Last night was the retirement ceremony at Edmonton's Rexall Place arena for Mark ("Moose") Messier, the greatest leader in hockey history. Second all-time in games played. Second all-time in points scored. Six Stanley Cup rings. First player to captain two different teams to Stanley Cup victories.

Fans of Mark's second team, the New York Rangers, called him the Messiah as they believed that he was the promised one who would end their four decades of futility and finally bring a Stanley Cup to Manhattan. He did, but hopefully New York fans understand that a player who was called the Messiah because he won one Cup for them must naturally be held in even higher esteem by fans in Edmonton where he grew up and won five Cups.

The retirement ceremony couldn't have been more perfect. Well, that's not quite right. It would have been perfect if the Oilers hadn't traded away Ryan Smyth, their current heart-and-soul, hours before for two marginal prospects, a low first round draft pick, used hockey bag, and dozen pucks. But that's another story.

Moose skated onto the ice in full equipment and hoisted the Stanley Cup for a crowd that seemed to cherish him more than ever. More than anything else, Moose was known for winning Cups. Correction: doing whatever was necessary and more in order to win Cups. So to see him skating one last time with the most cherished symbol in professional sports was absolutely perfect.

Messier was my favorite player when I was growing up. He turned pro when I was 11 years old, became an NHL'er when I was 12 years old, and won his first Cup when I turned 17 years old. He and his Oilers teammates were a huge part of my youth so this trip to Edmonton to celebrate the end of an era was priceless. And perfect.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 28, 2007 at 11:51 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

I'm in Edmonton, Alberta for the retirement ceremonies for Mark Messier, one of the greatest hockey players of all time and a key to the five Stanley Cups won by the Oilers. While the Messier retirement game against Wayne Gretzky's Phoenix Coyotes is big here, other news which is big here in Oil Town are the recruiting challenges faced by the oil exploration companies.

Northeastern Alberta is absolutely booming because of the massive amounts of oil sands. Many estimate that the province has the second largest supply of recoverable oil in the world with only Saudi Arabia having more. But the oil sands are located in very remote areas. The biggest city in the area is Fort McMurray a/k/a Fort McMoney, a town of 64,000 people where single family homes are selling for $500,000 and mobile homes for $300,000.

So how do you recruit people to work in areas that are so far from family, friends, culture, and comfort? The solution arrived at by the oil companies and support services for these towns is to pay their workers a fortune. In the nearby regional municipality of Wood Buffalo, the median family income was $120,100 in 2004. With salaries increases coming fast and furious, that may hit $150,000 in 2007.

So do workers hang around? Hardly. Ten percent of Fort McMurray residents moved there within the past seven months. Slightly less than 17 percent have lived there for less than a year. Less than 35 percent have lived there for three years. And less than 35 percent have lived there for 11 or more years.

Although these employers may not have a choice in how to recruit their employees, too many employers believe that the answer to their recruiting woes is in paying more than do their competitors. The problem with that strategy is that the people that you end up recruiting are those which place the highest value on money and those are also the people who are the most likely to quit for a job that pays even slightly better. Because they have the least loyalty, you'll end up with the most turnover. And so the cycle goes on and on.

I'm not advocating underpaying employees. Hardly. I strongly believe in paying people what they're worth. I'd never want to lose a good employee because they have been offered more money by an employer across the street. But I strongly believe that the key to keeping great people is to surround them with other great people. Make their work lives enriching and fun. Trust them but hold them accountable. And, if possible, try to make sure that your facilities are not located in northeastern Alberta.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 27, 2007 at 3:30 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

I arrived late last night (actually, this morning at 2am) in Edmonton, Alberta for the retirement of Mark Messier's number 11 jersey by the Edmonton Oilers.

First event on the calendar today was an outdoor ceremony in Churchill Square by City Hall. And outdoors in Edmonton in February means minus 10 degrees celsius / 14 degrees fahrenheit. Ouch. About 1,000 to 2,000 rabid fans (wackos?) showed up to be entertained by career highlights on a jumbo TV screen, rock band, politicians, Paul Coffey, and Mark (Moose) Messier himself. It was great.

