If you haven’t got your tickets yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? You can get them here.

Don’t forget, the unconference is structured with concurrent tracks started by our track leaders, and the conversation will continue with you and your fellow peers sharing best practice and debate. 

What is The Recruiting Unconference?

The Recruiting Unconferences or TRU Events are a series of pure unconferences organised worldwide, where the emphasis is on conversation, communication and the free exchange of ideas and experiences, (dis)organised by Bill Boorman. Recruiting Unconferences are based on the unconference or BarCamp principle, this means that everybody can be an active participant instead of listening to speakers and watching presentations all day. TRU events have proven to be a great way to learn a lot in a very short time, but also to meet new people and network.

With kind thanks to our TruDublin Sponsors:

The Line-Up so far:

Padraic McMahon EMEA Talent Solutions, LinkedIn	David Stott EMEA Sales, Bullhorn	Dave Hazlehurst “Google Dave”, Ph.Creative
Michelle Fogarty Head of HR, EMEA, Twitter	Jennifer Kennedy Business Dir, TMP Worldwide	Rowan Manahan Author, “Where’s My Oasis?”
Jarlath Dooley Head of HR, Version1	Robert MacGiolla Phadraig Director, Sigmar Recruitment	Clare Mulligan Organisational Psychologist
Sinead Bunting Media Dir, Monster UK/IRL	Morgan Pierce CEO, ReferStar	Mark Mitchell Publisher, gradireland
Peter Cosgrove Director, CPL	Johnny Campbell CEO, Social Talent	Bill Boorman #tru Founder

Here are some ideas for finding engineers in India:

Internal LinkedIn search

Title (current): 

(engineer OR enginer OR eng OR engineering OR architect)

Then leave a space between that line and add one of these sets of Keywords: 

If you’re looking for software engineers, use this: (software OR programming OR programmer OR SEPG OR java OR j2ee)

If you’re looking for Marine engineers, use this: (SESAM OR marine OR offshore OR “off-shore” OR subsea OR “sub-sea” OR “sub sea”)

If you’re looking for Civil engineers, use this: (civil OR civils OR site OR qa OR qc OR structural OR “STAAD-Pro” OR construction OR road OR roadworks)

External (or x-ray) search of LinkedIn

Similarly, you can do an external search of LinkedIn from Google – this way, you get full profiles and full names, without LinkedIn blocking part of their name.

site:in.linkedin.com -inurl:groups -inurl:jobs -inurl:dir

(engineer OR enginer OR eng OR engineering OR architect)

Leave a space between the last set of brackets and your chosen speciality:

Software: (software OR programming OR programmer OR SEPG OR java OR j2ee)

Marine: (SESAM OR marine OR offshore OR “off-shore” OR subsea OR “sub-sea” OR “sub sea”)

Civil: (civil OR civils OR site OR qa OR qc OR structural OR “STAAD-Pro” OR construction OR road OR roadworks OR )

Google +

This is a popular hive for Engineers in India – especially in the IT space. You can conduct an internal search using this:

(engineer OR enginer OR eng OR engineering OR architect) India

and then your chosen speciality as above.

Or, you can do an x-ray search like this:

site:plus.google.com inurl:about India (engineer OR enginer OR eng OR engineering OR architect) (software OR programming OR programmer OR SEPG OR java OR j2ee)

Or substitute the second set of requirements (the software part) for the Marine or Civil keywords above.

Twitter

Twitter is a much less fished resource of potential Engineering profiles, but there’s funny ways of using it. We always use Followerwonk to search Twitter bios (check out this blog on exactly how to use it). Remember, it doesn’t accept the Boolean operator OR, instead using the pipe | instead. Also, people’s Bio’s are very small, so be sparing with your keywords!

In the Keywords, search for

(engineer | enginer | eng | engineering | architect)

And in the location area, choose your most local cities that are relevant to you and separate each with a | like this:

(India | Mumbai | Madurai | Delhi | Kolkata | Hyderabad | Bangalore | Jabalpur | Pradesh)

Does this find you more candidates? If it does EXCELLENT! If not, you can learn more ways to search for your engineers on our Blue Belt course, now available online. Happy hunting!

Now like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ before it, LinkedIn has newly implemented an in-status tagging feature, set to revolutionise the way we connect to others on LinkedIn. Announced recently on their blog, the new feature enables you to tag a person or a company in your LinkedIn updates just like you do using the @ symbol on Twitter for example and is heralded as the “new way for you to engage with your network”.

So how does it work?
All you need to do to start using the feature is to start typing the name of a company or member you want to tag and LinkedIn will automatically show you a drop down box where you can select the profile you’re talking about. Choose the correct profile, then finish your message. Then all you need to do is share your update with the tag included, and all your connections can directly click that link to view the profile you’ve mentioned. Simples!

