Recruiting.com adds to Jobster

Ever since helping found Jobster in early 2004, I have been drawn to the industry thought leaders, mostly who I have sought out via the blogosphere. Of course, we have a great industry mind in our own Jason Goldberg and Dave Lefkow. Jason Davis at Recruiting.com was one of the first blogs on recruiting that I started following regularly. It actually got me thinking about a blog for myself.

Not surprisingly, Jason was also one of the first blogs we talked to about job feeds and allowing blogs to create their own feeds to put on their sites. He was full of passion and excitement about how it could work. He also has had a multitude of innovative ideas about projects that we should consider taking on.

As of this month, Recruiting.com is part of Jobster, which is an exciting proposition. Now we have a great industry voice & community that is powered and supported by Jobster, but will largely remain the same force it is today. Our goal is to give Jason more resources, leverage, and reach in his efforts to bring together all of the best recruiting content to his readers on a daily basis.

Welcome Jason, the pleasure is all ours.

the best of intentions

About 3 weeks ago I had a great idea for my project paddlespot. Why not leverage Google RSS feeds on our website and combine it with our river level database?

The experience was simple, when readers came to our website they would see that latest web content about rivers, and next to it they would see the current flow, maybe a chart, and most importantly the SMS code to retrieve the flow on your mobile phone using paddlespot.

So I built a prototype...with the best of intentions.

One flaw in my analysis. Little did I realize that a large % of the news and content that comes up on the web regarding "rivers" unfortunately has to do with drownings and dead bodies being found...

ugh.

welcome Jobby team to Jobster

In classic Jobster fashion, we have found a great addition of people, technology and just plain smarts in an Alaska based company call Jobby.

Welcome to the team, I look forward to working with Tony and Brian both.

Speaking at PLU

I had a great opportunity to speak with business student leaders at Pacific Lutheran University tonight. What a great bunch of kids. I really enjoyed reflecting on the past and pulling out some of what I have learned- hopefully it was helpful to them.

Tonight I realized that I need to get more involved with students. Washington Business Week, here I come.

point...click...bling with Typepad

last week typepad launched blog widgets to their bloggers. widgets are a cool way to add features to your blog. These could be things like games, photoviewers, or - HEY, look at that, Jobs!

Not only can you add a search widget, but also a listing of jobs from the jobster network based on keywords that you specify. This is really powerful for someone to shows jobs that are relevant to the content of their blog or website.

my hobby: paddlespot

It is no secret my excitement about the mobility space. There is so much going on in the industry, however so much misses the mark.

Introducing a project my buddy and I do in our "spare time," that is focused on highly valuable & useful information that outdoor enthusiasts need on the go... Paddlespot is our first stab at it.

A core principle we are committed to (in addition to being free for everyone always) is we will not economically discriminate by requiring people to buy crazy expensive phones to use our services. Just simple text messaging.

congrats to a friend

My former neighbor and good friend, officially launched his company, Retail Entertainment Design yesterday.

With a year of work under their belt, his team has landed some big name, national clients. They are building a smart business.



Read Brian's blog for the inside scoop on what they are up to.

Go Brian!

client innovation...

So as of today I have a new role & title: Director of Client Innovation. I am super excited about the role, because it is made up of all the things I LOVE to do, and do naturally with customers.

Some cool stuff I am working on right now that you'll likely hear about:
- Diversity Connections Website for Starbucks
- Microsoft Talent Outreach (will add link soon)
- Re-engineering Samsung's ERP
- Engaging Nike's Internal Affinity & Diversity Organizations

If I have a moment I will post our current vision for the Jobster powered ERP site...

5-minute Jobbing Event

I am working with 4 local seattle tech start-ups that are banding together to try a new way of recruiting. I will post the RSVP link when it is ready... but this should wet your appetite.

jobster groups launches today

today is a big day for me. today our team will release jobster groups, which will allow the first "professional to professional" networking functionality on jobster. there is definitely more to come in this area, thanks to the addition of a dedicated consumer pm a few weeks ago.

from the beginning of jobster, i have been super passionate about this piece of the networking puzzle.

i am just now completing the creation of a plu alumni jobs group and inviting about 6000 alumns from my directory. this will be a valuable tool for alumns to locate and network their way to positions at leading companies.

I'm back, renewed and ready

I just returned from a 2 week vacation that coincided with the birth of my son, Carson. Two weeks of family time gave me a chance to reformat & defragment the old hard drive (brain) and prepare for a great winter, driving into 2006 with Jobster Customers.

There is alot of customer momentum and break out companies that are taking advantage of the flexibility of Jobster to execute some very creative and effective recruiting/sourcing initiatives, and that is great to see. I will be posting some of these for the good of anyone interested in the coming weeks.

