Internet Research is the common thread across all usage of Broadlook products. It is NOT recruiting, sourcing, sales or marketing. Recruiting, sourcing, sales and marketing are the functions which depend upon Internet Research.

Many of Broadlook's recruiting clients may be surprised to know that an equal number of sales and marketing professionals use Broadlook solutions. Conversely, sales and marketing users may be surprised to learn that recruiters have a 5 year head start over them in using the Broadlook tool set.

Irregardless of the job function, Internet Research is a base skill set. In addition, those base skills are transferable from a "sourcer" to a sales lead generation role and visa versa.

Over the last few years, Broadlook users have asked us to create a certification system for sourcers. We've also been asked to build training classes for lead generation. For Broadlook's client base, this would be like teaching a class in spelling verbs while ignoring nouns and adjectives.

If you are going to learn a language, learn it fluently.

We want to teach the world to be fluent in Internet Research. Therefore we are proud to announce the first certification program for Internet Research; Broadlook Certified Internet Researcher (BCIR)

There are some so-called certifications in the recruiting space; you take a class and get certified simply for attending, irregardless of your skill level. This is a problem for two reasons. (1) for those individuals who have spent tremendous time and effort to sharpen their skills, it devalues the certification. (2) For employers looking to hire skilled workers, there is no guarantee that someone certified is worth their salt. A certification without a true test is meaningless.

BCIR will require researchers to pass in order to get certified. There will be 3 levels of certification including Brown Belt, Black Belt, and Certified Trainer.

In order to facilitate the BCIR program, Broadlook has build the most robust training and certification platform that exists in the market. Broadlook "Academy" is a platform that supports everything that a training system should have as well as built-in web conferencing to achieve a fusion of live trainings and course work. Broadlook is also making the Academy platform available for select Broadlook partners.

Where can someone go with a BCIR?

Broadlook started in the recruiting world and has expanded into being a provider to sales, marketing, venture capital, procurement and competitive intelligence. A BCIR will empower researchers with the core skills they need to support the Internet research function across many industries and department functions.

While BCIR training will fully cover technical topics, it will not be limited to bits and bytes technical training. We will be teaching the underlying philosophical building blocks for performing Internet research. In addition, there will be tracts for managers (how to manage and measure a researcher) and business consultants (when is a company ready for a researcher and how to sell it).

In summation: BCIR will include how to think, how to plan, how to act, how to manage, how to sell and how to measure Internet research. One of the foundations of the course work will be the The Seven Laws of Internet Research, which premiered at SourceCon.

BCIR availability: The first BCIR class will be limited to 50 participants. 15 seats are filled as of this writing. If you are interested in participating, contact John White, Director of Training 877-977-8080 for curriculum, pricing and schedules.

Donato Diorio
November 17, 2008
Orlando, FL - Kennedy Conference

originally posted here