"For what it's worth"

Initial thoughts from a Corporate Recruiter on Monster’s new product announcement:

“There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear”

My Tweet stream was inundated on Saturday evening by an onslaught of messages heralding the new job seeker application developed by Monster on the Facebook platform, “BeKnown”. Because I follow several Monster Marketing folks, this wasn’t much of a surprise. The surprise was the “canned” messages being originated by non-Monster employees. I unfollowed them…that’s how I roll. I did decide that this was something worth looking into…

Josh Bersin posted a fairly detailed comparative description of the features and functionality of both LinkedIn and Monster’s BeKnown here: http://www.bersin.com/blog/post/2011/06/Monstercom-Launches-BeKnown...

“What a field day for the heat, a thousand people in the street”

It should surprise no one that Monster chose the SHRM national conference to unveil their new job seeker product. Monster knows quite well which side their bread is buttered on. Monster sells to HR. Using sponsorships (HRevolution), event acquisition and production (Recruitfest) and personal relationship management, Monster has devoted considerable time and resources building its “brand” within HR communities (as opposed to improving their product, IMO).

Of the 15,000 HR people in Vegas this week, many of them have budget/spend authority over recruiting functions within their organizations. I won’t speak to the wisdom of that fact as that’s fodder for another rant, I’ll simply tell you it’s a fact. Monster figured this out a long time ago and has aggressively leveraged their resources towards this customer base.

“Singing songs and carrying signs, mostly say “Hooray for our side”

Monster = Job Seeker

LinkedIn = Professional Profile

There has never been anything “passive” about Monster. If your resume is active on Monster, you’re looking for a (new) job. Many corporate HR or Recruiting Departments have a process in place to identify employees that post or update their resume on Monster…and that’s NOT passive. 3^rd party recruiters use resume postings as a signal of “blood in the water”, an opportunity to direct call members of a department, team, or the entire company. This is not the case with LinkedIn, which has staked a claim of “passivity” within the workplace. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing about having a LinkedIn profile screams “I need a new job!” Having a professional profile is becoming an expectation of employment and leadership with many companies. Companies are then happy (and quite smart) to leverage this presence to attract talent.

“Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep”

Let’s be honest: Most rational people have started to have a healthy distrust of Facebook. Much has been written in recent years about their seeming disinterest in the security, privacy and propriety of personal information in their possession. In addition, Monster has led the way in security breaches and hacks of personal subscriber information for any major job board. From these two documented positions, I suggest that everyone should have a VERY healthy dose of skepticism about the handling and management of more information being placed in these respective platforms.

“Battle lines being drawn, nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong”

One of the more comical tweets I read Saturday evening heralded the demise of LinkedIn (yes, I unfollowed that person). Whatever! Anyone that works in any part of the staffing, recruiting, talent acquisition business process knows that there’s room for any product or service that wants to create/add value, or fix one of the many things that are broken within this process. If Monster can provide their customer base (remember us, the ones that PAY FOR SERVICE???) with any sort of value through their new job seeker app, companies will buy it up just like fresh-made donuts at Krispy Kreme. If it turns out to be Farmville for the unemployed, I along with many others, won’t be standing in line for the opportunity to increase cost and add another process layer to our attraction and acquisition cycles.

“Stop! Children, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down”

And please don’t tell me that it will be free. I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday. Enough with this rant, I’m off to stake a claim to some real estate on yet another job site.

Comment by Irina Shamaeva on June 26, 2011 at 12:24pm: Regarding your first comment, just so that you know, the “canned” messages being originated by non-Monster employees came to be from Monster giving a preview ahead of time to the top leaders in the recruiting industry. You may want to follow them back. :)

Comment by Frank Zupan on June 26, 2011 at 12:47pm: Hi Irina,

Thanks for reading, and for your comment. I saw your post as well: good thoughts and ides on the potential for competition that this product has created.

I always review the profile of anyone I follow or unfollow on Twitter. I'm pretty sure I didn't unfollow any "top leaders in the recruiting industry".

Comment by Irina Shamaeva on June 26, 2011 at 1:00pm: Thanks! :)

I think we, recruiters, should support BeKnown/Monster in their goal to create a global network for potential job seekers. Lots depends on the initial acceptance. We should help push the competition for LinkedIn to happen, for everyone's benefit.

Comment by Frank Zupan on June 26, 2011 at 1:10pm: I respectfully disagree. My role is to evaluate, use, and exploit tools and resources on behalf of my employer, not to "support Beknown/Monster". They're responsible for initial acceptance, continued adoption, and for making this an acceptable tool for my recruiting needs. I am currently, and I expect to be in the future, a customer in this equation.

Comment by Maureen Sharib on June 26, 2011 at 1:10pm: Privacy will be the new luxury.

Comment by Irina Shamaeva on June 26, 2011 at 1:17pm: Frankj,

It's up to you, and I understand your points. But aren't you tired of LinkedIn bugs, error messages, slowness, restricted views, frequent unannounced changes, and user interface inconsistency? I use LinkedIn all the time and get a lot out of it, but I wish LinkedIn had others to compete with, and am going to support those with a good promise.

Comment by Frank Zupan on June 26, 2011 at 1:31pm: Maureen-I think the day has already arrived.

Irina-I use LinkedIn's corporate recruiting product, so it's possible that we have different perspectives. I don't think any product in our market is perfect, obviously they all have room for improvement.

Comment by Irina Shamaeva on June 26, 2011 at 1:53pm: Frank,

Yes, of course, we all have our perspectives. I use LinkedIn access that is better than LinkedIn recruiter.

Comment by Mat von Kroeker on June 29, 2011 at 8:02pm: HR Dir. at prestigious, Fortune 100 company, Googling Irene and/or Frank for perfect position, no-brainer, "can-do-it-with-eyes-closed", salary, cadillac benefits, once in a lifetime opportunity:

"Wow-- This Frank Z. and Irene S. seem argumentative and defensive in this thread. I certainly don't want people like that working for this company."

Comment by Frank Zupan on June 29, 2011 at 9:07pm: Hi Mat-

Thanks for your comment.

Fortune "whatever" bores me, as do "do it with your eyes closed" positions. I need a challenge and you need to hire a bot.

Really, Mat. I expect better of you but I do tend to get a bit defensive when someone as smart as Irina comments on something I've posted.

Cheers,

FZ