02/14/95 RMIUG Meeting Minutes - An Employer's Perspective of Internet Job Placement

The thirteenth meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet User's Group (RMIUG) was February 14th, 1995. About 70 people were in attendance, a sizable turnout given the fact that RMIUG sent out no meeting announcements to the regional press -- all publicity for the meeting was conducted by email and word of mouth. Further, the weather was terrible and it was Valentine's Day to boot. RMIUG's Executive Committee felt that it was better to hold to our regular meeting slot rather than change nights for Valentine's Day and take the chance of having people not hear about the switch and show up at the regular time.

Alek Komarnitsky (alek@rmiug.org) MC'ed the meeting, which featured two experts who discussed the Employers' Perspective in using the Internet for Job Placement. A third panelist was unable to attend due to the inclement weather.

Some general administrivia issues and announcements of interest:

• We currently have over 700 people signed up on RMIUG's Email list. Note that an Email to rmiug@rmiug.org generates an auto-reply with info about RMIUG and how to subscribe to any of RMIUG's 3 email discussion lists. Those wishing to receive only general announcements regarding upcoming meetings and notes of importance from RMIUG's Executive Committee should subscribe to the moderated list, rmiug-announce@rmiug.org. There is another _unmoderated_ list for discussion of items of interest to the Front Range Internet community which is called rmiug-discuss@rmiug.org. Alek made the point that because rmiug-discuss is unmoderated, it must be self-moderated by its participants if this community resource is to remain useful to the membership.
• Kaleigh Santos (kaleigh@solarz.Colorado.edu), who works at the New Vista High School in Boulder, is looking for a donation to the school of a DEC boot disk. DEC has already donated a computer for the use of New Vista; however, it did not come with the boot disk, which is proprietary to DEC. New Vista High is also looking for a donation of a copy of Windows for the PC. For more information, contact Kaleigh.
• Will Clurman (will@rmiug.org/phone: 440-0402) announced that rmiug T-shirts will be printed with the 2 logos that were chosen during last month's tie-vote at the conclusion of the logo contest. About 20 people at the meeting were interested in purchasing an rmiug T-shirt, which will feature Dave Eisler's "RMIUG with mountains" logo on the front, left breast of the shirt; and on the back, Erin Santos' picture of a "Roomiug," a unique rodent with horns and a necktie.

  RMIUG will produce these T-shirts at cost. The shirts will be all cotton and will have a color logo on the back. If 50 people pay for a shirt at the March 14th meeting, the price of the shirts will be $15 each. If only 20 people pay for a shirt at the meeting, the price will be $20 each.

  If 50 people commit to purchasing a shirt before the March meeting, the price will be $15 each. Those interested in purchasing a T-shirt should email to Kaleigh@colorado.edu with the subject header:

  RMIUG T-SHIRT> (Number of Shirts You Want to Order)

  In the body of the message, please use this form:

  I will purchase an RMIUG T-shirt, and I will pay for this shirt in person at the March 14 meeting or through snail mail by the date, March 15.

  Number of shirts: Size: (S, M, L, or XL)

  I will (please delete one of the following options): a. show up at the March 14th RMIUG meeting and pay by check. b. snail mail a check by March 15 to:

  RMIUG
  c/o Kaleigh Santos
  12581 Maria Circle
  Broomfield, CO 80020

  After the March 14th meeting, we will announce the T-shirt price (either $15 or $20) to the email list, so that those who are unable to attend the meeting will be able to order shirts as well. Anyone who is already sure that he/she wants to buy a T-shirt should please email right away, so that Kaleigh has an idea of how many shirts will need to be produced.

• Bryan Buus, (buus@xor.com) RMIUG's Webmaster, recently co-authored a book, ``Managing Internet Information Systems,'' which has been published by O'Reilley and Associates, and is now available. Call OReilley & Associates, 1 (800) 998-9938 to purchase this book or for more information.

Gary Resnikoff (ncs@jobline.com), a principal at National Career Search (NCS). NCS is a recruiting firm that specializes in low-cost staffing services, and has used the Internet extensively for recruitment over the past two years. NCS publishes Career Magazine on the Internet, an online resource that is free to job seekers, Human Resource managers and career-minded professionals in the Networked World.

Randy Holt (rholt@ingr.com), Manager of the Internal Support Staff at Intergraph in Boulder and at several remote sites. Randy is responsible for hiring engineers to work on his staff, and has taken the initiative to use his knowledge of the Internet for recruiting. He finds the Net an effective tool that complements the more traditional hiring mechanisms of his company's HR department.

Gary Resnikoff spoke first, describing the history of NCS with recruitment on the Internet. He told how NCS takes a non-traditional approach to the staffing business by offering low-cost, basic candidate generation and screening services for client employers. NCS at times works on retainer for certain clients, but in general tries to avoid high-cost contingency fee services, in which the recruiter must try to sell a single candidate to a hiring authority. Instead, NCS focuses on providing several qualified candidates to an employer for a fixed fee of around $400.