Landed.fm, On-Demand Internet Radio

Re-published audio from our CEO's keynote at ERE last week. Also some customers talking about it: Landed.fm, On-Demand Internet Radio - The Voice of Career Success - Home

targeting diversity

I have been really lucky in the past few weeks to be working with Starbucks on diversity sourcing- my customer there, Craig, is doing some very good work there.

Check out http://www.diversityconnections.com where you will find a link to join Starbuck's diversity talent network. This has only been live a short time and is creating a massive talent network of diverse professionals AND prospects for specific opportunities.

Jobster Search Unveiled in Boston today

The launch of Jobster Search is happening today, which brings back similar feelings I had when we launched Jobster. http://yarddart.blogspot.com/2005/03/scene-to-remember.html.

This is another step toward driving some big change (good change) in the industry. Imagine a path of pre-qualification and verification of skills when jobseekers find your jobs on the Internet. Once pre-qualified, they become a future source for hiring and referring other great people. Using Jobster's relationship management capabilities, companies are building pipelines RIGHT NOW.

I explain Jobster Search as the employee referral program in reverse. Instead of a recruiting team initiating the process with employees, jobseekers can now initiate the process through people they know at the company. In the end, the employee continues to be a critical piece of this... they have to decide whether to vouch for the jobseeker. If they decide to, then the job seeker is forward directly to the hiring team.

our professional service is live!

Kudos to our dev, test and product teams, who valiantly stayed up most of Friday night and Saturday morning to release our September bits. Now professionals who have contacts in companies can leverage their contacts to get in touch with & referred directly to hiring teams in those companies- really really powerful stuff.

CHECK IT OUT!! http://www.jobster.com

Torrefazione no longer

I was really sad to find out thatTorrefazione, the Italian coffee shop that quickly gained my patronage when Jobster moved to downtown Seattle, is closing its doors today permanently.

Starbucks bought the 17 cafe chain back in 2003, and it looked like the brand was going to remain untouched for a while. The reason cited by corporate was that the chain "...failed to meet corporate goals."

My daily treat will be missed.

two things

Other than the fact that my mind is consumed with a hugely important release in our company's history next week, I CANNOT shake two things out of my brain...

1) Podcasting is going somewhere fast. I have SO many questions, ideas, and concepts that apply to this new and phenomenally efficient form of distributing content to personal devices on a massive scale. I am watching closely... would love to have a hobby site that helped others learn how to take advantage of this new medium... but that is a project for another day.

2) Microsoft and recent news about them losing the war on talent. That combined with what I consider to be the most viable threat (and widely loved) Google; who is on a rampage, delivering very compelling and useful products in a very rapid & iterative model. The big question in my mind is will Google take their desktop beginnings and introduce an open source OS or Office competitor? Do they have secret teams already working on early versions of these? I know MS is watching them like a hawk competitively...

should be a historic battle with good results for consumers.

btw: I started using audio blogging on jack and carson's site. I also researched and bought some podcasting production gear to start goofing around.

jack and carson

This week I decided to start breaking up the content of my blog into some distinct spaces. I think yarddart is ALL OVER THE PLACE in terms of content, so I plan to tighten it up and talk more about Jobster and industry related things.

My favorite thing to blog about right now is my son, Jackson, and about our baby boy on the way. Carson is due to join our family in the next few weeks!! Exciting, scarey and emotional... but I am ready.


A blog about two boys starts this week.

welcome back carter

J and I met as housemates in college. It was funny that his jaw was wired shut for the first few weeks I knew him, but once he could talk we hit it off & have been good friends ever since. He was a year ahead of me in school, so when he graduated and took a position with a big 5 firm, he spent the next year helping me network my way to a job with them. Beyond the career stuff, we have had a blast over the years going on trips, kayaking, windsurfing or just hanging out having a cold one.

About 3 years ago, he and his wife moved to Portland so he could pursue his law degree. At the time, it was tough to see them go. I even bet him $50 that they would stay in Portland permanent.

Last week, they returned to the Puget Sound, even getting a place in our neighborhood. What fun to have such good friends back in the mix! Bobbi said I have been acting like a kid who's best friend has moved in next door. Not so far off I guess.

That reminds me- I need to stop by the ATM and get him that $50 bucks.

a little behind the ball

I have known for a LONG TIME that I was missing out on something, not having an iPod. Everytime I came close to purchasing one, something else came up.

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday and my wife gave me an iPod Photo as a present. It has only been 24 hours and I am having so much fun exploring what I can do with it.

I am now subscribed to some interesting weekly podcasts that will automatically load, I have a small library of songs that I plan to grow over time.

This is truly music on my terms, and that is what makes it so compelling. I wonder if there is a recruiting product/service equivilent?? If there is, Jobster is going to find it.