CollegeRecruiter.com Kills Resume Searching
One of the great improvements in the job board industry since it came into being in the mid-1990's was the creation by Peter Weddle of the International Association of Employment Web Sites (IAEWS). It was at last November's IAEWS meeting in Orlando that I realized, as one of the owners of CollegeRecruiter.com, that we needed to stop selling access to our resume bank.
One of the biggest concerns shared by representatives from 80 of the biggest boards was the increasing frequency of illegitimate individuals and organizations using resume banks for the purpose of identity theft. Sometimes these entities use legitimate credit cards but download the data for illegitimate reasons. More times than not they're using stolen credit cards. But in either case, they're hoping that the job boards give them access and don't cut it off until after they've downloaded thousands and sometimes tens or even hundreds of thousands of resumes. Fortunately, to the best of our knowledge, we've identified all of these threats and blocked them from accessing our resume bank.
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Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 16, 2008 at 4:24 PM | Leave a Comment (0)
No Experience? Volunteer. Even After Being Hired.
One of the most frequent statements that we hear from frustrated job seekers is that employers are rejecting their applications because they lack experience. The job seekers typically wonder how it is that they can get experience if no one will hire them.
The answer to that conundrum is that the job seekers should get the experience they need outside of the job market. Instead of looking for someone to pay you and to give you the experience you need, instead look for someone who will only give you the experience you need. That's right, work for free. Volunteer.
But what about those who are employed and struggling to advance? Their paths are frequently blocked or at least delayed by their lack of experience. If their employer won't give them the experience they need in order to earn the sought after promotion, how can they obtain the promotion? Again, work for free. Volunteer.
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Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 16, 2008 at 7:18 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
Transfer of Data Underway from Old Job Board Software
We're in the process of re-launching CollegeRecruiter.com with all new job search and resume database software and a completely new look-and-feel. I've posted some screen captures for those whose curiosity can't be satisfied with a vague reference like that.
I learned earlier today that the transfer of job posting and resume related data from our old software has begun. No word yet on when it will be completed but I'm anticipating later today or, more likely, tomorrow. If all goes according to our evil plan, we'll then import the data into our new software over the weekend.
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Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 15, 2008 at 12:27 PM | Leave a Comment (0)
CNN Names CollegeRecruiter.com Best College Job Board
CNN just published a list of the 30 best job boards for candidates. There are more than 40,000 job boards in the U.S. and a similar number in other countries so being named to that list is quite an honor. Well, we're quite honored as we're on the list. We're even further honored as we're the only college job board on the list.
Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 14, 2008 at 2:33 PM | Leave a Comment (1)
Manpower Using Braille on Business Cards
One of the regrets that I have about the education that I received as a child and sought as a young adult was that I did not learn how to effectively communicate with the sight or hearing challenged. Having grown up in bilingual Canada, we were forced to take French through eight grade but I was terrible at it and dropped it as soon as I could. Through all my years of primary, secondary, post-secondary, and graduate school I never had the opportunity to learn Braille or sign language. That's a real pity because I rarely run into those who rely on their ability to converse in French yet I regularly run into far more people who are blind and use Braille or are deaf and use sign language.
Speaking of running into people, I had the pleasure of meeting Noorani Khan, the national recruitment manager for Manpower in Canada. She attended my presentation at the ACSESS conference last week in Toronto on how employers can and should use social and business networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. Noorani handed me her business card after the presentation so that I could email a copy of the PowerPoint to her.
Now receiving a business card after a presentation is not a newsworthy event as I always receive a number of cards after presentations. What made this one special was her card. In addition to the typical corporate logo and printed contact information it had a whole lot of bumps all over it. Yes, Manpower is starting to print its business in Braille. Noorani said that she's the first but I sure hope that she's the first of many and that Manpower and other organizations transform the world of business cards from being friendly not only to the sighted but also to the blind.
Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 14, 2008 at 1:00 PM | Leave a Comment (0)
Does Buzz Sell?
Way back in the dot com era the talk in corporate boardrooms often centered on creating buzz as the solution to any business problem:
- Revenues of $1,000 and expenses of $1,000,000 per month? Solution: more buzz!
- Burn rate of $250,000 per month and $1.25 million left in the bank? Solution: more buzz!
- Crappy product and mass exodus of customers? Solution: more buzz!
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Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 13, 2008 at 10:58 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
Re-launch Looking Good
We just completed the load testing of our servers and new job board software in preparation for the scheduled re-launch of CollegeRecruiter.com this weekend.
The load testing was successful. The servers are great and the software is in good shape. The testing mimicked our site being used by hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of users simultaneously in order to identify problem areas. The testing pointed out some areas where the software could be improved in order to make the site run as quickly as possible at all times for all of our users. Fortunately, we anticipated that those areas could be problematic and will be able to make the necessary modifications well before we re-launch.
Looking good!
Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 12, 2008 at 3:32 PM | Leave a Comment (0)
10 Realities Every Grad Should Know Prior to Graduation
- You are the most educated generation to enter the workforce, but you are also viewed as the least prepared. Don't be blind-sided by your generation's professional reality.