But how does this benefit us as recruiters?
The tagging tool is an excellent and simple way to start a conversation, and get a dialogue going between you and your chosen tag. Every time you mention someone or a company in your post, they get a real-time notification. Mentioning and sharing someone’s latest blog post or Tweet is a fantastically subtle way of connecting with them and grabbing their attention. By showing you are enthusiastic about someone’s work or a point they have made, you are engaging with them and prompting a reaction. Also, the tag is a hyperlink, allowing those reading through the post or discussion to visit the tag-ee’s profile and further their network. I know from experience, that I’m much more likely respond to a personal shout out or a message that is aimed right at me, than a general update or announcement. Then, after initial contact has been made in this way, approaching them as recruiter should be a lot easier and viewed more favorably.

What do you think of LinkedIn’s new tagging system? How would you react to a mention? Is it something you will use to connect with potential candidates in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

 - Siofra

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”

Or so the old saying goes, and that’s exactly the principle by which LinkedIn runs its now highly valued service. Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s founder, said that back in those early days he set up the website “with the mission of connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful” after being “inspired by the invaluable role relationships played in our own careers”. Hence the tagline “Relationships matter” was born.

Today, 225 million users connect with each other, network with fellow industry members, share great industry insights, manage their own personal brand, find themselves their dream job and ultimately recruit new employees on the site on a daily basis. And we here at Social Talent have always been huge advocates for the platform as the ideal tool for recruiters worldwide.

But how has LinkedIn really benefitted us during its decade long stint on our glorious world wide web so far?

To celebrate their ten years, here’s our list of the top ten things LinkedIn has done for the world:

10. Let’s Get Connected 

LinkedIn enables us to connect and be introduced with professionals in our business circles, and provide us with one space were we can meet and greet online.

9. Networking, networking, networking!

After it got us all introduced and connected to one another, LinkedIn encouraged us to take that bold step we were possibly too shy to make in person and network with the influential people within our industry online.

8. Helps Us Find Our Dream Jobs

At it’s very core, LinkedIn is about using the connections you’ve made and the networking you’ve done, along with your professional profile of record, to find that dream job or indeed make yourself available to those who may be looking for someone just like you.

7. There is such a thing as a free lunch!

Companies can use free tools like their official Company Page, including the Products and Services section, as a fantastic way to advertise and market their products and services – free, gratis and for nothing.

6. Pursue New Business

As individuals can search for jobs, companies can search for new business. LinkedIn acts as a business development tool, helping companies find the right people to talk to when nurturing new business ventures and strike up relevant conversations.

5. A Social Network 

At it’s very heart, LinkedIn is ultimately a social network and thus provides us with all the wonderful things that that banner incorporates. Social media platforms are something the worldwide population is now comfortable and at ease using. By providing it’s service under this banner, it encourages interaction and information sharing. Nowadays, it also lets us use other platforms like Twitter to link with it, making it a thoroughly effective way of getting our message across.

4. Industry Insights

LinkedIn has become a hub of thought and opinion. By connecting us all, it got us talking and invariably conversation leads to opinions and ideas being formed. What better place to share these than with your peers on a global scale. As a forum for such opinion, LinkedIn allows us to equally discover and share the very latest news, thoughts, opinions and stats on what’s happening in our industry right now.

3. Keeping You in the Loop

All this sharing, allows every business to have their voice heard within their industry and is a great way to get the name of any business out there for the world to see. The introduction and continual improvement of LinkedIn Today has boosted many professional bloggers onto the world stage.

2. Groups and Announcements 

Sharing within these forums that are unique to LinkedIn can be an effective way to reach out to potential recruits and are far superior to unsolicited personal emails. Make the right announcement in the right group and you have reached your target audience.

1. THE Search Tool for Recruiters

With the continuing growth of LinkedIn’s population, it’s fast becoming the largest database of professional profiles in the world. Its search tool, when used properly, is one of the most effective ways of finding the right talent for the right roles by every recruiter.

What has LinkedIn done for you or your business? Let us know in the comments.

She can grab a taxi the next time! Ah, I jest!

The decision to employ an Au Pair to look after our kids three days a week (plus two nights babysitting – which is a godsend) was a difficult one as we were not sure how our lives would change having a constant live-in guest/employee in our house. Would it be weird having someone else involved in the cocoon of our lives? Would she think we were strange or, worse still, really boring? Either way we decided to press ahead and make “a hire”.

Despite my extensive recruiting experience, the process was spearheaded by my wife. Apparently I could not be trusted to make an objective decision. So she did the initial vetting and I was brought in to give my opinion on the shortlist, but I was definitely down the pecking order in the voting stakes.

