We are all aware that using the internet today for a job search is a huge time saver. Webcam interviews and emailed resumes save potential new hires hours of driving, printing, mailing, and air travel time not to mention the countless hours just waiting for flights. Americans are also beginning to realize that webcam technology offers solutions to problems other than time issues: environmental concerns related to dependence on fossil fuels are reframed by the possibilities of electronic communication. Digital technology has given HR and job candidates the “green interview” and eco-friendly employment.

     According to the Sierra Club (sierraclub.org) more than 50 percent of adults believe that their employers should do more to be environmentally responsible. Many companies have already taken steps to do so by embracing technology and using electronic methods such as websites to advertise available positions. Requesting emailed resumes and correspondences is also ecologically conscious. Paperless communications are invaluable in the fight to reduce a company’s carbon footprint; in the production of regular office paper, mills pollute water, air, and soil. Paper production is one of the most polluting industries in North America (ranked 3^rd) and uses chlorine-based bleaches that result in toxic emissions.

     Webcam interviews are also greener than many realize. Americans must cut carbon-dioxide emissions 80 percent in the next 40 years in order to successfully combat global warming. According to the EPA, more than 30% of carbon dioxide emissions in the US result from gasoline engines in cars, light trucks and SUVs.  Additionally, drivers in cities such as Los Angeles and New York City waste over 600 million gallons of gas annually while idling in traffic. The use of webcam interviews reduces the release of carbon dioxide from cars driven by job seekers attending interviews in the job search process.

     The EPA also estimates that air travel causes 3.5 percent of global warming and predicts that the amount could rise to 15 percent in the next 40 years unless America changes the way it does business. On average, an airline flight from the west coast to the east coast requires over 12,000 gallons of fuel, and emits 252,000 pounds or 126 tons of carbon dioxide. Further, the impact of carbon is 2.7x greater in the stratosphere than if emitted on land. In other words, air travel is leaving a colossal carbon footprint on the planet, one that might easily be reduced by eliminating unnecessary air travel via webcam interviewing and webcam conferencing technology. Business travel may be necessary in some cases, but air travel for employment interviews is not.

     When all factors are considered, Internet technology may offer solutions to many of the environmental problems vexing the nation today. Reducing America’s dependence on fossil fuels while further developing alternate and renewable resources is most important; using today’s technology to do this is the easy part.     

Author Byline:  Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes and the creator of GetHiredNow.TV. Since 1996, he has provided job search assistance to nearly 10,000 people. Author of "51 Ways to Find a Job Fast -- Guaranteed," Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Radio and others. His latest product, The Instant Job Search Sys
Author Website: http://www.collegerecruiter.com/guaranteed-resumes.php

You can learn a lot about networking to find jobs by asking recruiters how they do it to fill jobs. That's because recruiters, also known as headhunters, have to network every day to locate and place candidates in positions they're hired by employers to fill. And recruiters don't get paid until they succeed. So you'd better believe that successful headhunters know a thing or two about networking.

Here are two things, to be exact, you can do to network like a pro and get hired faster ...
1) Google And Call Past Employees
Recruiting expert David Perry, author of "Guerrilla Marketing For Job Hunters," shares a unique way to research potential employers using Google. It's this: Find and call people who used to work where you want to work now. "The fastest way to learn the real workings of an organization is to Google past employees and call them up. This is exactly what I do. Before I take an assignment from a company to place an executive there, I want to know if I'm walking into a hornet's nest," says Perry.

Here's how to do it ... Google the name of your target employer and the word "resume." The search results you get back will include resumes of people who used work there. (You may want to add the word "experience" to "resume" in your search; experiment using Google's Advanced Search options.)

Once you find some resumes, pick up the phone and call. Say: "Hi my name is _________. I'm researching XYZ Corp. and I think you used to work there because I found your resume online. I'm thinking of applying for a job there. May I ask you a few quick questions to see if it's worth my time and effort? I know this is an unusual way to do a job search ..." Most people will be impressed by your initiative, flattered to be asked for their opinion and willing to help you out. "You want to learn about three main areas: the company and its culture; the department you would be working in; and the name of the manager you would be reporting to," says Perry.

Finish your conversation with this all-important question: "If I decide to talk with them, may I say that I spoke with you?" "You ask this for two reasons," advises Perry. "First, if they left on good terms, you can drop that former employee's name when contacting the company to ask for a meeting. Second, that person may phone his old boss and tell him or her to keep an eye out for the smart person who just called -- that would be you." If you're at all hesitant about this technique, try it on a company you have no intention of applying to. Work out the bugs first, then network your way right into your ideal employer.

2) Make Recommendations On LinkedIn
Tom Stewart, VP of Executive Search at Genesis10 in Minneapolis, advises job seekers to use LinkedIn.com as a way to get found by recruiters and employers.

"I tell people to think of LinkedIn as a sort of 'Who's Who' for the Internet savvy professional. It's a great way to expand your visibility -- and the more people who can find you, the better," says Stewart. Key to using LinkedIn effectively is to give and ask for endorsements, also known as recommendations. "Writing recommendations for those in your network benefits everyone. I have found candidates accidentally by clicking on the endorsements they wrote for other people on LinkedIn. I can count at least 6 passive candidates I placed in new jobs this way," says Stewart. Start with your network of first-level connections at LinkedIn. Pick one person you feel strongly about and endorse them. After you write a recommendation, the system prompts the recipient to endorse you, which leads to reciprocity.

