The Fall ERE Expo is less than three months away (Oct 26-28 in Hollywood, FL to be precise). Maybe you’re thinking about coming, but you’re still firmly straddling that fence. Maybe you’ve already ruled it out. In either case, here are three reasons why you need to make this a priority.

Take Time to Think Strategically

Years ago when attending a week-long management development class in the foothills west of Denver, I had the chance to participate in an interesting exercise. We were told to “go outside, walk around, and think strategically.” For the next hour, I meandered around in a daze, and my brain started to hurt. Was I really thinking strategically? How did I know for sure? Was I confusing tactics for strategy? What would I report on to the class when the exercise was over? Would others laugh at me and say “THAT’S NOT STRATEGIC!” Well, you get the idea.

In the end, the point of this exercise was simply that if you don’t separate yourself from the day-to-day minutia of your job (and life), it’s really hard to take a step back and think strategically.

During my career, I’ve attended seven ERE Expos (side note … I should propose a “Frequent Attender” loyalty program: attend nine conferences, get the 10th free!). Anyway, each one gave me a great opportunity to step away from the day-to-day craziness of running a recruiting team and deeply reflect on what we were doing, and where we were going. From personal experience, I can tell you that sitting on a beautiful beach in South Florida is a great place to do this reflection.

Here are three suggestions to get you started on your beachside strategic thinking:

1. What is my vision for my team (or myself) for the next one to three years? Have I articulated it to others? Can I even articulate it?
2. What are the top three things we (I) need to focus on to make this vision a reality?
3. How will I know that we’ve (I’ve) achieved the vision? Write down specific outcomes (preferably measureable) that you are shooting for.

Give yourself the gift of a little time away to think strategically. The ocean waves are calling out your name.

Build Your Professional Network

One of the absolute best things about attending an ERE event — OK, the best thing about attending an ERE event — is the people you meet. ERE has allowed me to develop a deep professional network of people who I can call on for ideas, a quick sanity check, or just plain old commiserating (“hey, you’ll never believe this…” stories) to share a laugh. Plus, this is a great place to socialize your new-found vision that you formed on the beach (see point #1 above). “Hey, I was walking on the beach last night and was thinking about … what do you think?”

When you attend, set a goal — not just to collect business cards, but to make quality connections. If you make five or more quality connections in a three-day event, I would consider that a solid success.

Additionally, don’t be afraid to be proactive. If there are people you want to meet — maybe one or two of the ERE faculty, or someone from a company that you respect, or someone in your industry — reach out to them ahead of time and let them know that you would appreciate the chance to meet with them, and why. This can pave the way for a productive face-to-face greeting/meeting in Florida. (Based on my experience, I would suggest that offering to buy a coffee or an adult beverage will likely increase your probability of success!)

Lastly, please don’t repeat the mistake I made several years ago. I was so heads-down/focused on my day job, that when my position got eliminated I felt very vulnerable because I had let my network go; it was weak, to say the least. I had spent all my energy for the corporate-good but hadn’t devoted much of it to my own good. It doesn’t take a lot of time to keep this in better balance, and for a recruiter, ERE Expo is a great place to start this rebalancing process.

Which is a nice segue to my final point …

Be Intentional About Your Personal Development

Similar to #2, it is way too easy to focus on your job, your team, your boss and your organization — and not take time for you. Nearly everyone has faced major challenges the last two years with global economic struggles (smaller budgets, bigger workloads, etc.) that have inhibited the time and dollars dedicated to personal development.

Get a copy of the conference agenda and circle in red which sessions are likely to have the most benefit to you. No need to wait until you’re there. Plan it out ahead of time. If time and/or money are an issue, then write down a simple business case and present it to your leadership. Show them what you want to attend, and how it will benefit your organization. Most leaders will respond positively to a well-constructed case. And then book early to save dollars.

Once you’re at the conference, write down your key takeaways from each session and share them with others. When I send members of my team to a conference, I expect them to develop a PowerPoint presentation to teach others. This solidifies the learning and increases the commitment to personal improvement/change.

Be intentional about building a better you. Then pass it on.

If you have any questions or comments, please respond to this post, or feel free to email me at tony.blake@davita.com. My next post will be “Tony’s Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Conference Experience.” I hope to see you in Florida in about 12 weeks.

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Recruiting Software as a Service (SaaS) represents a much better value than installed software. Users can eliminate the headache of maintaining their software and vendors can establish Turn-Key Hosted Environments for their customers without rewriting their software. Recruiting firms can share applications and data in real-time with their clients without changing internal networks.

Online recruiting applications that run in your web browser have their benefits. However, a Hosted Recruiting Software Environment (Environments as a Service – EaaS) is a Full Service Managed Windows Desktop with Microsoft Office Professional (Outlook, Word, Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, and Access) and everything a Recruiting organization needs including all the software, data, and hardware necessary to work from any machine anywhere.

We host everything including all the software for recruiting from all the recruiting software companies. This eliminates your dependency on equipment, maintenance, support, and training. We provide fully managed Windows Desktops including a special understanding of your Recruiting Software applications and Managed Web Browser requirements. With unlimited training, support, and storage we help individuals and businesses to synchronize, backup and access data anywhere in the world.