After Moose thanked his hometown fans, he signed autographs outside for about an hour. That's a key difference between hockey players and NBA or NFL players. Hockey players are generally far more humble and accessible than players from the other major sports.

Tonight is a charity event at a concert hall that seats about 2,500. We'll be there as well. Tomorrow is the game. Don't know where I'm sitting yet, but it doesn't much matter. We'll be there. And so will Moose.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 26, 2007 at 5:57 PM | Leave a Comment (1)

Over the past few days, there's been some talk in the recruiting blogosphere by highly respected experts such as Joel Cheesman and John Sumser about the value of blogging. Even though I feel that CollegeRecruiter.com is still feeling its way through this ever changing landscape, I was honored to see that both chose to praise our efforts.

Both Joel and John would likely tell anyone who asked that one of the key benefits, but certainly not the only benefit, of blogging is search engine optimization. By writing a lot of blog articles for your own site, you're creating a lot of new, keyword rich content that the search engines will love. The more articles on your site about a particular topic, the higher your search engine rankings will be for all of those pages. But one of the benefits of blogging that others often overlook is that blogging also leads to more links to your site from other blogs, especially if you're an active participant in the blogosphere by posting informative comments to other blogs and linking to other blogs from your own entries. Another great way of generating those incredibly value links from other blogs is to offer them free recruiting blog articles or other such content to run on their blogs. They get more content and perhaps some relief from the pressure of having to write that day and your entry will inevitably include a link to your site from your byline. Win-win.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 26, 2007 at 5:45 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

I can't wait. Only two days until I fly from Minneapolis to Edmonton. Now that kind of a trip in February isn't normally a cause for celebration, but this trip will be because the occasion at the other end will be a celebration. On Tuesday, the Edmonton Oilers will retire the number 11 jersey of Mark Messier. Moose, as he's affectionately known to his fans, was one of the finest hockey players ever and an integral part of the 1980's Edmonton Oilers dynasty. That team had five of the greatest players ever to play the game: Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, and Grant Fuhr.

My favorite Moose story came from the year that my hometown Winnipeg Jets finished fourth in the regular season, a true accomplishment in a 21 team league. In their same division were the Oilers, which finished first, and Calgary, which finished second or third. As a result, the Jets had the misfortune of having to play the Oilers in the first round. First game, opening faceoff: Messier against Dale ("Ducky") Hawerchuk, captain of the Jets. They line up. Moose glares at Ducky. Moose tells Ducky that if he touches the puck, Moose will rip out his lungs. Moose wins the faceoff and the Oilers win the series four games to zip.

My friend, Ian Grosney, and I will be in Edmonton to witness the passing of an era and to celebrate the career of one of the finest power forwards the NHL has ever seen. A man who refused to lose and ended his career with six Stanley Cup rings, most valuable player awards, international hockey championships, multiple scoring records, and the admiration of virtually every fan of the fastest game ever invented.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 23, 2007 at 7:14 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Our 333 career videos allow candidates and others to get a quick understanding of this and 332 other professions. The videos can be posted for free within seconds to any MySpace page, blog, or any other web page.

So still curious about what phlebotomists do? Hint: blood tests save countless lives each day. Patients in hospitals and doctors offices are diagnosed by using valuable tools.

Answer: In clinical labs and larger hospitals, phlebotomists draw blood and prepare tests.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 22, 2007 at 9:52 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

The day is rapidly approaching when the first Facebook and MySpace employment-related lawsuits will reach the trial courts. The plaintiff lawyers will have various legal arguments in favor of their clients, the fired employees or candidates who were rejected as a result of what they wrote, photos they posted, or other information they shared on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. These arguments may include Invasion of Privacy, Terms of Service violations, Fair Credit Reporting Act violations, and others.

