John Sumser"John the Baptist was an Evangelist. Remember what happened to him? That's what happens to early adopters."
At the Social Recruiting Summit in New York, John Sumser discussed the early adoption chasm which exists in social media -- specifically as it relates to recruiting and HR. Here's the blurb from the Social Recruiting Summit web site. "There seems to be a gross disconnect between the people who are using social media and the people who are actually executing the profession. Is this normal? What should we expect next? Will today's celebrities be tomorrow's has beens? Does the echo chamber blind us to the truth? Do prior internet revolutions offer any insight?
John is the founder of Two Color Hat -- which provides product analysis, market segmentation, positioning, strategy and branding guidance for the Recruiting Industry and Human Resources Field. In a past life, John sold doughnuts door-to-door. I sold vacuum cleaners. Maybe that's why we get along so well. John has been writing an excellent series for RecritingBlogs.com called the 100 Top Influencers, and is launching a new venture called HRExaminer.
Questions for John Sumser
- John, how would you define social recruiting?
- You showed a graph called the "technology adoption curve" in your presentation in New York with a large chasm in it. Can you share your perspective?
- You keep hearing at these conferences that Linkedin is disinter-mediating the traditional job boards -- the Monster's of the world. What's your opinion?
- How is social recruiting currently impacting the recruiting industry?
- If you making a living as a recruiter, how would you approach social media and how much time would you invest in it?
- If you were looking for a job and wanted to connect with recruiters in your field, what would your approach be?
- What tools do you find particularly interesting?
- In a session Gerry Crispin led, I brought up the fact that many corporations currently block social media sites like Twitter and Facebook - even Linkedin. Someone in the audience responded "the current virus being circulated on Twitter could bring our entire network down." How do you resolve this dilemma?
- What were some of your takeaways from the Summit?
- What surprised you, if anything?
- What do you think we'll be talking about next year?
- What are you working on? What is HRExaminer?
About John Sumser
Source: JohnSumser.com
John understands the inner workings of employment and recruiting. He is able to see and articulate how and why people work.
This is partly because John has worked a lot of jobs-from selling doughnuts door-to door, digging ditches and building railroads to corporate executive, director, editor, and CEO. He knows that making the right hiring decision requires both breadth and precision, and that finding the right person for the right job is a process that must adapt to an ever-changing marketplace. The foundation of John's interest in recruiting was how to use developing technology to find candidates that were inaccessible before. John was on the cutting edge of how the internet and technology affect work and recruiting. He became interested in the internet in its embryonic stages when it was known as the Well. His conversations with folks in the San Francisco Bay Area developed into a position as Executive Director of the Point Foundation and publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog, where he met and worked with many of the founders of Silicon Valley.
In 1995, John started his own company, Interbiznet, where he wrote a daily column on using the internet and technology for employment recruiting as well as a survey of global employment news and trends. His ideas have been the catalyst for dozens of new companies and countless MBA student papers. In 2007, John sold Interbiznet.
John regularly consults with recruiters and employers on how to find, hire and keep the best employees, how people work, how companies and systems affect employees and how changing economies and technology alter the nature of work itself. One of John's current areas of interest is how the cultural differences between the generations are changing the workplace. He introduced this idea last year to the top 500 employers in Canada where Al Gore was the warm-up act (although Mr. Gore might call it the key-note speech).
John continues to explore the importance of culture and communications through new technologies and forums like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and blogging, all of which allow us to meet and connect with people we might not have found in another era, and perhaps say things we would never say in person.
About Peter Clayton
Peter Clayton, Producer/Host, is an award-winning producer/director of radio, television, documentary, video, interactive and Web-based media who has created breakthrough media for a wide array of Fortune 100 clients.
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