December Jokes 2011

You've been waiting all month!
Here are some jokes to tell at your New Years parties:


What do the 2011 Green bay Packers, Chicago Bears, and Minnesota Vikings all have in common?
They're all sitting out the first round of the playoffs!

Why don't most blind people skydive?
Because it scares the dogs!

What do dogs and trees have in common?
Bark

What is a vampire's favorite food?
NECKtarines

What do you get when you cross a detective with a skeleton?
Sherlock Bones

What do you need to know to be an auctioneer?
Lots

Thanks for reading and laughing!
Happy New Year!
Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

Did You Check to See How Your Ad Appears?

In this day and age of mobile, cloud computing, social media, and good old fashioned email, it is important for you to understand how your ad will appear on the different media you use.
A good example is this ad below that was posted on MilwaukeeJobs.com and was sent to me via a search agent on Indeed.com. What type pf person are they looking for? Would you apply to this ad? What does this say about your company?
Thanks!
Ev


Graphic Designer/Web Developer


(Name Withheld) - Wauwatosa, WI

See original job posting at MilwaukeeJobs.com »

nbsp;Graphic Designer/Web Developer nbsp; Type:nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Full-time Hours:nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; 40 Compensation:nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Commensurate with experience Start Date: nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; approx. Dec 1st Location:nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Wauwatosa Travel:nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; 5 nbsp; nbsp;



Organization:

We provides an innovative and comprehensive suite of lending services and technology solutions to thousands of banks, lenders and other mortgage industry firms nationwide.nbsp; Our rapidly growing organization offers a flexible yet fast-paced work environment. We are headq

YouTube 2011 Rewind

I love end of the year reviews. So what did we watch on YouTube this year?
Since very few of us are at work the day after Christmas and you might need something to waste some time while waiting to get home this week, take a look.
How many of these do you remember watching or hearing about?
Happy New Year!
Ev

2011 YouTube Rewind

Predictions for 2012

Predictions for 2012 by Dr. John Sullivan.
Happy 2012!
Ev

Trends in Talent Management and Recruiting by Dr. John Sullivan

It’s always better to be prepared than surprised.

By definition, being strategic requires that you look forward — identifying trends, opportunities, and threats. With the December lull looming, now is a great time to plan for the future. I’ve listed the “top 10 talent management trends” I foresee that require your attention. But you should certainly do your own thinking. I recommend that you start by examining this past year…

2011 Was The Year of Social Media

2011 was a tough year for many in talent management, but despite compressed budgets, organizations continued to hire and develop talent. One factor that seemed to invade nearly every high-level functional discussion was social media. It’s clear that Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter will play a dominate role in recruiting and development best practices in years to come.

Not surprisingly, 2011 saw no fewer than 40 new vendors emerge to help organizations use social media to attract referrals. We also started to see early stage tools to use social media in talent assessment (pre/post hire) as well as applicant/candidate/employee experience management. New tools brought much enhanced visibility into talent issues, but most talent-management metrics continue not to resonate with key leaders outside of the HR function.

2012 Will Be “The Year of the Mobile Platform”

By the end of next year, even the skeptics will have to admit that the mobile platform will have become the dominant communications and interaction platform by early-adopting best-practice organizations. The capabilities afforded users of smartphones and tablet devices grows immensely day by day. Long before unified inboxes existed for the desktop, smart device users could see all incoming e-mail, social messaging, text messaging, and voice and video messaging in a single place.

Tablets will become the virtual classroom, and an emerging class of tools will let employees manage almost every aspect of their professional life digitally. During the next year, talent management leaders need to invest heavily supporting execution of talent management initiatives across mobile.

The Additional Top Nine!

Intense hiring competition will return in selected areas — global economic issues will persist for years to come, but the global war for talent will continue spiking in key regions an industries. While growth has slowed somewhat in China, Australia and Southeast Asia — including India — continue to see dramatic demand for skilled talent. In the U.S. and Europe, demand is still largely limited to certain industries where skills shortages have been an issue for years.

In high tech inclusive of medical technologies, 2012 will see a significant escalation in the war for top talent. As innovators and game changers step out of established tech firms like Facebook, Apple, Google, Twitter, and Zynga, a whole new breed to tech startups will be born each vying for the best of the best. While recruiting will move forward at a breathtaking pace, so too will “rapid” leadership development.

