Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog

Some books are simply indispensable. One such classic is How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. I have had one of the over million copies sold on my desk since I first acquired a tatty secondhand paperback  in 1978. Of course, that’s when content was king and influence was measured in royalties, reprints and guest appearances on the Russell Harty Show.

I was reminded of what a useful reference that book is when I happened on Social Media Saturday: Who Are The HR Bloggers? posted by Laurie Ruettimann on her blog,  The Cylindrical Girl.

Social Media Saturday: Who Are The HR Bloggers? features an infographic that visualizes a survey of HR bloggers, presumably those listed in the day’s prior post  Ultimate HR/Career Blog List for 2011: V3.0.

Credit goes to Ms. Ruettimann’s lucky intern, comrades in marketing at Starr Tincup, for an otherwise delightfully decorative piece. And full props to Ms. Ruettimann for filing both posts under General Nonsense, even if it is, as seems to be the case, her popular site’s default category.

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No doubt, the organizers of the Society of Human Resources [SHRM] 63rd Annual Conference will tell you that their shindigs take a lot of advance planning. One assumes that includes their choice of venue, this year in Las Vegas.

Unable to substantiate my suspicions that the decision to congregate in the Mecca of smoke and mirrors had something to do with “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” I shall refrain from speculating that, if not that, perhaps some polyester PR plonker persuaded SHRM’s leadership that there is no better place to engage the dissenting voices going ga-ga for transparency than on the Vegas Strip. Where better to make a show of it!

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It is a well known trick that has been spun out a million times before: announce bad news on Fridays. Not that the highly anticipated HRExaminer Top 25 HR Influencers List published today should be viewed as bad news. To the contrary. The list of seasoned blogebrities and HR A-listers is wonderful news for both the influential elite and those of us who are proud to be among the industry’s most easily led.

I am afraid that the bad news today emanates from me, yours truly. But please, don’t shoot the messenger.

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As of the time of this writing there are somewhere between 10-20,000 online threats associated with recruiter training, maybe more. I should know. Not only have I been responsible for developing my own ingenious countermeasures to  threats like Threat 1158: “Hey Buddy, can you spare a dime-a-dozen Boolean string for my [fill in the blank] search?”, and Threat 3823: “I tweet therefore I am #socialrecruiting,” but I may have authored a few threats of my own.

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Recruitopian Footnotes [May 11, 2010]

1. Token blacks, Hispanic women and cross-dressing vicars hardly make the case for diversity in the workplace, not in the Supreme Court of the United States anyway. I think the appointment of a an every-man or two would suffice, provided they are Calvinists of course.
2. I always wondered who the real Kris Dunn was.  Will the real Kris Dunn please stand up? Thank you!
   
3. Laurie Ruettimann thinks about power and influence on a “regular basis”  seemingly unaware of the nasty side affects of over-exposure to testosterone. [For the uninitiated, power is to the right, influence is to the left. Yeah, I'm an elitist jerk too]

Recruitopian Footnotes [September 22, 2009]

1. One would hope that tutoring in the Stanislavski method could improve the chances of every job seeker…fake it ’til you make it, buddy!
2. The firing will continue until morale improves…makes perfect sense to me.
3. “Some are born to be waiters on Broadway and others have waiting in the wings thrust upon them…” Chad Sowash waxes lyrical, seeks drama award…what can I tell you?

Recruitopian Footnotes [July 10, 2009]

1. Who said: “A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart” - John Sullivan, John Sumser or Jonathan Swift? Such studious fellows all…Rub-a-Dub-Dub
2. Erecting the new recruiting edifyce…Bob the Builder meets Smiling Bob
3. “When we win, we all win.” So, what happens when we’re counting the rations?…Man overboard!

Recruitopian Footnotes [July 8, 2009]

1. John Sumser under the influence?…Shocking but true
   
2. Has Glen Cathey gone native? OMG, we’ve lost him…Dancing with wolves
   
3. This blogger gets the pink Caddie for raising the bar…Lisa Kaye, we salute you!
   
4. To SEO or not to SEO? That is the question.

Okay, call me old-fashioned, a stickler if you like, but I happen to think publishing in the recruiting space comes with some social and corporate responsbilities. Don’t you?

While Jobster still has employees on the payroll it would serve their brand — not to mention Recruitopians and the community at large – if someone took a moment to monitor who is submitting what on Recruiting.com. Today, Filipino Hot Babes, tomorrow what – incest, donkey-love?

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I learned yesterday that John Sumser will be vacating the Editor’s desk at Recruiting.com. His going — timed for early May — will mark the closing of  another chapter in this seminal site’s interesting history, perhaps the closing of the book.

At this point I have to ask: “Who cares?” John’s throw-away remark at the end of the Recruiting Animals’ Morning After Show referencing his exit suggests he may feel the same way. Who knows? For sure, for those who look within the Recruitosphere’s publishing clique for amusement it will be amusing in the coming weeks, no doubt.

To my own pathethic contribution…hmmm. Recruiting.com has been an interesting place for me to experiment with a number of ideas some of which fizzled out, some of which sputtered along and some of which remain open-ended.

Moving forward, I shall simply plug my Bunsen into the new mixture of gas and hot air on RecruitingBlogs.com, the combustible bloggy-ning thing where I now spend my early mornings. Like you perhaps?

Ah, Recruitopia…doesn’t it just make you sick?

Well, my slide into obscurity – not posting much – has been rudely interrupted. I am being spammed out of my inbox by bloggers and wannabes desperate to get their emotional needs met with a big win in this year’s 2006 Best Blog Awards, a Recruiting.com production.

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Ah, to slump back into the comfort of my old blog. Like a well-worn armchair that so easily conforms to the shape of my bottom, with armrests on which to relax tired limbs, a moment to pause and reflect: What is the meaning of it all?

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