I've been approached by lawyers who are looking for expert witnesses for these cases. As a fully recovered attorney, I understand the need for the lawyers representing the employees and employers to have expert witnesses on their side to help educate the jury or court about issues such as what these sites are, how they're used, and perhaps even how they should be used. I can think of an employment lawyer who is quite knowledgeable about these issues, but I'm not sure if one practicing lawyer would want to use another practicing lawyer as an expert witness. I know that there have to be more people out there than just me who have the ability to serve as an expert witness in wrongful termination or other such employment-related Facebook / MySpace lawsuit. But who?

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 21, 2007 at 8:15 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Helicopter parents, so called because they constantly hover over their children, are looked down upon by many career counselors and employers because they exert too great an influence over the paths followed by their children. The military and some other employers target advertising to the parents because these employers know that the kids won't sign up unless the parents give their blessing. But where is this going? What will happen in five, 10, or even 20 years? Will we see these parents objecting to the negative performance review that their 40 year old children receive?

I'm not concerned about parents being too involved in the career choices their kids are making. At least, I'm not as concerned about that as I am about parents not being involved enough. If I had to pick, I'd go with the helicopter parent over the neglectful parent. But certainly the best parent is the one who is there to provide advice and wisdom to their child and who has the strength to allow their child to make mistakes and get hurt.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 20, 2007 at 11:43 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

We just added 333 career videos to YouTube. If you've ever wondered what it is like to be a Farm Equipment Mechanic, Cost Estimator, or Agricultural and Food Science Technician, now you can watch a video that gives you the good, the bad, and the ugly within just a few minutes.

The videos are good content and also good traffic generators as users can post them college career service office web sites, MySpace pages, blogs, etc. And did I mention that each has our branding at the beginning and end and our logo as a watermark throughout?

Here's an example of the video on Aircraft Engine Specialists:

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 19, 2007 at 7:29 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

CEOs have many responsibilities and one of them is to influence company culture. Company culture affects everything from employee morale to the extent which internal controls are emphasized. In a post-Enron world in which Sarbanes-Oxley has become ever more important, it is increasingly important for top executives to communicate the importance of internal controls to employees. So, how can you, a busy CEO/CFO/CIO, mold your company culture in such a way that internal controls (and other important issues) become woven into the fabric of your company's culture?

Following are a few tips to help chief executives to set the tone from the top:

1. The CEO should prepare and communicate periodic messages to employees

* Explain why the information you are communicating is important

* Send successive messages to praise progress and to highlight specific, positive results

2. Meet with your senior executive team to communicate their responsibilities in influencing culture

* Follow up with senior executives to monitor progress

* Communicate specific objectives and, if possible, talking points regarding the message you want to send to employees

3. Coach senior executives to initiate a similar process throughout their chain of command communicate the importance of the cultural issues you wish to modify

* Explain the reasons it is important for employees to embrace the changes

* Outline consequences of failure to embrace and comply with the cultural changes that you are championing

4. Give employees time to understand and question the changes you propose.

* Offer them the opportunity to make suggestions about enhancing the changes to culture that you have proposed

* Acknowledge and reward good ideas

-- Edward G. Maier is the CEO of the Maier Consulting Group LLC in Chicago and may be contacted at egmaier@ameritech.net. Ed will be a featured speaker BroadPeak's Spring CFO Forum. Mr. Maier serves as the CFO for and is a director of Millennium Park, Inc. He is also a former partner at Arthur Andersen. Article submitted by Liz Handlin .

This CollegeRecruiter.com Recruiting.com Blogswap article is courtesy of Recruiting.com and CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students and recent graduates who are searching for internships and entry level jobs.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 18, 2007 at 8:13 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

As regular readers of this Blog know, one of my passions is social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. And one of my greatest concerns about Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites are how they're being used by employers. I think that they should be used by employers to include candidates in the hiring process rather than excluding them. In other words, employers who want to hire electrical engineering students in Virginia should search the social networking sites for candidates who have indicated that they live in Virginia and are enrolled in electrical engineering programs. But many and probably most employers who are using these sites are using them as part of their background checking process, which means that those employers are only using the sites to exclude candidates from the hiring process.

