27.10.09

Facebook officially opens today and getting ready to double employee numbers in Ireland

Facebook announced a doubling of its staff in Ireland today.

It now has 1 million +  users in Ireland at present. Huge number.

Currently it has 70 employees. Here's the roles they have open, vacancies

In the mix they have interesting recruiter and recruitment coordinator positions.

Anroid 2.0 Video


    For users, some of the new Android 2.0 features include:

    • Multiple accounts per-device
    • Exchange Support
    • An improved virtual keyboard
    • Support for flash, digital zoom and white balance on the camera (provided your camera has a built-in flash)
    • Improved web browser with HTML-5 support and better search and navigation
    • Improved calendar

    The first phone that will feature Android 2.0 is the upcoming Droid from Verizon and Motorola.

    Google Social Search Explained

    Here's the latest Google Lab experiment. I like this a lot and see it as a natural extension from their custom search technology. Search is moving into a mesh type quasi personal quasi standard index hybrid search.  Looking forward to seeing the same with Bing and added Twitter feeds very soon.



    To learn how it works behind the scenes check watch the following:

    22.10.09

    Google Announce Social Search

    How the search engine worlds changes. First it was universal search, then it was semantic search, now it's social search! At Web 2.0 Expo yesterday VP of search, Marissa Mayer, gave the surprise announcement.

    So far all I know about it is:
    • The bottom of search results will soon have social networking information from your friends, like their Flickr photos or their status updates. It’s a blended search integration, similar to seeing news or image results
    • These are pulled from social networks connected to your Google Profile. The more that are connected, the more social information that will appear in search results.
    • They have also improved searching for images using social networks. Images become more relevant using social networking data.
     I'll track what is happening and report back soon. Rumour has it that it will launch in Google labs real soon.

    21.10.09

    Google deal with Twitter too!

    Just out on their blog a few hours after the Microsoft announcement:

    “Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.”

    Interestingly, with two large partnerships in place this probably proves that Twitter are in it for the long haul and won't be selling anytime soon!

    Microsoft lands Twitter and new Facebook Deals - Bing Mark 2

    You can learn more here and here. The world of search has just got a lot more interesting.

    Here's what it may look like when launched, here.

     

    How will WiMax change recruitment in Ireland

    Good article out today, here, from Silicon Republic on WiMax and the the looming "Battle Royale" between wireless-broadband standards (and I thought the App wars or the war for "mobile O/Ss were bad enough)

    There are some obvious cloud recruitment advantages to having speeds of 8 to 50mbps for your wire-less connection. We're still a bit away from the magic 50 mbps but when that does come along with more sensor recognition and proximity technologies using GPS we might just be a little closer to talking ads as you walk down Grafton street "hello Mr Fitzgerald we have a job we think you would be interested in" greetings, ala Minority Report. I'm looking forward to seeing just how quickly we can achieve these speeds and when how affordable it becomes. If we have it in 3 years I'd be delighted.

    Shaping Ireland's Future - Does the Irish Recruitment Industry have a part to play?

    Today I took some time out to study Chris Horn's (CEO of Iona) excellent presentation "Shaping Ireland's Future - Communication for a Smart Economy" that he posted on his blog this Saturday. You can find it here. It's an excellent report and one of the things that caught my eye was on slide 24 bullet point 2 he calls out as one of the country's basic challenges as the "need to attract overseas innovators to add to our own". I couldn't agree more. Not only do we need to grow, foster and cultivate our own indigenous innovators but we also need to be able to find the best talent the world has to offer and bring them to these shores. I believe the Irish HR and Recrutiment industry has its part to play in this particular piece of the economic rebuilding jigsaw. We need to learn how to raise the level of recruitment sophistication in particular so that we can identify where talent globally exists. It is the "identification" and "sourcing" of this talent that I think we can have a tangible impact in as an industry. By creating and supporting a culture of recruitment innovation we can try improve ourselves. Just as Google have Google Labs and Microsoft have Live Labs we should have our own "recruitment labs" in Ireland to fine tune our skills, get better at what we do as a collective, and help bring innovators and talent to this country not just to take jobs which we are predominately focused on but also to create jobs. I sometimes wonder with the recent TCD and UCD R&D Innovation Academy (launched last March) do they have a centre of sourcing excellence in their HR departments focused on these issues. Likewise what is the capability of the enterprise Ireland or the department of enterprise and trade to do likewise. I hope we have people in both "experimenting" with technology to understand how best to leverage it to help us source Phd students in gaming, bi-technology, green technology, ecetra. Likewise have any of our employment related government bodies developed their social media recruitment strategy to let the world know we want to tell them about some of the excellent innovation that is already taken place using the latest and most leading edge channels and tools available. -?-

    19.10.09

    New team lead recruitment job and Sonru win award

    Joe in State Street has been in contact about a new role they have open. You can learn more below. To apply contact Joe.Hendry [@] imsi.com

    It's a Team Lead / Management contract opportunity and pays a standard competitive salary at this level.