We discussed the ideal person and what their attributes should be. Kind, caring and experience with kids were naturally top of the list. Being a Brazilian beach volley ball player, I was told, was of less importance.

So the first few bullet points of our job spec were obvious ones, but we also found that we had preferences that should not really be part of any hiring process, but then this is someone coming to live with us so should we be totally objective and politically correct? You would hope so, but you might just ask yourself questions like these:

1) Would you take on a male Au Pair? They do exist, as do married couples that come as an Au Pair “Pair” (that’s just odd, I don’t care if I am flaunting any employment laws, I really don’t want another couple doing couple things in our spare room, would you?)

2) Does it matter what the person looks like? Of course it doesn’t, but that said it would take a fairly rock solid marriage not to even consider the impact of a supermodel (male or female) floating through the house every day.

3) Does it matter what age they are? I guess it does as they need experience minding kids while not still being one.

4) Can we reject them if they are a smoker? Actually most of the Au Pair sites have a box to tick to reject smokers so I guess you can rule people out if they smoke, seems a bit un-PC, but there you go – it seems to be an accepted question.

By and large they are questions that you would not and should not think about when hiring anyone, and to our credit we said we would go into it with open minds and hearts and see what applicants came our way (with the exception of couples! – shoot me for my prudishness). From 167 applicants on GreatAuPair.com we decided upon a 24 year old Spanish girl, who is fantastic and has settled in really well. She does call us her host mum and host dad but despite this slight she is great with the kids and is out socialising so much that we don’t even notice her as an extra person in the house.

So my question is this: given the world we now live in where there is so much available human data, is it becoming harder to be objective in our hiring? Do we, perhaps despite ourselves, make judgements based on factors that should not be considered? I think we did well to remain as objective as possible, but I would be lying if I did not try to find out everything I could about our Au Pair online before she arrived. She was coming to mind our kids – anyone would check everywhere and anywhere they could to find information to make sure your children are going to be safe, but what if I found some information that was irrelevant to her performance in the job but but did not sit well with our view of life?

Does the availability of human data, and human nature being the curious thing that it is, make being an objective recruiter more and more difficult? Gone are the days of a plain old CV. You now have media-rich information to decide upon someone’s suitability. I saw a recent stat (not that I believe all stats – particularly those in the recruitment industry) that said CV’s with a photo had an 88% rejection rate – sounds like rubbish to me but that is the stat bouncing around and if true or even partly true it obviously points to bias based on appearance. For all of the good efforts to legislate for recruiters to be objective and unbiased, is it possible to achieve anything close to impartiality in a world where we can learn so much, so quickly about a candidate?

Answers on a postcard please.

It’s a great movie. When it was released it created a brief flurry of debate about privacy and reality TV shows. Then we all threw our empty popcorn bucket in the bin and went home. Nothing to concern ourselves about in the real world!

Fast forward 15 years (yes, it’s been that long!) and we exist today in a world wherein everyone has a camera in their pocket and the photos they take can be shared with thousands (or even millions) of people within a few simple clicks. Sites like Facebook will find your face in a friend’s photo and before you know it, a photo of you that you didn’t know had been taken has been tagged and your friends and family have been notified!

Yes, it can be kind of daunting and maybe even a little scary but we’re still a far cry from the Truman Show’s 24 hour life-cast! Or are we?

In February of this year, Google finally unveiled Glass, a powerful voice activated computer that you wear like a pair of glasses. The computer sees what you see, hears what you hear and allows you to broadcast a live video stream to your social network by simply saying “Glass, record video and share with Friends”. You won’t know that someone’s recording from Glass and you may not even know they’re wearing Google Glasses by the time the product launches to consumers early next year;  they have already hired some of the world’s leading eyeglass designers to come up with designs that look and feel like a normal pair of glasses.

Imagine a world where any bespectacled stranger could be filming you and broadcasting your every move directly to YouTube. If you dropped into a busy bar on a Saturday night, your pathetic efforts to chat up your next door neighbour might end up being broadcast on 10 separate YouTube channels simultaneously.

If that scares you into staying in every weekend, you could instead become a super spy, snooping on your kids or partner by doing a quick Google search to see if anyone has checked in at the local nightclub and then find someone who’s broadcasting from the edge of the dancefloor. Heck, do the search on your web enabled TV, turn the volume up and you could practically be there yourself. Pour me a G&T darling, we’re going dancing!

