We are all looking forward to what IT is going to transform itself into in future. I saw this wonderful video and thought, I can share it here.
Well hope we in the Recruitment industry will also see more graphics in our work. I am rather fed up seeing raw text.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Starting a Job site in India
Naukri and Monster are the leaders in the Job site market. JobsAhead, One of the best job sites and trend setters in the market, is no more... monster has already eaten it up. Times Jobs with all its Print and internet might is still only the 3rd player, leave alone its claims.
In a market with such mature players, is there scope for a start up Job site to actually break the ice.
Pricing will not work in the market. In fact there have been good job sites offering free Job posting and resume access, but takers are little. In fact, some of the Job site even go to the extent of getting the jobs emailed to them & they enter them in their site.
Print Ads may not be a solution since Media Mugals like Hindustan times & Deccan Herald are struggling with their Job sites. Media might & money doesn't seem to be enough. Hoardings etc will add little value, but then you know the cost involved the reach across India.
Same thing with Internet majors like Clickjobs, with very good internet presence in the matrimony market, it is not able to even shake the leaders. Though Click Jobs is among the most innovative players in the market today - offering referral income option to job seekers, extremely good SEO, elegant design... but will it actually be able to grow up to stand before the two giants.
Now the situation is unique, unless we have 10's of 1000's of Jobs Candidates are not going to get interested. And unless we have millions of Candidates, Jobs aren't going to come your way.
Then how will a start up Job site be able to get traction in the market.
I put this question in LinkedIn.com couple of days back and have got some very interesting replies.
Sanjay Madhavan, Wipro Technologies: “The success percentage of the users is a crucial factor in helping the job site to grow. You might have 10 people getting brilliant jobs , but 100 who have not got even a decent one.”
Vivek M V, HCL: “As an employer - i would expect maximum reach , an excellent database of job seeker ( primarily we see the failure of many job boards because of this reason) non-repetitive and also responsive
( hence you may need this database to be relevant and factual). As a job seeker i would not like spams of walk-in here or walk in there ( one can choose this option ) plan out a calendar of event , which indicates you the hottest employer recruiting a certain skill..."relevant jobs in my inbox" . Again if you are a new player opportunity or incentive .."points" to already registered job seeker
( which will help ) and then sustain your business plan. Job site may also target their users by the job they seek ..or probably plan a career graph”
Hari Hanuman, Refer2win.com: “go with one specialisation or one vertical first rather than goind in a big way. say something like mechanical engineers exclusively. It will take some time to build up.”
Ram Mallipeddi: “much depends on addressing to Freshers now as they are a huge lot now in the market with thedown trend and with the signs of market picking up if you can show direction to these freshers or those idle then click ratio will be heavy”
Masood Sayed, VerveOS2i: “I would start asking
1) What is common in the successful ones?
Almost everything that they do, is similar. Their value proposition is along the same parameters
2) What can you offer which they have not?
eg: a networking portal, integrated ATS, referral network, niche expertise, only company jobs, better search technology, Career Counselling service, Link to other jobs... etc
Position yourself as fresh and different from these giants. I am sure there is space available for New entrants.”
As usual, I also got some very direct answers saying, just run… Job site market isn’t going to take you any where. Place your money else where. Couple of comments are here:
Girish Joshi says, “Another key question I may ask aorund market opportunity for Job sites in the times of LinkedIn etc:-).”
Pranav (Peter) Parikh, Origin Canada Inc says, “Job site in India is not a feasible option. This is matured concept and naukari.com and other website already captured enough market share”
One thing common among all the answers I got, though not literally written, but clearly indicated is that – Innovation, better product, better service & a radically different approach will alone help a new entrant succeed in this market space. Money and Media Power are not going to help much.
So if you are planning a Job site, think radical, think different, think Viral & you will be able to make it big. Even Ambanis' or Tatas' aren't going to be successful without it.
All the best for the Entrepreneurs ready to take up this challenge.
And those who have some valuable ideas for Entrepreneurs, please do share it here.
