I have been blogging/writing online for the past 5 years. Five years on from my first post and when I look back I would never have thought that I would create so much content or that blogging would introduce me to so many new people and ideas.

When I started blogging in 2008 my initial focus was work related as I wanted to give people a window into what working at Oracle could be. I quickly found that I was writing more and more about information that would help people in their job search in general.

For me, writing regularly has been a great creative output for me to take some of the thoughts that have been in my head and put them onto paper. I hope that in some small way some of my thoughts may have helped someone, somewhere.

I have recently compiled my corporate related blog posts from 2008 into an eBook that I have just published online via Leanpub.com. The book is called: Random Thoughts From a Corporate Recruiter

This is not a self help book or a book showing tips and tricks on how to find a job or how to hire great people. It really is as the title suggests – random thoughts from a  Corporate Recruiter on either Recruitment, Job Searching or Social Media (for job searching).

One of the main reasons I wanted to create this book is for my own personal use. Looking back at all the posts I have written, I wanted to find a way to not lose those thoughts in time that I have had. I hope some of these posts are relevant, useful or entertaining for you as well. I would love to hear your feedback.

As a side note the great thing about publishing on Leanpub.com is that you can buy the book within a price range. Unlike Amazon where there is a set price for a book at Leanpub a reader can pay a range of prices that they feel is fair for the book they buy which I think works well.

Anyway I hope you like the book. Happy Reading.

When I saw the initial introduction of Google Glasses I was intrigued and excited at the possibility of what this may mean with how we interact with technology. One of the big things that really grabs my interest with this is to see if these glasses can help Augmented Reality take the next leap in its penetration into the market. So in concept Google Glasses seemed really exciting.

I say seemed because earlier this week I saw this video by Con Agra Foods. Besides the horribly scripted lines the voice actors had to read, this video really made me feel that maybe Google Glasses could potentially be really underwhelming.

In the video we see two friends go about their day to get ready for a party at the end of the night. They add items to their grocery list through out their day, measure how far they walked this week (see my last blog post – you tend to know if you sat on the couch all week or actually did any exercise) and voice texted each other as well as check the news, etc…

One of the main examples that made this video make me think how underwhelming Google Glasses has the potential to be was the “map my grocery list” comment at the approximately 1:40 mark of the video. Really – map my grocery list?? I am sorry but who is that time poor or grocery shopping challenged that they do not know to find the frozen peas in the freezer section of the grocery store? When has grocery shopping become such a complicated task to achieve that I need a map on where to find the milk?

Maybe someone thinks this is the best thing since sliced bread (if only I had Glasses and this amazing App so I could find sliced bread) but this seems to me like people trying to peddle apps we don’t need or make our lives seem so busy or us seem to be have zero life skills that we need an app to measure how to think.

I hope Google Glasses becomes something really innovative. I think the potential really is there to do some great things sadly I don’t think this video demonstrated much of that at all.

I have been running for about six or seven years and while I go through ups and downs of motivation that I think happens to everyone, I try to average about three to four runs a week. When I first started using Nike+ and measuring my runs, it was really great to be able to look back on my runs and measure my performance either over time or over a specific period.

Since that post I don’t think I have used Nike+ for maybe two or two and half years. What, why would I not keep track of my exercise so I can see if I am doing all the things I am supposed to or not or imporving or running faster/longer, etc…

Even though I am not tracking how far/long my runs are, I think a runner tends to know if they have had a good run or not. When you finish a run you know if you have really put in a good performance without having to verify it by distance or time. I think I have started taking a more wholistic view to running the past few years. So even though I am not measuring my distance – I know roughly if I am running 5 kms or 10 kms and I still have the motivation to keep improving my performance.

For me running serves a couple of purposes. The first is to keep some degree of healthiness. I work from home full time so I have made a conscious effort to make sure I get out and keep moving to stay healthy in some shape or form (maybe a better description is to avoid from becoming unhealthy). The second reason is I find running is a good time for me to tune out to the world and focus my thoughts internally. Life can be quite hectic with 3 kids and working full time and all the other pressures of a normal day. I find when I go for a run my mind tends to wander and I often come up with some of my most creative ideas to problems I am trying to solve. I am a believer in the saying that your best ideas don’t necessarily happen sitting a desk.