Think of your LinkedIn recommendations as free advertisements you can run on other people's profiles. If they are successful and highly visible in their industry, your recommendation -- with your name on it -- will be
highly visible, too. Which increases the likelihood that a recruiter who sees your endorsement will click on it, read your profile, and contact you.

Now, go out and make your own luck!

Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes and the creator of GetHiredNow.TV. Since 1996, he has provided job search assistance to nearly 10,000 people. Author of "51 Ways to Find a Job Fast -- Guaranteed," Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Radio and others. His latest product, The Instant Job Search System, is available at "http://www.collegerecruiter.com/guaranteed-resumes.php">http://www.collegerecruiter.com/guaranteed-resumes.
copyright (c) 2007 by Kevin Donlin Article courtesy of the http://www.recruitingblogswap.com/  a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for http://www.collegerecruiter.com/pages/internship-job-postings.php  college students looking for internships"http://www.collegerecruiter.com/jobs/">recent graduates searching for entry level jobs</a> and other career opportunities.

What is LiveHire?

            LiveHire is a new way to Interview for jobs on the internet. It allows Employers and Candidates to interview in real-time via a webcam from any location. LiveHire is a tool made specifically to interview candidates for potential employment.

Why Use LiveHire?

            Simply put it’s easy. It’s the next best thing to actually being in the same room as the candidate. Recruiters and Managers will be able to make quicker hiring decisions, decrease costs associated with flying and relocating candidates. You can save time and money on College recruiting while increasing the number of schools to recruit from. You can interview graduates from a handful of schools without leaving your desk. See the candidate; speak with the candidate, Interview the candidate live.

   2008 and the explosion of Recruiting on the internet.  The past year or so has seen the proliferation of social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin and Ning--where you can build your own network. The recruiting industry has especially benefited from these sites and we all know there is a huge number of Job Boards out there. There's even a site for people who work at job boards. Anyone can put a job board up and be searched by linking to Simply Hired or Indeed.  For me personally Linkedin is a GodSend, by nature we recruiters are social beings, the fact we can multiply our contacts and social status by sitting at our desks only increases our ability to find passive and great candidates. Of course along the way we make great friends as I have. 

 There has also been an increase in Video Interviewing or Video Resume sites. An employer can list several questions and a potential candidate can answer them online, saving the video and forwarding it to the employer. I call these sites the 8 Track of internet Recruiting.  They soon will be obsolete, and taken over by a new technology an idea for recruiting on the internet just how the 8 Track of the 70's was replaced by the casette, and then replaced by CD and so on and so on.  The CD of Internet Recruiting is Real-Time Job Interviewing or video conferencing for job interviews.  Employers are able to Interview immediately over the internet making fast hiring decisions and decreasing costs. 

 These are exciting times, and the internet is exploding with new ways to find and recruit great talent.  Let's use the internet to also Interview Candidates.

I recently found this article on

http://howtomanagehumanresources.blogspot.com/

that I thought rang so true to what LiveHire is, and what the future of Recruiting will be..

You are on Corporate Camera!!!!

With the latest technological boom, organisations today are exploring newer horizons even in the way they inteview their job candidates.

Just check this latest technological trend to hit the Human Resource Circuit: Video Conferencing

Many organisations are now following the trend of conducting interviews through video conferencing (VC) and industry experts are confirming that this trend is catching on rapidly.

A Camera-Friendly Approach

Industry experts believe that video-conferencing is just as helpful as conducting a face-to-face interview. There is a state of the art video conferencing facility to interview outstation candidates or local candidates who cannot come down for personal interviews due to time constraints

And if you thought that only junior level employees are being interviewed through this process, think again!

Most of the VC interviews have been with senior candidates.

However, from a holistic perspective, interviewing senior candidates through this process has helped reduce the time lost due to travel thereby cutting short the interview process to a large extent.

Auditioning for a job! !!

The concept of interviewing through video conferencing is catching up. It works better as compared to a telephonic interview. I once interviewed a candidate on the phone and he sounded perfect for the job and I was quite taken by his vocabulary. But when I met him in person, he could not hold the conversation properly and that’s when I realised that the person I spoke to and the person who was standing in front of me were two different individuals altogether. So I rather take a VC interview as compared to a telephonic.

One can also estimate the candidate’s overall personality to an extent and at least gauge what the person is capable of by his/her face value.

The immediate advantages of a VC interview are cost saving and reduction of cyclical time particularly in case of rejections. It’s a waste of time and money to call outstation candidates for face-to-face interviews from different corners of the country and then reject them.

Tough Shoot

But just like most good things in life, VC also has its own share of limitations.

One can face a lot of technical issues like losing feed in between the interview, bad picture and sound quality, which hampers the interview session.

To assess the softer aspects of a candidate, face-to-face interviews result in better evaluation. The behavioural patterns of the candidate, his/her body language and gestures, fluency in communication since most of the time the interviewer and the interviewee are a little confused and oblivious towards the functioning of such a process, are certain factors difficult for the employer to determine.

The candidate may put up an act during the interview and that the interviewer might not get the right picture. It may be the closest one can come to a face-to face meeting but then it’s not the same.

But experts confirm that the pros far surpass the cons. VC interviews are here to stay. Companies today are exploring this new concept to the widest of their possibilities.

So next time, you go for an interview, put on your best suit, look good, speak well and if you see cameras around you, act natural as your future employer might be watching you.

 

http://howtomanagehumanresources.blogspot.com/