Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog

Yesterday, I posted Sex, Lies & Politics: Welcome to SHRM. In my post, I referenced a commentary by Your HR Guy: When it rains, it pours. He commented. I commented. We left it at that. Hold that thought.

After listening to Joel Cheesman’s podcast with HotJobs’ Dan Finnigan – or is it Finnegan? Joel, you should check your spelling and issue an immediate apology – I revisited Your HR Guy’s original post to see who had commented further. It was late in the day and my mind was somewhat muddled having tried to decipher the meaning behind all the comments on MySpace Vs LinkedIn and trying to understand in the same stream of consciousness why JobCentral would be underwriting Joel’s promotion of HotJobs. Maybe it’s a thesis, antithesis, synthesis kind of a thing. Or, perhaps Joel is trying to give us a peek under the kimono using HotJobs as shill for his own SEO/relevancy master plan. Joel is far cleverer than his pretty looks would suggest.

And then, one of my finer caffeine induced shockers – I actually started to piece it all together. At least in mind I did:

1. Your HR Guy said somewhere (please reply with a link) that he does not need to meet candidates face-to-face. Or, maybe I read it somewhere on the Recruiting Animal’s blog – it really is all so confusing. Anyway, someone said it. The point is that Your HR Guy did say in his “When it rains…” post that he does not need to meet people in person to network implying a face-to-face was not necessary for him to get his networking done. Now, hold this thought.

2. At the end of his post, tucked away in the comments he gives a tiny little clue about who he really is and what this MySpace Vs LinkedIn brouhaha is really all about. By adding a smiley to his reply to a comment by Tiffany, who likewise had sent him a wink, Your HR Guy unwittingly reveals that facial communication, even in a digital world, is so fundamental to human interaction that not even he can live without it. That exchange of winks – not the words – says it all. Hold on to this one too, we’re getting there.

3. I have followed LinkedIn since its inception. I was so enamored by the whole concept of the augmented social network that I wondered how founding father of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, was going to monetize what was essentially a notion built on, among other things, persistent identity – not one’s professional persona alone – and, of course, trust. In one of the earliest posts by Joi Ito there is a great dialogue going on that anyone who wants to get beyond the chatter on the MySpace (preceded by Friendster) vs. LinkedIn debate should read. It answers many of the questions posed in the exchange of comments on Recruiting.com yesterday. I suggest you go to the comments and do a find on the word “face.” It is a fascinating exercise. Better still, find time to pour another coffee and read it all.

Can you hold one more thought, or have you drunk too much coffee yet?

4. Shannon Seery left me a comment last week. No wink. Shannon and I live in the same neck of paradise. I decided to invite her to connect with me on LinkedIn but when I saw her profile I was shocked, stunned. We know the same people! We are estranged by only two degrees of separation and a few miles of I-95 construction. I was amazed at how we could be so connected in cyberspace – had we chosen to do so before her blog-comment – and yet, so unconnected in our own physical space. We’re in the same business for heavens sake, and in the same town to boot!

What is going on here? Our physical and virtual worlds are colliding. That is what this debate is all really about, isn’t it? How will we manage the integration of our physical and virtual worlds, when to be an effective recruiter, we must be a master of both realms?

All’s well that ends well:

1. Your HR Guy has got it right. Social networking will survive the proliferation of sites where we recruiters can network because we are social animals. In the virtual world, where else is there for us to go but to our networks?

2. Words say so much. Sometimes too much, sometimes too little. We cannot overlook the hidden clues and subtle cues that facial expressions give. You can see it all over Joel’s face can’t you? What is he saying to you? Is it glum or smug? Or GQish, even. Because even our facial expressions can be misread, we have to sometimes play it safe and digitize and codify our faces and reduce them to smileys and icons. We still need even a dumbed down facial expression as a point of reference to make sense of our real-world communication. If we don’t have a face online, someone will surely slap one on for you. Worse, they may even get it right.

3. MySpace has faces. LinkedIn does not. The differences are many, but for me, the key to what differentiates one network from the other – and, therefore, their usefulness for recruiters – is that one is “humanized” while the other is “professional.” Isn’t that what makes blogging such a hoot? Blogging can be both human and professional at the same time, and possibly a better way to network. If Recruiting.com and communities like it aren’t what social networks should be, what should a social network be then?

4. I have been patiently waiting on LinkedIn for someone to find me since its beginning. I have not been contacted for anything except once by a distraught entrepreneur wanting to know, confidentially, if I had had any contact with Christian Mayaud. Apparently he has been putting himself out there, if you know what I mean – wink, wink.

I discovered an old piece of networking technology on my desk yesterday. I think it’s called a telephone. I picked it up and dialed the number that was left for me on an old-fashioned website. I left a message for Julian and Shannon at EXCELER8ion to get together with me in the real world to eat some real food and drink some real coffee. I hope they will. Because for me at least, there is no better connection than the warmth of a handshake and the tease of a smile. The best networking happens over shared food, shared thoughts, laughter and tears, as do the best interviews for talent where human capital is a prized asset within the organization. Digitize that, then ping me. Wherever you are, I’ll come running.