- The other generations in the workforce don't have much compassion for your situation. You are being incorrectly perceived as lazy, entitled and arrogant. Don't validate these beliefs by ignoring their concerns, instead, work to overcome them.
- DON'T road trip, backpack or 'take a year off' without thinking about your career first. Those who delay to play, often pay!
- More degrees don't mean more money! If you aren't sure what to do next, the LAST thing you should do is stay in school.
- Don't succumb to Cinderella Syndrome. The sooner you break your addiction to acceptance, praise, grades, rewards and other bribes, the sooner you'll find personally satisfying work that is professionally rewarding.
- Got a compelling Career Story that you use to market your employability? If not, then plan on a longer, more stressful job search.
- Spray-and-pray job searches (sending out a hundred resumes and hoping for a call) are for people who are willing to settle for what's available. Get active, create a network, and you'll get access to the hot jobs nobody else knows about.
- A great mentor is worth a lot more than a good job.
- Want to quantum leap your career? Then learn to deal with the 3 C's (conflict, criticism and causing disappointment) ...now!
- Embrace the equation used by the most professionally satisfied people in the world: EXPERIENCE = LEARN = GROW
Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 9, 2008 at 6:42 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
CollegeRecruiter.com Re-launches With Free Job Postings
CollegeRecruiter.com went live in 1996 and has had a handful of major software updates since that time. We're scheduled to re-launch with our newest update the weekend of Saturday, May 17th and we're very excited.
To celebrate our impending re-launch, we'll automatically add to all employer accounts as many free job posting ad credits as they have active postings on the date that we re-launch. So if an employer has five active job postings on our re-launch date, we'll add five additional postings to their account at no charge! To buy your two-for-one postings, go to our registration page if you're a new client or our login page if you've previously registered with us.
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Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 8, 2008 at 12:15 PM | Leave a Comment (0)
Tips for a Successful Internship
I graduated from college way, way back in 1988. Yup, I'm 42 years old. That makes me ancient to virtually every student on a college campus. Back in my day, we walked 12 miles to school, through eight feet of snow, with no shoes, it was uphill in both directions, and we loved it. Oops. That was in the days of my grandparents. But I digress.
Very few Gen X'ers like me had internships. Those of us who graduated with any work experience tended to have jobs that had little to nothing to do with our career aspirations. Those going into accounting waited tables or stocked shelves, for example. Gen Y'ers are completely different. They understand that in order to have a reasonable chance of finding a good job upon graduation that they must complete at least one and preferably multiple internships. And employers are catching on too. Some 50 percent of employers expect a college graduate to have completed at least one internship. Indeed, 20 percent of employers expect a college graduate to have completed two internships. How times change.
So what should a college student to ensure a successful internship?
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Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 8, 2008 at 10:34 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
Subject Lines for Targeted Email Campaigns
Most job boards seem to operate under a typical 80-20 rule for revenue generation: about 80 percent of their revenues are generated from the sale to their employer clients of job posting ads and resume searching. The other 20 percent are miscellaneous items such as banner advertising, sponsorships, lead generation, and targeted emails.
CollegeRecruiter.com also operates under an 80-20 rule for revenue generation but for us about 80 percent of our revenues are generated from the sale to our employer clients of targeted email campaigns, cell phone text messaging, and other such non-traditional products. We generate revenue from the sale of job posting ads and for a very limited period of time will also from resume searching, but we've learned over the years how to effectively and efficiently target tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of candidates via double opt-in email and cell phone text messaging.
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Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 7, 2008 at 6:40 AM | Leave a Comment (1)
Is There More Money in Death Than Jobs?
Monster founder Jeff Taylor just announced that he's spinning off the obituary classifieds section of Eons, his social networking site for Baby Boomers. The obituary site, Tribute, is intended to aggregate obituary listings placed by funeral homes much like Monster was one of the first job boards to aggregate job listings placed by employers.
I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Jeff at a recent International Association of Employment Web Sites conference. He sat on a panel and was a vocal participant in a number of issues where his experience and advice was invaluable to many members in the room. Other than some warm fuzzies, it is unlikely that he got nearly as much out of the meeting as most of the other attendees but he didn't seem to mind. If Jeff's new venture is half as successful as the industry that Monster helped spawn then this is yet another blow to the viability of newspapers.
Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 6, 2008 at 9:22 AM | Leave a Comment (1)
A Great Gift to Our Nation
I recently completed watching Battle 360, a multi-part series on the History Channel about the famed World War II carrier, the U.S.S. Enterprise. Our primary contact at client Enterprise Rent-a-Car gave me the heads-up about the series and am I ever glad that she did. It was fabulous.
Enterprise Rent-a-Car was founded in 1957 by Enterprise by Jack Crawford Taylor, father of current CEO, Andy Taylor. Jack served as a fighter pilot on the U.S.S. Enterprise during World War II. The History Channel series did a very nice job of tying the men and women of Enterprise Rent-a-Car together with the proud legacy of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
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Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on May 5, 2008 at 3:07 PM | Leave a Comment (0)