Retention issues will increase dramatically — almost every survey shows that despite high engagement scores, more than a majority of employees are willing to quit their current job as soon as a better opportunity comes along. I am predicting that turnover rates in high-demand occupations will increase by 25% during the next year and because most corporate retention programs have been so severely degraded, retention could turn out to be the highest-economic-impact area in all of talent management.Rather than the traditional “one-size-fits-all” retention strategy, a targeted personalized approach will be required if you expect to have a reasonable chance to retain your top talent.

Social media increases its impact by becoming more data-driven — most firms jumped on the social media bandwagon, but unfortunately the trial-and-error approach used by most has produced only mediocre results. Adapting social media tools from the business coupled with strong analytics will allow a more focused approach that harnesses and directs the effort of all employees on social media. Talent leaders will increasingly see the value of a combination of internal and external social media approaches for managing and developing talent.

Remote work changes everything in talent management — the continued growth of technology, social media, and easy communications now makes it possible for most knowledge work and team activities to occur remotely. Allowing top talent to work “wherever they want to work” improves retention and makes recruiting dramatically easier.

Unfortunately, even though it is now possible for as much as 50% of a firm’s jobs to be done remotely, manager and HR resistance has limited the trend. Fortunately, managers and talent management leaders have begun to realize that teamwork, learning, development, recruiting, and best-practice sharing can now successfully be accomplished using remote methods. Firms like IBM and Cisco have led the way in reducing and eliminating barriers to remote work.

The need for speed shifts the balance between development and recruiting — historically, best practice within corporations has been to build and develop primarily from within. However, as the speed of change in business continues to increase and the number of firms that copy the “Apple model” (where firm is continually crossing industry boundaries) increases, talent managers will need to rethink the “develop internally first” approach.

In many cases, recruiting becomes a more viable option because there simply isn’t time for current employees to develop completely new skills. As a result, the trend will be to continually shift the balance toward recruiting for immediate needs and the use of contingent labor for short-duration opportunities and problems.

Employee referrals are coupled with social media — the employee referral program in many organizations is operated in isolation as are the organizations’ social media efforts, but talent managers are beginning to realize that the real strength of social media is relationship-building by your employees.

With proper coordination, employee relationships can easily be turned into employee referrals. This realization will lead to a shift away from recruiters and toward relying on employees to build social media contacts and relationships. The net result will be that as many as 60% of all hires will come from the combined efforts. The strength of these relationships will lead to better assessment and the highest-quality hires from employee referrals.

Employer branding returns — Employer branding and building talent communities are the only long-term strategies in recruiting. True branding is rarely practiced (hint: it’s not recruitment marketing) especially in the cash-strapped function of today, but years of layoffs, cuts in compensation, and generally bad press for business in general may force firms to invest in true branding. The increased use of social media and frequent visits to employee criticism sites (like Glassdoor.com), make not managing employer brand perception a risky proposition. While corporations will never control their employer brand, they can monitor and influence in a direction that isn’t catastrophic to recruiting and retention.

The candidate experience is finally getting the attention it deserves — Organizations have never treated candidates as well as they did their customers, but the high jobless rate has allowed corporations to essentially abuse some applicants. As competition for talent increases and as more applicants visit employer criticism sites like Glassdoor.com, talent leaders will be forced to modify their approach.

At the very least, firms will more closely monitor candidate experience metrics as they realize that treating applicants poorly can not only drive away other high-quality applicants but it can also lose them sales and customers.

Forward-looking metrics begin to dominate — Almost all current talent management and recruiting metrics are backward looking, in that they tell you what happened in the past. Other business functions like supply chain, production, and finance have long championed the use of “forward-looking” or predictive metrics and the time is finally coming when talent management leaders will shift their metrics emphasis. Forward-looking metrics can not only improve decision-making but they can also help to prevent or mitigate future talent problems.

Other Things to Keep Your Eye On…

In addition to the major trends highlighted above, there are 12 additional “hot” topics to keep your eye on:

•Risk identification — almost every other business function has already adopted a risk management strategy. So the time is coming when talent management will be forced to adopt a similar strategy and set of metrics. This program will not only cover HR legal issues but also the economic “risk” associated with weak hiring, the absence of developed leaders, and the cost of turnover of key talent.

