For me it’s not about all that, at least not in the short term.  For me Obama’s campaign, election and inauguration has been a real awakening to the possibility of what America can be.  I have seen millions of people regain their hope and dreams.  I have seen pessimists decide that their viewpoint doesn’t help anyone and they see the positive side. I have seen millions of children excited about the president and our country.

If you remember Clinton’s campaign and election, this was similar but not nearly as exciting.  It has been a while since so many people have been so excited.  The 2000 and 2004 elections were covered in controversy and divided the US in such an ugly way.  But that’s over now and we needed to close that chapter.

People keep asking me what Obama has done but by now I think that is apparent.  When our society achieves a sense of renewal and hope, we are already halfway home.  When we can peel away that which has plagued us and shed those burdens, our hearts and souls are lightened.  When people can finally look up and see the road they need to travel and decide to put their skin in the game, they can’t lose.  Obama has really done that for so many people and that should make everyone happy.

I got misty a few times, not for Obama, but because you can see so many people with hope in their eyes and pride for their country.  Some younger Americans are excited and hopeful for the first time in their lives!  For this, Obama is a miracle worker and truly the right man at the right time.

My wife and I went out and got hamburgers and onion rings tonight in celebration of Obama as our 44^th president.  We also bought a bottle of champagne to toast our country’s future.  Cheers!

Most recruiters have been taught that posting a job means reaching active job seekers.  Recruiters are also taught that searching through resume databases is the only way to find passive candidates.  We created a video to communicate some points for recruiters and employers.  Lots of job boards offer posters exposure based advertising like linkedin, monster, careerbuilder etc.  But none of those job boards match posted jobs to a passive candidate database like Realmatch does.  We think this video explains it but we are still collecting feedback if anyone has ideas.

He has something here doesn’t he?  Realmatch brings employers and job seekers together with our innovative Real-Time matching technology. For us every day “is about jobs” and not Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs either but real jobs in real time. It’s about a better way for job seekers to get that job by letting the technology work for them. It’s about removing the barrier of pay-to-post pricing for employers of all sizes to post their jobs and find the highest quality candidates available. It’s about innovation and ultimately innovation is about jobs.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” -Steve Jobs, CEO Apple Inc.

At Realmatch we are leading. Leading the online job board industry and transforming it every day with our innovative solutions. By creating science job matches with partners like Scientific American and MIT’s Technology Review we are leading the way for the “majority of the country’s adult population… dependent on the science sector for their jobs and their future (Augustine)”.

Now, there are folks out there that bombard us on a daily basis in the media, they say that the time is not now, that your luck will come later, batten down the hatches and ride out the storm because now is not the time for near misses.

“Life is a series of near misses. But a lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It’s seeing what other people don’t see, and pursuing that vision, no matter who tells you not to.”-Howard Shultz, CEO Starbucks Inc., “Pour Your Heart Into It”.

Together “we” can overcome the aspersions of those that don’t see. Together the “we” of employers, job-seekers, and Realmatch will continue to pursue the vision of innovation by leading science and technology job matching into a vision of a future not bound by the limited imagination of those that say, “You can’t”.  To all those that have been matched with a job, welcome to being part of the “we”.  To the employers that found the quality candidate more efficiently and effectively, welcome to the “we”. We continue to innovate and lead at Realmatch and by working together “we” continue to match the jobs of the future that all of us depend on.

1.    Matched -The job is immediately matched with profiles from the existing database which comes from users building profiles on 1200 sites in the RM network.  So you’ll see candidate matches for the job based on the skills required immediately.  The profiles of those matching candidates can be browsed for free.

2.    Distributed – The job is sent to the 1200 sites Realmatch powers and the 36 job boards Realmatch partners with.  Again all free.  As applicants come in, you can browse their profiles for free as well.

So it’s free to post a job and free to browse profiles of matching candidates and applicants.  Realmatch has removed the risk of pay-to-post sites. Here’s a diagram to illustrate what happens with each job. 

You can always post your job here.

I speak with job seekers almost every day.  I enjoy getting their feedback about Realmatch’s platform and I enjoy hearing their stories.  I learn something by listening and understanding their point of view.  But you don’t need to speak with job seekers everyday to understand what I am about to tell you.  As a matter of fact, unless you were born a millionaire and have always had money, I am sure you can completely relate.

So here it is:  A lot of people feel tremendous pressure to succeed in their career. 

Despite the collapse of the economy and the massive layoffs, the expectation to succeed professionally in this country is as high as it has ever been.  There is one component of this pressure that I am seeing more of though and it’s really kind of bugging me.  So before we get to this pressure, let me ask you a few questions:

1.     Where do think you should be career wise?  Answer: ____________

2.     At your age, you should be making at least________?

3.     At your age, you should have a net worth of ________?

If you have specific expectations, you’re not alone.  I have them and so does most everyone I know.  I think that some of the pressure and some of the expectations are good but by far, most of these expectations are unrealistic and unhealthy for all of us.  All of us place expectations on ourselves about money and things.  Do you have an unrealistic expectation about where you think you’ll be based on someone you know…or worse yet, someone you read about?   We place an enormous amount of pressure on ourselves to get to a place where we think we should be.  And while I think everyone should strive to accomplish their dreams, there is a diminishing return when you are consumed by your drive.  And if the drive is just money, you might be burning yourself out.   The more you make, the higher your expectation.

