John Sumser Presents The Recruiting Roadshow » Steven Rothberg

Thank You Notes

johnsumser — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:20:02 +0000

(December 21, 2007) There are a lot of people to thank for this past year. Starting and building the momentum of the Recruiting Roadshow took a lot of effort from a lot of people. Shifting from my comfortable home at interbiznet took support and energy. Bearing up under the new scrutiny at Recruiting.com took some patience and the muffling of two layers of duct tape.

A number of good friends fed me with a straws (through the tape) at the difficult times. It’s good to have and build friendship as a part of making a living. My work is colored by the people who nourish me with their stories about the recruiting world, their ideas about what it could be like and their hopes for bigger and better times.

I’ve always been fortunate to have relationships with people who start companies. As an entrepreneur who thinks about strategy, it seems pretty normal to inhabit a world that mostly includes other leaders who build businesses for a living.

Over the years, I have seen a thousand good tricks for making things happen. This year, though, I may have been shown the ultimate trick.

Steven Rothberg, you may know, is the hard working founder of CollegeRecruiter.com. Very, very few people in our industry work as hard or as persistently as Steven. Through sheer tenacity, he built CollegeRecruiter into the powerhouse it is today. Steven spoke at both the Dallas and Atlanta Recruiting Roadshows.

Somewhere along the line, Steven sent me a wonderful had written Thank You note. It was short, sweet and very thoughtful. I was astonished by the way it changed my perception.

As far as I can remember, it was the first time ever that I had received one. Writing thank you notes is part of the conventional wisdom about doing business. I assumed that it was theory from people with no experience until I got Steven’s note.

As you can see, I remember the note very clearly almost six months later.

Steven got me started. I’ve been following his lead and hand writing Thank You notes. What’s amazing is the effect it has on me.

Thank you, Steven.

Go, Dallas, Go

johnsumser — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:44:39 +0000

Jason Davis and Steven Rothberg managed to be in Dallas without ever leaving the toasty comfort of their snowbound homes in the north. (Jason lives in Toronto; Steven lives in Minneapolis.) Although the magic trick was spectacular, smarter people might have figured out how to be in Dallas without ever going to places where it snows routinely.

The Houdini like magic trick was orchestrated by Bill Vick, the fabled Internet Recruiting pioneer as a waxed, waned and demonstrated Web 2.0 in a presentation on Social Media. (Bill can be found here, here, here and here. He seems to only live online.) Bill has been building and contributing to the Recruiting Industry for a very long time. Bill received a special award for compacting his talk into a very tight space.

His presentation was a blend of skype based interviews and introductions to the art and science of Social Media.

Bill Vick, Ahead of the Pack

johnsumser — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:45:57 +0000

You know a real marathon runner when you see them effortless pass you by, still carrying the torch as if they had just left the stadium, running to the horizon and looking ahead. It is rare that a good marathon runner can be equally good in the team effort of running a relay. However, on the track or on the road, you know a winner when you see one because they are generally ahead of the pack.

Oh, look — its Bill Vick!

Bill is one of the very few leaders in the recruiting business who can run with the batons of vision, strategic planning, effective execution, monetization and reinvention while looking far enough ahead to know which batons he should be handing off where and when. I think he describes that as being a “serial entrepreneur,” modestly omitting the words: “Among recruiting’s most successful” in describing himself.

What makes Bill so remarkable is that he runs the distance, pacing himself over the long haul. While he is managing his numerous ventures, Bill is also cultivating an expanding network unusual for its number of personal relationships, building community and fostering growth in both agency and corporate environments, and still managing a recruiter’s desk – excuse me, a headhunter’s desk.

On Tuesday, December 4 – if you register for John Sumser’s Dallas Recruiting Roadshow in enough time – you can visit with Bill and enjoy his interactive presentation…Getting from Here to There: Technologies, Tools and Techniques for Advancing Recruiters’ Effectiveness.

Bill will be joined by seminal figures from the recruiting industry’s inside track. They will share their insights into elements of the technologies and techniques that Bill will be showcasing in his workshop:

Steven Rothberg will talk with Bill about using social networks like MySpace and Facebook for recruiting. Of course, Steven is no stranger to the Recruiting Roadshow and his company CollegeRecruiter.com is a sponsor of the Dallas event.

Matt Martone will talk with Bill about using search engines and social media to optimize your recruiting efforts and ensure you have a competitive advantage over the recruiters who think “posting’ starts and ends with a job board. Like Steven, Matt is no stranger to the Recruiting Roadshow having run his own workshop in Atlanta. He also committed Yahoo! HotJobs to sponsoring the Dallas Roadshow, supporting us all in so many ways!

The affable “barn raiser” Jason Davis will talk with Bill about blogging and how to use blogs to promote your organization, advance your professional interests, recruit hidden talent and much more. Jason was not only one of the founders of leading industry blog Recruiting.com but now presides over the fastest growing social network of recruiters on the planet – RecruitingBlogs.com. Jason also leads The Fordyce Letter and its expansion program.

