Ironically, I first heard about this press release via Twitter – ‘Social Recruiting’ Jumps by 11 Percent as Cost-Conscious Employers Pursue Top Graduates Online

Here’s what it says:

“[students] will also need to be ready to engage with employers on-line, as cost-conscious recruiters turn to peer networks to reach hyper-connected graduates. “Canadian recruiters will visit fewer campuses this year, as they increasingly turn to popular social media websites, like Linked In, Facebook and You Tube to find their hires.” says CACEE Executive Director, Paul D. Smith, “Surprisingly, it’s the professional recruiters who are changing how they reach out to graduates – not the other way around.”

The release further points out that 34% of employers turned to social media to recruit students in 2009/2010.

A few questions that come to mind for me: For one, what kind of employers are represented in this survey? While we don’t formally poll employers, the team at TalentEgg engages with hundreds of employers every week. While there are surely many employers leveraging social media, a vast majority favour the tried and true methods of on-campus relationships (with career centres, department heads, etc).

Secondly, what does ‘social media’ mean? Is it Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn? If yes, and in the case that employers like Mobilicity (quoted in the article) are using these tools exclusive of other means, then they are certainly missing Canada’s top young talent.

I speak and interact with current students all the time, and the team at TalentEgg is actively engaged with Gen-Yers every day through our website. We know a thing or two about top young talent. And how does that talent find their jobs?

Through trusted resources. Referrals from friends, referrals from trusted media (like google).

We’ve been running a poll on the TalentEgg.ca homepage for the past month asking our audience how they heard about TalentEgg. 30% come from google,30% from referrals from trusted influencers (parents, teachers, etc), and 15% from career centres. All of these referrers are contextually aligned – and this is why employers that use TalentEgg have so much success.

If you ask me, instead of focussing on interrupting students through out-of-context advertising and placement on social media networks designed for SOCIALIZING, and which are not actively used yet by students, employers should focus on being visible and accessible where it really counts – among key influencers and trusted media.

Today I uncovered yet another fantastic part about being an entrepreneur. Office dogs.

It has been so great having Lily around the office… Alerting us to the arrival of delivery people, protecting us from other dogs that come to visit, singing along to CHFI 98.1 (radio) with her trademark howl, and much, much more.

Today, Lily’s new best friend arrived, and so we now have 2 office dogs. Without further ado, I hereby introduce the TalentEgg community to PANCAKE:

The die-hard TalentEgg-ers out there would have already noticed. Two weeks ago, we re-launched TalentEgg.ca. This isn’t just a new look – it’s a complete overhaul.

And it isn’t just a (MUCH) quicker, easier to use, cleaner TalentEgg – it’s new content and resources too.

Have you checked out TalentEgg Events? For students, this is going to grow into a one-stop-shop for all career related events – on-campus, off-campus and online. For employers and educators, this is a great way to promote events year round. And for us, it’s a great way to communicate all the eggciting, eggcelent events we come across in our daily interactions online and off, and to help students leverage the power of the internet through TalentEgg Events to find all the best career-related events available to them.

How about our Career Toolbox? Over the past 2 years, we’ve been publishing at least 10 articles weekly in The Incubator, our online magazine. We now have over 600 articles published there, and I personally check in everyday to see what’s new (as should you!!). With all this content, we still felt we were missing something: Definitive articles that help students figure out the basics of meaningful entry level job hunting… Resumes, Interviews, etc. So, with the help of Mazda, we created the Career Toolbox. On top of the definitive articles, we’re also launching a wiki! Stay tuned for more, and be sure to register to access this premium content (free).

We’ve also pumped up our Discussion section, in an effort to encourage dialogue between all TalentEgg-ers – students, employers, career centres, and career advisors, and of course, have launched the beginnings of TalentEgg Education.

This is perhaps the biggest addition to the site, and it’s really just getting started. To start, we’re working with Ryerson’s Chang School and Lakehead to get the word out about all the great educational opportunities that are out there to help students and recent grads top up their skills and get the qualifications they need to hatch their dream careers.

And of course, today also marks the launch of our 7-week industry series, starting with Focus on Accounting. Check it out. Check it ALL out.

And please, please, let me know what you think!!

Oh, PS, Check out the geeky pic (more to come)