Google aren’t the only company getting in on this action. A Swedish start-up called Memoto are launching their wearable camera this summer. No taller than the average “flair” badge, this little device, which you attach to your shirt like a button, takes a photo every 30 seconds allowing you to download a photo diary of your day, every day, in just under 3,000 images. Literally every minute of your life will be captured, downloaded and available for you to play back on your mobile phone in a kind of “best of” film reel. At first I thought “how cool”, I can clip this on, forget about it and never again miss a key moment in my life. Whether that be a loved one’s birthday, a friend’s wedding or a busy day meeting people at a conference, I will have a permanent record of my day.

But then I got thinking about how easy it would be to forget that you were wearing the camera. Think about if for a second. There are plenty of moments in our ordinary days that don’t need to be shared with Memoto. Apart from those regular trips to a small room (cough, cough) that we all have to do, but no-one talks about, what about the stuff that is captured out of context that your husband, wife, kids or friends see! I can imagine the conversation: “So honey, why are there 6 photos of this tall, long legged blonde sitting at the table beside you at lunch today? Are you not happy? Do I not make you happy. Oh my god, we’re breaking up aren’t we?”…… Or maybe I’m paranoid.

By 2015 products like Glass and Memoto will have become just another part of our everday lives. Just as we have grown used to the idea that everyone has a camera in their pocket and we are all on social media, whether we choose to be or not, livestreaming will become just another technology that makes life better and worse at the same time. The reason why the fictional Truman show was so compulsive to its viewers was because it was the only such show in the world. When Big Brother first appeared on TV 13 years ago, it was essential viewing. These days we’re all fed up with the Kardashians, the Osbornes and every other reality TV show. In a world where Big Brother has billions of screens to choose from and anyone can play the role of voyeur and star at the same time, the question of privacy is a mute point. Privacy went out the window when we gave ordinary people the ability to stand on a soap box and share with the whole world.

If you can access the world’s information on-demand, in the corner of your eye, including a snapshot of any moment of your life, just imagine the possibilities.  I’m looking forward to seeing the answer to that question unfold. For now though, I’m off to paint a sign for my bathroom door that says “Please turn off all electronics before entering!”

This blog was originally written as my Stage 6 speech for Toastmasters which I am due to deliver tonight. Wish me luck! > Johnny

The unconference is structured with concurrent tracks started by our track leaders, and the conversation will continue with you and your fellow peers sharing best practice and debate. Our sincere thanks to our sponsors: Sigmar Recruitment, Monster, Bullhorn, StackOverflow and Kelly.

Tickets go on sale at 9am Irish time Tuesday May 7th via Eventbrite at just €49:

The Line-Up so far:

Padraic McMahon EMEA Talent Solutions, LinkedIn	David Stott EMEA Sales, Bullhorn	Dave Hazlehurst “Google Dave”, Ph.Creative
Michelle Fogarty Head of HR, EMEA, Twitter	Jennifer Kennedy Business Dir, TMP Worldwide	Rowan Manahan Author, “Where’s My Oasis?”
Jarlath Dooley Head of HR, Version1	Robert MacGiolla Phadraig Director, Sigmar Recruitment	Clare Mulligan Organisational Psychologist
Sinead Bunting Media Director, Monster UK/IRL	Morgan Pierce CEO, ReferStar	Bill Boorman #tru Founder
Peter Cosgrove Director, CPL	Johnny Campbell CEO, Social Talent

Here are the top 10 misspelled current job titles on LinkedIn:

Manger: 113,457

Asistant: 16,749

Enginer: 11,634

Acountant: 3,961

Enginneer: 2,164

Resercher: 1,794

Markiting: 1,761

Recruter: 995

Recrutment: 317

Pubic Relations: 263

What funny ones have you come across on LinkedIn?

Minister Burton gave us a couple of minutes of her time to explain where she sees the future of Job Bridge, which from the very beginning drew criticism from the public that companies were exploiting this “free labour” and not offering worthwhile experience or long-term job prospects to interns. In fact, the day of the NRF conference, the Irish Times reported that 15 companies in Ireland had been banned from applying for Job Bridge interns because they had used the scheme unfairly. Only one company was named (Oxigen Waste Management Services), but it was reported that all 15 had replaced paid employees with unpaid interns.

Minister Burton put the emphasis back on employers and what their role could be in helping alleviate unemployment, provide meaningful experience and also help themselves with extra hands on deck – where most of the 13,500 Job Bridge Interns were taken on in small and medium sized enterprises, it was to their credit that most firms found employees with skills that were hidden away in Dole queues. Re-training and up-skilling is still important, said the Minister, where some unemployed people were being re-trained in software engineering. In Ireland, we have over 4,000 roles unfilled in software engineering and IT development, so filling some of that skills gap with people who were once long-term unemployed is ideal. Can your business find room to mentor an Intern?

Watch the Minister’s interview here: