Automatic Backups
After my recent computer crash, which seems to be at least twice a year at the moment, I thought I would revisit the subject of “backups” something that is critical to recruitment or any other business of course.
In the past I would have backed up my data on CD’s, which was never as often as I should have, and I always managed to lose some data. (It is also worth noting that CD’s have a limited time date, as they degrade).
One of the advantages of using a web based recruitment software package is your resumes and contact details are backed up off site automatically, so if your computer crashes you can always work on someone else’s while its being fixed.
Whatever the case you still need to back up those contacts and cv’s off site, and the best way without an ASP recruitment package, is to use a virtual server or an online backup system.
Fortunately the prices are now coming down, which I am sure is reflected by the number of competitors there are, you may want to visit Mashup for their recent list of 80+ File Hosting sites they have compiled.
Over the last 8 months I have been using www.box.net, which is free up to 1 GB and has an easy interface, where you can drag and drop your resumes onto their server. More recently I have been using Omnidrive which integrates into your computer so you have a virtual harddrive, but unfortunately they do not do automated backups.
So before I finally wrote this post I wanted to find a good alternative and after checking out a few sites I finally opted for Crash Plan, it isn’t expensive and you get a 30 days free trial, which always helps. What I liked about their offering was its simplicity in its setup and they give you an option of backing up between computers, such as one in the office an one at home, without the cost of having to pay for a server application if you do not want it. Still it certainly saves you having to remember to take your CD home! In addition it does automated backups and at times to suit you, which makes it the real winner.
Which is the best offering, well that is a little difficult to say, particularly as I have not checked out the other 70 odd, but I do like the 3 I mentioned earlier for different reasons. At the end of the day it will come down to cost, but so long as you some kind of backup off site, then you will be able to sleep at night if someone steals your computer or it decides to give up on you.
One final thought and tip regarding emails, which are just as valuable as the cv’s of course and that is to set up a imap account rather than the pop3 for your emails, that way all correspondence will be saved on a virtual server, with the added benefit of being able to read them from any computer with web access. A small thing but in my opinion essential, if only someone had told me about that a few years back!
Network Globally at ERE Expo Amsterdam
Scott Baxt of ERE Media contacted me the other day to help promote the Global ERE Expo Conference, which is to be held in Amsterdam from the 14th to the 16th of November this year.
Scott is particularly excited with the list of global speakers with a strong emphasis on Africa, Poland, Russia, China and Australia. On top of this there will be an excellent opportunity to network with senior management from some of the top 1000 global companies who will be attending.
In addition if you do want to attend, readers of Recruitment Views get a 10% discount by entering this code AM07RV on the online application.
If you do decide to attend let me know, so we can link up. I certainly will be looking forward to meeting a fellow blogger Alan Whitford who will be opening the conference. By the way Alan just realised you are not on my blog role, a huge oversight which has been rectified.
Back up and running
Just typical really, as I get into a rhythm on writing on this recruitment blog my laptop decides to give up and roll over, as a result no posts for well over a week in case you have not noticed!
So I apologize to my readers and those who have been expecting a couple of reviews in the last few days. Normal service from now on in, but I have to admit I have enjoyed the enforced break.
Tiffany Leaves Recruitment
I see Cheezhead has announced that he has acquired Magic Pot of Jobs, a great domain name which I am sure was a major influence in his decision.
Having been over to Tiffany’s site I can see she will be a great loss to the profession and I am sure a few competitors will be very pleased to see her go.
What I was not aware of is her other hidden talent, as a stand up comedian. So as a farewell gesture I thought I would embed her routine here.
Best of luck Tiffany and if you are ever over in the UK, I am sure we could get you a few bookings.
What’s my body worth?
I am sure many of you like me have seen salary checkers before, some of which are integrated into the various job boards. I have tested most of them and still they show me as being underpaid, take note Rod if you are reading this!!
Today I came across something just a little different and so I have posted it here, really just for a laugh. As you can see my body isn’t worth much these days, I suppose that’s what happens when you go over 40 and spend too much time in front of the computer.
The code is from Mingle2 a fairly new online dating site, with some innovative marketing.
Mingle2 - Free Online Dating
Jobtonic on Facebook
Just as I was about to finish up for the day I receive an email from Alasdair at Jobtonic announcing that they are the first UK Recruitment Jobboard to take advantage of a new application within Facebook.
Obviously this is huge kudos for Jobtonic and even though it was getting late, I had to give Alasdair a call to congratulate him personally.
Although I have not got to grips with Facebook, mind you it would be a miracle if I found the time. I did know how popular it is with over 24 Million active users.