In a market with such mature players, is there scope for a start up Job site to actually break the ice.
Pricing will not work in the market. In fact there have been good job sites offering free Job posting and resume access, but takers are little. In fact, some of the Job site even go to the extent of getting the jobs emailed to them & they enter them in their site.
Print Ads may not be a solution since Media Mugals like Hindustan times & Deccan Herald are struggling with their Job sites. Media might & money doesn't seem to be enough. Hoardings etc will add little value, but then you know the cost involved the reach across India.
Same thing with Internet majors like Clickjobs, with very good internet presence in the matrimony market, it is not able to even shake the leaders. Though Click Jobs is among the most innovative players in the market today - offering referral income option to job seekers, extremely good SEO, elegant design... but will it actually be able to grow up to stand before the two giants.
Now the situation is unique, unless we have 10's of 1000's of Jobs Candidates are not going to get interested. And unless we have millions of Candidates, Jobs aren't going to come your way.
Then how will a start up Job site be able to get traction in the market.
I put this question in LinkedIn.com couple of days back and have got some very interesting replies.
Sanjay Madhavan, Wipro Technologies: “The success percentage of the users is a crucial factor in helping the job site to grow. You might have 10 people getting brilliant jobs , but 100 who have not got even a decent one.”
Vivek M V, HCL: “As an employer - i would expect maximum reach , an excellent database of job seeker ( primarily we see the failure of many job boards because of this reason) non-repetitive and also responsive
( hence you may need this database to be relevant and factual). As a job seeker i would not like spams of walk-in here or walk in there ( one can choose this option ) plan out a calendar of event , which indicates you the hottest employer recruiting a certain skill..."relevant jobs in my inbox" . Again if you are a new player opportunity or incentive .."points" to already registered job seeker
( which will help ) and then sustain your business plan. Job site may also target their users by the job they seek ..or probably plan a career graph”
Hari Hanuman, Refer2win.com: “go with one specialisation or one vertical first rather than goind in a big way. say something like mechanical engineers exclusively. It will take some time to build up.”
Ram Mallipeddi: “much depends on addressing to Freshers now as they are a huge lot now in the market with thedown trend and with the signs of market picking up if you can show direction to these freshers or those idle then click ratio will be heavy”
Masood Sayed, VerveOS2i: “I would start asking
1) What is common in the successful ones?
Almost everything that they do, is similar. Their value proposition is along the same parameters
2) What can you offer which they have not?
eg: a networking portal, integrated ATS, referral network, niche expertise, only company jobs, better search technology, Career Counselling service, Link to other jobs... etc
Position yourself as fresh and different from these giants. I am sure there is space available for New entrants.”
As usual, I also got some very direct answers saying, just run… Job site market isn’t going to take you any where. Place your money else where. Couple of comments are here:
Girish Joshi says, “Another key question I may ask aorund market opportunity for Job sites in the times of LinkedIn etc:-).”
Pranav (Peter) Parikh, Origin Canada Inc says, “Job site in India is not a feasible option. This is matured concept and naukari.com and other website already captured enough market share”
One thing common among all the answers I got, though not literally written, but clearly indicated is that – Innovation, better product, better service & a radically different approach will alone help a new entrant succeed in this market space. Money and Media Power are not going to help much.
So if you are planning a Job site, think radical, think different, think Viral & you will be able to make it big. Even Ambanis' or Tatas' aren't going to be successful without it.
All the best for the Entrepreneurs ready to take up this challenge.
And those who have some valuable ideas for Entrepreneurs, please do share it here.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Text mining – Stop Words Are Everything
We often find search results by search engines way off track and keep wondering how the search engine could produce this result when we have been very specific about my search term.
Let us see why this happens.
Search Engines usually scroll through your website, copy the text content from your website & index them after filtering Stop words. Stop words are considered useless or less relevant to search results and so they are ignored.
What are Stop words?
Words such as - and, because, or, not and a host of other words which basically form the foundation of English language are stop words. (There is a list of English Stop words given below this article)
Let us go through an example:
In a blog, I have written: I do not play basketball. (A simple sentence for us to understand, isn’t it?)