We Host Any Recruitment Software in a managed desktop including :

• Akken, by Akken, Inc.
• Big Biller, by Top Echelon, Inc.
• Broadlook Suite, by Broadlook Technologies
• Bullhorn, by Bullhorn, Inc.
• CAPS, by BBDP, Inc.
• cBizSoft, by cBizSoft, Inc.
• CVTracer, by CVTracer Software, LLC
• eCRM by Hosted Environments
• eGrabber, by eGrabber, Inc.
• Encore, by Cluen Corp
• Gopher, by Blackdog, Inc.
• Hirebridge, by Hirebridge, LLC
• Hiredesk, by Talent Technology
• Humanis, by Questek Systems, Inc.
• iRecruiter, by iCIMS
• JobDiva, by Jobdiva
• MaxHire, by MaxHire Solutions Inc.
• NowHire, by nowHIRE
• OpenHire, by SilkRoad Technology Inc.
• PCRecruiter, by Main Sequence Technologies, Inc.
• Persona, by Applied Systems Technology
• PowerPlace, by PowerPlace Software
• RESUMate, by RESUMate, Inc.
• Safari, by Safari Solutions
• Sarah, by Hireability, LLC
• Sendouts Pro, by Sendouts
• StarSearcher/eEmpACT. by Bond, Inc.
• Taleo, by Taleo Corporation
• Talenthook Sphere, by Resource Edge, LLC.
• Tempus Fugit, by Micro J Systems, Inc.
• WinSearch, by Relational Systems, Inc.
  

Hosted Recruiting Software Environments are:

• Web Browser Independent – Browser based applications run in a browser managed by us.
• Bandwidth Independent – Reducing your ISP expenses
• Fully Managed – Updates and Upgrades are applied with your review, and approval.
• Not dependent on local Equipment – Reducing or eliminating client side maintenance and IT costs.

Browser based Recruiting Software Applications are:

• Web Browser Dependent – There may be issues with different browser and web browser versions.
• Bandwidth Dependent – Requiring additional ISP cost to your clients and users
• Semi Managed – You manage your Browser, Equipment and Network when you have issues.
• Dependent on your existing equipment – adding to your existing maintenance and IT costs.

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A long time after the rest of the world, I finally saw the movie Avatar, and I was thrilled. Not from the 3D or the big story, but from the fine details. These, in my mind, made the difference, leading millions around the world to believe there is such a planet like Pandora (or that we’ll find one in 150 years time — in 2154, as James Cameron wrote).

I believe these details can help recruiters reach a huge success, especially if they use the social media.

But I’ll start at the beginning.

How Do We Convince People That Something Illogical Really Exists?

This was in my mind, one of Cameron’s biggest challenges. He did create, of course, the big story: a fictional world, on a different planet, so we have a great story that he needed to “sell” to the viewers. I wanted to touch one piece of it — the emotional connection to the world he created.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I’ll add a short explanation (the long version’s available on Wikipedia). The story folds in a planet named Pandora: a lush, Earth-like planet. Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vi, a 10-foot-tall (3 meters) blue-skinned species of sapient humanoids. My point begins with the fact that the Na’vi live in harmony with nature.

After seeing the movie, while reading of the background behind Cameron’s research for Avatar, I learned that movies like “Pocahontas” and “Dances with Wolves” inspired Cameron in the making of the Avatar (it was fascinating to read how he took a small piece from each movie or book and together created a new world). I wasn’t surprised.

There’s a direct line between what I read and saw during the past few years in movies depicting the connection the Native American people have with the land and the life on it and what Cameron showed about the Na’vi’s harmony with nature. There is one main difference.

During the movie’s three hours, Cameron makes us believe in something that dozens of movies regarding the Native American culture didn’t always manage to make us believe.” The harmony with nature in Avatar is presented through a physical connection between “Humans” — the Na’vi, and the plants and animals around them.

Cameron’s Na’vi have long hair and in it a group of nerves leading to the brain. Their hair is typically braided, and when they ride their local “horse,” the rider’s hair (connected to their brain) connects to the horse’s hair. This way they control the horse’s movement by the power of their thought alone. In the same way, when connecting to the trees around them, to their ancestors’ spirits in one of them, they do it the same way — connecting their hair to the tree.

The Power of a Physical Demonstration

This was the one detail didn’t leave me even after leaving the theatre. I tried to figure out what was so strong for me in this connection of human and nature. The idea of “human/nature connection” wasn’t new. The new piece was the physical demonstration that I couldn’t “wave off” and say, that’s B.S. I saw a physical connection between men, women, and nature. As soon as you see the connection, it’s much easier to understand how the man “thinks right” and the horse runs to that direction. Or how the movie’s star manages to control the Great Leonopteryx (Toruk in Nav’i), an accomplishment that no other has before.

The main difference between the old Native American movies and Avatar, was in the fact that Cameron created a physical connection that we could see, understand, and believe. I didn’t need to be convinced that there’s a harmony with nature. I saw it physically happening in front of me.

What’s the Connection to Recruiting Employees?

When we recruit employees (like many marketing processes) we want to create the best employer branding we can … our organization is the best place for you to work in. The marketing parallel statement is of course: our product is the best for your needs. Many organizations find perfect candidates, but they can’t “pull them in” to the hiring process. At times, the candidates don’t go past the first step: arriving at the first interview or agreeing to a phone interview. They take a peek into the company’s website or remember what they heard about it and pass. This is true especially with “passive” candidates: they’re working, satisfied from where they are. Recruiters constantly need something strong to use to pull them to the organization.

