2007
(December 31, 2007) I am back from a wonderful week of holiday activities. After a long session in the recording studio with family and friends, we all went to see some lively Gospel music in a remote roadhouse on Christmas eve. The whole group was drenched with sweat from all that dancing by the end of the evening. Two days of listening to the ocean crash below my window in Gualala, CA (on the Mendocino Coast) was the perfect frosting on a holiday cake.
I guess it was all about ears, feet and happiness. Listening, dancing and loving. It was a delicious end to a year of good old fashioned hard work. It was the perfect sweet ending to the first phase of building a new foundation.
The year began with a change in office space, the second in as many years. interbiznet, the company I founded many years ago, stretched to hold me in place. It was growing one way and I was headed in another direction. After a dozen or so years, I wanted a refresher course in the fundamentals of recruiting and the recruiting industry. Ultimately, I sold the company and no longer write for interbiznet.
I owe a great deal to Jason Goldberg and miss his disruptive presence already. Jason hired me to be the editor of Recruiting.com last May. You might recall that it was a turbulent and noisy transition. Jason never flinched. His way of managing my role was to remain completely hands-off. That allowed Recruiting.com to evolve into a simpler traffic generator than it had been. These days, the site gets about 50% more traffic than it did last spring.
I am looking forward to getting to know his replacement, Jeff Seely.
When Jason Davis (my predecessor and the founder of Recruiting.com) left, the difference was palpable. Jason is a master of web community development and online political intrigue. He is now ramping up a tremendous thing at the Recruitingblogs.com website. We speak regularly and he remains the best online community developer in our industry.
Over the course of the year, I have found Michael Kelleman’s work on the Recruitingbloggers.com website to be inspirational. Michael (or Animal as he prefers) is the coordinator and host of one of our industry’s two great entertainment nodes. I religiously scan his RSS feed (the stories on the right hand side of the page). Michael has the pulse and direction of the industry in his hairy palm. He has assembled a great team of content producers.
Jim Stroud is other source of infotainment in our space. (Don’t miss his late breaking interview with John Sumser.) Jim is an all around nice guy. That makes him the perfect complement to Michael’s on stage persona. With his newly redesigned site, Jim is poised for real growth in 2008.
Joel Cheesman, aka Cheezhead, hit his stride in 2007. With the exception of some weird hang-up with Jobster and Jason Goldberg, Joel (maybe it’s just too many Js), Cheesman continued to set new ground for the industry. Cheezhead xtra routinely delivers smart commentary from the industry’s talking heads. Joel is on his way to becoming a publishing powerhouse.
With absolutely no prodding, Shally Steckerl became a major promoter of the Recruiting Roadshow. He has been really generous with his time and help.
Speaking of the Recruiting Roadshow, the Las Vegas event will definitely be held on the 27th of February. More to come.
See you in 2008.
John Sumser. – © 2007 Two Color Hat, Inc. Santa Rosa, CA