•Prioritization — continued budget and resource pressure will force talent management leaders to prioritize their services, business units, key jobs, and high-value managers/employees.

•Integration — there will be increasing pressure for talent management functions to more closely integrate and work seamlessly.

•Expedited leadership development — as more baby-boom leaders and managers actually begin to retire, there will be increased pressure for expedited leadership development — specifically solutions that develop talent remotely using social media tools and within months rather than years.

•Competitive analysis — the increasingly competitive business world has forced almost every function to be more externally focused. Although HR has a long history of being internally focused and not being “highly competitive,” there is increasing pressure to become more business-like and to adopt an “us-versus-them” perspective. That means conducting competitive analysis and making sure that every key talent management function produces superior results to those at competitors.

•Contingent workers — as continuous business volatility becomes the “new normal,” the increased use and the improved management of contingent workers will become essential for agility and flexibility.

•Unionization — there is a reasonable chance that actions by the NLRB will increase union power and make it easier for unions to gain acceptance at private employers.

•Recruiting at industry events — as industry events return to popularity, recruiting at them will again become an effective tool for recruiting top and diverse talent.

•Location software — talent managers will begin to realize that software that allows you to check-in and see who is within close geographic proximity has great value and many still unidentified uses.

•Hire before they do — most firms will restrict their hiring until the turnaround actually begins. However, your firm must have a talent pool or pipeline developed, so that you can hire immediately and capture the top talent right before your competitors realize the downturn is over.

•Assessment continues to improve — vendors, software, and tools continue to improve in this area that will become increasingly important.

•Increase your revenue impact — increased economic pressures will continue the trend of forcing all functions (including talent management) to convert their functional results into business impacts in dollars. Talent management will face increasing pressure to directly demonstrate how their hiring, retention, development, etc. is focused, so that it directly increases and maximizes corporate revenues.

Final Thoughts

A recent survey of CEOs rates talent management as the No. 1 area where CEOs expect dramatic change during the next year. Given this increased attention, it’s even more critical that talent management and recruiting leaders set aside time to conduct a SWOT assessment (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to identify where they are and where they need to be.

The “new” talent management leader must be more strategic, more proactive, and more business-like, and that means getting your entire staff to begin thinking about and planning for the game-changing events, trends, and opportunities that will occur during the next year. It’s time to realize the “but-we-are-overwhelmed-and-too-busy” excuse for not forecasting and planning is wearing thin.

For Real Goofy Job Ad

I've always preached that in a job ad:
1. you should be honest in your job descriptions in terms of what you want from an employee
2. what duties they will be doing
3. how much they will be paid
4. what is in it for them
5. be creative

The ad below was on MilwaukeeJobs.com on December 13th, 2011.
I have not edited this ad in any way.

How many of the above does this ad cover?
Thanks!
Ev


Company: Attorney
Job Location(s): Waukesha, WI
Employment Term: Regular
Employment Type Part Time
Start Date: Soon
Starting Salary Range: $10 - $13
Required Education: Open
Required Experience: 1 to 20+ years
Related Categories: Admin - Secretarial and Office Mgmt, Legal - Paralegal and Support Staff, Admin - Receptionist/Clerical

Position Description


Sole Practitioner seeking a career oriented secretary that I can grow old and die with; ok, maybe not die with but one who is willing to stick around; b/c omg - it's a career. I provide no benefits and can't pay you as much as you are worth. You need to be organized, not me, I'm the boss. Have to type fast, be able to think and be proficient in computer skills. If you think I'd be fun to work for, I'm not, I actually have rules, like, you must show up on time, you can't drink on the job or come to work drunk among others. You need to be personable and able to talk on the phone (not yours, the offices). No texting and the computers are monitored for Website usage. Position includes file management, client interaction, scheduling, answering phones, dictation. Pervious legal experience required. If interested please click apply!

December 2011 Newsletter

Greetings!

Welcome to the December version of my newsletter!
Please look at the links below. If you are interested in an article click on the link and it will open for you.


The most popular post ever on my blog was a three minute summary of social media in 2010. Here is the 2011 version:
http://everetsblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/social-media-usage-in-2011.html

Everyone is looking to build their network of candidates and clients. Here are three things to help with that:
http://everetsblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/3-critical-actions-you-must-take-to.html

Puny and always clean enough jokes to tell your mother:
http://everetsblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/november-jokes.html

There are other articles as well so please feel free to search my blog. Thank you for everything! Have a great December!


