for whatever time it may – or anywhere in between. The choice is up to me! Six Degrees: What one thing do you ideally hope to accomplish in 2009? Jerry: I will continue to get the word out on Verbal Summary while maintaining the level of placement activity I expect from myself. Should be a very busy year! Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug? Jerry: Everyone should really check out Verbal Summary. If you want to offer your clients something absolutely revolutionary…..this is it! It’s one of the few tools I have ever seen which actually give you something that will open client doors for you. It really does! Six Degrees: How Are You Going To Change The Recruitment Industry? Jerry: In a small (but growing) way I already have! Find more videos like this on RecruitingBlogs.com Six Degrees: Tell us about Your Company Jerry: Verbal Summary - www.verbalsummary.com - is the first of its kind. It’s a "Presentation Tool" designed for every desk in the staffing world. It allows the recruiter to easily combine audio with a resume for effective and powerful presentations to their clients. They simply record a conversation with their candidate creating an MP3 file. This audio is then easily uploaded along with the resume to the website. This profile is then turned into a friendly link for sending to their client. All activity taking place from that point forward is tracked instantaneously on their “dashboard”. You will now know immediately when your client has reviewed your presentation. That alone is worth the price! Take a look at this example candidate profile! http://www.verbalsummary.com/ViewCandidate.aspx?p1=23cfc27e-2654-46ad-a4ef-59abcbf732a2 Six Degrees: How was Your Company Founded? Jerry: Our industry has been fixated on candidate sourcing, social networking and storing candidate profiles. There has been very little (if any) thought put into how we’re presenting these individuals to our customer base. In searching for a way to make our candidates stand out from the crowd we found nothing available. I’m an old school recruiter. My success comes from having conversations – REAL conversations - with candidates and clients. Lately many of my clients have begun to rely more and more on email for communication. This frustrates me. After developing an excellent understanding of my candidate’s background and qualifications – I then have to throw it out the window and just send a plain old email with resume attached! I had to change that. Often times during the initial part of the process the client begins with a phone call to the candidate. This is usually a few days in the making and the end result is in essence covering the very same ground your client is paying you for! So this tool simply had to be built. I now take specific parts of my interview audio with the candidate and stick it right on top of the resume. There are hundreds of products to help us keep track of our candidates, but nothing to move them forward once a match has been identified. With that in mind we built the industry’s only tool geared toward our client’s first impression of the candidate that requires NOTHING NEW from the client or candidate. We have significantly changed the way our customers expect to be served by reconstructing the entire ‘resume sending’ process. We’re now introducing the “person” to our clients, not just their resume. Six Degrees: Where did you go and find investors? Jerry: This was done in-house. This project was done with a team of outside software developers. They helped me put my idea into a workable design and then took it from there. Being the first software product I had experienced it was a fascinating and rewarding process…..expensive…but rewarding! From the initial concept to product launch took just under 1 year. Six Degrees: Your Company’s Value Proposition Jerry: With a world gone crazy with all kinds of technology to find candidates – there is simply not a single, straight-forward tool to help you “brand” your “product” once you’ve identified a solid candidate for your client. I find it amazing just how much money is spent in the recruiting world just to make sure everyone has access to all the same resumes their competitors do – but nothing is being invested (yet) to set that resume apart from the crowd for your client. Using Verbal Summary is a way for you to CLEARLY provide an incrementally better service to your client. Without a doubt clients absolutely love the ability to LISTEN to the candidate speak directly about their experience for the job. All the client does is click the link you send. Your email is a sharply branded message sent from Verbal Summary. The customer just follows the link. No downloads, passwords or additional software is required on their end. Your client can review YOUR INTERVIEW AUDIO at any time that fits into their schedule. Six Degrees: What is the pricing structure for your services/products? Jerry: $50/month for the first account with discounts for additional users in the same company. Six Degrees: What is the future for Your Company? Jerry: The future is great! Being the first tool of its kind I have noticed it taking a bit for the idea to catch on with the recruiting public. Once a recruiter sits down and really looks at it the advantage in using it becomes absolutely clear. I know most recruiters think in terms of placements so I’ll put it this way – if you make just ONE additional placement in 30 years due to VS – then it has paid for itself! Why WOULDN’T someone use it?! Six Degrees: Do you blog? Jerry: I’m a recruiter – not a journalist or reporter - so I really haven’t felt the need to blog much. I’ve never thought the general public needed to know my every thought – but to each his own. I am a regular on RecruitingBlogs.com though. Sometimes I’ll put something together over there. I have had the pleasure of hosting Talent Talk Cafe several times and have really enjoyed it. It is a chat every Tuesday and Thursday at 3pm EST on the front page. I strongly believe every recruiter in the world should be a member there. Each day is a learning opportunity. The volume of information there is mind boggling! Six Degrees: Tell me something others may not know about you. Jerry: My home is heated by burning corn which heats water in a boiler. That water is then pumped through my homes original gas/forced air system. The fan blows across the radiator and sends the heat throughout the duct system. It’s very quiet.…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 9:41pm on November 23, 2008

Topic: Meet Larry Gonzales, 20 Year Veteran "Blessed To Give Blessings": te Photography, Cooking, Good Wine, Reading Interests: College Football, Art (Impressionist, Old Masters, Roden's sculptures), World History Favorite Music: Everything from The Beatles to Hendrix to Opera to Lady Gaga Favorite TV Shows: CSI Miami, Csi Vegas, Leverage, Love Saving Grace!, Burn Notice, Damages, Discovery Channel, ESPN, Favorite Movies: Casablanca, All About Eve, Citizen Kane, Trading Places, Errol Flynn Movies, James Bond, The Princess Bride, Jason Bourne, Tombstone, Armageddon, Army Of Darkness Favorite Books: James Patterson, John Sanford, Of Mice And Men, Osterman Weekend, Dostyesky, Dante's Inferno, The Prince, The Art Of War Favorite Quotations: The Proverbs of Solomon: "The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all, is the person who argues with him", "Youth is wasted on the young", "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" • Office/Cell Number 408-838-0637 • Personal Email Larry Gonzales is actually a colleague I worked with when I consulted at Palm. Unfortunately, as a virtual sourcer I never had the honor of meeting Larry face-to-face, but his reputation then as it remains now was well established as a 20+ year veteran of the staffing industry. I was well informed of Larry's formidable resume - a man of all seasons: experienced in the design, implementation and administration of recruiting strategies, staffing planning, and process improvement programs. Larry has managed a recruiting departments, including budgeting, metrics reporting, and recruiting technology. He has a broad working knowledge of HR practices including compensation, performance management, diversity, branding, and employee retention. Larry is proficient in federal and state employment practice regulations, applying and interpreting employee-relations policies, Affirmative Action, Diversity Hiring, EEO-1, VISA Processing and employment law. His Specialties include the following: Mobile Device Engineers, Human Factor Design, Media Designers, Mobile TV, PC-TV, Embedded Software Engineers, Home Entertainment Solutions, RF Engineers, CDMA handset, Risk Management, Sarbanes Oxley Compliance, SAS70, Specialized areas of finance (AML, FAS109/123R, SOP97-2, and SEC Reporting), Sales/Business Development, and Product Marketing. Q&A with Larry Gonzales Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. Larry: I am fortunate to be married to a beautiful and wonderful “Texas Girl”. My wife and I were born and raised in Texas and regardless of how long we live in California, we will always be Texans! Our fourteenth wedding anniversary is coming up next week and I thank God for blessing me with such a great partner in life. I have been involved in charitable fundraising since I was in Middle School. Although the charities and my levels of participation have varied over the years, I feel it is important to give back. My minister always reminds us that “We are blessed, so that we can be a blessing”. I am a cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with cancer in January 2003 and through the efforts of prayer, positive attitude, and the fantastic physicians at Stanford Medical, I have been cancer free since May of that same year. After my full recovery from chemo and radiation, I focused on supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through TNT. I decided to train and participate through Century Bike Rides. I hope to become a mentor next season and help train (mentally and physically) new participants to the program. I am an avid reader of fiction/mystery along with many business periodicals. Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Larry: I have been in the staffing industry for over 20 years dating back to index cards, real cold calls, and ruses. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Larry: Like many of us, I never expected to go in to the recruiting. I had been working for AT&T, designing and selling telecom systems for the transportation industry. I primarily handled air transportation to include airports, airlines, and airline sales offices. I was referred to a “headhunter” that was looking for someone with my background. When the opportunity did not materialize, my recruiter asked me if I would be interested working for her company. I told her that I would rather be a “pimp, than a headhunter”. Famous last words! Needless to say, the reputation garnered by headhunters in those days was less than respectable. She nurtured the relationship and had me meet with the owner of the firm, which was based out of Atlanta. I also meet with all (12) of her colleagues in the Dallas Office. I found myself drawn to the group and to the challenge the job represented. About 90 days later I ended up working for her firm. Since then my experience has included agency, professional services, corporate, and RPO environments. I have held individual contributor, director, and managing partner roles. Regardless of title and responsibilities, I have always been a hands-on contributor. I am a person that gets easily bored, so the ever changing world of technology has been my salvation. To be successful you have to stay abreast of technology trends, understand the industry and known how it applies to business. This requires research and a certain amount of trial and error. Typically, experience helps you shorten your ramp up time to production. You have to continually learn to excel. One of the keys to my longevity is that I always try to specialize. I choose the hottest or up and coming technology and become a subject matter expert. Through the years, I have supported specific software and hardware technology. I get involved in SIGs, Alliance Groups, and conferences. I do not want or expect to be everything to everybody. A “Jack of all trades is a master of none”. However, my experience allows me to talk intelligently across many disciplines. I am equally adept at discussing the hardware design of mobile devices to financial audit and SOX compliance. Right now the mobile device industry is still very strong and within the Silicon Valley area you have a large mix of industry leaders and start-ups. Even with the high unemployment, almost all of my candidates have multiple offers. Find your niche and work it. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Larry: Moving to San Jose in January of 2000 and suffering through the highs and lows of the dotcom era probably affected my life the most. I relocated from Texas and had never really gone through a downturn in business. The economy in Dallas was very diverse and not dominated by any one industry. Even the oil and gas industry represented only about 10% of the total employment population. So when one industry stalled, you had others as backup. 2002 was a rough year. You saw many recruiters leaving the industry (for the mortgage broker industry!) and we see what inevitably happened to them. You also had a large group of recruiters that held on to the belief that they were actually worth the outrageous rates they were being paid before the bust. They would not even think about going to work for less than they were previously making. I find that arrogance is a very ugly trait. I think that it is a combination of at least 3 of the 7 Deadly Sins (Greed, Vanity, and Pride). I think most of us in the recruiting business learned or reinforced our idea of the value of humility. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Larry: I often recall the story about the headhunter that got me in to this business? Her name is Dee Jabaut and she exemplifies all that is good in our industry and in life. She is a valued and loyal friend and everything that I would hope to be in life. She is a consummate professional, wonderful parent, always gracious, diligent, charitable, and patient. Six Degrees: Tell us about your position, (responsibilities, size of your staffing organization) : Larry: I have spent the last three years primarily in an individual contributor role. My responsibilities have included project management, client manager relationship, sourcing, recruiting, and new business development. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Larry: Without firsthand experience, it would be hard to designate who has the best recruiting practices. If you look at the top 25 in Fortune’s Best Companies to “work for list”, I had heard horror stories about some of their staffing organizations. Regardless of the success of the company, I think that the overall candidate experience is vital to managing employee branding. Whether or not the candidate is hired, what they tell their circle of influence is ultimately important to the future of their recruiting. I think that this is even more magnified with the advent of applications such as Twitter and Facebook. I think that it would be a healthy, although not practical exercise, to make corporate recruiters interview externally at least twice a year. This would remind them how it feels to be on the other side of the equation. I also feel that the true measurement of recruiting comes 90-180 days after the hire. Measuring employee and manager satisfaction, employee performance, and attrition are key metrics. There are definitely some companies that stand above the rest, companies where employee and customer loyalty rank high. I admire companies like Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods, Frito Lay, Qualcomm, Ernst & Young, and Boston Consulting. (B) In what aspects are they superior? Larry: Branding, internal and external. Treatment of employees, quality products, and customer satisfaction. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Larry: More tech firms innovate in Silicon Valley but sell overseas! Companies that focus on mass market (China, India, Africa, and South America) are finding greater success. “In down economic times, every company should be thinking: Do I have my balance right? Instead of spending so much money on marketing in some of these depressed markets, some of that should be diverted to parts of the world that are not as negatively impacted.” These markets have typically been ignored. Successful examples are companies like Telegent Systems, Ruckus Wireless, UTStarcom, and Legend Silicon. Six Degrees: Tell us about your broader involvement within the staffing industry: Larry: Outside of local SIGs and affiliations with IEEE (The Consumer Electronics Society and The Antenna and Propagation Society), I have been regretfully reticent. I have been focused on international recruiting to include EMEA, Africa, India, APAC, and South America. I do plan on attending the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next year. Six Degrees: Can you detail how the recession has affected your particular industry niche? Larry: I am fortunate that my current client has not been greatly affected by the global economic downturn. We have been actively hiring for the last 14 months and have aggressive hiring goals throughout 2010. Six Degrees: Aside from simply the generic term “Networking” what specific efforts have you made on your own behalf, or on behalf of colleagues to broaden your opportunities. Larry: Over the last three years I have intentionally built out my Linkedin network by industry segment, targeted companies, and international exposure. That foresight has allowed me to actively search for my current needs. It is an evolutionary process or one might say intelligent design! It is better to be in a revolutionary rather than reactionary mode. 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? Larry: Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Most people are willing to help you achieve your goal if you ask politely. Aristotle stated that “man is a political animal, meaning an animal with an innate propensity to develop complex communities”. By nature we want to help people, preferably if that help doesn’t require a great exertion of time and energy. Using Linkedin as an example, if you use the route of requesting an introduction in order to present an opportunity, most people will forward that introduction when approached professionally. Granted, the degree of assistance increases with the proximity to the person we are helping. Of course for expediency, you should simply try calling your intended candidate. People are also more willing to help if you are offering value to their cooperation. Whether that is an offer to help a friend, an offer to help them in the future, a monetary offer, or sometimes a simple thank you. Remember not to be demanding or too persistent. I prefer the term, gently persistent while trying to achieve a goal. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Larry: Ideally I would like to secure an opportunity as a staffing director/manager. The best position I have ever had was managing and mentoring a staffing organization. I like being responsible for the overall talent acquisition process. There is a great deal of satisfaction growing your own company. That is the one element missing from project based staffing. I need to find a start-up or small company willing to give me the opportunity to run their staffing organization. Either that or a regional staffing management position for a large international corporation. Recommendations For Larry “Larry is an excellent and very professional recruiter. He is very dedicated, hard working, committed, and driven to results. I’ve had the chance to work with him at Palm as a technical recruiter for my system electrical engineering design team. He was very thorough in his search for potential candidates and has successfully provided quality candidates. He is excellent in identifying good candidates and recognizing their talents and the fit in my team. He is very proactive and follows up with the candidate regarding interview schedule, information about the position, feedback, and negotiating offers. He also is very good in communicating with me regarding progress and updates. He is definitely a pleasure to work with and an asset to a company!” November 11, 2008 Bernadette Lozano, Hardware Development Manager, Palm “I worked with Larry in two different ways. First of all, he was instrumental in getting me hired to my current position at Palm. Larry was in Palm's HR/staffing department but it almost seemed like he was my own recruiter. He always kept his promises, followed up on time, and worked hard to meet or exceed my requests. Even after I accepted the offer, Larry followed up with me and wanted to know if there was anything he could do. This has definitely been my best recruiting experience so far. Secondly, Larry also helped me find candidates for an open position at Palm. I have been very pleased in his abilities to provide me with candidates that matched the job description.” August 25, 2008 Thorsten W. Hertel, Sr. Antenna Design Engineer, Palm “I am appreciative to Larry's consistent and thorough search for candidates during this critical time for our project to find qualified candidates. Larry did an excellent job following up with the candidates to arrange for interviews, giving feedback and negotiating offers. Worked closely with us and he is proactive in returning e-mails and phone calls.” July 13, 2007. Top qualities: Expert, On Time, High Integrity Sameer Haddad, Sr Staffing Consultant, Spansion “I had the opportunity of working with Larry at Spansion, a leading supplier in flash memory. Larry is a seasoned recruiting professional who brought leadership and stability to Spansion’s recruiting team. As a senior technical recruiter Larry’s focus was in the device space, which is a very difficult area to recruit for in the semiconductor industry. Larry established solid relationships with hiring managers, was a valued business partner and was able to consistently met expectations. Larry was definitely a team player and a pleasure to work with.” October 30, 2007 Wayne Widdig, HR Manager, Spansion “Larry supported our Connected home and mobile device business at Motorola. In a short period of time, Larry was instrumental in making several critical hires on a high profile project. I found Larry to be a strong E2E staffing professional. Moreover, the clients (hiring managers) found him to be a valuable asset, identifying highly qualified candidates for hire.” October 23, 2007. Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, On Time Nick Mailey, Staffing Manager, Motorola “Motorola hired Larry through his company i-Hire to do some recruiting for us in the N. CA and S. CA areas. I found Larry to be very professional, have good technical knowledge and deliver great customer service in a timely manner. I would work with Larry anytime.” July 22, 2007. Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity Lynda Harris “Larry is excellent to work with and is results oriented. He is very responsive and professional and knows his business.” July 13, 2007. Top qualities: Personable, Expert, Creative Leo Barnes, Staffing/Business Development Manager. RemX IT “Larry and I worked together to staff one of my projects. I found him to be a joy to work with under demanding deadlines in a high pressure environment.” December 28, 2006. Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity Scott Wright - hired Larry more than once “Larry is a professional in the true sense of the word. He has an uncanny ability to communicate and understand conceputal issues at all levels. Larry gives 110% to ensure the project you are assigned is satisfactory. It has been a pleasure working with Larry and I will be glad to do so in the future.” August 2, 2006 Manoj Goyal, Independent Consultant, Squar Milner Reehl Williamson, LLP “I relied on Larry to staff two critical roles in my company's Marketing organization. Through Larry's diligent search capabilities, his attention to my specific criteria, and his follow-up throughout the negotiation process, I recruited two "anchor" members of our current team. They significantly deepened my team's bench, and both exhibit the capability to advance to higher leadership roles.” January 9, 2006 Kristin Jordahl Hansen “I have had the pleasure of working with Larry over the past year. He is not only well polished but also has a high level of integrity. Larry has proven to be a very effective recruiter and account manager and thus is within the top 2% of producers at our company.” April 13, 2005 Chris Stewart, Account Manager, RemX IT Staffing “I was first introduced to Larry when his company brought a recruiting plan to my organization to help us source hard-to-find technical jobs and fill positions that had been vacated due to the dot-com frenzy. Larry led the effort as project manager and offered workable solutions that allowed us to surpass our hiring goals. Larry gets results because he is a professional recruiter who knows technology and offers exceptional customer service.” October 2, 2007. Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Good Value Brenda K. Brown, MS “As a manager and leader, Larry is someone who is committed to developing your skills and knowledge. He's the type of leader that likes and wants to help you out as much as he can. He's a great listener and is very empathic. I know that he has grown a lot of valuable relationships because of these characteristics. As a Sr. Level recruiter, Larry is the best I know. He's a great networker, aggressive, and is very creative in finding the right candidates.” October 1, 2007 Racquel Cariaso, CIR, Recruiter, eJobs “Larry is always focused on the task, ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done. He's an exceptional leader, as well as a committed team player.” June 22, 2007 Garry King, several, Ejobs…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 11:31pm on August 9, 2009

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

Blog Post: Staffing agencies: do they have a future?: I used to work for a staffing agency. A good one at that. One that tried hard to recruit good consultants, who, on the whole, tried hard to do a good job finding the right people for their…; Added by Nick Leigh-Morgan at 7:21pm on May 30, 2012

Blog Post: SixDegrees In The Land Down Under: AustralAsian Talent Conference April 14th: REGISTER HERE to ATTEND the AustralAsian Talent Conference

SixDegrees Hits Sydney Australia…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 1:11pm on March 19, 2008

Blog Post: FROZEN Out of Talent? Let It Go!: The following is the transcript from a webcast I led on 8/26/14 for SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management). This should not be copied, distributed, or used without my permission. Thank…; Added by Doug Douglas at 10:44am on August 28, 2014

Topic: Talent Talk Cafe - Chat Transcript for Community Take 2!: e together for a common good > giving back > where members get back more than they put in > creating and furthering relationships > respect > being - (this referred to presence and actively participating with awareness) > a web of inclusiveness > trust, and, > they must be intentional On Tuesday, June 17th we took the conversation forward to: Framing the community discussion around building a social networking strategy that begins by first establishing a deliberate community focus. So, given the guiding thoughts listed above on community, what steps would you take to design a talent community for recruitment in your business/industry? What are the most important actions a company needs to take to establish community? And, what should the expectations be relative to time to see a return on investing in building talent communities? Here's the transcript from our conversation and I hope you'll join us each Tuesday at 3pm ET/12pm PT for Talent Talk Cafe! Talent Talk Café – Susan Burns – Community #2 Susan Burns Hi everyone! Its time for Talent Talk Cafe!! 3:00pm Slouch Hey Susan 3:00pm Jerry Albright I'm in! 3:00pm MN Headhunter Word 3:01pm Slouch Hey Jerry and Paul 3:01pm Susan Burns Hi Jason, Jerry and Paul! 3:01pm MN Headhunter Susan, I cannot stick around for long and have something to share. Can I jump in? 3:01pm Susan Burns Our topic today is to continue the conversation around community but now move it towards establishing and growing a talent community 3:01pm Susan Burns Hi Paul - sure - go ahead 3:02pm MN Headhunter It tags on wthe topic.... 3:02pm MN Headhunter last week at a social media breakfast... 3:02pm MN Headhunter speaker talking bout ROI on social media.. 3:02pm MN Headhunter building communities... 3:02pm MN Headhunter I asked about how I should respond to ROI takes time and most will not wait long enough... 3:03pm MN Headhunter She said Reputation Management is instant. 3:03pm MN Headhunter If you can manage that right away other things will come in time 3:03pm MN Headhunter what do you think? 3:03pm Missed a little: Susan Burns Authenticity is something that evolves. How do you know instantly that its real? You can get a good feeling but ultimately what is important wi/building a talent community is emotional engagement and connection 3:08pm Jody Simon Hi there, I'm here too 3:08pm Susan Burns Hi PJ 3:08pm MN Headhunter so 8,000 is OK? 3:08pm Susan Burns Hi Jody 3:08pm Andrew Demske Hello from the Bay Area in Cali!! 3:09pm Slouch I think that if the talent network you build is real focused and the en result is hires, it does not need to be big 3:09pm Slouch 8000 is good 3:09pm Susan Burns What's so cool about what Jason has done on RB.com - and the essence of community - is that he's invested a lot to grow this and now the community helps him continue to nurture it 3:09pm Susan Burns Hi Andrew 3:09pm MN Headhunter Can a Forune 500 company build their own version of this 3:10pm Susan Burns Size doesn't always matter - no jokes ;-0 3:10pm Slouch i know that recruiters who place recruiters view this network as a focused talent community. some recruiters are having great success networking here 3:10pm MN Headhunter No this, but a site for CPA's as an exmaple? 3:10pm Susan Burns More important than size is engagement and what the community organizes around and shares out to their network 3:10pm Slouch absolutely 3:10pm MN Headhunter Could a Deloitte do their version of this for accounting people? 3:11pm MN Headhunter How long until it happens? 3:11pm Susan Burns Sort of like the difference between pay-per-click and organic search - ultimately more value is placed and received from organic search 3:11pm MN Headhunter (I want it now) 3:11pm Slouch you can;t have it now 3:11pm Slouch lol 3:11pm Susan Burns Paul - Re Deloitte or other companies - yes - they absolutely can - think how much there is to contribute in the CPA space 3:11pm Jody Simon the ultimate issue here as I see it is that in the corporate world they want to see real results, real fast and this is a process that takes time to build 3:11pm Susan Burns Jody - yes that is the ultimate tension point. Are there ways to show value as you grow community? 3:12pm Susan Burns Is there value contributed by the community that informs the brand and is that seen as value? 3:12pm Jody Simon it's something that I struggle with everyday 3:13pm Susan Burns Jody - what type of company/industry? 3:13pm Jody Simon I need to put aside time to build a network and to concentrate on branding and alternative recruiting methods while still filling open slots tha good old fashioned way 3:14pm Susan Burns So, its also about personal bandwidth? 3:14pm Jody Simon Raytheon Solipsys - mostly hard-to-find engineers 3:14pm Jody Simon definetely about bandwidth 3:15pm MN Headhunter I get that question all the time. I started slow. 5% of my time. It got to about 40% then I saw what I think was diminshed returns 3:15pm Susan Burns This is sort of the ultimate recruiting challenge - reallocating resources so that in time the investment returns more and you produce greater results and also have the time to further build the community 3:15pm MN Headhunter Now about 30% dedicated to social media stuff, recruiting, blog, here 3:15pm Susan Burns It can certainly become a time suck - is that what your implying Paul? 3:16pm Slouch i don;t know any recruiters who make more placements through blogs than they do good old fashion recruiting phone calls. 3:16pm MN Headhunter I think it needs to be balanced. In the beginning the return is lower. Takes time for search engine love 3:16pm Jody Simon most of my blogging, social media stuff, etc is done on my own time out of the office. it's the only way I can get it done 3:17pm Slouch But over time, the branding bit of it becomes something I think that phone calls can;t accomplish 3:17pm Susan Kang Nam Hello Susan.. hello everyone.. sorry I'm little late to join the discussion... 3:17pm Susan Burns Hi Susan - glad you could join us! 3:17pm Slouch and from that referrals come and that is the basis of any successful recruiter 3:17pm MN Headhunter Jason, I agree but I would say about 40% of my business comes from the blog by way of candidates or clients 3:17pm Andrew Demske good old fashion recruiting works best for now. i do think this will change though. i have made a few placements from Blogs and LinkedIn 3:17pm Susan Burns Jody - is there an "open to listen" from the company so they would see an investment period of at least 6 months? 3:17pm MN Headhunter but I have a very focused location and only in IT 3:18pm Jody Simon actually Susan, corporate recruiting is a time suck period! I quote you on that? 3:18pm MN Headhunter or as anonymous? 3:18pm Susan Burns Jody - what about it is the biggest time suck? 3:19pm Jody Simon they are open to most of what I suggest....so long as my #'s are in good shape 3:19pm Jody Simon and yes, you can quote me on that! Jody Simon the paperwork, the charts, plans, reports, etc, etc, etc....I fell like I never get to recruit anymore! 3:20pm Jody Simon gosh, I miss my agency life.....sorry to get you off track... 3:21pm Jerry Albright Talking about % of business doesn't quite put ROI into the correct perspective though, does it? If your overal #s don't increase? 3:21pm Susan Kang Nam having some technical problems.. but thanks Susan.. just reading through the discussion so far... 3:21pm Susan Burns Jody - a lot ofadministrative things that don't add value to where you really contribute? 3:22pm Susan Burns Jerry - can you say more about that? 3:22pm Jody Simon absolutely! Jerry Albright Or if your total production goes down? If you now hit 50% of your numbers from Social Networking, but are down in overall production? 3:22pm Susan Burns Jerry - sure - there needs to an overall benefit and improvement in results. How that is measured depends on the company - yes? 3:23pm Jerry Albright Anyone could achieve a percentage growth in any category. The real goes should be to increase your total #s, right? 3:23pm Susan Burns Has anyone seen or tested the idea of a "community manager" or strategic sourcer that is responsible for the online brand image 3:24pm Susan Kang Nam I am currently exploring both corporate vs. agency using web 2.0.. however curious to hear more about what works and what doesn't... 3:24pm MN Headhunter I ahve not seen a community manager in the career space 3:24pm Susan Burns What if you could reallocate $$ away from job boards and hire someone part-time just to support community efforts - how could that change the game? 3:25pm Susan Kang Nam We are currently testing that at the moment... with our online brand image... still in dsicussion..and exploration MN Headhunter Jerry, I agree. But there hard to measure benefits like speaking before a CIO group, quoted in the business section, and speaking to user groups that I did not do prior to this trek of mine 3:26pm MN Headhunter before I was a really good recruiter. now I am a really good recruiter with a brand, name, reputatin 3:26pm Susan Burns I introduced it at my last company and we saw an improvement that returend big $$ in savings through reduced time to hire 3:26pm Susan Burns So Paul - there's a shift in measuring value? 