IBN: Defining Excellence in Electronic Recruiting

interbiznet.com

Electronic Recruiting
News

Our Rate Card

 

 





Please Click On Our Sponsors


Please Click On Our Sponsors


Recruiting News for the Human Resource Professional


Please Click On Our Sponsors


Please Click On Our Sponsors



Please Click On Our Sponsors


Please Click On Our Sponsors




 

 

 

Click On Our Sponsors



Click On Our Sponsors





 

 

 

 



New
interbiznet
Bookclub

interbiznet
Listings

Find out more
About IBN

Got a news tip?
Tell us at
bugler@
interbiznet.com


Our Rate Card

Articles

Presentations

Trends Reports

Archives


Suggestions?



It is better
to not be on
the web than
to be on and
not know why

John Sumser

Reality
is more
complex
than
it seems.
John Gall






OUR HOME





The Electronic Recruiting News is a Free Daily Newsletter For Recruiters, HR Managers, Advertising Agencies and Clasified Advertising Operations


Home | ERN | Bugler | The Blogs | Blogroll | Advertise | Archives | Careers
Daily News. Archived Weekly. Click Here For The Current Issue.

Browser Stuff
(October 17, 1997)

Getting around the web can be a great deal easier if you make your browser work the way you want. From appearance to knowing where you've been, becoming familiar with the toolbars allows you to individualize your browsers.

This column deals only with Netscape's Navigator. If you use Internet Explorer, come back tomorrow. If you're using an AOL browser, don't. You can run Netscape or another browser instead. Directions for installing Netscape on AOL can be found by doing a Go To Keyword NETSCAPE in AOL.

Change your default page. You really don't need to open up to netscape.com each day and see who their sponsors are or where to buy their products. Choose your favorite search engine (or another page you go to most often). Make that your default.

  • Click on Options.
  • Click on General Preferences.
  • Click on Appearance
  • Look for the phrase "browser starts with" and click on the home page circle.
  • Then put in the URL for the page you want to start with
  • Click OK.

Can't read all that tiny text? Change your font size.

  • Click on Options.
  • Click on General Preferences.
  • Select the fonts tab.
  • Click on Choose Font and change the size to 12 or 14.
  • Click OK and click OK again.

Need to see more than just the toolbars? Increase your screen space.

  • There are 3 tools bar selections in the Options menu: Show Toolbar, Show Location, Show Directory
  • Turn OFF the Directory Buttons at least. Leave ON the Show Location.
  • Make the toolbar use less space.
  • Pull down the Options Menu.
  • Click on General Preferences
  • Click Appearance.
  • Under Toolbars Click on Text.
  • Click OK and click OK again.

Don't site there; find another page. You can look at another page while waiting for the first page to download.

  • Click on File.
  • Click on New Web Browser.

Make the browser browse. Don't scan entire documents looking for a phrase, use Find.

  • Click on Edit.
  • Click on Find.
  • Type in the word or phrase you're looking for.
  • Click on Find Next.

Read messy mail more easily.

  • In your mail window, click on View.
  • Click on Wrap Long Lines.

Of course, there are other ways to individualize your browser and make it work more the way you want. Take some time to go through the tool bar and see what each menu does. Change as you see fit. You can always change it back later.

Here's An Alternative


(October 16, 1997) OurSquare, an online service for 1.7 million students, graduate students, and alumnae/i from seventeen of the country's top schools, announces today the start of Career Chat '97 -- where employees and human resource professionals from top companies get to chat online with students from the nation's elite schools.

"We're obviously delighted by the positive response of companies to this first ever online event," says founder and CEO James L. Marciano. "For us, it's about access -- giving members access to companies, and companies access to students." While many brand name companies such as Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co., Oxford Health Plans, and Amazon.com will be participating, OurSquare hopes to attract other, smaller companies which may not have the resources to pay for large on campus recruiting efforts. Career Chat '97, which is free for both companies and individuals, will run from October 15th through December 15th 1997. The official chat schedule is posted at the OurSquare website

OurSquare is a virtual community of 5,000+ students, graduate students, and alumnae/i from the Ivy League, Wellesley, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, UChicago, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, and Duke.

In addition to a searchable member directory, OurSquare offers hosting of members' homepages and small business sites, lifetime e-mail accounts, personal ads, a career center staffed with executive recruiters, discussion forums on topics ranging from travel to stocks to relationship advice, links to the best sites on the Net, and special chat events.

Letters, We Get Letters


(October 15, 1997) Our thinking about job postings has inspired lots of email. Here's one exchange that we think adds illumination to the subject.

From:
To: "'jrsumser@interbiznet.com'"
Subject: Big Enough?

Hello John,

I just read today's Electronic Recruiting News and have just a few questions/comments.

You mention 4.5 million postings in the first three quarters of 1997. Can't you assume that some of those postings are duplicates of the same job? We post our job openings weekly in various locations and we have many of the same jobs from week to week. If other organizations are following this same practice, a job hunter would only need to look at the most recent postings to find most of the current available jobs.

