For the first time in several years I’ve put my recruiting hat on.  Broadlook is expanding and we need to hire about 10 people.  I decided to get in on the ground floor and do the initial outreach to prospective candidates.

Here is what I observed:

The general professionalism of the better candidates was…better.  Does this seem obvious?  Possibly, but what I am talking about is simple things like voicemails and formats of email addresses.

Emails: One of the emails contained the following:  DaddySpankU@(email domain.com). This was in application for a Director level position.  The resume contained the minimum level of experience, but I had to ask myself, “what is this persons level of professionalism?”.  In the end, I don’t care, I’m not going to roll the dice with this person.

Voicemail recordings: Next, I called a candidate and got a voicemail with dogs barking, an obvious party going on in the background.  Again, not professional.   BTW, he also sounded as if he had at least a six pack in him, slurring his words.

Poor Voicemail message: “Yeah, high um, I like got your message and I ahh will send you my resume…. blah blah blah”.   Message deleted.

Voicemail message with no recording:  “You have reached the voicemail number 414-555-1212…etc”.  My goodness, if you are applying for a sales or customer facing position, record a voicemail so people know they are talking to. I want to hear how professional you sound.

Funny voicemail: “If you are driving or over 30 send me an email later.  If you are under 30, send me a text message”.  I liked this guy.  Shows some personality and that is better than an “UM,  Er, Ah, speaking dolt”.   Sales reps should have personality.

Facebook pages: I don’t care if you have a tattoo on your ass.  But putting it as your *Profile* photo on Facebook is a bad choice.  This lady did not get a call.  Ok, nice photo, but I don’t want you representing my company.  Mrs. politically correct in Human Resources may tell you different that you can’t be discriminated against due to something on your Facebook page.  Reality: your application will be deleted and you will never find out why.  No call.  No job.  No explanation.

Regarding your resume.  For the experienced people… dates like 2010-2011 is a huge red flag.  That could be December 2010-Jan 2011.  Fill in all dates.  Good interviewers will ask you to account for all dates and gaps in your work history.  Did you take a 4 months off to travel Europe?  Don’t hide it.  This is a positive thing. What did you learn and grow from it?

Don’t lie.  You will get caught and there is no excuse.  In the first 10 phone interviews, I caught a few people in lies.  The interview immediately ended.  People lie about stupid things.

Example:

“I made $55,000 last year. ”

“Are you sure about that”,  I ask

“Yes.  It might have been a little more.”  (then I got a detailed description of the compensation).

I interjected.  “You do understand that we require copies of your last 3 years of W2 to verify past compensation”.

Pause… then. “Ok, then I only made $45,000 last year”.

“So you lied to me”.  I stated

“I just really wanted the job”.

I terminated the interview.  This is something that he should have learned in Kindergarten.  Funny thing is that his skills would have commanded the $55,000 he was looking for.

What it all comes down to empathy.  Job Applicants need to understand how each and every way you interact with a potential employer looks to the employer. Here are some take-aways.  There are many articles and tips and what to do and not to do.  Here are some of my pet-peeves.

• Have a professional email address.  DormStalker@gmail.com  FAIL.  Try something like First.Last@something.com
• Have a clear voicemail message. If your message includes “Um”,  “Er”, “Ah”, “you know”,  “like” (at the start of every sentence),  then re-record it.
• Fill in all dates on your resume.  If there is a gap, explain that gap.
• Spelling mistakes on a resume.  Have a friend proof-read it.  Yeah, I’m awful, but I have a job
• Unless you are prepared to forge W-2′s Don’t lie about compensation.  You will get caught when you are asked for proof.
• Do what you say you will do.  Return calls when you promise, send paperwork, etc.  Failing in what is required in the job application process is a huge red flag.
• Don’t treat my assistant rudely.  She has a copy of your resume and will write notes about how you engage her.  She is interviewing you too!
• Don’t lie.  What you think is important may not be.  Job applicants lie about the stupidest things.

After about 2 years of talking about this topic, I thought it best to collect some solid data before doing an official blog about it.

LinkedIn is not a social network.

A thing is defined by it’s major attribute.  While LinkedIn has aspects of a social network, it is actually a social database.

Hey Donato…But they say they are a social network!

In the early days they were.  As the network grew, savvy users realized they needed to grow their networks as large as possible to spread their reach.  In polls done over the last year in live webinars, I’ve asked groups ranging from 200-600 how they use LinkedIn.  Here are the questions and the responses.

1.  I get as many connections as possible and figure out how to contact people directly.

2. I use LinkedIn to as it was meant.  Connect with people through a series of connections.

3.  I don’t use LinkedIn.

69% of people choose option 1. Last year, it was only 50%. The trend is growing and…

LinkedIn is a social database.

Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Clayton always does a great job of asking me questions that get me charged up.  Here is the interview from the HR Technology conference.

The Single Point of Truth: Broadlook Technologies Takes a Big Move Towards the Cloud

"With CRM Shield, we are solving the actual disease of dirty data" Donato Diorio

Donato Diorio

Welcome to our continuing coverage from HR Tech in Chicago. Donato Diorio is a pioneer in the field of Internet research. As software architect and the owner of a top billing placement firm, Donato envisioned applications that could automate many of the most time-consuming research functions performed by his recruiters. With the assistance of a team of developers, Donato created a series of innovative tools that immediately impacted revenue for his firm. It didn’t take long to realize the potential of these applications beyond the scope of internal use, and in 2001, Broadlook Technologies was born.

"Linkedin is not a social network. Linkedin is a social database."

Stay tuned… a complete transcript of Donato’s podcast coming soon!

My blog is about “what keeps me up at night”.  For people that never read my blog,  they get the impression that these things are things that worry me.  It couldn’t be more opposite.  It is the passion and excitment about a new idea, new opportunity and new potential that keeps me up at night.

Last night, I tossed and turned with that excitement.  Hearing the new president elect Barack Obama speaking on the theme of “Yes we can” last night resonated with me.  I was moved.   “Yes we can” is at the core of American innovation.  The same curiosity that pushed our manifest destination to expand from ocean to ocean is core American.   I’m looking forward to seeing our country move forward with an intense curiousity which was void in the last administration.  Intense curiosity makes you ask “why not” when you start to realize what the possibilities are.   If enough bright people as “why not”,  soon people are believing in “yes we can”  vs. just saying it.   I’ve always believed we can.

I’m thinking that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in yes we can.  Nearly half a century later,  the majority of Americans truly accepted a man by the “content of his character”, not just to be a friend or acquaintance, but to be their leader.  Wow.

Yes we can. One of my passions is seeking alternative energy sources.  This is the time for yes we can as it relates removing our dependence on foreign energy sources.  Anyone who doubts the possibilities should review the work that our good scientists, American scientists, are doing at the National Ignition Facility (http://lasers.llnl.gov where they are working on nuclear fusion.  How about unlimited energy that is clean, can produce more energy than it requires to make it and we can export it to the rest of the world for a good capitalistic profit.  Why not?  Yes we can!

I’m basically a very curious person, so in getting ready for SourceCon, I’ve been getting some questions ready in my head to ask those movers and shakers in sourcing. Here is one I’d like to throw out, it’s something that I need to solve at Broadlook.

Let me give the problem some background:

15 years ago, few people used email. It got popular.

10 years ago, few people used instant messaging. It got popular

5 years ago, few people used SMS or text messaging. It got popular.

Now we have Skype, LinkedIN, Twitter, iPhone GPS, and they are getting popular.

What I am pointing out here is that Contact information is no longer limited to explicit forms of contact information. (i.e. Name, title, phone, email). A few form of contact information is the Implicit. It is important to classify those implicit forms. If they are not classified, they are not recorded. If they are not recorded, they cannot be leveraged. For example, a personal blog is a form of implicit contact information, I can follow the URL to the blog and learn about the person (candidate in a recruiters case) and get the scoop on them.

What are the new forms (actually I prefer “venues” of contact information? Here is what we have so far at Broadlook, if anyone has suggestions for new forms, please ping me.

Contact Venues (not including traditional like phone/email)

1. SMS/TXT

2. Instant message – (different from SMS, as it needs a network, whereas any cellphone can Text another)

3. VOIP – (skype, etc)

4. Blog – wordpress, blogger, twitter (twitter..we consider micro-blogging)

5. Social network – LinkedIN, etc

6.GPS – debatable, but where you are is an aspect of Contact information

7. Domain – The corporate domain, as important today as knowing the company name they work fo

Why am I doing this? The next generation of Broadlook Technologies tools will be capturing all Venues of contact information. If anyone doubts the utility of such an endeavor, take a look at my email signature:

Getting up a 4am tomorrow to beat the Chicago traffic to eventually end up in Cleveland. I’ll be visiting our friends at Main Sequence Technologies, makers of PC Recruiter. It will be a fun road trip and I encourage anyone to call me on my cell 414-899-4204 if you have ideas on the venues of contact information.

In fact, anyone who can convince me of a new venue of Contact Information, which I did not include here, I’ll reward you with a $500 credit towards any Broadlook product  (SourceCon attendees only).