I’ve
always spoken highly of AIRS training – it has become the industry standard
for Internet recruiter training. The AIRS Source Book 2000 yet again sets the standard for
excellence. Clearly a lot of time,
money, and good thinking went into the production. Who should read this book?
Agency owners will find the book useful to understand the Internet
recruiting business. Researchers
will find the book a great desktop reference.
If you can’t attend an AIRS seminar and want to learn Internet
recruiting, you MUST own this book!
The
chapters include: Traditional Hunting Grounds, Virtual Communities, Internet
Service Providers, Search Engines I, II & III, Meta-Search Tools, Online
Service Providers, and Discussion Groups I & II.
A brief description of each chapter follows:
Traditional
Hunting Grounds lays out the history of the career hubs, the prevailing business
model, and a pretty thorough job of analyzing various career hub business models
from the employer’s and the candidate’s perspective.
There is a great section on how to evaluate and select which career hub
is right for your company.
Virtual
Communities examines the business model of leaders in the rapidly growing world
of sites offering free home pages and email.
AIRS does a phenomenal job of laying out the value proposition to
recruiters and follows up with specific examples, including screen shots, of how
to exploit the opportunity in each of the leading virtual communities.
The
chapter on Internet Service Providers and Lookups exposes you to millions more
home pages and resumes – from examining the business model to step-by-step
instruction and screen shots on how to get the candidates you need.
This is a great section for recruiters who are searching for candidates
in a specific city.
Search
Engines I covers the basics of how search engines work, which ones are the best
for various purposes, a good chart of Boolean logic at a glance, field searches
(hint – at my day job, almost all my searches use field searches), and a
review of the AIRSware Toolbar.
Search
Engines II talks about the nuts and bolts of doing a search project, beginning
with planning your search. This is
a difficult concept for many recruiters who, like many programmers, just want to
dive in and start coding. A good
plan will ensure your success. The
chapter includes specific examples of how to write searches for specific job
openings and wraps up with a good overview of two search engines: AltaVista, and
Snap.
Search
Engines III looks at more search engines – Infoseek, Northern Light, and
HotBot, including tips, and detailed instructions on power searching.
Meta-Search
Tools starts off to define what a meta-search tool is and the two types:
meta-search engines and meta-search applications.
The meta-search engines the chapter reviews are Dogpile, Savvy Search,
Mamma, MetaCrawler, and ProFusion. Again,
screen shots are included and each engine is rated on strengths and weaknesses.
Offline Meta-Search Tools or Desktop Applications are defined, including
a guide to how to select a tool to use (ease of use, price, number of engines,
ability to add sites, Boolean search, removes duplicates, updates searches, and
scheduler). Applications reviewed
include: BullsEye, Copernic, and WebFerret, with the strengths and weaknesses of
each.
The
chapter on Online Service Providers or OSPs reviews the business model, the key
players, and offers specific reviews on America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, and
Microsoft Network. The analysis will save you hours and hours of effort.
Discussion
Groups I focuses on Newsgroups, Forums & Mailing Lists.
I was pleased to see AIRS reiterate the prohibition I’ve written in The
Fordyce Letter regarding Newsgroups: “Don’t Post Jobs in Discussion
Groups!” AIRS does a detailed analysis of Forums – what they are and
how to find the right ones.
Discussion
Groups II looks at ListServe or mailing lists: How to find the right ones, How
to subscribe, How to get the names and email addresses of the people subscribed
to the list, how to find archives – with screen shots, examples and answers to
common questions recruiters ask. There
is a brief section on “Making Contact” that covers suggested text for the
initial email to a prospect. CAUTION
– as I wrote in last month’s Fordyce Letter, new laws have hit the books
regarding email messages. Your
failure to understand and comply with them could cost you lots of time and money
– AIRS does not discuss these laws in this edition of the Search Guide.
Make sure you know what you are doing or hire someone who does before you
send off a bulk email message!