Showing Clearly With Vivid Colors: Through Social Media

Like Cameron in Avatar: show the candidates as vividly as you can, why they should come and work with your organization. Show something that is clearly demonstrating the fact that your organization is the place to work for. Enable them to personally connect to it. Your challenge is to liven up the professional and social life in the organization for someone who is still not in it.

I’ll Agree — It’s not an Easy Task

I do believe though that social media tools can give you the answer if you use them correctly. Take “Best Buy” and its Twelpforce — the collective technical support team formed last year to give help through Twitter. The company’s staff answers questions (from customers or others) within minutes. Any candidate interested in Best Buy’s Service Department can just watch this magic of the crowds, inside the company. It comes from a body of people that focuses not only on customers, offering help to anyone that needs assistance. If there are candidates who don’t like this way of work, they probably won’t hand in their CV. I’m sure that for Best Buy that’s excellent — focusing only on those who want to be part of this “support team spirit.”

Another great example is Microsoft and its blogs network, that worldwide, through all of Microsoft’s sites, enables employees to speak freely with interested partners and readers. The blogs of the engineers themselves exposes candidates to the “real” life in Microsoft. Uncensored, clear, and focused, out there for all to see.

It Takes Guts

It takes a lot of guts and courage from organizations, willing to leave the “fait” of the organizations’ branding and marketing in the hands of the employees, with no censorship on every word coming out of the employees. There is clearly no one simple way, one route to follow, where the perfect candidates fall in your lap.

There is, however, something in the world of social media that makes me feel like it’s closest to Cameron’s physical demonstration in Avatar. It is the power of the crowd of employees in the organization. Use the voice of your employees through social media tools, and they’ll get your message through.

Let your best employees talk and they will demonstrate it to the right candidates.

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Recruitment tech vendor MrTed is being acquired by StepStone Solutions, a global talent management provider based in the United Kingdom.

The sale gives StepStone Solutions a stronger presence in the U.S., where London headquartered MrTed has been gaining brand awareness and growing its foothold, especially  in the SMB market since introducing the free ATS, SmartRecruiters, two years ago. StepStone also acquires MrTed’s global customers using its SaaS talent acquisition product, MrTedTalentLink.

Consultant Naomi Bloom, who works closely with StepStone Solutions, blogged this morning that she believes the driver behind the acquisition was MrTed’s SaaS architecture, and its customer base.

“These true SaaS capabilities, and MrTed’s very desireable customer base of about 100 large, global enterprises, may well explain StepStone’s interest in MrTed,” she wrote.

Today’s announcement, which carries the curious dateline of London and Texas (MrTed’s U.S. office is in San Francisco), says little about plans for the future of the MrTed product line. No doubt StepStone Solutions will integrate MrTed’s technical approach and its recruiting platform into its own talent management line. Whether it will continue the free SmartRecruiters service isn’t known.

There’s no word on the fate of StepStone’s own recruiting product or how the integration will be handled.  However, in the announcement on the MrTed site, co-founder and CEO Jerome Ternynck says, “Our aim is to ensure that the integration of MrTed into StepStone Solutions has only positive results for our customers and employees, and I am personally delighted to be continuing to work with StepStone Solutions in an advisory capacity.”

I emailed a StepStone spokesman asking about the future of SmartRecruiters and about the integreation, but with an eight-hour time difference between us, it may be tomorrow before I get a response.

StepStone has its roots in talent acquisition, starting as a job board in the U.K. in 1996. It began offering technical solutions several years ago, developing a line of talent management components that includes comp, performance, e-learning, etc. The company also has a separate talent acquisition solution that integrates with the TM suite.

StepStone was acquired by German publisher Axel Springer last year. In May, it sold off the software division, StepStone Solutions for EUR110 million ($144.9 million U.S.) to equity investor HG Capital LLC. Axel Springer retained the job board business.

The announcement of the MrTed acquisition was made today. Financial details were not disclosed.

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The Punk Rock HR lady is about to pen her final post. What will it be? A nostalgic farewell to the blog she started three years ago? A rant, perhaps, about why sex and drugs don’t mix in the workplace, but might elsewhere? Or a pitch to neuter your cats and dogs and that indecisive manager who insists hiring is all about the vibe?

Yes, indeed, Laurie Ruettimann is calling it quits. Sort of. Her final post to Punk Rock HR will come the end of the month. She’s known since selling the site to RecruitingBlogs last year that sooner or later the day would come when she would stop offering her punkian views on everything from men in plaid shorts who pee a lot to such career advice as “When your butt hurts from work, it’s time to make a change.”

But this is no eulogy. Ruettimann won’t be blogging on Punk Rock HR, but she won’t be not writing. “I am a writer by nature,” she says, explaining she’ll be starting a new blog somewhere. When we talked last Thursday, she didn’t have a name for it and wasn’t exactly sure what it would be like, except that it will be about HR and especially recruiting.

By now she may have decided. She’s supposed to be announcing her departure today on Punk Rock HR and talking about her venture as a partner in New Media Services. The new business will provide targeted content to participants at conferences via new media platforms.

Let me pause here for a moment to reassure Ruettimann fans that the complete collection of Punk Rock HR posts will endure. She’ll have a copy on her new blog, while Punk Rock HR will have a set. Jason Davis, founder of RecruitingBlogs, promised the archive would remain, saying, ”We are not exactly sure what we will do with the site. There is an amazing body of great posts from a great writer and personality.”

That anyone should care what becomes of last week’s posts, let alone last year’s, puzzles Ruettimann. Writing, she says, is “Just a job to me.” That’s a comment she’ll repeat often during our hour-long conversation.