I've been asked to serve as an expert witness in cases involving candidates who were not hired or who were terminated as a result of the information or photos that they posted to social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. So far, it appears that no such case has yet gone to trial, but that will change. I hope that the outcomes of these cases will be that the still fuzzy legal issues become clearer so that more employers will know that they can and should use social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to include candidates in the hiring process rather than excluding them during background checks or even firing them.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 16, 2007 at 1:42 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

I had the pleasure of seeing venture capitalist and Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki speak a few weeks ago and of the many interesting points that he made was that organizations should replace their mission statements with mantras. Mission statements, he said, are incredibly costly to create primarily because of all of the staff time that goes into the process yet no one can ever remember the wording and they're often so vague as to be meaningless. An example that he used was for Wendy's:

Our guiding mission is to deliver superior quality products and services for our customers and communities through leadership, innovation and partnerships.

Wendy's is a fast food restaurant chain that sells hamburgers, malts, fries, salads, etc. yet their mission statement says nothing about that. Their mission statement could just as easily apply to a bank or television set manufacturer. Ridiculous.

It is easy to criticize but hard to critique. So it was refreshing to see Kawasaki present his idea for what the mantra should be for Wendy's: healthy, fast food. Other examples were "peace of mind" for FedEx, "authentic athletic performance" for Nike, and "empowers entrepreneurs" for Guy Kawasaki. Hmmm. A personal mantra. Interesting. But rather than looking at the issue of a personal mantra, let's look at the corporate mantra.

Like Kawasaki, I've never been a big fan of mission statements. As a result, we've never formally created one for CollegeRecruiter.com. It could be something like this:

The mission of CollegeRecruiter.com is to be the leading career information and lead generation site in the college student and recent graduate market niche.

But will our employees, contractors, strategic partners, clients, users, and other stakeholders understand that let alone remember it let alone care enough about it to shape their actions? Not a chance. So let's look at the mantra that we created:

college career connector

It identifies our college career niche. It is neutral in that it is meaningful to the employers and schools that form the bulk of our client base. And it addresses our role in the process: we help connect college students and recent graduates with employers and schools. Soon we'll add the mantra to our logo to help all of our internal and external stakeholders better understand who we are and what we do...our mission.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 15, 2007 at 11:20 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Kennedy Information has a great audio conference scheduled for Thursday, February 15th for all those who are considering blogging and those who want to learn more about the best practices. The speakers are three of the best: Dave Mendoza (most votes for best blog in the 2007 Recruiting.com best blog awards) Joel Cheesman (judge's pick for best blog), and Gretchen Ledgard (first corporate recruiting blogger).

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 14, 2007 at 11:32 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Much has been written about Monster targeting beer ads at unemployed workers ("Can't find a job? No problem! Have a brew. Or 10!") But now it appears that Bank of America is pitching credit cards to illegal immigrants. Why? Did they suddenly discover that college students don't own big enough wallets for the 25 credit cards they already have?

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 13, 2007 at 5:29 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Human resources search engine optimization expert Joel Cheesman posted an entry yesterday comparing MySpace to Facebook and giving a number of reasons why he likes MySpace more than Facebook. One of his reasons is that he can promote a very simple web page address to those who want to look at his MySpace page. Facebook? Not so much.

Let's compare. Here's a link to Joel Cheesman's MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jcheesman. I'd give you a link to mine but it is under development. That's code for pathetic, we know it, and we're working on it.

Here's a link to my Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/p/Steven_Rothberg/562280122. Once again, the Cheesman preaches the truth.

Facebook does have a neat "badge" feature though. In about a minute, you can generate the code to post a badge like this to your blog or web site and it updates automatically as you update your Facebook profile:

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 13, 2007 at 6:22 AM | Leave a Comment (1)

One of our competitors recently posted a note to a college hiring discussion list regarding multi-level marketing companies and other such business opportunities. A college career service office professional had asked for advice because a MLM had asked to participate in the on-campus interviewing process. Our competitor argued that the MLM should not be allowed on-campus and argued any job which "requires an up-front investment to participate (MLM does) and focuses more on the recruitment of others to sell rather than the selling of the product itself (MLM again) is not a real job." He is, of course, correct that MLM opportunities are not jobs, yet is that really the issue?

There is no question that MLM positions are not "real jobs." That is because they aren't jobs at all. They are business opportunities. And with all business opportunities some are good and legitimate opportunities and some are bad and illegitimate. Rather than being simplistic and trying to fit all business opportunities or even all MLM opportunities into the same box and then locking that box in the hope that students never find out about them, I believe that it is more appropriate for college career service offices and college job boards to add to the education of the adults who are the students and recent graduates that use our services and rely upon us for advice. Provide them with the information and allow them to make mistakes. Isn't it better to allow them to make those mistakes with legitimate business opportunities, including MLM's, while on-campus where they can seeking counseling from the career service office than to be paternalistic and force them to make those mistakes in an environment when the career service office staff is no longer going to be available?

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 12, 2007 at 3:11 PM | Leave a Comment (1)

According to the Brazen Careerist, there are 10 ways to manage your boss:

1. Understand the person you're dealing with.
2. Ask for your quarterly goals, in writing.
3. Know your boss's biggest worries, and help him address them.
4. Look at your boss's weaknesses as opportunities.
5. Focus on your own needs by focusing on your boss's needs.
6. See the good in people.
7. Get a list of your boss's priorities.
8. Prioritize your own work in terms of what matters to your boss.
9. Give weekly updates.
10. Don't get stuck on personality types.

Can you think of other ways, including perhaps some ways to get even?

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 9, 2007 at 12:19 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Yesterday's announcements by Jobster may have been characterized as disruptive to the industry, but we won't know that for months at the earliest and likely years. In a nutshell, Jobster is moving to the HotJobs / Indeed / SimplyHired / GoogleBase model of giving away job posting ads in the hopes that the additional traffic from employers and job seekers will generate additional profits.

Although HotJobs and GoogleBase revenues and profits are not broken out in the financial statements released by their parent organizations, I think that it is safe to assume that none of the four come close to being profitable. So what is with the buzz about free postings? Employers like 'em and so does the media, but should shareholders? We'll see.

I do believe that postings are a commodity product so there may be validity in giving them away in the hopes of converting some of those employers into paying clients, but a big problem with giving away your products for free even for a short time is that you train your clients into believing that they are paying for your products what they're worth: nothing. Will enough of these clients understand that they're not really using Jobster if all they do is post free jobs? Or will too many of these clients now be able to convince themselves that they're using Jobster even though they're only posting jobs? My hope is that these clients will have a positive experience and upgrade as that would be a positive for the entire industry, but my fear is that with Jobster only having 200,000 profiles a/k/a resumes from registered users, the employers who post jobs simply won't get enough quantity or quality of responses to justify their time. Since we went live in 1996, we've never had a client tell us that any of our services were too expensive if those services worked. Surely the converse is true as well in that even free services are too expensive if they don't work. Time for most of our clients is far more valuable than the cost of a job posting or targeted email campaign.

The Jobster - Facebook partnership makes a lot of sense from a traffic generation standpoint for Jobster and likely a revenue generation standpoint for Facebook, but what remains to be seen is whether it will translate into profitability generator for Jobster. I believe that it will but this isn't a sure thing at all.

Monster and Careerbuilder trumpeted their partnerships with Facebook and abandoned their efforts almost as quickly. Jobster, to its credit, is taking a different approach by doing more on Facebook than just throwing up some banner and text link ads. Jobster will actually power a career center for Facebook.