Everet Kamikawa
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

5 Ways To Spot A Bad Boss In An Interview

I've written something similar but I found this to be true. If you're in sales a bad boss can ruin your reputation. This can be done by what they say, or don't say, about your performance. It can also be done by having you sell a product or service that they don't back up, provide, or do very well. Sort of the "tell the client we can do anything to get their business and we'll figure out how to do it later" approach. Avoid these kind of bosses at all costs and you can pick up clues to their management styles in the interviews as this article explains.
Thanks!
Ev

5 Ways To Spot A Bad Boss In An Interview

5 Ways to Spot A Bad Boss

A boss can literally, make or break your career. Here are five ways to spot the bad ones before they become yours.

A great boss can make you feel engaged and empowered at work, will keep you out of unnecessary office politics, and can identify and grow your strengths. But a bad boss can make the most impressive job on paper (and salary) quickly unbearable. Not only will a bad boss make you dislike at least 80% of your week, your relationships might suffer, too. A recent study conducted at Baylor University found that stress and tension caused by an abusive boss “affects the marital relationship and subsequently, the employee’s entire family.” Supervisor abuse isn’t always as blatant as a screaming temper tantrum; it can include taking personal anger out on you for no reason, dismissing your ideas in a meeting, or simply, being rude and critical of your work, while offering no constructive ways to improve it. Whatever the exhibition of bad boss behavior, your work and personal life will suffer. Merideth Ferguson, PH.D., co-author of the study and assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Baylor explains that “it may be that as supervisor abuse heightens tension in the relationship, the employee is less motivated or able to engage in positive interactions with the partner and other family members.”

There are many ways to try and combat the effects of a bad boss, including confronting him or her directly to work towards a productive solution, suggesting that you report to another supervisor, or soliciting the help of human resources. But none of those tactics gurantee improvement, and quite often, they’ll lead to more stress. The best solution is to spot a bad boss—before they become yours! Here are five ways to tell whether your interviewer is a future bad boss.

1. Pronoun usage. Performance consultant John Brubaker says that the top verbal tell a boss gives is in pronoun choice and the context it is used. If your interviewer uses the term “you” in communicating negative information ( such as, “you will deal with a lot of ambiguity”), don’t expect the boss to be a mentor. If the boss chooses the word “I” to describe the department’s success—that’s a red flag. If the interviewer says “we” in regards to a particular challenge the team or company faced, it may indicate that he or she deflects responsibility and places blame.

2. Concern with your hobbies. There is a fine line between genuine relationship building, and fishing for information, so use your discretion on this one. If you have an overall good impression of the potential boss it may be that he or she is truly interested in the fact that you are heavily involved in charity work, and is simply getting to know you. On the other hand, the interviewer may be trying to determine whether you have too many commitments outside of work. The interviewer can’t legally ask if you are married, or have kids, so digging into your personal life can be a clever way to understand just how available you are.

3. They’re distracted. The era of email, BlackBerrys and smartphones have made it “okay” for people to develop disrespectful communication habits in the name of work. Particularly in a frenzied workplace, reading email while a person is speaking, multi-tasking on conference calls and checking the message behind that blinking BlackBerry mid-conversation has become the norm of business communications. But, regardless of his or her role in the company, the interviewer should be striving to make a good impression—which includes shutting down tech tools to give you undivided attention. If your interviewer is glancing at emails while you’re speaking, taking phone calls, or late to the interview, don’t expect a boss who will make time for you.

4. They can’t give you a straight answer. Caren Goldberg, Ph.D. is an HR professor at the Kogod School of Business at American University. She says a key “tell” is vague answers to your questions. Listen for pauses, awkwardness, or overly-generic responses when you inquire what happened to the person who held the position you are interviewing for, and/or what has created the need to hire. (For example, if you are told the person was a “bad fit,” it may indicate that the workplace doesn’t spend much time on employee-development, and blames them when things don’t work out).

You should also question turnover rates, how long people stay in given roles, and what their career path has been. All of these answers can indicate not only if the boss is one people want to work for, but whether pay is competitive, and employees are given a career growth plan.

