Recruiting by technology. It’s a grower. More and more players are entering this space by the day it seems. Import your profile from LinkedIn. Connect your Facebook account – but only the good parts, not any of those ‘incriminating’ bits. See who you know in a company that’s hiring. Anonymous dating style matching. It’s all out there, if you want to use it. And all ‘badged’ as being part of the social media explosion and the art of social recruiting. The upcoming buzz from all this tech is that it’s now more about matching skills and experience, than culture and fit. The ‘system’ can now reveal the perfect match apparently, for candidates and employers.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the initial beauty for recruitment to social media was that it encouraged the personal contact? A connection on LinkedIn. A friend on Facebook. Even a follower on Twitter. How everyone complains about the auto-bot Vacancy Twitter accounts. A Facebook Wall of job ads. An intrusive and bland job invite on LinkedIn.
Where is the engagement? It’s not just about ensuring there’s some interesting video posted on Facebook every few days. Or photos of your latest team building away-day. Nor a distant connection to someone you don’t really know who works there. It’s surely about engaging, attracting and being interested. Liking what they say (and do). Being attracted to join, or start, a conversation with them. Getting to know the company or brand ‘one to one’. Then you know if you’re right for each other. Not because the latest technological advance says that you are.
Otherwise, Company Anon will be studying your LinkedIn profile, judging your social savvy on Facebook, telling you how good they are and then finally, when the metaphorical ‘Blind Date’ wall slides back… well let’s just say, your career may not be exclaiming ‘Amazeballs!’
andsome blog 
charlieleake Said:
on 02/09/2012 at 7:55 am
Hey
Great post! You’re so right about the FB walls full of job adverts and twitter vacancies. The true value is in engagement…continuing the conversation face-to-face but online.
I attended a recruitment technology conference yesterday and someone was telling us how they developed a mobile enabled recruitment site. After lots and lots of testing, the man in charge asked his wife to take a look at the site to make sure it worked ok.
Here first response was, “Ok, so if this is a mobile enabled site, where is the button to call a recruiter?”
Funny isn’t it, how the most basic ideas of communication are lost in technology!
Regards
Charlie
ps, have reblogged your post.
charlieleake Said:
on 02/09/2012 at 7:56 am
Reblogged this on Graduate Recruiter Blog and commented:
This is a wake up call for all recruiters using online technology for recruitment purposes. Great post!