Now let us see how the search engine understands it:
The search engine crawls through this page, picks up the entire sentence “I do not play basketball” and then removes the Stop words do and not, then saves the keywords - I play basketball. May be it will also remove the “I” and just save play basketball.
Now you know why, when you search for Basket ball players, you get just the opposite.
Search engines are more accurate when you search for products and services since ignoring the keywords may not affect the concept of information provided. But when you go into personal details, blog entries and articles, you will have less accurate results.
If the search results have to be better and if we are looking forward for a semantic web (intelligent web), then Stop words are everything. Until and unless these are incorporated in the search and clustering done with a strong emphasis for stop words – Search results aren’t doing to turn any better.
Like Stop words A, AN, ONE should be clustered together when the result has to produce information related to single term. Words like AND should bring two keywords closer in the cluster and NOT should separate them more by an algorithm to ensure we get a more proper result. Stemming relevant stop words to one another using multiple algorithms will help clustering better.
I would rather suggest Stop words be renamed Constructs since they form the pillar of any text & they are the ultimate differentiators which will help get to the core of underlying information in the text. This will lead us towards foraying into Artificial Intelligence.
List of Stop words: a, about, above, above, across, after, afterwards, again, against, all, almost, alone, along, already, also, although, always, am, among, amongst, amoungst, amount, an, and, another, any, anyhow, anyone, anything, anyway, anywhere, are, around, as, at, back, be, became, because, become, becomes, becoming, been, before, beforehand, behind, being, below, beside, besides, between, beyond, bill, both, bottom, but, by, call, can, cannot, cant, co, con, could, couldn’t, cry, de, describe, detail, do, done, down, due, during, each, eg, eight, either, eleven, else, elsewhere, empty, enough, etc, even, ever, every, everyone, everything, everywhere, except, few, fifteen, fifty, fill, find, fire, first, five, for, former, formerly, forty, found, four, from, front, full, further, get, give, go, had, has, hasn’t, have, he, hence, her, here, hereafter, hereby, herein, hereupon, hers, herself, him, himself, his, how, however, hundred, ie, if, in, inc, indeed, interest, into, is, it, its, itself, keep, last, latter, latterly, least, less, ltd, made, many, may, me, meanwhile, might, mill, mine, more, moreover, most, mostly, move, much, must, my, myself, name, namely, neither, never, nevertheless, next, nine, no, nobody, none, noon, nor, not, nothing, now, nowhere, of, off, often, on, once, one, only, onto, or, other, others, otherwise, our, ours, ourselves, out, over, own, part, per, perhaps, please, put, rather, re, same, see, seem, seemed, seeming, seems, serious, several, she, should, show, side, since, sincere, six, sixty, so, some, somehow, someone, something, sometime, sometimes, somewhere, still, such, system, take, ten, than, that, the, their, them, themselves, then, thence, there, thereafter, thereby, therefore, therein, thereupon, these, they, thick, thin, third, this, those, though, three, through, throughout, thru, thus, to, together, too, top, toward, towards, twelve, twenty, two, un, under, until, up, upon, us, very, via, was, we, well, were, what, whatever, when, whence, whenever, where, where after, whereas, whereby, wherein, whereupon, wherever, whether, which, while, whither, who, whoever, whole, whom, whose, why, will, with, within, without, would, yet, you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves and the
Let us see why this happens.
Search Engines usually scroll through your website, copy the text content from your website & index them after filtering Stop words. Stop words are considered useless or less relevant to search results and so they are ignored.
What are Stop words?
Words such as - and, because, or, not and a host of other words which basically form the foundation of English language are stop words. (There is a list of English Stop words given below this article)
Let us go through an example:
In a blog, I have written: I do not play basketball. (A simple sentence for us to understand, isn’t it?)
Now let us see how the search engine understands it:
The search engine crawls through this page, picks up the entire sentence “I do not play basketball” and then removes the Stop words do and not, then saves the keywords - I play basketball. May be it will also remove the “I” and just save play basketball.