The
Search Guide has a section at the end of each chapter showing you how to
integrate the tools covered into the AIRSware Toolbar (a customized browser you
can download from the AIRS Web site: http://www.airsdirectory.com.
Pricing
is below – substantial discounts are available to AIRS alumni:
$695
(Annual Subscription rate - must be paid in advance)
$199 Set-up Fee/$59 Issue (Per Issue rate - must pay by Credit Card)
$595 (Alumni Annual Subscription rate - must be paid in advance)
$99 Set-up Fee/$59 Issue (Alumni Per Issue rate - must pay by Credit Card)
Conclusion
– A great product and a great price. Buy
it.
A
PREVIEW OF THINGS TO COME - STEP ONE - THE BIG DECISION
I
am sometimes jealous of my esteemed co-author Wade because his knowledge of
advanced Internet recruiting techniques puts mine to shame. Wade is a true
‘Internet Recruiter’ in my way of thinking. Something I am not now or likely
ever will be. Our day jobs are very different so he often writes about real-life
Internet recruiting situations. I don’t write about my day job much like Wade
does, as, at work, I am more an Internet recruiting strategist than Internet
recruiter. I decide the direction for my company, the products we buy, the
services we use, the way responses are handled in the company, etc., etc.
Putting it another way, I am the person at our company that decides the best way
to make money from the Internet. I am pleased now that I feel I really have
something to share with you. You don’t get much more real-life that this. I am
embarking on an adventure that I will be sharing with you every step of the way.
I
have previously written in this column about Internet-based database
applications. Both RecruitMax and APS have received glowing reviews in this
space. My firm, Berger/Nowlin, Inc., has now made a decision to put our 18,000
record, MS/Access database on the Internet. I have been thinking about doing
this for some time now but have been too chicken to do anything about it.
Our
situation is like this…we have been using our Access database since the early
nineties. I developed it myself and it has served us well all this time. It is
extremely easy to use and, most importantly, keeps excellent track of our
candidates, job orders, interviews and placements. The downside is Access is
generally slow and, although networked, it is not a true client/server system.
We now have 6 full-time users on our Windows95/98 peer-to-peer network.
Compounding the problem, it is difficult for the staff to get database access
from their homes except by using PC/Anywhere, an excellent but slow method of
remote control. Did I mention only one person can dial in at a time. We have now
hired a full-time telecommuting recruiter that needs basically full-time dial up
access to our office.
We
investigated upgrading our existing database to SQL/Server. We would have had to
purchase Windows/NT and SQL/Server software (with the appropriate user licenses)
for probably a couple of thousand dollars plus new hardware for another couple
of thousand dollars (cringe). We would then have had to install multiple phone
lines and modem cards in the server to allow multiple, simultaneous connections
(cringe 2). Finally, we would then be reliant on professional networking
consultants whenever we had problems (deal killer).
We
investigated purchasing another recruiting software package. We looked at
several. These packages were great and did a lot more than the database we are
currently using. Unfortunately, many times the cost was more than we were
willing to pay or felt the product was worth, there were additional charges for
support, additional charges for networking and additional charges for upgrading.
A few of them required the same deal-killing hardware/software upgrades
mentioned previously. It is also sometimes difficult to customize these packaged
products for your specific business.
We
also investigated developing a new custom-developed recruiting software package
and actually sat in on a couple of meetings with other recruiting companies that
would have cooperatively shared the cost. We decided against that as well. There
would have been several thousand dollars in start up development costs and
additional recurring costs for upgrades and support. We would have also had the
same problem with hardware/software upgrades and dial-up support.
As
you see, we have spent some time investigating the best way to approach
information or contact management at our firm. Although we were and still are
fairly happy with our current software, we knew change was inevitable…more
people working evenings from home instead of the office…telecommuters. It took
quite some time to learn what our needs really are. We then fully investigated
the marketplace for availability of products or services that most closely
matched our needs.