    See below main bullets in terms of requirements;

    • Essential to have in house recruitment experience
    • Team and people management experience in busy environment
    • Financial Services environment exposure (in house or agency)
    • Proven track record of sourcing candidates directly
    • Ability to deal with rapidly changing priorities
    • Excellent ability to deal with people at all levels – internal and external stakeholders
    • Excellent customer services skills
    • Target driven and ability to meet key deadlines
    • Ability to source directly from multiple channels and recruit at all levels

    Also, onwards and upwards for Sonru who have been announced as the winner of the Bank of Ireland/South East BIC Bright Ideas Challenge held on the 14th of October. You can read more about it and the press release here.

    Don't forget if you want to follow some of my thinking on cloud recruitment you can do some with some of my tweet updates at #irishrecruiters

    17.10.09

    Coke, recruitment and Seattle!

    Just had a great week of learning and brainstorming in Seattle. It's always a worthwhile trip to Redmond but always a little strange to see Microsoft's huge campuses with over 140 buildings housing approx 35,000 employees! It's like UCD campus multiplied by 5. This week I took part in some great discussion around where Microsoft is going to place some bets on their social media recruitment strategy. Exciting, innovative stuff! And big bold challenges ahead. Scalability, globalisation and localisation are all meaty topics that bring with them real challenges that we will need to think through carefully. More about all that in the future.

    I'm now sitting in the British Airways lounge on the way home, sipping a coke, stairing at rain, reading some feeds, thinking about microchips being embedded in contact lenses, pondering on the "experience economy"  and burning some time. Here's some of the latest that has caught my attention.

    Twitter about to hit 5bn tweets, here

    Layar’s Reality Browser for the iPhone is finally available, here

    Monster a bit late to the game but building social media presence, hiring using twitter @monsterhires

     Tweetdeck releases new functionality





    13.10.09

    Crowdsourcing and letting the community build your JD

    I'm back in Seattle and just come back from a walk to the famous Pike Market. The salmon run from Alaska has just come in and the Seattle folk are all talk about the latest seasonal salmon receipes they can throw their hat at!

    Speaking of receipes I read a very interesting article today about a firm that cleverly decided to let their community cook up their job description for a recent advetisment they had. Over in this part of their world the mentality around recruitment innovation and creatively is still light years ahead of our own industry. I'm hoping we'll see many other examples of this both in the US and in Ireland. It's exactly because of this forward thinking that I am a big believer in wiki-nomics and crowd sourcing. You can catch it here. Looking forward to seeing which company is brave enough to give it a go back home.

    6.10.09

    Microsoft Unveils New Window Phones Worldwide

    Here's the press release:

    REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 6, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of a new line of Windows® phones around the world that are available in a broad range of styles and prices. With a Windows phone, people can navigate their phone easily with the touch of a finger and browse the Internet on a great mobile browser. People can also connect to two new services that allow them to back up and share data from their phone to the Web and buy a variety of useful applications from the Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Microsoft expects partners to deliver more than 30 new phones in more than 20 countries by the end of 2009.

    “We all want to connect quickly to the people and information that’s important to us from across our lives at work and at home,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “A Windows phone lets people take their entire world of digital information, communications, applications and entertainment with them wherever they go.”

    One Phone for Work and Play

    With a Windows phone, people can rely on their phone to balance their lives, from work to home to play. Whether it’s editing a document or sharing several vacation updates through a social networking application, Windows phones help people stay connected to the people and information they care about most. Because people’s phones often match their personality and unique needs, Microsoft now offers the Windows phone Custom Theme Creator. People can create personalized themes for their Windows phone by choosing the color and design that suits their style at http://www.windowsphone.com/theme.

    With a Windows phone, people will have familiar work and play experiences right from their Start button, including these:

    • A new enhanced Windows Live experience with What’s New feeds and improved Windows Live photo sharing across major social networking sites (such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Flickr)

    • A best-in-class e-mail experience and the ability to manage multiple accounts right from their phone with Outlook Mobile and Exchange Server synchronization

    • The ability to use PowerPoint and open and edit Word and Excel documents from their phone with Microsoft Office Mobile

    • The power to sync files on the phone through Windows Live Media Manager and play media files seamlessly with Windows Media Player

    • A redesigned Windows Internet Explorer mobile browser with Adobe Flash Lite2 that brings the mobile Web browsing experience closer to what people have come to expect from their PC

    Powerful Mobile Services

    With the launch of these new Windows phones, Microsoft debuts new services that bring added value to people.