But will employers be able to overcome their belief that Facebook is nothing more than an 21st century version of a 1980's video arcade with kids hanging out and doing things of which their parents would disapprove? Will employers pay to post job openings to Facebook or will those be free as they are now on Jobster? If employers get to post jobs for free, will enough upgrade to paid services in order for this partnership to be profitable for Jobster?

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 9, 2007 at 8:11 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Remember the days when resumes were judged, at least in part, by the quality of the paper they were written on? By the quality of the typewriter used to...gasp, type out the document? Since the dawn of the electronic recruiting age, the paper resume has gone the way of the dinosaur and been replaced by a very similar looking document in electronic form. Resume writers tweaked the process a bit to create files that could be easily adapted to applicant tracking systems and used enough keywords to ensure that they would be found in a database search, but largely the idea has been the same. But today's job applicants are telling the story of their experiences and skills in new ways that may have far reaching impact on the candidate evaluation process. Video editing tools, once available only in professional studios, now reside on many laptops and the profiles they help to create on sites like Facebook and MySpace offer recruiters a much different and, in some cases, far superior look at an individual's background than the traditional resume. Join us as we begin the year in the Talent Management Technology learning track with a look at the Next Generation Resume and examine the impact they are likely to have on the hiring process.

Register today for this free webinar presented by The Human Capital Institute.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 8, 2007 at 6:59 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

With all of the advice out there today, it's hard to get the best advice on how to find a job and what kind of job is right for you. Plus it can be time-consuming and expensive to get the best advice and to get it quick!

You're probably always wondering:

- What kind of job should I look for?
- How do I find that job?
- What's the best way to start my new job on the right foot?

Two of the best recruiting and career development websites have teamed up to provide you quick, easy-to-understand and free advice. Steven Rothberg, President of CollegeRecruiter.com and Jason Alba, Founder of JibberJobber will sponsor a teleconference series featuring Susan Strayer, former corporate HR professional, recruiter, career coach and author of The Right Job, Right Now: The Complete Toolkit For Finding Your Perfect Career. The series is designed to reach out to job seekers during the spring job search season.

The Spring Career Teleconference Series is completely free to any and all job-seekers and will feature Susan covering the most important, burning issues for any job seeker:

"Help! I still don't know what kind of career I want."
- Monday, February 12 at 8:00 p.m. EST (7:00 p.m. CT, 5:00 p.m. PT) or Wednesday, February 28 at 8:00 p.m. EST (7:00 p.m. CT, 5:00 p.m. PT)

"How do I start my job or internship search?"
- Wednesday, March 14 at 8:00 p.m. EST (7:00 p.m. CT, 5:00 p.m. PT) or Monday, March 26 at 8:00 p.m. EST (7:00 p.m. CT, 5:00 p.m. PT)

"How do I prepare to start my new job or internship?"
- Monday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m. EST (7:00 p.m. CT, 5:00 p.m. PT) or Wednesday, April 25 at 8:00 p.m. EST (7:00 p.m. CT, 5:00 p.m. PT)

Registration for job-seekers is easy and free!

Visit: http://www.jibberjobber.com/teleseminar/ to register and submit your job-seeking questions or concerns ahead of time. Each interactive teleconference will last 45 minutes and will break for live questions as well.

We'd love to have you on the call! Space is limited so register today.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 7, 2007 at 11:41 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of announcing that CollegeRecruiter.com won the Weddle's User's Choice Award for best job boards. Some 50,000 human resource professionals, job seekers, and other industry experts participated in voting for the best of the 40,000 some job boards. We received the graphic today from Peter. Sweet.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 7, 2007 at 11:03 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

If you read virtually any article in the mainstream press about the information that employers can find out about candidates in their blog, Facebook, and MySpace pages, you'd think that the sky was about to fall and every candidate with such pages was Chicken Little. Those media stories have some merit as about 75 percent of employers do search the Internet as part of their background checking process and those searches include blogs and non-password protected social networking sites such as MySpace. But the problem isn't with blogs and social networking sites. The problem is with the content posted to those pages and how that content is being used by some employers.

