The burnout from trying to keep up with Recruiting Technology - My first blog

Technology in the recruitment and application world have grown exponentially over the last five years. If you're like me, you're probably busting your butt to try and keep up with the latest and greatest. Online sites like CareerBuilder and Yahoo Hot Jobs tell you not to spread yourselves too thin and to only concentrate on those sites that work for you. My problem is I am having trouble finding enough time to either figure out which sites work for me or do the research to see which sites are best.

Frankly, I'm burnt out. I've got profiles on Facebook, Google Groups, Myspace, LinkedIn, The Ladders and I've sent out direct email campaigns on Yahoo, CareerBuilder, Monster, Job Dango and JobFox. If they warn you not to spread yourselves too thin, I fear I am on the verge of evaporation.

I'm reading a book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff right now called "Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies". I'm not done with it yet, but it may just be the cure to keeping up with recruiting technology.

Essentially, what it does is teach you how to understand social technology, how it works and the relationships that make it thrive. (i.e. it's not the blogs that you have to master to get your information out there, it's the relationships between all the people connected). The book gives examples on how companies have either died off or began to thrive when forced to encounter the new technological media. We're already immersed in it, but if some of you are like me, you're still learning on how to navigate through it. This book is an awesome roadmap.

Michaela

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Comment by Kara D. on August 25, 2008 at 11:30am: I am in complete agreement. I am trying to justify time for blogs, networking, job fair planning, marketing, and oh - I shouldn't forget - recruiting! Making old- fashioned phone calls! Not to mention meetings, reports and keeping the ATS up to date. As recruiters, we are being pulled many different directions while trying to maintain the main goal - hiring great talent. We become so talented at multi-tasking that we believe we can do it all and we end up burnt out. I am trying not to get there myself. Sometimes I just say no and shut down for a while.

I hope the book works for you - keep us up to date. I may have to order it myself...

Comment by Michaela Holmberg on August 25, 2008 at 2:14pm: Thanks Kara, it's good to know I'm not the only one. This book is really interesting. So far, I would recommend anyone to read this book that is dealing with the stress of having other blogs talking about your company or your agency. The way that a corporation would normally respond is about as effective using gasoline to put out a fire. It's pretty insightful because it gives real life examples of mistakes corportations have made and how not to make them yourself.