It’s the first time I’ve spoken with her, though I’ve read Punk Rock HR and seen her speak at HR conferences. I tried to introduce myself at one, but the crowd around here was deep enough I never got the chance.  She seems surprised when I tell her this; surprised there was a crowd. “Really?” she asks.

“I have no illusions that what I write about matters to anybody,” she tells me. “Absolutely nobody cares.”

“I try to be healthy about this and not take myself too seriously,” she confesses, and then thanks me for referring to her as a writer. “I’m just a blogger.”

Ah. But what a blogger. Her career advice shows up in The New York Times and her recruiting counsel in The Conference Board’s journal. CareerBuilder lists Punk Rock HR as one of the “5 Job Blogs You Should Be Reading.” The credentials list is long, matched only by the list of speaking engagements.

Ruettimann’s success dispensing HR wisdom comes from a past as serious and even button-down as Punk Rock HR is sassy and irreverent. An English major with degrees from U.S. and U.K. colleges, Ruettimann began her career parlaying a candy company HR internship she took out of necessity into a full-time job.

She needed money. Leaf had a job. She took it and discovered her niche: recruiting. “I was good at it,” she says, quickly adding that it wasn’t hard to be good at the job. “As long as you’re sober and show up you can make candy.”

Leaf was acquired by Hershey and she came along for a while before leaving to do staffing for Monsanto and later moved on to Spherion as recruiting manager. A few more moves and she was at Pfizer, commuting to her job in New York from her home in Michigan and preparing to move to North Carolina.

Sick of commuting, tired of corporate HR, and fortunate enough to be offered a “sweet severance package,” Ruettimann figured she’d do a little blogging, pick up some consulting work, and between that and her husband’s job, they’d make ends meet. “We really worked hard to keep our expenses down. We don’t spend a lot.”

It was 2007, the year before the world’s economy came crashing down, taking with it more than a few publishing giants. Yet Ruettimann managed to survive. HR Bloggers, which she started in August of 2007, the same time as Punk Rock HR, is still there. She co-founded HRM Today a year later. Last August, she stepped away from both when she sold Punk Rock HR.

Why the businesses survived, even thrived, when the economy claimed so many other victims, is a surprise to Ruettimann. “Did I just get lucky?” she wonders, admitting to the insecurity that seems to be an occupational trait of writers. “Is there some window of the universe that is about to close?”

“It amazes me sometimes,” she says, “that anyone reads this stuff. Nobody gives a shit about what I do. ”

I point out that someone must. She was just recently cast as the career adviser in a pilot for a reality show about finding a job. She won’t or can’t talk about it, though she makes me promise to note that it wasn’t her idea; that it hasn’t been sold to any network, and; she may not end up in the role, should it be picked up.

Her blog is on most HR blogrolls and every post has comments.

For God’s sake she even gets something like 30 comments when she complains about hubby missing the recycling bin with the day’s newspaper, itself an interesting artifact in this digital age.

She concedes that, OK, there are people who read her blog, and actually do pay attention to her HR advice. And even care about her five cats who often appear in posts. She gets paid to attend conferences and to dispense such advice as, ”I’m a cynical HR professional and I know one thing: if you’re dumb enough to give me a free work product in a desperate attempt to get a job, you are too dumb to work for my company.”

She’s a success and wonders why. And how. “What is it that makes me succeed?” she repeats before declaring, “I have no f***ing clue.” But she does, and in a moment offers this: “I just don’t accept no. I just plod forward.”

And that bit of advice from Laurie Ruettimann is free.

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If you are wondering why you aren’t called in to interview for great job opportunities, it’s undoubtedly because your resume is not “powerful,” and significantly undersells your abilities and experience. Having worked with major corporations on the design of their hiring and resume screening processes, I can attest that nearly all applicants fail to adequately highlight themselves in a way that increases their chances of being selected for further evaluation. While you may actually be a very good fit for the roles and the organizations to which you have applied, chances are that your boring resume doesn’t instill that perception in the 15-20 seconds that those charged with screening resumes typically spend per applicant.

Even if you are not currently seeking a new role, failing to adequately highlight your achievements is a weakness that can impact you throughout your career. When it comes to performance appraisal, promotion consideration, and even day-to-day work assignment, learning how to influence the perception of you as a performer is key to ensuring that your career reaches the heights you desire.

Over a decade ago, Fast Company magazine dubbed me the “Michael Jordan of hiring,” so if you want to have a resume as powerful and effective as Michael Jordan’s actually is, consider each of the checklist items that follow.

Bolster the Content of Your Resume

While an unusual format may garner a few seconds more of attention, it may also prevent your resume from making it through electronic sorting and filtering tools used by larger corporations, so it is best to focus on what your resume says about you, versus the font, layout, and embellishment used. (This is true for online profiles as well; spending hours adjusting the color pallet and background and only minutes on the content doesn’t facilitate stronger networking.) To maximize your appeal, focus on powerful “selling” points that cover your results, your impact on the organization, your skills and your ability to manage and lead.

For each of the items on the checklist, mentally review your working life, as well as other outside work responsibilities, for experiences/activities that relate to the item. For example, if you are seeking a role that calls for leadership skills, ask yourself how many times you were a leader of a project, a subproject, a team, or even a meeting/event. It does not matter if you were never formally appointed a leader or given a leadership title; if you have successfully led others, you should reference leadership as one of your attributes. Feature leadership terms throughout the content that comprises your resume, including sections covering your experience, education, and extracurricular activities.