5. They’ve got a record. Ask the potential boss how long he or she has been at the company, in the role, and where he or she worked before coming to it to get a feel for his or management style, and whether it’s what you respond to. For example, bosses making a switch from a large corporation to a small company may lead with formality. On the other hand, entrepreneurs tend to be passionately involved in business, which can be a help or a hindrance, depending on your workstyle.

Goldberg also recommends searching the site eBossWatch, where you read reviews that former employees have given to a boss. If you’re serious about the position, she also suggests reaching to the former employee whose spot you are interviewing for, and asking for their take on the workplace. (LinkedIn makes this task easy to do). The former employee’s recount may not necessarily reflect your potential experience, but it can help you to determine whether his or her description of the job and company “jibes” with what the potential boss said.

How NOT to Interview Someone Who Already Has A Job

As candidate I agree with this article. Maybe you've been a candidate in a situation like this to, or perhaps were the recruiter involved and had to constantly call a candidate and ask for multiple interviews like in this case. That can be a bit embarrassing..."Ah hello candidate. You recently interviewed and, well, can you come back in because So-and-So needs to talk to you..." then having to do it again and again.
Thanks!
Ev


How NOT to Interview Someone Who Already Has A Job

by Renee Mangrum
on November 15, 2011

Answer: Don’t Waste Their Time!

You can stop reading now since I already gave the answer. If you read on, I will talk about best practices for interviewing candidates whose time is limited, since someone in their infinite wisdom has already given this person a job.

Recruiters and hiring managers all want to hire the person who is currently working, yes? Why then do we waste so much of their time, and treat them like our company is God’s gift to their career? Hiring Managers, and their superiors, AND their recruiters, tend to take the attitude “Well if they want the job, they’ll make the time”. This is completely contrary to the attitude we should be taking toward these candidates. Maybe they don’t want the job, or they’re not sure; maybe they were referred by an employee, sourced by a recruiter, or have six other offers. I just don’t understand why we treat the prize candidates, the ones we claim we want above all others, like cattle.

I recently saw a job posting. You may have seen it. The company proudly boasted: “You will go through 6-8 interviews!” I thought: “YOU will hire a bunch of unemployed people”.

OK yes, this is personal, because it recently happened to me. I’m a Recruiter who was working on a finite-term contract, and I began interviewing for other positions. I was repeatedly stunned at the attitude these companies (and their Recruiters) took toward my scheduling parameters. A person can only have so many doctors or dentist appointments before it becomes apparent to their employer they are probably interviewing. Even when I simply say “I’m not going to be in for half the day on Thursday” it will raise suspicion after a bit.

Here is the worst example: I interviewed for a position in a city that was a 1-hour drive from home. This startup on the San Francisco peninsula conducted SEVEN interviews with me, including THREE separate visits to their office. They seemed to have no plan and no interview process. They just kept adding interviewers, like “Oh, the manager in London wants to have a say in who we hire now, so you need to talk to him”. On this particular day they dragged me back to their office so I could talk to him on the phone - something I could have done from home - while he was standing outside a conference he had just attended. This company also had interviewers bail on my in-person interview, and made me return to their office another day to meet with this person. They also called me on two separate occasions in the morning saying “Can you come to our office today?” Today? Are you smoking crack? What intelligent candidate would agree to go and interview, unprepared, at the drop of a hat? My conclusion was that this company wanted to hire someone stupid, desperate and unprepared, who would then turn around and disrespect future candidates by participating (as a Recruiter) in this inane process.

It amazes me how companies don’t put their best foot forward when hiring recruiters, and embarrass themselves with their own hiring process. The example above was the worst, but I have recently experienced several disorganized interviews, and processes, that were disrespectful of my time and made me wonder, 1) Am I going to be able to fix this when I get in there? or 2) should I decline this company because they are too large to accept suggestions or change anything?

My Mom taught me you don’t bring up a problem without proposing a solution. So here’s my solution:

ONE phone interview
Be on time, and be prepared. Remember the candidate is either taking time off from work to take the call from home, or they are taking the call in the hallway, outside, or in their car. Get the “info” you need as efficiently as possible. Decide from that phone call if it’s a go/no-go to proceed.

