As a follow up to a post on Facebook from late last year, I discovered that joining groups within Facebook is another great avenue for recruiters and sourcers to use daily. What I found‚ was that by joining groups in Facebook, you could network with other members, join in on discussions and promote yourself in the community. What I didn’t realize was‚ that many‚ recruiters and sourcers‚ were starting to utilize these groups in much the same way‚ they use Yahoo Groups, Google Groups and MSN Groups to advertise their current job openings and find‚ job seekers. Check out what I mean:

I joined a group called Web 2.0 (Entrepreneurs) inside of Facebook which currently‚ has 34K members.‚ I see two places‚ in the “Discussion Board” and “The Wall” where those members are posting up messages with full‚ details and links to job openings.‚ 

Here are a few examples of job postings that I found:

and…

Facebook has‚ numerous‚ groups to join, and lots that are very niche and specific to a certain subject, topic or theme. Take a look for yourself if you are a member of Facebook.‚ I suggest joining groups where you think that you may be able to attract talent that best fits your job requirements, and also groups that welcome and allow posts for job openings.

Digg is, per their website, a place to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg allows users of the site to submit stories (links/articles, videos), customize their‚ site experience, join in on conversations around stories, and communicate with other Digg users by sharing favorite links. The site is broken up into News, Videos, Images and Podcasts divided into categories such as Technology, World & Business, Science and more.

Digg opens the door for recruiters and internet sourcers in many ways. Let me show you:

Let’s say you want to search for stories that were put on Digg about “ASP.NET”. You can see that several stories and links appear below. What is most valuable to recruiters and sourcers is the fact that each article gives the link source and the user that submitted the article. This creates two leads per story - one being the link source provided is a new avenue for recruiters and sourcers to pursue for approaching and discovering ASP.NET talent, and the second being the user listed with the story, in that this person may be a great potential candidate in the making! If not, he/she may be a great resource to reach out to for knowledge on the .NET community. In the example below you have the sources gutfire.com, ajaxprojects.com, ajaxlines.com and aspnetcafe.com along with users tak111 and a few others:

Another feature of Digg is that you can search for, track and stay in touch with other Digg users. In this example, I did a search for other users in Pittsburgh, PA. Think of Digg also in terms of “social networking” but with much less details and information on users of the site. Relationship building should be thought of in a long-term approach. Getting help and asking others for expertise based upon the stories they submit, i.e. if someone keeps submitting programming, development and technology specific articles, this may be someone to keep tabs on (if you are a Technical Recruiter for instance).

Finally, Digg gives users the options for RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) which streams certain content to a Google Reader for instance. If you understand RSS feeds, this opens the possibilities for recruiters and sourcers to only get stories delivered to them from Digg that they are looking for, and nothing else. Let’s say you want only “programming” stories to be sent to you. This will help you to build up a stable of great sources around the web for finding technical talent.

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An Instant Message (IM) service called‚ meebo really opens the door to new possibilities in recruiting and sourcing candidates. Instant Message services have been around for years enabling friends, family and co-workers to stay in touch while online. Meebo differentiates itself by pulling all IM services into one place, such as AIM, Yahoo and MSN, in‚ addition to adding a community, blog and chat rooms (called meebo rooms)‚ and products.

One product in particular, called meebo me, is “designed for anyone with a home on the web. If you’ve got a web page where you’d like to communicate with your visitors, meebo me allows you to see the people who are visiting your web page and chat with them.”‚ Examples include Wordpress or Blogger (blogs), social networks like MySpace and Friendster, Salesforce.com, and any other web page you can control.

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Think of the possibilities for recruiters and sourcers‚ here. You post open positions on sites where you have a profile, and add-in meebo me, which gives visitors to your page more ways to reach out to you. Instant Message is‚ a fairly “non-threatening” way for someone to reach out, and not have to get into a full discussion at the same time. Instant Message gives potential candidates an easy way to reach out for a first step and test the waters while hunting for a new job, not to mention handy while someone is at work! Once a Meebo account is created, you can also advertise your Meebo account in other areas like your email signature (Outlook for example), and other places like LinkedIn.