3:27pm MN Headhunter To some extent. I cannot measure right away the value of speaking before the CIO group. May not be able to know the true value ever 3:27pm Jerry Albright Right on Paul. We all track activity "forward" but very few track it "backward" to it's initial ingredients...... MN Headhunter Went to a tech event with 440+ attendees. local event... 3:29pm Rayanne that's a good ratio 3:29pm MN Headhunter Wore a blur short to the event...had people introducing themselves to me and that they read mys tufff 3:29pm MN Headhunter someone pointed out in my Twitter pic I am wearing a blue shirt 3:29pm MN Headhunter so everyone on Twitter in the local tech community recognized me 3:30pm Rayanne you have branded yourself 3:30pm MN Headhunter That was at least 25 people 3:30pm Susan Burns Hi Rayanne! 3:30pm Slouch if you look at WirelessJobs.com it's easy to see how that could become an incredible engine for making placements. 3:30pm Rayanne does that mean you can only wear blue now? 3:30pm Slouch built on Ning. target talent community with a recruiter running it 3:30pm Rayanne Hi Susan.. 3:30pm MN Headhunter I have branded myself by accident, the original intent of the blog was therapy, to work things out of my head and create free space 3:30pm Slouch Hey Rayanne 3:30pm Rayanne I udnerstand that kind of therapy 3:31pm Rayanne hey Jason' 3:31pm MN Headhunter I am going to white shirts now 3:31pm Susan Burns But also building an online brand can help move things along ore quickly because people have already identified with you 3:31pm MN Headhunter trying to grow the brand 3:31pm Andrew Demske lol 3:31pm Slouch that's the idea 3:31pm Jerry Albright Slouch - need a "pause" button on thing...... 3:31pm Rayanne more professsional? that IBM look? 3:31pm MN Headhunter but no tie. I am allergic 3:31pm Susan Burns Pauls taking on a MAJOR rebranding campaign! 3:31pm Rayanne wow... 3:32pm Claudia Faust Hi all 3:32pm MN Headhunter Susan, to your previous point, yes, doing the online stuff has moved me forward at a much quicker pace than pre blog in 2005 3:32pm MN Headhunter ties, not literally 3:32pm Susan Burns Hi Claudia 3:32pm Rayanne rebranding can be good - expanding your base even more 3:33pm MN Headhunter the thing is anyone can do it. That is my beliefe anyway. It just takes some time 3:33pm Rayanne Hi Claudia!!! 3:33pm Claudia Faust Hey there Rayanne! Susan Burns Paul - how long did it take before you started to see a measurable ROI? 3:33pm MN Headhunter 6 months from the blog 3:34pm Susan Kang Nam Hello Rayanne... hello Claudia.. 3:34pm MN Headhunter 10 days from Twitter 3:34pm MN Headhunter 2 months on MySpace 3:34pm Rayanne hey Susan KN... 3:34pm Susan Burns Paul - that's GREAT! 3:34pm Claudia Faust Paul, how do you measure the ROI? (hi there, Susan!) 3:34pm MN Headhunter 25 minutes on LinkedIn 3:34pm Susan Kang Nam I just joined Twitter today.. kind of curious.. how that works.. really.. 3:34pm Rayanne that is a quick ROI 3:34pm Slouch Paul, are you talking about making placements? 3:35pm MN Headhunter Jason, yes 3:35pm Susan Kang Nam that is quick.. 3:35pm Susan Burns Hi Claudia! Jerry Albright Isn't that a bit "old school" Slouch? 3:35pm MN Headhunter The blog was easy to measure because in the beginning I still had a business site 3:35pm Rayanne Isn 3:35pm Susan Burns Paul -that's also consistent w/ the time frame I experienced in-house for corp restructuring and restrategizing 3:36pm Rayanne Isn't what "old School"? 3:36pm Slouch Claudia, I still have the coupon you sent me 3:36pm Claudia Faust ROFL 3:36pm Claudia Faust frame it 3:36pm MN Headhunter everything now goes back to the blog so there is a base from which to work Susan Kang Nam interesting... 3:37pm MN Headhunter not interested in the job I am pitching? Want career information? go to the blog 3:37pm Claudia Faust Paul, I'm really curious to know how you measure ROI though. Is it number of contacts? revenues generated from those contacts? 3:37pm Slouch Jerry, is what old school 3:37pm MN Headhunter want information on the next local tech event? go to the blog 3:37pm MN Headhunter RSS feed if you like 3:37pm MN Headhunter sign up for the newsletter 3:37pm Claudia Faust ahh, got it. usan Burns in addition to placements do you also measure future placements - for instance those that are interested, qualified but just not the right time yet? 3:38pm MN Headhunter the thing is giving options, making accessible, rsponding promptly 3:38pm Claudia Faust and the end result to you is broader brand awareness? 3:38pm Jerry Albright Placements as a way of looking at ROI 3:38pm Jerry Albright Sometimes I'm a bit of a smart-ass..... 3:38pm Slouch I don;t know? 3:39pm Susan Burns Jerry - what would you want to measure? 3:39pm Slouch yes I know Claudia Faust this is an interesting topic -- Ami and I have been talking a lot about the ROI from social networking in a similar context 3:39pm MN Headhunter Jerry, I do agree with you. But prior to the blog I was a really small fish in the pond with no reputation 3:39pm MN Headhunter now people call me to do a search, looking for a job 3:40pm Jerry Albright Paul - I respect what you've done and your willingness to share! 3:40pm MN Headhunter I look at this way, I am spedning less time explaining who I am, wat I do, how I do it. Less time educating and more time building relationships 3:40pm Claudia Faust so the ROI does indeed lead back to your bottom line. 3:41pm Susan Burns Paul - what you've been doing is building personal equity and that is the ultimate goal in buidling a community 3:41pm Jerry Albright What I meant by the "old school" comment. Most social networking talk is about reaching out, building pipeline, etc. 3:41pm Slouch I think a core belief for any recruiter has to be wefind people for Jobs, we don"t help people find jobs 3:41pm MN Headhunter agreed 3:42pm Jerry Albright You rarely see mention of actually sending an invoice to anyone though that is our bottom line goal. 3:42pm Slouch don;t shoot me for that 3:42pm Maren Hogan Sorry SO late! I;d like to know how you deal with jason when people come to you for jobs?? 3:42pm Rayanne true 3:42pm Maren Hogan deal with THAT 3:42pm Rayanne true 3:42pm Susan Burns Hi Maren! 3:42pm Sateesh Yalamanchili I am new to this blog 3:42pm Susan Kang Nam hello... 3:43pm Maren Hogan Hi! Sorry so late! ACK! 3:43pm Susan Kang Nam hi Maren 3:43pm Jerry Albright Send them to the Employment Agency down the road..... 3:43pm Rayanne Hi Sateesh 3:43pm Susan Burns Maren - do u mean when a Seeker contact you about finding a job? 3:43pm Slouch they don;t come any more. I have not recruited for years but when they did, I would just say I don;t have any positions for what you are doing which was almost always the case 3:43pm Maren Hogan Okay so is that part of building community then? 3:43pm usan Burns Maren - do u mean when a Seeker contacts you looking for a job? 3:43pm Rayanne I think every contact has future potetntial even if they come to me... 3:43pm Rayanne You never know what position they will be holding or where they will end up next month. 3:44pm MN Headhunter I agree but I always try and give one idea, one referral out of courtesy. Part karma, part I do not know who they know that might one day come back to me 3:44pm Slouch Nope Maren Hogan yes 3:45pm Rayanne Maren has a point... that is not part of building a community 3:45pm Susan Burns chat tool is getting sluggish 3:45pm MN Headhunter sluggish = good 3:46pm Rayanne It boils down to respect and giving back 3:46pm Slouch its not how you build community but it's how you hit the numbers and make the placements most managers want to see 3:46pm Slouch just a recruiting observation. 3:46pm Susan Burns agree w/ rayanne - if u think about community how could this person also help you so its more a matter of deciding how much time to invest communicating with the person 3:46pm MN Headhunter and that is why I have been on my own this whole time 3:47pm Maren Hogan yep, you are all sayign what I am trying to say Rayanne I knew what you meant by your question, Maren. 3:47pm Susan Burns these same principles can work inhouse for corp recruiters. its a matter of building a compelling case and finding key partners/champions 3:47pm Maren Hogan In a small town like Omaha you can't just be all "sorry yo, can't help ya". It;s akin to saying you don;t know any of the big dogs plus it outs people off 3:47pm Rayanne definitely works for in-house 3:48pm Maren Hogan so I think part of building comm for me would be to build a relationship with an agency that would actually help these people 3:48pm MN Headhunter same here in Mpls. A big really big small town 3:48pm Maren Hogan thx rayanne! 3:48pm Susan Burns maren - you also don't know how connected that person might be - say they live in NYC and write a blog - all becomes part of reputation management and recognizing we are all one 3:48pm MN Headhunter I finally started doing agreements with non IT firms 3:48pm Rayanne I always think about who that person might know or where they might be 3:49pm Susan Burns Jodi - are you still here? 3:49pm MN Headhunter Susan, look at that. tied it all together after me going on a tangent for 48 minutes 3:49pm Jody Simon yes i am 3:49pm Maren Hogan that's true 3:49pm Rayanne tangents are good 3:49pm Susan Burns Paul - you're the Lewis Black of the recruiting world ;-) 3:49pm Rayanne rants are good.. \ Rayanne it starts conversations and points being made 3:50pm Susan Burns Jody - wondering what would help make the case for you internally? Where does the company see value? 3:50pm Maren Hogan HAHA--susan spot on! 3:50pm Susan Kang Nam great question.. 3:50pm Slouch Jody, what kind of engineers are you recruiting 3:50pm Jody Simon in its engineers only....we are run by our engineers 3:50pm MN Headhunter (sound of Paul going into convulsions) 3:51pm Slouch circuit design engineers? 3:51pm Jody Simon heavy duty systems engineers with DOD and C2 experience 3:51pm Susan Burns what do engineers value? is there a cost to not having enough engineers on the job andif so how much - can it be monetized 3:51pm Slouch how much do you py to agencies every year? 3:51pm Slouch pay 3:51pm Jody Simon if i can get engineering on my side then i win the argument hands down 3:52pm Rayanne SB, when I worked in-house I kept every résumé I received and made placements months later when new reqs came up... Jody Simon I don't use any agencies at all... 3:52pm Slouch what about the company you work for 3:52pm MN Headhunter Rayanne is my hero of the day 3:52pm Slouch if you dont mind me asking 3:52pm Susan Burns Rayanne - same here - we would mine our own database before paying to post a job - novel concept huh! and made hires that had applied a year ago or more 3:52pm Rayanne yep 3:53pm Jody Simon I am very close to having the engineers on my side. they want to use agancies and I want the recruiting function to grow internally 3:53pm Susan Kang Nam that's great Rayanne... 3:53pm Jody Simon my company doesn't use any agencies 3:53pm Susan Burns Rayanne - it was also about how we managed communication w/ them initially - big push on pesonal communication 3:53pm Rayanne true.. 3:53pm MN Headhunter Jody, how many of you are there? job to fill? Susan Burns Jody - maybe thats the open door - take the $$ they would invest in agency and see if they'll give u 6 months to show an ROI from community/social 3:54pm Maren Hogan Do you think that extra hire (resume hoarding whatev) is MORE useful in our current economy? 3:54pm Rayanne I spoke to every person that sent a résumé and made sure they knew me and the company they had applied to 3:54pm MN Headhunter Susan beat me to the punchline 3:54pm Jody Simon communication is the key with my company as well....the problem is that recruiting reports to HR and my boss puts up a fight 3:54pm Susan Burns Maren - extra hire and resume hoarding sound difft to me. extra hires always make sense if its the right extra hire ;-) 3:55pm Susan Burns So its HR that is the obstacle? Jody Simon I'm working on getting a champion for my cause and getting very close 3:55pm Jody Simon yes, HR is the obstacle 3:55pm Rayanne sometimes... and sometimes it's the hiring manager that wants to make that hire NOW 3:55pm Susan Burns Jody - that could take us another hour at least ;-) but to all of u who know how I feel about that obstacle - i rest my case for now! Maren Hogan aorry trying to come up with punchy title on the fly then had to get my hotdog--I meant whatever the name for Ray and Paul's and your database. . . 