David's Journal on Tap

Note: I orginally posted this article in July 2008 on the Oracle Recruitment Blog (2nd note: I have since unsubscribed to the weekly email from Kennedy Information).

Why would a high caliber individual who has a great job jump ship? – Posted July 2008

I receive a regular email from Kennedy Information each week which has interesting articles on the Recruitment Industry including Trends, Ideas, Stories, etc…

This morning I received the email as normal and immediately clicked to the following article. The link to the site is: Landing Talent: Keeping Focused on Both the Emotional and Analytical Elements It is an article by Vicki Pachera and the title that got me immediately interested was the line “Why would a high caliber individual who has a great job jump ship?”

When I work with my managers we are always looking for the best people for our roles, and when I in turn talk to people this article reminded me that it is not just about $$ or Title of a role that gets people to change jobs. I think when approaching people about a potential role, you need to find out what a person’s circumstances are and what the plan is for themselves from a work perspective and otherwise. In talking to people in detail like this it is then that you can see if a role may be of interest to them and see if your current opportunities fit what they are looking for.

There are so many opportunities at Oracle, the right one may not exist for a person today, but I cannot count the number of times I have called somebody back after 1, 2, 6, 12 months etc… as the ideal role has come up for them at a later date.

Finding a new role needs to be a collaborative effort. I think the role needs to fit the candidate as much as the candidate needs to fit the role and it is in talking to people that we get to put that fit together.  If I am talking to you about work with us, don’t be shy to tell me your aspirations, plans and goals – we may have a role that helps get you there.

Late last week I watched this 7 minute video below of Ji Lee talking about his “Bubble Project”.

Here is the link to the video, I would recommend taking a few minutes to watch it. Ji is a very good speaker and his presentation is very personal and he really gets his point across.

Ji Lee: The Transformative Power of Personal Projects

For those of you have not seen the video before, Ji’s story is a great one and I find it very motivating. Ji is now Creative Director at Google Creative Labs, previously though and before his bubble project he was working at an ad agency in the US. As a result of the frustration of corporate dialogues and ego he undertook his own personal project (the bubble project) to create something that he believed in and was passionate about.

From his experiences working in the Ad agency Ji learned that “I can not depend on others to make things happen” and that as a solution ” I will have to just do it myself”. Which is how the idea to create his own personal project happened.

I think at the moment many people are caught up in the hype of creating a ‘Personal Brand’, but I think many people are not providing any real content or story behind their brand. Our work and personal worlds are becoming more intertwined than ever. What role you have in a company only makes up a part of your personal brand. What is it that you believe in, what is it that drives you or gets you excited to work on. These type of things (and I am sure there are many more) are what helps piece together your personal brand.

Brand “you” is not something you can create in 10 minutes on a PDF file. It has to be something that has a life behind it – Yours. It is developed by the work that you do whether that is in your job or elsewhere.

In your job you may not have the ability to work on some projects that you want to due to any number of constraints. For Ji he found his creativity being stifled by the corporate machine. However if there is something you want to do, you can still do it if you really want to as a personal project.

From his experience and as Ji notes in his presentation working on his own Personal Projects has taught Ji:

• “personal and professional projects complement each other”
• “creating platforms to share/collaborate with others is powerful”
• “time is a concept that can be stretched”
• “sharing is rewarding”

It is through his bubble project that Ji started to receive calls to work on other projects and open up new doors and opportunities for him. Forget for the moment about your personal brand, that will take care of itself and will develop as a result of the work that you do. You do not need to be constrained by the walls of your office for the projects you work on. I enjoyed watching this video and it has helped me look at the world a bit differently, I think it is something that should be shared with others.

I am not sure what is happening this new year, but I find over the past few weeks that I have had a number of people asking me about my blogging. Some of the questions I have been asked include: Why do I blog, what is the purpose, how do I measure blogging success, etc…..

For me, I blog because I like to share my thoughts, ideas and knowledge with the communities I am involved in. I think being part of a community (online or in-person) means giving back and participating in it.

As you may know I write primarily on two blogs. This blog is more my private blog to share my thoughts and ideas which are both work and family oriented. I also created and am the primary blogger for the Oracle Corporation Recruitment Blog. I set up the Oracle Recruitment blog almost two years ago to share with people what it is like to work here at Oracle and give people an insight into what life is like here.