Now you know why, when you search for Basket ball players, you get just the opposite.
Search engines are more accurate when you search for products and services since ignoring the keywords may not affect the concept of information provided. But when you go into personal details, blog entries and articles, you will have less accurate results.
If the search results have to be better and if we are looking forward for a semantic web (intelligent web), then Stop words are everything. Until and unless these are incorporated in the search and clustering done with a strong emphasis for stop words – Search results aren’t doing to turn any better.
Like Stop words A, AN, ONE should be clustered together when the result has to produce information related to single term. Words like AND should bring two keywords closer in the cluster and NOT should separate them more by an algorithm to ensure we get a more proper result. Stemming relevant stop words to one another using multiple algorithms will help clustering better.
I would rather suggest Stop words be renamed Constructs since they form the pillar of any text & they are the ultimate differentiators which will help get to the core of underlying information in the text. This will lead us towards foraying into Artificial Intelligence.
List of Stop words: a, about, above, above, across, after, afterwards, again, against, all, almost, alone, along, already, also, although, always, am, among, amongst, amoungst, amount, an, and, another, any, anyhow, anyone, anything, anyway, anywhere, are, around, as, at, back, be, became, because, become, becomes, becoming, been, before, beforehand, behind, being, below, beside, besides, between, beyond, bill, both, bottom, but, by, call, can, cannot, cant, co, con, could, couldn’t, cry, de, describe, detail, do, done, down, due, during, each, eg, eight, either, eleven, else, elsewhere, empty, enough, etc, even, ever, every, everyone, everything, everywhere, except, few, fifteen, fifty, fill, find, fire, first, five, for, former, formerly, forty, found, four, from, front, full, further, get, give, go, had, has, hasn’t, have, he, hence, her, here, hereafter, hereby, herein, hereupon, hers, herself, him, himself, his, how, however, hundred, ie, if, in, inc, indeed, interest, into, is, it, its, itself, keep, last, latter, latterly, least, less, ltd, made, many, may, me, meanwhile, might, mill, mine, more, moreover, most, mostly, move, much, must, my, myself, name, namely, neither, never, nevertheless, next, nine, no, nobody, none, noon, nor, not, nothing, now, nowhere, of, off, often, on, once, one, only, onto, or, other, others, otherwise, our, ours, ourselves, out, over, own, part, per, perhaps, please, put, rather, re, same, see, seem, seemed, seeming, seems, serious, several, she, should, show, side, since, sincere, six, sixty, so, some, somehow, someone, something, sometime, sometimes, somewhere, still, such, system, take, ten, than, that, the, their, them, themselves, then, thence, there, thereafter, thereby, therefore, therein, thereupon, these, they, thick, thin, third, this, those, though, three, through, throughout, thru, thus, to, together, too, top, toward, towards, twelve, twenty, two, un, under, until, up, upon, us, very, via, was, we, well, were, what, whatever, when, whence, whenever, where, where after, whereas, whereby, wherein, whereupon, wherever, whether, which, while, whither, who, whoever, whole, whom, whose, why, will, with, within, without, would, yet, you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves and the
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Google, Hire Recruiters in R&D for better results
After going through thousands of resume, I can confidently tell that we Recruiters understand text better. We can spot every spec of detail in the resume. Recruiters can also spot out misinformation & that too without much difficulty. In fact Recruiters can actually read and understand what is not there in a resume.
Recruiters have been working with text across their experience. Their Job is to understand text. They receive JDs (Job Descriptions) from employers/departments read them, understand them and then create a spec which will ensure better visibility amongst 1000’s of Jobs in Job boards. When they receive resume for the Job, they again read and understand the resume, identify fine prints (or those which are where!) and shortlist resume and move them to prospective employers.
Experienced recruiters need only a glance of the resume to see whether it fits into the requirement. How are they able to do this? In 15 to 20 seconds, the recruiter reads the resume, understands it, compares it with the requirement, check for fine prints, spots the gaps & decides whether the resume fits the requirement or not.