3:57pm MN Headhunter that if they have a relationship built, when the job order opens, they can hire rightaway 3:57pm Jody Simon Thanks Susan....always up for ideas...and helping others with my own ideas as well 3:58pm Susan Burns hey everyone - any thoughts or requests for next weeks topics? Maren Hogan critical foundational tools for the recruiting function 3:59pm MN Headhunter Susan = my new therapist 3:59pm MN Headhunter Maren, huh? 3:59pm Slouch im always open to a discussion about making this site better for everyone 3:59pm Maren Hogan so much theory thrown around and then to put into practice in the real world 3:59pm Susan Burns Ok Paul but I don't take insurance ;-) 3:59pm Maren Hogan what do we really need? 3:59pm Susan Kang Nam lol 3:59pm Maren Hogan Paul, I know I'm wordy, you'll learn to cope 3:59pm MN Headhunter will do some online wine shopping then 3:59pm Slouch with an accent 3:59pm Maren Hogan ha! 4:00pm Rayanne hmmm Rayanne I LOVE the live-ness 4:01pm Susan Burns a community? 4:01pm Slouch yah 4:01pm Maren Hogan I hate it. I usually have something in my teeth 4:02pm Rayanne that is a great idea 4:02pm Susan Kang Nam hmmm... 4:02pm MN Headhunter (sound of wheels turning) 4:02pm Rayanne no screeching 4:02pm Susan Burns that would be cool. could also then put togehter a few key steps to marketing it? managing it? 4:02pm Rayanne I like it... 4:02pm MN Headhunter by chance do you have an extra domain name? 4:02pm Susan Burns isn't that a great sound paul - it goes really good with wine ;-)! 4:02pm Slouch I can check. 4:02pm MN Headhunter or 100? 4:02pm Susan Burns i just established talenttalkcafe.com today - thanks to ami's reco 4:03pm Susan Burns u can use that if you'd like 4:03pm Maren Hogan so exciting! Really, i love IDEAS! 4:03pm Slouch I think we could easily build a site. the building is easy. its the maintaining but that is something else completely 4:04pm Rayanne this is great. 4:04pm Rayanne I am sure... 4:04pm Slouch same bat time, same bat channel 4:04pm Slouch susan, if you want, we can talk details in Portland 4:04pm Jody Simon thanks for sharing! 4:04pm…; Added by Susan Burns to Talent Synchronicity at 2:25pm on June 18, 2008

Comment on: Topic 'Recruiting Scientists News': private ownership and control of the means of production, and I generally agree with his analyses. I couldn’t possibly agree with him more with regard to one of his concluding paragraphs in the Times article entitled: "$1 trillion package has something for everyone." Obama’s appointees to the energy and environmental regulatory agencies will work to prevent new coal plants from being built, and to arrange financial and regulatory subsidies for wind and solar power. Pressure on the car industry will be unrelenting and irresistible. In hock to the government, the big three Detroit automakers will have to respect the wishes of congressmen who have never sold a car, and produce green cars in which consumers have shown little interest. Change there will be, but whether it will contribute to economic recovery and long-term growth, or impede it, is an open question. I would like to add to the above that I have noted that deceptively simple phrases to describe and therefore supposedly to help us to understand complex phenomena are all the rage in our contemporary sound-bite utilizing, attention deficit reinforcing, society. Carl Marx would be glad to know that one of his philosophical/psychological tenets has been adopted by the poorly educated personnel of the media and its punditry; they have discovered that by just repeating a phrase often enough it becomes established for their non-discriminating readers and auditors as the “truth.” We therefore now have “global warming” used to describe not only any rise in average temperature anywhere in the world for a time period selected carefully to illustrate whatever point of view is being professed, but, astonishingly, the same phrase is also used to note cooling and record cold anywhere as somehow predicted by the very existence of “global warming.” I note today that we now have wide use of the wonderfully non-informative and non-descriptive phrase, “advanced batteries”, to describe experimental and frequently peripheral science, i.e., inquiries that are not uniformly reproducible-sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t-that cannot and do not in fact result in an advance over the practical technology in place. The morally undefined philosophical/sociological term “better for the purpose intended” is assumed in all such references to “advanced “technologies of any kind. If you’re skeptical about my point then explain to me please why an atomic weapon is an advance over a bomb constructed with chemical explosives. It has turned out that the rapid changes in technology of the past generation have left journalists far behind in their economic understanding of what is practical and what is advanced. This has spawned a genuine advance, a better form of hucksterism. The scientists and engineers whose agenda it is to get funding for their projects now sell the press, and through it hopefully the public, on the idea that their particular technology or discovery represents an advance and is therefore better. The logic is “all advances are improvements….” Of course there is always the problem of economics, but since economic analysis does not lend itself to sound bites it is ignored by the media. Advanced Nonsense: The Politics of Alternate Energy We live in the age of Harry Potter solutions to economic problems. This means that our politicians and financial elites get to ignore the physical laws that have been discovered to govern, without exception, the utilization and conversion of energy from one form to another. Our leaders also feign complete indifference to the actual measured quantities of, and the accessibility to us of, the natural resources of energy, metals, and minerals which the earth possesses. Finally they claim that the most basic of economic laws, that of supply and demand is too complex to be understood except by a few who are skilled with the use of computers. The popular song asks “Do you believe in magic?” It would be less mellifluous but more accurate to ask “Do you believe in the bullshit coming out of Washington and Wall Street?’ The political bias of the mainstream media (MSM) is so obvious that its readership has nosedived to now be constituted of just those partisans who are true believers in whatever cause the newspaper, magazine, or broadcaster supports. The nonsensical and so-called financial analysis in the same publications has now entered the realm of pure fiction unless you filter it through the political bias already mentioned and a cultural elitism that simply reeks of the philosophy that one mustn’t question one’s ‘betters.’ Once serious, i.e., relatively balanced in their reporting, publications such as Newsweek and Time now have the form and, more and more, the sound bite and snippet style content of graphic novels, the euphemism that has replaced the more accurate term “comic books.” The New York Times, for example, is so incredibly biased, and generally inaccurate as well, as to be unreadable. It masquerades as serious by publishing biased, factually inaccurate, polemics. In my own travels, I once had the occasion to watch Nicolai Ceausescu speak on Romanian television for 6 hours on the glory (accruing to his masterful leadership) of meeting factory production schedules for tractors in a five year plan. The difference between socialist Romania in the 1980s and oligarchic New York in the 2000s is that everyone in Romania knew that the factory production figures were made up to fit the leader’s analysis and that; in any case, the tractors were crap that needed fixing every day. The New York Times thinks that its crap analysis doesn’t stink and so never needs fixing. Why should investors in minor metals care about any of this? Because they are getting nonsensical “analysis” of future supply and demand-the key factors to future price-from the glib ignoramuses populating the airwaves, the press, and the seats of financial and political power. Investors in minor metals need only to look at the results of following the advice of the self-centered greed-driven financial wizards and mining analysts of Wall Street firms in combination with the crisis solution agendas of the single minded, i.e., driven solely by the desire to be re-elected, hereditary politicians and their appointees in Washington to know that not a single one of these elites knows even how to salvage their own assets from the current massive destruction of confidence, credit, and wealth except by gaming the system, i.e., using insider knowledge and connections, and breaking the very rules and laws they themselves have written or sworn to enforce, to take the risk out of the equation even though those actions are always unethical and mostly illegal. I am speaking of men like Christopher Dodd and Charles Rangel. I’m going to give you some short term and some long term investing advice based not on what the political and financial elites say but on the results of what they have done, are doing, and say they will continue to do: Note first that Wall Street and Washington types believe in magic, not science. Even more important for investors is the fact that America’s elites, in particular those who have never worked for a living nor had the need to do so, such as Al Gore or HRH Princess Caroline of New York, only admit into their inner circles, for basking in the radiance of their presences, those who, like them, do not have a clue about the economy that created the America they dominate or the economies that are growing, successfully, in China, India, Brazil, and Russia. The elites believe that it is not important to take notice of the fact that the world’s strongest economies, from the point of view of future growth, are all based on two paramount factors: 1. Domestic self-sufficiency in, or control over, the exploration for and the production of natural resources of metals, minerals, and energy, and 2. The creation and maintenance of a domestic OEM heavy industrial sector that can manufacture consumer goods such as motor vehicles, aircraft, locomotives, ocean-going freight carrying vessels ,construction equipment, mining machinery, and home appliances, and is always ready to produce armaments for national defense. The above two factors are the reasons that the United States entered the 21st century as the world’s largest economy and the only military power able to project sufficient force to win a war to any location on earth. Americans believe that the American form of republican government in combination with our type of free market economy is what put our country where it is today. The BRIC economies believe that the two factors enumerated above are the real reasons that America grew to its present pre-eminence and that therefore if established by them individually will underpin and sustain them as great financial and military powers and that such will not depend on whether or not they are politically monarchies, dictatorships, republics, or democracies, and will not depend on whether their economic systems are free market or command economies or a mixture of both. Incredibly, the American elite and self-perpetuating ruling class has bet against the BRIC economies being right and has chosen until now to bet the wealth and security of the USA on a fantasy globalization based on a fantasy global adherence to free market principles, which principles not only do not operate within the USA but do not operate at all among the BRIC economies all of which are focused only on improving their own positions in the global economy no matter what the consequences to any other states. It may well be fatal to the perpetuation of