I run for the enjoyment of it and all the benefits I get both physically and mentally, I am just not sure I need an application to tell me if I have had a good run or not.So Nike+ it was great having you on my runs for a period of time but I am glad to say that my love for running probably has only become stronger since we have gone seperate ways.

 As the new year begins in India for many students, Oracle India is currently looking for bright, energetic students who are interested in becoming Oracle Campus Ambassadors. We have a dedicated team of Campus Recruiters who are regularly on site at selected Engineering Colleges in India – we need your help to spread the Oracle message within the Student Community. This is a great chance to work with one of the global leaders in the IT space and get some exposure to Oracle that many people do not get the chance to experience

We are specifically looking for Campus Ambassadors at these colleges: 

 Do you want to find out more? Have a read of the Infographic we have created below that will talk a little about what an ‘Oracle Ambassador’ actually will do. If you are interested in this fantastic opportunity and meet the eligibility criteria send us your resume at campusrelations_in@oracle.com

We are excited for another great school and we are looking forward to sharing that experience with you.

A few weeks ago summer gave us one last weekend of sunshine before giving into autumn. With this, we took the opportunity to take advantage of the weekend and packed the tent and the kids into car on Friday night and headed to Upper Yarra Reservoir for 2 nights of camping.

Getting away even for 2 nights, was great for all of us. If you are wondering why I have put a picture of a tree in the gallery above, this is because this is the tree where both Melinda and I found Marissa on Sunday morning after breakfast. All weekend the kids were trying to climb this tree and on Sunday, Marissa finally figured it out. We were a bit panicked as Marissa was high up in the tree and had a fair way to get herself back down, but she was at the top of this tree and couldn’t have been happier. This is what I love about camping. Kids don’t need an ‘application’ or a tablet to enjoy themselves. This may be sound crazy but kids knew how to have fun before the infiltration of media devices came into our daily lives and the crazier thing is they still know how to fun without having to open an app, be online or be connected to some media device.

I am hoping next summer we get more opportunities to go camping and spend time offline and ‘off the grid’  so to speak so we can remember the simple things in life are often the best. No application or mobile device needed (although I shouldn’t speak I did check my email on Saturday from my phone).

Oracle is hiring. In our Bangalore offices we are looking for a bright student to join us for a 6 month internship working as a Data Scientist. What is a Data Scientist?? Have a look at our infographic below, if this opportunity sounds of interest email your resume to manognya.reddy@oracle.com .

One of the things that I think is important and I want our Campus Recruitment Team here at Oracle to be known for is outstanding customer service. When I say customer service, I mean both students and hiring managers should feel they have had a great experience in our campus hiring process. I think one of the keys to providing outstanding customer service is being able to provide as best as we can a personalised experience where the students who are interviewing with us feel like individuals in our process and not just part a ‘campus drive’.

In the campus world this can be challenging at times especially in countries where there is high volume hiring. It can be tricky to create a personal experience when you are hiring for a large number of open graduate roles at one time.

I think Campus Recruitment is one of the areas in the recruitment industry that is just waiting for a change.

We have all seen the proliferation of Social Media in Recruitment over the past 4-6 years. Every Recruiter has a LinkedIn account or uses Twitter or G+ or FB, etc… and some individuals and organisations do it really well. Even in Campus Hiring there is great Social Media initiatives where companies reach out to students and talk to them.

However one thing that has not really changed (and this is a generalisation) is the campus hiring interview process. Do these words inspire enthusiasm to you: “Group Interview, Assessment Centre, On-Campus Drive, Off-Campus Drive, etc...” I don’t know about you but to me these words don’t really sound very personal or individual to students. It almost conjures up images of a factory production line or those long queues you see where the person behind the counter says ‘take a number’.