If you're a candidate with a blog, Facebook, MySpace or other such page, don't worry about the sky falling in and don't take down your pages. In fact, do the opposite. Optimize them by thinking about the keywords that employers will likely use when searching Google for candidates with your skill set. Put those keywords into titles and headings and bold them. Get other people to link to your pages by adding those keywords to their pages and then linking those keywords on their pages to your page. In short, market yourself through your blog and social networking pages.

But before you do any of that, be sure that all of your pages are consistent with the personal employment brand that you wish to convey. Do you want employers to think of you as a drunken party animal or as a high achiever who also enjoys the occasional party? For most of us, the best employers are not those who want to hire the most pious people. Instead, they recognize that we all have personal lives and that those of us who enjoy the occasional party are also the most likely to be outgoing, friendly, and able to quickly create meaningful, positive relationships with clients, vendors, and other stakeholders.

So don't attempt to wipe out all traces of your personal life from the Internet. Instead, clean it up so that it is consistent with the personal brand that you wish to convey to potential employers as they use blogs, MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites as part of their background checking process. Also, don't try to hide those pages from potential employers. Instead, optimize the pages to maximize the number of visits from those employers.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 6, 2007 at 10:05 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

The U.S. Labor Department estimated that employers added 111,000 jobs to payrolls in January 2007. So what's bad about that? Nothing, unless you had previously relied upon the estimate of the economists who had forecast some 260,000 additional jobs.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 5, 2007 at 8:59 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

If your organization is lethargic and being killed by your competition day after day, go out and find team members who are unlike the people you already have. Get way outside of your comfort zone. Take a chance and hire people who don't have a proven track record of being qualified. Instead, look for people who appear the have the skills and drive necessary to re-write the rules. If you find the right people, they'll turn everyone on your team into a winner. Don't believe me? Watch this clip from a great, ahem, documentary:

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 3, 2007 at 5:10 PM | Leave a Comment (1)

There must be something in the water. My National Account Executive, Mike Palmquist, and I have been asked by a bunch of clients over the past few days what a normal click through rate is for banner ads on CollegeRecruiter.com as they'd like to measure the return on investment for the banners. Let me answer the first question first as it is easier and then I'll turn second, harder one.

The click through rate is typically around 0.10 percent. If it seems low, it is. If you're wondering if it is lower than industry norms, it isn't. That's pretty typical for run of site (banners can run on any page) banners on job boards. We see click through rates (CTR's) as high as 0.25 percent and as low as 0.01 percent. The difference is usually driven by the quality of the creative and offer.

Now to the more difficult question about return on investment. I don't believe that you can measure it. I don't like to say that because I like to be able to measure my return on investment when I buy something so it is difficult for me to advocate selling a product to a client knowing that they will not be able to track their ROI. Why can't they? Because banners are branding tools and you cannot directly measure your ROI from a branding expenditure. Branding supports direct response advertising expenditures such as job postings and targeted emails by raising the awareness of your brand in the minds of your target market. But it doesn't cause that target market to do anything. They tend not to visit your web site so no clicks. They therefore don't apply to your jobs so no resumes. But well designed banners will improve your brand and therefore the quantity and quality of your applicants.

So do banners have a positive ROI? Sure. What is it? Your guess is as good as mine.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 2, 2007 at 3:20 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Saw a great movie tonight with my wife and three kids (12, 10 and 7): The Ultimate Gift. It will be in the theatres in March and, when it is, see it. James Garner plays a self-made billionaire grandfather who attempts to salvage the one family member who could become a real mensch. The grandfather's lessons are delivered through 12 gifts, including the gifts of work, laughter, and family.

Do you remember the feeling that you had after 9/11 when you looked at your friends and loved ones and realized what was truly important in life? Re-live that feeling and restore those priorities by taking in this film.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 1, 2007 at 9:52 PM | Leave a Comment (0)