The future of Linkedin

This is something that has intrigued me for a while now. Linkedin has come on leaps and bounds since its' inception but what lies ahead? An associate from the States, Ajay Jain is an avid blogger (and journalist) who is currently finishing a book on Linkedin with this being the topic of the final chapter. One of the most popular suggestions infers a buyout by one of the big boys, but some other interesting points are made. You can check out the blog entry here, as well as reading my comment to the post further down the page

Recent Linkedin features

The most-excellent Linkedin (powered by Sun Microsystems) has introduced some upgrades, with more to come and there's talk of a general UI makeover, you can get a sneak preview here. Not a whole load of info on it yet but the customisable modules look interesting - it appears they are trying to reduce your dependency on other online information resources. The messaging tool is pretty handy and the way in which you receive updates is more informative.

They have also opened up to the Developer community to allow them to build on the Linkedin platform through the use of API's and widgets - pretty cool, and more info is viewable here

Recruitment Microsites

Gone are the days where job-seekers spend wasted minutes dragging a mouse around an obscure "Main", or "About Us" or "Contact Us" section of an already overpopulated website in search of the Careers Section. A lot of the big technical companies are making good use of dedicated portal sites to furnish prospective candidates with information about career opportunities. Let's face it, Careers are important - they deserve their own site! Microsoft's new site is a fine example of how these can work, and they have even used their Silverlight technology in parts. But in true Microsoft style, it's brought something (the site) to the market that has been pioneered by others! Ericsson have a great microsite, well laid out with good information about living and working in Ireland, illustrated with rich graphics in an effective layout. It's interesting the way the domain name does not mention the company specifically, but refers to all telecom jobs in Ireland.

HP have a generic Global Careers site but the address is horrible, your average Joe is not going to remember a domain name like http://h10055.www1.hp.com/jobsathp/ which would necessitate the use of Google to find the site. I don't think a Global Careers Site is the way to go, it's too impersonal and overbearing - Microsites are the way to go for big companies with "busy" websites

Cool place to work!

Fog Creek Software is a Manhattan-based Dev house founded in 2000. Joel Spolsky is a co-founder who recently spoke at the Java Dev convention ran by Irishdev in Cineworld last month. You can learn more about his company here . The office is a state of the art, top architect-designed Developer heaven! Most employees have their own office and the location is sa-weet - 18 floors up in the middle of Manhattan! Joel has created a beautiful space to allow his Developers reach their potential in a coding-friendly setup with great use of space and colour - extreme ergonomics for extreme programming!

Joel's website is popular with Developers all over the globe and you can view it here

Hired Guns!

At first when I heard of these guys, I thought it sounded like a "muscle for hire" outfit. . . I came across this site for a company called Hired Guns - a US based Temp staffing firm. Maybe the website is a bit cheesey but the thinking is original and it's put together quite well as a site. You can view it here

Best & Worst Gadgets of 2007

You can see what Business Week believe to be the best and worst gadgets of 2007 here It's interesting when you think of the way MS tried to create artificial demand to boost sales for the doomed "Zune". If it was me, I would buy out a proven player in the mp3 market such as the excellent iAudio and iRiver

Speaking of iAudio, they have released their new flash mp3 player you can check it out here It makes my X5L look a little antiquated. . . It still has the in line recording - jet effect etc. and features up to 60 hours of battery life. I know what I'm asking Santa for this year

In the mobile area, there has been a lot of talk about the iPhone but this has been well documented at this stage, and personally I'm not hugely impressed. What is worth mentioning is the new Skype phone from 3 It allows you to call any other skype user in the world from your mobile, for free (providing you top the phone up by 10 euro per month in the ready to go package). Quality is quite good too, and in early 2008 you will be able to call landlines at a huge discount too, similar to the way in which a traditional pc based skyper can. You can read a full review on the skype phone here.

MAC OS X - Leopard

So it seems Apple have "done a Vista" with their OS, releasing the Mac OS X Leopard. You can read a review here

How not to recruit

It seems pretty straightforward that as a professional, you should treat everyone well and this is especially important in our industry, it's a small one after all and if you develop a reputation for behaving in a less than favourable manner, you won't enjoy the benefits of having a good reputation and building up a powerful network.

Take, for example a recent mail I received from a recruiter who spammed me yesterday for a job in a well known Multinational CRM Organisation.


Here is the mail he sent me;

Hello ,
My name is *** ****, I'm a Contract Recruiter working for ***** in Ireland. I found your information on Monster.com and wanted to contact you about an opportunity that looks like a great match to your skills. I have appended the job description below for your review.
Please feel free to call me anytime at +44-207-100-****; if you prefer, let me know the best time and phone to reach you and I'll call you then.
Thanks and I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Best regards,
*** **********

Pierpoint

-----------------------------------------------------
Office: +44 207 100 ****
Email: **********



And here is the reply I sent;


** ** **** **,

I have been contacted by 5 different people in your company about opportunities in *** and I can tell you what I have told your predecessors – I am not interested. It concerns me that you, as recruiters do not seem to maintain any records of who you have contacted. You say you found my details on Monster.com – I find this intriguing – considering I don’t have a profile or any personal details on Monster… You mailed me on my work email – how did you get this address? I can only assume you found it on Linkedin.com, and in which case you should have not contacted me about Career Opportunities as I have specified that I do not wish to be contacted about Career Opportunities.

Furthermore, I live in Dublin – the role you mention below is in Galway which is on the west coast which would mean commuting 430 kilometres each day. Not exactly the ideal work-life balance is it Francisco?

Don’t spam me again, remove me from your database immediately.

Noel

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

After reading blogs for the past number of years - I figured it was about time I started to contribute something other than comments. I am going to be speaking about general technical recruiting topics - as well as other industry-related topics that impact my role and that of my counterparts and peers.

Please feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on what's hot, and maybe what's not.

Comments are welcome.

Noel