Continue through the checklist until each of the factors appears at least once in your resume. When you have reached the end of the checklist, step back and admire all that you have done and accomplished, and can do again in your next job, ad then raise your career goals and expectations!

Thirty “Power Factors” to Bolster the Content of Your Resume

1. Result or accomplishment — everyone wants employees who produce results, so you need to find a way to list every significant result, output, or accomplishment. Your resume should include dozens of performance-related references. (Example: Achieved 100% of ___ rollout project milestones while being first to implement ___ within the division.)
2. Quantify results in dollars — the language of businesses is dollars, so characterizing the dollar impact of your accomplishments on the organization can be a key differentiator. It’s OK to use estimates if you can explain your logic. (Example: implemented changes to the ___ process that resulted in a 32% increase output with no noticeable impact on quality).
3. Skills used — listing the work you did but omitting the array of skills that you need to accomplish that work is a major omission in most resumes. You should never mention a task or accomplishment without highlighting both the technical and people skills required to accomplish it. Start with a list of all the skills that you can find in job descriptions of interest and try to mention each one. (Example: Used root cause analysis to track an emerging issue back to a change that had been overlooked many times and used strong Internet research skills to gather supporting information and build a business case to successfully convince a skeptical manager to address the issue.)
4. Demonstrate the quality of the work — you need to clearly demonstrate that you do high-quality work and that you understand and deliver quality consistently. Whenever you mention the volume of your work, also mention indications of its quality. (Example: Consistently ranked top producer within the division while maintaining the lowest error rate and a 98% customer satisfaction rate.)
5. Awards and honors — mention all recognitions received for outstanding work. Don’t forget shared and team awards, or informal awards created by local managers. Include awards received both in school and on the job. (Example: Awarded employee of the month six times.)
6. Leadership — employees who can lead are always in demand. Mention cases where you led a team or project, even if informally. Highlight challenges addressed and leadership methods used. (Example: Assembled and led a team responsible for developing a plan to expand scope of services provided, overcoming resource limitations, personality conflicts, and communication breakdowns to successfully present the case to the executive committee).
7. Management tools used — even if you were not a manager by title, show that you did use common management tools and processes during your assignments. (Example tools to highlight: team work, quality control, conflict resolution, CRM, time management, process reengineering.)
8. Technology tools — few things are more important these days than the ability to use and understand technology. Look for work examples that demonstrate your ability to learn and leverage emerging technology. (Example: used online groupware to create a project management office providing a common document repository, shared calendar, alerts, and staff assignments for key projects within our division.)
9. Worked with key people — individuals who have the opportunity to work with key people and executives are assumed to be among the best. If you worked for or with a famous individual, highlight them. Also include enough information so that the reader will know their importance. (Example: Was selected by my divisional vice president to serve on a committee led by our CEO to evaluate key customer satisfaction.)
10. Level of innovation — in a rapidly changing world, few things are more important than innovation. List new ideas or innovations you developed, even if the innovation was not implemented. Show that you are an outside-the-box thinker and often among the first to try new things. (Example: Suggested adoption of three new technologies to improve internal productivity, two of which were immediately adopted, yielding a 73% increase in workforce efficiency.)
11. Buzzwords — business people love functional/general business buzzwords, and merely using them reveals that you are current. Buzzwords should be included in descriptions of both your experience and education. (Example: Participated in a 6-Sigma evaluation exercise of our ___ process.)
12. Organization — almost every job requires organization, and if you can bring stability from chaos, you are valuable. Share how you took confusing and chaotic tasks and situations and effectively organized them so that they ran smoothly. (Example: Assumed responsibility for combining project documentation and assignments of seven local offices being consolidated into one regional center of expertise.)
13. Problem identification — if you can identify problems before they become severe, you are quite valuable. List situations where you identified a problem that no one else saw and show them that you thrive in situations where there are lots of problems. (Example: Worked with individuals from four departments to uncover unique situations that led to key customer complaints resulting in significant changes to long-standing customer evaluation and support processes).
14. People management responsibilities — in addition to leadership skills, general people skills are often a differentiator for technical jobs. It is important to highlight any time you helped with training, hiring, supervision, coaching or employee development, even if done rarely and informally. (Example: Assumed responsibility for training team of seven new hires during department leads leave of absence).
15. Financial responsibilities — demonstrating that you were given financial responsibility shows that management trusted you. List any time, even if it was brief, where you managed a budget, were responsible for cash or other major spending decisions (Example: Charged with evaluation and selection of $3.2M worth of new equipment for the ____ project.)
16. Selling capabilities — no matter what your job, the ability to sell ideas and products internally or externally is extremely valuable. Demonstrate that you effectively sold executives, vendors, or owners on new ideas. (Example: Developed arguments for a maintenance proposal that led our vendor to alter the service level agreement and reduce annual maintenance fees by 27%.)
17. Customer service — almost all jobs require some customer service knowledge and skill. Even if you were not in a customer service role, demonstrate that you have relevant customer service skills that apply across many situations. (Example: Worked with several colleagues following assignment of a new manager with a very abrupt management style to our division to restore positive working atmosphere and resolve assumptions limiting productivity.)
18. Wrote/Presented — anyone that can write reports or who can make important presentations is extremely valuable. Include any time that you were asked to write something or to make a presentation. If the audience included important people or was large, say so. (Example: Selected by my team to develop and present key revisions and changes to product implementation methodologies before 4,000 key customers at our global user conference.)
19. Planning/Forecasting — employees who are forward-looking are the most desirable. Highlight situations where you forecasted future events or put together a plan, even if informal. (Example: Developed an emergency response plan following news that a court judgment on a highly publicized case would be announced in a building adjacent to ours during business hours. The plan was later used as a template for disaster planning across the company.)
20. Goal-setting — the best employees are goal-oriented. Show that before you start a major project, that you set, communicate, and get agreement on goals. (Example: Worked with team members to clarify and set feasible project goals on the ___ project that resulted in avoidance of four possible project derailers.)\
21. Time management — you need to demonstrate that you are conscious of time limitations and deadlines. Show that you completed work in a timely manner or even that you were the first to do it. (Example: Was the first within my division to complete all milestones on time.)
22. Efficiency — everyone needs workers who are efficient and conscious of costs. Whenever possible, show that you completed tasks efficiently and under budget. (Example: Successfully implemented ____ using only a fraction of the support budget allocated, reducing project cost by 9%.)
23. Extensive contacts — being well connected and having extensive contacts is an extremely valuable asset for any individual. Demonstrate that you used your contacts to get access, answers, or information. (Example: Leveraged industry contacts to get unbiased feedback on two service providers being considered for a long-term contract, uncovering a volume of pending complaints and possible litigation against our leading contender.)
24. Any major company names involved — in addition to mentioning the names of key individuals, you should also mention the names of well-known and innovative firms you have dealt with including notable customers, strategic partners, vendors, or consultants. (Example: Worked with McKinsey & Co. on the deployment of our groups product with Google, General Mills, and Dow Corning.)
25. Global perspective — almost every employee is expected to have a global perspective these days. Even if you don’t have formal international responsibilities, show that you have the capability of working with those from other countries. (Example: Partnered with colleagues in China and India to localize customer evaluation and ranking processes developed there and slated for global rollout.)
26. Benchmarking — the ability to capture information and answers from industry leading firms is extremely valuable. Highlight situations where you researched benchmark best practices both inside and outside of the organization (Example: Compiled summary of best practices in rapid skill development among professional service firms such as Accenture, Deloitte, and EY.)
27. Used metrics — you can’t continually improve anything without metrics. Provide examples that demonstrate you start projects with clearly articulated results metrics in place and that you leverage the metrics to inform decisions. (Example: Devised customer service satisfaction and service efficiency metrics prior to the rollout of new CRM software that would later be used to optimize service center staffing levels.)
28. Consulted — if you have had the opportunity to provide technical or functional advice to others, formally or informally, you are viewed as an expert. Highlight where you consulted or advised others internally or externally. (Example: Consulted with several key clients to transfer knowledge on our approach to learning collaboratively using social media.)
29. Training — in many companies, access to advanced training means that you are a top employee. Highlight training courses, seminars, workshops and any-advanced training on emerging issues that you participated in. If you have taught training classes, even if they were informal, include that also. Under your education, be sure and list any key skills and tools that you learned and “hot topics” covered in your classes. (Example: Represented my division at industry working groups on ___, and then developed informal internal knowledge sharing summaries for others in my group.)
30. Diversity — show that you can work with and understand people from different backgrounds. (Example: Used my knowledge of Spanish and Italian to assist global customers when translated support materials were not available.)