There is nothing wrong with money; I am a huge fan myself.  But like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives (loved that show).  Life is finite; remember to balance the prime years in your life with the things that make you truly happy.  These are usually things other than work and money.  There is a scene in the movie Joe Black when the grim reaper is about to take an old women.  He asks if she has enough pretty pictures to take with her.  Despite all the chaos of life, take some time for yourself and make some pretty pictures.  Have a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Wireless network coast to coast? Well almost, with www.nycwireless.net and www.seattlewireless.net we go from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back. These new partners are establishing grassroots Community Wireless Network projects in Seattle, Washington and New York City. Their goals include the creation of a broadband wireless area network by expanding metropolitan wireless access points. Their users are wicked smart and their jobs are local.

 Did someone say economy? It seems economics and economic policy is everywhere we turn. For those in the know www.economicpolicyjournal.com  is a must read and as a new Realmatch distribution partner is matching those in the know with jobs for those in the know.

Firms across the country take notice of the legal blogging at www.indianalawblog.com. Since 2002 Indianalawblog has been providing citizens with an up-to-date capsule of all matters involving Indiana law, interesting developments in law, government, and more (not just in Indiana). Sharp and informative this blog received the distinguished 2006 Excellence in Public information and Education Award presented by the Indiana Judges Association. Realmatch is proud to match its readers and contributors with the best firms across Indiana and the Nation.

“How did a teacher help you become the success that you are?” One of many recently added education distribution partners, www.teacherscount.org asks that question to the most successful employers and job-seekers every day. The mission of TeachersCount is to “raise the status of the teaching profession and provide resources to the education community.” Realmatch now powers the very resourceful job-matching channel for this forward thinking PR minded organization. Education and PR? Check out their “Behind Every Famous Person is a Fabulous Teacher” campaign featuring successful people from; Ken Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express Company and his teacher, friend and mentor Lee Lecraw; to Zac Posen international fashion mogul/entrepreneur and his English teacher from St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn Jane Avrich.

I could go on and on, and I will for one more partner www.bostonbiker.org. Realmatch’s patented real-time matching technology meets the slightly less hi-tech but all-together practical pedal powered version of a distribution partner. The pragmatic value and joy of cycling in Boston is featured by the thoughtful blogs of boston biker and his merry band of bike blogging contributors and cycling enthusiasts in the greater Boston area. Together Realmatch and our many Boston area partners are throwing our own Boston tea party and tossing the pay-to-posters into Boston Harbor.

From sea to shining sea, across Indiana’s amber waves of grain and back again; successful, educated professionals are being matched with in-touch employers from every vertical in this fair nation. These are but a few of the dozens of partners we have added in the past few weeks. As we continue to build our partnerships and fundamentally change the way online hiring works, in-touch employers are abandoning the pay-to-post risk laden models and embracing risk free recruiting the Realmatch way.

 Onward,

-Ian

So paying to post a job or search a resume database is just a means to an end but posting and searching have no value in and of themselves.  If those processes actually result in identifying a qualified candidate then and only then has the provider created value.  Our clients simply prefer paying after we have demonstrated our ability to deliver a qualified candidate.  Paying for value is very common in our everyday lives.  Imagine walking into a store to buy cereal and when you got to the cereal aisle, you realized the store didn’t have any cereal on its shelves.  Maybe there were a few older boxes but none were your brand.  What if you would have paid the store before you realized this?  They told you they had cereal right?  It sounds silly doesn’t it?  How can a store charge for something that it doesn’t stock?  Like Realmatch, more and more service providers are moving to pricing models that remove the risk for customers and provide a better way to shop.

. 

It works for our Web partners

The Realmatch job widget provides partners with significant recurring revenue.  Users that click the links in the widget stay in the partner’s environment through a private labeled portal.  This is important to partners because they don’t want users leaving their site.  This is very different then the job widgets of many others providers where users are immediately directed to many other websites upon the first click.

It works for our employer clients

Because each widget is tailored to each partner, employers are extremely happy with the exposure and qualified candidates we drive to their jobs.  Science jobs are featured to science professionals in the Scientific American Widget.  Legal Jobs are featured to legal professionals in the FindLaw widget.  Seattle Jobs are featured to Seattle professionals in the Komonows widget. 

POTOMAC, Md.,  Realmatch today announced the results of extensive market research into the online habits of job seekers and employers. With competition for employment and talent on the rise — and with layoffs making headlines across the nation, many job seekers are kicking online job searches into high gear hoping to land a steady paycheck.

Recent data from the Inavero Institute for Service Research concluded 50 percent of hiring managers use online job boards more than any other recruiting tool. In fact, these hiring managers revealed that 72 percent of the salaried jobs they needed to fill were posted to an online job board as part of the search strategy.

However, despite the prevalence of recruiters who say they are still heading online to find qualified candidates, job seekers are voicing frustrations with the status quo. Chief complaints include job board spam, irrelevant listings, confusion over keyword searches and a decreasing number of job postings.

“Whether a good economy or bad, online job seekers and recruiters voice similar complaints about traditional classified/keyword job boards,” says Rafael Cosentino, vice president of business development for Realmatch.com. “But recruiters and the online job board industry can learn plenty from listening to the frustrations of candidates and employers who are often desperately seeking to connect. We need to better serve the online employment market and stop fragmenting the market with 50,000 unconnected job boards.”

Job Boards that Stutter, results of interviews conducted by journalist Jennifer LeClaire

Jelena Woehr has a self-admitted pet peeve about mainstream job boards — she hates it when boards aggregate job listings from several sites and return pages upon pages of the same listing posted in several places. “Would it really be so hard to program these search engines to eliminate results that are exactly the same?” asks Woehr, a social marketer in Golden, Co. “Google does it, so why can’t job boards? It’s such a pain to see 60 results and then realize there are only six jobs fitting my search terms, but each is listed 10 times.”

Karen Whiting, an author and speaker based in Grasonville, Md., is frustrated with services like (a certain job board) that she says blatantly ignore the parameters of the job search. “Even though you request listings for jobs in the marine engineering field in the $90,000-plus range, they constantly send listings for sales positions and high school grads,” Whiting explains.

Don’t We Get Enough Spam?

A common beef with online job boards is spam. Job seekers are frustrated with illegitimate postings that only distract them from their mission, and blame job boards for allowing spammers and advertisers to clutter results.

Shannon Ramos cites spam e-mails for off-topic jobs, get rich quick schemes and search results that don’t match the parameters of her queries. But Ramos, a relief escrow officer and mobile notary public in San Dimas, Calif., has a particular beef with (a certain job board): “I don’t appreciate the tons of ‘commercials’ I have to say ‘no thanks’ to,” she says. “If I wanted to go to college or get a loan, I wouldn’t be job hunting.”

The Free Job Board Stigma

It’s one thing to be annoyed by irrelevant job listings when you are merely keeping an eye out for the next rung in your career. But when paying your mortgage depends on finding a new job, entering random words into an empty search box and hoping for the right match can be a daunting experience for the average job seeker. Allan Hess knows that feeling all too well. He is in the midst of his fourth time through what he calls “the mill.” Back in 1999 the free job boards were a blessing, he says, but today those same boards are riddled with spams and scams, he says.

“The boards have stooped to prostitute themselves to compete and generate revenue, so they seem to sell or allow junk to be sent out. Even while surfing the boards, you are now bombarded by ads from various schools, and for work at home gimmicks,” says Hess, of Marietta, Ga. Hess has held leadership positions in business development, marketing and sales in the I.T. industry. “All this is a distraction.”

Over 3400 Human Resource professionals and recruiters participated in a recent survey which also reveals a high level of discontent with classified/keyword/pay-to-post job boards. Some of those survey results:

1. When posting a job online, the “pay to post” pricing model yields good results with consistent value.

– Strongly agree 13.3%

– Moderately agree 6.9%

– Undecided 13.7%

– Moderately disagree 33.9%

– Strongly disagree 32.2%

2. I would prefer a pay for performance pricing model online where I only pay if I find a suitable candidate for my job.

– Strongly agree 39.2%

– Moderately agree 22.2%

– Undecided 4.8%

– Moderately disagree 7.3%

– Strongly disagree 26.5%

3. Most online job boards have enough traffic to provide value to job seekers and employers.

– Strongly agree 6.1%

– Moderately agree 5.9%

– Undecided 22.2%

– Moderately disagree 22.6%

– Strongly disagree 43.2%

“We took a critical look at all the problems which plague legacy job boards from the job seeker and employer’s perspective. I’m proud of the solutions we offer to job seekers and employers”, says Cosentino of Realmatch.com. “Realmatch is listening, our matching technology produces relevant results for both sides of the table,” says Cosentino. “As Employers abandon the unnecessary risks associated with the “pay-to-post” pricing model in favor or risk free pricing models, job listings are disappearing from the pay-to-post job boards which were so popular in the past. As employers and candidates adopt new and better technologies like that of Realmatch.com and used across 1100 partner sites powered by Realmatch’s technology, finding a job and hiring a candidate

is becoming easier, less risky and much less frustrating.”

About Realmatch

Realmatch is a leading provider of online recruitment solutions for publishers, corporations, and staffing companies. Realmatch is also a founding partner in The Job Network LLC, the fastest growing recruitment advertising network in North America for newspapers and media companies. Realmatch powers the job channels of over 1100 partner websites each of whom is a leader in the industry or geographic market they serve. Realmatch management includes Internet, technology, and recruitment experts with many years of leadership. The company was co-founded by its chairman, Alan R. Schoenberg, founder and chairman emeritus of Management Recruiters International (MRI), the world’s largest recruiting franchising company with over 1,200 offices worldwide. For more information visit www.realmatch.com.