Office
in the Home
With
all the downsizing our industry has experienced over the last few years this
article should probably have been written at some point is the past but still,
working in the home is very common in our industry. Many recruiting
organizations that had a number of employees in commercial space are now down to
just themselves paying high rent and staring at empty desks. For those who feel
they could take advantage of a home office, even if you have rented space, I
hope the following information is helpful.
Office
Space – You need a space to call your own. If you have children at home during
the day, or at all, a separate office space is mandatory. You can’t have the
kids yelling in the dining room while you are on a call in the kitchen. You need
a space where you can close the door and go to work. It’s a mental thing.
Telephone
– If you are on your own, one line should be sufficient but again, separate
work from home. Get a separate line for your business where people can find you
in Directory Assistance if they need to. Also, check around, some of the smaller
local service providers will give you a line for under $20 per month.
Fax
– I can’t wait until there is no such thing anymore but I know that is
wishful thinking. We haven’t had a dedicated fax line in years and have used
an Internet-based service, Efax (www.efax.com)
for all this time. Besides being cheaper that a dedicated line, Efax sends me
all my incoming faxes in an email, so I have them on my hard drive for
reference. I can also use Efax to send outgoing faxes as long as the document is
on my hard drive. If I need to fax something hard copy I have to scan it to a
file, then fax out. An extra step but frankly, it is a rarity anymore when I
have to fax a hard copy of anything.
Computer
– Working at home or in outside space you need a workhorse, especially in
today’s email, electronic resume world. We all run email programs, Internet
browsers, databases, tools, and other programs all day long and you need a more
up to date machine to handle the software we use. I won’t get into specifics
but you can get a killer desktop pc faster than you can imagine for under $500.
High quality notebooks can be had for under $1000. Speaking of notebooks, no one
should be without one. You are also more mobile inside your home. If your
desktop pc is in your office and you want to work for a few hours out on the
back deck you will need a notebook to carry around with you.
Internet
– Dial-up is still very popular and can be had, still, for around $20 per
month but DSL or Cable is probably the way to go. These services are closer to
$40 per month. Not only do I like the speed compared to dial-up, it is always
on…there is no dialing…just boot up the browser and you are online. Another
big plus to DSL or Cable is that you can (for a reasonable professional fee)
have your home wired with networking jacks. Deck, kitchen, bedroom, put one
wherever you think you might want to park it for a few hours. Have your cordless
or cell phone nearby and you are in business.
Equipment
– Aside from the computer and telephone the most critical piece of office
equipment is an all-in-one printer. These devices are usually flatbeds that not
only can print, but can also scan documents and images for saving or faxing. Get
one that also acts as a copy machine and you have just saved yourself more
money.
Attitude
– I saved the most important thing for last. You can have all the equipment,
software, telephone lines and whatever that you want to in your home office but
if you do not have the right attitude about it you are sunk…don’t even try.
It takes enormous willpower at times not to be distracted by home-related issues
and you can’t let it happen. When you go in that office door each morning
pretend you are nowhere near your home. I advocate a home office at times not
because you can goof off more but so you can work more, be more productive, be
more flexible on your working hours. It is a lot easier to work at 10:00 pm from
you home office that it is from rented space miles away.
Working
from home is not for everyone. You have to be exceedingly money and/or success
motivated to be successful in that environment. For those of you that feel
comfortable with such a big step, give it a try someday and I bet you will wish
you had done it years ago.
I
thoroughly enjoyed reviewing another killer, first, best and only in class
product from Broadlook Technologies, BroadMail. I have written about several
Broadlook products this year so far as they just keep coming…one great program
after another. This won’t be a long review as there is simply not a lot to
write about BroadMail, which is part of the attraction for me. Simple/Easy =
Good.
BroadMail,
simply put, provides you with a continuous stream of electronic document
tracking and intelligence. I have written in this column before about your
ability to use your Outlook program, or other email client, to request a
notification be sent to you when that recipient opens/reads the email you sent.
BroadMail takes this service to an entire new level, and are the first to offer
a product to do this to the best of my knowledge. Have you ever wondered whether
an email you sent, be it a marketing letter or candidate’s resume, has been
read? Would there be any value to you, as a marketer, in knowing exactly when a
recipient has opened your email? If you had an important client that you sent a
lot of email to, would it be beneficial to you to develop an email reading
pattern for that person? For any marketer or recruiter the answer may be yes. If
so, read on.
