Using the service, you can look up someone using their phone number only.

       Phone:         
                 (###-###-####)

Bookmark the People search page. You'll use it.

• Vanishing Jobs is the tip of the iceberg in a Mother Jones series that will focus on work issues.
• The Minneapolis Star Tribune weighs in with a remarkable set of information called On the Edge of the Digital Age. Of particular interest is the third part in the series:The Coming Trauma: The end of the Job.
• From the hopelessly socialist camp comes Workers Have Nothing to Lose But Work Itself!
• Finally, take a look at World Round Slack whose slogan seems to be: In the future, we believe the age of retirement will get lower and lower, until eventually it will be possible to retire at birth

Dear IBN:

As a "bodysnatcher" working for a retained executive recruiting firm for the entertainment and new media industries, I was curious that you so confidently report on the eminent demise of the recruiting industry.

Since the bulk of the searches we perform are never advertised and are usually confidential and since the majority of the candidates we approach are currently employed, I wonder how you feel your service could be beneficial to a senior-level recruiting firm. True we are about to debut our website (xxx.com), but its purpose is for publicity, exposure and to draw in accomplished executives for inclusion in our database. We will not be actively recruiting through the site. So, will the next Chairman of IBM really be recruited over the Internet???

While you offer a great question, it's a "softball" in some ways. Recruiting, as you well know, has a number of steps ranging from identification of the position (and its strategic importance) to filling the "pipeline" with screened candidates to final selection and contract negotiations. We believe that Internet / client-server technologies, combined with demographics and structural changes in the nature of work are conspiring to radically transform the Recruiting Industry.

In each of the steps (we identify 14 in our analyses), all firms currently in the industry are vulnerable to competition in client transaction costs. In fact, the cost of entry for players who aren't currently in the game is significantly lower than the costs for firms who are solidly in the game. It's much like the structural advantage held by the Japanese in the post oil crash economy in the automobile market.

The "demise" of the recruiting industry is certainly a bit of hyperbole. In fact, we see the number of transactions going up exponentially while the cost (to clients) drops equally dramatically. The brokering of candidates into critical unfilled slots will increase in the immediate future while their average tenure decreases.

Do let me know when your website is ready for public exposure. We generally tell our clients to expect that the cost of having a website will be 15 times the initial development cost per year. If your goals are to increase publicity, exposure and draw potential candidates into the site, we'd imagine that you have a detailed plan to arrange about 800 inbound links; changing and interesting content designed to attract the targets you seek; and significant differentiators from the rest of the recruiting pack. We can help in these areas.

We've reviewed all of the recruiting websites currently online in great detail. We know what works and what doesn't, who your competitors are and whether or not a website makes sense as an investment in your particular case. We counsel many of our clients to use the technology in less visible ways, focusing on their clients rather than their candidates.

Transformation is a more useful image than demise. For a retained search firm, the technology is best used to lock your existing relationships in place. You are about to enter an era of increased quantification and cost competition. We know how to help you continuously increase the value you deliver to your clients while reducing their transaction costs.

Hope this helps.

John

Two new entrants are worth comparing: NationJob and CareerMart. On a purely functional level (services offered), they are very similar but they take very different approaches to building relationships with candidates.

NationJob is trying to create a brand name matching service. P.J.Scout is a folksy cowboy who, we guess, searches the prairie for opportunities. Although NationJob has national ambitions, their territory and mindset are clearly regional, with a heavy Midwest emphasis. P.J.Scout fits right in. NationJob seems to be tearing up the pastures with standalone job terminals and burgeoning relationships with regional newspapers.

CareerMart, on the other hand, is less folksy (although they do devote a lot of their audience's time to a big graphic map in summer and winter versions). Their real strength is an obvious sensitivity to the needs of their candidates. Both services offer online job searches. Both come up empty from time to time (no jobs in the search category). When the database gives you an answer in the CareerMart scheme, the searcher is immediately presented an apology and an opportunity to join the email notification system with the same criteria just used.. This is a very nice touch. Between the email notification agent, the customer service orientation and a solid set of career resources CareerMart really distinguishes itself in an increasingly crowded arena.

