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As first reported by Cheezhead, CollegeRecruiter.com last week acquired EntryLevelJobs.net.

We acquired ELJ when the opportunity arose primarily because of their very strong search engine rankings for just about every popular search that includes the keyword phrase "entry level jobs." We've already made some modifications to the site and more will be forthcoming over the months but for the time being most users will see few changes. The biggest change so far is that we've replaced the job postings on their site with postings from CollegeRecruiter.com so that candidates who want to apply to postings they find on ELJ will be directed to CollegeRecruiter.com to apply to the same jobs. That will increase the number of applications that our employers are receiving.

I guess yesterday's blog entry in which I asked why more college students and recent graduates don't use business networking site LinkedIn really hit a nerve. As of 9pm CT tonight, I've received six comments to the blog entry when most blog entries don't receive any comments and about twice as many via email.

The consensus seems to be that most don't use it because they don't know about it. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are known and used by almost all college students and recent graduates so that's where the buzz has been but few college career service office professionals use LinkedIn so aren't able to teach their students how to use it. Kennedy Information's free LinkedIn webinar on March 4th should fill in a few of those gaps. But the bottom line is that so far few college students use it so there's little viral spread on campus like there is amongst recruiters, sales people, and other professionals. Hopefully that will change.

But college students and recent graduates who are looking for a connection into an industry, organization, or department will find few tools as powerful as LinkedIn. I have a couple of thousand connections so am only a few degrees removed from virtually everyone who is part of LinkedIn. Want to become part of my network? My pleasure. Join here.

I had the pleasure of speaking to about 75 students and staff at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York earlier this week. I was invited by the school to talk with the students about how employers are using the web to both include and exclude them from the hiring process. What an impressive group of students.

During the hour long and very interactive discussion we talked how many Gen Y'ers thinks nothing of posting photos and other information to sites such as Facebook and MySpace under the mistaken impression that employers either can't see it or won't care about it. I showed some examples of students using the web to enhance their employment opportunities and others who are killing their chances because of what they've posted on-line. We also talked about what candidates can do to remove harmful information that they've posted or which has been posted by others and to bury information that can't be removed.

I was very impressed with the students. In addition to be attentive and focused, they frequently asked great questions so we had much more of a dialogue than a presentation. That made it more interesting and educational for them and a lot more fun for me. Several of the students approached me afterwards to discuss their situations.

One takeaway that I need to chew on for a while: of the 75 or so attendees, only one indicated that he had heard of LinkedIn and that was because his boss had insisted that he sign-up. He uses it and understands its phenomenal potential for job seekers so hats off to him, but what about the others? Why are the others not using LinkedIn? Is it a generational gap? I can't imagine that the answer is that they feel that it won't help them because apparently only one had heard of it. If you don't know about a tool, you can't know whether it is going to help you or not. Perhaps the real question here is why haven't these students even heard of LinkedIn and are they representative of students at other colleges across the country?

Interesting take on the work habits of Millennials over at the Life Before Noon blog. Author Carla Blumenthal praises her Millennial generation for being diverse, multitasking, tech-savvy individuals who love teamwork, are optimistic, and determined. But she's candid about the faults of her generation as well:

In class work, internship and job hunting we often wish for things to happen instead of actually trying. We think about doing something, talk about it with every possible adviser and then try. I spend more time making to-do lists, thinking and talking about the work I have to do than actually doing work. My friends and I often talk about the future, internships, job hunting, and applications more than we actually complete them.
In class work, internship and job hunting we often wish for things to happen instead of actually trying. We think about doing something, talk about it with every possible adviser and then try. I spend more time making to-do lists, thinking and talking about the work I have to do than actually doing work. My friends and I often talk about the future, internships, job hunting, and applications more than we actually complete them.

The same applies to other aspects of our lives. We often talk about trying a new work out, calling an old friend, driving down a new road, taking a walk in the park. As Nike would say, just do it.

Great article in the Dallas Morning News about why employers need to learn how to get the best out of Millennials and how to do that.

In a nutshell, Millennials are imminently teachable and well worth the effort. They're high achievers, confident, and go, go, go. But to get the best out of the Millennials, you have to invest in them. You have to give them a mentor to teach them how to navigate the adult world. You have to tell them in black and white what your expectations are for them and what the consequences will be if they don't meet those expectations.

Jim Durbin recently posted a blog entry about an actress receiving a job offer through a cell phone text message (SMS). He makes a good point: if Hollywood is starting to extend job offers via cell phone text messaging, can the world of human resources be far behind?

...

Willy Franzen of the Secrets of the Job Hunt career advice social network launched a new web site a few days ago. Fabulous. OneDayOneInternship.com profiles the internships offered by a different employer each day.

Willy, you're a genius!

cell phoneIn a development that must be causing fits of alarm in human resource offices everywhere, it appears that some college students and recent graduates are using cell phone text message (SMS) abbreviations and gaming slang in their job applications. This development has prompted some employers and education institutions to provide these candidates with special courses in written communication.

Now I can understand why I'd want to c if u or my bff r ok using abbreviations, but candidates of all ages need to appreciate that they need to demonstrate that they're the most highly qualified candidate for the job and to do that they need to speak the language used by the employer. It is most likely that the application will be reviewed by a Gen X'er or Baby Boomer and few of those understand SMS abbreviations and even fewer like to use them. So the best strategy is to use the abbreviations with your bff, but not with your potential employer.

We're frequently asked by college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry level jobs and other career opportunities what are the hot jobs and career fields for them to go into. We try to dissuade them from choosing a career path based upon government or any other projections as a lot of people are very miserable in hot career fields. Just because an occupation is in high demand and pays well doesn't mean that it is right for most people. We instead counsel candidates to examine their competencies, interests, and values and to focus on the common themes between those three factors. But if those common themes happen to align with one of the hot jobs for the next decade, fantastic.

The jobs which are projected to be the hottest for the next 10 years are:

  1. Network systems and data communications analyst
  2. Personal and home care aide
  3. Home health aide
  4. Computer software engineer, applications
  5. Veterinary technologist and technician
  6. Personal financial adviser
  7. Makeup artist, theatrical and performance
  8. Medical assistant
  9. Veterinarian
  10. Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselor
-- Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2008-09 Occupational Outlook Handbook

There's little doubt that today's college students, most of whom are members of Gen Y, favor interacting with their friends via cell phone text messaging more than by phone and email. Phoning or even emailing a friend is seen as inefficient and even slow as you can't simultaneously and immediately communicate with many people. But does that mean that targeted email campaigns are no longer a great tool for employers and others who want to reach Gen Y? Hardly.

As stated in the Email Insider, we need to remember when we were teens and young adults and the tools that we used. Many of us got everywhere on our bicycles and even skateboards. How many of us still use those tools as our primary methods of transportation? As we age and mature, we change and we change which tools we use to best fit our new lifestyles. Given the reliance by organizations upon email, it is inevitable that Gen Y will use email more and text messaging less as more of them move into the workplace and more of those in the workplace move into positions of greater responsibility.

So what does an employer do if they want to reach a lot of college students about internship opportunities or recent graduates about entry level job openings? Well, several strategies come to mind:

  1. Understand that college students and recent graduates are all different from each other and use technology in different ways so market your opportunities to them in different ways. Different strokes for different folks. Will it take you more time? Sure. Will it cost you more? Probably. Will it pay off by allowing you to hire the people that you need when you need them? Definitely.
  2. Understand the needs of your audience so that you can tailor how you communicate with them to be in line with their needs and wants even if that isn't as convenient or efficient for you.
  3. Communicate using a variety of media. One of the basic tenets of advertising is repetition. Few respond to ads the first time they see them. Most require several and sometimes even more impressions. But hitting them with the same message using the same media over and over again doesn't do any good if they don't respond well to messages delivered via that media or if they get annoyed. That's why we provide a free targeted email follow-up to the same candidates for those organizations that use our cell phone text messaging product. This has the added benefit of making it convenient for candidates to respond to your message using a device that works well for them. Even though I have a BlackBerry and easily see web pages and respond to text messages, most people do not have smartphones so can't go to your web site on their phone. For those folks, asking them to go to your web page in a text message is asking them to do the impossible. But if you follow-up with an email...
The bottom line is that targeted email campaigns are not dying. Far from it. We're seeing even more interest in them from our clients this year over last and last year was a record year for us. In addition, we saw more interest last year than the previous year. Targeted email campaigns, when handled with care, are an incredibly efficient and effective means of reaching Gen Y but as is the case with any other project, you need use a variety of tools in order to get a difficult and sometimes complicated job done.

1. Request more face-to-face meetings.

2. Step up your job-search activity.

3. Try to be as flexible as you can.

4. Consider relocating.

5. Scour the hidden job market by networking your way into an unadvertised job opening.

6. Spend very little of your time on Internet job boards and help-wanted ads. Use job boards like CollegeRecruiter.com but most of your time should be spent networking.

7. Take advantage of social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace.

Source: Ask Annie

There are a number of theories for how to write an effective job posting ad but in order to answer what needs to go into the ad, one must first understand what you want to come out of the ad. Is it the most number of responses? Many employers measure the success of job posting ads by the number of responses because their applicant tracking systems are unable to automatically determine the source of the application. That's a travesty given how cheap and easy to implement that technology is today, but that's the subject for another blog entry.

I believe that the best job posting ads are the ones that result in a relatively low quantity but a very high quality of applications. If you want to hire one person, why would you want to receive 200 resumes if only 10 of them are well qualified? Wouldn't it be better to receive 12 resumes and have only eight of them be well qualified? So how do you get there? Write a job posting ad that is long enough so that the candidate understands your industry (first paragraph), your organization (second paragraph), your department or division (third paragraph), and the opportunity (fourth paragraph). That's it. Don't start getting into excruciating details on your wonderful 401(k) or dental benefits. Don't include your lawyer's definition of flex time or sick leave. And certainly don't tell the candidate that their job responsibilities are subject to change. Duh. What job isn't subject to change and even for the very few which aren't subject to change, do you really need to say that in a job posting ad?

Research shows that the best advertisements do not spell out every facet of the product that you want to sell. Less is more. You need to include enough information to peak their interest, but not enough that you bore them or, heaven forbid, turn them off.

What are you doing on March 4th from 1-2pm ET? Want to learn about how the new concept of social networking is impacting the traditional practice of networking? I thought you would.

I'm thrilled to be one of the panelists for the free one hour webinar hosted by Kennedy Information's RecruitingTrends.com and sponsored by LinkedIn. The moderator will be Jeanne Sturges, Managing Editor of RecruitingTrends.com. The other panelists are Lizz Pellet, CEO of EMERGE International; Hank Stringer, Chief Evangelist of ItzBig, Inc., and George Seiters, Senior Director of Marketing of LinkedIn.

You'll learn:

  • How you can leverage social networking through employment branding;
  • About this new "affinity" group approach to networking, and what it means for good old-fashioned "face-to-face" meetings, and your business;
  • How Gen X and Y are networking for professional purposes, the tools they use, how they communicate and build professional relationships;
  • How employers can leverage the networking strategies of Gen X and Y to hire great candidates; and
  • What is the accepted etiquette of using networking sites like LinkedIn?
Register now!

View Steven Rothberg's profile on LinkedIn

Great advice from Liz Handlin in a blog entry recently posted via free content distribution site RecruitingBlogswap.com to the American Forklift Safety blog:

[F]ind a job you love working for people you admire and then work your rear end off. In other words: be strategic about your career and work really hard when you find the right job. If you have a job that you are great at and you are happy in your work environment you will have the energy left to push yourself in other parts of your life (run marathons for example) and you will naturally behave with kindness toward others. Generally speaking it's the unhappy achievers who aren't very nice to be around.

Last week's rumors of an acquisition by onTargetJobs of the RegionalHelpWanted.com network of job boards and Cupid.com dating site proved to be true. It seems that niche job boards are consolidated almost as fast as they can be added. I have a lot of respect for the people behind both onTargetJobs and RegionalHelpWanted so this was a deal that really caught my attention. I am very confident that together they will deliver even greater value to their clients.

The parties did not disclose an acquisition price, but reports indicate that RegionalHelpWanted had revenues of about $35 million and that onTargetJobs paid about $100 million.

One of the questions that we're often asked by our employer, school, consumer marketing, and other clients is how we've managed to create a double opt-in database of over 10 million college students and recent graduates. Well, the answer is that is hasn't been easy and it hasn't all been our work.

CollegeRecruiter.com is part of a network of sites, most of which are job boards but some of which are used to find a new school, research scholarships, enter contests, etc. Also, those who come to CollegeRecruiter.com or many of the sites in our network may register in a variety of ways. For example, a student searching for an internship or recent graduate looking for an entry level job is likely to post their resume at our site:

CollegeRecruiter.com resume posting form

But they can also opt-in to receive information from CollegeRecruiter.com through our free resume evaluation service:

resume evaluation form

or our free school finder product that matches up candidates with schools offering certificates, associate's degrees, bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and even PhD's:

school finder form

In addition to opting in through their registration in one of a bunch of different ways on CollegeRecruiter.com, they can do the same on the other sites in our network:

CollegeRecruiterOffer.com home page

Regardless of which site they were on when they opted in to receive information from the site or its marketing partners, they then receive a follow-up email in which they are asked to confirm their desire to receive information from the site or its marketing partners. They must click on the email in order to confirm their desire. Ignoring the email does not suffice.

Once they have clicked on the email, they have provided us with their first opt-in on the web site and their second opt-in to the email. That's a double opt-in and is the highest standard in the industry. We then purchase consumer marketing information to better understand who these people are. These additional fields include their schools, GPA's, year of graduation, work history, race, gender, age, income, etc. The employers, schools, and other clients can then properly target their opportunities to just those who are most likely to be interested. That boosts their response rate and return on investment while also minimizing the annoyance factor for those who have twice opted in to receive the information.

The response rate that we typically see to targeted email campaigns is about 15 percent open (read) the emails and about 15 percent click through. Both are about three times the industry average. Why? Because we're 100 percent double opt-in even though the industry is more typically single opt-in and we have up to 700 fields of data per name so the messages that we send are highly targeted even though many in the industry believe in blasting out messages and hoping that some stick.

The double opt-in database of over 10 million students recent graduates is fully integrated between our targeted email, cell phone text messaging (SMS), and direct mail products. As a result, if you have us deliver, for example, an SMS campaign then we can follow-up by delivering a targeted email to the same people. Our competitors typically can email or SMS and even those which can do both are unable to deliver both to the same people.

We're proud of the direct marketing products.They're highly effective and provide excellent value to our clients, maximize the quality of information to our candidates, and minimize the quantity of annoying messages being sent to our candidates. Win-win.

Andy Headworth of Sirona Consulting says has a good reminder for employers who are considering hiring college students for internships or recent graduates for entry level jobs:

Generation Y'ers, with their 'different' approach to work, at the same time are demanding more from their jobs and their working environments. They are really looking for a sense of purpose and worth in their jobs, and because of this, the 'job for life' mentality has gone well and truly out of the window!

In other words, Gen Y is not interested in working in the same job for the rest of their live or even the same employer or even the same occupation. Don't promise them the corner office if they work hard and well for 10 or 20 years. They could care less. Do promise them a mentor starting day one. Do promise them the opportunity to do meaningful work starting day one. Do promise them the opportunity do good for the community starting day one. If you do, they'll be much less likely to be working for your competitor and more likely to be working for you starting day one.

