You clicked to read about your idol Oprah, didn’t you? No, expecting some other big “O” content… Well, then you’re on the wrong website, buster!

Badge of honor, source of pleasure, reason for pride, satisfaction to scream about or maybe just something to accept quietly and celebrate contently in your own mind. The big O in all of its glory. Whether solo, with a best buddy or as a group, it’s something we’ll all experience - if we’re lucky to last that long.

What, you’re not…

Earlier this week I posted a few profile-enhancing tips on a LinkedIn discussion group frequented by active job seekers. One of the things I constantly notice when helping newcomers get up to speed on the essential functionality of LinkedIn is how poor they tend to be at populating their profiles with meaty, search-friendly information.

This is especially noticeable in the job seeker community. Rather than placing career relevant and recruiter magnet content, they fill their headline,…

Plenty of explanations or excuses exist for why many in the recruiting industry decide to put minimal effort into creating a quality candidate experience. One of the most common gripes job seekers have is lack of follow up after they’ve applied for a position. Even worse, many applicants never hear any feedback whatsoever after interviewing. Or, the communication they receive along the way is vague, mystifying, and in some cases downright unprofessional.

The following are…

While a best-selling author with a history of 35 years in career management is clearly not an easy target for critique, I feel I must call out the obvious negative reaction this blog’s advice could bring if followed. From what I gather, the intent of this information is to aid experienced job applicants in addressing presumed ageist perceptions or alleged age-bias in interviews.

However, it appears to be coming from a very misguided and perhaps out-of-touch with a real life…

Purposely Pretentious Professionals 

As a “what you see is what you get” kind of gal that communicates in a plain and direct “tell it like it is” or “call it like I see it” style, the opinions I’m about to share may not appeal to those with different sensibilities. For that reason, the following serves as a disclaimer should you continue reading: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr. Seuss

In what…

One of my contacts shared this vent with me. Thought it pretty much sums up some of the lazy, sloppy, clueless types that somehow found their way into the recruiting realm.

I honestly have a ton of recruiters that contact me, the majority are very bad at their job and I would never work with them but this specific recruiter keeps sending me positions where I do not fulfill what is identified in the job description and/or requirements, so after being nice on about…

For some bizarre reason, I seem to attract more than anyone’s fair share of random inquiries, peculiar requests for assistance and other assorted mystery messages on a regular basis. One such recent item that caught my attention was the following snippet from a person presumably running some sort of “recruiting” service…  

As you will notice, this was a generic message sent to my email but not addressed to me by name – probably because I was only one of the thousand or so…

Perhaps like me you've been following the saga about Recruiting Animal's Twitter account @animal being hacked. His name was stolen and taken over by some random coder/programmer named "Mikey" 

The Twitter handle thief replaced @animal with some hideous, unwieldy and wacky new account name @animaliaaa2

You can read about the timeline of events here: …

----> Welcome to RecruitingBlogs.com. The Recruiting Blogs Community (RBC) is the largest social network for professionals in the staffing industry. Share what's on your mind and be a part of the ongoing conversation. <----

What stands out to me in the above is the second sentence. I know others have observed, mentioned and questioned this in the past, but it seems to me that much of the (recent) content…

Wow, here’s another doozy … hopefully an extremely isolated incident, but apparently some poor schmuck actually lost out on a job opportunity because another candidate had a higher Klout score.  

Then once he did who knows what to move it closer to Justin Beiber influencer status, his career prospects magically improved. Amazing what a healthy dose of +K can do!

The following article is brief, but here is a taste:…

We've all seen the various social media articles, career blogs and Generation Y experts that repeatedly promote Facebook as a source of hire, venue for job searching and place to interface with employers. The following might help put some of that hype into perspective. 

While this may not be the most scientific or comprehensive report, it does seem that there would be some validity to what these researchers found about millennials Facebook habits. New report…

That is an outrageous and absurd idea, right?

Yet, countless career related experts continue to suggest that to job seekers. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read and heard that exact piece of advice, but it is a prevalent theme amongst the rapidly reproducing “build your brand” and “brand yourself as an expert” contingent.

They may not be saying it quite like the title above, but essentially when they advise anyone who is looking for a job to start a blog, that IS what…

I was silently hoping that someone had finally sprayed enough insecticide on the pests that continue to propagate terrible job search advice. Alas, plenty of evidence of their insidious and obnoxious existence still emerges regularly.

There are a number of sources in my local area that sponsor workshops, seminars and other events directed at job seekers. From what I can tell, the vast majority of the sponsors and presenters have literally zero relevant background to justify providing…

Quite frequently I get contacted by people searching for something or someone. Normally, I don’t mind that. Actually sometimes it is flattering that a random stranger or casual acquaintance found something about me intriguing enough to think I’d be a good person to contact to get help with their situation.

In posting this I realize I may ruffle some feathers and raise some eyebrows.  My intent is not to come across as someone unwilling to lend a hand or offer assistance. The opposite…

Links, graphics, comments & original reference image cross-posted at: http://community.ere.net/blogs/kellyblokdijk/2012/02/deep-dark-dangers-of-the-recruiting-black-hole/

Deep dark dangers of the recruiting black hole

Of all aspects of HR and recruiting not much has a worse reputation than the proverbial black hole. It wasn’t…

Out of curiosity, I recently listened in on a…

A fellow HR–industry colleague, Andrew just checked in to run something by me about an interesting experience he recently had. He wanted to get my take on whether “we” collectively as peers in the same talent acquisition, talent development and talent management realm, have a shared obligation to support each other career-wise.

Prior to this particular conversation, my…