He stressed the point that a recruiter is a professional at marketing a candidates skills and personality. This marketing is an essential part of a successful job hunt.

Career Magazine features:

1. A searchable database of thousands of technical and professional job openings worldwide, searchable by location, skills required, and job title. This database makes it easy to search through job postings in the major Internet job postings newsgroups.
2. An interactive forum for the discussion of job search and workplace issues.
3. News and articles, including selections from the Wall Street Journals National Business Employment Weekly, containing insight on career-related issues.
4. Corporate profiles of various employers.
5. Classified listings of career-related products and services.
6. A directory of executive recruiters organized by industry category.

Career Magazine is produced in Boulder and attracted 30,000 users in the month of January.

Gary made certain specific suggestions to job seekers from his perspective as a recruiter:

• Use the reference ID# or "Job Order #" if you see one in an Internet job posting .
• Your cover letter is very important in the process, and should show that you have the qualifications for the job.
• You may not need to have _all_ the qualifications for the job, but you should have 3 or 4 out of 5.
• Email your resume in ASCII text form because you never know what software applications your reader will be using.
• Resumes should be short: 1 to 2 pages.
• It's OK to send an unsolicited resume to a recruiter, but make sure that you state your desired job locations, title, and the minimum salary that you will accept. Stating your minimum doesn't mean that you won't get more, but it does ensure that your time won't be wasted with offers for less than you could feasibly accept.
• Always wear a suit and tie to an interview.
• Prove to the hiring manager that you can do the job: sell yourself on the basis of the results you can provide.

Next, Randy Holt spoke about his experience using the Internet as a hiring tool. He addressed his comments primarily to people that want to use the Net as a hiring tool, but many of his suggestions were applicable to the Internet Job Hunter as well:

Newsgroups: people who through their participation clearly add value to the discussion.

The WWW resources that Randy likes best are:

E-Span (http://www.espan.com/) for its salary guidelines.

Career Magazine (http://www.careermag.com/careermag/) for its searchable listings of job openings and its employer profiles.

JobWeb (http://www.jobweb.com/). JobWeb options include searching for a job by geographic location (zip code or city), by required skill (keyword and length of time), by company name, or any combination thereof. Users can also e-mail their resume to JobWeb, to member companies specifically, to a list of companies, or to a list of jobs. Users can enter their skills on-line as well. A candidate can leave their resume in a "general area" also. Member companies can collect and view their resumes on-line. You can also search all "general area" resumes by keyword or length of time and keyword. Members can add, modify or delete available job and background information.

Pieces of advice that Randy has for hiring managers:

• You want your company listed in places on the WWW.
• Check out the postings in misc.jobs.misc.
• Check out the posting "Grumpy hints for bad job posters" in misc.jobs.misc.
• Include Closing Dates for the Job Openings.
• Don't use all uppercase letters in your postings -- YOU'RE SHOUTING ON THE NET!
• Always respond to resumes submitted to you in e-mail.
• Cross-Post, don't double post.
• Make sure that you post your message in 80 column format. Don't use a word processor that may just make you look bad when your text goes into an 80 column e-mail reader.
• Proofread your job opening as if you were the job seeker: see if you could respond to it, given the information in the message.
• Allow people to email their resumes: save them and you some work and money.
• Get a web browser so that you can see who is out on the Net. If you are competing for the best employees, you had better know who your most forward-thinking competitors are.

After the panelists each spoke for about 20 minutes each, they went up on stage to field questions.

Some suggestions that arose from the Q&A:

• Put your e-mail address on your resume.
• For entry-level/college job seekers: make sure you get internship experience over your summers during college.
• Don't let your current employer know that you are searching for a new job.
• If you are posting your company's job openings to the Internet, it shows that you are a leading-edge firm.
• Approximately 90% - 95% of the jobs listed today in the major Internet job posting newsgroups such as misc.jobs.misc are computer-related.
• The true value of the Internet for Job search is not simply as a database for job openings -- it is a tool for networking, making contacts with professionals who can help you in the process.
• You can use Newsgroups and e-mail lists to hunt down non-computer-related jobs.
• Check out misc.jobs.entry-level if you are a college student.
• Use online resources to research information about the companies to which you are applying: don't go into an interview blind.
• Use the Net (e.g. E-Span) to find out Salary guidelines for your profession and region.

RMIUG wishes to thank the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) for use of the Main Seminar Room in the Table Mesa Lab, and for the ongoing assistance of the evening staff at NCAR and of Shelby Pillow.

RMIUG wishes to thank Internet One of Boulder for sponsoring the refreshments, NCAR for the use of their meeting room, and XOR Network Engineering for electronic "stuff."

Suggestions/comments/feedback are always welcome - please email these to rmiug-comm@rmiug.org or call Dan Murray at 447-3475.

Contact Information:

RMIUG "Executive" Committee: rmiug-comm@rmiug.org
RMIUG Librarians (Joe Betts & Bo the Bohemian): rmiug-books@rmiug.org
RMIUG has email lists for its members. Send an email to rmiug@rmiug.org for more info