Is being the 5,000,0001st Usenet posting really that bad? Someone looking for one of my jobs is not going to find it after reading five million postings. They are going to find it by searching for specific keywords that happen to be in my job description.

I would think that it doesn't matter how large the database is as long as the job hunter has the tools to efficiently search larger and larger databases. The bigger the database is, the better the odds of them finding multiple matches using very specific search criteria.

Just a few thoughts.

Thanks,

We replied:

From: John Sumser (IBN)[jrsumser@interbiznet.com]
To:
Subject: Re: Big Enough?

Your points are *very* astute. Of course there are cross postings and of course a user won't read all of the postings.

But, given the volume of material and the quality of current search tools, it's very unlikely that job hunter skills will ever catch up with the material. Although the use of search engines can be mastered, your approach assumes that the requirement falls on the shoulders of the job hunter. Typical keyword search techniques produce variable results. So, unless you are very fortunate, the total number of postings simply increases the randomness of a connection between your ad and a job hunter.

Given the demographic environment (generational labor shortages) and the complexity of mastering search techniques, I believe that you do yourself a disservice by relying on job postings. That's not to say that trusting serendipity isn't important, just that you shouldn't depend on it. The results will degrade as volume increases and the number of job hunters declines. If your advertising method requires that a candidate have mastered a set of search skills (most haven't), I hope that you do it that way as a screening mechanism. Otherwise, you're simply eliminating candidates from your reach.

I'm not suggesting that you stop using the tools. Just be aware that as they decline in benefit to you, you'll need to find replacement vehicles. Ultimately, advertising, in its current forms, will not be very useful as a recruiting tool. The really successful players are taking a much more proactive approach.

I'm glad you wrote.


In other news, RON keeps piling up alliances in its current aggressive move into the market. The latest partnership is an alliance with Infospace. It brings the total reach of a job posted to RON to about 500 sites. At about $400/year, a subscription to RON is fast becoming the best dollar value for third party recruiters.

Subscription Site


(October 14, 1997) Today, we're formally launching our password protected, subscription-only newsletter: Electronic Recruiting News: Subscription Edition. We've designed the site to be a part of your continuing education in hands-on Electronic Recruiting. Updated weekly, the newsletter includes:
  • A Comprehensive Guides to Search Engines
  • Browser Tips and Tricks for Recruiters
  • Downloads of Critical Software
  • Special Offers From Recruiting Vendors
  • Online Assistance with Net Basics
  • Industry Specific Tool kits
We offer a free one year subscription to this newsletter as a part of our two day seminar series. The retail price for a one year subscription is $395. Between now and November 30, you can purchase a one year subscription for the introductory price of $295. Simply call our offices at (800) 358-2278 with a Visa or Mastercard.

Our free newsletter covers the comings and goings in the Electronic Recruiting Industry. The subscription-only service focuses on helping individual Recruiters develop Internet effectiveness. Our objective is to give our paid subscribers a solid competitive edge in exchange for an investment of 10 minutes per week.

Big Enough?


(October 13, 1997) As of this morning, there have been over 4 Million Usenet job postings since January 1, 1997. The growth pattern is:
  • First Three Quarters of 1995:    416,056
  • First Three Quarters of 1996: 2,300,723
  • First Three Quarters of 1997: 4,516,538
The major posters include some well known names and some not so recognizable players. For the most part, Usenet postings come from services that dump their databases into the newsgroups. The current stir about who delivers the biggest service is reminiscent of other macho bragging. As the old song goes, "It ain't the meat, it's the motion." Practically speaking, it's entirely possible to be too big.

The official Usenet tally (derived from DejaNews) includes:

While the numbers seem impressive, let's look carefully. 4.5 Million postings means a run rate of about 16 thousand postings per day. It would take a team of 31 full time people looking at each posting for an average of 1 minute each (without break) simply to stay abreast of the material that emerges each day. And, the volume is growing.

If we were in the newspaper business, we'd point to this statistic as proof that the web can't work. We got to thinking about this because a price/distribution war seems to be breaking out amongst the services. At the end of last week, Yahoo! and TMP proudly announced:

The Monster Board and OCC, products of TMP's Interactive Division, will be featured in the employment section of Yahoo! Classifieds (http://classifieds.yahoo.com), providing users will (sic) access to more than 100,000 quality job listings.
Claiming "nearly two million visits in August" and "more than 100,000 quality job listings", TMP positioned itself as a solid second to the Bernard Hodes solidly performing Career Mosaic

Still, we wonder if the fuss isn't misguided a bit. Is bigger better? The way we count, the pure statistical opportunity for a job to be seen in a TMP setting is 20 times per month (2 million divided by 100 thousand). Seems like the bigger they grow, the less benefit anyone gets from a service.

We think that this is true for all job boards. More job postings is a negative, not a positive. Who wants to be the 100,001st TMP job, the 5,000,001st Usenet posting, the Millionth listing in Yahoo or the next listing in Classifieds 2000?