One of the questions that has been asked of me that has had me thinking over the past few weeks is – How do you measure blogging success?

I know you can measure things like webpage hits, viewers, number of subscribers or a number of other items from google analytics or from WordPress Statistics, but from a business perspective how does this translate into success. Many business folks think in a more linear perspective – that is how is this helping my business. I think personally the way way business is conducted is changing and it is becoming more collaborative. I have had people asking me how many resumes or placements do I get out of blogging. As I mentioned in a few presentations I have done before – collecting resumes is not the primary focus of why I blog. For me it really is about sharing information that I hope helps people. If I write open and honestly then I think that things like sales leads or resumes or placements will follow naturally but those are a secondary outcome not the primary reason I blog.

I am catching up with Michael Specht later today to discuss some of these questions. I like talking to people who just ‘get social media and blogging’ and Michael is one of those people. Michael has been blogging much longer than I have and is a great sounding board as he knows his stuff. But rather than ask another blogger and another Social Media Enthusiast I also wanted to ask the question to readers of this blog.

That is – How do you measure the success of a blog?

Should it be measured by standard analytics such as web page hits, subscriber count, time spent on blog, etc… or should it be focused more on corporate measurements that is things like sales deals completed, sales leads, conversion from lead to close rates, etc…. From a Recruitment perspective this may be things like number of placements or number of resumes.

I encourage you to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts, I would like to find out what people think Blog success should measured by.

Are things like number of subscribers and web page hits just airy fairy statistics or is there is something else to measure the success of a blog by?

I have been a fan of Kevin Wheeler’s ever since I saw him present here at a conference in Melbourne Australia back in late 2007. He has just written one of those “here are my predictions for 2010″ posts that I recently mentioned in my last blog post. The link can be found here. It is a good article and what I like about Kevin’s posts is I find that they are based not only on just recruitment principles and operations but also on larger demographic and sociological trends. Yes there is lots written about Generation Y, but it is quality writing.

Anyway in his blog post, Kevin mentions one of the things he thinks we will see more of in 2010 is the “Virtual Recruiter and the Virtual Employee”. That is Recruiters will use the technology available to them to source, attract and hire candidates for roles in countries/cities outside of their location. Kevin writes that Recruiters will find jobs for people and hiring managers they may have never physically met.

I agree with Kevin, I think the use of the virtual employee will increase. As technology continues to develop to allow us to do many of the things we used to have to do in an office and with a mindset shift in what is a “workplace” is, I think we will see more people working in virtual teams and offices.

In my role, I work in a virtual team – my colleagues are based around the world and I liaise with people in APAC, EMEA and North America regularly. We all know what we have to do and work together with a common goal of finding the best people for Oracle. I am based in Melbourne Australia and have successfully placed candidates into roles here at Oracle across Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, India and Singapore. There have been times where I have worked with Managers and Candidates who I have never physically met – the relationships I have with some of my online networks is stronger I would suggest than what some people have with their real world contacts.

With the use of many online tools, soft phones and collaborative products the world is quickly becoming a much smaller place than it use to be. Employees are no longer limited by their physical location, they can work on projects with team members in different time zones or locations.

From my own personal experience workplace flexibility works very well. I enjoy working across different cultures, I have expanded my skills and capabilities and have provided my clients with a value added service. Not every organisation can offer this type of role, but if companies want to attract the best staff they will have to start making their working more flexible to a changing workforce that expects flexibility or risk getting left behind by quality candidates.

I know that there is a common perception that online networks are somehow not as strong as real life relationships and that unless you meet someone for a coffee you can only develop a relationship so far. I do agree with that thinking to some degree, however that gap is quickly closing as 1) the technology continues to develop to make us more connected and 2) the growing acceptance that your online networks are just as real and valuable as the relationships that you have with your in person networks.

I love summer time in Melbourne. Yes it does get hot and the threat of fires always exists, but with the bay so close – it is easy and convenient for Mel and I to take the kids down to the beach for a swim to escape the heat. The pictures below are from earlier tonight. What a way to end the week. I think it was 34 or 35 degrees today and after finishing up work we packed the kids up and took them for a quick swim.

The kids love it in the water – they really are all water babies, all for their own reasons though. Joshua enjoys eating the sand, Marissa is getting into her surfer phase and Grace cannot get enough of splashing. The girls have been in swimming lessons for some time now and Joshua will start later this year – I think it is important that the kids know how to swim and know how to take care of themselves in the water, plus it is good fun and I would much rather see them out running around rather then have them sitting in front of the television.

Sure enough winter will come sooner or later, but until it does and before it gets too cold – we will try to take advantage of the great beaches that we have access to here in Melbourne. I think we are lucky because not only are we only 2 minutes to the beaches in the bay which are great for kids, but we are only about 30 minutes from some of the surf beaches like Gunnamatta – but with the rips and the water being a bit rough on the surf beaches it is a little too rough just at the moment for the kids to take them down there regularly.

It is that time of year where everyone writes a “my predictions for [insert niche area here] 2010” story. These articles and blog posts are great but rather than write up another list about the same things many of us have already heard or written about (eg. More about social media, mobile is coming, etc….) I wanted to reflect on something different (I sense a theme for my blog posts this year developing – updates next post). Whether you are in a company that employs 1 or 100 000 people, as professionals we all have certain tasks that we need to do to be successful in our jobs. The jobs we have have their ups and downs but they make up a large portion of our day, our time and our energy. Ideally we should enjoy what we do and if you are in a job to just “pay the bills” it does not have to necessarily be a bad thing.

If you are doing the same task day in and day out, it runs the risk of becoming monotonous. Yes you will become an “expert” in what you do because you do it day in and day out, but there is the inherent risk of losing your passion for what you do – I am not sure but if I had to do the same thing every day it would likely damper my creative thinking and spirit. But wait a second, in my role I do have similar tasks that I complete each day – work out our resourcing needs, search for and identify candidates, lots of search, lots of talking to people, the list goes on. Even though I do the same tasks I have not lost any passion or want to do my role.

I love what I do and I am successful at what I do. Since I started recruiting in 1999 I have seen many Recruiters just going through the motions, but that does not have to be the case, I think we can all add our own individuality to our jobs in some form. I think one of the reasons I enjoy my role as much as I do here at Oracle is because my management team has allowed me the flexibility to be creative in my role. I invest a large portion of my day doing the core things that I have to do to get my job done, but I also have outlets that let me not only be creative but also help the company by finding new answers and ways of doing things.

It does not matter what your outlet is – but if you can find one that helps both you and the company at the same time I think that creates a great energy. It could be tweeting a message or posting a blog article. For me writing is a great outlet. There have been times when I have been stuck on a problem with no answer in sight, looking at my laptop for ages – what I have done is put on my running shoes, turned up my iPod and in that run when I step away from the problem more often than not the solution has ‘popped’ into my head. When an idea hits you, go with it, if you can’t attend to that thought straight away – write it down and come back to it. Your idea may not be the traditional way you do things, but look into it – you may have something.

Candidates have access to more opportunities now than ever before. To attract and retain the top levels of candidates I think companies and managers need to embrace the individuality of each person (within reason). I think the days of managing teams with a ‘it’s my way or the highway’ approach are on their way out. Yes there are guidelines/ processes in most companies and yes employees need to work within these guidelines, but being in the corporate world does not mean you cannot express your individuality and let that flow through in your job.

Ok, so the holidays are over and I am back at work.

Even though I have been living in Australia for a number of years, I still cannot get used to a “Summer Christmas”. For Christmas this year we went up to country Victoria to visit the inlaws. The kids had a great time catching up with with their cousins and swimming at the lake. Christmas was a lot of fun with the kids as they are starting to understand what the holiday season is all about (now Mel and I just need to make sure they focus on giving as well and not just receiving!!!). Of course they were spoiled by their grandparents and had too much sugar and stayed up way too late, but now that we are back home we are getting them settled back into a routine. You know the kids have had a good time when you look in the back seat on the drive home and see all three of them asleep.

Once again Melinda worked out what it was I got her for Christmas present – that is 3 years in a row now and counting that she has worked out what she was getting. I thought for sure this year I would surprise her, but she put on her CSI hat and figured it all out.

With ‘Nan’ and ‘Pop’ looking after the kids Mel and I actually got a chance to go out golfing and spend some time on our own – we didn’t set the golf course on fire, but we had a good time and it was good spending a morning with Mel by ourselves.

Speaking with everyone back in Canada, I know it has been cold and the last picture is more what I am used to at Christmas. To everyone back home, if it is any consolation – the heat over Christmas was too hot to spend much time outside in the afternoon (although we still went to the pool or lake after 4:00 pm).