This knowledge and understanding of text information is what Google and other search engines should be most interested in.
Search Engines are constantly upgrading their search algorithms to enhance quality of search results. They work mainly with text information, crawling through websites, copying the text, indexing, stemming and clustering the text so that they could provide their excellent results.
How can recruiters help in R&D of a search engine, after all they only go through resume? There are 1000’s of other document types out there. Product catalogues of mining equipments, Services offered by a saloon, reviews of a critic, legal documents, blogs and comments… the list goes on.
How can a Recruiter help structure these documents?
By going through a resume, Recruiters not only understands the text, they analyze the person behind the resume. They understand the ability, adaptability, quality and knowledge of the Candidate. And then matches these with the requirement of the employers and the people in it. Now that gives the extra dimension to the Recruiter’s ability. And this ability to understand a person by going through a resume & requirements of an employer and the people in it through the Job description make a Recruiter what he is.
If Recruiters are able to put their experience, their perception, their understanding into structured query – you will have one of the most accurate search engines ever.
So Search Engines, get yourself a top notch Recruiter and help this world with better results.
Note: Google uses among various other parameters, a method called Page Rank, PR as it is popularly called. If you want to check the PR for your website – check it out here!
Recruiters have been working with text across their experience. Their Job is to understand text. They receive JDs (Job Descriptions) from employers/departments read them, understand them and then create a spec which will ensure better visibility amongst 1000’s of Jobs in Job boards. When they receive resume for the Job, they again read and understand the resume, identify fine prints (or those which are where!) and shortlist resume and move them to prospective employers.
Experienced recruiters need only a glance of the resume to see whether it fits into the requirement. How are they able to do this? In 15 to 20 seconds, the recruiter reads the resume, understands it, compares it with the requirement, check for fine prints, spots the gaps & decides whether the resume fits the requirement or not.
This knowledge and understanding of text information is what Google and other search engines should be most interested in.
Search Engines are constantly upgrading their search algorithms to enhance quality of search results. They work mainly with text information, crawling through websites, copying the text, indexing, stemming and clustering the text so that they could provide their excellent results.
How can recruiters help in R&D of a search engine, after all they only go through resume? There are 1000’s of other document types out there. Product catalogues of mining equipments, Services offered by a saloon, reviews of a critic, legal documents, blogs and comments… the list goes on.
How can a Recruiter help structure these documents?
By going through a resume, Recruiters not only understands the text, they analyze the person behind the resume. They understand the ability, adaptability, quality and knowledge of the Candidate. And then matches these with the requirement of the employers and the people in it. Now that gives the extra dimension to the Recruiter’s ability. And this ability to understand a person by going through a resume & requirements of an employer and the people in it through the Job description make a Recruiter what he is.
If Recruiters are able to put their experience, their perception, their understanding into structured query – you will have one of the most accurate search engines ever.
So Search Engines, get yourself a top notch Recruiter and help this world with better results.
Note: Google uses among various other parameters, a method called Page Rank, PR as it is popularly called. If you want to check the PR for your website – check it out here!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Glimpse into the Future of Recruitment Technology
Recruiting in a nut shell
Millions of people across the Globe are working around the clock in a multi billion dollar market. Their target – help a Recruiter meet the right Candidate!
Sounds simple, but we in the recruiting market know what is in store for us.
The Past
Recruitment has undergone a spate of technology growth since Computer and internet have come into the market.We migrated from Rack and file to email and computer folders, then moved on to Job boards and ATS, in the near past we have started exploiting Web 2.0 in our Recruiting effort.
What is in store for us in Recruitment in the future?
Being a Recruitment Technologist, I always dream of creating various products, services and tools to help simplify recruiters’ task. Here are some of my ideas which will surely turn into reality. Who ever brings them out – recruitment community will surely benefit.
Web Interviewing: With travel cost escalating by the day, Web interviewing is going to be part of the Recruiters toolkit in the future. Already a few players have got into this market. We will soon see more players and better tools in Online interviewing area.