Recruiting Online:
Options and Search Techniques


(August 05, 1997): We will be delivering an intensive two day seminar around the country. Designed for Staff Recruiters and Researchers, the seminar covers the basics of Electronic Recruiting and Search Techniques. Graduates of the 2-Day Seminar receive
  • A CD Chock-Full Of Net Software and Tools
  • $2,000 In Special Offers From 5 Online Recruiting Services
  • A One Year Subscription ($395 Value) To Our Protected Web Site
  • All Course Materials
Click here for detailed information and online registration. The schedule is:

Oct 16-17: Metro DC
Oct 20-21: New York City
Oct 23-24: Philadelphia
Oct 27-28: Boston
Oct 30-31: Los Angeles
Nov 03-04: San Francisco

Directions to the hotels in each city are available by clicking on the city name. You can register online or call our offices for more information at (800) 358-2278

Advanced Internet Recruiting Seminars


(August 05, 1997): We will be delivering the Advanced Recruiting Seminars again in December. The schedule is.
Dec 01: Houston
Dec 03: Atlanta
Dec 05: Metro DC
Dec 08: Philadelphia
Dec 10: New York City
Dec 12: Boston
Dec 15: Chicago
Dec 17: Seattle
Dec 19: San Francisco

Click here to learn more about the Advanced Recruiting seminars. Class size is limited to 30 per seminar. The seminars run from 9:00AM to 4:30PM and are designed for owners and managers. Take a look at a list of companies who have been to the seminars.

See a detailed index of our past issues



  • October 12, 1997
    • Places To Post
    • Job Resource
    • BYO Network
    • Leveling The Field
    • Resources
  • October 05, 1997
    • Hot Bot Redux
    • IE Nightmare
    • Job Posting Engine
    • English 101
    • MRI
  • September 28, 1997
    • Phones
    • What's It All Mean?
    • Ugly: Only Skin Deep
    • Critical Mass
    • Why Learn HTML?
  • September 21, 1997
    • What's New
    • Will They Stay?
    • Another Look At Chat
    • Inbound Links
    • Collecting Email Addresses
  • September 14, 1997
    • Meet On The Web
    • Will They Stay?
    • Pre-Employment Screening
    • Bits 'N Pieces
    • Requiem
  • September 07, 1997
    • Individual Branding
    • Older Workers Arise
    • Toolbox Refill
    • New and Improved Design
    • TV and The Web
  • August 31, 1997
    • HR and Recruiting Software
    • Breaking News
    • Does Email Work?
    • More Search Tips
    • Alliances
  • August 24, 1997
    • Alternate Future
    • Staffing Page
    • NorthernLight
    • Tidbits
    • Search Tips
  • August 17, 1997
    • MRI Berkeley
    • Bits & Pieces
    • Links Are Relationships
    • You Are Your Links
    • Here It Comes
  • August 10, 1997
    • WSJ Careers
    • Desktop Search Tool
    • Immigration Notes
    • Computemp Job Fair
    • ESpan Again
  • More Archives

    The past 32 months of the
    Electronic Recruiting News

    More Archives
    "Recruiter's Resolutions For 2003:

    1. Finally, clear the resumes off my desk
    2. Take a speed-reading course to get through resumes faster
    3. Find three new places to source good people
    4. Lower cost-per -hire (make that, determine cost-per-hire...then lower it!)
    5. Find a talent Management system to help with all of the above.

    We know what you're up against. And we've got the answer.

    Hodes iQ, brought to you by Bernard Hodes Group. From adopting our talent management system or enhancing your own system to providing new sourcing strategies on the web, we have proven solutions to make your recruiting enterprise better. Find out how Hodes iQ and Hodes iQPost can help you in the new year and beyond.

    Put Hodes iQ to the test.

    Call 888.438.9911 or visit http://www.hodesiq.com today.


    Home | ERN | Bugler | The Blogs | Blogroll | Advertise | Archives | Careers

    Contacting Us:
    Call, fax, write, email. We'd love to consult with you about your project.

    Copyright © 2013 interbiznet. All rights reserved.
    Materials written by John Sumser © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.
    Mill Valley, CA 94941
    415.377.2255
    colleen@interbiznet.com

    Electronic Recruiting News
      


     

         FEATURES:

  • 2003 Trends Whitepaper

  • interbiznet Bookclub

  • interbiznet Listings

  • interbiznet Trends

  • EMAIL NEWSLETTERS:
         - Bugler
           (Sign-up)
           Daily Industry News

         - ERNIE
           (Sign-up)
           ERN in Email





























         RESOURCES:

  • BlogRoll
  • Integrated Employment
          Branding Presentation
  • Trends Whitepaper
  • interbiznet Listings
  • interbiznet Trends
  • interbiznet Bookclub
  • Top 100 E-Recruiters
  • Presentations
         - Recruiting Then/Now
  • Recruiter's Toolkit
  • Seminar In A Box
  • ERN Archives
  • 1st Steps In The Hunt







         ADVERTISING:

  • Our Rate Card
  • Demographics



         RESOURCES:

  • BlogRoll

         ERN ARCHIVES

    Stocks We Watch:
    Public Companies
    in Electronic Recruiting


     


         © 2013 interbiznet.
         All Rights Reserved.

         Materials written
         by John Sumser
         © TwoColorHat.
         All Rights Reserved.