Recruiting.com

With all that broadband access flowing around, I wonder if someone will ever come up with the idea of the personal video reference.  People change jobs so quickly that holding on to references can be a full time job.

When you move, your references die almost immediately.  This doesn't just mean that the people you worked for wouldn't still say nice things about you - but what happens if they are no longer in your field?  What if they are unemployed?  What if they left the workforce to raise a family, take care of a parent, or just decided to leave the corner office for a less-stressful job as a local barrista?

Anyone with a webcam and a penchant for trying something new could try it.  Just line your boss up in front of a blank white wall in the office and ask her to say some good things about you.  Save this to an online storage site and Voila!  Instant video reference, frozen in time, and good for as long as we have the internet! 

If a VC is willing to sink $10 MM into my idea, I'd be willing to try it until the money ran out.  I'd even advertise on Recruiting.com!

Jim Durbin

Someone hates Vin. But not me.AskMom asks:"If you were allowed only a picture of your significant other as a job reference -- a snapshot inferring your education, work habits and social skills -- would Vin win the employment for you? Case closed". ZombiesOK, Mom. But, look here. There is another Recruiting Edge site. Same title as Vin's only it ends in .ca (which means Canada). I believe that Vin would never have a picture of the antiseptic zombies you see there on his business site though you'll find them on almost every other. And that's a good-enough reference for me.Canadian Headhunter Hat Tip: The Manolo, Post of the Week, Free Newsletter

From what I hear on the street, one of the most important aspects of recruiting is the reference check.  Three names of former supervisors who will say good things about about a candidate along with negative results on drug and background checks are often conditions of employment.

Reference Checks are tough for a number of reasons.  Candidates tend to only give out the names of people who like them.  Many companies are refusing to give references at all because of lawsuits brought by former employees.  And, people lie - sometimes to the benefit of the candidate, and sometimes to their detriment.

-Jim Durbin

One of the most difficult parts of recruiting technical people is judging the quality of their technical knowledge.  Some recruiters will swear by testing systems like Proveit or Testcheck or forgive me for even bringing it up, Brainbench.

I think those are a load of hooey.  The ability to score well on an online test is rarely indicative of the ability to perform in an live situation.  Oftentimes a good test score is simply indicative that an individual read a book prior to taking a test.

You have the problems of time, accuracy, honesty, and motivation in online testing.  In some cases, you even run into the problem of one person answering the phone, one person taking the test, and a third showing up to work! 

Thus the cartoon - which as you notice is a dog cartoon, and thus brilliant.  The source of the cartoon is below the fold, but for our purposes lets say that the dog is the candidate giving technical information, and the Yay! guy, the recruiter assuming that verbal noises coming from a candidate equal technical knowledge.  There are better ways.
-Jim Durbin