They've also cleverly aligned themselves with an outdoor oriented company (GORP) so that traffic from one of their entry points has a demonstrated interest in the area that they cover. It's a nice, comprehensive approach to working a niche, blending client and candidate needs into a single interface.

If you're considering moving into online recruiting, look at the 4 Work situation carefully. A better strategy for them would have been to build traffic and slowly release their delightful services. In its current configuration, the service is likely to become a case study marketing blunder.

We're in the process of evaluating all of the new features being added to IPA (the Recruiter's Online Network). If you're not a member, you should definitely check them out. Online databases of resumes, job splits and tools for recruiters. The modest membership fee will yield a significant return in enhanced effectiveness and opportunity for your firm.

As our evaluation proceeds, we'll keep you up to date on IPA's progress.

• Driving Reports (MVRs) Nationwide
• Workers' Comp Searches in 40 States
• Criminal Record Histories Nationwide
• Previous Employment Verifications in 72 Hours
• National Credit and Address Information

Bay Area Jobs is a very interesting example of the kinds of recruiting partnerships that will make increasing sense as the web evolves. The site lists all known employers and placement firms in and around San Francisco. Who put it together? Allan Cory, a local realtor, of course. In the end, he's created an economic engine that is useful to recruiters, candidates, and realtors. Cory has smartly assessed his market and decided to make them more mobile and therefore more likely to be return customers. We think this is profound in its simplicity.

A smart Recruiting Firm in a different region or a national association would take this example and apply it to their business. Recruiting Websites co-sponsored by realtors is as smart a market adjustment as the alliances with Professional Associations that we continue to believe will dominate the recruiting landscape in the near future.

We were also really impressed with Gary Johnson's Brave New Work World which includes the New Work News, a collection of press articles on the subject of workplace changes. If you want to keep quickly abreast of the changes, bookmark New Work News.

In spite of these things, this glorified collection of links is a place on which you must get your site listed. The funny thing about (current) web traffic patterns is that reviewers are liable to fall in love with the site based on its "cuteness". Once the reviewers discover it, visitors will follow. A link here is liable to yield lots of traffic. Their pockets seem deep enough to indicate thet they'll be in the game for the long haul.

It's an odd paradox of web marketing that good places to market your recruiting services may not be the most useful sites for your clients. Imagine their relief when they find your well organized, easy to use offering at the end of that link.

According to this week's print version of New Media, the web is about to become littered with "ghost-sites" (we've been calling them cobweb sites). As Website owners discover that the One Source Group's approach to marketing is just the beginning of operating costs, many sites will fall by the wayside.

We have a collection of about 100 sample HTML Resumes in the 1st Steps In The Hunt Newsletter.

We started asking ourselves, "Why is there even a perceived niche for this sort of service?"

The web can obscure the current exponential growth in the contract / temporary placement sectors. As the big institutions downsize, nothing of substance is taking their place. That means that the economy really is "projectizing". With shorter tenures come increased demands for placement services. In the short term, it's a windfall for recruiters. In the longer term it's a structural problem.

Moving lots of employees between assignments used to be a function of the internal workings of a big company. Today, employees (and recruiters) increasingly accomplish the task themselves without the buffers offered by sheer bigness. And, the trend will increase. Employees will need to learn to market themselves ever more effectively. So, we think that services like ResumeNet are likely to expand in number over the medium term.

The other problem with using the net is the abundant, confusing new terminology. We suggest that you point your customers to the Cook Report's Glossary. It's comprehensive and might even define a term or two that you don't know.

Use 800 inbound links (from other sites) as a target for a minimally successful web promotion project.

Take a look at Job-Link, a new resource for Recruiters. Job-Link offers a searchable database of resumes (optimized for both the candidate and the Recruiter)and a live chat area for job-hunters. The description of Job Link's Services is as clear and straightforward as you could hope for. (We imagine that they used a professional copy-writer).

Competing, in this marketplace, means having similar services to or developing a working alliance with operations like Job-Link. They get a Nice Start. The real tricks for Job-Link will be whether they can navigate the promotional jungle and keep their site fresh and lively.