Supplemental Convincing Factors

The following elements can and should be used within any resume point to make it stronger and more convincing.

A comparison number — numbers are powerful, but to an outsider, a single isolated number might not mean much. As a result, it is always a good idea to provide a comparison number to show context. Comparison numbers can include the very best in the industry, the best number inside the firm, the average number, last year’s number, the target number, or your competitor’s number (Example: Broke previous sales records by selling 13 additional units on average, per period, and producing revenue 146% above average in our industry.)

Quotes are included — a direct quote from an executive, supervisor, coworker, or even a customer can add credibility and perspective to any accomplishment. (Examples: Was highlighted in my manager’s annual departmental performance review to senior leaders and the “most valuable” team player).

Killer phrases are used — there are certain phrases in business that are universally accepted as signs of good work. Wherever possible include phrases like … “cut costs by xx%,” “completed the project under time and under budget,” “used technology to improve customer service,” “did more with less,” “increased market share by xx%,” “increased margins by xx %.”

A web link — resumes contain only words, and sometimes your actual work is your most powerful selling point. Wherever possible, provide a direct Internet link to your work or reference to your work. In other cases, mention where a sample or a video of it is available.

Final Thoughts

As both an adviser to talent managers and a business school professor, I get to see both sides of the job search picture. I understand how corporations screen resumes and what it takes to be consistently selected for an interview. Students and experienced professionals alike struggle to present themselves optimally because they rely on antiquated career guidance and assumptions about what others will value.

The one universal truth about resumes is that if it does little more than list your jobs, it provides little value to you or the organizations you apply to. A resume should be a comprehensive marketing document detailing your capabilities, skills, and accomplishments. It should be kept current and used not only when seeking employment, but also as a memory jogger when filing for an internal transfer, promotion, or completing a performance self-assessment. To ensure you are not underselling yourself, use the search feature in your word processing program to see how many times the factors highlighted in this checklist actually appear. If you find, as most do, that over half of these words are not present, kick yourself in the butt for underselling yourself for all these years!

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Were it not for one-time expenses in the not-yet-completed HotJobs purchase, Monster broke even in the 2nd quarter. But even considering the $5.2 million expense, the recruitment advertising company still managed to do better than the consensus of Wall Street analysts.

Analysts expected a loss between 3 cents and 5 cents a share on revenue of $216 million. Monster, which reported its financial this afternoon, came in at break-even on earnings per share and $214.9 million on revenue.

Counting the HotJobs expenses and a few other smaller, one-time costs, Monster reported losing $2.96 million on revenue of $214.9 million. That translates into a 2 cent a share loss. Without those one-time expenses Monster’s loss was just under $200,000, which is break-even on a per share basis.

In the report, and reiterated during a 5 p.m. (EDT) conference call with analysts, Monster officials said the company expected a better year than it had previously forecast. Crediting an increase in bookings (contract sales), and sales of  its power resume search, CEO Sal Iannuzzi and CFO Tim Yates said the company now expected to lose between 6 and 14 cents a share, a significant reduction from a previous high of 20 cents.

Despite the bottom-line performance, Monster’s domestic and overseas revenue shows the continuing softness in recruitment. Though the picture is vastly better than in 2009 when revenue dropped 37 percent in the second quarter over the same period in 2008, lackluster job growth in the U.S. was the biggest drain on the company. North American revenue was $96.9 million, a drop of 5 percent over last year.

Still, Monster’s North American second quarter revenue was virtually unchanged from the first quarter and the international revenue was up. Between the 1st and 2nd quarters, Monster’s revenue was basically flat. That’s evidence that the U.S. economy is not getting any worse.

CareerBuilder, meanwhile, reported its North American revenue was $139 million, up 3 percent over the same period in 2009 and up 5 percent over the first quarter of 2010. The privately held company volunteers only its domestic revenue. It won’t disclose international revenue nor its expenses.

How the acquisition of HotJobs will change Monster’s financial picture isn’t clear, though in the near term it’s expected to contribute $20-$40 million before taxes, interest, depreciation, and amortization. Yates said HotJobs is expected to be a particular help in the staffing and healthcare areas.

The deal is to close sometime in the the current quarter. No HotJobs contributions were factored into the full-year financial estimates.

Dice, the other major publicly held job board operator, reported earlier this week that it earned 6 cents a share.

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The Internet’s naming authority will take up the controversial plan to expand the .jobs addresses at its Aug. 5th telephone conference.

The agenda of the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers was released a short while ago and includes consideration of the proposal.

Also on the agenda for the three-hour meeting is the even more controversial proposal to approve a .XXX extension for porn sites. For obvious reasons, that request has garnered wider public interest, including 13,325 comments posted to the ICANN forum. The .jobs expansion plan garnered 316 comments.

The board’s telephone conference is not open to the public. An ICANN spokesperson said that the board’s decision on all agenda items will be made available following the end of the meeting. The spokesperson didn’t say exactly when the results would be reported.

The proposal by Employ Media, and endorsed by its partner, the Society for Human Resource Management, seeks approval to permit the use of geographic, occupational, and other names in conjunction with a .jobs Internet extension. (Complete coverage of the issue on ERE is available here.)

Currently, only employer names can be used. However, some non-employer names have been registered. The Chicago Urban League has one. It runs a job board on NextMove.jobs. At least a few others have been registered, including MakeItHappen.jobs, which is registered to Lee Memorial Health System and forwards users to Lee’s career site.

Employ Media wants permission to use the so-called generic names and assign them in one of three ways: first via an RFP process; then an auction; and finally on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The proposal has been widely condemned by the job board industry, which objects to the power it vests in Employ Media to decide who will get the names.

The beneficiary is widely expected to be the recruiting consortium DirectEmployers Association. The organization launched several job boards using the restricted addresses last fall and announced plans to launch tens of thousands — possibly a million.

Led by its trade association, the International Association of Employment Web Sites, hundreds of comments opposing the plan were posted to the ICANN forum. Monster and CareerBuilder posted notes, as did many other operators. Besides objecting to the distribution method, the opponents complained that the job board industry was not consulted, and that as a major player in sourcing and recruiting, it is part of the international HR community.

Proponents of the expansion, though not as numerous in the public comments, pointed out that a job board operator participated in the SHRM committee that considered the plan. Aaron Matos, CEO of Jobing.com, resigned before the vote on the plan was taken. The committee endorsed it 7-1 and the SHRM board later approved it, too.

SHRM was a sponsor of the creation of the .jobs address in 2005 and has since played a role in advising Employ Media on the program. One of its responsibilities is to review and recommend proposed changes.

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Without question, having a large LinkedIn network is a competitive advantage for any recruiter working on hard-to-fill positions and hard-to-find candidates. This advantage is lessened dramatically with LinkedIn Recruiter, since it includes complete visibility to the 70mm+ people in their network. Since this full-visibility product is off-limits to TPRs, it levels the playing field somewhat for corporate recruiters. But this is not as significant a disadvantage as it would seem to those of us who have to find top candidates the old-fashioned way — networking. Getting pre-qualified referrals from people who will call you back is the real secret of recruiting passive candidates.

With this in mind, I’d like to offer a few of my favorite passive candidate recruiting secrets.

Networking Secrets of an Old-time Headhunter

1. Network in 3D. While the names on LinkedIn are great to have, getting the names of their best connections is even better. As you begin your quest for great referrals, don’t just consider peers. Consider those who these people have mentored, who mentored them, who they most likely worked with on cross-functional teams, and who they regularly work with outside the company, including vendors, customers, and consultants.
2. Track your effectiveness. Don’t waste your time. Networking is not about dialing for dollars. Instead, track how many people call you back, how many are interested in talking about your position, how many are qualified for your opening, and how many referrals you get per call. If you’re not tracking this daily, you can’t get any better, since you won’t know what to work on. If you do track these metrics, you’ll soon discover that great referrals from well-respected people can increase your productivity 5-10X. That’s why the first name found on LinkedIn is not nearly as valuable as a referral from one of these people.
3. Get three referrals on each call. The most important metric you can track is how many high-quality referrals you get on each call. You need to become adept at getting these names. Make sure you highlight the fact that you don’t want to know anyone who’s looking. Instead, ask the person for the best person they know who’s absolutely not looking, but would be open to discussing a potential career move. Thinking in 3D helps here. For example, I’ve called buyers at major retailers looking for salespeople, product marketing people looking for engineers, ad agencies looking for product marketing people, and CPA partners looking for CFOs. The key is not to hang up until you have three great referrals if the person you called isn’t appropriate for the job at hand.
4. Don’t call people who won’t call you back. Great people will call you back if you mention the name of another great person. That’s why step three is so important. Track your callback rates. If you make sure that 80% of the people you call are warm, pre-qualified referrals, your call-back rate will be 75% or better. If you just make outbound cold calls, your callback rate will be closer to 25%. This is a huge difference in productivity.
5. Only call people who are worthy. While getting people to call you back is important, if they’re not worth talking to, it’s a waste of time. That’s why it’s important that you pre-qualify the referral. Just ask the person giving you the name why the person is a top-performer. As far as I’m concerned, a worthy person is someone who is either qualified for the job or knows someone who is.
6. Leave professional and career-oriented messages. Whether it’s a voicemail or an email, suggest you’d like to enter into a discussion regarding what could potentially be an important career move for the person. You must include some substantive proof as part of the message, not hyperbole. For example, “You might have heard that we just merged with XYZ Resources, and are looking for a product manager to lead the first integrated development project. I’d like to chat with you to see if this could offer a significant career move for you.” If you can mention the name of the person who provided you the referral you will more than double your callback rate. Hyperbole — “the greatest position in the world” — will cut it in half.
7. Create instant careers. If you’ve asked the person if they’re open to discussing a possible career move and they answered yes, don’t tell them much more about the job; instead, get them to first tell you a little about them. This is essential. As you quickly go through the highlights of the person’s work history, look for gaps in the candidate’s background your job fills. This could include staff size, scope of the project, impact the person can make, exposure to management, and the like. Mention these as reasons to proceed in the discussion. Of course, if the gaps are too big, or non-existent, smoothly switch your focus to getting three referrals.
8. Don’t take “no” for an answer. In addition to doing everything described above, you also need to be adept at overcoming objections. These cover the range from I’m not looking, what’s the comp, I’m happy where I am, to I’d don’t like the industry, your company has a bad reputation, and I don’t want to relocate. It’s impossible to put 20 years of advice into a single paragraph, other than to say that persistence is the key here. If your position represents a true career move, you owe it to your hiring manager, yourself, and the person on the phone not to give up until the person has the information needed to compare your job to what they’re doing today or whatever else they’re considering. Don’t give up until they do. Even if the person decides it’s not a true career move, you’ll still be able to get your three referrals.
9. Recruit first, network second. You’ll increase your networking productivity by directly recruiting the person first, rather than calling the person on some “networking” premise. To me this later approach should only be used when calling someone who clearly is not a candidate for the job. Recruiting the person first allows you to find out about the person’s background before revealing much about the job. This allows you to determine if you should recruit the person or get referrals. You also establish a different relationship once the candidate has shared some confidential information with you.
10. Become SWK (someone worth knowing). Top prospects want to stay connected with top recruiters who handle important jobs. To become SWK you must know the job, the hiring manager, your company, your industry, and your competition. You need to be seen as a reasonably objective career counselor who is only willing to proceed if the job represents a true career move. You know you’re SWK if you get unsolicited referrals from top people in your area of expertise who want to work with you and give you other top referrals.

What’s great about LinkedIn and its Recruiter product is it gets you in the major leagues on day one. This is an invaluable gift. Regardless, since everyone will soon have access to the same information, your ability to convert a list of names into hot prospects and great hires is the real difference-maker. In my mind, this is the essence of great recruiting.

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HR software vendor Taleo grew its revenue and customer count during the second quarter of this year and though it also grew its net loss, the company beat Wall Street’s earnings estimates.

The company reported this afternoon that it lost $1.4 million, up from just $113,000 in the same quarter last year. Stock options and costs relating to previous acquisitions totaling $6.9 million were responsible for the loss. Not including these expenses (which analysts don’t include in their estimates) and some minor other one-time expenses, Taleo earned 14 cents a share. That was 2 cents better than the analyst consensus.

Revenue from applications (software)– $47.9 million —  was almost 12 percent than the same quarter a year ago. That boosted the quarterly revenue to $56.3 million, for an overall increase over the year before of 14.6 percent.

Of the 226 new customers signed in the quarter, eight of the deals exceeded $250,000 annually.

Taleo also reported that CFO Katy Murray would leave by Oct. 1. She earns $315,000 and received a 2009 bonus of $126,000, according to the San Francisco Business Times.

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