    My Phone is a free service that helps people manage and back up the invaluable information stored on their phone and provides peace of mind and an easy restore option in the event of a lost or damaged phone. My Phone automatically synchronizes the specific types of a phone’s content the user chooses — from contacts and appointments to texts, photos and more — to a password-protected Web site. People can also publish their photos from the My Phone Web site or their phone directly to Windows Live, Facebook, MySpace and Flickr. As part of the free service, people can go online and map the last known location of their phone from when it was last synchronized. In addition, a set of more advanced “lost phone” features are being offered as a premium package that people can activate as needed. The My Phone Premium package includes the ability to immediately locate the phone’s current location on a map (in the U.S. only); remotely lock a phone and post an “if found” message to its screen; loudly ring the phone even if it is set to vibrate or silent mode; and ultimately, if needed, completely erase the phone to protect personal data from falling into the wrong hands. People using My Phone on their phone running either Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1 or 6.5 can access the premium package free of charge until Nov. 30, 2009. After that date, seven-day access to the premium package will be available for purchase for $4.99 in the U.S.

    Also launching today is Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which offers people an easy way to find and purchase high-quality mobile applications for both work and play, while creating a new opportunity for developers to reach millions of people using Windows phones worldwide. Microsoft is pleased today to introduce 246 quality mobile applications initially in Windows Marketplace for work and play, with more than 753 ISVs worldwide on board to continue building out the catalog. People will have access to not only important line-of-business applications for work, but also popular mobile applications for play such as Facebook, MySpace, Netflix, Twikini, WunderRadio and ZAGAT, as well as leading game titles including Sudoku, “Guitar Hero World Tour” and the “PAC-MAN” series, all of which can be easily purchased and installed directly on a Windows phone. All purchased applications are certified by Microsoft to run on Windows phones and are backed by a simple return policy. Over the next few months, Microsoft will continue to evolve Windows Marketplace for Mobile to bring to market a fresh take on the app store that delivers strong value for developers and a great shopping experience for people.

    Choice and Availability: A Phone for Everyone

    Windows phones give people the power to choose the phone that best fits their style and budget by offering phones with a full physical QWERTY keyboard, others with just a large touch screen, and some with both touch screen and keyboard. Microsoft and its partners now deliver a variety of Windows phones for people to choose from in several regions:

    In North America:
    • HTC Pure from AT&T
    • HTC Imagio from Verizon Wireless
    • Samsung Intrepid from Sprint, available Oct. 11, 2009
    • HTC Tilt 2 from AT&T, available in the coming weeks

    In Latin America:
    • Samsung Omnia II available in the coming weeks from TIM Brasil

    In Europe:
    • MDA Vario V, MDA Compact V and HTC Touch2 and the Samsung Omnia II from Deutsche Telekom in select European markets
    • HTC HD2 from Orange, available in the coming weeks in France
    • HTC Touch2 from Orange, available in the coming weeks in France, Spain, Switzerland and Romania
    • A software update for the HTC Touch Pro2 from Orange, available in the coming weeks in France, U.K. and Romania
    • Samsung Omnia II from Orange, available in the coming weeks in Poland, Switzerland and Slovakia and from early December in France
    • Samsung Omnia LITE from Orange, available in the coming weeks in France and Spain
    • Samsung Omnia PRO B7320 from Orange, available in the coming weeks in France and the U.K.
    • Toshiba TG01 W from Orange, available as an update to the TG01 in the coming weeks in France, the U.K., Switzerland and Romania
    • LG GM750 and Samsung Omnia II from SFR in France
    • TMN Bluebelt 2 and TMN Silverbelt, made by ZTE Corp., from TMN in Portugal
    • Samsung Omnia II and Omnia LITE from TMN in Portugal
    • HTC Touch Diamond2 from Vodafone in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, South Africa and Central Europe
    • HTC Touch Pro2 from Vodafone in the U.K. and Switzerland
    • LG GM750 from Vodafone in Germany, the U.K., Spain and the Netherlands
    The following phones are available on the open market in Europe:
    • Samsung Omnia II, Omnia LITE, Omnia PRO B7320, Omnia PRO B7330 and Omnia PRO B7610 available in October

    In Asia:
    • ZTE X60 from China Unicom
    • HTC Touch Diamond2 from Telstra
    The following phones are available on the open market in Asia:
    • Acer beTouch E100, beTouch E101, beTouch E200 and Acer neoTouch
    • Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20
    • HTC Snap, HTC Touch Pro2, HTC Touch Diamond2 and HTC Touch2
    • LG GM730 and LG GM550
    • Samsung Omnia II and Samsung Omnia PRO B7320, Omnia PRO B7330

    Information about the latest updates and new Windows phones is available at http://www.windowsphone.com/

    Additional information about Windows phones and on companies bringing the new Windows phones to market can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/mobile/default.mspx

    The Google Real-Time Search Tip

    The race for real-time search is gathering pace and Google for quite some time have been very worried about the dominance that Twitter have been making in this space.

