Splendid article on Cheezhead today about the most random jobboard - Jobfloat. Aside from a damning rant about the copywriting, there’s some brilliant semantic fun to be had with the authors - Web Funters. Have a read of it here

Brightfuse, CareerBuilder’s experimental project, has been quietly gaining ground in the business networking community. A business-oriented social networking site launched back in February 2008 has accumulated a following of around 75,000 members.Working around the premise that referral recruitment grows in popularity in credit-crunched times, it seems that Careerbuilder is investing in the networking premise to support their further work in resourcing. Compared to LinkedIn’s 27 million members, CareerBuilder’s got a way to go, but argues that it’s going for a very different demographic - senior employees with six-figure salaries. We at BB (and our clients) always like to be in on these things whilst they’re still in they’re beta/alpha/never heard of it phases and, so far, Brightfuse hasn’t really promoted itself heavily, relying on steady evolution. So, whilst it’s still very very transatlantic, it’s well worth becoming an early adopter, if only because it’s so quick and easy.

linkedin benefits from the misery of others

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monster acquisition coming?

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A recent survey on careerbuilder has unearthed some rather sinister findings. 22% of resourcers in the US are browsing candidates’ profiles on social networking sites to supplement any traditional background investigation. More vitally, 34% of them actually dismissed the idea of moving the recruitment process on based on the content they discovered.
A few topline numbers -

41% - candidate posted information about them drinking or using drugs
40% - candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information
29% - candidate had poor communication skills
28% - candidate bad-mouthed their previous company or fellow employee
27% - candidate lied about qualifications
22% - candidate used discriminatory remarks related to race, gender, religion, etc.
22% - candidate’s screen name was unprofessional
21% - candidate was linked to criminal behavior
19% - candidate shared confidential information from previous employers

The facts unearth a real can of worms. Consent forms usually allow employers the right to use a third-party to perform a criminal and credit check. US law states that it’s OK for employers to conduct background checks themselves, as long as they’re not using a third-party. Apparently though it’s illegal for the employer to create an alias in order to access profiles. Chiefly, there are also growing fears that profiles could support a whole ton of discriminatory hiring litigation. Time for some common-sense advice and legal reporting from the powers that be at the CIPD? I’d say so.

Zamzim is the American equivalent of workcircle, which has been busy aggregating job site content for some time now. Cheezhead has a good lowdown on it here -

zamzim: the brits are coming!

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I found this article really interesting. I’d argue that it’s a first that we in Blighty are first to market on anything, let alone some job-board friendly initiative ahead of our friends across the pond.