Comment by Maureen Sharib on August 21, 2009 at 12:47pm

Call and let's see - it'd be an interesting reporting piece.

Comment by Slouch on August 21, 2009 at 1:13pm

I don't think it will be a useful use of time.

Comment by Maureen Sharib on August 21, 2009 at 1:23pm

Allrighty-then.

Comment by Jerry Albright on August 21, 2009 at 2:38pm

Most/all/some/thevastmajority of these sites keep wanting regular people to all act as if recruiting and job hunting is all they think about.

I can not fathom the amount of money being wasted on sites like this. I'm right here - looking at the link- and can't even generate enough interest to click the link.

If anyone associated with the money being blown on that site is intersted in discussing something that really is unique - please give me a call. 260-347-1715

Comment by Matthew Franzen on August 21, 2009 at 3:05pm

Jerry, I'm sorry you decided you don't like the site without even visiting it. Since the concept is that a recruiter only pays if a candidate is placed and the majority of the fee goes to the person who referred the individual it's not clear how one would be wasting money by using this service.

The site was designed minimize the amount of effort it takes to find an opening and refer someone. It's not a social media application dependent on ad revenue. The objective is to be the place people go to help their friends find jobs when someone they know is looking to start a new position.

The recruiting industry is broad and varied. There are (and will be) recruiters willing to use this service and those who don't.

Comment by Jerry Albright on August 21, 2009 at 3:14pm

My reply was a bit flippant and off-the-cuff Matt. It's too easy to reply to things on the internet without much info. Please forgive my sarcasm there.

But on to the point. I applaud anyone out here brave enough to try something new. I did stop by your site to see what it involves before my second reply here.

My reaction is still the same though. Somewhere along the line a huge majority of our industry started to think that regular people - your Grandma, your neighbor, the lady next to you at church - all think about jobs all the time. We have employment branding. We have jobcasting. We have a nonstop barrage of job tips and interviews pointers everywhere we turn.

Why do we all think this? Who knows. In my professional assessment people think about jobs when they themselves need one and that's about it. They are not going to jump on the internet and hope to score a referral bonus cuz their bowling buddy just lost his job. Chances are he doesn't really even know what that guy "really" does - other than some type of engineering work or banking something-or-other.

No offense but this kind of site assumes too much. But I do wish you well. Maybe I just don't "get it".

Comment by Matthew Franzen on August 21, 2009 at 4:55pm

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for following up, no offense taken on this end.

It’s true that there are a lot of brands, job boards, jobcasts, podcasts, video interviews and other job finding tools already out there. But almost all of them target their message at the job seeker.

We focus our message on the individuals who can make quality referrals. All referrals first go to the potential candidate and they have to opt in to be contacted. It’s a longer process but it weeds out most of the unqualified applicants. (A positive side effect of this check is that recruiters have been putting more time into the wording of posts to appeal to the candidates.)

Targeting a user one degree separated from the job seeker is a harder niche to reach. But if it were easy to do it would already be done, right?

Best of luck in your sourcing & recruiting efforts,

Matthew

Comment by Slouch on August 21, 2009 at 7:53pm

Hey Matthew so without coming across sounding like I know what I'm talking about, when you say

"All referrals first go to the potential candidate and they have to opt in to be contacted"

I say that this represent the main reason why so many referral systems going all the way back to refer.com failed. I get why this is being built into the system but it is exactly why it won't work.

Comment by Matthew Franzen on August 22, 2009 at 11:54am

Hello Slouch,

Thank you very much for the feedback, I’m going to revisit that function and make the opt-in as unobtrusive as possible.

But before assuming that it won’t work because it hasn’t worked in the past it’s worth noting that technology has different rates of adoption depending on the maturity of the market.

Looking back, it’s clear that the target markets weren’t ready for Refer.com when it was up and running in 2000-2001. The Internet was still in its “Web 1.0” phase and the Refer.com approach was to collect listings by scanning the job boards & reposting the positions on their site with the condition that a referral fee would be charged for candidates that came through their channel. However, it appeared that they never effectively implemented candidate tracking or put enforceable agreements in place with the hiring companies. It’s clear that this referral model didn’t work.

Roll forward to 2009, the number of Internet users has more than quadrupled, e-commerce and internet banking is commonplace, and online services are starting to expand into the mobile space. Millions of potential applicants post their work history on networking sites and use automated resume posting services to apply for jobs. People are comfortable using the Internet and going forward that familiarity will only increase. Knowledge workers with highly transferable skills will be able to change companies more easily when unhappy in their current work environment. It’s all in the due diligence section of the business plan.

The challenge is getting in touch with the right candidate and making them aware of the position.

So the question to ask: Is the target market still uncomfortable sharing information on the web or is this the start of early adoption for the concept of online sourcing via referrals? It’s clear what I believe, but only time will tell.

After thinking about this, perhaps ‘referral system’ is the wrong term to use with recruiters. From a recruiting point of view MyJobReferrals.com is fundamentally a sourcing tool. The service creates the ability to connect with candidates that most likely would not be found via conventional sourcing methods. That’s what it is designed to do.

We’re looking for recruiters who believe that sourcing via online referrals can work and are looking to establish a long-term sourcing pipeline. We’re up front about how the service works, offer postings free of charge, and don’t require or ask for any of your client contact information. Our goal of sourcing candidates is directly aligned with your goal of placing candidates. The service opens up a new sourcing avenue, costs less than the fees associated with a common split and there is no charge unless a candidate is placed.

But a person believes what they choose to believe and it appears you’ve made up your mind for now. Thank you again for the feedback.


Sourcing via Referrals - How it Works

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Comment by Slouch on August 24, 2009 at 4:45pm

I meant no disrespect to this all. I was just commenting on my side addiction which is domain names and I am a big believer that the right one makes a big difference and if in fact your application works and works well, JobReferrals.com would be a better name. I know the guy who has it so if you are interested.

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