    Google introduced in May a change to their "Search Options" and amongst others one of the things they offer was the ability to search within 24 hours. This is a nice addition but far off real-time search.

    However, there is a hack around this that can let you search in the past minute or event the past second.

    The trick is to know how to understand what constitutes the parameters in a URL. A topic very rarely discussed in recruitment circles. Most search engines use different priority parameters as well as sometimes different operators and modifiers to search their index. The tilde search being a good example in Google.

    However, something I've learnt about this week is the Query Date Range or qdr:d parameter.

    All you have to do to search for the query in the past minute is to change the parameter to qdr:n, and for the past second to qdr:s.

    For example, this weekend I was searching for real-time Lisbon treaty information.

    http://www.google.ie/search?q=%22lisbon%20treaty%22&hl=en&sa=G&tbo=1&tbs=qdr:d

    Take the end of the URL and the qdr:d parameter and change the d for a n and you then get the engine to display in minutes not just within 24 hours.

    http://www.google.ie/search?q=%22lisbon%20treaty%22&hl=en&sa=G&tbo=1&tbs=qdr:n

    Big difference in what the index returned and much closer to real time.

    If used properly could be used to help study the market you operate in with all the breaking news indexed by Google's search engine as soon as possible. Helped me greatly this weekendto study what was being posted about the Lisbon treaty and proved much quicker than Google news and other news aggregators for certain themes I was searching.

    Real-time search will be discussed at the Future of Recruitment conference this week when Bill Fischer gives his presentation on Twitter Jobs Search.

    Hope to see you there. Happy Hunting!

    PS - To hear more about tips and industry news you can follow my #irishrecruiters hashtag on Twitter

    Alexander Mann holding breakfast meeting for corporate recruiters 9th of October

    Martin Cerullo, Director, Resourcing Communications, Alexander Mann Solutions, will be hosting a breakfast seminar on Friday the 9th of October, for in-house corporate recruiters only. At it he will be:
     
    "focsuing on the business case for building a strong employer brand and will share thinking around how to encourage your broader business to buy in to the concept. Detailed analysis of management information will be presented to help build the argument".

    You can learn more and register for it at:
    http://www.alexandermannsolutions.com/news-and-insights/ams-events/employer-branding---dublin.aspx

    This is a free event and is from 8.30am to 10.30am in the Penthouse Suite at the Morgan Hotel, 7-12 Fleet Street,

    Microsoft has contract technical sourcer role open

    Microsoft currently has a contract sourcing role open until the end of June 10. If you have proven technical sourcing experience and are interested please apply to Deirdre Moran at demoran[at]microsoft.comcc-ing Mary at marydo[at]microsoft.com

    Role Purpose

    The Talent Sourcer/Recruiter is tasked with developing innovative and proactive methods to source, evaluate, and pipeline candidates for Microsoft. Talent Sourcers should foster and cultivate relationships with key candidates and develop large-scale talent pools to deliver upon both immediate short-term and strategic long-term needs.

    Job Responsibilities (all areas)
    • Implement a variety of candidate generation techniques, strategies, and programs and stay ahead of new innovation
    • Gain a deep understanding of the talent landscape in your area; build a competitive intelligence knowledge base of companies and candidates residing within those companies
    • Engage with hiring managers, to understand fully the role or business that you are sourcing for and build relationship.
    • Use your market knowledge and sourcing skills to engage with active and non – active applicants
    • Cultivate relationships with key candidate and specific talent pools, defined according to long-term initiatives and direction of the organization - turn applicants from non active to active by developing strong candidate relationships
    • Build and engage with a talent community that includes a high volume of targeted candidates
    • Utilize NGS (e-recruitment system) to store talent pools of appropriate candidates
    • Actively source Diverse candidates from a variety of sources. Meet team Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as reduction in agency usage, % female hires etc
    • Screen candidates that you have identified if you are sourcing for a specific role
    • Evaluation of your own productivity and effectiveness of methods used to deliver results. Talent Sourcers who are tasked with req based sourcing will be set specific productivity targets
    • Deliver requisite volume of candidates that flow through to interview and offer stage
    • Staying within budget, maximizing utilization of sourcing resources
    • Interview/Screen relevant candidates
    • Phone Screen (Technical, HR)—when required
    • Propose and Recommend competitive compensation packages for preferred candidates to Hiring Manager and Lead Recruiter for approval
    • Extend , Influence , Sell and Close agreed offers to preferred candidates in order to receive Candidate acceptance
    • Provide direction to Recruitment Admin
      • Inception of new vacancies to upload
      • Interviews to be arranged
      • Flights/Visas to be arranged, when necessary
      • References to be confirmed
      • Contracts to be posted
      • New Hires to process