More than four of five hiring managers are willing to view a video resumes according to a survey by HireMeNow.com. Of the 300 human resource and hiring managers, 83 percent indicated that they would view a video resume.

The survey also asked respondents how many minutes long a video resume should be. Some 78 percent said less than two minutes and a plurality preferred under one minute:


  • 1 minute or less (54 percent)
  • 1-2 minutes (24 percent)
  • 2-4 minutes (18 percent)
  • 4+ minutes (4 percent)

"The desire to have the video resume last less than one minute is not surprising to us," said Phillip Thune, Chief Executive Officer of HireMeNow.com. "It's similar to what the cover letter traditionally encompasses: a very brief overview of why a company should hire a person and a highlight of relevant experience, with the added benefit that cover letters never had -- personality."

It was a great feeling to receive an email from Peter Weddle yesterday in which he told me that CollegeRecruiter.com had again been selected as one of the best job boards in the world by job seekers, employers, and recruiters.

The Weddle's Users Choice Awards allows those stakeholders to vote for their choice of the best from any of the 40,000 job boards based in the U.S. and 40,000 job boards based elsewhere. Only 30 of the 80,000 win the award. We were fortunate enough to win it in 2007 and are now able to announce that we repeated for 2008. To make the award even sweeter, CollegeRecruiter.com was the only college job board in the winners' circle.

I just read a great blog article at Bootstrapper, a resource for any small business owner operating on a shoestring budget, and provides tips on financing, cash flow, low-cost marketing and small business loans. They posted a list of more than 50 tools for candidates to change their career paths by helping those job seekers find the best careers for them and how they can get there.

The article is divided into sections for assessment, career exploration, advice, getting (re)hired, and transitioning. Want a taste? Here's what they wrote about assessment:

First things first, find out whether or not a career change is right for you, and what's best for you if you decide to start out in a new field.
  1. Quiz: Should You Make a Career Change?: Determine if the time is right for a career change with this quiz.
  2. A Guide to Going Online for Self-Assessment Tools: Get advice about using online assessment tools from this article.
  3. What Color is Your Parachute: Learn what career paths are best for you with this book.
  4. The Princeton Review Career Quiz: This 24-question quiz from The Princeton Review should offer some good suggestions.
  5. What's Important to You?: Find out what beliefs and values are important to you, and consider how they affect your career choices.
  6. The Career Interests Game: Play this game to get a broad view of your ideal career.
  7. The Career Key: With this test, you'll get a good look at yourself and your career options.
  8. O*NET Ability Profiler: Consider your abilities in nine categories to determine careers that are best for what you can do.
  9. Transferable Skills Survey: Use this survey to determine what skills you'll bring to your new career.
  10. Finding The Perfect Job: Learn about the latest research devoted to matching your interests with a fulfilling career.
  11. The Career Values Test: Check out this test to determine the things that are most important to you in a career.
  12. O*NET Interest Profiler: Determine your level of interest in six different categories with this profiler.

straight from the horse's mouthOne of the really nice things about running a job board is that you get to learn what candidates and employers each feel about the same issue. Case in point is internships. Employers typically explain that they want to hire for their internships college students who are well qualified, perhaps have some related experience, and are likely to make great permanent employees upon graduation. But what do students want?

A blog article was recently posted to our CollegeRecruiter.com Insights by Candidates Blog that succinctly explains what today's college students want to see when they're looking for an internship. Keep in mind that the article was written by one of our interns so this isn't some old guy like me writing about what a 20 year old college student wants from an internship. This is coming straight from the horse's mouth.

Jeffrey DahmerOne of the biggest changes occurring right now in college recruiting is the emphasis on so-called green recruiting. College students and recent graduates increasingly favor those employers which demonstrate that they are environmentally friendly over those who just talk the talk. Employers who don't even talk the talk are having an even harder time convincing the best candidates that they're employers of choice.

So what does this have to do with our, ahem, friend Jeffrey Dahmer and other cannibals? Well, not much. At least not much in a serious way. But I was recently thinking about the trend towards a more sustainable, environmentally friendly lifestyle and some of the ramifications that such a shift entails. For example, few would dispute that the world is essentially divided into two sections with North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas creating environmental problems by over consuming and the rest of the planet creating environmental problems through over population.

A solution, albeit a messy one, to our over consumption and their excess population is, well, cannibalism. Think about it. Most of the western world loves red meat. We consume way too much of it and cattle and other sources of red meat are one of the leading causes of global warming and pollution. If we in the western world were to consume even some of the excess population in the under developed world, then we'd help solve both problems. Kind of a kill two birds with one stone idea.

I jest, of course. But sometimes you just have to let your mind wander. This was one of those ideas that was a non-starter even before it got going but sometimes, just sometimes, your ability to let your mind wander results in some terrific ideas. Like employers from Wal-Mart to the local mom-and-pop paying more attention to their environmental impact and promoting those efforts to their Gen Y and other candidates who are rewarding employers who are engaged in green recruiting efforts.

andrew-cafourek.jpgWant to find a great new job quickly? Experts will tell you that your chances of success increase dramatically if you invest time on the front end doing some research into the appropriate industry, the organizations within that industry, the departments within those organizations, and the hiring managers within those departments.

But once you've identified those targets, how do you get those targets to pay attention to you? One way is to blog about them. Create a blog on CollegeRecruiter.com or other sites that provide free blogging space for candidates and write a series of short articles about the industry, the organization you're targeting, their vendors, their suppliers, etc. Prove to the hiring managers and other decision makers that you care deeply about their organization and that you can do and have done the work.

As reported by Karen Burns, University of Missouri student Andrew Cafourek used a blog to land a job with a marketing firm in St Louis. If he did, why not you too?

Barack Obama This year's presidential race has been one of the most interesting in history in part because this is the first time since 1960 that neither major party has had a former president or vice president as a candidate and in part because never before has a woman or a visible minority been in a position to capture their party's nomination and perhaps even win the general election yet here we are just days away from Super Tuesday with a woman and an African-American man battling it out for the right to be the Democratic Party's nominee.

But what will happen if Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama win the nomination? I have to wonder if their win will help to further shatter any remaining glass ceilings wrongfully imposed on women and minorities for generations. With a woman in the White House, will women face the same type of discrimination they do now in the workplace? With an African-American as Commander in Chief, will the minority communities need or even want affirmative action programs?

Some might be tempted to say that a liberal African-American like Barak Obama would never advocate the end of affirmative action programs, but I'm not so sure. Recent history suggests that programs which are dear to the hearts of a president's supporters are most easily gutted or even killed by that same president. Witness George W. Bush's huge increase in social welfare programs through the addition of prescription drug benefits to Medicare and Bill Clinton's welfare reforms.

Many Caucasians and more than a few members of the minority communities believe that affirmative action programs should end. Few want a return to the widespread discriminatory practices that existed just a few decades ago but there's a tremendous difference between prohibiting discrimination and implementing affirmative action programs. Whether you agree or not with the goals of affirmative action programs, there's little doubt that the way they were implemented by many organizations resulted in preferential treatment being applied to members of minority communities. Reasonable people can differ on whether that was justified by past wrongs but few would argue that the effect of preferential treatment programs is to discriminate against the majority in favor of the minority. That may be a good thing in the eyes of some and evil in the eyes of others, but are we as a nation in 2008 ready to abandon these practices? If we elect an African-American as President this fall, will we regard affirmative action as having no further purpose? Will the move towards eliminating affirmative action and the stigma that comes with it originate from the White House?

This continues to be a very, very interesting election cycle and should Hillary or Barack win the general election, this promises to be the start of four very interesting years.

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