David Smooke is a blogger’s best friend when they are blocked. He asked me to write about the “industry” so I asked him to define the industry for me. The title of this post is his definition.

I don’t share his definition, by the way, but I do think his definition is how those of us involved in any form of recruitment, staffing, hiring, or talent acquisition, should think about what we do.

There are plenty of people thinking about the opportunity side of the equation; that’s where the money is.

Business is about people. What do they want? What do they make? How do buyers and sellers meet at Market Street? The rub is, too many Americans are being excluded from business – involuntarily. This is involuntary deadweight loss; involuntary to the business owners, who currently have over 3.5 million open jobs they want filled; and involuntary to the 18+ million Americans (12m+ unemployed and 6m+ underemployed), who are actively seeking more work.

In my experience, it’s pretty rare to leave a job interview feeling like a briefcase filled with one million dollars in cash, with each bundle held together by a band of silk, and the bills so fresh that the whole thing smells like ozone; like everything is fine, like I am a good human being and that, even if I don’t get the job, the world will still be fundamentally okay.

FED Chairmen Ben Bernake addressed the nation on March 26, 2012 (but do the unemployed people agree with the what he says of unemployment?). Bernake concluded:

“A wide range of indicators suggests that the job market has been improving, which is a welcome development indeed. 

I was talking with a friend and former client the other day when our conversation turned to The Candidate Experience.

“Sort of a funny phrase, when you think about it” he said. “After all, isn’t the hiring process the candidate experience?? Why separate it out from that which it was meant to be to begin with?”

“Maybe,” I recall musing, “The reason we separate it out is because so many companies do such a poor job of focusing on the candidate at all.” 

Unemployment: [uhn-em-ploi-muhnt; adjective] Unemployment is the state of an individual looking for a paying job but not having one. Unemployment does not include full-time students, the retired, children, or those not actively looking for a paying job.

The unemployed are talented.

Let me say, celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Take a moment to reflect on what could be equality and peace.

A lot has changed since the life of Martin Luther King Jr. There has been much progress in social rights, but the socio-economic divide continues to grow, as Paul Krugman points out in “How Fares the Dream?”  Remember, this is a day to celebrate his life, and continue his cause. MLK’s mission of racial and socio-economic equality continues at the hands of his disciples, long after his assasination. Happy Birthday Reverend King (the next day we still celebrate).

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”

“We need to leverage technology to bring recruiting back to its roots as a social activity,” said SmartRecruiters CEO Jerome Ternynck.

Everyday, more of the public takes occupation in the streets. More than 14 million Americans are unemployed, actively searching for a job. And 3.4 million jobs remain open, an increase of 22% over the last year.

‘Unemployed Need Not Apply’ → ‘Unemployed Need Not Apply.’ @ZeroUE

“Don’t forget your ghost mask,” the corporation told me when they let me go eight months ago. My face is a ghost.

I sent out resumes. I hounded job boards. I called. And called. And emailed. And emailed. No one would look me in the eye and say “Hello. Welcome. Take a seat and tell me about yourself.”

Then I finally got a hiring manager to meet me for coffee. I bought the coffee. “So are you … ah,” the hiring manager mumbles to the sound of rustling paper. “Currently … doing … wait where are you currently working?”