Now about those other features…a quick search in meebo rooms for “programming” pulls up several seperate chat rooms to choose from. Most were empty when I checked, but offer a way to leave your questions‚ for others to answer as well as leaving links, such as‚ a job opening.

Also, meebo has a community forum to communicate and search for other meebo users. Some users in their “directory” list their occupation and several ways to contact them outside of meebo. See below:

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There is another website joining the ranks of LinkedIn and Plaxo and it is called Naymz.‚ Naymz is very similar to the other business networking websites but has some other special features.‚ ‚ 

Here is how it works: After you sign up for free, you can start to build your Naymz profile.‚ Basic membership for the site is free, but there are two upgrade packages that you can purchase.‚ The idea behind Naymz is that you can use this site to build up your professional reputation.‚ You invite others to connect to you on the site as references to vouch for your professional experience.‚ You get points for sending out invitations, adding information to your profile, and the points are also relative to the points of the other users on the site.‚ These points count toward your “RepScore”, and the higher your RepScore is, the more “reputable” you are considered.

You can easily add connections on the site by importing your connections from LinkedIn and various email sites such as Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, and Mac.‚ You are also able to search jobs that are posted on the web (the search is run by Indeed).‚ In addition to being as a site to connect to your business contacts, Naymz also serves as a way to get your profile near the top of Google searches on your name.‚ The website discusses their Search Engine Optimization techniques and how they want to help their members get the most positive information about themselves out on the web.

Naymz also gives you access to several different types of reports:‚ you can view detailed activity of any visitors that view your profile under the Network Activity section; you can track your reputation on the Reputation Monitor, which shows you a list of all of the web results on your name; and you can monitor any updates of profiles of others in your network and web activity of your contacts in the Network Profile Activity section and the Network Web Activity section.

Adding your profile to Naymz can only help you increase your exposure to your network of contacts and potentially help you get your name out there with positive feedback from others.‚ 

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For technology programmers, developers and enterprise managers, JavaWorld.com is the primary go-to destination for resources, forums, podcasts, newsletters and a whole lot more. And while the site’s career center boasts a great many online tools to assist Java-savvy IT professionals, there are also quite a few high-quality resources there for recruiters and internet sourcers interested in targeting the world of Java-based technology.

Clicking on the “Careers” link in the main site’s left navigational column sends you to the landing page of the JavaWorld.com Career Center. All of the usual functionality can be found here for job seekers including Quick Job Search, Featured Jobs and Companies, Post Your Resume and many other job seeker tools. Recruiters and sourcers have the option of job postings and resume database access. A quick search in their database on “Java” netted 96,000 resumes total‚ (see below):

The site also peels back resume “web results”‚ as well. “Java” netted 60,000 resumes here:

But I think that the hidden gem in the JavaWorld.com site are the capabilities that it provides for recruitment professionals to learn more about the Java developer mindset and the inherent advantage of understanding more about this valuable segment of the IT population.

In the JavaWorld.com Career Center, you can see at a glance what the top U.S. cities for IT jobs are, and then search those cities to learn what kinds of technology professionals are in demand regionally. Two other online tools that I found helpful were:

• The site’s capability to perform job-related searches using IT keywords, which is an excellent way to learn the basics of available technology job assignments if one isn’t immediately familiar with the terminology, and
• IT Job Descriptions, in which the site provides basic job descriptions - many of which include video support - for a number of career assignments. This struck me as a very valuable resource for recruiters seeking quickly-accessed, specific information about filling slots in the technology sector.

JavaWorld.com is a cleanly-designed, excellently-organized site - not surprising, considering its target audience - that really does include a great many decent resources for recruiters and job seekers alike.

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Let’s face it: a site called CollegeGrad.com is pretty much going to be aimed specifically at - you can probably guess this one - college grads, or soon-to-be college grads. In fact, this is exactly the case, and CollegeGrad.com does an excellent job of targeting its content to people who are only just entering the job market and seeking those precious first opportunities to get in on the ground level at the corporation of their dreams.

