No More Problems for RecruitingBlogs.com - Thanks Jobster

I have some real good news for RecruitingBlogs.com

The last few days for me have been difficult. I know that the last few days for Jason Goldberg and Jobster have been difficult as well. My first priority was to make sure that no one was going to shut down RecruitingBlogs.com, it is far too valuable to a lot of people. My secondary priority was to have myself continue to run it, though this was important, it really was the second issue. Also it was important for me to make sure that I operate according to the agreement I had in place with Jobster.

Over the last few days, I have had some real time to reflect on this all and it was tough not getting involved in some of the online comments. My intention was to alert the RecruitingBlogs.com community to what was happening so that there would not be any surprises for anyone. My intentions did not include hurting Jobster or their reputation. I have shares in Jobster and it would be great to see something happen there. I am sorry that it did cause some real issues. In hindsight I recognize that talking about this publicly may not have been the right way to go and it did provide an easy target. I am sorry it caused real issues for Jason Goldberg and Jobster.

Upon reflection here, I also realized that as a large Jobster shareholder, I would really like Jobster to win as that would mean personal rewards for me. While I didn’t mean to break any rules, it does make some sense that there is an expectation that you need to play by the rules in order to get the rewards.

I guess Non Competes are serious business and Jobster takes things seriously. However I do want to say that over the last few days, I have had a number of conversations with Jason Goldberg and in talking to him, it was clear that his intent did not at all match the aggressiveness of the letter I received from their lawyers.

It became clear right away while talking to Jason, he was not interested in shutting down the site. Quite the contrary actually. There was of course the issue with my non compete and with respect to that, he was not interested at all in limiting the things I could or could not do. I do recognize how one could see that I was doing something I agreed not to do. It was important to me that I was not doing anything wrong. I agreed I would not when Jobster bought Recruiting.com from me.

So now, this is where things stand. I have reached an agreement with Jobster to put this all behind us. Jason Goldberg has agreed that Jobster will not put any restrictions of any kind on me or the things I want to do. I have agreed to work with Jobster to come up with some way to give them some visibility on RecruitingBlogs.com for a period of time. I’ll make sure this gets done in a way that is good for RecruitingBlogs.com

I am happy to put this behind me now and I hope that this resolution rings a positive note in everyone’s head. I feel it is a good outcome and life goes on. There are lots of recruiters out there who do not yet know about what we small group of 220 people are doing and they should.

I would like to say again to Jobster that I am sorry if this caused trouble. Hopefully there are lessons learned for everyone involved. I learned a few things.

The matter is closed from my perspective and I have some great ideas for RecruitingBlogs.com so let’s move ahead. We are a small but loud and influential group of people. Let’s get all this energy we have and continue building

I hope everyone here respects the outcome and thank you for your overwhelming support in this issue.

Thanks

Comment by Sucharith Menon on June 28, 2007 at 11:48am: Thanks a ton Jason! Great News!

Thanks for keeping this community alive...

Comment by Suzy Tonini on June 28, 2007 at 11:49am: Awesome!See, you need to talk to one another sometimes- those dang lawyers....Phew!

Comment by Steven Rothberg on June 28, 2007 at 11:50am: It is stories like this that make me happy to be able to say that I am a fully recovered lawyer. That said, while it might be tempting to blame the lawyer for sending an overly aggressive letter and sometimes it is the lawyer who gets carried away, at the end of the day the responsibility rests with the client. The client should always review and approve any letter sent out on their behalf. If the client is too busy and delegates to the lawyer, that does not absolve the client of being responsible for the sending of the letter. I do not see anything here which would indicate to me that Jason Goldberg tried to disclaim his responsibility by claiming that he didn't know about the letter or how it was written. Rather, I'm guessing that he or someone on his staff probably reviewed and approved the letter in a moment of frustration when it would have better for the two Jasons to get together face-to-face or by phone.

Comment by Heather Hartmann on June 28, 2007 at 11:57am: Great news, Jason! And very glad that you found a way to keep running recruitingblogs.com. You're doing a great job!

Comment by Rithesh Nair on June 28, 2007 at 11:58am: Great news!!
Time to put a big jobster logo on the site ...:) or here comes another letter..

Comment by John Sumser on June 28, 2007 at 11:58am: Nice work, Jasons. Everyone wins.

Comment by Paul DeBettignies on June 28, 2007 at 11:58am: Whew, my idealistic view that we should all just get along is validated...

Comment by Bill Vick on June 28, 2007 at 12:01pm: Very classy response Jason and I join the chorus of it looks like a win win for all concerned. I'm glad this worked out for both of you and now you better understand why I won't let my daughters consider being or marrying lawyers. :)