Recruiter Advice & Insights | RecruitBlog

The mythic king Sisyphus was not the prototype for a modern executive. He was cruel and deceitful, for which he paid a big price—condemned in the afterlife to roll a boulder up a big hill only to have it continually roll back on him. Sound like the challenge of building a great team in a startup? Perhaps, but it’s easier if you have a sense of the hill and how to approach it.

It's that time of year again – Martin Sheen did it. President Barack Obama, Tom Brokaw, Bill Clinton and Steven Colbert did it too (just to name a few). If you haven’t guessed it yet, these famous names were all commencement graduation speakers in 2013. Students all over the nation are clinging on to the advice from these speakers, taking in every single word that will aid them in their new role as an adult. To the class of new graduates, receiving a diploma means embarking on an increasingly difficult journey through the job market. They’ve no doubt used campus career centers and even good old-fashioned face-to-face networking to begin their careers. New grads have many difficult choices to make during the job search, and considering the well-documented underemployment among America’s recent grads - the stakes are as high as ever.

Are the people who write obituaries the same people who write job descriptions? It sometimes seems like it! Or perhaps job descriptions are the proverbial camel that was supposed to be a horse but was designed by a committee overseen by lawyers (full disclosure, I am an attorney). After deciphering a lengthy and confusing job description, you’ve probably heard the hiring manager say, “never mind, this is what I’m really looking for.”

These days, online dating has become somewhat of a norm. You create a profile, write a brief description about yourself, upload the best picture of the bunch, and BOOM – instant date notifications. Like it or not, your picture is worth a thousand words. People are immediately drawn to you, what you like, where you work. Didn’t upload your picture? Don’t expect the same results. The fear of not knowing who you’re talking to can be daunting, especially in an online setting.  In a way, online job-hunting is just like online dating. 

We have all heard the complaint moaned countless times, “Why don’t recruiters get back to me?!” The infamous Black Hole of the application process, as we call it in the industry. Dare I reply on your behalf, “Because you never should have applied in the first place and already have stolen my valuable time?"

Today, I am excited to announce our latest quarterly rankings for the most influential recruiters of Q1 2013, recognizing the contributions of recruiters and employers in the following categories:

A healthy workplace is a highly functioning and productive area to work because the better the health of the employees, the fewer sick days they take and therefore the more energy they have to contribute to the goals of the organisation. That is why it is important for employers to encourage their workers to stay as healthy as possible.

Today is only Tuesday and it already promises to be a busy week! “The Voice” made its season premiere last night, March Madness is well underway, and we are just two days away from JobMobile New York, TheLadders’ celebration of innovation and strategies in mobile recruitment. Throughout 2013, this unique, nationwide series of events will bring together recruitment thought-leaders in four major employment hubs: New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta.

Nothing will work unless you do.
-John Wooden, American basketball player and coach

Working for a data-driven tech company, real-time usage from our more than 5 million members is posted on any wall that can handle the weight of a flat- screen TV. So, when I was walking to our kitchen on Thursday evening, my heart skipped a beat. Our site usage was visibly lower than usual. After grabbing the umpteenth Diet Coke of the day from our communal fridge, I remembered a story my father had shared recently.

Earlier in his career at a global financial institution, he and other executives almost made an expensive and hasty decision, based off of late-March data. However, that was until he remembered the effects (now, well-documented) of workplace productivity during March Madness. Unlike the masses watching their favorite college teams hit the hardwood*, we have spent the past few days monitoring both jobseeker and employer site usage. Are we, too, victims of this annual insanity?