But does the site offer anything at all for recruiters or internet sourcers?

Fortunately, it does to some degree - but its resources are all more or less on the informational side, as opposed to content that can be easily leveraged to create leads right away. You can see what I mean by accessing the “Career Centers” link in the site’s left navigational column. Clicking this link will send you to a page where you can find:

• Occupational Outlook Handbook - this could be an excellent resource for recruiters, with research and information on 350 different careers, provided by the U.S. Department of Labor - and this section of the site is all keyword- and category-searchable.
• Employer and Candidate Interview Questions - a fairly basic resource, but handy to have for recruiters to coach interview-bound clients.
• Ask the Hiring Manager - an online career Q&A forum with Brian Krueger, author of the book College Grad Job Hunter. This section of the CollegeGrad.com website is a robust and interesting resource for advice about careers, interviewing, job searching and more.

Of course, CollegeGrad.com offers job posting and resume database search capabilities for employers, along with virtual job fairs.‚ The site also provides a great many of the standard tools for job seekers - posting resumes, searching jobs, interview preparation, salary negotiation tips - and organizes its content very well, clearly and directly. This is a good, deep site with plenty to recommend; its targeted content prevents it from being a top-tier destination for recruitment professionals, but it’s still worthy to note as an excellent resource for entry-level job seekers.

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Plaxo, per their site,‚ keeps people connected by solving the common and frustrating problem of out-of-date contact information. Plaxo is a site much like LinkedIn, in that it is a community with free and fee services for networking with business associates, and keeping in touch with family and friends. Plaxo can be thought of as an online rolodex for all of your contacts, with users having the option to show physical addresses, emails, phone numbers and fully detailed profiles.

Plaxo has well over 15M users currently and has created a ton of buzz recently with the addition of their social networking feature, Plaxo Pulse, which creates a stream of information on what other users are doing that you are directly connected to. See the screen shot below as an example:

Plaxo has a real “LinkedIn” feel with the ability to peer into other people’s connections to see who is in their network, and with the ability to send messages and invitations to “connect” with others. Below you can see that Adam Boone (a connection of mine) has several people in his “connections” that I don’t know and gives me the‚ option to reach out to them through‚ the Plaxo network. Sound‚ familiar?‚ 

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Plaxo let’s you “hook up” with other sites and tools that you use and syncs directly with them, such as Outlook and LinkedIn for example - that way anyone who is in your other address books will come over to Plaxo. From there you can notify these people you are on Plaxo. Plaxo also has search features to find other Plaxo users, which comes in handy for recruiters, internet sourcers, researchers and others. In addition, Plaxo has groups, where users network on specific topics (another great opening for fellow recruiters and sourcers). A final note - like LinkedIn - the larger your network is (the more people you are connected to), the more people you can see in Plaxo.

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JobVent is an interesting website that invites people to write about their current or past employer, and both positive and negative reviews are encouraged.‚ This is a great place to come as a job seeker to find out what employees really think of the companies that you are applying to.‚ It can also be used as a great resource for recruiters, although you probably wouldn’t think of using it that way at first.

It’s always interesting to find out what people REALLY think of their employer, and I do admit that reading some of these “vents” is entertaining.‚ The website does not allow profanity to be used in the postings; however, some of them are pretty harsh.‚ All postings on the site are anonymous, so you can’t directly recruit candidates from this site.‚ What I realized is that reading the reviews of the companies in the “I Hate My Job” category can give me a great list of companies to recruit candidates from!‚ I already know that at least some of the employees there are unhappy or else they wouldn’t have come to this site.‚ Chances are that there will be quite a few people still working there who would jump at the chance to find a job elsewhere.‚ I will then take this knowledge and target recruit from these companies any way possible.‚ 

One other way to use this website is to see if any of your clients are listed as the most “loved” companies and use that information as you present job opportunities to your candidates.‚ Getting extra ammunition from reading the posts on the site enables you to‚ tell a candidate that your client has a great management team and stellar benefits can hopefully help you in making the deal.

