With the company’s likely implosion at hand, better to make hay while the sun shines, don’t ya fink?

But then again, hold on — I’m in stealth mode! Am I really ready to start drawing attention to myself?

And what about my beloved Recruiting.com, Jobster’s love-child? We don’t want to tick off the new sugar-daddy, do we?

Ding…

Well, I’ve had fun these past few days, blogging here more than in recent weeks. At least, so it would seem on the surface. In reality I have been busy putting together a great many more posts for the launch of a new and spiffy “blog-enabled” corporate website, going live sometime late January, early February perhaps.  My only fear is that by then there will be a general armistice in the war for talent, or Dave Lefkow will have left Jobster for Taleo or some other industry brain drainer, or they’ll be giving away credits for recruiter training on the back of specially marked boxes of Special K – or some such nonsense – like my postings here, obviously dated.

Dong…

Looking back on my posts here I see my tagline “A Contrarian View of Talent Management” hardly describes the bulk of my content since posting here in June. Rather, my work on the whole seems much more introspective and/or recruiting blog-centric. A little light in the talent management department compared to some. So I have changed the tagline to, “A Contrarian View of Life in the Recruitosphere” which seemed to be the overall tenor, regardless. I will be blogging about talent management and related topics on the new corporate blog – Bells and Whistles – and looking forward to shamelessly commercializing my efforts.

Ding…

I am planning to write a personal blog focusing on stuff that interests me in business and in blogging and in general, abandoning the need for this impossible love-hate relationship with the Recruitosphere or an online persona that needs such frequent watering.

Dong..

When I get going, if you find what I post there interesting, I might ask that you please keep it to yourself. First, I am not nearly smart enough to develop threads about how, for example, the augmented social network (PDF) is finally transcending the perceived or real limitations of monetization and walled gardens and trust and persistent identity, evolving to realize it’s potential. Phew. Nor will I have much time to become embroiled in lengthy exchanges, baring my nincompoopery for Mother to see. I’ll be too busy with my other duties. Second, I wouldn’t want everyone to know what I was researching as I sought to develop some competitive advantage for my business, now would I?

Ding, dong…

So, for who does the bell toll? Jason Goldberg, it tolls for thee.

Article number one:  I am quite sure Jason Goldberg doesn’t give two hoots what people think or say about him. I don’t know Jason Goldberg personally, far from it. I would not presume that what I suspect is true is indeed the case. But I imagine that Jason Goldberg’s need to win – survive if needs be – is far stronger than his need to be liked, loved or even understood. His low need for approval – call it hubris if you like – will make the decisions he has to execute in the coming days as easy said as they will be done. And the quicker it is done and over with the better for Jobster. Look to Jason Goldberg for a lesson in “getting on with business.”

Article number two:  Any business decision that negatively impacts the security and comfort of an employee is a damn shame. It is. But in the broader context of things, let’s not get overly sentimental if the business dictates that a number of passive candidates now become active. Isn’t that what “Tag yourself. Rank your skills. Get found.” is about? Isn’t that the Jobster model, premise?

Article number three: Until we get something concrete from Jason Goldberg, forget whether Jobster is a good business or a bad business, or is well managed or badly run. None of us on the sidelines have any direct impact on outcomes within the business so what does all this huffing and puffing contribute to the happiness or well being of someone who is about to get axed, or not, as the case may be.

Article number four:  If there are layoffs, let’s hope the opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade isn’t lost as Jobster proactively markets their displaced talent through the Jobster network. If Jobster can pull off an outplacement coup using their own network – wow! – that will make for some positive press. There’s nothing like lemonade to keep the bile down.

Article number five:  Kudos! to Jason Goldberg for being a seminal figure, business blogger. Bravo! As I read his post who cares about profits? the feeds on his blog had no fewer than 17 links to articles and comments on the speculation surrounding Jobster, his business/leadership and current predicaments. We are about to witness a case study in transparency and how authenticity can make or break a CEO. For anyone who adheres to these principles of openness and naked conversation, this is going to be an object lesson from which we all take away something of value.

In closing, as to what the final outcome of all this will be, don’t ask me. I don’t know. Unlike some, so quick off the mark, I shall wait to see. With bated breath.

I called Rich Teplitsky but he wasn’t there. I called the covering extension and left a message for a delightful sounding Katheryn Burns. I’m sure she’ll call me back, I do hope so. She sounds very professional.

I want to ask whether Monster.com has accounted for the possibility that if some people take to posting/linking to the video they may have inadvertently created the potential for an altogether different kind of monster to raise its ugly head among the recruiting bloggers, and who knows where?  I mean, what if a lot of people started to post the video, or for neophytes like me, linked to it instead? This thing could get really big, you know, like really horrible. After all, we bloggers are very influential you know, we know crap when we see it. Some of us are well connected too.

