Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog

Peter Gold makes an interesting point in his Myspace – Mydetails – Ornot! post on the Hire Strategies blog, adding another layer of conversation to the debate about MySpace, privacy and the role of the Gladys Kravitz wannabes.  As Peter’s posts often do, this one really got me thinking. As my train of thought went from no privacy online to Rupert Murdoch’s recent acquisition of MySpace to CEOs blogging, I made a startling discovery – Rupert Murdoch has a MySpace profile.  Looking at it, I wonder if you would give this man a job. 

As online persona, personal brand and digital fascism have entered the employers’ screening and assessment debate, true to form, “The Dirty Digger” reminds us – you can’t believe everything you read in the papers, hear in the news or see online. It’s too two dimensional, don’t you think?

Branding has come a long way since it was first used to mark cattle and criminals. It has evolved from the scarring of symbols on flesh to the calculated deployment of symbols for the molding of minds. Where once the medium for branding was soft tissue that resulted in searing pain, nowadays branding draws upon every conceivable means to stimulate our senses with promises of pleasure, success, and instant gratification.

Branding is big business – big and complicated. For larger employers in particular, management of their employer brand as a subset of their total communications strategy should not be placed in the hands of novices. Rather, it should be outsourced to experts who understand how to fabricate beauty from the imperfections in the body corporate. Advertising agencies – excuse me, full-service recruitment communications and HR solutions partners – have become the high priests of employer branding, dazzling in their use of magic to transform the ordinary into the extra-ordinary.

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Lou Adler publishes an interesting article on ERE, How to Hire Better Salespeople. Curiously subtitled: “It only takes two questions, if you know what you’re looking for” Lou Adler proceeds to describe a methodology to formulate those two questions that requires a lifetime of experience and a staff of twelve. 

Lou Adler closes his article with this remark:

“There are probably other ways to reduce new sales rep turnover by 50% and get newly hired sales reps achieving quota in half the time, but it’s unlikely they are any easier than this three-step process.”

Wow! That’s some assertion. Lou Adler sounds like a salesman, doesn’t he? To the extent that there are probably other ways to hire better salespeople is beyond question. And, we’ll give Lou Adler the benefit of the doubt regarding his easy-peasy three-step how-to by simply saying: nothing about recruiting top-flight sales talent is easy. But that closing remark reminds me that ERE has a ways to go in finding “unbiased” cover stories from writers capable of transcending their own vendor-agenda and who – I might add – may leave their readers drawing erroneous conclusions.

Please don’t misunderstand me or over react. I applaud with standing ovation Lou Adler for managing to promote himself as a subject matter expert – provided he picks the right subject – and for managing to get no fewer than three links in back to his own website and one instance of his email in the article. And I still assert that being an expert capable of writing good copy and running a business are not mutually exdusive. Proving this point, Lou Adler is a master marketer and should be cited as one of the best in our industry. But three month’s into ERE‘s new look and editorial direction, are we to believe new writers are so few and far between? We don’t want to replace Lou Adler on ERE, we just want more of what was anticipated when the revamped ERE was heralded in.

Bearing in mind that experts come in various guises and that the universe extends beyond our own comfortable circle of favorites, Recruitomatic gives you two for the price of one: Lou Adler in fine fettle on ERE and Dave Kurlan who is exceptionally well qualified to comment on this particular subject. If you have an interest in recruiting better salespeople, visit and bookmark Dave Kurlan’s blog: Understanding the Sales Force. Visit his website. Perhaps Dave Kurlan will enlarge the recruitment bubble with a more active participation than in the past. And one day – we can only hope – we will be reading Dave Kurlan and other guest authors on ERE too.

In my research for this post I came across this from Steven Dutch who teaches Natural and Applied Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay:

A Note to Visitors

I will respond to questions and comments as time permits, but if you want to take issue with any position expressed here, you first have to answer this question:

What evidence would it take to prove your beliefs wrong

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Beyond writing my blog posts and hitting “publish” I freely admit I don’t know much about what goes on on the backend of my blog. As a result, not only was I blissfully unaware that I had disabled comments on my patient Blog Swapper’s recent guest post, Exotic Fruit, but when its author – Yvonne “Viva” LaRose – drew this to my attention - not even believing it could be done – I assumed she was as clueless as me. When I went to leave a comment myself I noticed it said “Comments Off” and I realized Viva was right and I was wrong. By way of karmic retribution – believe it or not – it took me an hour to figure out how to enable the comments, fall on my sword, and devise a plan for inviting you to please re-visit, re-read and comment as you like.

