Jul

29

Private Lives? Professional Profiles? When Work and Play BranchOut Across Social Media

Posted by: jjohnson | Comments (0)

BranchOut just launched on Facebook. Essentially this social utility app fills you in on where your friends work-or previously worked-provided they have filled out accurate career information on their Facebook profiles.

The idea is for job seekers to leverage the work experience of Facebook friends-or friends of friends-to gain access to desired employers. Let’s suppose you want an “in” at DreamWorks, simply type “DreamWorks” and BranchOut will return past and present employees within your Facebook friends network. Presto! It’s good to have friends in the right places.

Sounds a little like LinkedIn, right? Kind of……… Read More→

Jul

22

On Your Way to the Recruitment Learning Conference! Pack Your…Boxes?

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If you’re like me, business travel is a part of life. If you want to share ideas and grow as an expert, sometimes you’ve got to go where the ideas are being shared – off line as well as online.

I’m very excited about this September’s Recruitment Learning Conference. Industry leaders from all walks of talent management and acquisition will share their challenges, experiences and proven solutions to building a more successful workforce and work culture. Speakers include:

Teresa Green, Sr. Director Recruitment, CapitalOne

Robert Rigby-Hall, SVP Chief HR Officer, LexisNexis Group

Gerry Crispin, Principal and Co-Founder, CareerXroads

Read More→

Jul

22

The Efficacy of Job Fairs

Posted by: jjohnson | Comments (0)

Ah, summertime – a time to get outside and enjoy the sunshine.  Many of us will end up at the many local festivals, carnivals and fairs that seem to be part of the season.   What do fairs have to do with recruiting?  Today I would like to visit an event absent of elephant ears or the Tilt-A-Whirl: job fairs.

Whenever I see an article or broadcast about the job market, the standard stock image seems to be job seekers standing around at one of these occasions. Look familiar?????

  Read More→

Jul

19

Imagining American Jobs From Aspen to Full-time Inspiration

Posted by: jjohnson | Comments (0)

Reviewing the news, it sounds like many employed and unemployed workers are confused, angry, out-of luck or giving up. How are we failing to motivate the American workforce?

The Latest Reports

The job news in early July wasn’t very encouraging, again. The Labor Department reported a spike in job loss for June. U.S. employers cut 467,000 jobs – more than 100,000 greater than the 363,000 predicted by Wall Street economists.

The national unemployment rate dropped from 9.7 to 9.5, but economists say the decrease was due to people who have been out of work so long they have either exhausted benefits or have given up seeking full-time work, and are therefore not counted in the unemployment rate (Sounds like funny math to me!).

Stock prices fell sharply. The Dow Jones industrial average ended 2.6 percent lower as investors worried the data darkened the recovery outlook. (The market bounced back the following week).

Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman  says we didn’t spend enough to rescue the U.S. economy. The $800 billion should have been more like $1.2 trillion – and where will this money come from????  Other experts argue we spent too much and in the wrong places – can this be true with our current administration’s focus on spending?  Read More→