For
our needs we chose Sendouts.Com for several reasons but not because I think
Sendouts.Com offers a better service that their competitors…it is way too
early to tell and although I have written about the competition I have never
used another Internet-based database.
One
reason we chose them is that they are still in the beta test stage. Yes, there
is more potential for aggravation at this stage but we would also have a greater
influence on the finished product. We will use the beta version, make comments,
and encourage changes that we feel would benefit everyone.
Another
reason we chose them is that their offices are based here in St. Louis, where I
am also located. Although this would not be a necessity, it is somewhat
comforting to me that their offices are right down the road from mine.
In
general, we chose an Internet-based service for the following reasons. There is
no local software installations, upgrades, or networking issues. We will
continue to access the database from our desktops but by using our browser and
logging onto an Internet site. Also, we will all be able to access our data from
work or home…perfect for those big-billers that work a couple of evenings a
week. They can work from home now. Our new telecommuter will also have real-time
access to our database and be a closer part of our team. I predict that if this
works out we will be able to hire recruiters for our staff that live in other
cities.
Finally,
to be as honest with everyone as I can, I have a personal friend…someone I
worked with years ago, that is associated with this organization who encouraged
me to investigate this service and meet with their principals to discuss my firm
becoming one of their beta testers.
I
envision a running a series of four articles…The Decision Making Process (what
you have just read)…The Implementation (this would involve the process of
converting our data, training all of our users, etc.)…The Trial Run (would
write about actually using the product for 30 days or so)…and Wrap Up (where
we make the final decision whether we made the right decision and why).
Yes,
we have made the decision and a big one it was. The staff was somewhat excited
but also leery of any changes. Let’s face it…at our office we live and die
by our database. Every one of us has it open all day every day…looking up
numbers, adding contacts, keeping track of interviews, etc. Did I say all day
every day? When our database is down…we are down and might as well go home. I
always tell my candidates not to let fear of change itself keep you from a good
opportunity so I am following my own advice and taking the leap.
Watch
for Step 2 next month.
JOBWAREHOUSE.COM
Received
a cold call recently from a representative of JobWarehouse.Com. He had evidently
got my name via my RON membership and was calling to interest me in his IT
related Internet resume database service ala Headhunter, ComputerJobs, etc. I
was not necessarily in the market for a new service but if I have a spare
moment, am always willing to check something out.
I
was given a brief demo, signed up for a user name and password and received a
one week free trial. I am normally most interested in candidates from the St.
Louis area. Whenever checking out a new service I always run searches that
result in as many local candidates as possible, which is what I did here as
well. I ran my standard local-candidate search and got 40 hits. Not bad.
For
the purposes of this article I ran a few nationwide searches with common MIS/IT
keywords. Results are as follows:
cobol
2119
unix
3559
visual
AND basic
2726
It
seems; at least they offer a decent number of hits per search. I am told they
offer a job database as well but was unable to fully investigate this part of
their service during the trial period. I am not certain at this time if I will
become a user of this service but I feel it is worthy of investigation for any
IT/MIS recruiter seeking this type of service.
For information on their service, free trial or pricing you can contact Bryan Barber at bryan@jobwarehouse.com or call him at (407) 649-1224 ext. 22.
TIP
OF THE MONTH
Virtual
Communities: Did you know that there are more resumes in virtual communities
than in all the monster.com and other career hubs put together?
You can get to the resumes by searching for resumes or home pages within
their community menus. To save
time, you can X-Ray the communities using a search engine to get the kind of
resumes you want to see in the locations you want to get them from (Why look at
a Java programmer in Detroit for a “local-only” job order in Denver?). The same Boolean logic is used here as in all
other searches. The trick is
knowing where the communities are. Searching
the Web for “free home page” will find them, or you can save a lot of time
and visit the AIRS web site: http://www.airsdirectory.com/people/offthebeatenpath/communities.html,
for a pretty good listing of communities. Two
examples to get you thinking about the quality of Boolean you write and how it
affects your results: