Category: LinkedIN

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Morgan McKinley Enables Job Seekers To Apply With LinkedIn

Morgan McKinley is the first Irish recruitment company that have enabled job seekers to apply to their jobs via the Apply with LinkedIn plugin from LinkedIn. After talking to recruiters in Morgan McKinley they say that it does have a drawback because they do not get the applicant’s CV but just a link to the LinkedIn profile.

But Morgan McKinley might me one something much larger here actually. The Apply with LinkedIn button solves one problem that always puzzled me. And that was the applications from the mobile devices? Ireland mobile users are predominantly iPhone 4 users. And guess what – in the iPhone you cannot apply to a job on a web site. Uploading of a CV is not supported. So with all this tremendous growth of the mobile smartphone (or not so smart!?) web traffic the only conversion one could achieve is to make job seekers email themselves with a link to the job advertised, and deal with it later on, on the PC. And that we know is pure rubbish of a process. Having a button that sends a recruiter your LinkedIn profile instantly – and all that with a single click (well two actually) sounds much better to me.

Morgan McKinley being ranked as a second highest ranking recruitment agency in Ireland by Alexa has a significant traffic on their site. We are not talking hundreds a day any more for a long time now. There is most likely still a single digit percentage of the mobile visitors, but that will grow to double digit figure in the next year as well. Without the Apply with LinkedIn button – they would not get a single interaction from all those mobile users.

Well done Morgan McKinley!

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Career CV Database Internet Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Networks Social Recruitment

Rock bottom quality journalism from Silicon Republic

In the lovely article titled ‘UK tech companies fall behind US in social recruiting – survey’

Silicon Republic states:

US companies are ahead of their UK counterparts when it comes to using the web and social media to recruit new employees, new research from recruitment software provider Zartis suggests.
LinkedIn is the most popular social media network for recruitment, with one-quarter of US companies directly advertising job vacancies on the site, compared to 14pc of UK companies doing the same.

So what a Silicon Republic reader is let to believe is? Yes, you have guessed it right, and the title of the article have helped you: UK tech companies fall behind US in social recruiting.

The only fact in the whole article to back it up is that there is more top US companies advertising jobs on LinkedIn than in UK. So the conclusion that the UK companies fall behind US ones is based on the number of jobs advertised on LinkedIn.

The reason this is so sad is that it shows absolute lack of understanding what online recruitment on the social networks actually is from the author of the article from SiliconRepublic. Any recruiter that uses LinkedIn knows well that even the city with the largest number of recruiters in the World on LinkedIn is – guess what? London! The number of social recruitment conferences in London is as well greater (per capita) than in any other city in the world!

The truth is that the UK, as well as majority of the European recruiters know well that advertising jobs is the last thing to do on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a ‘Social Network’ not a ‘Jobs Board’. Making a statement that the UK recruiters are ‘falling behind’ based on the number of jobs posted is just very, very wrong.

The best will be in about a year’s time when the ‘Update’ to this statistics gets published with the update: ‘UK recruiters are catching up with the US’. That will be based on the increase of the number of jobs published on LinkedIn in UK next year. I am guessing SiliconRepublic will not see any connection on the LinkedIn sales staff numbers in UK in the increase of the number of jobs posted next year.

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Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment

Recruitment training is an on-going hot potato in Ireland. When in early 2006 one of the largest recruitment agencies in the country called me to deliver a training, I was flattered but in the same time shocked. It was true that I knew how to write a job spec so that it appears on top of the job boards. It was true that I knew how to search LinkedIn. I know I am a good trainer. But,… shouldn’t recruiters know all this already?! Why do they call themselves recruiters if they cannot attract or find candidates?

I spoke to a lot of recruiters while traveling and training them around the country, trying to find out what do they do about their training and coaching. Interestingly enough almost all of them told me they have some internal training programme. What was even more interesting no one thought them even the basics about writing for the web, or searching the web to source candidates. The web as such was not a part of the recruitment training in Ireland in 2006! Fast forward to present.

Today I got my certificate: Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment. And I am very proud of it! And I know that everyone who did a one day course with me to get the Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment certificate is valuing theirs as well! Why? We simply learned so much within a day that it was hard to take it all in.

Only a few years after there was NO training for any usage of the web for Irish Recruiters, there is all of a sudden something that is a world class recruitment sourcing training programme? For this to happen the following was needed:

1. Internet, and especially the social part of it – where everyone can publish. Blogs written by enthusiastic experts have change the way we learn.
2. Recession that have shaken up the recruitment industry so much that every recruitment agency or HR employers department had to rethink the way they do their business.
3. And the most important ingredient – a RECRUITER with a passion for recruitment and the web.

There is no better person that I know of that would do it better than Jonathan Campbell. An inspirational speaker, innovative recruiter and a patent trainer.

Do you know how to find all public profiles, see a full profile of every single LinkedIn user, know how to find his/her email address, and the same for blogs Facebook and twitter? You do? Well than the Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment course is not for you.

Do you publish your jobs on job boards and search the CV databases to find candidates? And are happy doing so? Then the Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment is NOT for you as well.

Jonathan’s Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment is for everyone else in between. And I can tell you I know very few recruiters that are in the first group who know it all already. On the other hand I know a lot of recruiters who are job board ONLY oriented. And happy to do so. I do understand that there are niches, and industries where that works well. I also know that there is less and less of those every single day.

If you are short of candidates there is nothing else currently available in Ireland that I would recommend better than Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment course. Why? You WILL learn to find ANY candidate that has left his professional footprint anywhere on the web.

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Review: LinkedIn Job Seeker Account Upgrade

LinkedIn is the No. 1 Recruitment Social Recruitment Network in the world. That is the fact. There is no one in the recruitment social networking space that managed to do anything similar on the global space. And there is no shortage of well-funded start-ups who would love to take a bite at that business. When you think online social recruitment – you think of LinkedIn.

I tested the paid Job Seeker Account in the last 30 days, and published my findings in the blog post at the Irish Recruiter blog on LinkedIn Job Seeker Account.

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Internet LinkedIN Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment

CIPD, Irish Recruiters, Irish Times Training… is it all made so confusing on purpose?

Recruitment training was always an issue really in Ireland.
The HR courses had to cover for it and the in house training would fill the
gaps and bring recruiters up to date with the current industry trends. Then
last year we finally got a recruitment specific training with the Irish Times
Training centre. There is a basic and advanced course available and the courses
are branded as a delivered in conjunction with CIPD. In all the social media
both those courses are advertised as a CIPD courses. Jet somehow on the CIPD.ie
web site there is no mention of them. I short call to the friendly staff in
CIPD reveals the following:

 

CIPD is the body that validates the courses in the HR arena.
The list of CIPD Centres in Ireland can be found on the CIPD.ie site (Choose from
the menu: Qualification : > Search for a entre > Ireland). What you will
find out there is that CIPD has absolutely no connection with the courses Irish
Times Training is offering.

Here is the text that announces those courses:

Certified Social Media Recruiter (CSMR):

“A very welcome addition to the
Irish recruitment industry …” Michael McDonnell, CEO, CIPD

Course takes place on Monday and
Wednesday evenings from 6pm to 9pm: 28th & 30th March 2011

In association with CIPD and
Irish Recruiters, this one day course is aimed at individuals who have
completed the Certified Internet Recruiter course. It will give participants
examples and techniques currently being used by recruiters around the world as part
of their recruitment strategies. It will demonstrate the power of the blog and
is packed full of information about how best to harness these tools to increase
productivity.

Special rate of €499 for The
Irish Recruiters Annual Members

Course Benefits:

Participants
will get practical recommendations on how to form a social media team, charter,
policy and strategy. Participants can elect to take a 30 minute online test, to
gain accreditation.

Course Outline:

  • Individual comprehensive tool kit and guide
  • Copy of the Irish Recruiter’s Social Media
    Cheat Sheet helping you apply your new found techniques
  • More in-depth understanding of advanced
    features of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
  • Understanding of social media applications
    that can give you the edge
  • An understanding of how recruiting via social
    media is evolving
  • An understanding of how location based
    technologies are bringing social media to an entirely new platform.
  • Knowledge of the key metrics when deciding on
    social media recruitment

See related programmes in this
stable that lead to Certification as an Irish Internet Recruiter (CIIR)

Location: Irish Times Training, The Irish
Times Building, 24 – 28 Tara Street, Dublin 2

In conjunction with Irish
Recruiters & CIPD

 

Advanced Certified Internet Recruiter (ACIR)

In association with CIPD and
Irish Recruiters, this evening course is aimed at the senior recruiter and
those who have completed the Certified Internet Recruiter (CIR). The course
will look at Boolean strings and automation while delving into new techniques
when sourcing candidates internationally. It will also look at diversity
recruitment through to RSS feed creation.

Special rate of €499 for The
Irish Recruiters Annual Members.

This course takes place on monday
and Wednesday evenings from 6-9pm: 7th & 9th February, 21st & 23rd March, 9th
& 11th May

Course Benefits:

Participants will master current industry best practice, investigate future
recruitment trends while gaining productivity techniques to bolster their
sourcing and social media strategies. Participants can elect to take a 30
minute online test, to gain accreditation.

Course Outline:

  • Individual comprehensive tool kit and guide
  • Advanced Search Syntax
  • Proximity Searching
  • Email address raiding
  • Advanced Google Sourcing
  • Irish Recruiter’s favourite Productivity Tools
    and Techniques
  • Advanced Anatomy of “Locators”
  • RSS techniques
  • Advanced Twitter techniques
  • Capturing techniques
  • A look at people search engines
  • Learn about “slashing”
  • The future of search

See related programmes in this
stable that lead to Certification as an Irish Internet Recruiter (CIIR)

In conjunction with Irish
Recruiters & CIPD

Did Irish Time Training went a bit too far on mentioning
CIPD all over their course advertisement while the courses themselves are not
CIPD validated? You be the judge of it yourself.

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Career Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment

What is the No.1 job board / search engine you use to search for jobs?

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LinkedIn Skills – SEO of your Profile!

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Career Internet Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Networks Social Recruitment

Interview: Ellie Doyle on how digital is changing the recruitment industry

Ellie Doyle from Pentasia Recruitment talks about how digital is changing the face of the recruitment industry regarding candidates online presence and potential employers expectations.

Ellie Doyle in her own words is a Digital and interactive recruiter running the Dublin office of Pentasia. Where she does headhunting and recruitment for ecommerce, online and interactive gaming which is a huge industry in Ireland.

How is digital effecting the recruitment industry?

It made my job an awful lot easier. Everything from LinkedIN being recruiters best friend, a free database as such, to being able to look at peoples blogs, you can really sound out the candidate, before you have even met them, before you have approach them, just by what’s on the web. Which is why it’s important to use it correctly if you are a candidate.

For candidates:

People really need to be careful about what the y do and they don’t put online. There is stuff you would want a potential dream employer of yours to see. Get that online. The other personal stuff, go on an do what you want in your social life, but keep it on Facebook private profile. From a candidate point of view it can be such a good asset, but you have to get a right mix of what’s out in the public domain and what you keep private.

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Irish Recruiters on LinkedIn

A truly funny story happened to me this morning. I had a nice presentation on the International Recruitment Conference on Friday. As you know me, I take pictures. Pictures of people. Wherever I go. I actually become known for it lately. Whenever I meet people on conferences, if I do not post pictures the next day, my mailbox will always have a few messages asking if or when and where will the pictures be published (finally!!!)? People like to see themselves and chats always start around the photos. It is in a way a social networking in pictures. There is lots of fun that emerged from my snapshots! I enjoy taking them, and people are always looking for them and asking for a high res version to reuse them somewhere else. I gladly give them away. I feel happy when I manage to make others happy.

But there is one who I do not make happy. Actually not happy at all with my pictures. I first noticed it today, and I simply could not believe it. Here is a full story.

After presenting about Social Networking in Recruitment, and participating in on the really good conference last week, I was looking forward to publish the photographs I made. And again, I didn’t even manage to upload them all this morning, and the colleagues started calling me, and the conference organiser as well, asking when will the photos be published since people are asking them for the copy! I speeded it up and published them all on my blog here. I tweeted it, and put on my LinkedIn profile, and in the relevant Irish Recruitment groups of LinkedIn where I am a member.

Mails are coming, and comments and fun begins.

Well one person was not happy. That is the moderator of the LinkedIN Group called Irish Recruiters. My announcement of the photographs published was swiftly removed from the ‘conversation’. My first thought was that I didn’t manage to publish it, clicked something wrong, or LinkedIn ha a bug?

Well the fact is that that the moderator of the group simply removed it. I used a search to look for my other contributions to the group discussions and found out what? All of my contributions, all my questions, comments and answers – all is removed from the group. All that I wrote in about the last year. Some old ones are still there.

The Irish Recruiters group on LinkedIn is really heavily policed and censored by the moderator. In my understanding of the Social Networks the conversations should be open as opposed to be censored. If you cannot tolerate contributions that are not praising your services, is it really the best thing to do just to delete them? And put a head in the sand trying to ignore there is a different opinion than yours out there? Social media cannot be controlled. That is the power of it! One cannot have a Irish Recruiters group on LinkedIn and allow only the contribution to the conversation he or she likes, since it sells his or hers service.

Irish Recruiters group on LinkedIn is really the bad example of the social media strategy. Incapacity to deal with issues forces the moderator to delete conversations as opposed to tune in and contribute himself. It really is damaging the for the recruitment industry, since it gives misleading snapshot of the topics and issues covered by the Irish recruiters.

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Facebook or Print ads?

Ivan Andrija Stojanovic, Head of Online, CPL Osijek CroatiaWill you advertise on Facebook or in the traditional proven media like newspapers or radio?

I was talking to some postgraduate business and IT students (Overeducated and under experienced for Jobs of tomorrow) and asked them who has the Facebook account. I wanted to show how deep the Facebook penetration actually is. I got more hands up than that I could count. So I reversed the question – and asked who doesn’t have or didn’t use his Facebook account in the last week. I have 3 hands up. In the group of 80 people.

I asked them if they bought papers (any papers) in the last 7 days. Two bought local classified advertising paper looking for flats to rent. One bought photo magazine and one other bout a gardening magazine. Same 80 people.

All are postgraduate students, and all are looking at the job market. All are exactly those you will want to target with your jobs advertisements. So where will you advertise?

To look into it even further – the question is how will you actually advertise there. Facebook and LinkedIN will gladly take your money. Since those are ‘Cash Hungry’ businesses. Twitter and most other social networks do not provide a facility where you can just bluntly dump your advertising budget. It is a known fact that the proper ‘usage’ of a social networking site will give you far better results that advertising on the same site. Painfully small is a list of jobs filled from the advertisements on Facebook or LinkedIN. The way one sources the candies from the Social Networking sites is by constant branding, inbound marketing, networking – all the opposites from classical advertising.

Facebook seems like the best place to invest 90% of your recruitment marketing budget from todays perspective. Tomorrow? Ahh… it will probably change again… Just remember, it will never be the same as it once was, and the wheel will never start turning back. Where you will invest next year, is most likely into something that does not even exist today.