Campus Recruitment has come a long way don’t get me wrong – companies can share data with and talk to students in so many different ways now it really has become a much more transparent and open process. There are some times such as at IIT’s in India where it really is a bit old school in terms of interviewing with students running from company to company interviewing on campus over the course of a few days but I want students talking to Oracle to have as great an experience as possible (the outcome of getting a job or not is separate to the customer experience).

As students, what are your thoughts? Do you feel like ‘just a number’ when you are interviewing or is there ways that companies can make the process more personalised. Let us know your thoughts.

If you are interviewing with Oracle and have questions, want to talk to us or want to know what it is like working here – email us and we will help where we can. If you can’t reach your local Recruiter in your region email me at david.talamelli@oracle.com and I will put you in touch with the appropriate person.

One thing that has been on my mind though lately is when did recruitment become not about recruitment?

In an attempt to better connect and engage with communities of people (candidates) I think some companies are becoming so focussed on ‘friending’ or ‘liking’ people online that they have forgotten that as Recruiters we have hard targets like number of placements, interview to placement ratio, time to fill, etc… that we are responsible for. I think there is an increasing disconnect between the soft targets (branding) and the hard targets (numbers) that is occurring.

As companies strive to better engage with their online connections I think what is happening is that we are getting taken away to some degree from our recruitment objectives. I think some aspects of Social Media is making Recruiters soft. It is great to know what someone’s favourite movie is or what they had for lunch – but how does that contribute to their potential placement. It is important for a person to feel connected to a company before they join a company and are being courted but that has always been the job of Recruiters, we just used to do this on the phone.

I have been involved in different branding initiatives some of them have been successful, some of them have failed. The one thing that I think is important is not to hide your message behind the content or run initiatives mainly because it seems like a good idea to increase your online presence. Recruiters if you are looking to hire the best people be clear about that and say so, don’t run a contest in the name of recruitment if it does not help you find the best people out there. Don’t start a community to talk about everything and anything – keep it focussed on your end goals – hiring the best people in your market.

Social Media has been a huge part of my own individual success in recruitment I am not making these comments through a ‘that’s not the way we used to do it’ thought process. I started blogging in 2007/2008 to hopefully help people in their job search and to share with people information about Oracle to help them make an informed decision if Oracle was a place for them to work.

Candidate Engagement is important, you have to know your target audience, but I feel that online recruitment has focussed so much lately on branding/marketing that people have forgotten that we are hear to search for, identify and onboard the best candidates for our roles.

[Edit] I just pressed publish and thought to myself am I a crazy in this thinking? Let me know your thoughts.

As a sidenote – if you are looking at getting Solar Panels in Melbourne, I can highly recommend Glen Clark. Out of all the people and companies we spoke to, he was by far the most thorough in providing details and information to us. It may be good sales skills, but he was the person who wanted us to make an informed decision instead of just trying to get our money. He delivered what he said he would and in the timeframes he said as well – we have been really happy going with Glen for this job.

So how did we end up getting solar panels on our roof? A few months ago, we received our electricity bill and it was higher than normal, and by higher than normal I mean almost double what is statistically has been over the past 2 years. So when we called our Energy Provider to ask about the bill and see if we can find out what happened – we pretty much were told “that’s what the bill is, tough luck” – or at least that’s how it felt anyway.

This one conversation with the Energy Company’s Customer Service triggered the thought in my head that I did not want to be in such a one sided arrangement. It got me thinking that the price of electricity is not going to go down, it is a limited resource that is only going to go up and as something that is controlled by a handful of energy companies they really are calling all the shots in terms of pricing and service. So in the end, thanks to my Energy Company for opening my eyes to this.

We got 20 panels on our roof which should bring our electricity bills to close to $0.00 and who knows we may be able to generate enough power to sell kW back to the grid. I like that  we are going to save money by installing these solar panels, I think they they are an investment that is going to pay for itself, but the great thing about going through this exercise is that it has caused us to really look at our electricity usage and see how we can be more efficient in our daily lives. Two big examples are that the beer fridge in the shed has been unplugged and the dryer is being replaced by a clothesline.

The savings are great, but it is also good to know we are being green and doing our small part to help the environment.