American power to raise the wall of protectionism at this point in our history. Yet the latest person elected to the office of President represents a party the interests of which are dominated by purchasing through paying above market prices for labor the votes of the self serving unions, and economically as well as historically illiterate elites and political leaders the only interest of whom is in the accumulation of personal wealth or perpetual re-election or both. All of these people are what the Soviets used to refer to as “cosmopolitans” defined as individuals who put the interest of a global polity ahead of their responsibility to the well being of the state in which they live. So, you can make money in the market by watching for the resonance, that is to say the reinforcing, of the intersection of magic technologies and the attention of America’s ruling political elites. Magic technologies are those which solve problems without taking into consideration the availability of the raw materials and engineering processes required to build them or the economics of their production and distribution. In the short term I suggest that you invest in the fantasy alternate energy plays. The market will respond to the Obama alternate energy, “green,” stimulus by bidding up the price of the shares of the companies that claim they are working on ”advanced’ anything such as 1) rechargeable batteries, 2) wind generation of electricity, or 3) solar energy conversion. My model for this advice to you is the immediate reaction of the market to the money authorized to be wasted by the Bush administration, in conjunction politically with the self-serving Pelosi-Reid ‘led’ government, on subsidizing the American owned and operated OEM automotive industry for another month or two. The Wall Street ‘market makers’ responded to this destruction (waste) of wealth by bidding up the price of GM stock over just a few days to twice what it was selling for at the beginning of the phony time period during which the government was ‘considering its options.’ As I am writing this I note that it has already begun to sink in to the ‘investors’ that the long term prospects of the car makers are not really very bright if they say that they cannot survive even a couple of days without massive access to the Federal teat. Of course a cynic might just think that the short sellers are exercising their ‘judgment.’ After all, a swing of 16% in one day, such as GM had late in 2008, can make a Wall Street ‘professional’ a great deal of money. Returning to the discussion of fantasy green energy plays: Get out of investments in the future of companies subsidized by government as soon as it becomes obvious that there is going to have to be a second stimulus package given to them. This will be apparent when there are no results from the ‘advanced’ work and all of the companies say that ‘they are on the right track’ but need more money. This should take about 6 months, but as auditors look into, or make, the cost-benefit analyses of ‘advanced’ or ‘game changing’ technologies the collapse of market interest may occur in a much shorter time. Switch your money at that point, when you smell the need for a second bailout, to those surviving companies specializing in producing the raw materials for existing, workable, and economically practical technologies such as, in the case of the vehicle propulsion battery space, lead-acid (SLI and traction), nickel cadmium, and nickel metal hydride batteries. I would also then invest in lithium-ion (storage) batteries, wind for off grid use, silicon based solar, both crystalline and amorphous, and uranium and thorium based nuclear electric power generation. A final word about ‘advanced’ technology development. As a young man I once heard the best politician ever to come out of Minnesota, Hubert Horatio Humphrey (DFL-Mn) give some legislative drafting advice-I was in law school at the time and I was in a legislative drafting class. Vice President Humphrey, as he then was, said that in the 1950s when he and some other like-minded liberal senators were trying to draft legislation to expand subsidized college education to include not only G.I.s, but also the poor and disadvantaged who were otherwise qualified. The senate majority leader at the time, Lyndon B. Johnson( D-Tx), told Humphrey that if he wished to get the backing of the (Democrat party) majority for a bill that would help not just poor whites but also poor blacks he would need to label it so that questioning the bill automatically meant questioning the patriotism of the questioning senator himself. Humphrey said that Johnson took a copy of the proposed bill and wrote in front of the title word ‘education’ the two magic words “National Defense.” The rest is (legislative) history. Note well that the stimulus package in the Eisenhower administration was the National Defense Highway Act, which created the interstate highway system. Michigan was the first state to spend a billion dollars on the extensions of the interstate highways that went through Michigan and on the state highway “feeder” roads for that system. It was this ‘stimulus’ package not any advances in automotive technology that ignited the boom years for the OEM automotive, construction equipment , and mining machinery industries. The reductions in time necessary to get from the suburb to a job in the city and to get food and raw materials from where they were produced to where they were consumed ignited the dramatic growth of the United States outside of the east and Midwest. This could have been accomplished alternately by building national, intra-city, and intercity railroads as Europe did at the time, but OEM automotive industry politics in the USA overcame railroad politics and both mass transit and freight carrying passed from being carried by durable steel wheels on durable steel rails to being transported on disposable rubber tires on concrete highways that needed constant attention thus created jobs and the need for enormous quantities of raw materials all across the country. What a deal! Consumerism was born, lived long, and prospered. Without further ado, I am going to now list for you a group of companies related by the products which they are trying to develop, their business goals, and their agendas. I think you can make money by investing in them but solely on the basis of their relationship to the political goals of the Obama agenda for alternate energy. These investments are based on the truism that in allocating your investments timing is just as important always as project selection. On December 18, 2008 the Wall Street Journal carried a story based on a press release that day announcing that [L]eading U.S. battery and advanced [emphasis mine] materials companies, with support from one of the country’s largest national laboratories [The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory {just outside of Chicago}], have formed the National Alliance for Advanced [emphasis, again, mine]Transportation Battery Cell manufacture, known as the “Alliance,” to manufacture advanced lithium ion battery cells for transportation applications in the United States. The Alliance is trying to get a lot of taxpayer money to accomplish a completely amorphous goal, the members want to develop some fantasy process technology which will be flexible, so that it is adaptable to the mass production of whichever of the 26 lithium ion battery technologies now being “researched’ turns out to be the one that is safe, durable, long lived, and economical for the electrification of a limited range of passenger carrying vehicles-the electrification of long range high capacity freight carrying vehicles is a topic that is not even whispered about; it is too difficult a task for the foreseeable future. Note well how many times the word advanced appears in just the first paragraph of the press release. Note also that the Alliance is centered upon a U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory operated near the actual home of the soon-to-be sitting President of the U.S., so that the project’s money will flow to and through the new President’s home state. The fact that funding for this particular laboratory has lately been drying up is, of course, coincidental. The fact that the project would make more sense if it were directed by the NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, is also irrelevant. The Alliance is thus founded on that most fundamental of American political practices bringing home the bacon. It will almost certainly get its first allocation of Federal Funding early in the Obama presidency and will get more money as its research advances. The members of the Alliance are: * 3M (NYSE:MMM) * ActaCell (Private?) * All Cell Technologies (Private) * Altair Nanotechnologies (NasdaqCM: ALTI) * Dontech Global (Private) * Eagle-Picher Corporation (Private) * EnerSys (NYSE:ENS) * Envia Systems, (Private) * FMC (NYSE:FMC) * MicroSun Technologies (Private) * Mobius Power (Private) * Silyte (Private) * Superior Graphite (private) * Townsend Advanced Energy (Private) Note well the main reason that companies seek Federal funding; it is because private funding has no political agenda and is therefore not interested in taking the risk of getting little or no return based on 1) the state of development and the quality of the company’s technology, 2) the quality (i.e., competence perceived or demonstrated) of its management, or 3) whether or not the size of the losses incurred by the company so far are such that they can never be recovered in a rational amount of time. Additionally note how many of the above companies are private even the one that has a long and famous history, Eagle-Picher. The fact that so many of the alliance members are private is most likely an indication that they fail all or one of the above enumerated tests that private capital requires them to pass. To be fair some of them may have been ‘taken’ private by a fund in order to fatten them up for an IPO or to consolidate them with another company for a more substantial IPO. No matter how these companies got to their present inability to proceed without an amount of capital that was not available to them as constituted from the private market they are all now in the same boat; they cannot raise enough capital individually to both continue the development of whatever battery technology they have chosen as the one and to engineer a manufacturing process suitable for mass production. Note well that EaglePicher, Enersys, Microsun Technologies, and Superior Graphite are all pursuing or manufacturing other battery types besides lithium based ones. Even so they are in the same boat as the others they do not have nor can they raise sufficient capital to engineer mass production techniques and to build a flexible facility with the capacity to mass produce automotive power train batteries. The Alliance is not the sum of its parts; it is a group of undercapitalized companies, which have come together to grab a piece of the alternate energy pie in the hopes that the pie will be an open ended feast allowing them to keep getting more money even if and when they go down the wrong path or make a mistake. The free market is very harsh and cruel to such supplicants, but politicians allocate money to ensure their own re-election, not to serve a public good, so the Alliance is now on to a good thing. If they get public money they will not have to compete in the market place for it, and if anyone or more of them is successful they will not have to pay back their part of the ‘funding.’ Thus private enterprise as a driver of innovation and economic advantage will be driven out of the market for battery advancement probably therefore killing the possibility of developing an ‘advanced’ battery system. In any case, my advice is simple: If you see that the Alliance is going to receive funding then buy shares in those members of the alliance that are public and then watch the news carefully for mention of positive results by any member of the Alliance, listed publicly or not. Such news will cause the market to rise for whatever play there is in the Alliance. I would sell any Alliance-related shares that I own if they go up by a predetermined amount, say 10%, and then buy them back when the news quiets down and the market loses interest as no news is forthcoming. You will know when the Alliance has run through its funding. This will be when stories begin to follow one another that a breakthrough is imminent but that some further federal lard may need to be spread on the stale bread. The available stock will drop on this negative news. Choose a bottom and buy. When the Department of Energy announces that it will provide the additional funding let the stock rise to your target gain and dump it like an overheating lithium ion laptop battery. I suspect that we will see one or two cycles of this “Advanced Nonsense” this year, 2009. After that it will become obvious that the project is nothing more than An open ended subsidy program, and the DOE will try to get out of it, not by canceling it and admitting an error on the part of the administration but by trying to auction off its ‘share’ of any technology or engineering process development to private equity. The ticking time-bomb for this whole exercise in government mismanagement of the development of “Advanced” technology is of course the progress, if any, being made simultaneously by companies like America’s A123, France’s SAFT [Paris: SAFT.PA], and Korea’s LG [KSE: 066570.KS]. The three companies named above have all been selected by an OEM automotive supplier to develop a lithium ion technology. A123 and SAFT have been paired with Johnson Controls International (JCI), the world’s largest manufacturer of lead-acid SLI batteries in order to have JCI ready to engineer a mass production operation for a successful lithium ion technology should one occur. SAFT and LG have each also been mass producing batteries for many years. None of them even though they may plan to mass produce lithium ion batteries for vehicular power trains in the USA will join the “Alliance,” because they don’t want to share any competitive advantage either in battery technology or battery mass production technology with the small, undercapitalized, jonnies-come-lately. It is therefore very important to watch the press releases and progress of these three. If a car such as the GM Chevrolet Volt is introduced into the market and performs well with a battery from A123, SAFT, or LG or any combination of them and it is announced that JCI or, perhaps, EXIDE will put the battery into mass production then the purpose of the Alliance and all of its work will be perceived as valueless as will the price of the shares of any of the members of the Alliance at that point-even if this is unfair. A123 was supposed to launch an IPO last month; it did not, for obvious reasons. SAFT and LG are both listed on their home country exchanges. For the moment then I would take any profits I made by investing in the Alliance play I have here discussed and buy shares of JCI, SAFT, and LG as a hedge. I have not discussed the relative merits of any lithium ion battery technologies, because they don’t really matter when an investment has become totally politicized and has left the arena of the free market. With “Advanced” battery technology and the Alliance for developing and manufacturing it play the politics. The hereditary political and financial elites of this country do not know and do not wish to know anything about technology; they will throw other people’s money at anything that buys them votes and power. The rest of us may as well make some of our own money back in the meantime.…; Added by Melissa Furtwengler to Wanted Scientists, Energy experts, Engineers at 9:55am on January 12, 2009

Topic: Talent Talk Cafe - Chat Transcript for Generations....Myths and Realities: h each Generation what we really found out is that its more about connecting and establishing best practices for all. Following is the transcript from the Chat and please share your comments here as well. Hi Susan, Maren and RB community!~ looking forward to the chat! 2:04pm The Talent Hunter Hello every1 2:04pm Susan Burns Hi Maren - how are you? Any thoughts to share on Generations - now that you've qualified as Gen Y 2:04pm Susan Burns Hi Susan! Hi Mike - Talent Hunter - did i get that right?? 2:05pm The Talent Hunter sure did 2:05pm Susan Burns Great to see you again Mike 2:05pm The Talent Hunter 2:05pm Susan Burns So what do you think are the biggest myths around generations 2:06pm The Talent Hunter If you offer an ipod as a sign-on bonus all Gen Y'ers will come running to your company 2:07pm Maren Hogan Well there are certainly a lot of sterotypes and they definitely exist for a reason. Myths? 2:07pm Susan Kang Nam how true.. 2:07pm Susan Burns Wow - is that all it takes Mike? What do you offer an Xr or BB? 2:07pm Maren Hogan Haha TH that is so true. I was at a conferenfe where EVEYRONE was offering an iPhone 2:07pm Susan Burns Maren - what are the main stereotypes for Gen Y? 2:07pm Susan Kang Nam curious to hear about the Xrs...lol 2:08pm Maren Hogan Gen Y. . .we need constant feedback, which is not true for all of us 2:08pm Maren Hogan I know xers do get ignored, like they don't matter 2:08pm Maren Hogan I've done it myself! 2:08pm The Talent Hunter Xers rock 2:08pm Maren Hogan I hate that people think Yers have no work ethic, personally I feel like I get a TON accomplished when allowed to work in the way that is most suited to me 2:09pm Susan Kang Nam I wonder why that is.. I agree with Mike - Xers rock! (of course..I'm biased 2:09pm Susan Burns Xers seem to be missing from the dialogue - everyone talks about Gen Y and BB in the workplace but what about Gen X? 2:09pm Maren Hogan I think that is excellent advice for most people actually, it is when working with others and trying to mesh style that we get our pants in a bunch 2:09pm MN Headhunter (I am back) 2:09pm Susan Burns Maren - are u the typical Gen Y Susan Burns Maren - are u the typical Gen Y 2:09pm The Talent Hunter I think Xers are kind of looked at to get things done...being led by the BB's 2:10pm pam claughton What is the cutoff between Gen Y and X? Age ranges? never sure of that 2:10pm Susan Burns Susan and Mike - I've been really surprised to see that as well. In most cases don't Gen Y report to Gen X but its always about BB and Y 2:10pm Maren Hogan no I am on the edge, which I think is why I hate the stereotype stuff, we;ve done some cool stuff at HCI trying to combine talents and work styles 2:10pm Susan Burns Hi Pam! Hi Paul 2:10pm The Talent Hunter and you have the Yers coming in who may be more savy on the tech side (as a whole) 2:10pm Maren Hogan 78-80 is what I have heard 2:10pm Susan Burns Pam, Y is usually born before 1980 2:10pm Maren Hogan birth year, sorry should have clarified 2:11pm Susan Kang Nam I see that with Gen Ys.. yes.. more tech savvy.. 2:11pm Susan Burns Biggest difference is that X surivied by being fearlessly independent and Y gravitates towards team 2:11pm pam claughton Thx Susan! You know I've heard the myth that gen Y are lazy, entitled, but I haven't seen that 2:11pm MN Headhunter I think that most perceptions of Gen Y are true but highly overblown 2:12pm Susan Burns Also, used to see X as the tech geniuses so wonder if they feel slighted by Y being even more tech saavy 2:12pm Maren Hogan I think that is applied across the board, I get Gen Xers and Boomers that say they are tech savvy and . . .are. . .not 2:12pm MN Headhunter tech savvy, consultants, socially aware, a little into themselves, have been hand held 2:12pm Susan Burns Are most perceptions of a generation overblown? 2:12pm MN Headhunter I really do 2:12pm Susan Kang Nam well.. I am trying to convince the BB crowd to go more tech savvy.. and it has been a hurdle.. 2:13pm MN Headhunter think they are 2:13pm The Talent Hunter i think it's just a "big brother-little sister" mentality...i think gen to gen goes through the same thing, calling the younger sister lazy 2:13pm Susan Burns Susan - what is the resistance? 2:13pm The Talent Hunter back in the 90's the Gen Xers were labeled as renegade and anti establishment...things have changed a bit...like anything else 2:13pm Susan Kang Nam I think ... and this is just a guess..and assumption (bad on my part) but it's ignorance.. 2:13pm Maren Hogan Paul, I am WAY into myself 2:13pm Susan Kang Nam they are just used to their ways... Maren Hogan gotta run, tell me which generation will rule the world! 2:14pm Susan Burns Mike - same was true with BB - so each generation goes from being idealist and rebel to conformist? 2:14pm Susan Kang Nam not all are that way I don't believe. 2:14pm MN Headhunter and let's blame thise responsible, their parents 2:14pm Susan Kang Nam see you later Maren!~ 2:14pm Susan Burns See ya Maren - thanks for dropping by and have an AWESOME event! 2:14pm MN Headhunter they wanted to be friends with their kids and not their parents 2:15pm The Talent Hunter Susan-I think so to an extent...kind of like that one commercial out today... 2:15pm The Talent Hunter ..the middle aged guy saying, "dont trust anyone over 80" 2:15pm Susan Kang Nam lol 2:15pm Susan Burns Paul - very true - was just talking with @kwheeler and @eileenclegg that we couldn't wait to express our independence and move away 2:15pm pam claughton I think gen y has less of a solid line between work and play, they're wired 23/7 w/technology 2:16pm pam claughton oops meant to say 24/7 2:16pm MN Headhunter Being an advisor to a fraternity of 35 guys gives me a front row seat to the Y'ers 2:16pm Susan Burns Mike - great example. Remember the gen X commerical about using technology - red headed guy...which company was that - classic 2:16pm pam claughton google and facebook are tapping into that, with catering dinner, so people stay longer at work 2:16pm Susan Burns Pam - that's a big point and they want to have the flexibility to get it done how, where they can because technology enables 2:17pm Susan Kang Nam hmm. really.. 2:17pm Susan Burns Paul -bet that gives a front row seat to a lot! What do u see that is the most different from when u were in school? 2:17pm pam claughton I think you see more x's telecommuting these days though, so they're working more but at home Susan Burns Pam - that's a big point and they want to have the flexibility to get it done how, where they can because technology enables 2:17pm Susan Kang Nam hmm. really.. 2:17pm Susan Burns Paul -bet that gives a front row seat to a lot! What do u see that is the most different from when u were in school? 2:17pm pam claughton I think you see more x's telecommuting these days though, so they're working more but at home 2:18pm The Talent Hunter if the work ethic is there, it is a recipe for success, but I don't think the majority of the workforce can be looked at or trusted to succeed or produce in a virtual environment, i think it leads to less efficiency 2:18pm The Talent Hunter and longer hours 2:19pm Susan Burns Much of the change we see in today's workplace came from appealing to Gen X - what will Gen Y influence the most? 2:19pm MN Headhunter they work harder, play harder, most are more invested in what they are doing 2:19pm Susan Burns Mike - do u mean with telecommuting and flexible work schedules...hard to monitor results, productivity? 2:19pm The Talent Hunter Susan - exactly 2:20pm Susan Burns Paul - do u think that transfers to the workplace? Or, what they're passionate about? 2:20pm The Talent Hunter I think Gen Y wants that, but doesnt have the fortitude to do so successfully, as a whole, at this point in their careers 2:20pm Susan Burns Mike - sounds a lot like commitment and trust issues? Do you need to see the work getting done or just need it done? 2:20pm The Talent Hunter Susan - I think it needs to get done, but with a sense of urgency 2:21pm MN Headhunter Susan, I have a disconnect once they graduate and in my recruting start around year 3 in experience. I am not a good person to answer that 2:21pm Susan Burns Mike - def could interfere with Gen Y development - there are benefits to working together and touching base during a project - could that be worked in to the distance process? 2:21pm Susan Burns Paul - it would be interesting to see how that drive translates to career - you would make a great mentor for emerging talent 2:22pm The Talent Hunter Susan - I think it could be but I think that relying too much on conf calls and IM's can lead to lower production levels 2:22pm The Talent Hunter Susan -- especially when you are talking about work being done between different generations 2:23pm Susan Burns So, given an average project - what would be a good balance of time to work independently and collaboratively for learning 2:23pm Susan Kang Nam I think that all depends on the project 2:24pm The Talent Hunter Susan - It depends on the role 2:24pm Susan Burns Thinking of a junior role reporting to a manager. Working on a project of average difficulty and scope. 2:25pm Susan Burns What would the Gen Y person feel is a good balance between autonomy but make the manager happy with providing leadership, guidance and feedback 2:26pm Susan Kang Nam Susan - I would have to say 70/30 (coming as a Xer) 2:26pm The Talent Hunter Susan - I think its very important for a good amount of collaboration or status updates to occur b/t the two 2:26pm Susan Burns Susan - 70% independent for the Gen Y? 2:26pm NMarie Attaining productivity "MOJO" can happen when work environments provide a base of trust and offer the right tools and keep getting feedback from all parties... 2:26pm The Talent Hunter I would say 70% for collab 2:27pm Susan Burns Hi NMarie! 2:27pm NMarie Hi Yoga Lady! 2:27pm Susan Kang Nam Susan - no I meant Xers.. for Gen Y - 60/40 in my opinion 2:27pm Susan Kang Nam I do agree collaboration is important.. 2:28pm Susan Burns Got it - so Susan, you would work 60% independently and 40% on collaboration/updates/coaching... 2:28pm The Talent Hunter Susan - I have seen first hand that a career is looked at more as a Job to Yers though 2:29pm NMarie Quotas are guidelines not absolutes...for depending on the energy of the project...some projects take off like "ROCKETS" and others are like "Are you kidding me?" 2:29pm Susan Burns Mike - 70% of time spent on coaching/feedback and collaboration? 2:29pm Susan Kang Nam Yes. however it all depends on the situation at hand..as well.. 2:29pm The Talent Hunter Susan - ya, I think that Yers need to first be guided and shown correct processes and work ethic and earn the opportunity to work outside the box 2:29pm Susan Burns Mike - can u share more about the "job" vs career 2:29pm Susan Kang Nam Mike - interesting - would like to know more. 2:29pm Susan Burns NMarie - yes - each project and person is different. I think the "formative years" the first 5-10 yrs on the job become critical to a persons long term success 2:30pm The Talent Hunter Susan(s) - definitely...I see a lot less buy-in to a company culture, a lot less development of expertise, almost coasting through the day doing the minimum... 2:31pm The Talent Hunter ...of course, i may just be lucky enough to have seen a bunch of slackers....I am sure that there are Yers out there who take their career seriously, but I dont see a lot of it 2:31pm Susan Burns Too often when someone doesn't experience good management, coaching, feedback, guidance during that time it inhibits their growth 2:31pm The Talent Hunter ...but i think that comes with experience too 2:31pm Susan Kang Nam interesting.. that defies what I "perceived" as Gen Y's.. 2:32pm Susan Burns Mike - agree on the company culture piece - think this is where Gen Y can really have a big impact - sort of like how Gen X has done and the BB before them 2:32pm Susan Burns What concerns me most is when companies just dismiss that their expectations are unreaistic rather than identify what/how to incorporate 2:32pm Susan Kang Nam Susan - agree with what you just commented.. 2:32pm The Talent Hunter Susan - each generation goes through growing pains with the younger.....hate to run, but I gotta hit the phones...it was a pleasure!!!! 2:33pm Susan Burns See ya Mike - THANKS! 2:33pm MN Headhunter Off on a tangent. if companies were loyal, family friendly, career path oriented, I think the Y'ers would be more energetic. And i will say that most all generations are starting to fall into that thinking of a job is a consulting gig and not a career Susan Burns Are companies too resistant to learning from each rising generation? Do they stifle innovative practices rather than embrace new ways of learning, engaging and collaborating? 2:34pm MN Headhunter YES!!! 2:34pm Susan Burns Paul - totally agree - this is cascading rapidly across generations - which is why I'm getting hung up on the response to Gen Y 2:35pm The Talent Hunter I think Gen Y has a habit of giving the problem, but no offering the solution 2:36pm MN Headhunter rather than stifle anyone at any age I suggest the long leash idea. Give enough rope without letting someone hang themselves or the company 2:36pm MN Headhunter Look, there are companies doing this and they are recruiting and retaining better tan average 2:36pm NMarie Right now our economical outlook is murky and industries are outsourcing work product...which is not building up our confidence in corporate america... Thus, I feel that the work model is starting to shift from "At Office" to "Virtual - SOHO" 2:36pm Susan Burns Mike - interesting since Gen Y sees themselves as excellend problem solvers due to their technical expertise and resourcefullness 2:37pm Susan Burns paul - which companies do u see doing this very well. have u checked out what BestBuy is doing? 2:37pm MN Headhunter I think that too goes back the parents. They asked their kid, what would you do, and then did it for them 2:38pm Susan Burns NMarie - what is Virtual SOHO? 2:38pm Susan Burns RE problem solving - maybe its that they need to solve problems as a group rather than individually 2:39pm NMarie Virtual at home - Small Office Home Office 2:39pm MN Headhunter In Minneapolis, the kids (term used loosely) want to work at Target first. Best Buy is in the top 5. 2:39pm Susan Burns There's also the idea of leveraging their "network" to solve problems. Although, love Josh's IBM video that he shared. I'll find the link and add to the chat in a few 2:39pm Susan Burns Got it - thanks NMarie 2:39pm MN Headhunter The ad/pr firms turn kids away daily. They are seen as innovative. 2:39pm Susan Burns Paul - why Target first? Development program?? MN Headhunter Part online, part retail (new and cool things), part give them the keys company mentality 2:40pm MN Headhunter They also lose most of them by 30 as they have ventured off to do their next best thing. 2:41pm Susan Burns Target had an excellend reputation for developing talent and wonder if this is still attractive for launching a career 2:41pm MN Headhunter So the company is very young (used loosely) and sometimes a moat between them and senior execs who do not "get it" but let lower management look over it 2:41pm Susan Burns Here's the link Josh Letourneau shared - great video on the value of social networks: http://tinyurl.com/5jgsl7 2:42pm MN Headhunter It is but launching a career and then at 30 taking off 2:42pm Susan Burns Paul - we used to call it training for the "street" 2:42pm MN Headhunter And it does work for Target. A constant supply of energy, talent, new ideas. 2:43pm Susan Kang Nam will need to check that out. p.s. I know someone just joined Target Corporate team in CA - will need to follow up and see his views on this. 2:43pm Susan Burns Ooooh Susan - get the inside scoop ;-) 2:43pm Susan Kang Nam lol 2:44pm Susan Burns Development programs are really valuable. Companies could do more to provide exposure to difft aspects of the biz 2:44pm MN Headhunter That and it shows no intent to invest in their peopler 2:45pm MN Headhunter those that do not 2:45pm Susan Kang Nam definitely.. that goes saying further for retention.. 2:45pm Susan Burns Could companies engage and retain more talent if they would balance the core work with exposure and opportunities to work on projects and interact with more execs? 2:46pm Susan Burns I think part of what is happening is people get bored - so much stimulation from other sources that work seems boring 2:47pm MN Headhunter Yes, local company, Carlson Companies does this with emerging leaders 2:47pm Susan Kang Nam I know at least this one particular Biotech company does that.. very efficient. 2:47pm MN Headhunter they call it something else but essentially a pool of top people get exposure within the company 2:47pm MN Headhunter The question companies need to ask someone 25 or 55 is this, do we provide an environment where you want to stay here? 2:48pm @_@ @susan of course; this aint nuffin new ... Top Talent is ID'd and then gets 'special projects' (usually with sum kewl name like Tiger Team) and it helps give them more stuff to do outside their core function to mitigate boredom. Many issues can come up 2:49pm Susan Burns Is this something that could be expanded to engage more people - collaboration and community! 2:49pm Susan Burns Hey Jeremy...new Daddy!!! Great o have you join us! 2:49pm Susan Kang Nam yes! 2:49pm Susan Burns Paul - they need to ask that daily ;-) 2:49pm @_@ hey Susan ... 2:50pm Susan Burns Rotational programs are also good 2:50pm Susan Kang Nam agree 2:50pm @_@ i agree BIG TIME with 'rotational' programs for all workers & even more intense "tours of duty" for Execs. 2:50pm Susan Kang Nam but there is always "politics"... enough said. 2:50pm Susan Burns So last question - what do u think will be the most significant change we see in the workpalce over the next 3 years? 2:51pm @_@ the teenagers will be old enuff to have a say 2:51pm Susan Kang Nam BB retiring.. etc. 2:51pm @_@ the boomers have been 'retiring' for years -- nuffin new there IMO 2:51pm Susan Kang Nam true..but more.. 2:52pm @_@ but Gen Y actually having some exp under their belt & the street cred morphing into real biz value = P O W E R 2:52pm Susan Burns What would be the most radical change to undertake if there was NO budget constraints? 2:52pm @_@ 100% virtual workforce. 2:52pm MN Headhunter training, schooling, mentoring 2:53pm MN Headhunter paid for with no strings attached 2:53pm MN Headhunter if no constraints 2:53pm The Talent Hunter Susan -- virtual workforce will never happen, but I do see a lot of the design roles and such turning over to contract work as healthcare costs increase and su GenXers start handling the budgets 2:53pm @_@ lol Paul ... although all that stuff is good ... how is that really "radical" as Suan posed ?? 2:54pm @_@ agreed Mr TalentHunter 2:54pm MN Headhunter do it for everyone at every level 2:54pm Susan Burns Mike - check out some of the cool stuff Best Buy is doing with virtual work 2:54pm The Talent Hunter Susan -- in a nutshell, more contractors and less full-time employees 2:54pm @_@ ....thats what makes the concept radical ...at 100% 2:54pm MN Headhunter Best Buy, ROWE 2:54pm @_@ yah ROWE is nice. and as of a couple years back it was working well -- haven't scoped it lately though ....any IT companies doing it right this moment that ya know about ? 2:55pm @_@ ROWE, or Results-Only Work Environment, (also known as Results Oriented Work Environment), is a management strategy created by and pioneered by .bestbuy 2:56pm Susan Burns Thanks Mike! 2:56pm MN Headhunter Latest article I have seen: Forbes.com "Viva La Workplace Revolution" 2:56pm MN Headhunter ~link~ 2:56pm Susan Burns Thanks everyone for a great chat today! Lots of cool ideas to explore 2:57pm Susan Kang Nam Paul - thanks - will need to read this.. 2:57pm Susan Burns Paul - aka MN Headhunter will be leading Talent Talk Cafe for the next 3 weeks!!! Join him and have a blast!!! 2:57pm The Talent Hunter Thanks susan...always a pleasure 2:57pm Susan Kang Nam Thanks Susan as always and for everyone 2:57pm Susan Burns Thanks for the article Paul 2:57pm @_@ thx susan 2:57pm @_@ 2:58pm MN Headhunter ANy ideas for upcoming chats send to paul@mnheadhunter.com 2:58pm Susan Burns Paul - I'll send u some info and give u a buzz Thursday - So glad your doing this!!! 2:59pm MN Headhunter Sure 3:00pm MN Headhunter Let's see what is left upon your arrival before you thank me 3:00pm…; Added by Susan Burns to Talent Synchronicity at 11:32am on July 9, 2008