Chris Russell will talk to Bill about how to incorporate multimedia in your recruitment campaigns touching on everything from video resumes to podcasting your jobs! Like Bill, Chris is a pioneer who always pushes the envelope, bringing new technology and methods to competitive recruiting practice. And, like Bill in other ways, Chris is a publisher and a teacher too!

In keeping with his “really getting it,” Bill will be hosting his guests via satellite, or something like it! When we say the Recruiting Roadshow is about “bringing physical community to social networks” you can expect Bill to run ahead of the pack and lead by example.

Don’t miss this! Mark your calendars for Tuesday, December 4, 2007 and register now!

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

CollegeRecruiter.com Gives Dallas a Lift

johnsumser — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:44:20 +0000

I spoke yesterday with the President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, my friend Steven Rothberg.

Disappointed at being shut out from the recent bidding for a piece of Facebook Steven is not one to cry in his beer. He is putting his investments elsewhere and sponsoring the Dallas Recruiting Roadshow instead!

It’s a shame Steven won’t be able to join us on the day to share his wealth of knowledge on using social networks for recruiting best practice like he did in Atlanta. But no matter — there is plenty here online to dig through and many more lessons inspired by his ongoing research. Case in point, see today’s post on Recruiting.com: Social Network Ignoramus: The Fate of a Recruiting Dinosaur?

Steven and CollegeRecruiter.com continue to be good friends to the Roadshow. Thank you!

Big Brands and Facebook: Demographics, Case Studies and Best Practices

johnsumser — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:00:38 +0000

When Steven Rothberg gave his keynote presentation in Atlanta about using social networks for recruiting the question came up about demographics. Of course, this is a critical issue when it comes to things that range from sourcing strategy to job branding and employer marketing.

I just picked this up from Forrester’s Charlene Li who — like Steven — knows what she’s talking about:

[slideshare id=128129&doc=big-brands-facebook-demographics-case-studies-best-practices3037&w=425]
[No Image? View the slides on SlideShare]

And on the subject of demographics, here’s my two-cents on Second Life which also came up in Atlanta.

Do You Want My Resume? How About a Beer?

johnsumser — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:10:49 +0000

In his Atlanta keynote on the pros and cons of using social networks for recruiting Steven Rothberg closed with a few observations about recruiting in virtual worlds like Second Life.

Illustrating some of the potential problems for recruiters Steven referenced an instance where instead of pulling his resume from out of his pocket a candidate pulled out a beer instead.

Virtual job interviews? Digital job fairs? It is confusing I know but perhaps this is the stuff that urban legends are made of…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDRr4MoX8f8]

…it’s just so hard to tell!

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

Steven Rothberg’s Keynote: Best Practices for Using Facebook, MySpace and Other Social Networking Sites for Recruiting

johnsumser — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:17:02 +0000

It is not unusual when presenting after a fantastic lunch to have an audience nodding off. Of course, this phenomenon has more to do with blood rushing to the guts to help the body with digestion than its draining from the brain because of speaker or subject-induced boredom.

In presenting his afternoon keynote Steven Rothberg had some distinct advantages over possible food-induced dozing:

Our Atlanta delegates were really hungry to learn about networking tools and recruiting issues, in the main brand new stuff to contrast with their mainstream practices and possible misconceptions about using social networks in their day-to-day jobs; and
Steven provided much food for thought but kept everyone asking for more. Not only that, Steven delivered his presentation with enough spice and wit to keep even possibly bland topics like background checking, compliance and source-of-hire metrics appetizing.

Here are Steven’s presentation slides…

[slideshare id=125136&doc=best-practices-for-using-my-space-facebook-and-other-social-netowrking-sites-for-recruiting754&w=425]

…although the real juice is in direct contact with him:

CollegeRecruiter.com
(800) 835-4988
Steven(at)CollegeRecruiter.com

You can also keep ahead of things by reading Steven’s blog or connected with him on LinkedIn.

Posted by: Amitai Givertz

Social Networks and Tracking Source of Hire

johnsumser — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:25:20 +0000

I got an email from someone who was not only sitting in on Steven Rothberg’s keynote Best Practices for Using Facebook, MySpace and Other Social Networking Sites for Recruiting but she was also taking notes! The question was:

Steven was talking about the data coming from our ATS being 80% inaccurate when it comes to where candidates come from. Where does that statistic come from?

I believe the number was actually higher and that Steven was referring to a whitepaper titled ATS Sourcing Data – 83% Inaccurate, talking about traditional postings. In fact, John Sumser pointed the research out in his Electronic Recruiting News column in December last year:

Having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), HR Executives wrongly assume that the sourcing data has some resemblance to reality. Yet 5 out of 6 Candidates enter inaccurate data.

To the question about who can help with accurately tracking job posting responses Steven suggested a couple of options pointing to Don Ramer in the back of the room. Don’s company Arbita — one of Atlanta’s sponsors — provides a range of solutions worth checking out and publishes a good overview titled Global Jobs Cross-Posting Solutions.

Steven also addresses the issues and related topics in an excellent post, Consolidation in the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Space.

Last, I posted a related item on RCI Recruitment Solutions’ Bells & Whistles blog called The Budget for Stupidity which has a few useful links.

If you have any questions or comments do share them please.