Joshua Letourneau's Blog (71)

Words of Wisdom on Name Generation From Mike Johnson of Avature (And A Few Comments of My Own, Of Course)

Wow - when I see business professionals telling the truth, it's like a breath of fresh air. Wouldn't you agree? So I was reading through my typical morning run of blogs and forums to keep abreast of best practices in the recruiting world, and I see the following comment from Mike Johnson of Avature (Global Director of Business Development):

"In all honesty, the Internet is filled with information on names and people… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 10, 2008 at 11:02am — No Comments

Google Server Error??? (Wow, Are Pigs Flying, Too?)

For the first time, I have finally received a Google 502 server error!!!!

"Server Error
The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request.
Please try again in 30 seconds."

Wow, are pigs now flying, too?

Joshua Letourneau
Mg Director
LG & Assoc Search / Talent Strategy
BLOG: http://www.lgexec.typepad.com

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 8, 2008 at 12:14pm — No Comments

What's The Best Sourcing Application/Platform In The Industry?

Can anyone help me here? I am aware of Sourcepoint, but don't know the rest - any thoughts? Is there functionality in today's Sourcing apps that you'd like to see? Are there methods that would make your life easier, meaning ranging from search string generation to campaign management? I know Salesforce.com can be configured . . . but unless you're purchasing a comprehensive solution (add-on), customizing SF can be rough.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Joshua… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 7, 2008 at 9:04am — No Comments

Reflections on "Fit" Via New FC Article, "The Texas Rangers' Young GM"

Happy 4th of July, RBC - remember, as Robert Kiyosaki puts best, "It's un-American to pay taxes." Hey, we weren't after independence just for independence's sake!

So I came across an interesting article this morning on FastCompany.com (color me surprised!) titled, "The Texas Rangers' Young GM".

I'll admit - as a baseball fan going back to the Mets title in '86, I never thought I'd see a 30-yr old… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 4, 2008 at 12:45pm — 1 Comment

The MOST AMAZING Career Site I've Seen To Date, Hands-Down (Convergence of Creative + Social Media + Right Brain Engagement + Making of Meaning)

Made my first OnRec nomination today and thought some of you who are really into social media intersection with recruiting might benefit:

"To date, I have not witnessed a site combine the combine both the creative elements, social media aspect, and capture emotion such as the Marine Corps recruiting website www.Marines.com. From the home page, users are able to view the latest commercial, request more information, view Marine principles -- for example,… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 3, 2008 at 12:05pm — No Comments

Fellow Recruiters: Avoid the Twitter Trap

Twitter and Micro-blogging is all the hype today in the social networking (particularly the Recruiting/Talent Acquisition community). Why? Well, it's cool . . . it's new . . . it's widely publicized . . . it's a way of staying in touch . . . from a marketer's viewpoint, it's a way to maintain mindshare and/or top-of-mind placement. The notion of a multi-drip is indeed being redefined by Web 2.0.

There's only one problem - I don't see… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 3, 2008 at 9:11am — 3 Comments

Things It Would Be Cool To See Change: GIGO, Money-Trails & Snake Oil, and Industry Awards Going To Colonels

a href="http://www.recruitingblogs.com/forum/topic/show?id=502551%3ATopic%3A191247">In replying to another post this morning, I thought hey, I'd throw out some ideas of things that would be really cool to see move in a better direction through the remainder of 2008 and 2009:

a. Garbage in, Garbage out. If I have to sit through another run-of-the-mill, same-old/same-old stuff presentation again . . . I might wind up even going to less conferences than I already do! (Kennedy… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on June 30, 2008 at 12:11pm — No Comments

Telephone Name Generation - A Perfect Example of the Global Economy At Work.?.

I wound up running into a conversation on ERE today that looked pretty interesting. It's from a really smart guy, Jeff Weidner, who I respect greatly and see as a key contributor to the future of value-added strategic sourcing thought leadership as we move forward. "How low can the cost of a name get?"

As I often say, I'm really happy to have seen RBC grow as… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on June 26, 2008 at 12:24pm — 8 Comments

Facebook 'Personas' For Sale.?. - Yes, It's Official

Yep, it's now official. There is a PR Firm out there now selling 10 Facebook 'Personas' on eBay and the bidding ends Saturday, 6/14 at 13:35:29 PDT. Now, if any of you have been following my random rants about the intersection between market psychology (in our case 'talent market psychology') and social media, you'll know I'm not very surprised about… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on June 12, 2008 at 2:00pm — 2 Comments

Interesting Insight - "CRM Gets Social" (Economist Intelligence Unit)

Hmmmm . . . sound familiar? Let me ask all internal Talent Acquisition Pros:

How well do you know your CandidateCustomer Segments? (Yes, the word CandidateCustomer is together to illustrate a point.)