BroadMail
is a simple Internet download that is installed on your local system. Once
installed, it keeps track of all your outgoing email and let’s you know the
minute the recipient reads the message. For a marketer, this would be your cue
to give the person a call, knowing he/she is at their desk reading your email.
This product is much better that the Read/Receipt feature in Outlook and it
works even when the recipient has his Read/Receipt feature turned off. It also
works with browser-based emails like AOL and MSN, which normally do not work
with the Outlook feature. Some of the features include:
The
interface is very simple and consists of two parts. One is the Dashboard, which
is a small text box that sits on your desktop that dings you whenever one of
your sent messages has been read. The other part is the Main Window, which keeps
a list of your outgoing emails along with statistics on which ones have been
read and how many times. The program also tracks whether the recipient has
clicked on any links inside the email message. Many people have links to their
web page or other Internet site on their messages. You can also get the IP
address of the recipient.
Both
myself and my business partner, John, tested this product for thirty days or so.
One of John’s comments was that he really like and found useful being able to
track the recipients viewing habits. He feels it is a valuable tool for
identifying how people respond to your emails and what priority they give it by
knowing the time lapse in their reactions. More on the marketing side of our
business, John used the feature a number of times to catch people at their desk
when he knew they were there.
One
of the more interesting features for me was to see how many times a person reads
my email. Some were read over 10 times. I wonder why. The program is not 100%
accurate at this time as there were some recipients that read emails I sent them
that were not acknowledged by BroadMail.
Of
note is the fact that attached to each outgoing message, out of common courtesy,
is a message certifying the message you are sending is being tracked by
BroadMail. Knowing that some people would not take kindly to having their email
reading habits tracked, you can turn the BroadMail tracking feature off whenever
you like. For ultra secrecy you can also turn off the certification message so
the recipient will not know you are tracking them. In the month I used the
program I did not have one recipient even ask about the certification, much
complain.
In
closing, I think both John and I are both sold on the benefits of BroadMail as a
great tool for both marketing and recruiting. Anyone doing much in the way of
email marketing or recruiting should take this product for a test drive. They
would offer a 30-day trial for the asking. Visit the Broadlook web site for
additional information on this or any of their other products. I want to thank
Andy Theimer, Creative Director at Broadlook Technologies for his assistance in
writing this article. Anyone wanting a trial or having any questions or comments
can reach Andy via voice at 262-754-8080 x210 or via email at atheimer@broadlook.com.
Press
Release – HotJobs
Straight
from the email:
June
29, 2004—New York, NY - Dedicated to
helping recruiters find the right one, Yahoo! HotJobs is expanding its product
portfolio with the release of its new Job Pack Desktop that enables recruiters
to purchase a package of job postings upfront and use them on an as needed basis
throughout the year. The Job Pack service is ideal for companies that want the
convenience of desktop recruiting tools, but hire for a limited number of
positions or have sporadic hiring needs throughout the year. The new services
has several benefits, including 60-day job postings and an easy-to-use job
formatting toolbar.
If
you are interested in learning more about Yahoo! HotJobs Job Pack service please
let me know and I would be more than happy to arrange a briefing for you with a
HotJobs executive. I (Maya
S. Lee) can be reached any time at
212-453-2317 or via email at leemay@fleishman.com. In the meantime, the full
release is below for your review. Thanks you for your time, and I look forward
to hearing from you.
TIP
Image
Searching
I
have written about this type of search before but not in at least a couple of
years. This search technique (with the correct keywords) searches for resumes
with specific embedded graphics. A good example is a computer networking person
that has his MCSE certification. Microsoft has a graphic (logo) that certified
individuals can download and place in their resumes. These resumes can be Word
docs, html pages or other types of documents. If you search for resumes that
contain this graphic then you are undoubtedly going to get resumes of networking
people that have obtained their MCSE, maybe just what you are looking for. With
all the cool tools out these days my Boolean is a bit rusty but I was able to
come up with this simple search I ran in AltaVisa (Advanced Search):
(title:resume
OR url:resume) AND (image:mcse OR image:microsoft certified systems engineer)
Got
back over 700,000 hits. Would probably use more keywords, geographics, not’s,
and/or other limiters at this point to pare it down but my point is it may be
worth your while to give this a try. Image
searching is not limited to IT/MIS recruiting as many professions have
certifications that allow graphical representation on resumes. HR, Accounting
along with IT/MIS all have some type of certification. Do some research on your
industry and give it a try.