ONE on-site interview
Four interviewers are ideal. Length: 30-45 minutes per person. Do I have to say these are one-on-one interviews? Yes, they are. Don’t gang up on your candidate, unless it’s just a meet-and-greet where the decision does not lie with this panel (e.g., cross-functional folks, or direct reports to the position). The Recruiter doesn’t need to be on the panel: I greet the candidate and escort them to the interview room, stopping by to get them a drink or whatever they need. I get a feel for them during that time frame, and I can still provide feedback (was I more, or less impressed now that I’ve met them in person? Did they make a red-flag comment?) Each segment doesn’t have to be the same amount of time. Depending on the role of the interviewer, mix it up! Get the information you need and get the candidate on their way. Remember they are making excuses to leave work, and if they’re contractors, they are losing money every hour they spend away from their job. We should be mindful and respectful of that.

The End. Make a Decision. Communicate it to the candidate.
No second interview? No! Why? Just to make the candidate feel special? How much more special will they feel if you can make a decision from a single on-site interview? If your interview is organized, each member of the panel will know what qualities and skills they are probing for, the feedback will be meaningful and returned to the recruiter promptly, and there is no reason a decision cannot be made when you have 4-5 people meeting with the candidate. This is where the professional Recruiter comes in, guiding their business group regarding interview questions, feedback, timely responses, and a definitive yes/no vote whether to hire the candidate. This is also a place where the Company should defer to a veteran Recruiter’s guidance regarding this process.

Also, what’s wrong with going out and meeting the candidate for coffee? If there’s someone who is not on the panel, but who feels strongly about meeting the candidate, shouldn’t that person make the effort to meet the candidate (see above re: coffee, or breakfast, lunch, video conference, whatever)?

Companies who hire top talent are already doing the activities outlined above, with minor differences. I’m talking about the good activities! Not the 7-interview/3-visit one. This is really just a Golden Rule recommendation, after all, but the companies who are getting the best talent do it in an intelligent and efficient manner.

Cheers, and happy hiring of the top talent in your industry!

Brian Weiss Interview pt. II

I've met with thousands of companies over the years for sales calls. Besides asking about myself, the other person who gets asked about the most is my former employer...Brian Weis. Here is part two of the interview: 

Everet Kamikawa:
You are an avid golfer. You started GolfJobs.com three years ago. Was there any difference in starting a job board now than in 1997 or was it just as easy?

Brian Weis:
Wow! When I started WisconsinJobs.com people questioned if job seekers were using the Internet for their job search. Today, there are tens of thousands of places to post your jobs from national job boards, niche/industry sites to associations, portals, meag sites, etc. The formula is still the same. Get companies to post jobs and drive job seekers to apply. I guess the biggest difference now is I have grey hair, now.

EK:
GolfTrips.com and GolfWisconsin.com are your main businesses now. When did you start them and how have the businesses grown in the last few years? 

BW:
I started them as hobby sites in 2002-2003. I did them initially to do some barter with area courses. Now it is a full fledged business with 2 contract sales people.

EK:
Being an avid golfer, GolfJobs.com seems a natural site to start.
How has that site been growing since you started it and now with the economy ?

BW:
My main focus now is GolfTrips.com and GolfWisconsin.com. GolfJobs.com is a small focus and fills the void of still wanting to be involved in the recruiting industry. Golf courses have much smaller recruiting budgets and many small courses are first getting websites. (I know 15 years behind the times). The site is slowly growing.

EK:
Being a golfer, a web/SEO expert, and an entrepreneur, are you living your dream of running the type of company you always wanted?

BW:
I am not sure always wanted it. I have been lucky to always enjoy what I am doing at the present time. At the moment I am lucky to have all 3 passions involved in my job - internet, web marketing and golf.

EK:
You were on top of understanding what Search Engine Optimization was before it was a hip term. Will SEO always be important or is there something out there that will be the next way employers need to use to get noticed on the web?

BW:
The hard part with companies websites is the main focus is general to sell their widgets or services. If I was looking for a sales job and typed that in google 20 job boards and associations will pop up before a companies employment website. Off course if I searched for Coca Cola Sales job....Coke's site should pop up. They do not have to be SEO geniuses to make that happen.

EK:
You also are the organizer of the Turkey Cup. What is that and who does it benefit?