Now, many would argue that Monster.com is not a totally crap product at all. Further reading of the blogs will attest to that, as would millions of satisfied users. But, as Mother used to say, “Handsome is as handsome does” and I’m sure we could say the same about crap behavior too, don’t you?

Anyway, in protest at this heavy-handed nonsense, as soon as I can find it, I am taking my resume down off Monster.com and posting it up on Joel Cheesman’s answer to every jobseekers prayer – Blogs With Jobs – as soon as I work out how to get it up there.

If nothing else, I learned what interstitial advertising is and already have a call in to my people to see how I can add this obtrusive – but clever – money-maker to my blog. Like Monster.com I guess, I take the view that my going to the bank trumps enhancing your online experience, forgive me please. It’s those persistent voices in my head, nagging, nagging, nagging.

Similarly nagging is the tagging going on all over the place as recruiting bloggers begin to buzz around Jason Goldberg and Jobster like worker bees making money-honey. That’s okay. In my efforts to create a profile – by way of investigative reporting of course – I unwittingly created yet another online persona where my peers now want to have me – the online, binary, digital me – as a “fan” or a “fave.” I can’t make out whether I‘m being asked for a signature or an autograph. It’s all so confusing. I’m just a blogging Baby Boomer, you know. An endorsement on LinkedIn would be fine. Really, I think it might be better. Any takers? Not impetuous enough?

Anyway, I’m flattered, y’all. One day I’ll get to tart-up my profiles on Jobster, LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, Jigsaw, and wherever so that I can better manage my personal brand avoiding, one hopes, the conflicting impressions created by inconsistent messaging across multiple social networks. Just for good measure, when I do it, I’ll give myself an MBA from some really swank university and maybe some previous experience raising billions of dollars for an obscure Web 2.0 start-up. You know, keeping it authentic.

In the meantime, to all of my fans and faves – don’t be discouraged by my slow response reciprocating your support. I will get around to it. It’s just that I’m going to be busy over the next few days getting my interstitial ads up.

The other day Jason Goldberg sent me an email from one of his handheld gadgets to update me on his disruptor plans, a “heads-up” he said. I am always amazed at how people will send me critically important communications and, just as I’m getting to the point of replying with the single question that will help me make sense of the universe, they have to board a plane, handheld gadgets turned off. Or, chase people with money. Whatever, no matter.

At Jason Goldberg’s suggestion I took a quick peak at Superstar Tags and immediately concluded that while the idea of tagging LinkedIn-look-a-likes-come-passive-candidates-and-wannabes might be considered kind of folksy by some of those who would automatically pooh-pooh this as nothing more than Web 2.0 [im]posturing, even so it is very clever idea. I like it, I don’t know why exactly, but no matter.

This morning Jason Goldberg published a simple post, recruiting bloggers. It reads: “know any recruiters who blog? here’s a good starting list.”

I followed the links thinking I was going to be redirected to the new group blog RecruitingBloggers.com but landed on a Superstar Tags page for recruiting bloggers. Disruptive thinking or cognitive dissonance? Bother! Naturally, I created my Jobster profile so that I could tag myself along with my contemporaries. Who wouldn’t? I even answered some of the questions that people who don’t know me personally would ask to get a measure of me as a potential hire. Questions like: “If your life could be made into a movie, which actress would play the part of your Mother?” To my horror – as happened with my carefully considered what does web 2.0 mean to you? submission – I played Jason Goldberg’s interactive blog-post game and nothing happened! Nothing at all! Zut!

I fear Jason Goldberg may have confused his “shaking things up” with our being “shaken not stirred.” No matter. There are more fundamental issues than my anticappointment that would need to be addressed long before this innovation in of itself could ever disrupt the online recruiting space. But, that is for another post on another day. In the meantime, go tag yourself. You may have better luck at it than me.

If one could offer Brad encouraging words of advice, what would they be? Mine would come by way of a sage who imparted much wisdom to me. He said, “Sell today, educate tomorrow”, and “No mutual mystification.” Those two things should serve him well at Jobster I think.

Good luck, Brad. We shall watch your selling with great interest.

Innocent perhaps, bland certainly, I noticed on the Recruiting.com live feed a one line question under the heading “lunch?” It simply read: “What are lunches like at your company?” To my surprise the link took me to Jobster’s blog and from there to a landing page where I was invited to become another grain of rice on Jason Goldberg’s dinner plate.

While I applaud the use of any means possible to draw attention to one’s fledging online adventures I am bound to ask: why not just put an ad on the sidebar to replace the curiously off-brand cartoon tile-ad? As the publisher presumably Jason Goldberg can run the ad for free. In the trade we call that “fill” or, in VC parlance, a “free lunch”.

I guess all this points to a simple truth: new money has no couth.