Yvonne has graciously forgiven me. I hope anyone frustrated by not being able to participate with a comment on her post will forgive me too. No sour grapes, please. Comments are still moderated! 

I am in the throws of my next seminal post on personal branding and the power of blogging to enhance both one’s personal and professional reputation and stereotypical good looks. I invite anyone who would like to preview my uncensored, uncut and unabridged work the chance to receive it via email for viewing behind locked doors. For this premium service I am charging an affordable $9.99.

To ensure that you get your moneys worth – recognizing you may not like or agree with what I have to say, and, given the PDF format, denied the chance to fire off an emotive comment or two – $9.99 will ensure that you are only referred to by some adorable nickname recognizable only among this clique we lovingly refer to as the Recruitosphere. Most people blog-surfing outside of this small circle of buddies will think you are a character from Barney. $19.99 will ensure you are not mentioned at all. For $29.99 I will mention you in favorable light regardless of what I might really think of you, personally, professionally or otherwise.

Due to supply chain limitations, this offer is only available for the first 15,000 readers. The santized version of my work will be posted on Monday, next. The content will be edited to fit your screen and world view.

In the meantime, consider what-his-name’s post about professional conduct. It won’t escape anyone’s attention from reading the comments that he-who-has-no-name (and no link you’ll notce) is already deriving value from my personal branding service. Yes, for a paltry $75.00 I can have your name removed from most any participating blog in the network.

The 25th Annual Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon weekend will be happening soon. The three-day weekend through October 1st is a festival of fitness and life. It includes lots of activities for children, fat people, fit people and the truly athletic among us – runners who can cover 26 miles of city streets without dropping down dead at the finish line. Now, to the casual viewer watching the six o’clock local news, or thumbing through the Star Tribune, one could easily overlook this annual event as another local happening that marks the changing seasons, feeding the human-interest stories local news media needs to balance the reports of mothers cradling dead babies in places far, far away. The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon is a call to the community to participate in the beauty of being a community. It is both a celebration of life and metaphor for business.

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And, the Blog Swap continues.

By what authority who knows, but the Recruiting Animal says…

“You want readers, dumb it down. “Ten tips to a great resume” should get you a few. “Three things you should never say in an interview.” “What do you do if your candidate is cute?” Start writing these – even in your bizarre quirky style [the pot calling the kettle black] – and I guarantee a following.”

Recruitomatic asks, “Will this work?”

Three Ways to Clever Recruitment Blogging

1.  Find a source you can trust and “borrow heavily” from it.  If caught plagiarizing, distract everyone with a clever product launch.

2.  Quote anyone who falls into category one at length to avoid being accused of plagiarizing yourself. Appear well connected to make it all look innocent. Launch a new blog with a clever name.

3.  Realize options one and two will not sustain pay-per-click advertising. Invent a clever search engine to legitimize your use of everyone else’s content. Go to the top of the class.

Technorati says…

Recruiting Animal – dumbing it down since March 29, 2006 – ranks 99,625 with 69 links from 27 blogs. 

Recruitomatic – mixing it up since June 10, 2006 – ranks 92,306 with 151 links from 29 blogs.  

Hey, who needs readers when we have eachother?

I am very happy to be hosting this week’s Blog Swap contribution from my friend, Yvonne LaRose. Of course, “Viva” needs no introduction from me, her post says it all. Taste for yourselves…

The Exotic Fruit

Amitai gave the other Blog Swappers a statement regarding the focus of his Recruitomatic blog. It says:

“I would describe Recruitomatic as a ‘perpetual work in progress.’ I write on whatever tickles my fancy as it relates to what is going on in the talent management space and anything else I think my readers might enjoy. That is all I would ask of you bearing in mind my intention is to broaden my base of readers beyond the Recruitosphere to include recruiting practitioners who are in desperate need – in my opinion – for something to stimulate their thinking out-of-the-box. If you prefer to write shorter posts (the length is entirely up to you) my short posts are typically a commentary on things I see going on around me that I think may be ‘buzz-worthy.’”

Ami’s blog is one of my partners for this week’s swap. I’m going to have a conversation with my friend about “the buzz,” as though being a career coach, as though being a colleague, as though being a friend passing through a point in time. Please pull up a chair and listen in. There are insights you may appreciate as well – or desire to comment on.