"-- CRM Gets Social --

A survey conducted recently by The Economist Intelligence Unit aims to shed some light on the disconnect between companies' desire to be more customer-centric and where the focus of new CRM initiatives should be. The report recommends… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on June 2, 2008 at 11:53am — No Comments

SYNAPSE-FIRING ALERT!!! -- " . . .Cognitive structures—mental maps—to help make sense of their experiences between the ages of 11 to 13"

In coming across a very interesting HBR Article from Tamara J. Erickson today ("Are There Gender Differences Within Gen X?"), I thought to immediately pass this on.

Before posting it here, let me briefly preface: Albeit with my very limited voice as a result of only being in Talent Acquisition for 5 years, and also not personally… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on May 23, 2008 at 11:47am — No Comments

Twitter Best Practices: Cool Info For Us To Leverage Today!

Thought I'd pass on:

SUMMARY: Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that costs nothing for users to access and little effort to keep in touch with busy friends. It can also help you build your brand or brand you as an expert.

Here’s a guide to help you get started “tweeting.” Includes 10 strategies to market your company and 5 to market yourself, plus lots of useful links.

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that can be… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on May 21, 2008 at 2:29pm — No Comments

Random Recruiting Thoughts on Opt-Out Marketing, Viral Loops, a Modern-Day Consilience, and a Readiness for Growth

If I may play 'Mr. Marketing Devil's Advocate' for a moment, let me interject one of the new rules of marketing that exist within today's intersection of a globalizing economy and the viral expansion of social media:

***Drop any opt-out marketing efforts like a bad habit.***

Opt out = spam. In the words of my friend, Seth Godin, "Opt-out takes advantage of laziness, inertia, and infoglut to inundate people with stuff they don't want." There are more… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on May 13, 2008 at 12:05pm — 1 Comment

Talent Acquisition Bubbles Act As Non-Permeable Membranes When It Comes To Diversity of Thought

In a somewhat interesting conversation on ERE, I've observed a trend in response to a Talent Acquisition Director seeking information on how to implement a Sourcing Process into the current mix. Fellow TA Directors seem to be extremely guarded against any non-TA thought processes or insights from 'outside-the-bubble' per se. Being a… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on May 2, 2008 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

"Business is War"??? - Beware the Pyrrhic Victory (and Some Other Observations On Our Industry)

In doing my morning cup-of-coffee rounds through some sites and blogs I greatly respect, I came across the following HBR article by by Deepak Malhotra, Gillian Ku, and J. Keith Murnighan:

"When Winning Is Everything"

How… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on May 1, 2008 at 9:30am — No Comments

The Life of a Rockstar Recruiter - "Candidates & A*s" by Hellyeah

For all you Rockstar Recruiters out there ;)

"Candidates & A*s" by Hellyeah:

Added by Joshua Letourneau on April 28, 2008 at 11:07am — No Comments

Talent Acquisition Professionals: Operational Innovation and Process Improvement Are 2 Different Things

Today's HBR Brief, "Deep Change: How Operational Innovation Can Transform Your Company" offers some extremely relevant tips for the Talent Acquisition function today. The important thing to take away here is that Operational Innovation is NOT Process… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on April 28, 2008 at 9:30am — No Comments

The Life of a Rockstar Recruiter - "Candidates & A*s" by Hellyeah

For all you Rockstar Recruiters out there ;)

"Candidates & A*s" by Hellyeah:

Added by Joshua Letourneau on April 26, 2008 at 6:30pm — No Comments

Talent Acquisition Professionals: Are You Blindly Worshiping at the Altar of Best Practices?

In an interesting article from Scott Anthony today, "When Are "Best Practices" Not Best Practices?", he touches upon an issue we so often see in the Talent Aquisition universe:

Blindly Worshipping At The Altar of Best Practices

Sound familiar? As Scott puts it, "The theory is that the manager should find a successful… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on April 24, 2008 at 4:39pm — 1 Comment

Candidate Segment Knowledge - Are You 'Synthesizing' It?

Working in the Talent Acquisition arena, I remain in awe about how we march on with circa-1930s marketing processes despite the fact that if there is any business function that knows so much about their given 'customers', it's us.

I often ask the following question of Recruiters, Recruiting Managers, and even Directors of Talent Acquisition:

"What kind of information do you observe and store on the attitudes and… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on April 23, 2008 at 8:00am — 1 Comment