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We recently blogged about the site DevBistro, which is a source for technical interview questions.‚ Another helpful resource for technical recruiters is a website called WhatIs, which claims its stake as “the leading IT encyclopedia and learning center”.‚ 

I highly recommend bookmarking this site as your “go to” resource for answers to any of your questions about technology.‚  The site is set up in a way that is very easy to navigate to find the info you need quickly and efficiently.‚ On the main page is a large list of technical categories.‚ You can also do a keyword search for the technology that is in question or you can browse topics alphabetically.‚ When I am trying to find a particular topic, I prefer searching alphabetically, because sometimes you might not have the correct name or spelling and you won’t find what you’re looking for.‚ 

The definitions that you get from WhatIs are pulled from a variety of different sites, but they are all part of the TechTarget family of sites, which happens to be who runs WhatIs also.‚ Say you want to learn what JavaScript actually is.‚  Below is the result of my search on JavaScript, you can get an idea of what the definitions look like.

I find the definitions on WhatIs to be pretty easy to understand for a non-technical person, and they make sure to add links to other technologies referenced in the definition in case you want to research further.‚ WhatIs might not be the best place to search for some obscure technologies; I couldn’t even find a definition for Java Server Faces (JSF) on the site.‚  However, if you do a keyword search on a technology that doesn’t have a definition, you are still presented with web results that could help answer your questions.

One interesting feature that I just found while writing this blog is a “How do you pronounce IT?” section which lists a bunch of odd names of technologies or acronyms that are sometimes confusing for people who don’t deal with these names on an everyday basis.‚ Now we can really sound like we know what we’re talking about when we’re talking to techies!

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Facebook is, per their website, “a social utility that connects you with the people around you”.‚ On this site, you can set-up a personal profile of yourself, connect with friends and work colleagues, join networks and groups, post videos and photos, read news and more. Facebook is a social networking site, much like LinkedIn for example, but with a more open community for communicating, setting-up and customizing profiles and sharing of information. The site was originally built for college students to network and socialize with one another, but has since opened its doors to everyone else, and it has‚ really taken off‚ in popularity. Here is my home page below. You can see that it offers alot of features and information.

Recruiters and Internet Sourcers can use this site as another outlet for finding potential job seekers and candidates. Here are a few ways to do this:

1) Use Facebook “Friend Finder”. This‚ feature automatically scans your email and address books. This will show you what friends, colleagues and other people you know who are already out on Facebook and will give the option to send invitations to connect. From there you can see what mutual friends you have‚ and also look into their other friends as well. You can see the names and minimal information for friends that are “not‚ mutual”, but you‚ do have ways to reach out to them and connect directly. In most cases, you can use Facebooks option to “poke” them, write on their “wall” in their profile, or see if they posted contact information on their page - such as a phone or email address.‚ 

2) Use‚ Search Options. Facebook offers Basic Search (by keywords), Advanced Search (tons of options such as location, company, title and education), the ability to search for classmates by schools, and the ability to search for colleagues by current and past workplaces. The one drawback on Facebook is that it will only let you search your network (I’m from Pittsburgh, so my network is limited to Pittsburgh connections and anyone else I connected with). One way around this is to connect with others outside of your network, but are only limited to see those contacts‚ in the other networks. Another option is‚ to change what network you want to be designated on Facebook.

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3) Post Positions to the Marketplace. Postings are free on the site and go out to your network. Most job categories are represented.‚ 

4) Join Groups. This is the area where you are most likely going to find people and connect. I highly recommend. One group I joined is Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs, which has over 29,ooo members. There is a discussion board where you can interact with other members. This is where you will get a good bang for your buck so to speak on Facebook. An example of a discussion is below.

There are plently of other ways to use Facebook, such as asking questions to your network, participating in or sponsoring events and uploading tailored videos for others to see. You can customize your‚ profile and advertise your interests in connecting and job openings that way as well. I will do a video tutorial on Facebook in the next few days. Keep an eye out for it.

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