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When Christopher Columbus said his intention was to sail around the world everyone assumed that he meant on a horizontal plane as in “the world is flat.” Not up, down, around and over which was inconceivable, ridiculous. Everyone wanted to back the illustrious adventurer as he charted a new course to India and the treasure-laden orient.

However, when his intentions and direction became known, Columbus’ backers deserted him. Queen Isabella of Castille – asserting her confidence that if the world was round, Jesus Christ would know about it – assessed the risk of loosing a few boats and some lousy low-life mariners well worth the rewards in heaven that awaited a sponsor of expanding Christendom. On the other hand, if the audacious explorer was right she would make some quick cash on this side of the heavenly proposition and everything would be hunky-dory. Well, of course, the inquisitor’s daughter was right and the rest is history.

Today, new “flat world” thinking is testing conventional beliefs about the world being global after all. My, how things come full circle. It must be the way of the world.

When I posted Leadership: Too Little Too Late? I suggested that immigrants from Mexico may be the answer to the impending disaster being heralded by homegrown Baby Boomer’s leaving the C-suites of America as they retire in droves. Imagine how stupid I felt learning that the answer is much simpler and being implemented ahead of the expected U.S. talent crunch: “outsource” CEO jobs to India! Doh! And I fancied myself a pundit too. Bugger!

We have much to thank Columbus and Queen Isabella of Castille for. Columbus lost his way and found a whole new breed of Indians to subjugate in the name of civilization, robbing them of their birthright, and repurposing the coca plant for subsequent use in fizzy drinks. And Queen Izzy de Fizzy? Her much more subtle plan unfolded quite some time later: Indra “I’ve-Got-The-Whole-World-In-My-Hands” Nooyi, newly appointed CEO of PepsiCo, is a graduate of Madras Christian College.

So, all’s well that ends well.

In a recently published article Where Have All the Leaders Gone? Forbes comments on the looming talent crunch for CEOs and other big-chiefs as if that is something we should be particularly concerned about. While the situation described by Forbes should give us pause for concern, I believe the shortage of nurses and teachers and welders may have greater social impact over time than the anticipated contraction among Forbes’ readership. That said, as a potential advertiser in Forbes I do read the article with some alarm.

There are over 70 million American baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. Based on this fact, more than 40% of the U.S. labor force will reach the traditional retirement age by 2010. Contrast this with the number of workers between the ages of 35 to 44 – expected to shrivel by another 7% over this period – and the failure of our education system to produce the skill sets anticipated to be in most demand like technical, engineering, CEOs and so on – and we can begin to see a picture emerging post 2010 – interestingly the year beyond which the U.S. Department of Labor has been unable to forecast with any regularity – where technocrats, leaders and cronies are the only ones who can enjoy the comforts of modern society. Not unlike Russia during its Soviet heyday, or North Korea today perhaps. While this might sound alarmist, consider the implications of what the well-worn phrase “talent shortage” actually means. Unless Mexico has a trick up her sleeve secretly producing the next generation of CEOs to do the jobs Americans can’t or won’t do, then manicured lawns and fresh-picked tomatoes may become a thing of the past as we struggle with a general economic implosion.

Another esteemed publication widely read along the corridors of power and in executive bathrooms worldwide is the Economist. They have partnered with self-appointed thought leaders DDI and just published a coffee table how-to, The CEO’s Role in Talent Management. Reading the perennial gloom forecast in the Spherion Emerging Workforce Study as a primer, one hopes that in their last few years on the job, today’s CEOs can finally figure out what they should have done eons ago.

Coming to terms with my place in the blogosphere and the sorry realization that my esoteric writing cannot compete for readers in the bubble of recruitment blogging, I have decided to revert to a more traditional use for my weblog.

I shall write as if my posts were entries to a personal diary. The advantage of this is that I can now say what I like without having to pander to the sensibilities of those I once sought out for approval or acceptance. And no more replies to fallacious arguments, I’m done. I have ripped out the ability to count page views and the number of feeds from my WordPress dashboard. I will not be monetizing my site. Metrics? Phooey.

From now on I shall try to work out the details of a thing through the creative process of blogging, “musing” in blog-speak and posting a la Recruitomatique

Realizing there may be one or two who might want to read my entries – to fill their own void or loneliness perhaps – I will keep my sentences short. Uncomplicated. Not too intense. I will lighten up. Let the real me shine through.

If you are a recruitment blogger, one of the self-absorbed or self-serving or self-important – take your pick – or just a gentle reader, before you abandon me, disgusted that there is nothing of value here, a thought or two so that our brief time together may not be entirely wasted…

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