Candidate Profiling: With Candidates today networking and sharing information in the web in different platforms and websites, in the near future, we can expect to have a one point profiling solution which will accumulate information about Candidates from various Social networking sites and technical forums & provide us a comprehensive overview about the Candidate.
Mobile based recruiting: Our current ATS will start provide a Mobile plug-in for communication to all recruitment stakeholders. This will ensure instant communication. This plug-in will evolve into a complete Mobile based recruitment system. Soon Mobile phones and PDA will be part and parcel of recruiting.
Intra ATS plug-ins: How easy will it be if you are able to shortlist a set of Candidates and automatically submit them to Clients ATS and receive communication and status updates through your ATS directly? I hope we will see some solution in this area soon.
Organization mapping service: A very useful tool for head hunters, organization mapping services will provide comprehensive information about an organization and its structure including who is who in the company.
Prediction and Pipelining: With current demands & past history of recruitment, smart and intelligent tools will come into the market which will pre-identify possible openings and pre-source resume and candidates for the position. Now recruiters have to just screen the resume and start the hiring process.
Certified Candidates: I hope someone will bring out a website where candidates can submit their text, video and audio resume. Interview them, understand their skills and do a back ground check. Then offer a certification which can be accepted by multiple Corporations. So once you see the certification, you can start processing the candidates without actually doing a due diligence of Candidate. This helps save enormous time & money here. Candidates are also happier since they don’t have to undergo the process with every company they apply to.
There are definitely many more ideas out there. Please share them here.
I would love to hear your comments.
Millions of people across the Globe are working around the clock in a multi billion dollar market. Their target – help a Recruiter meet the right Candidate!
Sounds simple, but we in the recruiting market know what is in store for us.
The Past
Recruitment has undergone a spate of technology growth since Computer and internet have come into the market.We migrated from Rack and file to email and computer folders, then moved on to Job boards and ATS, in the near past we have started exploiting Web 2.0 in our Recruiting effort.
What is in store for us in Recruitment in the future?
Being a Recruitment Technologist, I always dream of creating various products, services and tools to help simplify recruiters’ task. Here are some of my ideas which will surely turn into reality. Who ever brings them out – recruitment community will surely benefit.
Web Interviewing: With travel cost escalating by the day, Web interviewing is going to be part of the Recruiters toolkit in the future. Already a few players have got into this market. We will soon see more players and better tools in Online interviewing area.
Candidate Profiling: With Candidates today networking and sharing information in the web in different platforms and websites, in the near future, we can expect to have a one point profiling solution which will accumulate information about Candidates from various Social networking sites and technical forums & provide us a comprehensive overview about the Candidate.
Mobile based recruiting: Our current ATS will start provide a Mobile plug-in for communication to all recruitment stakeholders. This will ensure instant communication. This plug-in will evolve into a complete Mobile based recruitment system. Soon Mobile phones and PDA will be part and parcel of recruiting.
Intra ATS plug-ins: How easy will it be if you are able to shortlist a set of Candidates and automatically submit them to Clients ATS and receive communication and status updates through your ATS directly? I hope we will see some solution in this area soon.
Organization mapping service: A very useful tool for head hunters, organization mapping services will provide comprehensive information about an organization and its structure including who is who in the company.
Prediction and Pipelining: With current demands & past history of recruitment, smart and intelligent tools will come into the market which will pre-identify possible openings and pre-source resume and candidates for the position. Now recruiters have to just screen the resume and start the hiring process.
Certified Candidates: I hope someone will bring out a website where candidates can submit their text, video and audio resume. Interview them, understand their skills and do a back ground check. Then offer a certification which can be accepted by multiple Corporations. So once you see the certification, you can start processing the candidates without actually doing a due diligence of Candidate. This helps save enormous time & money here. Candidates are also happier since they don’t have to undergo the process with every company they apply to.
There are definitely many more ideas out there. Please share them here.
I would love to hear your comments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