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LinkedIn 2010

The following series of articles I will write about the long list of changes LinkedIn have brought in lately, and how does it all reflect the recruitment process in Ireland. The main topics are:
• Free Job Advertising by LinkedIn
• Paid Job Seeker Account on LinkedIn
• Why Would I Pay LinkedIn?
• LinkedIn Future – Advertising Platform

If there is any topic in relation to LinkedIn you think I missed – please let me know in the comments from below, and I will do my best to include it.

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Internet Job Site LinkedIN Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment

LinkedIn Future – Advertising Platform

I have spent most of the last week with Facebook and Google in their fancy Dublin offices. One word I have been hearing over and over: Maximize. They used the word Maximize in every second sentence. It is absolutely unbelievable on how many places you can put that word and almost not lose the meaning of what you are talking about. It reminded me of the Supersize Me a bit, and sometimes I just had to apologize because I started laughing laud (lol).

If you think about the top companies that are ‘in’ lately, we are talking about the (Google) search engine turned into the advertising platform. Social Networking Web Site (Facebook) turning into the advertising platform. Computer company (Apple) turning into mobile phone (iPhone) company turning into the advertising platform (App Store).

The common denominator is the Advertising Platform. Hence the more time you can say Maximize in describing your products and services the better chance of success in the modern economy.

So how can LinkedIn Maximize?
Maximize your Employer Branding – Company Page on LinkedIn
Maximize yourself as a job seeker – Paid Job Seeker Account

Somehow I do not think it is enough. LinkedIn will have to think of more places and times they can put the medical word Maximize in their lingo. To thrive they need to become an advertising platform of some sort. There is no other way up the food chain.

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Career CV Database Job Site LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Why Would I Pay LinkedIn?

The service I would gladly pay LinkedIn to do for my today is to do the sourcing for myself. What they did is they have created this wonderful social network, and it is super easy to use, and has so many job hunters on their database. I can use it for free, or I can pay to use advanced features. LinkedIn is really easy to use, and a great product in a whole.

But guess what – I am a busy recruiter. I have no time to spend on web sites. I have my clients and candidates I need to put together to fill roles. So since you have all those nice sourcing tools, and large database, why don’t you do the sourcing for me and I will give you a cut of my placement fee? That is something I would pay LinkedIn to do for me today.

Unfortunately LinkedIn is not jet on that stage of a development as a company. They still think – we are the internet company, we have a web site and charge the usage of it. Just compare it with Google for example. Google was exactly like that years ago. There was just a form to place your credit card details and pay for your Google AdWords ads. All you had to do yourself on the Google site. Today – you tell them what your business needs are, and Google does it all for you. They charge you of course for all that, but they are higher in the food chain now. They work closely with the customer. They look after you. They give you what you need. If you look at the titles of numerous opening Facebook has in Dublin – they are doing exactly the same. Hundreds of Account managers will be available to you.

And where is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is still a few years behind in their business model. They still think they can ask for your credit card without talking to you. They still think they are there to provide tools as opposed an overall service – and just do your sourcing for you.

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Paid Job Seeker Account on LinkedIn

Dara O’Briain defined how wrong one can be in the eyes of the Irish low as:
1. there is all this stuff which comes under: That’s grand
2. then it moves into: Ah now don’t push it
3. … and finally it comes under: Right now you’re takin the piss, and that’s when the police come in.

LinkedIn is also placing the job seekers in three categories and offering a product for each. If you are looking for a job you should pay different fee based on how desperately you feel:
1. Basic Job Seeker
2. Job Seeker
3. Job Seeker Plus

What those get you is that you: Get noticed by recruiters with a Job Seeker Badge. And you can send some from 0 to 10 LinkedIn messages called inMails to other LinkedIn members.

Large numbers of us Irish feel a bit strange with this public display of interest in another job that you present with your profile on LinkedIn. In the US, people are in fact far more honest on the labor market. The size makes a difference, and Americans are far more mobile within the country. The way we are is we are looking for a job close to where we live. A Cork-man will hardly even contemplate to move to Limerick just because there is a better job there. Americans would move thousands of miles away easily for a better opportunity. So when social media comes into play where you publicly state your intentions (and what you feel about your current employer), we have a problem here. Everyone knows everyone, and have a cousin that knows someone, etc. So the job seekers accounts in Ireland can actually be looked in Dara’s classification as well. This time it is a classification of a job seeker – how badly do you want a (new) job? LinkedIn accounts here should be renamed as:
1. Basic Account (just paying and faking I am not looking!) – I am grand.
2. Job Seeker (coming out aren’t we?) – Don’t push it!
3. Plus- Right now you’re takin the piss, and that’s when the HR come in!

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Free Job Advertising on LinkedIn

Well, we all know that job advertising on LinkedIn is for most of us, far from free. With a lack of a volume discount that is the industry standard in within job board, LinkedIn actually priced themselves far too high. For that reason, the number of job advertisements sold in Europe was always really symbolic. It was always just a handful US multinationals with jobs in Ireland advertised.

LinkedIn decided to give away free job advertisement to recruiters. They know the ‘First Time Free, Pay Later’ model only too well. Remember, for a number of years, LinkedIn was 100% free to anyone. Only in the last couple years they brought in the paid LinkedIn Recruiter product, than all the different paid types of the accounts as well. The move I personally really never liked – the paid account to the job hunters is now available on LinkedIn. I just never liked asking unemployed for cash, to help them find a job. Regardless if you call it unethical, or just super greedy, in my books it is just bad.

So how will the free job advertising on LinkedIn change the recruiters life?
If you did not get your free LinkedIn job advertising slot – ask for it. There is plenty of Irish LinkedIn staff fairly active on LinkedIn itself, so get connected, and ask for free slots.

When you publish your jobs on LinkedIn, and I will cover that topic later on it this LinkedIn series – How to publish a Job on LinkedIn? You will notice that only a certain jobs in Ireland can be filled via the LinkedIn. Do some research before – since publishing a wrong type of a job on LinkedIn is exactly the same as publishing a CEO job on Jobs.ie (a.k.a Nixers.ie).
But the real problem will actually happen if you do manage to hire via paid job advertisement on LinkedIn. You will want to advertise again – and the far too high advertising price by LinkedIn will stop you.
The only way for recruiters ‘Friendship’ with LinkedIn going forward is if LinkedIn gets a bit smarter and creates a super low cost entry level Recruiter package. To get recruiters used to pay a small nominal fee and upsell from there. The current jump from Free to Paid product for the recruiters is too high for LinkedIn’s product to be considered as a ‘Freemium’ offering.
Would you pay LinkedIn in the PPC model (clicks on your ads to jobs)? YES!
Would you pay LinkedIn in the PPA model (per CV received)? YES!
Aren’t those the super low cost, and tight budget control products? Didn’t that exactly built Google into the largest advertising agency (and platform) in the world in the shortest timeframe possible?
So here is an open letter:

Deal LinkedIn,

Stop taking money from job hunters, and get to business. Just implement the appropriate business model used by all eh market leaders in online advertising –Google and fast growing Facebook. We will all be far more interested to be placed in the control seat, and monitor our budgets in some PPC or PPA model than purchasing an unknown value – Job Slot Advertisement. Your current model is a showstopper. PPC model will be embraced instantly by far larger number of potential customers (recruiters and employers), so instant cash flow, and in the end will also bring in far higher revenue than your job slot or job credit advertising model.

Yours truly,
Irish Recruiter
irishrecruiter@gmail.com

Small note on the article of this article
To write successfully for the web you have to put something extremely catchy in the title. Most likely something that is not really ehm,… true. You need to make sure your title is so intriguing people will click on it to follow the link and land on your article. Hence the title of this article is:
Free Job Advertising by LinkedInAs opposed to what the article is really about:
LinkedIn Have sent a number of free job slot advertisements to a few recruiters in Ireland.
You are far likely to click on something like free job ads by a leading global recruitment social network – especially if you are a recruiter – which this article is for!