ERE offers real solutions by real practitioners

Today is my last day in Fort Lauderdale. I have been here for meetings, the International Association of Employment Web Sites fall congress, and ERE conference.

Last night vertical job search engine and CollegeRecruiter.com partner Indeed.com hosted a reception. One of the people with whom I spend a fair amount of time commented on his first ERE conference by saying the speakers were great as they were real practitioners and offered real solutions. I don’t think that David Manaster, CEO of ERE, could have said it any better.

Employers: Tell the Association for 60,000 Job Boards What You Love/Hate About Our Industry

The International Association of Employment Web Sites (IAEWS) is the trade organization for the global online employment services industry. Its members include CollegeRecruiter.com, the American Medical Association, Society for Human Resource Management, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Monster, CareerBuilder, Dice, Jobing VetJobs, JobsinLogsitics.com and TweetMeJobs.com. Collectively, these organizations power or operate over 60,000 employment-related sites worldwide.

The IAEWS is conducting a survey to determine employer and recruiter views of job boards, career portals, social media sites and other Web-based providers of employment products and services. They’d like to have your input, as well. Please click take the survey.

It’s anonymous and takes just 10 minutes. In addition, if you request it, they’ll send you a copy of the aggregate findings of the survey when they’re published.

The Career Activist Republic

One of my favorite people in the staffing and employment industries is Peter Weddle the author or editor of over two dozen books and former columnist for The Wall Street Journal, National Business Employment Weekly, and CNN.com. He’s also the executive director of the International Association of Employment Web Sites, the only association for job boards like CollegeRecruiter.com.

Peter just published yet another book and this one is perfectly targeted to anyone who is considering striking out on their own by starting their own business, whether that business be a traditional one with physical premises, employees, and inventory or the type of business which has become far more popular over the past couple of decades: consulting. Peter makes the case the today’s workers aren’t becoming free agents like others have referred to them as but instead they’re becoming “freed agents” meaning their own career activists.

Peter’s new book, The Career Activist Republic, is based around three ideas:

1. Every human being is a person of talent—they are endowed with a capacity for excellence which enables them to accomplish extraordinary feats at work.
2. In today’s turbulent global marketplace, employers are no longer hiring even perfectly qualified candidates—what they want, what they need to employ is talent.
3. That desperate need empowers every American to work for him or herself while being employed by someone else—to create the kind of security they can actually count on even in difficult times.

Have you lost faith in the American Dream? Read The Career Activist Republic and give yourself the tools to construct it for yourself.