    Essential Skills and Experience (Qualifications)

    • 4+ year recruiting experience demonstrating capability in creative sourcing techniques
    • Effective strategic thinking and problem solving
    • Deep knowledge regarding specific disciplines and technologies
    • Passion for and significant experience identifying and screening candidates
    • Ability to understand, articulate and sell Microsoft culture and business initiatives
    • Track record of innovation and creativity
    • Evidence of building candidate relationships and managing a network of talent
    • Demonstrates ability for effective cross group collaboration
    • Active participation in a positive teamwork environment
    • Strong oral and written communication skills
    • Ability to deliver results with little supervision, and to effectively manage multiple projects and candidates
    • Ability to meet standard measurements of success for staffing such as interview to offer ratios, meeting annual hiring plan and cost per hire targets
    • Successful Project Management abilities, delivering upon work streams within high priority projects with both short and long-term deliverables
    • Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, social media and web2.0 tools and techniques
    Desirable
    • BA/BS degree in business, communications, human resources or related discipline

      2.10.09

      CWJobs to sponsor the Future of Recruitment Conference

      In addition to Sonru and Prima.ie I'm glad to report that CWJobs have kindly agreed to sponor the Irish Recruiters Conference on the 7th of October. Here's a little about the company and what they offer...

      CWJobs.co.uk is the leading specialist IT recruitment website enabling both permanent and contract IT jobseekers to search and apply for jobs across all skills and industry sectors throughout the UK and Ireland, and offering hiring employers a fast and effective recruitment solution.

      Each month the site draws over 320,000* IT candidates attracted by the opportunity to search thousands of IT jobs from the UK and Ireland’s leading employers and generating more than 340,000* job applications.

      Hundreds of companies and recruitment consultancies advertise their IT vacancies on CWJobs.co.uk and access CWJobs’ CV database of over 240,000 IT professionals. CWJobs.co.uk has offices in London, Manchester and Ireland-based sales representatives.

      Check out their site here to learn more about them. There much much bigger than you probably thought.

      To advertise, trial or access our comprehensive CV database, email us at Deirdre.Maloney@cwjobs.co.uk or call us today on 00353 87 7927479.

      *Independently audited by ABC Electronic, October 2008

      1.10.09

      Could all recruiters end up in the SMAA :)

      Could this possibly be the future...



      I hope not!

      LinkedIn's new Profile Organiser

      Ever come across a LinkedIn profile and wanted to save it to a location to review afterwards. I used to just use the built in pdf function when I wanted to save a profile but now LinkedIn is offering a new feature that lets you save profiles, organize them into folders, and add notes. Anytime you find an interesting profile, simply click “Save Profile” and the profile is bookmarked for you within LinkedIn.

      You can learn more here.

      Vodaphone joins the War of the App Stores

      At the Future of Recruitment Conference on the 7th I'll be giving my thoughts on the frantic rise of the app wars. There has been a huge amount happening. Since July 08, mobile apps have become a huge business and I'm not at all suprised to see that Vodafone has decided to enter the market with a huge partnership with China Mobile and Verizon. Learn more here. Will be interesting to see how long it takes for them to bring our their own jobs app to recruit for their own company's roles.

      New agency recruiter position in Dublin

      Hays Specialist Recruitment contacted me today about a new recruiter role they have open that they wanted advertised.

      The role is based in their Dublin office and they are looking for... "an experienced recruiter who has worked in a specialist recruiter previously, ideally in the permanent market. Commercial awareness, professionalism and a strong sense of ethics and team play are vital to succeed in Hays. We have a very experienced team in Ireland and we’re keen to speak to anyone who’d like to be part of this team. Hays is a global organisation with a great reputation and fantastic resources, and the Irish business is constantly promoting innovation and development to stay ahead of the market."

      For more information, please contact Mike McDonagh directly on 086 8112350 or michael.mcdonagh2@hays.com