Thankfully Alasdair explained that this new application enabled Jobtonic?s job-o-matic plugin to intelligently read the user?s Facebook profile, in order to display jobs relevant to their location. Alasdair also said by reacting immediately to this new application they have managed to jump ahead of the competition, a major achievement.
For me this has to be one of the most ideal applications to take advantage of social networks, where users can see vacancies relevant to their background and more importantly can earn some extra cash by referring people they know.
Recruitment Videos, has the UK been left behind?
During my continual crawl of the web for news in the recruitment industry, I came across a video by Mybloglog, a recent start up who I am sure will go on and be a star for Yahoo. For me I just love seeing my picture on other peoples blogs, am I vain! By the way they are recruiting for a Army of Software Engineers at the moment.
To be honest I found their recruitment video via www.standoutjobs.com, another recruitment video job board, who are due to launch in Autumn. What did catch my attention was not so much the $10,000 referral fee for web developers they had advertised, but the lack of UK companies with Recruitment Video’s. OK this isn’t surprising as they are a Canadian company, but even so there are very few on Youtube.
Now our American counterparts have taken advantage of this medium, probably inspired by Google’s recruitment video followed by the Army, the Police, the Fire Brigade, the Libraries, Dominos Pizza and many other smaller American companies, many of whom I have show cased here.
So what’s going on in the UK, are they scared to to embrace using video on youtube, or nervous of what people will say on the social networking sites, or is it the Ad agencies not wanting to loose their cut on media sales. I just cannot believe the likes of Tesco’s cannot see the advantage of utilising this form of media to help promote an image to recruit candidates.
Still I am sure Peter Gold Don Sumners, Matt Alder or Tim Elkington have plenty to say on this subject, as experts in recruitment and media or should I just ask the Guru?
Jobtonic hits 1,000 vacancies
Alistair contacted me yesterday, so sorry for the delay as he wanted to let me know that Jobtronic have managed to break the 1,000 barrier for vacancies, that can be filled by networking rather than the traditional methods, which I touched on here.
They are keen to point out they have 5 times more UK vacancies than their UK competitor, which I am sure is down to them concentrating on one market, the UK. In my opinion it makes sense, as there is enough opportunity’s here to work with.
I would be keen to know how many payout’s there have been so far, though.
What If We Didn’t Lie?
What would happen if we all told the truth, an idea put forward by Roger von Oech on his Blog Creative Think. Of the 9 points he outlines I couldn’t help pick up on “How about Job Interviews”.
Now I am sure I am not the only one here with my mind working overtime, on this little gem. Just 
imagine what would happen if the company, the recruitment consultant and the candidate could only tell the truth, what would be the repercussions?
Would then the best candidate get their perfect job, and the client their perfect candidate, for one I am not sure of the answer.
Having been the middle man for so many years and on the receiving end of lies, from candidates clients and the odd recruitment consultant, I have to admit that telling the truth would almost certainly lead to less heartaches. I have always said to my candidates that there is no point in trying to be someone you are not, as there is nothing worse than working for a company where you do not fit in.
OK I can understand a candidate not being completely truthfully, as at the end of the day they are competing for the role and only the best will succeed, so those 6 months at a company where you were fired is omitted, seems a logical thing to do.
Obviously the company gets upset because the candidate has lied and they now want their fee back, so they blame the agency for not doing a proper job, just to guarantee their refund. What they forget is that maybe the said company completely miss represented themselves, maybe they are not so dynamic, maybe the product isn’t so good after all.
Saying all this I have seen it first hand when I was offered a job with a leading search and select company, but before I accepted I said “if you recruit me for my writing skills, then I am the wrong person for the job.” I started and for the next 6 months I am writing reports, proposals, shortlist’s, resumes etc, and low and behold I leave after 6 months and of course I do not mention it on my CV.
So if we all told the truth, would anyone accept or be offered a job!
Diversity in Recruitment
Carrying on with the theme of Diversity in Recruitment, with more to follow. I found out today that Prestige Recruitment have reached the Gold Award for Diversity in Recruitment from the REC.
Obviously congratulations to Julie Hardy and her team at Prestige, but also for bringing to my attention more on this important topic. You can find out more by visiting the government website The Equal Opportunities Commission and the REC
On top of this I will be speaking to Joel the MD of Cultiv8 Recruitment this week, a committed recruiter to Diversity to get his point of view also.
Oh on one last point, after visiting Prestige Recruitments website I couldn’t see any reference to their award or their commitment to Diversity, so Julie if you read this please shout about such a positive accolade.
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