Customer Reviews

Recruiting on the Web : Smart Strategies for Finding the Perfect Candidate

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have assigned this book to my graduate students in a Staffing class. I would not have assigned it if I did not think it was a good book.

However, I find myself telling them a few cautionary things:

1. Two weeks after the book came out, it was out of date. This field is moving very, very quickly and keeping up is a real chore...

2. The author is breathless and shameless in self-promotion. His writing style will remind you of why the dot-com bubble burst.

3. Many assertions are not backed up with organized study or proof.

4. It's still the best book I know of to cover this topic, unfortunately. If anybody out there knows of a better or more contemporary one, please post a review here...

Sorry everyone but I have been recruiting for over 8 years and this book is literally NOTHING NEW!!!! Please save your money on the training and the book. SORRY! You would be better off investing in a years worth of service from a company that has a really good search engine that really does about the same thing. Plus, now adays you can't get into the sites like you used to anyway so 1/2 of this stuff is totally out dated! I feel totally ripped off. If you know just the basics of the web you can still figure the stuff out in this book on your own on some free recruiting sites.

Well written and a valuable tool for anyone looking to hire individuals for their organization

I'm a human resources manager, and I'm responsible for the career section on our company's Web site and for our job posting budget. I also submit a quarterly search plan. This is the first book I've read that covers each of these subjects in order, in an integrated way that makes sense for beginners, but also helps veterans like me. I'm submitting a request to order copies for our entire recruiting staff. (btw, the Amazon price is the best I've found). I highly recommend it for all recruiters, HR and hiring managers.

This book is terrific. Even with years of recruiting experience and a strong capability using the Web, I benefited from this systematic, comprehensive, detailed and up-to-date review of how to use the Web for attracting and finding the right candidates. It is easy to read, yet packed with great information that is well-organized and easy to access for reference. I highly recommend this book for company recruiters as well as outside recruiting firms and researchers.

Recruiting top talent has always been an important objective for employers. Over the past few years, we have not seen the competitive intensity in recruiting that we saw in the go-go years of the late 1990s because of the slowed economy. This quieter period has given technologists and strategists a chance to catch up, to develop new approaches, to refine new systems. The new designs for attracting preferred candidates were not even available a few years ago; now they will be essential for employers desiring to find, attract, and hire the best talent to achieve their objectives.

Finding applicants through newspaper advertising will be with us for a while, for some jobs. Even some of those jobs are now offered through major job boards. For the positions beyond low-skilled welders, fast-food burger flippers, and convenience store clerks, employers will increasingly use the internet to recruit. This shift shatters the myth that hiring is local; the web is world-wide. Recruiting is global.

OK, with this historical and future-focused concept in mind, how do we do this on-line recruiting? Foster's book tells us-step by step at a strategic level and at a tactical level. It is not a book for webmasters, recruiting site developers, or code programmers. This book delivers on the higher levels, providing company owners, executives, and managers a valuable insight into what needs to be done and why. Human resource executives will find this volume very helpful. Some HR managers will find it a great tool to open deeper discussion with their superiors; others will find it more valuable in their efforts to understand where their leaders are trying to go.

The book begins, appropriately, with some of the "big picture" of recruiting, then turns to the use of the internet. In Chapter 1, there is a list of stages to the process of e-recruiting: recruit your friends, create or enhance your organization's recruiting web site, attract the best candidates, find passive candidates, and assess your applicants. The organization of the book is different, which may throw off a reader expecting an expansion of the five stages. Foster explores various aspects of the recruiting website in Part Two, but Part Three is titled Advertise Your Job Openings. Part Four is Searching for Passive Candidates, but there is not a separate section on assessing applicants-which will be an increasingly important aspect of e-recruiting. You'll find a tremendous amount of valuable insight in these pages.

The book is seasoned with a wide range of resources, mostly presented (understandably) as website addresses. Some I recognized, others I'd heard of, and there were still some the author missed (like www.....com for recruiting communities); but, this is a rapidly-changing field. Many readers will find themselves a bit overwhelmed and confused as they read this book. So much information all at once! Yes, that's the reality; and it's a good lesson. Read the book cover to cover, then go back with a highlighter and a pad (or note-taking computer file) to design the right strategy for your company. You'll be reading about cutting-edge ideas and resources, so don't expect to grasp it all right away. Commentary on trends and processes is well interwoven with things to do. Expect to be inspired, stimulated, and fully-loaded with work to do.

Having been involved in many aspects of Recruiting for a number of years I can emphatically state that this book is an excellent resource for new and experienced recruiters alike. It does not claim nor pretend to be a resource for all recruiting related topics, as it focuses specifically on harnassing the power of the Internet for recruiting. Readers will find the material to be engaging, well researched, intelligently organized and thoughtfully presented.

There has been a number of books written on this subject over the short but rapidly evolving history of this field and all have helped shape the Internet Recruiting Body of Knowledge. However, where this book truly differntiates itself is in its presentation and organization of information. The author, Mike Foster, (the founder and CEO of AIRS, a recognized global leader in e-recruitment training and information) and truly gives the subject matter the AIRS treatment.

For those who are not familiar with AIRS training, the AIRS treatment is my affectionate term for their tremendous focus on providing all of the information necessary needed to be successful, without unnecessary fluff or smoke and mirrors. Mike's book (much like their training) applies uncommon common sense to take the mystery out of what some consider to be a complicated area.

If you are new to recruiting and are looking for a book to explain all of the in's and out's of the talent acquisition life cycle, this book is not for you. However, if you are new to recruiting or if you are a recruiter and want to learn how to leverage the Internet for competitive advantage this is a great place to start. Make no mistakes, recruiting has been and will always be hard work and this book will not do your work for you, however it will provide any person who is interested the proper foundation for truly taking advantage of the Internet for finding and attracting critical talent, which is a huge competitive advantage for an employer of any size.

This is a great, well organized book. It takes you through e-recruitment top to bottom, from setting up an online employee network, to building your Website, working with job boards, and then to Flipping and X-raying sites to find passiove candidates.

I've been a recruiter and manager since 1994 and have been through every Web-recruiting class and book ever offered. AIRS was the first (I went through AIRS I and II in 1998) and is still by far the best training in this field. I read this book when it was published last year and have just purchased a dozen more for new recruiters we plan to hire soon. It is the most systematic, comprehensive "how to" guide for e-recruiting I've found.

I attended AIRS classes several years ago and they changed the way I recruit and how I use the Internet. This book covers even more territory than the classes I attended, and has opened my eyes in new ways again. My company uses newspapers, job boards and job fairs to recruit, but there's no question we get the best candidates when we use AIRS techniques. AIRS is definitely the leader in this field, and seems to keep coming back with fresh new ideas. Highly recommended for anyone in recruiting or HR.

Recruiting on the Web is a must read for everyone who is hiring even 1 new employee, as well as those looking to hire thousands. It is crammed full of specific on what to do, when to do it and, most importantly, how to do it. The principles covered apply to companies of all sizes in all market segments, seeking to hire people at all levels. The author, CEO of the largest Internet recruitment training company worldwide, writes from first hand experience, and, throughout the book, identifies the "Best in Class", naming names and listing companies, tools and resources that can help companies identify the best candidates, recruit and hire them. No owner of a small company or Human Resource Executive of medium and larger companies should be without this valuable manual in order to employ current technology to their search for the best candidates. The author covers the necessary action for companies seeking candidates themselves, as well as those working with professional recruiting firms, Internet ad agencies and other third=party organizations. In effect, this is a comprehensive manual that should serve as the definitive manual and guide to studied and followed by both Human Tresource executives and professional recruiters.