BW:
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. For the last 20 years I have organized some charity event to raise money for some worthy causes. We used to play football but I am getting to old for that. The Turkey Cup is a foam golf ball tournament on Thanksgiving morning. It is a fun event that raises close to a $1000 to Operation Christmas Child. (a global organization that packs shoes boxes of toys and necessities to disadvantage kids throughout the world.) I think it is important to give back. Operation Christmas Child

Definitely one of the most creative business people I've had the pleasure of knowing and a fountain of inspiration. Thank you Brian and thank all of you for reading!
Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

Brian Weis Interview pt. I

Sometimes it is easy to understand why fate makes you cross paths with certain people. Someone who was a positive influence on my life, career, and future goals has agreed to be interviewed for this blog. This person brought me into their company and gave me the freedom and encouragement (and commission) to become the best salesperson I could be and it was a pleasure working for them.

Back in in 1997 I had just joined a company called Job Connection. Two weeks later I received a call from the owner of our biggest rival at the time, WisconsinJobs. Apparently I had made a sales call on a mutual client who impressed upon this owner that he should hire me. Our paths crossed for the next four years as I saw him at job fairs. Eventually I would become one of his top sales reps for the next seven years, becoming what our main competitor called “the faces of the company.”


I present to you...Brian Weis!

Everet Kamikawa:
When you started WisconsinJobs.com in 1997, online job boards had just started to tear down the wall of classified job ads built by the newspapers. By 2005 newspaper classifieds were hurting and now they are almost nonexistent. Do job boards still hold the value for employers looking to find jobs?

Brian Weis:
Great question. There will always be a need for employers to advertise their job openings and a place for job seekers to seek open jobs. I think the Internet is an effective media and job boards the right meeting place. Right now is a unique time, the unemployment rate is very high in comparison to the last few decades and it is an employer market place. There are so many candidates out there seeking that companies do not need to do as much advertising. In years to come when the unemployment rate shrinks the candidate pool will tighten and companies will need to do more advertising.

EK:
How has social media impacted job boards? Do they have a future?


BW:
I think of Twitter (GolfTrips Twitter page)and Facebook (GolfTrips-Facebook page)as a social platform for people to sound off, share their thoughts, post birthday photos, etc. Sure like minded people congregate. For employers/recruiters it is a candidate pool. I think it is an arrow in the quiver for companies to hunt for employees. (and for job seekers to job hunt) Will it replace job boards, probably not. Large companies with a diverse set of hiring needs will always need to a variety of tools - job fairs, campus recruiting, job boards, radio, social media, etc.


EK:
In addition to WIJobs.com, you also started a national recruiting board called LocalCareers.com that had at least one website in all 50 states. Before you sold the domains, how many job boards did you have under the LocalCareers.com banner and what inspired you to build a national network when most local job board owners were happy to just stay in their market?

BW:
I stopped counting after 100 sites. We had a national umbrella with LocalCareers.com and then a regional focus with state sites like ArizonaJobs.com, WisconsinJobs.com, we then branched out in industries like RecruitingJobs.com and later added diversity sites.

EK:
At the same time you launched WiJobs.com you also started RecruitersNetwork.com. What was the purpose of that site? Are you still involved in that site?

BW:
Recruiters Network branded itself as the Association for Internet Recruiting. Like I said we started when Internet Recruiting was barely a strategy for company. Ina few years we built a huge directory of resources and published a weekly newsletter. I am no longer involved in that organization.

EK:
SalesResources.com (SalesResources.com)is another of your sites, which you recently sold to SalesProgress. When recruiting was your focus, why branch out into sales?

BW:
As mentioned be got into several job board verticals focusing on industries with high turn over and higher hiring frequencies like Jobs4Sales.com. Advertising and reaching the passive job seeker was expensive so we built portal sites to funnel job seekers into the job board. I didn't have kids back then so I was able to worked 18 hours a day.

EK:
Looking back at your recruiting career is there anything you would have done differently?

BW:
I am a glass half full kind of guy. I cannot think of anything. Last time I checked you cannot change the past so I spend very little time worrying about what I should have done. I certainly try to learn from it, but as far as regrets....hmmm...I am drawing a blank.

That is a look behind. For what Brian Weis is doing now, look for part two soon.
Thanks Brian!
EvEven though we haven't worked together for almost two years, I still get asked by cleints whatever happened to this owner. I thought it would be fun for you to read all about what he has been up to in his own words.